Alyssa Nealon: Hi, I am Alyssa Nealon a Communication major with a concentration in Advertising and a minor in Media Art. In high school I was in the garden club and it sparked my interest in regards to other topics involving the environment. For my Digital Storytelling class I am part of this semester, I decided to look further into climate change, and more specifically, what students can do to take part in preserving the earth. I’m lucky enough to be speaking with the Director of Environmental Studies here, at Manhattan College, Dart Westphal on the topic. Westphal has over 30 years of experience helping community organizations achieve their goals. He has helped in developing the Bronx River Alliance, created a business improvement district and started a nonprofit newspaper.
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Alyssa Nealon: Is climate change caused by humans?
Director Dart Westphal: Yes, climate changes all the time and has since Earth was created, however you think that was, the current changes that we are seeing that are so severe are strongly influenced by what human beings are doing so the short answer is yes.
Alyssa Nealon: What are the threats of climate change?
Director Dart Westphal: I think the biggest threat is disruption. Right? So it’s the change in everything- that means the way we live now would have to change if the worst comes to the worst. Right? So people think “Oh, it a little warmer, what’s the big deal? I hate winter anyway”. But the severity of the storms... I think the best way to describe it is if people were to look at the work being done on resiliency all over the place, people are talking about responding to sea level rise by putting dykes and barriers around Lower Manhattan to keep the sea level from rising and getting up that high. And you think of doing things like that on a world wide scale- so many people living so close to the coast for all of human history and you wind up with a ridiculously expensive solution the the problem. But if you go forward and let it happen the way it’s happening now, it’s either that, or either moving billion people out of the way. So it’s really the disruption that is the biggest problem.
Alyssa Nealon: Is it too late to prevent climate change?
Director Dart Westphal: It’s too late what has already happened and what will happen over the next few decades. Yes, the temperature will rise by maybe one, maybe one and a half degrees celsius, so some of that resiliency stuff is going to have to happen, some of that adapting to the change in the climate will have to occur. It’s not too late to prevent so much disruption that we won’t be able to handle it. That’s the question- like how do you... it’s like with Covid, right? It was too late to stop, but it was not too late to prevent the hospitals from being completely overwhelmed. Lots and lots of people died and it was tragic, and it’s still ridiculous how bad we were at handling it. Same thing with climate change. It’s really bad. We’re doing a terrible job of changing the way we live to prevent the temperature from rising to the point of disruption is ridiculous. But it won’t be fatal if we do the things we need to do say, over the next twenty years.
Alyssa Nealon: What actions can we take as students to reduce our carbon footprint?
Director Dart Westphal: Individual behavior is a good thing to raise awareness and to begin modeling what people should do, but I think it's more important for students to do the kind of organizing and advocacy and policy understanding work that needs to be done on a broader scale. So if students, you know, the college doesn't recycle much so if students try to get the school to recycle more things than it does now that would be a good thing to do but by the same token it might be better to work on getting the city of New York's recycling program to happen right so if we- if students decided to try to get everybody on campus to stop driving, right?, they get everybody to reduce the carbon footprint of transporting people to Manhattan College, however you would do that, I don't know how you would do that... but let's pretend that's something we could do. You could do it might make more sense to spend your effort trying to reduce driving in New York City or in the Bronx in some way and there's lots and lots of ways that you could do that, so i think the understanding the scale of all this, comprehending, getting your arms around the whole problem and figuring out what the next step is, I think is what students should be doing, rather than a small scale event on campus it doesn't really reach anybody besides other students, I mean they're all you know. It's the point to do everything. I'm trying in the Environmental Studies program we're trying to get people to understand the breadth of the problem, the depth of, the problem and how broad the solutions have to be. I think students in general on campus should be doing that...
Alyssa Nealon: Thank you Director Westphal for allowing me to speak with you today. You provided a lot of insight on climate change, from whats causing it, to how and why we need to fix it. After talking with you, I feel that together, as students, we can find ways to create a lasting change for the planet. One way that students can get involved is by joining the Green Club. It is dedicated to sustainability, at the college, in the community, and throughout the world. The green club is open to all students. You can sign up at the biannual activities and club fair, or you can contact the club directly @greenclub.manhattan.edu. Like Director Westphal mentioned, individual behavior is a good way to raise awareness, but in order to create a longer and lasting change, we need to work together, thinking on a larger scale. Together we can work to find ways to do so. Are you going to help?