Catherine Flowers’ talk had many salient, inspiring, and interesting points, but I particularly appreciated her points on how we must pay attention to rural America, especially in the face of climate change. I found the way that she connected the history of slavery in America, the symbolic importance of the soil where these people live, and the consequences on ineffective septic systems to be an intriguing example of how climate change, and the issues we are facing and will face as a result of climate change, needs to be seen as more than just the current altering of the world. Climate change and the issues that come with it need to be contextualized within the frameworks of human history, cultures, religions, and values. As the climate changes and alters the world, people will be forced to adapt through moving locations and changing behaviors and cultures. Without understanding where we, as humans, have been, the impacts of climate change will be understated and misunderstood. Understanding the cultural, historical, and religions impacts of climate change, such as indigenous people loosing their sacred land to sea level rise, will reveal the true impact of how climate change will affect people, and what will be lost, even as humans find ways to adapt.  As humans we have the ability to place tremendous importance on physical spaces and the ability to visit these spaces act as powerful symbolic entities, for example the 9/11 memorial.  Climate change threatens the ability for humans to connect to symbolic places and thus connect with our histories, traditions, cultures, religions, and people.  All too often climate change is talked about in terms of how it will affect non-human species, and how to use technological advancements to live with a changing climate. Climate change and environmental health is a huge humanitarian problem but yet it is not often talked about as a human rights issue in the ways that Catherine Flowers discussed it.  Her perspective of linking history, culture, the land, and environmental health bring to light the need to understand climate change from a multi-faceted approach. The impacts of climate change will cost more than plant, animal, and human life. It will cost us deep traditions, histories, cultures, and diversity of the human experience.