I found the reading on environmental humanities extremely interesting because it brings up a lot of the themes that we have been discussing in class and has also introduced me to some new ideas. An idea that enlgihtened me was that in order to solve the climate issue, multiple disciplines need to come together to create a solution. I have heard a variation of this idea before, but it was a more political version. The idea was that scientists needed to come together with community members in order to create specific solutions for that city, state, etc because community members know what they need and what would work in their specific area better than politicians or scientists who’ve never been to that area. But this reading is a lot more inclusive because instead of just limiting it to scientists coming up with a solution, it suggests that a wide variety of people from different academic backgrounds need to come together. I find this fascinating because it seems like such a simple recommendation, but is so revolutionary because of how Western culture separates academic disciplines in order to make it much harder for them to mix. 

Another topic I found fascinating was that recognizing humans as being a part of nature could help with establishing a solution to the environmental crisis. A portion of the text mentions how humans play an active role in nature and that needs to be recognized if we are ever going to come up with any sort of solution or make any progress. This reminded me of the conversations we’ve been having in class the past few weeks because we tend to think that we are above nature but that way of thinking is what has allowed humans to harm the environment in the first place. Emmett and Nye explain that humans need to have a mindset shift so that instead of viewing “animals and plants in terms of their usefulness to humanity, we can see them as having an intrinsic right to exist” (2017, p.11). Thinking of the environment in this way changes our perception of the world from revolving around humans and instead places us on the same level as animals and plants. As much as we have a right to exist in this world, so does every other living organism and that is what makes our world function properly. I wonder if keeping this idea in mind when thinking about solutions for the climate and environmental crisis will produce more effective or safer results for the environment and us.