What Happened to the Weather?

I found Jessie's article The Climate of Man -- I; Annals of Science really interesting. It discusses the impact that global warming is having on the world. For example, because temperatures have been increasing dramatically (especially over the summer when it reaches a hundred degrees), we can mostly blame global warming for that.
This article does a good job of providing examples of global warming really impacting the world. The author uses anecdotes to address how harmful global warming has impacted society. For instance, in Alaska, there are people who depend on the icy weather to survive. Thanks to global warming, their sources (and homes) are disappearing, forcing them to flee. Global warming is also inconsistent. One day, the weather will be freezing cold; Another day, the weather will be scorching hot. What I learned from this article is the impact it is having on other parts of the world. Here, we don't really think about global warming as a huge concern because we just assume that the weather changes is typical "Chicago weather." Also, in this area, the impact of global warming isn't very extreme. When it did go to a hundred degrees over the summer, we were actually kind of glad because it gave us an excuse to go to the beach. Anyway, the anecdote about how much their society depends so much on the icy weather because this environment has been surviving for years, and it is traditionally what their ancestors followed. It never really occured to me that these people have to change their way of life just because of global warming.
It is important for this issue to be addressed to society so the audience can understand how it is impacting us. By us, I mean our society and other people in the world. Documenting this idea is important because it spreads awareness of what is really going on in the world. Because we are causing global warming to occur, it is our job to stop what we're doing so we can provide a safer and healthier environment for everyone else.

The Typical Underdog Stories

Steve Jobs never really completed college, and despite that he still became one of the most successful people in the world thanks to Apple. Michael Oher was a student who barely graduated out of high school and became a great football player (I know this thanks to John Lee Hancock's The Blind Side). Albert Einstein had dyslexia and failed his college entrance exam. Yet, he is a physicist that the world will remember forever.

What do all of these people have in common? They all had a pretty rough past that seem to relate back to education. However, the results were great because they all became successful. These stories would be considered "real world" stories because it is something that we, the audience, can relate to. When we hear about these kind of people, we tend to think that we, too, have the potential to be as great as them because we all came from a similar background as them. For example, we have all had our ups and downs when it comes to school. I think that's why we become intrigued into these kinds of stories. We believe that we also have the potential to achieve success just as much as Steve Jobs, Michael Oher, or even Albert Einstein.

The stories that we typically don't hear about are the ones where someone became successful as a result of living in an enriched childhood. These kind of people are so common, we don't regard it as a "stand-out."

The real difference between these two stories may be the amount of work the person put in to reaching their goal. For those with a rougher past, the audience feels more sympathy towards them because they have to go the extra mile to match up to the rest of the people. Whereas the people who achieve success with a pretty stable past don't have to exert as much work because they are already a step ahead of the others.