In recent years, threats to the global environment have only become worse. We see natural disasters striking one right after the other and climate change, pollution, destruction of biodiversity, deforestation and much more, even the threat of nuclear war becoming a problem every day. In “The New Renaissance,” Daniel Quinn (2002) claims that a second renaissance is coming; a renaissance where people will either learn to live sustainably or they will not. Quinn also stated that if humans continue living the way they do- they will become extinct in the next 200 years. Nowadays, we are faced with the biggest threat to our survival, global warming, that is why we should take the necessary steps such as to reduce fossil fuel, plant trees, conserve water, reduce waste and aim for carbon neutrality and educate people on the sustainable use of biodiversity so that we may sustain our survival.
Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, dying forests, scrambling wildlife, and
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“Maintaining a population of six billion humans costs the world 200 species a day. If this were something that was going to stop next week or next month that would be okay. But the unfortunate fact is that it's not. It's something that's going to go on happening every day, day after day after day—and that's what makes it unsustainable. That kind of cataclysmic destruction cannot be sustained,” (Quinn, 2002). Quinn goes on to say how thinking that those 200 or more species are below humans is very dangerous and that is how humanity will go extinct. We cannot leave this problem for the younger generations; it needs to start with us, we need to take the steps in preserving the biomasses and take the steps that lead to carbon neutrality so that we can reduce the effects of climate change for our younger
Forest decline, oil leakages, holes in the ozone layer. Pollution on land and under water, topics like these have dominated the news since the end of the twentieth century. People are becoming more and more aware of the side effects of their desperately wanted progress.
The Renaissance as a Time of Change The Renaissance was a time of social and economic change, feudalism was nearly abolished and money became a heavy commodity rather than loyalty and promises. The church became secularized and people put more emphasis on science and arts. Ideas and values enveloped the land. At this time the peasant population was around ninety percent of the overall population.
The Renaissance (A Very Short Introduction) written by Jerry Brotton has been illustrated into six illustrations: A global Renaissance, The humanist script, Church and state, Brave new worlds, Science and philosophy and Rewriting the Renaissance. Since this book is a history book, it is quite tough to read. This book is all about the past history which is related to the Renaissance. Honestly, I do not even have clear understanding on what is called “Renaissance” until I read this book. On page 9, under the subtitle of “Where and when was the Renaissance?” I finally found the meaning of Renaissance: the revival of classical culture. This word is come from Italian word which is rinascita. Then, French historian, Jules Michelet had come out with the definition of Renaissance. He define Renaissance as decisive historical period in European culture that represented a crucial break with the Middle Ages, and which created a modern understanding of humanity and its place in the world. He also promoted the Renaissance as representing a certain spirit or attitude, as much as referring to a specific historical period. But then, his Renaissance only took place on 16th century even though he had defined it from the previous century. There was also Jacob Burckhart, Swiss academic defined it as an Italian 15th-century phenomenon. By read it further, I found that these two persons read the vision of the Renaissance like a version of their own personal circumstances. Then again, there was also an Oxford-educated don, Walter Pater defined on this word. Similarly, in further reading, all these three thinkers had created 19th –century idea of the Renaissance as more of a spirit than a historical period.
Glaciers conserve climate records just as tree trunks preserve historical climate levels from hundreds of years ago. Researchers are able to pull out the core of glaciers in order to examine the ancient bubbles. These ancient bubbles contain levels of carbon dioxide content and past air that is from our ancestors. What they found was atmosphere dioxide never being higher than 280 parts per million. Now, atmosphere dioxide has raised to 390 parts per million within a matter of a couple of years. This change has already been affecting us. James Balog states that air is changing and basic physics of air is changing. This particular change has a great influence in: plants, animals, food, water sources, weather, and mankind. All species are endangered at this moment. All species are going into a mass extinction due to hot weather and climate change. James Balog states that we will lose half or three quarters within the next 20 years. The plants at risk will cause our air to be unfiltered. These plants are what keep our water and air clean. There is also high mortality in forest areas with larger forest fires that are almost impossible to control. More extreme fires are burning which is the cause of extreme changes in the environment. Our environment is more extreme since the greenhouse gases are raising at deadly
The Renaissance was a time period where ideas, poetry, inventions, and even new religions where released into the world. This time period lasted from the 14th century to the 17th century, where people like Shakespeare, Da Vinci, and Michelangelo are well known. The Renaissance began in the 1300s in Europe and lasted into the last 1600s. By the ended of the Renaissance word and ideas had been spread around the world to different nations, continents, and even countries.
In times of darkness, there is just an absence of light that is required to illuminate an era of future brilliance. The Middle Ages was the period when a shadow was drawn over the past teachings of its ancient predecessors, the Romans and the Greeks, especially in the subject of art. The use of gold leaf in paintings, unrealistic and very stiff figures, evident religious contexts, reliefs, and more contributed to the regression of paintings and sculptures during medieval times, otherwise known as its proper title, the “Dark Ages.” Then a flame sparked a new era of greatness in human creativity, known as the Renaissance or “rebirth.” Not only did the people of the Renaissance discover and absorb Greek and Roman remnants, they also began to explore the natural world and themselves like never before. Nature was greatly expressed in artwork through its enthusiastic creators who desired to discover and develop. The great innovators of the Renaissance contributed many new characteristics and techniques to sculptures and paintings.
I always loved to go out into the forest and wander around hoping to find something magical hiding in its depths. I always saw nature as something to be respected and taken care of. However nowadays we live in a world where nobody cares about mother earth and nature, therefore causing global warming and greenhouse gases. Due to the ever increasing gas emissions in our atmosphere, it is causing many people across the globe to suffer. For example, when I went to Somalia in 2009, I had not experience any kind of rain for a year. It was one of the worst drought Somalia have ever seen, and unfortunately I was a victim of it. I would remember myself herding the goats for my grandmother, in search of grass so that the goats could eat and gain weight. However that was not possible due to the drought, and in the end my grandmother was left with no goats. People lack to understand that this world is ours, and if we don’t take care of it then our kids won’t have a world to live in. Most people are ungrateful and fail to recognize our duty as a human beings living on planet earth. There are high increases in tornado’s, and other natural disasters due to global warming. For example just last week a rare tornado hit Sydney, causing cricket ball-sized hail, and winds up to 200 km. It is reported that Australia is experiencing an El Nino weather pattern, therefore causing extreme droughts, storms, and floods. John Muir hinted
There is no doubt that human activity is having a significant impact on our environment. These environmental impacts include depleting our natural resources, air and water pollution, climate change, destruction of habitats, and loss of biodiversity. Because of these growing concerns, we need to learn how to live sustainably. Living sustainably will allow us to conserve our limited resources more wisely so they will be available for future generations (Withgott & Brennan, 2011, Chapter 1).
Thousands of species have become extinct over the last four decades as a result of changes in land use and as a result of global warming. Whether or not the millions of species can adapt and evolve to climate changes is debatable. As this brief overview will report, the human species is not adapting well to the changes. It must be remembered that increases in the levels of carbon dioxide are certainly responsible for the risk many species face, but so is the way land is used, e.g., rain forest destruction. There is a feedback loop wherein plant life and the climate are interdependent. Each affects the other. When forests are cut down, temperatures in that area will rise. Rising temperatures cause other plant life requiring cooler temperatures To die off.
include the earth warming 2 to 3 degrees in the next century, arctic ice disappearing
Former Vice President, Al Gore’s speech, The Climate Emergency, was a highly accurate prediction of the circumstances our planet would be under in coming years. The facts relevant as of 2004 are still true in the year 2015. While many companies and individuals have learned to contribute to helping our plant go greener, the dangers of the climate change are still a pressing issue supported by scientific evidence. With occurrences such as extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and ice cap disappearances, global warming is physically being show on our planet and in order to prevent a complete reversed climate on our hemispheres, the population of Earth as a whole must ban together to reduce our carbon footprint.
In 1927, for the first time in history, the world’s population reached two billion people. In 2011, less than one hundred years later, it passed seven billion (Worldometers). Some may think that this is a positive increase, creating economic growth and significant innovations in fields such as agriculture, industry and medicine. However, the amount of difficulties our species will encounter over the next century because of this population increase, will greatly outweigh those few optimistic beliefs. For example, twelve to fifteen million hectares of forest are lost every year, the equivalent of thirty six football fields per minute (World Wildlife Fund). In 2011, there were an estimated nine and a half billion metric tonnes of carbon emissions put into our atmosphere (CO₂ Now). The list could go on and on, but ultimately, these are all just contributors to what might be humanity’s most challenging problem yet: climate change.
Many climate scientists, researchers, and environmentalists are expressing concerns about shifts in the overall climate of the earth. It is believed that a dramatically dangerous warming is taking place in the overall global climate, a problem that is referred to as "global warming”. Global warming is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of Earth’s climate system. This temperature rise is due to the damaging effects of deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. It is our responsibility to preserve our planet and our way of living but in order to do that we need to act now. If we continue to destroy the planet with no regard as to how serious this matter is there could be several negative effects to us as human being and other living thing on Earth. This is why global warming is truly a global issue and needs to be tackled collectively. We must to act now in order to reduce the dangerous levels of carbon dioxide emissions and we must to work together.
Our planet has managed to survive and thrive for about 4.54 billion years. In the last 2 million years we have caused enough damage and destruction to make our world “broken” beyond repair. We will not be able to get back the world we once had. The reason behind this is global warming, specifically, the increase of the global temperature due to the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere. If we do not make the issue of global warming a priority in today`s society, our entire way of life will be at risk. There are many reasons why so many people believe global warming should be a concern. Thoroughly examined points include: scientific predictions, rising temperatures, human causes, drastic climate changes and animal adaptations. Though there are several points arguing how global warming should not be a concern, the reality of the matter is that it needs to be taken into consideration on a global scale before it is too late, as to do nothing would have devastating implications on humankind.
Many people assume that the environment is not in danger. They believe that as technology advances, we do not need to worry about renewing natural resources, recycling, and finding new ways to produce energy. They state that one person in the world does not make a large difference. In reality, each individual's contribution greatly affects our environment. Our natural resources are slowly disappearing, and we must work together to save them and the Earth from ruin.