Strong Response Essay to Mckibben's "Eaarth"

Sarah Hartmann

Professor Boon

English 1000 Section 91

30 September 2014

Strong Response

During the summer between my seventh and eighth grade years, I decided to go on a mission trip to Loveland, Colorado. It is a beautiful small city, with the residents and businesses located around a central, clear lake. One side of the lake had a perfect view of the mountains of Estes Park. Loveland is about an hour from the park. On one of our free days during the trip, we took our vans full of kids and traveled up into the mountains. This was my first time being near any mountains. I loved it. We had a snowball fight in July, and we were up 12,000 feet with the mountain’s ice caps. It was one of the most awesome experiences of my life so far, and I told myself that one day I’m going to move to that beautiful area or at least visit again.

McKibben has opened my eyes to how bad global warming really is. His book Eaarth has made me realize how quickly the climate change is progressing. My plan that I had made to visit and possibly move to Colorado one day is now turning into some sort of fantasy. McKibben has helped me understand the fact that the Rocky Mountains might not have ice caps for very much longer. This is very concerning. The beautiful view of the snowy mountains from the lake in Loveland will turn into a view of dirt-topped mountains and a decreasing tree line. Not only will ice caps of mountains melt away, but the arctic ice is also melting fast. “The scientists didn’t merely underestimate how fast the Arctic would melt; they overestimated how fast our hearts would melt” (17). Hearts are melting not only for Arctic ice, but for the beautiful mountain ice caps as well.

I love getting to go to the beach. I’ve always gone to different beaches in Florida. I like swimming in the ocean and going to far out sandbars where the water looks like it should be really deep. Another point McKibben touches on in his book Eaarth is about the world’s oceans. The melting...