Earth Without People- A. Weismann
Alan Weisman’s discussion on Earth without people probed some thought but the message could have been delivered in a more dynamic manner. Coming from a critical point of view of lecturers, it made me think how often such a powerful message could fail due to its modality. According to Brookfield’s Chapter on lecturing creatively, he suggests that three approaches should be used when lecturing, otherwise interest diminishes and becomes too fractured.
I think Weisman’s message is profound and such speculation is more than pedantic intellectual hyperbole. In my opinion, such public speaking carries such ethical and moral implications that I was left with the thought of my role on Earth-quite an undertaking for a Tuesday evening. However, like so many of my experiences, reality of distractions sets in and I continue to go about my daily routine. Infrequently, I encounter a lecture, speech or experience that moves you so much that the changes made thereafter are continuous. Experiences such as giving birth and creating life; multiple undergraduate lectures that widened my narrow worldview and influenced me to go in the career of teaching with immigrants; influences I have made for some of my students in their experiences in Canada; living in a foreign country where the culture and language is so dramatically different from what you have ever experienced; and then the loss of a loved one that permanently shifts your view of life and how you decide to live it.
I cannot say that Weisman’s lecture necessarily moved me like any of the experiences mentioned, but his concluding remark of exploring prosperity and its relation to growth is a thought that still echoes in my mind. Is that possible?
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