Environmental Philosophy and Foundations of Philosophy Professor at Loyola, David Gordon says the most important thing for people to do is become educated on climate change. Gordon’s research interests are Philosophy of Biology/Evolution, Environmental Ethics, History of Philosophy, and Philosophy of Religion. Gordon says if students become more aware of how much our earth is dying, they will understand how bad humans collectively are towards our planet.  

“We are slowly and surely destroying our planet,” he said. Educating students at Loyola is more than just teaching a class for Gordon.

“My goal is to have students leave my class and be motivated to change the planet and their everyday lifestyle. Every day when I teach, I get more motivated to change my habits because I’m being reminded of how much of an impact it makes,” Gordon said.

A big topic that revolves around positively impacting our environment is the switch to vegan and vegetarianism. Eating meat was in professor Gordan’s DNA growing up. In his family, he said it would be considered abnormal if there wasn’t a form of meat in each meal. Over the course of the last six years, he has dabbled in vegetarianism. He said student presentations on vegetarianism helped motivate him.

”I have stuck to being vegetarian for the past two years. It is better for your health, it is good for the environment and you are not killing the animal.” 

Gordon said he has changed his lifestyle to help improve the environment. Every time he turns on a light switch, he pictures a mountain blowing up. That helps motivate him to continue to make an impact on the planet every day.

“I have switched to solar power,” Gordon said. “I try to walk everywhere I can, even though I live in an urban environment. The next thing on my list is to have an electronic hybrid car. I set goals for myself to improve each day on what I can do to help the planet.” 

Gordon makes sure to stay connected with the environment while living in a city like Baltimore. He keeps himself educated on the plastic that is in the Inner Harbor and the air quality. 

“It is important to do research and to keep digging. The more you dig the more you can pass on to others.” 

Despite the disheartening state of the planet, Gordon is hopeful that we can still make a change and that doing simple things will make a large impact. 

Featured Image courtesy of Ailish O’Boyle.