In the essays you have read on climate change and environmental issues by Naomi Klein, Alice Chen and Vivek Murthy, Ben Adler, Dan Crenshaw, and Charles J. Moore, there is a lot of ink spilled about climate change and its solutions, but arguably just as much ink spilled on the terms of the climate change debate. Klein, for instance, poses the research question, “Why don’t we care while the world is burning?” Chen and Murthy, on the other hand, analyze whether taking an optimistic or positive view of climate change action could inspire more people to advocate for change and do their part. Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw asks whether the left’s ownership of the issues (and the common rejection of climate change as an exigent issue by conservatives) has made it difficult to enact effective change. In short, all of these essays are, in addition to being about the facts of climate change and the actions against it, about the deeply political rhetoric of climate change action and inaction.
This assignment prompts you to enter into this conversation with your own analysis and synthesis of the rhetoric in your own op-ed on climate change. You’re being tasked with not only cataloging and studying the information given to you in these five essays, but also analyzing each essay’s argumentative tactics, what these arguments share, and where they differ. Ultimately, you’ll be asked to apply what you learn from these arguments to a new context: Hunter College. You will pivot from what is argued and explored in these essays to your own analysis of the issue in one specific context, taking a larger problem like climate change that feels unwieldy and numbing and making it small and manageable.
Answer this question: What are just a few simple ways we, the Hunter College community, can cut through the noisy debate, the misconceptions, and the bias to effectively act against climate change right here on campus? You might also consider the following:
What are the best kernels of wisdom on climate change action in the work you’ve read? What information in these essays might be most valuable to Hunter students interested in acting against climate change here on campus?
What are some problems that stand in the way of acting on climate change at Hunter? How can they be solved? How can you convince Hunter students, faculty, and administrators to act? Who would you task with doing what?
Are you aware of ongoing Hunter community action against climate change? If so, you might make your readers aware of it.
How does climate change affect specific Hunter community members? Why should they care?
How is the debate about climate change action conventionally discussed among your peers (Hunter students) or your generation? What misconceptions stand in the way of progress?
Look over your notes from group exercises where you have carefully analyzed the arguments of Klein, Chen & Murthy, Adler, Crenshaw, and Moore and gotten relevant general information on climate change.This is your material and your own source of expertise on the terms of the climate change debate and climate change action. It is the existing conversation into which you are entering. You will need to refer to at least some relevant material from these essays with summary, paraphrase, and quotation with citations. From your analysis of these essays, you will derive practical solutions for climate change action at Hunter.
Guidelines:
Every essay should have a good title, something creative.
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