Blockadia

In the chapter called, Blockadia: The New Climate Warriors, Noemi Klein reports that “ Beginning in northern Alberta, in a region where the worst impacts are felt by indigenous people, and often ending in places where the worst health impacts are felt by urban communities of color, these pipelines pass a whole lot of other places in between”(315).  Noemi Klein informs how  low-income communities are more at a  disadvantage compared to affluent people in this country, especially when it deals with  creating the Keystone XL Pipeline. There is no environmental problem but there are human issues that need to resolve at a grander scale. It was neat seeing how several of the material we covered in ENST 295 was mentioned in this reading alone. Such as environmental racism, local knowledge and grassroots movements. What resonated with me the most was how Noemi Klein was able to have a positive outlook on how to achieve change in our current capitalist economy. She is trying to  change the gloom and doom belief into something positive. In her writing, she mentions grassroots movements that have been successful. Stories that need to be told to all audience especially politicians and citizen.We live in a great civilization but we lack poor sustainability practices with great demands on oil. Supporting grass root movements and enforce rules  to reduce the demand for oil and find other alternatives to energy, that would have less impact on the environment, but would also reduce or end  sacrifice zones.

 You probably know to ask yourself, “ What do I want?” Here’s a way better question, discusses a new outlook when it deals with one’s  goals written by Mark Manson’s made me reminisce back a time as a child when my parents, teachers and friends use to ask me what I aspire to become. I felt that this questioned did not prepare me enough to pursue my career goals as an adult. As he put it “You can’t have a pain-free life. It  can’t be roses and unicorns. And ultimately that’s the hard question that matters. Pleasure is an easy question… What is the pain that you want to sustain?”. I wish every young adult would have the chance to read this article, because several aspire to become successful but do not expect the struggle that comes along with it. This article reinforces my stance, that I will not be that adult figure asking children what they want to be to when they grow up, but rather “what problems they would like to solve” as Jamie Casap once stated.  New reframing will allow for better preparation.