Date of Award
2013
Degree Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
So far, the human race has raised the global temperature 1 degree. We have done so by implementing a social and economic system that relies on burning fossil fuels an in which success is measured by growth. So far, the United States' wealth, the lavish lifestyles that everyone wants to live, and those who are fortunate enough to live them is made possible by depending on fossil fuels and an absolute acceptance that growth is the end all measure of success. Yet we have reached a point in history where we can no longer measure success based on continued growth but rather continued sustainability. The one-degree we have raised the global temperature is enough to already yield huge, definite changes. In 2008, 40 million people, more humans than the state of California went hungry. In 2009, that number topped a billion because of climate change. Hundreds of millions of additional people went looking for food but could not find it where they have been able to for generations because the planet we know now is going through permanent changes. The US State Department released a report that foresees famines, as in multiple famines, sever enough to affect a billion people at a time in the coming few decades. Global warming refugees could become biggest cohort of people on the planet.
Recommended Citation
Worden, Annie, "Global Warming and Fordham University Students" (2013). African & African American Studies Senior Theses. 5.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/aaas_senior/5
