It's good and overwhelming to have a class about climate change again.  I think it's extremely important that we discuss these issues, but also realize that it's not an important topic for many people, both in the US and abroad.  I have found myself thinking a lot about Allison's statement in class last week, that climate change is not a main concern, but the fact that we're doing harmful things to the earth cannot be ignored.  It has made me think a lot about the people in my life that think climate change is a hoax--natural or conspiracy--and wonder how it is that they don't agree we're doing harmful things to the planet.  I recall a conversation that I had with my now infamous Uncle Greg in the time between the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and capping of it.   My more liberal and environmentally conscious Aunt and Uncle were watching the news which was giving the most current updates on the spill.  My Uncle (in a later acknowledged not well thought out) comment said something to the effect of, "at least it's less oil for us to burn into the atmosphere."   Uncle Greg immediately on the defense made reference to the climate naturally fluctuating and that global warming is just liberal propaganda.  I attempted to divert the issues from climate change  back toward the oil spill in asking "climate change aside, you can't ignore that fact that as humans we created the potential for this disaster and now the entire Gulf ecosystem has to pay for that." The fact that something harmful occurred to that ecosystem didn't seem to effect him at all as he responded with something to the effect of "technology can fix it."  I understand that even if he did believe in climate change, it wouldn't be a pressing issue for him because he has two growing kids to feed and a myriad of other things to attend to on a daily basis.  The thing that I fail to understand is how you can communicate with someone who doesn't even believe that we're doing harmful things to the planet, even on the most basic level. 

I'm glad that we discuss the issues of water and biodiversity.  Water is a much easier issue for me to grasp, but both have become increasingly important to me with the passing of SB 78 in MI.  In my mind, it's easy to protect our waters from things like pollution, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  The same could be said about protecting biodiversity, but as stated by Sen. Rebekah Warren SB 78 would "make MI look like a laughingstock to the scientific community around the country".  I enjoyed hearing from Gene and Daragh regarding both of these topics.  I learned from Daragh's presentation that high biodiversity among fish is not a good things, which is interesting to think about considering how important diversity is among most other species.

I share a sentiment similar to Cailtin's in that there are so many issues to get behind and it's becoming increasingly difficult to determine which is more important and why that is.  It makes the whole climate change concept even more intimidating, but we can only hope that there will be enough of the right people to fight for each of these issues in their own right.