Problem 1
If you were asked to rate your hope that humankind will find a way to maintain a livable climate on a scale of one (not a chance) to ten (nothing to worry about), what is your number on the hope-o-meter? Has it changed from the beginning of this class to the end? Why?
Problem 3
Former President Obama argues that we are borrowing this planet from our children and our grandchildren. Play out that analogy. In what way, borrowing? What does that mean for how we should act?
Problem 4
Suppose you come upon a person who is drowning and calling out for help. What effect does each of the following (considered separately) have on your personal responsibility to save the person? 1\. You know the person is drowning. 2\. You cannot swim. 3\. A thousand people are standing with you, watching the person flailing around. 4\. You didn't push the person into the water. 5\. You are busy, on your way to an important meeting. 6\. Saving the person would require some financial sacrifice, since you are wearing expensive clothes and watch, which would be ruined.Now, how is this case similar, and dissimilar from our personal responsibility to take action to counter climate change?
Problem 5
Australian philosopher Peter Singer argues that there is a fair and practical way to allocate the right to emit greenhouse gases: Take the total capacity of the atmosphere to absorb greenhouse gases without harmful effects, divide it by the number of people on Earth. That is an individual's fair share. Allocate to each country an emissions quota equal to its population's shares. Then create a market in which countries that want a higher quota can buy shares from counties that emit less.In your considered judgment, is this fair?
Problem 6
The Buddhist scholar Thich Nhat Hanh writes, "Our own life has to be our message." If so, then we had each better ask these questions: What message do I want my life to send? What might I do to send that message? What do I do now that might prompt someone to read the contrary message?
