Last week Tuesday, world-renowned environmentalist Simran Sethi lectured us on the topic: Can We Save the Planet? While she clearly knows information regarding pollution, thinking "green," and energy conservation, she did not really answer her topic question. She pushed us in the direction of thinking of our own solutions, and I do not believe it was very effective since many of the students were not environment-related majors and did not have a clear grasp on possible solutions. Sethi, however, did do a good job of outlining all the problems with the cleanliness and durability of our Earth to make us more aware of this important issue. I also thought it was interesting how she said that although the media was destructive to the environment, it could shed more light onto this problem and spread awareness.
As for improvement, I would suggest that she devote more time to possible solutions, rather than summarizing the problem and discussing the entertainment industry. I also felt she could use more visual aids, other than her videos.
Still, however, I believe Sethi is very knowledgeable of the environment and has and will do much to save our planet.
I agree with you that a lot of students do not have enough background information on the environment to make educated decisions. I think that she did propose solutions, but they were not very practical, especially when she said "don't drive." Obviously, she was knowledgeable about her presentation since she was able to spit out statistics on the spot, but she really needed to focus her information better.
ReplyDeleteSethi did provide a good outline for the audience of the exact problems that the environment faces. She did seem to dance around solutions to these problems simply because she did not have the answers. It is hard to give a presentation to students when you cannot tell them how they can help to find a solution.
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought she was very informative with her statistics, but I also feel she should have given us more of a direction of how we can help save the environment. I took environmental science in high school, so I have ideas of what could be done, but like you said, people without environmental interests were given little motivation to take action.
ReplyDeletei feel as if sethi relied on her credentials and achievements, like being on oprah, to inspire us, which kind of failed. it's kind of like if we knew the solutions already then there would be no issue. she was enthusiastic, and like you said, she had a good outline.
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