* Not all of us have access to a magic school bus capable of shape-shifting. Nor can we guide eight wide-eyed students (“pupils with dilated pupils”?) through the human body for a lesson on digestion. Not everyone has the budget for such far-out field trips, let alone the permission to keep an uncaged lizard in the classroom. Nah, Ms. Frizzle… Read more »
The opening of Jeremy Rifkin’s The Empathic Civilization stirs an existential question about free will and empathy. Rifkin state that “the empathic predisposition is embedded in our biology.” He continues to discuss the discovery of “empathy neurons” and how biologists argue that humans naturally seek empathic relationships with other animals. Furthermore, educators believe that empathic social interaction is necessary to… Read more »
The opening of Jeremy Rifkin’s The Empathic Civilization stirs an existential question about free will and empathy. Rifkin state that “the empathic predisposition is embedded in our biology.” He continues to discuss the discovery of “empathy neurons” and how biologists argue that humans naturally seek empathic relationships with other animals. Furthermore, educators believe that empathic social interaction is necessary to… Read more »
Our class recently watched the 2011 documentary Journey of the Universe (14 billion years condensed into 57 minutes! suffice it to say, there were copious metaphors–beets, balloons, fruit solar systems–employed to emphasize abstract concepts). Afterwards, Professor Litfin had us quickly go around the room to share a word or two that resonated in the film’s aftermath. What immediately comes to… Read more »
Roy Scranton is no doubt the catalyst for existential crisis within many minds. He uses the shock factor of imminent death to convey coming to terms with our own demise. Arguing that we have to accept societal death in order to survive, Scranton is pushing for a redefinition of American Culture. The capitalist habitat we have come to love and… Read more »
The most important part of “How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change” for me was that the film framed the people most affected by climate change, the people in the low-lying areas being ravaged by environmental disasters, as the people who cared the most about the issue. I can’t tell you why,… Read more »
In his book, Defiant Earth, Clive Hamilton argues humans are at the center of the world, thus we are responsible for protecting the Earth system. He says, “human activity has modified the Earth’s processes so radically that we have disrupted the great forces of nature…so much so that it has shifted into a new geological epoch,” (51) reinforcing the view… Read more »
Hello fellow anthropocene victims. Written below is my most recent journal entry from after one of the classes group contemplative practices. Enjoy and good luck. When opening my eyes from my class’s most recent contemplative practice, I felt like I had been gone four hours. I almost could not remember anything I had even thought, but stuck with me was… Read more »
In the era on the Anthropocene, it seems natural to assign blame to certain countries or groups of people. It is easy to point the finger towards China, citing their 29.14 percent share of world carbon dioxide emissions in 2015, and also towards the 1 percent, presumably the people in control of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies (2). While… Read more »
In the grand scheme of everything that ever has and ever will exist, I am miniscule. For this reason, I never viewed myself as part of the greater system of humanity. It was always me, the people I am close to, and the rest of the world. However, this course has forced me to push back on that idea. If… Read more »