I wasn’t able to follow the first reading by Stefen, but when I started reading Kolbert’s “Enter the Anthropocene I realized that is was the name for the new epoch. You ask us if we the adding of the epoch in the geological callander and my answer is absolutely. I didn’t even know words such as Holocene or Anthropocene were names that describe our climate state. Anthropocene is the epoch in which human activity influences the climate and environment. After the readings I was astonished that “a single average US citizen emits more that 500 citizens of Ethiopia…”(Malm) Malm says “we, all of us, you and I, have created this mess together and make it worse each day”. Kolbert says “ something like 38 percent of the planet’s ice-free land is now devoted to agriculture”. That is the work of mankind. According to to Crutzen “The Anthropocene began in the late 18th century, when, ice cores show, carbon dioxide levels began what has since proved to be an uninterrupted rise”. Since climate change traces back all the way to the 18th century, I agree that we need to change the epoch to the Anthropocene. Even Malm says “we, all of us, you and I, have created this mess together and make it worse each day”.
Khan says “social science suggests that citizens are culturally polarized because they are, in fact, too rational-at filtering out information that would drive a wedge between them and their peers. Which made sense to me because I have been in a situation where I was eating dinner with my very conservative family and I got into an argument with my grandma about trophic cascade and she scoffed at me and whispered to my brother “I bet she believes in global warming too”. Being that guy who was shamed at a family dinner for having an abstract belief sucks. Having people who undoubtedly believe global warming makes it harder to come up with solutions to correct climate change because they vote for a president that doesn’t believe in global warming. Cathy and her group developed a lot of research and proof of what has been happening to Montana, which makes it easier to relate as a local. From Kathy, I learned it is important to be able to back up an argument or point with research and evidence.
I very much agree with you here because I have been in a similar situation. Family is always tricky and I have had many arguments with them about many things. However it being family I will always love them. The thing is we as humans will always want to be right and that can be tricky because sometimes you have to pick your battles. Changing peoples minds especially loved ones will prove to be difficult.