Discussing Cultural Differences and Perspectives

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This week we’re beginning to learn about the complexities of cultural differences and differing perspectives. These topics are central to geography and they affect a lot of debates on climate change as well. Let’s discuss such topics through the prompts below. There’s also a short video here that provides relevant insights and will help contextualize the discussion even more.

Post your response (in 150 to 200 words, total) by Friday night (20 pts),  and reply (in 75 to 125 words) to others by Sunday (10pts). 

1) Globally speaking, in terms of not from the video, how might cultural differences affect individuals’ conclusions about climate change and global warming? 

2) How are your ideas about climate change impacted by your socio-cultural and political-economic position in the world? 

3) What gives you the deepest impression, in other words what impacts you the most, from the video about Nicaragua?

Here is another other pertinent resource for you all:

https://www.earth.columbia.edu/videos/view/tidal-communities-speak-underserved-and-indigenous-rural-peoples-confront-changing-coastlines

1) Cultural differences affect individuals’ conclusions about climate change and global warming through a multitude of ways. More specifically, these cultural differences stem from the practices of commercialized businesses that are inherited through different cultures. For instance, Persian gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia continue to contribute to the issues of global warming and climate change because of their cultural business practices compared to the United States of America. In regards to Saudi Arabia, the gulf country contributes to the negative aspects of climate change/global warming because of their exportation/production of oil. The Oil refineries emit toxic waste (pollution) in to the air, thus creating hazardous carbon in the air. As a result, this contributes to dangerous air on the planet. With that being said, it is clear that Saudi Arabia and it’s government officials choose to ignore the issues that oil/gas production has on our planet because of the profit they are making off of commercialized business practices; ultimately adding on to the climate and global warming crisis.

2) Living in the United States of America, more specifically Northern California, my ideas regarding climate change from a socio-cultural and political-economic position is quite different from others around the world. When it pertains to the socio-cultural aspect of climate change, I believe that my willingness to contribute to fix these crisis’s stem from the overall culture that Northern California has. I am surrounded by other individuals who also believe that these crisis’s must be fixed and solved before matters get worse. As a result, I will know more about these issues than someone who lives in an area where these issues are not talked about as often amongst their regions populace. In regards to political-economic position, as someone who is apart of the upper middle class, I believe my understanding of these issues are quite different from others. For instance, there are many working class Americans that may feel that issues of climate change and global warming are just concepts that are meant to hold back America from economic growth and power. When in reality, our local governments are starting to enforce regulations that are not meant to hurt our countries businesses; rather provide them with solutions to capitalize while simultaneously being cautious for issues such as global warming and climate change.

3) After watching the video about how climate change is affecting Nicaragua and Nicaraguan’s as a whole, I learned even more about how climate change plays a major role in affecting a culture. An example of this is in the video, when the narrator mentions that moving more inland would help Nicaraguan’s deal with climate change. However, an individual that was interviewed mentioned that many people within the country are refusing to move more inland as they will move away from cultural customs such as fishing. If majority of the populace begins to move more inland, practices such as fishing will be gone from Nicaraguan culture as there will be more of an emphasis on farming. In general, it was definitely interesting to see how climate change can affect aspects we do not necessarily think of. When we think of climate change, we often only think about it’a effects on our planet. However, aspects such as society and culture are also drastically affected by climate change.

1. Geographically speaking, there are communities that are much more largely impacted by climate change than others. Archipelagos will face heavy environmental stress from rising sea levels that can be attributed to climate change. One study also shows that some regions of Africa will have their agricultural food supply endangered by climate change (Boko et al., 2007).
2. My socio-cultural position in the world encourages a lot of academic experience in terms of climate change. It was a common topic in many of my prior science classes and we were always tasked with researching solutions for climate change. I think this is because it was easy for us where we live to write off climate change as not as big of a deal or ignore its potential effects because we haven’t personally experienced any major repercussions from it yet. For this reason, the schools made it a point to teach about why climate change is such a significant issue and to show other communities that already are feeling global warming’s effects.
3. The most impactful part of the video for me was seeing how greatly the physical landscape of Haulover had changed. The video showed a beautiful green area that looked almost nothing like what became the after effects of the storm. The land that divided the lagoon from the ocean was also significantly eroded and flooded through. I have never seen the effects of such a storm personally so it really puts more perspective into the potential impacts of climate change.

1) I think that globally, there are some disputes about climate change and global warming. In some places, it’s a problem that directly affects their lives. To others, it doesn’t exist because they are not directly affected by it, perhaps due to where or how they grew up. But just because you are not affected by something, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It delays the progress and change that needs to be done.

2) My ideas about climate change are due to the media I consume. I live in a place that is culturally diverse and has great political-economic position in the world. As a middle class citizen of America, I am not affected in obvious ways by climate change so much of the information I get about it is filtered through media and news.

3) What impacts me most about the video is the way that people did not want to leave even though they were caught between a rock and a hard place. My uncle is from Nicaragua and I have only heard a fraction of the hardship he went through. Even though their way of life is in danger, it’s still difficult to decide to leave.