My Favourite Winter Activity

Above is an image of my friends Nicholas and Alex hitting the slopes with me (left to right as written) at Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, New York this week. Skiing is by far my favourite winter activity, and for that reason I love cold, snowy weather in the winter months. When I come across powerful pieces of environmental communication, like Pope Francis' Encyclical on the ongoing destruction of the natural environment, and the YouTube video, "Extreme Weather - Signs of the End Time - November 2014" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRBM077AanQ), it grabs my attention. Pope Francis' Encyclical is a call to all of humanity to make a change in their lifestyles to help protect the natural environment. The text explains that a major part of the duty as a Christian is to preserve our planet in the condition in which God gave it to us. Pope Francis illustrates that the Earth is God's greatest gift to mankind, and that we have been disregarding the delicacy of this gift through our destructive practices over the past 100 years. This piece of environmental communication leaves the audience with the understanding that humans must use their gift knowledge to create innovative ways to protect the planet, while maintaining human development. The YouTube video follows suit by implementing a religious spin on the extreme global weather patterns from November 7-28, 2014, by referencing Judgment Day (i.e. the end of the world according to the bible). This shocking video recaps the bizarre weather that impacted many areas around the world in November 2014, in the form of titanic snowstorms, flooding, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and seawater appearing blood red, among many other disastrous events. It was absolutely an eye opening experience to watch the video, as it brings the issue of climate change to the forefront by highlighting extreme weather events that took place in just 22 days. Both texts force the viewers to broaden their perspectives, as they tackle a serious global issue. In my case, these pieces of environmental communication made me realize how secondary my passion for skiing truly is, when compared to an issue such as the deaths these extreme weather events have caused and will continue to cause. My most immediate concern with climate change was that it may impact the skiing season, and these texts have urged me to consider increasingly widespread and important issues.