Please be sure to read Making Arguments III before tackling the question below.

This week’s forum requires a reply to the forum question and one reply to a classmate only.

The essays of Garret Hardin and Edith Weiss both focus on our relationship to the world’s resources. The final IPCC guided lecture for this week describes the very real possibility that human beings will not make the changes needed to limit global GHGs to 1.5˚C or even 2.0˚C by 2050 given the scale of the changes required. The documentary for this week – Gasland – focuses on the relationship of our society to the resources of shale oil and natural gas and the problems that have been created for the present and future generations in the race to replace dwindling liquid oil resources by mining shale for oil.

Have we arrived at the point where we must be willing to accept and just live with the growing contamination and even destruction of certain resources (like air and water) in order to maintain our way of life?

Here is the link to the documentary: