A Change of Seasons

As the semester is ending, I have learned about the versatility of economics. Economics is not only the study of decision-making, but it is a tool to understand how society adapts and counters crises. Though economics is a generally broad topic, I have learned that it encompasses all aspects of society. Through my realization, I aim to discover the often-overlooked sector of economics: agriculture. Because this decade has prioritized mitigating the effects of climate change, I have often wondered about the actions that individuals, especially policymakers, would take. I question the extent to which agriculture governmental officials prioritize adapting and mitigating causes of climate change, like greenhouse gas emissions, crop and livestock land use, and water pollution. In order to gain a professional understanding, I scheduled two interviews with professionals in agricultural economics and spatial analyses. Through the interview, I wanted to discover how to conduct my own research and how to analyze local climate change actions.

However, I faced limitations because, through the interviews, I realized that it is difficult to attribute causation because of the difficulties of discovering the differences between causation and correlation. So, to adjust my perspective of researching economic policies and decision-making in relation to climate change, I will aim to primarily look at secondary data while attempting to gather primary data. Thus, for next week, I need to research and schedule more interviews to guide my understanding.