ENGLISH 23
(A.K.A. CLIMATE CRISIS 101)
Deep Dive
2°C: Beyond the limit
Reading this article alongside the crazy weather this week really cemented climate change’s increasing impact. I live in California — Los Angeles County, to be specific— and the temperature was 90 degrees yesterday. My family had to turn on the air conditioning because the house was too hot; to say doing this was depressing in mid-January would be an understatement, it was also frightening.
I felt like this article was a car crash that I couldn’t look away from; it morbidly sucked me in! Wow, as a junior at university I really thought I knew a lot more about climate change in my local and surrounding counties but this article really informed me on a lot of details of how we’re really being affected (I live in Ventura/Ojai). I was shocked to find out that “warming in Ventura has already exceeded the threshold set in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement” and feel like this has never been voiced within my community
The issue that “Beyond the limit” addressed is relatable to us. The mountain fire in California is always a nightmare to all of us. I remember Thomas fire in 2017. The sky was red, the air is full of ashes and we had to wear masks outdoor. When I stepped outside, my tears fell off immediately because the ashes hurt my eyes so bad. What a terrifying time. That was the first time I felt as helpless as people to the mountain fire. During that time, the freeway was closed because of the fire or the flood caused by the storm rain. The paradise became the hell just over a night.
It amazes me how much firsthand experience that Santa Barbara is getting with environmental disasters, such as oil spills, wildfires, and global weirding, and is the birthplace of the modern environmental movement, but still cannot serve as an environmental-model for others to admire and be inspired by. As Wilson states: “If a place with Santa Barbara’s predominantly green electorate and political class is unwilling or unable to change, who will?” And this is exactly right. Santa Barbara is a place that has been significantly affected by the climate crisis and has finally recognized the climate crisis at the political level, but is still not putting effective policies in place to help prevent these environmental tragedies from happening over and over again. It is truly up to my generation to take action and encourage radical changes in order to try and reverse the huge effects of the climate crisis
This is perhaps the reading I have enjoyed the most, both from English 22 and the little bit of reading we have done in this class, English 23. I enjoyed all of the personal stories told in this article and the pictures and captions that went along with it.
For students like those of UCSB that may consider themselves environmentally conscious, this article became an eye opener due to the fact that there are climate change issues occurring where we live ourselves. It was pressing to see the massive impact that cars have on the environment and how simple aspects of everyday life such as transportation become an issue to the climate. It was especially alarming to see that in 2015 Santa Barbara county pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% and two years later Santa Barbara county exceeded its prior set levels by 14%. I am sure that many believe Santa Barbara to be a more progressive city considering its young population and awareness of social and political issues, but even cities such as ours are not doing enough to combat climate change.
A section of the article that stuck out to me was “Global weirding” where the temperatures reached 115 degrees and cooled down dramatically after sunset. I remember being out on those days and having my mom call me to go home because it was too hot to be outside and It wasn’t safe.
After reading the article, 2°C: Beyond The Limit, I was left again feeling shocked. I feel like this is a pretty common theme for the first half of this class, so I’m not really surprised that I was left feeling this way. Having grown up in Southern California (San Diego) for all of my life, I’m completely embarrassed that I was THIS oblivious to the fires ravaging our state. Reading that La Paloma Ranch manager John Kleinwachter was forced to change what crops he could harvest effectively due to climate change. It’s scary reading that crops that have been growing in California for over centuries now physically cannot grow. Also, the article did a great job of showing what climate is capable of to UCSB students. Showing pictures of the blatantly eroded cliffside had to spark some type of emotion into all of us; Talking about the future state of the DP the article said, “erosion could claim up to 78 percent of the city’s bluffside beaches by 2060.” In the article they use the term ‘environmental posers’ to describe the gap between Santa Barbara’s talk on the environment and its actions, and I think this term describes the majority of people, not just people from Santa Barbara. Yeah, we all are aware of climate change, we’re not denying that, but what have we really done as a generation that is so profoundly different from what previous generations were doing? It seems that we just accept that climate change is a huge issue, but we aren’t really doing anything that is going to make as big of a difference as we need.
Being the epicenter for the grassroots environmental movement, I had liked to think that Santa Barbara had been doing its fair share to mitigate the climate crisis, but as I read through the article I found I was sorely mistaken. The severe lack of environmental regulation really opened my eyes to one of the main reasons why the climate crisis is so threatening to us now: because there are still people in positions of power that do not wish to see us change for the greater good at some relatively small sacrifice, instead pushing the county and its residents to remain within the status quo, perpetuating the problem that they claim to be seeking a solution for. My only hope is that the people who are taking or have taken this class as well, the people in my generation who recognize the problem we are facing and realize that something must be done about it, that we are the ones that will pick up where others have left off to guide us in the right direction towards a lasting future for our species on this Earth.
Another issue Wilson only mentioned in passing but holds a lot more significance is the inequality around being environmentally friendly. Most sustainable alternatives are more expensive. For example, organic, sustainable food options (Wholefoods!!!) are nowhere near affordable for most families. While talking about Santa Barbara environmental progress, the article explained that now Santa Barbara residents automatically receive renewable power coming from solar farms in the desert. However, this is actually more expensive and residents have to opt for the less expensive nonrenewable energy. There is so much more to this issue but I just thought it was interesting to point out how most of the time sustainability is only a reality for wealthier families. It’s easy to encourage sustainability or spread blame for not caring about our planet. However this is unproductive and unfair. Sustainability and environmentally conscious living needs to be made more accessible and a possibility for change to occur.
“2 C: Beyond the limit” reminded me of a distinct memory from last year. I was in Death Valley last February as my first ever camping trip. In Winter, it was still blazing hot, but manageable. However, there were so many signs that said don’t be statistic, as the heat can kill. I shrugged it off as that was more of a summer season worry. It was 80 degrees which was far from the record of 120 degrees. In my naivety I was shocked in 2020 when LA country reached record temperatures of 120 degrees. Even in my hometown of San Diego reached 100 degrees, and I could barely function in the day. The wildest statistic of all is that Death Valley broke its own record of 125 degrees. All these degree changes make me feel scared that as California becomes more of a desert that it will become the normal temperature, and more accidents or deaths or violence will exponentially rise.
Something that has been ingrained in me just from the past two weeks of this course is that the climate crisis is happening right now. Yet, I feel like the media is still portraying this issue as something that will happen in the distant future, which significantly contributes to people not taking any action. To this day, whenever there’s news about these disastrous issues in the media- hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, etc.- I see little to no mention of climate change having any significant role in causing them.
As Ken mentioned last lecture, the climate crisis was really only brought about by one generation, but since then we have only continued to speed up the effects of it. The article mentions how up until 2016, there were relatively no natural disasters in the Santa Barbara area, but since then it’s been almost an annual occurrence. It’s not like we haven’t known of the climate crisis and its effects, but we chose to ignore the signs and now we’re reaping the consequences in our own backyard.
I have only been to Santa Barbara twice to visit the campus, but I already love the city. However, after reading the article, I realized that there isn’t less of a fire danger than where I live now. I am constantly anxious about fires during the warmer seasons, and I thought that maybe when moving to Santa Barbara, I wouldn’t be as nervous. But reading this article, I realized that it isn’t much different. It’s scary to think that even in cities with coastal climates, there are still high dangers of fire. This article really opened my eyes to the fact that there aren’t places that can escape the rising climate and the consequences that come with it.
As someone who is from an agricultural region, and currently works in rice, walnut, and almond farming, the portion of the article that had to do with farming struck particularly close to home. My childhood was full of people praying for rain, and making small-talk over when “this drought would end”. The funniest part of this upbringing was that so many of these farmers were conservatives who did not and still don’t believe in climate change, despite watching their PGE bills go up and their production go down.
“2ºC: Beyond the Limit” was – as Ken stated – an article that hit close to home. Although I am not currently in Santa Barbara due to COVID, I was lucky enough to spend the majority of my first year on campus. During that year, I experienced what is – unfortunately – a now common occurrence in California: a fire. Although nowhere near the scale of the Thomas Fire, the Cave Fire (as I now know it to be named) was definitely a scary reminder that we aren’t waiting for the climate crisis; we are currently living in it.