« The Climate Project at The Shepherd's Center March 8, 2007 |
Main
| April 18, 2007, Alpha Delta Pi Global Warming lecture, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 40 sorority sisters »
History 610 Masters Program Class
25 students
Dr. Peter Meyers, Director
The Honors Program
N. C. A&T State University
322 Marteena Hall
1601 East Market St.
Greensboro, NC 27411
e-mail: peterm@ncat.edu
Tel: (336) 285-2030
Fax: (336) 256-2468
The pre-lecture reading addresses several basic issues:
1] Can technology fix this problem?
2] How does the theory of the "Tragedy of the Commons" apply to Global Warming" This would also be a way for students to see how they unwittingly contribute to it.
3] The recent Supreme Court ruling on the EPA's role in limiting harmful emissions
4] The impact of global warming on the developing world. I also have a selections of readers' comments on this, many of which show how divided the public is on this issue.
Reading for April 11, 2007
1] Alvin Weinberg, “Can Technology Replace Social Engineering?” in Eric Katz, Andrew Light, and William Thompson (eds.), Controlling Technology, 2nd edition (Amherst, N: 2003), pp. 109-116.
2] Matthew Wald, “In a test of capturing Carbon Dioxide, Perhaps a way to temper global warming,” New York Times, March 15, 2007.
3] “Taming fossil fuels,” New York Times, March 17, 2007.
4] Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” in Morton Winston and Ralph Edelbach (eds.), Society, Ethics, and Technology, 3rd edition (Belmont, CA: 2006), pp. 309-318.
5] Thomas L. Friedman, “How Many Scientists?” New York Times, March 28, 2007
6] Felicity Barringer, “Ruling undermines lawsuits opposing emissions controls,” New York Times, April 3, 2007.
7] Linda Greenhouse, “Justices say E.P.A. has power to act on harmful gases,” New York Times, April 3, 2007.
8] Andrew Revkin, “Poor nations to bear brunt as world warms,” New York Times, April 1, 2007.
9] Andrew Revkin, “The climate divide: reports from four fronts in the war on warming,” New York Times, April 3, 2007.
10] A Reader Forum on Climate Change. This is a brief selection of the wide range of reader responses to the two Revkin articles listed above. See if you agree with the opinions expressed by the readers.
==============================================================
April 13, 2007
Hi Vivan.
I wanted to thank you for your great presentation at my class on Wednesday. Students got a lot out of it and were especially impressed by your commitment to the "cause." I hope you other presentations go just as well.
Yours,
Peter
==============================================================
During the prior week, I listened to a two hour conference call from The Empowerment Institute. From this training, I decided to write two questions on the board before the students arrived:
1) What fears do you have for yourself, your family and your community regarding global warming?
2) What gives you hope?
At each person’s seat was placed a solutions handout, my card and an “Answer the Call” sticker. I gave the 40 minute “Oprah” version of the slide show and the afterward asked each person to write their response to the question on the back of their solutions sheet. I told them to think about it and write coherently because they were going to have to pass it to the left and share it with their neighbor. Also, if they had a family member such as a child they had in mind, I asked them to write that person’s name into the sentence.
At random, I asked one person to read a response. It went something like, “I am afraid my little boy Aaron will not be able to enjoy hiking and the outdoors like we do now when he grows up.” I asked several others to share their neighbor’s fear with the group. It was so simple and so effective. I told them that by sharing our fears, we diminished its power over us and it bound us as a community. From there the questions and ideas just burst. One student spoke up and asked. “How come the V W which got 60 MPG back in the 60’s wasn’t around any longer and that someone should refurbish all of those old cars and retrofit them for bio-fuel.” I told him to do it. Why not? Capitalism and environmentalism must work together in this new paradigm. Go for it! Start your own business. He was truly excited at the thought of it and said he LOVED to work on cars.
One of the students, a High School History teacher asked me to speak at his class May 14. I was not available and posted a message to our NC TCP group and Peter Olson stepped up to do it.
This was an amazing experience.
