Climate Change Organization: Ceres

The climate change organization that I decided to research is Ceres, which is a non-profit organization focusing on sustainability and leadership. Ceres was founded 25 years ago by a small group of investors in response to the horrible Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in 1989. Their main goal was to have environmentalists and capitalists come together to form sustainable businesses and ideas that would be long-term and benefit our planet overall. Since the birth of this organization, they have accomplished a great deal when it comes to the business world and sustainability.

Many people know that one of the largest reasons environmentalists are unable to make large moves against the advancement of climate change are big businesses. Many times people focus on the here and now, or the cost of items and how the economy is doing, rather than changing our current set-up to help the planet be a bit better off. Ceres is one of the only organizations that is working towards a strong economy, that is environmentally safe and sustainable. Due to the fact this this organization is only 25 years old, there is great hope that they continue to expand and change our economy to be a green one. 

Contacting this organization is very simple, as a link to their website is provided above. They also supply ways that you as an individual, or a student can support their cause. Any student or school could participate in joining Ceres 1000, which is a group that donates 1,000 dollars a year to this organization. Students could hold environmental fundraisers that both bring in money for this important company, but also help spread knowledge and education through their school and city. Also, Ceres holds events that are targeted towards students, more information about this can be found on this website as well http://sustainability.ceres.org.au/program/student/. 

Overall, this organization is constantly working to help better our environment, and they are more than willing to work with students, schools, small businesses and any other group that would like to help them on this journey. Once again, contacting the company is quite easy and is the best way to receive information about what activities are going on that support Ceres, and that anyone can get involved in. Hopefully this information about this organization will be helpful in figuring out ways to become more involved in this very long process of saving our planet. 

My Future Career and Climate Change

         Currently I plan on continuing down a path to become a Speech Pathologist, or a person who works with and treats patients who have speech and language disorders. My days will be filled with analyzing different types of speech disorders, creating therapy plans to help improve patients speech, and keeping track of old patients and their continuing progress. Unfortunately, this field of study is not directly connected to climate change in any way, shape, or form. Due to the fact that I will be working with a patient on bettering their own personal speech problems, it makes no sense at all to involve climate change. However, thanks to this class, the issue of climate change has become a huge concern of mine and I would like to be able to spread information about it to everyone I meet.So I've come up with some small ways that I will be able to continue to become an advocate for climate change in my professional life as a speech pathologist.

        First off, I can use words related to climate change in the therapy process that my patients will go through. A huge aspect of speech pathology is pronouncing words correctly, and instead of using words like "cupcake" or "chew" (among a ridiculously long list of other words), I can use words like "carbon emissions" and "methane." Yes this concept does seem kind of silly, but it is one of the only ways that I can actually involve climate change awareness into my professions. 

        Another way that i can help submerge my clients into climate change is to have posters and pamphlets around the office that are available to the patients (and their parents if the patient is a child). This allows for a very easy source of information about climate change that are right at these people's hands. Many times patients have to come in once or more a week, for a long period of time to receive proper treatment from a speech pathologist, so it will be very easy to constantly reinforce the importance of climate change. 

     Overall, it is going to be very difficult to continue to discuss and support the issue of climate change when it comes to my career. This however, does NOT mean that I am unable to continue fighting for our planet and being an activist against climate change. This class has properly prepared me with extensive information about the subject, that I can inform others of or alter my own life-style to benefit our Earth as a whole. I plan on participating in community activities and joining organizations that acknowledge climate change and the emergency our population has on its hands.   

Climate Change Game

For this post I would like to discuss my personal experience with online climate change games. To begin, I had absolutely no idea there were so many climate change role play/games available online. The number of games related to the subject of climate change is quite impressive. Also most of these games are free, easy to access and understandable to most people (including children). The game that I took responsibility for was titled the BBC Climate Challenge and was entirely online, and could be played in short time segments.

The basis of this game starts with the player assuming the role of the President of the European Nations, and the task at hand is to stop climate change by the year 2100. The game is set up sort of like an online card game where there are multiple options of what policies to inforce. The cards have rankings based on the supplies they use, the popularity the public has towards them, and the CO2 emissions they release. The game is played in segments of ten years per turn, and five cards (or five policies) can be picked to enforce every turn. The results of each turn are explained in a newspaper like form which are quite fun to read and are very pleasant to look at. The game was set up in a very interactive form, allowing for the player to click on objects to take them to different zones or subjects.

Sadly, I was unable to win or beat the game, due to the fact that I am clearly a terrible leader when it comes to politics. I was constantly voted out of office, due to the fact that I would tend to lean towards the climate change side of things, which most people were not very happy with. Trying to find a balance between what the people want and what the Earth needs was so difficult that I would only make it past a few turns. This game shows the reality of climate change and how politics and the majority of our population affect it greatly. I would for sure recommend this game to anyone who thinks climate change is an easy fix, or anyone who does not fully understand how our actions are increasing climate change and damaging out Earth.