Frank DeCourten-Global Warming

Although I was aware of global warming before Franks speech, the extremity of it definitely caught me off guard. I liked the way he based his lecture off of the "Five points of universal consensus," because it helped me to better understand what his facts were all about. The fact that my generation is supposedly the last one to see a live polar bear is crazy to me; like I said before, I was aware, but not to this extent. It is insane to think that summers could get to 112 degrees in California, and that only 27% of the snow that falls will actually stick. Franks lecture, I think has been my favorite so far because of how big of an issue global warming has become even since I was young. Learning about issues like these are really interesting to me because we have so much impact on it and it is easy to get others involved in helping. The last point, "It's already too late to avoid some impacts," has never really occur ed to me but I see as very true now. Hopefully what we begin now will save humans as well as plants/animals from having to suffer through mass global warming.

Personal Viewpoint of the Environment

My environmental viewpoint comes directly from my upbringing. My parents really enjoyed to take my sisters and I camping/hiking/bike riding all the time when I was young. The time we spent together was generally spent outside and I loved it all. My dad would always talk to us about how beautiful nature was and how we should appreciate it, but hardly about conserving it. Because I was so young at the time, I think my parents only felt the need to instill positive thoughts about nature in my head, rather then revealing the politics of it all. My parents have never brought up ideas about saving the environment, almost as if it doesn't even occur to them, but they are always willing to help once I get a project started. I'm so glad that I grew up constantly being surrounded by nature because I feel that is the sole reason behind my passion for the environment. The elementary school I attended, K-8, was pretty involved in outdoor activities. Just off the top of my head I can remember a few activities/crafts we did: dissecting an owl pellet (haha), planting in the planter boxes, walking to downtown Loomis, and typically having P.E. courses on the playground. Although my teachers in elementary school took my classmates and I outdoors, I still believe my family is the number one reason for my love of the environment. I'm okay with my viewpoint and wouldn't change it at all, but if I could I would try and get my parents more involved in conserving the environment because I don't think that they take it as seriously as they should. My mom is the same way as Keelys and constantly tries to instill fear in me about foreign places and uncharted territories, but I hope to only continue to prove her wrong in all her false assumptions.