Revisions:

I believe for this writing project my biggest issue was clarity. The comments provided from
Professor Speiser is what guided me the most to solving this issue. Ultimately it helped me look
at my essay through a different lens and see where the clarity issues were present and where I
could strengthen my essay. I felt like I grasped the argument well for this writing project which
improves from the result of my first writing project. However, this was a different topic of
writing and I think I was too broad. I went through, tidied things up, and found more clarity
throughout. Reading through my paper multiple times after reading the comments received from
its grading process really helped me see things differently and pin point where things needed to
be fixed. The quality of this paper improved and is now presented in a clearer fashion.
What I also did to clean up and improve this writing project was refer back to my Project
Builders for this project to see my original statements and ideas, and to help me dive further and
see where I got my original statements and arguments from since it has been a while since I have
work and looked back at this writing project. That helped clear things up a bit so I could read my
paper and edit having a better context of where I originally was coming from.

The History and Nature of Global Warming

Global warming is defined by Dictionary.com as a gradual increase in the overall
temperature of the earths atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by
increased levels of carbon dioxide, and other pollutants. While global warming has always been
an occurrence on earth, it has just recently become a major issue to the public and has been
viewed and discussed through a variety of literacy practices. Two literacy practices in particular,
history and environmental studies, both study global warming in different ways. History traces
back to the first known and discussed occurrences of global warming, while environmental
studies searches for solutions to resolve global warming and implement tactics to stop the source.
Both discourse communities overall export information to audiences on what global warming is
and why it is a harmful thing to the world.
First we look at history as the study of past events, particularly in human affairs.
Historians are able to date when humans likely first started the issue of global warming.
Ultimately, humans are the ones to blame for global warming; though they have been unaware of
their harmful effects on the environment until recent times. Based off the UCSB website for
Undergraduate History Majors, it shows that students will focus on questions during their studies
such as: How have different cultures and societies made sense of historical change? How have
they adapted and changed in the face of dramatic transformations in the environment, belief
systems, and political economies? How have they grappled with conflict and crisis? All of these
questions can relate to the topic of global warming as it will trace back, using reliable evidence
and sources, to why it began. Whether it be when fossil fuels were first used as a source of fuel,
or other reasons, the transformations in human living shown through history will date the crucial
changes in the environment.

Unlike history, environmental studies are the sciences that analyze the interactions
between man and the environment. This field is trying to solve the issue harming the
environment and help the future of it rather than solely focusing on the first causes of it all.
Environmental studies involves many hands on projects and studies to try to discover solutions.
People in this field use problem solving to unravel the variety of issues that are harming the
environment. Like history, it knows that man is the problem. It studies their patterns and what
men are doing, then finds the source of what action is harming the environment. On UCSBs
Environmental Studies Undergraduate website it writes that, Todays environmental problems
have evolved into highly complex and interdisciplinary issues involving politics, economics,
social as well as physical and biological aspects. With all of those interdisciplinary fields,
environmental studies surely uses a variety of literacy practices as it takes things from a variety
of fields and pieces things together to find solutions. The multitude of fields mixed into one
creates a large credibility for environmental studies.
Under the discipline of history, two specific texts relate to what the study of history
involves as well as relates to the problem of global warming. While one text is a book, the other
is an article that writes a basis that is concluded from another book about global warming giving
the texts a similar tone. Headrick writes said article, Global Warming, the Ruddiman Thesis,
and the Little Ice Age, where he foundations the article off of a book written by Parker titled
Global Crisis. In Headricks article he presents the history of how global warming began to
affect the people starting in the 17th century. He writes about how changes began, what caused
them from the human side and the nature side, and uses writings that date back from that time
using proof to show how life was and how it personally affected the people. Headrick states that,
Humans did contribute to the climate changes of the seventeenths century, alongside such

natural phenomena as the El Nino episodes, volcanic eruptions and the lack of sunspots...
(Headrick 2015, p.158). Headricks audience is constricted to those who study history as it tells a
summary about a book and its main points based off one certain chapter solely closing in on the
history that began global warming and the start of the whole crisis.
On the other hand, Stephenson writes a book relating to this topic under the discipline of
history titled, Returning Carbon to Nature: Coal, Carbon Capture, and Storage. Stephensons
book discusses the formation of coal all the way to when it began to be burned then argues ways
to reduce the carbon emission problems. He uses the history of global warming to further argue
how to solve the it. Stephenson writes,
It is important to know that weve arrived at a partly coal-powered world through a long
process that began in the industrial revolution The global circulation of carbon is
known as the carbon cycle this will look at the carbon cycle in relation to coal
formation, fossil fuel burning for electricity generation and climate change. (Stephenson
2013, p.5)
Stephenson is ultimately pushing to educate the people of what needs to be done to reduce the
harsh actions on the earth. Both of these sources relate to the questions asked through the
discipline of history as a whole, answering the questions on how earlier societies made a change,
how they faced dramatic transformations; and the topic of dealing with conflict and crisis. The
goals of this discourse community are to date back to the beginning causes of global warming
and to inform the effects people of earlier times had on the environment and to find the source of
global warming based off historical facts and evidence but also combining with science and
nature and relating the affects they all have on the earth.

Transitioning our focus back on the category of environmental studies, the main
concentration is to express to a wide audience consisting of all members of the human race about
the harmful affects of global warming on the earth, what it is doing, and why and how it must be
stopped. Authors of these texts are using all of their knowledge to discover new ways to get their
message across to people and educate them as much as possible and inspire them to contribute to
stop the cause of global warming and protect the earth. Both texts chosen for this topic provide
hard facts of global warming consisting of statistics, what is being affected by it, and the research
that is being done to solve it. The book Solving the Puzzle: Researching the Impacts
of Climate Change around the World written by the National Science
Foundation(NSF) presents a wide variety of facts and talks about its problems within the
society. They conclude that team work is what is necessary to solve the issue, they write,
As researchers work together to solve the climate puzzle, they are revolutionizing the
way we understand the Earth system as a whole. Researchers have realized that they must
reach across disciplinary boundaries to study questions that extend beyond any one field
of science or engineering. In fact, because of the complexity of Earths climate, this
research involves contributions from nearly every field of science, math, and
engineering. (NSF 2009, p. 2)
A main point is discussed on how economics and politics play a large role in presenting the
message to people. People in the economic and political rule have the power to construct and
implement plans to help solve the issue of global warming ultimately positively impacting the
issue.
Awareness is a main theme in the study of environmental studies and that theme is
apparent in the book as well as the article Enhancing Primary School Students

Knowledge about Global Warming and Environmental Attitude Using Climate

Change Activities written by Karpudewan,Roth&Abdullah. The authors are writing on
how they will present information about global warming to young students to help raise
awareness at a young age, It is important to increase individual knowledge and attitudes on
issues concerning the environment to develop environmentally responsible and sustainable
behaviours. (Karpudewen et al 2015, p. 32) Their goal is to break the habits as time goes on so
more people are on board to stop the cause; as well as reduce as much harm as possible at a
young age. The tactics used by those writing these texts as well as those involved in
environmental studies to add people to their mission to dwindle the effects of global warming
overall are successful and effective. Through performed studies and gathered data they have
learned ways to prevent further global warming, and have deciphered on the most efficient
tactics to present the affects to the people which will gradually reduce the harm being done.
Global warming arises many problems for the past, present, and future and actions need
to be put into place to solve the issue. History shows how it began, environmental studies uses
the beginning data and creates a solution to stop it; together working to beat global warming as a
whole. These two literacy practices effectively raise awareness of the problem as well as
establishes the issue and educates the people on how to work together to put a halt to global
warming overall using successful tactics. Through these two literacy practices it is shown how
they can base off of each other to achieve the goals they hold thus showing how they relate to
each other and rely on each other for success. So while they focus on separate things, together
they can be ultimately successful.

References:
Headrick, D. (2015). Global Warming, the Ruddiman Thesis, and the Little Ice Age. Journal Of
World History, 26(1), 157-160.
Karpudewan, M., Roth, W., & Abdullah, M. B. (2015). Enhancing Primary School Students
Knowledge about Global Warming and Environmental Attitude Using Climate Change
Activities. International Journal Of Science Education, 37(1), 31-54.
National Science Foundation (2009). Solving the puzzle: Researching the Impacts of Climate
Change Around the World Arlington, Va
Stephenson, Michael H

Returning carbon to nature coal, carbon capture, and storage /

Waltham, Mass.: Elsevier, 2013.