"Climate change is the consequence of not understanding the difference between open and closed systems."
Today in class, Dr. Smirnova's husband Michael Edelstein spoke to our class about climate change. Talking and learning about climate change is significant because as teachers, we must be able to teach our students about this dramatic issue. The issue of climate change is not only scientific, but it will continue to shape the lives of our students. Mike mentioned the fact that many large companies try to hide information about climate change because it is detrimental to their business. Prior to this, I knew that many powerful people try to hide the reality of climate change, but I did not know that companies such as Exon Mobile tried to hide the evidence. Climate change is now a scientific issue and a political issue. Mike mentioned the fact that there were studies taken to prove that scientists do in fact agree about the issue of climate change. All of the information in the world that has to do with climate change fits together; there is no disagreement. Climate change is a reality and it must be taught truthfully, without social and political distortions.
The Climate Reality Project was created by Al Gore. Al Gore was inspired to tackle this issue by one of his college professors. Gore continued to work on the issue of climate change throughout his political career. However, some of his attempts to work toward tackling climate change were unsuccessful because he was not elected president. Since the time of Al Gore's election, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased; it has passed the tipping point and it cannot go back now. Michael emphasized the idea that we must pay attention to how habitable the earth is, for humans and other species. Climate mitigation is a central idea of the climate reality project. The goal of taking action toward climate change is to make sure that climate change gets no worse than it already is. We must also discuss how we have to live in a world that we already damaged.
Because of the first picture of earth from the Apollo mission, "the Blue Marble", the "saving earth" movement began. This picture was the first time we finally saw where we lived and it inspired us to begin changing how we treat the earth. The pictures allowed us to see that our planet is primarily a water planet. Water is never static, it is always moving and changing form. The "blue marble" picture shows us that the amount of water on earth is finite; therefore we must value and treat our planet better.
How will my future students and I deal with climate change?
As an educator of children, the best way for me to deal with climate change is to educate my students about the topic. Unfortunately, one major reason why climate change is so severe is because of the ignorance of the majority of people. As mentioned earlier, the topic of climate change has become something that companies try to cover up in order to make/continue to make a profit. One thing Michael Edelstein said that stood out to me was "climate change is the consequence of not understanding the difference between open and closed systems." Prior to this presentation, I did not know anything about open and closed systems in regards to our planet. Earth itself is a closed system in regards to matter, but an open system in regards to energy. All of the systems on earth are open systems because they interact with the environment. As habitants of Earth, we must work to cherish our planet and everything on it. Each part of the environment has an effect on another part of the environment. All of our actions have consequences. I have to teach my students that Earth's climate has already been damaged, but we all must work together to make sure that it does not get much worse. The core to solving this problem is educating my students on the subject and ensuring that they know the truth as well as what they can do to fight climate change.
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