Jessica Byrom’s labeling of the environmental upsurge in recent years as a “bandwagon” marginalizes the unique state the human race finds itself in today. We are seeing a cultural shift toward environmental stewardship that is more on par with the Copernican Revolution than the South Beach Diet.
It is very evident in her letter to the editor Learn more about climate change at campus event (SN 2/5) that there lies a disconnect between her conceptions and what scientists are proposing. From her view, global warming is “the Earth eventually getting so warm that life will cease to exist.” Of course, nobody is proclaiming temperatures will become so hot that life will be cooked. Very slight changes disrupting intricate cycles are what we are worrying about.
Today we are challenged with the notion that our culture is systematically destroying the natural world. Renowned scientist E. O. Wilson recently spoke at MSU, describing how human actions are causing — and are in the midst of — the next mass extinction. Wilson’s speech was an attempt to call people to action, as he concluded, “a society is not only defined by what it creates, but also by what it destroys.”
Will our generation be remembered as the one that ignored blatant evidence that our way of life is affecting the natural world, or the one that woke up to rediscover how the human race can coexist with the environment in which we evolved?
Jordan Shelley
environmental biology and zoology senior
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