I would like you to answer:
A great quote from my rereading of the classic “Dune” by Frank Herbert from the ecologist Pardot Kynes “The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t realize about an ecosystem is that it’s a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, a flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That’s why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.” (Page 628, Appendix I)
Given that you all are now amateur ecologists and climate scientists I would like you to take 400-500 words to tell me A) what this statement would have meant to you if you had read it before this class and B) then tell me what this statement means to you now.
Please read all 5 TIME Earth Awardee statements here (https://time.com/collection/earth-awards-2024/) with particular focus on Robert Bullard and Nemonte Nenquimo’s statements as I think they are extremely profound and Bullard’s is specifically written to your age cohort.
After reading these statements please provide me a 400-500 words on what you are prepared to do in the near and long-term to arrest the worst of climate change in your own backyard and in the decisions you make as a consumer. I want actionable suggestions and things you think you would realistically follow through on. I will have no way of checking on you so this is the honors system but I would hope you would set goals for yourself that are realistic and substantive.
Just in time for the wrapping up of our Human Population and Ecological Economics section we have a new book from Nick Romeo titled “The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy” that critiques the current economic model’s focus on economic and population growth at the expense of the environment and human costs. Please listen to the interview with Nick here (https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101905213/the-alternative-describes-more-ethical-economic-practices) and provide me your take on his thesis in 400-500 words. What struck you as realistic? Scalable? Fanciful? etc.
