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Sangbin Park
Professor Gillespie
Honors 231 A: Animals, Environment, Food & Justice
29 January 2015
Week #4 Reflective Journal: Naomi Kleins This Changes Everything and Cowspiracy
Last year, I took it upon myself to take a class that dealt with the topic of global warming.
Quite frankly, it was a scary experience. Learning about the horrible ecological course that
humans have brought on themselves was overwhelming. It was devastating to hear about the
scenarios that scientists have come up with. Even under the best possible scenario, which
requires the world to implement drastic environmental measures immediately, the course to
environmental disasters is irreversible. Before watching the film, Cowspiracy, I was a firm
believer that technological advances could bring a solution to global warming. Alternative energy
from wind, solar, and hydro seemed hopeful. Now, I realize that it was really nave to think that
cars like Tesla could be a solution. The real solutions to global warming lied with changes to
ever-growing meatification of human diet.
To me, Naomi Kleins This Changes Everything was not too much of surprise. My prior
exposure to the topic of global warming had already given me enough information about the
inconvenient truth of the current status of our environment. However, Cowspiracy was a
complete shock! I would have never imagined that animal agriculture was more responsible for
greenhouse gas emissions than all transportations combined. Environmental organizations have
educated the public on the importance of saving the environment through small behavioral
changes such as taking shorter showers, using the public transportation, and recycling more.
Ironically, the film reveals that many environmental organizations do not mention anything about

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animal agriculture, which is one of the primary causes of global warming, deforestation, and
many other environmental ill. It is evident that the existence of cowspiracy is real.
It is hard to describe in words how shocked I am and how I was completely ignorant of
this fact that animal agriculture at current scale is unstable. I feel betrayed. I am not sure where
and who I can assign the blame to. It is mainly my fault that I was uneducated on the topic, but I
just cannot help feeling that somehow animal agriculture industry is responsible for the lack of
general publics knowledge on this topic.
While I believe that educating the general public on this matter is very important, I am
also afraid that humans have become too insensitive about the environment. Klein mentions this
phenomenon of human insensitivity in her book: we look but tell ourselves that all we can do is
focus on ourselvesor maybe we do look really look but then, inevitably, we seem to
forgetwe engage in this odd form of on-again-off-again ecological amnesia for perfectly
rational reasons (Klein 4). It is not too hard relating Kleins claim. This kind of behavior can be
easily observed in many people. We know that driving our cars contribute to pollution and the
global warming, but many of us continue to drive every day to work. Similarly, we might do the
same with our diet. We may conveniently forget about the negative environmental impacts of
eating meat and continue to add meat on our grocery lists to just focus on ourselves. This is what
I am really scared of--people practicing doublethink. It is hard to get be fully absorbed in the
reality, because it is too painful.
Truthfully, I may conveniently forget about the issue to just continue on with my daily
life. However, soon or later, we will all have to pay for the consequences of our actions. I am
gradually learning more about the topic and I have been writing plans in my head to change
myself for the better.

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Works Cited
Klein, Naomi (2014). One Way or Another, Everything Changes, This Changes Everything.
Simon & Schuster.