Over the past year, but the summer of 2024 especially, I’ve continually seen stories in the news and heard in my personal life about the fact that the wildfires experienced in California have been slowly spreading East. My time in scholars has enlightened me a lot about the causes of this phenomenon. Increased temperatures and atmospheric changes brought about by global climate change alter precipitation patterns and make certain areas more dry. This dryness combined with higher average temperatures makes many areas that were previously not susceptible to wildfires have an increased risk of these blazes. This dryness also makes it more difficult to grow food, and thus many areas will require increased irrigation. We learned a lot about this in ENSP 101, one of the possible supporting courses for Science and Global Change. Many areas of the US previously considered safe are becoming increasingly dry. What was previously prime farmland is finding itself increasingly reliant on irrigation from diminishing aquifers, and lack of fire-prevention practices across the nation such as controlled burns, means the risk of wildfire, even here in Maryland, is ever increasing.
Taking a look at the possible futures with different degrees of climate change helped me connect a lot more with my major, Environmental Science and Policy. Climate change has been something I’ve been concerned about ever since I learned what it was when I was little, but looking directly at possible futures we could be facing depending on what decisions we make helped to cement my choice of a major in my mind. It also helped me to select ‘Politics and Policy’ as my concentration, as it made me realize I want to help make a difference in which future we end up in through policymaking. In my opinion, policymaking is one of the most important ways that we can limit carbon emissions and protect our ecosystems. Without policy in place, nothing gets done, and if nothing gets done, we end up in the worst possible outcome. Taking ENSP 102, another supporting course, opened my eyes to my interest in the policy side of environmental science. Learning about court decisions like Sackett vs. EPA and seeing Gen Z Americans suing their states with a hope for more climate friendly policy emboldened me to switch my attention for my career, and this wouldn’t have happened without the supporting material I learned in Scholars.
Science and Global change introduced me to a now very close friend of mine, and my discussions with her both in and out of the classroom helped to reinforce the ideas learned in lecture in my mind. We have dinner after class each week, where we often discuss the looming threat of global climate change but, most recently we talked briefly about mad scientists, citing examples from different shows we’ve watched and going over how incredible it is that such people actually exist, to some extent. One problem I’ve encountered in many classes is that I find it difficult to remember content I don’t encounter in the real world since, no matter what calculus professors will tell you, I’m not going to be thinking about derivatives every day. Having someone that I could discuss the topics with occasionally in a casual manner helped to keep the content matter in my mind and cement it in my brain for the long term. For me, it was sort of the equivalent of digital note taking vs. handwritten notes; one will stick in your mind more through reinforcement.
As far as contribution to the program goes, I’ve contributed at a fairly basic level. I shared what I read with my group members during team projects and helped answer questions. I did research, slides, and my sections of presentations like the Visions Project and my group's presentation on Greenland Ice Sheet Melting. During team projects I was sometimes the one to share my group’s conclusions with the class, I answered questions in class when I felt I had something meaningful to add, and did my part on Service Day despite wet socks due to a hole in my waders. This is very basic as far as contributions go, and I can’t recall any contributions I made that affected the entire scholars community, just contributions impacting small groups of the Science and Global Change Program.
Scholars has frequently reinforced many ideas that I had previously and added to perceptions that I have. Many lectures about climate change in the past, present, and future matched what I had learned previously in classes like AP Environmental Science. It was the lectures that differentiated from this topic that usually added the most or shifted my opinions. Going back to the mad scientist lecture, looking into real-life mad scientists certainly shifted my view of scientists as someone who feels science is and should be an incredibly important factor in decision making. It expanded my view that anyone can be immoral, even those who are champions of discovery and progress. Many lectures like these similarly expanded my views and made me think about what was discussed outside of class, and I would consider scholars the class that made me think the most in my free time.
The things I learned in scholars will definitely stay with me for a long time. My new knowledge of logical fallacies will most likely be something that I’ll use in both conversation and arguments for years to come. I feel like an understanding of faulty thinking and communication tactics is something that is useful in both one’s personal and professional lives. Being able to address these fallacies is something that makes you more a knowledgeable and capable person as well as a valuable asset in many professional settings. On a similar note, use of Sagan’s scientific toolkit is something I will most definitely be utilizing in my future, in both my academic and professional careers. I’m not someone who boo-hoo’s pseudoscientific ideas on a daily basis, and I’m not a particularly large fan of Sagan himself, but being able to sniff out falsehoods is something that’s useful in all areas of life.