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Post by Ms. English on May 30, 2023 7:49:13 GMT -5
Post your answers to the discussion question here. Make sure to read the responses of those posted before you and respond directly to them when appropriate before posting your own. Connections: In "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted" (linked below), Malcolm Gladwell is pessimistic about the potential of current social movements (or at least those rooted in social media) to bring about real change. Does "Our Vanishing Night" believe in the possibility of change? Does it consider the differences between individual action and social movements in bringing about change? www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell
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Post by johnhawver on Jul 31, 2023 11:11:51 GMT -5
"Our Vanishing Night" does believe in the possibility of change. Throughout the essay Verlyn Klinkenborg brings up the point that more cities and countries are making efforts to reduce light pollution including the Czech Republic. Including this implies an optimistic view of change. If the essay did not think change was possible, they would not include current changes happening. The essay is mainly focused on the effects of light pollution on the non-human world. After stating its many unfortunate effects on nature, it touches on the fact that humans need darkness as much as animals do. With touching on the importance of darkness to humans, this essay inspires individual action. While the essay does not specifically mention what an individual can do to reduce light pollution, or efforts by individuals to reduce light pollution, it still can motivate its audience. Even if not directly considering the differences between individual efforts and bigger social efforts, "Our Vanishing Night" still considers both in changing light pollution.
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Post by georgia on Aug 14, 2023 12:43:19 GMT -5
"Our Vanishing Night" does believe in the possibility of change. Throughout the essay Verlyn Klinkenborg brings up the point that more cities and countries are making efforts to reduce light pollution including the Czech Republic. Including this implies an optimistic view of change. If the essay did not think change was possible, they would not include current changes happening. The essay is mainly focused on the effects of light pollution on the non-human world. After stating its many unfortunate effects on nature, it touches on the fact that humans need darkness as much as animals do. With touching on the importance of darkness to humans, this essay inspires individual action. While the essay does not specifically mention what an individual can do to reduce light pollution, or efforts by individuals to reduce light pollution, it still can motivate its audience. Even if not directly considering the differences between individual efforts and bigger social efforts, "Our Vanishing Night" still considers both in changing light pollution. I agree that unlike Gladwell in “Small Change”, in “Our Vanishing Night”, Klinkenborg believes in the possibility of change. He demonstrates this belief multiple times throughout the essay by writing about current efforts being made to address the issue. He also discusses how “of all the pollution we face, light pollution is perhaps the most easily remedied,” suggesting that he has a positive outlook on solving the issue of light pollution. Although Klinkenborg doesn’t specifically write about the differences between individual and collective efforts in bringing about change, he does discuss both. He writes about social movements, such as astronomers pushing for more light control in Flagstaff, resulting in more regulations, and at a larger scale whole countries, like the Czech Republic, significantly reducing pollution. He also talks about how individuals can bring about change by making simple alteration to the design, installment and use of lighting. I also agree with you about how he incites further individual action by discussing the importance of darkness and the negative effects light pollution can have on humans, including disrupting our circadian rhythms and causing higher rates of breast cancer.
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Post by Isabella Johonon on Aug 14, 2023 16:03:59 GMT -5
"Our vanishing night" does ring up how light pollution can be easily redeemed and how simple changes can be made to immediately change the effects of light pollution. A very interesting thing that "Our vanishing night" brought up was the fact that humans are basically performing an experiment on themselves that just keeps growing and growing. Humans needs darkness because when it gets dark it tells the body to start producing melatonin which causes us to be tired and helps is sleep and sleeping is important because its basically a reset which every animals needs. Light pollution has caused our days to be longer and our nights to be shorter which can cause a lot of damage to people's health and well being. Humans are just as affected by light pollution as any other animal but the difference is that we can help stop it. The essay didn't talk about the social moment but it could be very beneficial to help shine light on this bright issue. People aren't very hard to influence especially if the person is talking about an issue from a celebrity or influence on social media that they respect. People who have the power to influence and have the power to have their voice be heard should be talking about important things like this to make our planet a better and safer environment for everything living on it.
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Post by Ava Ritenour on Aug 18, 2023 20:25:00 GMT -5
"Our Vanishing Night" by Verlyn Klinkenborg, is optimistic in the possibility of change, unlike Gladwell in "Small Change." He speaks about simple changes that can be, or have been made to change the amount of light pollution. For example, in Paragraph 13, he talks about how half a century ago in Flagstone, Arizona, some of the earliest civic efforts to control light pollution were made, and how Flagstaff has since then tightened its regulations since. He also believes "of all the pollution we face, light pollution is perhaps the most easily remedied." Another positive change he brings up is how the Czech Republican, and other countries and cities have been working on reducing light pollution. Although Klinkenborg doesn't directly quote any individual action towards solving light pollution, he does encourage individual change, and directly discusses social movements. He has a very positive tone throughout the essay on fixing light pollution, even with how negative the effects of it can be, and has hope for the future of changing it.
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Post by Andrew on Aug 22, 2023 11:16:33 GMT -5
"Our Vanishing Night" by Verlyn Klinkenborg believes in the possibility of change. It brings up many ways in which we can remedy light pollution, and many ways in which people are already doing so. For example "Our Vanishing Night" mentions how many cities around the world including the Czech Republic have started trying to reduce large amounts of unwanted light. It even mentions how those who came many years before us even started to create solutions to the problem. Klinkenborg goes on to talk about how not only are nocturnal animals affected by this, but how all of us are. He describes how light pollution may be taking a biological toll on humans, continuing to urge change. Although "Our Vanishing Night" doesn't go into detail about individual change it pushes for the awareness by describing what others are doing to inflict change, and what others before us started doing to try and fix this problem that impacts all of us.
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dadyl
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by dadyl on Sept 2, 2023 1:06:30 GMT -5
I would say Our Vanishing Night by Verlyn Klinkenborg does not believe in the possibility of change. Thought the article the author provides no real solutions for the affect that light pollution is having on nocturnal creatures. The one point in the article where it does show people pushing to reduce light pollution is immediately after talking about its impacts on a very specific group of humans (astronomers). if the article really thought this was a solvable issue it would have given a road map for what should be done not some random hyper specific example. The article also does not distinguish between the individual and society focusing exclusively on the broader societal impact since one house having a light on at knight does nothing a whole city causes a lot of pollution
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