Amber Rose Gonzalez organized the presentation, and she is a professional and the chairperson of Ethnic Studies. Amber Rose Gonzalez also coordinates the American Indiana Studies degree. The keynote speaker of the Earth Day Symposium is Winona LaDuke. Winona LaDuke is an internationally recognized author and an environmental activist (LaDuke, 2021). She holds graduate degrees from Harvard and Antioch Universities and is advanced in rural economic development.
LaDuke is a founder and co-director of Honor the Earth, a group promoting public support and financial aid for environmental teams. Winona started the White Earth Land to preserve land Recovery Project Recovery and adapt the use of renewable energy and food systems. She is a woman of honor with various awards such as the Thomas Merton Award, the Bancroft Award, the global Green Award, and the international slow food award.
The primary problem the presentation is addressing is climate change. She also addresses the danger the ecosystem faces from the use of fossil fuels. In trying to solve the climatic issues, Winona talks of being people with good hearts and minds. People who are anticipating to protect what they have, such as the wild animals and the indigenous species. She also presents the green new deal to reduce fossil fuels such as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides usage in foods.
The green new deal encourages people to use new technology that involves no chemical use and to plant crops that adapt to climate change. Carbon dioxide released into the environment is a significant climate challenge. Avoiding carbon dioxide releasing agents such as concrete improves the environment. According to Winona, the transport sector should develop the electric train system as it uses renewable energy that pauses no climatic danger.
In her presentation, she employs the steganography technique. She uses an image of a woman termed a water protector. In the image, she presents the misery faced by the Native Americans, including being murdered. She uses the backstory technique to explain the history of buffalos in the United States and how they face a high extinction rate. She also narrates the history of the ten thousand species of corn that are now extinct. LaDuke uses the addiction metaphor to elaborate on the behavior of energy consumption in society. The speaker uses rhetorical questions throughout the presentation (Shegay et al., 2020). The questions she asks do not need direct answers, but they serve to jog the audience’s minds.
The work of the presentation is of paramount importance in solving the environmental and climatic changes. Through the presentation, Winona explains the effects of harmful environmental behaviors and how they negatively impacted the country. She talks of making America great again, and this phrase implies that American has lost its sovereignty over time because of climate change. From the talk, it can be implied that what Americans plant and what they use in planting should be chemical less.
Adapting the use of renewable energy such as solar and wind can save the climate. The strength of the research is that it provides a way of having a consistent food supply chain while protecting the environment. However, the research presents a weakness: it causes an inter-crop imbalance as its majors on food grains only. The research will also cause regional disparities in terms of economic development.
The presentation can be linked directly to Diamond’s Theory of Collapse. In both of the talks, they review the history of societies and how they collapsed and became extinct (Diamond, 2021). Diamond and Winona LaDuke describe the destructive environmental behavior of human beings to be the leading cause of environmental degradation. They describe how climate change relates to agricultural activities. Climatic changes that have caused dryness have impacted agricultural products. Diamond and Winona LaDuke encourage adaptation of environment-friendly behaviors to help solve collapses.
References
Diamond. (2008). Why societies collapse. YouTube. Web.
LaDuke. (2021). Fullerton college Earth Day symposium 2021. YouTube. Web.
Shegay, A., Orazova, F., & Krivosheeva, G. (2020). Possible writing techniques while teaching for students whose English is a foreign language. European Journal of Research and Reflection in Educational Sciences, 8(6), 1-5.