In lesson seven’s contemplative practice, “Climate Complexity”, the idea of triple inequality stuck with me. This is the idea that those who are least responsible for climate change are the ones hit the hardest by its effects, and then of course these people have the hardest time rebuilding afterwards. This gives a lot of insight to the privilege we have living in a developed country. It is a norm and basically a necessity that we drive cars to work, take planes to travel, produce waste, and consume products manufactured in factories. These are all basics to us, but they all contribute significantly to climate change. Adding to our privilege, we rarely see firsthand the consequences and the harm that our actions are doing to the environment. The people who don’t enjoy the luxuries we do, face the consequences. This doesn’t sit right with me, and I hope that in the future there will be more efforts to reduce carbon emissions and climate change, and more efforts to improve infrastructure and aid in developing countries.
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Isn’t it ironic that those that are least responsible bear the highest cost of climate change? The kicker is that most of us are not willing to change our lifestyle in order to make the world a better place. That would mean giving up a piece of our freedom, aka, having a car. Instead we would have to rely on public or alternate means of transportation, most of which are not convenient or easy to use in the US. Our wasteful lifestyle and our excessively sized vehicles greatly contribute to this problem, although there are many other factors to include consumption of items, and certain food items with a high carbon footprint. We need to focus on more effective and efficient means of transportation, and energy production in order to help fight the effects of climate change.