9/25/14 Kaia Hayes

Reading Megan Mayhew Bergman's "My Imaginary Bunker" stressed me out. While I appreciated the engaging, sometimes humorously self-deprecating tone that she used to illustrate her perspective, her intense fixation on numbers and minute details seemed almost self-destructive in the way it consumed her life, leaving her sleepless and wracked with guilt and worry. It is important to be conscious of your own carbon footprint, and commendable to make change in your lifestyle in an effort to reduce impact and live more sustainably as you get more information. But you must also keep in perspective your role as an individual person-- to contribute to the collective of people who also feel this way, contribute to the power of the whole. You cannot expect that your singular actions will solve such a broad issue; the responsibility is not yours alone to shoulder. Acknowledge that now that you have done everything possible in your own life to live more considerately, your next step is to call others to action, by educating and engaging them. 'Armchair activism' is not concrete change, and this is perhaps why people feel that their attempts to prompt change are ineffective.

My Imaginary Bunker Response

"I don’t know where to start, or where to stop. I want a mandate, guidelines, someone to force my hand. I want rules, shared sacrifice."

The above statement in particular made me think because I can relate to the difficulty of being self-motivated to do things that are better for the environment. The problem is that the government would never put guidelines to make people more energy efficient and people would have a bad attitude to a list of new laws to help the environment anyways. Picket signs with "Global warming is a conspiracy" and news headlines reading "Climate laws: Necessity or Insanity" would be rampant. That may not be the best way out, but their could be laws to increase the culture of environmental consciousness. Whether that means making every street and building have a recycle bin or teaching children at a young age about the effects of our wastefulness on the world, it may just do the trick.

Contagion

    The movie Contagion deals with many interesting aspects of a worldwide crisis. I thought the most interesting thing to see in the movie were the reactions that people all over the world had to this outbreak of disease. Although the ordinary citizens were scared and frustrated with the situation and with having to deal with roadblocks, riots, and their loved ones dying, the doctors that were working on the vaccine were so efficient. It has always amazed me what the human person is capable of in a crisis. In this example, a vaccine was invented and sent out to the masses in only 133 days after the disease broke. It makes me hopeful that in real life, if a crisis such as this were to occur, there would be a solid group of people who could look past their fear and the destruction to make a change. A crisis is really the best impetus for change, and as the author of “My Imaginary Bunker” was so concerned with global warming, I believe more and more people will begin to see global warming as a crisis that needs to be seriously addressed. If people see it as a crisis, they will be willing to spend exponentially more energy and time on fixing the problem.

Response to "My Imaginary Bunker" Alex Kendig 9/25/14

Megan Mayhew Bergman completely sums up the thoughts of every environmentally-conscious (and slightly paranoid) person out there, including myself: climate change is ALREADY happening. Now it's just a matter of how far we will let the effects go. Will we divest from fossil fuels soon enough to make an impact on our carbon emissions? Will the United Nations implement some type of sustainable change in their upcoming meeting? There are many questions that accompany the idea of a heating planet but we can't complain because we've have had this coming for a very long time.

Bergman's support of Bill McKibben hits home with me since I attended his brainchild, the People's Climate March, on Sunday, September 21st. I, along with 310,999 other people marched through the streets of New York City to promote international climate awareness. This issue is very important to me not only as an environmentalist, but as a human being on planet earth whose kids will be affected by the ravages of climate change in the future. Extreme weather, severe droughts, intense storms, sea-level rise, shifting of climate envelopes and the northern migration of equatorial diseases are just some of the reasons why I worry for my future kids. I want them to experience the most beautiful world we can possibly provide them with, and thus far, I don't think we are doing a very good job of providing a good gift. There needs to be increased environmental education starting in elementary school so children are familiar with the idea of recycling and saving energy/water by the time they reach adulthood. We have no room for excuses of environmental reform "hurting" the economy because future damages could cost trillions of dollars if we do nothing to counteract our emissions now. We need everyone to realize the importance of making environmentally-conscious decisions, and teach them to WANT to recycle and save energy/water. I, along with Bergman, am hopeful for the future after having been to the climate march, but I am worried about how long it will take for the message to reach the average person. I am interested to see what the United Nations' decide on, and I hope with everything in me that they make an environmentally-responsible decision.