ENGLISH 23
(A.K.A. CLIMATE CRISIS 101)
Week #9
Can the climate crisis make us happy?
Weekly Assignments
Reading
Please read two chapters from the book Being the Change, by Peter Kalmus (on which the documentary of the same name was based): “Leaving Fossil fuel” and “Collective Action.”
Incidentally, if you find these two chapters interesting, Peter Kalmus has made all of the chapters from Being the Change available for free on his personal website – which was very kind of him, as he is obviously forgoing royalties in doing so.
Here are the chapters. Perhaps one or more of the topics, such as biking, slow travel, meditation, or love will interest you!
Part1: Waking Up; Beyond Green; Global Warming; The Science; Global Warming; The Outlook; Growth Always Ends; Our Mindset.
Part 2: Trailheads into the Wilderness; Like to Bike; Leaving Fossil fuel; Slow Travel, Meditation, a Foundation of Change; Reconnecting with Mother Earth; Opting Out of a Broken System; Collective Action; Community; Love
Films
Please watch the documentary Happy according to these guidelines:
1) If you have not seen Happy, please watch it. It is available for viewing on GauchoSpace (GauchoCast). If you are not enrolled in the class, it currently can be rented for a relatively modest fee from Amazon.
2) If you have already seen Happy, watch it again. It is even better the second time. Seriously!
Lecture videos
This week’s lectures can all be accessed below as either PDFs, audio podcasts, or YouTube videos.
As noted above, the following two lectures will be shown during the class period. Please make a YouTube comment on each of these lectures.
Reading 9
Drawing down greenhouse gas emissions by being the change
download as a PDF / watch as a video / listen to as a podcast
Film 9, Happy
Are we destroying the planet in a misguided pursuit of happiness?
download as a PDF / watch as a video / listen to as a podcast
In addition, please watch, read, or listen to the following lecture. Please note that there is only one additional lecture this week, though it is longer than the other ones.
Pulling it all together
20 things that each of us can do to save the planet
(Note that you are not required to post comments to this video, even though there are hundreds of responses to it. These posts are from 2019-20, when responding was a requirement of the course. Nonetheless, if you are interested, feel free to read through them!)
download as a PDF / watch as a video / listen to as a podcast