Peer View

Madison Szuh

Writing 139W

Danilo Caputo

July 15,2020

Resilience the Solution or the Issue?

Resilience is an unique term because every person has a different understanding

and viewpoint of the term. When I think of the term resilience I tend to think of it as one's

ability to come back and persevere over hardships. After doing some research on the

term I learned that my understanding of the term is very broad and does not have much

context. When I read some articles on the term, they wrote about it with a purpose and

argument in mind. Two of the different takes on the term that stood out to me the most

were the ones from a psychological standpoint and an environmental standpoint. When

coming from a psychological standpoint of the term I immediately thought of my dad’s

experience in the military and the resilience he had to have to endure what he

experienced. This led me to the journal “Perspectives on resilience for military

readiness and preparedness: Report of an international military physiology roundtable”

by Nindl and Marcora. This article touched on what resilience means in the perspective

of being in the military and the importance of resilience in their jobs. The author's

argument is that in order to be in the military one needs to be their definition of resilient.

As for environmental resilience, I chose to focus on the article “Earth Day in the

coronavirus era: Can resilience thinking provide a way forward?” by Elizabeth Grennan

Browning. In this article the author addresses the issues surrounding the environment

and claims that resilience may help fix these issues. So, the main argument of the

article is that we should help reinforce our environment to make it more resilient, which

will be more successful and actually will improve the environmental issues we are

facing. After reading both these articles I found that both their interpretations of the term

were interconnected in ways and both of them were greatly affected by problems

revolving around people. These articles differed in ways such as the psychological form

of the term resilience focuses more on the mental aspects, while environmental

resilience focuses more on the physical aspects of the term. I found the environmental

article to be more compelling because it focused more on the importance of resilience

and the direct affects resilience would have on the environment.

There are many different types of resilience that the military experience, such as

physiological and psychological. However, I will just be focusing on psychological

resilience because physiological aspects contribute to the psychology standpoint. When

joining the military and being deployed you have to be mentally strong to endure the

physiological strain that is put on the body. In the journal “Perspectives on resilience for

military readiness and preparedness: Report of an international military physiology

roundtable” by Samuele Marcola, the author discusses how “psychological resilience is

critical for coping with the cognitive, emotional and social stressors associated with war

exposure” (Macora Section 1.1.2). The main point of the journal is to discuss the

psychological stressors people in the military endure and how resilience plays a role

helping them overcome those stressors. It is very apparent that the purpose of this

journal is to inform why it is so important to be resilient when being put through what

military members are put through. It is important for their safety and the safety of others,

because being mentally fatigued will not allow them to perform and make rational

decisions. The author concludes by restating the importance of resilience in the military

for “mental health, but also for the physical health of a soldier”(Maroca Section 1.1.2).

In the article “Earth Day in the coronavirus era: Can resilience thinking provide a

way forward?” by Elizabeth Grennan, Grennan stresses the importance of resilience

and the positive impact it would have on the environment. The author's main goal is to

encourage people to take action and steps to make the environment more resilient, by

providing evidence of the powerful impacts it would have on this enormous issue. SHe

also argues that we have to keep in mind “​planning involves trade-offs and varied

outcomes for different populations, sometimes with environmentally unjust

consequences”(Grennan 12).This means that the implementation of environmental

resilience is not distributed fairly, due it being biased based on socioeconomics. Te

author concludes with a call to action and to encourage people to make changes for the

environment by giving resources to help them do so.

III. Compare

After researching both of these different understandings on the term resilience, I

realize that both the terms are very interconnected. People's environment creates

challenges for people that make them more psychologically resilient because they have

to overcome them. Soldiers are placed in very difficult circumstances largely due to the

environment they are put in. This is supported in the psychological resilience article by

the author stating “Homoeothermic species are vulnerable to climatic extremes that

challenge temperature regulation and elicit significant changes in tissue

temperatures”(Taylor Section 1.4.2).

- Both are man made issues that are the reasons for us needing to be resilient

- Both focus and conclude on resilience being the solution to the issues

- Both are put in harsh circumstances but continue on

IV. Contrast

Environmental resilience and psychological resilience differ in many different aspects,

due to environmental resilience focusing on the physical aspects of the term while

psychological resilience focuses on the mental aspects.

- Mental aspects: enduring the harsh conditions put persevering

- Physical aspects: the ability of the environment to regenerate and heal itself;

environments ability to withstand the effects of climate change

V. Evaluation

-After reading and analyzing both texts I found “Earth Day in the coronavirus era: Can

resilience thinking provide a way forward?” by Elizabeth Grennan Browning to be more

compelling, because it was more specific and I was able to relate to the topic more. I

also found her call to action to be more compelling because she gave an actual solution

to the issues and steps that can be taken.

-lined up more with my values and more feasible

Works Cited

Nindl, Bradley C., et al. “Perspectives on Resilience for Military Readiness and

Preparedness: Report of an International Military Physiology Roundtable.” ​Journal

of Science and Medicine in Sport​, Elsevier, 19 May 2018,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1440244018301397.

Browning, Elizabeth “Earth Day in the Coronavirus Era: Can Resilience Thinking

Provide a Way Forward? (Commentary).” ​Mongabay Environmental News​, 20 Apr.

2020,

news.mongabay.com/2020/04/earth-day-in-the-coronavirus-era-can-resilience-thin

king-provide-a-way-forward/.