John Seaman

10/22/2022

Mark Lyford

Discovering Science

Issue Reading 7

Are you concerned about climate change? What aspects of climate change are you most concerned
about? When it comes to climate change, I would have to say that certain aspects such as flooding near
coastal areas, increased droughts, and loss of life from both animals and humans as climate change will
have a severe impact on living organisms.

Reflect back on Reading Issue 6 and the simulation you all participated in. You acted as the president
and made choices about climate change and the actions we can take. After reading this article, would
you change the decisions you made in that simulation and why? I would make some changes to the
simulation more in the effect that it benefits the ecosystem instead of the economy. In the simulation I
was going for support from the citizens to elected but honestly going back I would change the stance I
had which led towards a better economy in favor of saving the ecosystem and halting climate change.

Many of you said that you were surprised at how complicated the fossil fuel discussion was. What do
you think about the larger discussion of climate change? Fossil fuel consumption is a piece of the puzzle
but what else drives CO2 emissions? Google the top 10 industries/categories influencing our CO2 levels
and list them below. For industries, the top companies with the most CO2 emissions are Saudi Aramco,
Chevron, Gazprom, ExxonMobil, National Iranian Oil Co, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Coal India, Pemex,
Petroleos de Venezuela.

Now that you have this list of influences, think about your life and what your biggest contributors are to
that list. After reading this article, would you change your lifestyle? Why or why not? I think I should try
to limit my carbon emissions because I do drive quite a bit and as that being a huge factor in carbon
emissions. I think a more active lifestyle with walking and biking outside could be what I do for my part
in halting climate change.

This article is very dense, with a lot of figures and statistics. Pick two figures/statistics you found
surprising and explain why you were surprised by them.

The pie chart with 36% of Americans are personally concerned about climate issues and the media
coverage on climate. These surprised me in the way that you would think the general majority of the
public would be able to assess how significant climate change is but a lot of people apparently do not
see it as a huge issues. Problem is it may not be a problem now, but It will be in the future and a
problem for the future generation of American citizens.

Let's put all the pieces together. With the knowledge you have gained from this reading assignment,
lectures, and past readings, what would be your plan for the future? Fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural
gas) are finite, so what do we do? How fast do we try to move away from them?
I think the solution would be to slowly transition from fossil fuels to natural renewable energy. Even
nuclear energy for a meantime would be sufficient if used properly. It has to be a slow transition though
as we heavily rely on fossil fuels.