{"id":106,"date":"2019-07-17T08:45:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T13:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/?page_id=106"},"modified":"2026-01-12T08:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:56:15","slug":"catastrophe-and-triumph","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/schedule-content\/catastrophe-and-triumph\/","title":{"rendered":"Catastrophe and Triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2402 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2022\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-08-28-at-5.18.28-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2022\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-08-28-at-5.18.28-PM.png 974w, https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2022\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-08-28-at-5.18.28-PM-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2022\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-08-28-at-5.18.28-PM-768x572.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"border: 0px solid #666;padding: 10px;background-color: #f2f2f2\"><p>Update 1\/12\/2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>RHM textbook, <em>Environment &amp; Society:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First half: <strong>perspectives<\/strong>: &#8220;dominant ways of thinking about environment-society relations&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>there are many more&#8230; you will encounter in courses and elsewhere<\/li>\n<li>shape how people think about and impact the environment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Second half: perspectives &#8220;applied to familiar <strong>objects<\/strong> of the world around us.&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>not problems and crises: important<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;An opportunity to break away from the environment as an undifferentiated generic problem, one universally characterized by a state of immediate and unique crisis.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>the problem with apocalyptic catastrophism &amp; environment\n<ul>\n<li>apocalyptic: &#8220;describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>catastrophism: &#8220;involving or causing sudden great damage or suffering.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2168 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2022\/01\/5736-oped-vthomas-environment-issues-20jun2013.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"492\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2022\/01\/5736-oped-vthomas-environment-issues-20jun2013.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2022\/01\/5736-oped-vthomas-environment-issues-20jun2013-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2022\/01\/5736-oped-vthomas-environment-issues-20jun2013-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 492px) 100vw, 492px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>There is good news and the promise of being able to do something&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A generalized process: book, class, class project<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Understand the natural and the social\u00a0together from different <strong>perspectives<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Understand common <strong>environmental objects<\/strong> embedded in natural and social contexts<\/li>\n<li>Understand how environmental <strong>challenges<\/strong> (at a range of scales) arise from this complex context<\/li>\n<li>Define <strong>solutions<\/strong> to these problems<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drawdown.org\/solutions\/table-of-solutions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Project Drawdown<\/strong><\/a><strong>:<\/strong> which efforts have the <strong>biggest impact<\/strong> on climate change and environmental problems? Click on Scenario 1 or Scenario 2 (two levels of impact on reducing CO2)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong>Scrappy Sustainability &#8211;<\/strong>\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ff0000\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/presentation\/d\/1Q7MZH6L3_zgoPW7DQELjxLt2XBraV2mmyBqpIpDM9MQ\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Class Project information linked in menu above and <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/projects\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update 1\/12\/2026 RHM textbook, Environment &amp; Society: First half: perspectives: &#8220;dominant ways of thinking about environment-society relations&#8221; there are many more&#8230; you will encounter in courses and elsewhere shape how people think about and impact the environment Second half: perspectives <span class=\"readmore\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/schedule-content\/catastrophe-and-triumph\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"parent":43,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-106","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3790,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106\/revisions\/3790"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/envs110-198-498\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}