Thursday, February 14, 2019

Current Event

Tenzing Pixley
Current Event 3
Core Biology C Odd
February 14th, 2019

Nuwer, Rachel. “It's Not Genghis Khan's Mongolia.” The New York Times, The New York

It’s Not Genghis Khan’s Mongolia by Rachel Nuwer of The New York Times is an article which chronicles the lasting effects of climate change on the country of Mongolia. It doesn’t necessarily center on one part of the country such as the capital city Ulaanbaatar, but rather the country as a whole and its climatic history. As of recent times, “Mongolia’s climatic tides have been shifting toward another extreme. A 10-year drought and heat wave from 2000 to 2010, according to the tree ring data, was the most severe the country had had in a millennium.” For a majority of the Mongolian population which consists of nomadic herders and farmers, this signifies bad news as Summers are filled with sandstorms and the winter either brings too much snow or too little. Since 1940, Mongolia’s average temperature has risen 3.8 degrees while winter weather patterns have become more and more sporadic.
This article is not only extremely impactful, but also very relevant on a worldwide spectrum as climate change is affecting many countries as it is to Mongolia. Just like in the dry areas of California, Mongolia also faces many wildfires, something which the government simply just doesn’t have enough specialists to deal with. This also affects the countries people which primarily is made of herders. There, wealth is measured in livestock. So when animals are lost due to a sandstorm, wildfire or drought, this deeply affects the economy of the country.
I found this article to be really informative as it showed exactly how climate change is a worldwide problem. Most of us tend to look at rising temperatures with the mindset of how it can affect America and our day to day lives. By centering the article on a small and not as prosperous country such as Mongolia, it helps to broaden our perspectives. The one critique I have is that the writer can include more on the lifestyle of a Mongolian nomad.

2 comments:

  1. Will Grant
    2/14/19
    Core Bio
    Current Event 3 Comment


    Nuwer, Rachel. “It's Not Genghis Khan's Mongolia.” The New York Times, The New York
    Times, 19 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/science/its-not-genghis-khans-mongolia.html?ref=science.

    After reading Tenzing's review of Rachel Nuwer’s “It's Not Genghis Khan Mongolia,” I learned a lot and observed how good of a writer Tenzing is. The first thing he does very well is how he explained to the reader that Mongolia is not just another country dealing with global warming. He explains that the United States financially can battle global warming but Mongolia can’t. The second thing he does well is how he gives us background information on the lifestyle of Mongolia and the fact that the consequences of global warming are killing the livestock of Mongolia. The last thing Tenzing did well was his use of facts and data from the article he read.
    There are two small things Tenzing needs to improve though. The first is his critique of the article he read. He does not say much about the improvements that could be made to the article except for one sentence at the end. The second problem is that he did proofread it very well. For example, there is one point where he says, “Since 1940, Mongolia’s average temperature has risen 3.8 degrees.” Here he forgets to put Celsius or Fahrenheit so we don't know what the actual increase is.
    One thing that stood out to me is the fact that Mongolia had a 10-year drought. This puts global warming in perspective for us Americans. The world needs to realize that global warming is ruining countries that can't afford to protect themselves from the consequences of it.

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  2. Griffin patterson
    3/9/19
    Biology
    Current event 5

    Nuwer, Rachel. “It's Not Genghis Khan's Mongolia.” The New York Times, The New York
    Times, 19 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/science/its-not-genghis-khans-mongolia.html?ref=science.

    After reading Tenzing's review of Rachel Nuwer’s “It's Not Genghis Khan Mongolia,” I learned that Tenzing has a very advanced vocabulary and uses his information presented to him in the article very well. The first thing that tenzing did well was he explained why mongolia's climate change is different from other countries. He explains that the US can financially afford and battle against global warming but mongolia doesn't have the money or the finances to do so. The second thing he does well was present data and percentages for mongolia. For example he says “Mongolia’s average temperature has risen 3.8 degrees while winter weather patterns have become more and more sporadic”. The last thing tenzing did well was he explained the lifestyle and the suffering that the mongolians are going through because of global warming.

    Although, this review was written very well, there are some things that tenzing could improve on. First of all he could critique his article. . He does not say much about the improvements that could be made to the article. He also doesn't explain what the author does well and not well in this article. Another thing tenzing could do better is try to get some outside information on other mongolians suffering through global warming. If he had other outside mongolians opinions he could expand his information a lot more.

    Despite the fact that there were things to improve on this was overall a very well written review. One thing that stood out to me was that Since 1940, Mongolia’s average temperature has risen 3.8 degrees while winter weather patterns have become more and more sporadic. This really showed me how bad mongolia's global warming was and it presented that the country needs more financial support also.

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