Many of those reading this have probably heard of Greta Thunberg. For those who may have not, Greta is a 16-year-old environmental activist from Sweden who has spent the past several years campaigning for action against the looming danger of climate change. To put it shortly, she has gained recognition across the globe for her intense and remarkable commitment to this cause. Her name gained so much recognition that she was even named 2019’s Person of the Year by Time Magazine. For many, this is likely hard to understand as climate change is still not viewed so seriously by a lot of people. Seeing this article and the criticism Time received for naming Greta 2019’s Person of the Year truly allowed me to appreciate my time with SGC. Growing up in the conservative environment of South Carolina, where most people do not really think much of climate change at all and are usually quick to disregard it, I likely would have been one of the people who have no clue why Greta has received such a recognition. However, since I was apart of SGC, I can totally understand the legitimacy of Greta’s platform, and even appreciate her campaign. Climate change really is the biggest danger any country faces today, and it should be the most pressing issue in any political spectrum of thinking. This is something I would have been totally ignorant to had I not joined SGC. One such example of criticism towards Time that stood out to me was from Donald Trump. He tweeted that this recognition was “ridiculous”, and he went on to claim that Greta has “anger management issues”. Thanks to SGC, I was able to quickly identify this as an ad hominem fallacy. Instead of trying to challenge her legitimacy factually and with reason, Trump elected to just personally attack her to try and delegitimize her. The course material showed me why remarks like this should not be taken seriously or even considered.
Alongside CPSG, the supporting courses I took also enhanced my understanding of the material. One particular course was BIOE120, where my knowledge of global change was supplemented multiple times. Two instances were in sections where different forms of agriculture and biofuels were discussed. Agriculture is an important issue when it comes to climate change as current forms of agriculture are not very efficient, and different forms of agriculture, such as conservation agriculture, could actually help reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Likewise, we learned about different biofuels, how they are chemically synthesized, and why they are better for the atmosphere. These topics were mentioned throughout SGC, but this class really aided in reinforcing the information with science.
A big part of SGC was its interactive environment. Through SGC, I was able to meet many new friends. For the past year and a half, I spent lots of time discussing climate change and SGC material, as well as material for my major classes, with these people. Collaborative environments have always helped me learn, and I found SGC to be an excellent agent of collaboration as it got me in touch with many people from my major and generally like-minded thinkers. I found myself in study sessions with many SGCers, constantly asking and answering questions through text, and collaborating for class projects for the past few semesters.
Another major factor of SGC is active contribution. This took place in and outside of the classroom. In the classroom, there are many opportunities to provide opinions and ideas to help drive the classroom or colloquy discussion. Although there was a minimum amount of participation required, I found it hard not to keep talking because there were always so many topics available to speak on, and so much to say about each topic. Outside of the classroom, the excursions were also places where active contribution was important and sometimes even irresistible. My favorite excursion of the three was the trip to the Bayfront Park. Having had a lot of experience shark tooth hunting from going to the beach so much growing up, I enjoyed helping my peers identify shark teeth. Also having been a fisherman for my whole life, including shark fishing, I was able to help identify the specific species for many of the shark teeth that we found.
Ultimately, I am very appreciative of SGC for all that I have gained from it. Most importantly, I’m very happy that I am someone that I can consider to be knowledgeable and understanding of the issue and real dangers posed by climate change. Considering my background, when I was first assigned to SGC I thought to myself, “Climate change? Is this really worth doing?”. In retrospect, I am extremely pleased with my decision to stick with SGC and allowing it to challenge and totally uproot my views because climate change is ABSOLUTELY worth being attentive to as it currently affects all of us and will continue to do so more and more the more we act as bystanders. Many of the topics we discussed in class, such as ways to combat climate change, will be increasingly important in the coming years. I am not sure how much SGC will impact my academic or professional career, but for this reason it will definitely affect me politically as I’ve always considered myself a politically active person. I appreciate being ahead of the game on these matters, and in the future, hope to continue to stay informed on climate change, it’s standing in the political climate, and ways to combat it. Being a bioengineering major, it is possible that I may come across biofuels sometime in the near future as awareness towards the harms of fossil fuels continues to grow. Again, thanks to SGC and its supporting courses, it is nice already have a strong understanding of how these work, but also, more notably, why they are important and why they should be important.
Elbaum, Rachel, and Elizabeth Chuck. “Trump Appears to Mock Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg in Tweet, and She Quietly Swipes Back.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 24 Sept. 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-appears-mock-climate-change-activist-greta-thunberg-tweet-n1057981.
“Greta Thunberg: TIME's Person of the Year 2019.” Time, Time, https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2019-greta-thunberg/.
Last modified: 17 December 2019