Comfortably Unaware: What We Choose To Eat Is Killing Us

Comfortably Unaware by Richard Oppenlander was a very eye-opening read for me. The main concept behind this novel is that the foods making up our diets are actually harmful to the environment. Personally, I thought this was a very interesting take on the subject of diets due to the fact that it is not about the health of the person but the health of the environment. When people buy food they usually are not thinking about how it affects the environment. No one realizes the true cost of the items they buy, most specifically food.

The points made by Oppenlander were a bit surprising because it really is a subject that is not usually discussed or thought about regularly. What I found most interesting about this novel was that Oppenlander did more than just state the issue. He went into great detail explaining the problem and a possible solution. Also, he did not just focus on the doom and gloom of the situation, unlike the novel Eaarth.

The most shocking aspect of this novel is how many different things are affected by which foods we chose to purchase and eat. Oppenlander discussed many issues that branched off of global warming and climate change. I was quite surprised to read that the air we breathe (along with a multitude of other things) are greatly affected by the foods we ingest. Once again, a very informational and interesting read that has expanded my current knowledge of climate change. I would deeply recommend this novel to anyone and everyone, so they can be well-informed on this subject.  

For more information about this book and the subjects it discusses, please go watch this short video! http://freefromharm.org/videos/educational-inspiring-talks/video-dr-richard-oppenlander-and-comfortable-unaware/

Relation Between Floods and Global Warming

For my class presentation I was assigned the topic of flooding and how it has been affected due to global warming. Also, if the flooding has increased or become more severe in the years following the publishing of the McKibben’s novel Eaarth. The amount of rainfall has been increasing over the past years, due to the atmosphere being warmer than it was previously. This increase in temperature allows for more moisture to remain in the air, thus letting it move to new locations where it will release of the rain in one spot. If the temperature continues to increase as it has been, the amount of rainfall will also increase. Over the years, evidence of the increase in such intense rainfall has been quite clear.

 I was lucky enough to discover that a huge flood had taken place in December of 2015, (about a month ago) in Northern England. This is just the most recent extreme flood, and was caused due to an abnormal amount of heavy rainfall. There is dramatic footage of the aftermath of the event, captured by a drone. This is just one example of the increased flooding that has occurred across the globe.

The amount of rainfall and its locations has drastically changed over the past ten years. Many areas that are not accustomed to high amounts of rain are now receiving more than can be removed. I even have a personal experience with flooding and the problems it poses. My hometown was flooded about two summers ago, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage. People were kayaking down the streets and cars were abandoned in the deep waters. The weeks following the flood, consisted of many people moving items ruined by the flood onto their lawns for the garbage man to pick up. This yet again, is such a minor event in the scale of how much flooding, and the damages it creates have increased over the past years.

The predictions being made for futureflooding is extremely alarming. Many places near coastal areas and islands will probably be completely submerged underwater, along with the community and people who live there. This problem will increase even more as the amount of severe storms escalates to an all-time high. Unfortunately, with the increasing knowledge and data to back up the increased rainfall levels, there are still doubters making the solution to this problem almost impossible.       

Eaarth: Chapter 2

For most of this chapter, McKibben discussed the idea that slowing economic growth would help with the current climate change problem. This concept made complete sense to me, however I am not sure how plausible it actually is. Overall, the process of slowing economic growth would also slow population growth among other things. More specifically, if the economy decreased, the sale of items such as SUV’s and other vehicles would also decrease. When this happens the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere would also decrease. This is one of the leading problems currently facing our planet.

The main reason I am a bit skeptical of this plan is that slowing the growth of the economy is not going to be an easy task. First off, the politicians and big business companies will not like this plan at all. And as many people know, those two things hold a lot of power not only in our nation, but all around the world. Secondly,  actually getting them, and the United States as a whole to agree to this plan will take years, years we do not have. Finally, how exactly would they go about slowing economic growth? The rate at which our economy expands is ridiculous, slowing it will be a challenge even if everyone is on the same side.

This chapter was slightly more uplifting than the previous, and the facts comparing China and the United States were shocking. Most specifically, McKibben states"If the Chinese, say, ever owned cars at the same rate as Americans, the number of vehicles on the planet would go from 800 million to almost 2 billion." This made me truly realize how damaging the United States alone, is to the environment. I fear that the process to reducing further damage will not occur fast enough, and more gasoline will be added to the fire. Cannot wait to see what the next chapter has in store! 

Eaarth: Chapter 1

Last year I was lucky enough to take a college level, environmental science class which brought my attention to the multiple problems the Earth is facing. More specifically, the problem humans have created for the Earth and now themselves. Many aspects of that class focused on how we are greatly impacting and altering the earth. These changes are permanent and are virtually impossible to reverse, proving to be a real issue that needs to be attended to today.  In 2010, Bill McKibben wrote the novel Eaarth which focuses heavily on the fact that these changes in the environment are going to become “normal,” and that we will have to adapt to these as best we can.

While reading this first chapter my mind immediately jumped to one of my favorite movies, Interstellar. Interstellar came out in 2014 and is a science fiction film that depicts an earth that is becoming more and more unstable, resulting in humans having to find a new home, on another plant, or even in another universe. McKibben states, “…researchers calculated that the new aridity and heat have led to reductions in wheat, corn, and barley yields of about 40 million tons a year.” This is eerily similar to what occurs in the movie Interstellar, many of the crops die out until they are only left with corn for a source of food. Also, there are wild dust storms in the film which match up with the extreme forms of weather described in Eaarth as well.

The interesting thing about this connection is that in Eaarth, is seems that corn crop production is decreasing significantly over other crops, yet it is the crop that survived the longest in Interstellar. Why would the film industry choose to not use real world data to provide an even more real depiction of the changes of Earth? It is just food for thought, and what seemed odd to me while I read this novel.

Finally, the way McKibben presents his information is in a very realistic and concerning way. Our home, planet Earth, has been changed permanently because of the human race. There is no going back now, the Earth people knew years and years ago is gone, and we will have to live with the consequences. He closes with the concept that we have changed the Earth, and now it is making us change with it. “That’s life on our new planet. That’s where we live now.” 

Who am I?

I am Emma Garber, a Speech Pathology major at Western Michigan University. I have never made a blog before so this will be interesting. I'll start with some interesting facts about myself. First off, I have taken dance classes for 16 years, and plan to continue to do so. Not only have I danced for quite a long time, but I have also been greatly involved with theater, and was able to choreograph my first show over the summer. Also, I am allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, which can be a pain at times (yes, this means I cannot eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup). Finally, I spend a majority of my free time babysitting, which at times is quite hectic, but always interesting and fun. I have one younger sister who is currently a freshman in high school. She also shares a love of dance and theater, and we have been lucky enough to perform together on numerous occasions. My family overall is pretty close and is extremely important to me. 

I grew up with a science teacher father, who spent hours upon hours of time being outdoors. Due to the fact that my father had the summers off (Being a teacher and all), I was usually able to experience the outdoors with him, not only around our house but also at our cottage on Lake Huron. This gave me multiple opportunities to witness many aspects of nature and how the world I lived in functioned. At a young age I was able to understand how every ecosystem is a careful balance, and that minor changes can disrupt the entire thing. Due to constantly being on Lake Huron, it was quite clear how humans are altering the Earth, and not for the better. The beach surrounding the lake as well as the shallow areas of the lake, had extremely high concentrations of zebra mussels, which are quite painful to step on. These are an invasive species that are only in the great lakes due to human transportation. This is a still a major problem, and the condition of environment I live in is extremely important to me.


Anyway, my mother contrasted with my father quite nicely, being that she brought in the artistic and literature side of my current knowledge. I was given access to the best of both worlds essentially. She brought out a creative side in me, which led to my love for the outdoors based on its beauty, not only how it functions and survives. She loved to spend time outdoors as well, but usually not looking for snakes to catch. We would use leaves, or stones we collected on the beach to decorate art frames and just have fun. This still affected the environment, just usually not in a harmful way.

From both of my parents I gained a love of dance. It is still one of my greatest passions today. They actually met in a dance group, and raised me dancing as soon as I could stand. Now they never forced me to dance or anything like that, they just would turn on music, and let me do what I like. My parents always say that I would dance anywhere as long as there was music, and unfortunately there are plenty of embarrassing family videos to support that claim. I still dance, not as often as I use to or would like to, but it will always be a part of me.

So basically, that is some quick background information on myself, my family, and why this class was an interest to me. I am very excited to see what else this class has to offer and cannot wait to get started. Any questions can be left in the comment section, hopefully this was a bit interesting to read and that you have learned more about who I am as a person.