What is capital punishment? At first I thought it was just punishment dished out by the government like jail time, community service, death penalty, and etcetera. Well, I was wrong. Apparently it only consists of the execution of criminals. Is it morally correct punishment? Is it too harsh? Is it not harsh enough?! These are the questions that need to be answered! Personally, I agree with the death penalty. Giving criminals 4 life sentences without parole is just a waste of cell-space in jail.
People will argue that the death penalty is a horrible. They may say that murdering a criminal is just as wrong as the crime committed itself. This is wrong. If some random person ran into my house and shot my family, I would want them dead. No questions asked. This stranger single-handedly destroyed my life and crumbled the structures of support that I used to grasp onto. How and, better yet, why would someone do that? If they’re psycho enough to do something stupid; they are no use to society and only cause chaos and harm. They shouldn’t be in existence, really. I don’t want to seem harsh, but you cannot tell me that you would just forgive someone who intentionally murdered people you love just for the fun of it. It’s sick and it’s twisted.
I remember having this conversation with the class and it seemed evenly split. Whether it was for political reasons or not, everyone had their different reasons on why they would or would not implement capital punishment. “It’s wrong to take away a human life.” And “What if they were innocent?” all came up. Well, if there was any doubt in the jury or judge that the subject in question could possibly be innocent, they wouldn’t sentence them to death.
Numerically speaking, not a lot of people are actually put to death each year. It isn’t like hundreds, or even half-hundreds of people are being executed annually. In 2008, the United States capitally punished (is that the verb form?) only 37 people. This isn’t much compared to other countries. China, for instance, executed 1,718 people the same year. Yes, they have more people than us. But they killed about forty-six and a half times more people than us.
With that number of executions in china, this is where I would take the stance that capital punishment is fine, but only in moderate amounts. We shouldn’t hang (or electrocute, or lethally inject, or what have you) every criminal who stole a shirt from a clothing store or trespassed on property. It should only be for serious, serious cases.
And lastly, death isn’t the worst thing that could happen to these people. So saying that capital punishment is atrocious and horrendous and disgusting is wrong. We could be torturing these people. That’s far worse than death.
And no, I do not think that having people wait to be put to death is torture. After all, we’re all going to eventually die. It’s a biological, inevitable fate. So technically, we’re all on death row, right?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Globalization
From what I’ve read, globalization should hardly even be considered a problem. On the surface, there sounds nothing wrong with the world’s countries integrating their economies in order to increase foreign trade and spread newly discovered knowledge and technology. In fact, it seems like that without globalization, humans would not be able to advance our understandings and technologies at an increasingly rampant rate.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to globalization. For example, many people worry about companies outsourcing jobs from one country to a third world country thus the company saves money on paying their employees while jobs are taken from the original country. And with the unemployment rate relatively higher than normal, many people are becoming worried for their jobs thus there are surprisingly many vocal opponents for globalization. For this reason, I view globalization as a benefit for the greater good: the spread of knowledge, technology, and economic integration is worth a few people losing their jobs.
It does seem somewhat silly to oppose globalization. I mean it is somewhat impossible to negate our world’s advancements in transportation and communication. If anything, opponents of globalization should be trying to figure out how to prevent it from spreading and becoming even more rampant, because one would have to complete destroy all means of efficient transportation (planes, cars) and efficient communication methods in order to negate some of globalization’s effects.
If anything, wouldn’t globalization encourage growth in developing countries? It seems like the poorer countries would be able to benefit from outsourcing in addition to the spread of information and technology. However, I have heard sob stories about how some people in India or Africa only make a few cents a day on some specific outsourced jobs, but it seems like paying someone a few cents for eight hours of work is just criminal, so certainly this is only happening illegally. If this scenario isn’t illegal, then I would have no problem if governments began to regulate this kind of abuse.
The other types of opponents to globalization that I read about where certain religious groups (like those in the Middle East) that are opposed to anything related to Westerners. Apparently, these certain groups feel invaded as western customs are forced into their culture thus many religious groups in the Middle East (and probably some other parts of the world) will actively protest globalization in order to preserve their culture. This issue sort of goes back to the idea of the greater good, and it is somewhat impossible to make everyone happy. What we can do is cater to the majority which is to continue a mostly unregulated globalization.
So I guess in the end, it seems kind of unreasonable to stop globalization, because it is an extremely daunting task to regulate business practices in every single country, because I am sure that the people in charge of whatever billion dollar corporation will try anything to maneuver around any detrimental rules. Globalization is just something that people will have to learn to live with.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to globalization. For example, many people worry about companies outsourcing jobs from one country to a third world country thus the company saves money on paying their employees while jobs are taken from the original country. And with the unemployment rate relatively higher than normal, many people are becoming worried for their jobs thus there are surprisingly many vocal opponents for globalization. For this reason, I view globalization as a benefit for the greater good: the spread of knowledge, technology, and economic integration is worth a few people losing their jobs.
It does seem somewhat silly to oppose globalization. I mean it is somewhat impossible to negate our world’s advancements in transportation and communication. If anything, opponents of globalization should be trying to figure out how to prevent it from spreading and becoming even more rampant, because one would have to complete destroy all means of efficient transportation (planes, cars) and efficient communication methods in order to negate some of globalization’s effects.
If anything, wouldn’t globalization encourage growth in developing countries? It seems like the poorer countries would be able to benefit from outsourcing in addition to the spread of information and technology. However, I have heard sob stories about how some people in India or Africa only make a few cents a day on some specific outsourced jobs, but it seems like paying someone a few cents for eight hours of work is just criminal, so certainly this is only happening illegally. If this scenario isn’t illegal, then I would have no problem if governments began to regulate this kind of abuse.
The other types of opponents to globalization that I read about where certain religious groups (like those in the Middle East) that are opposed to anything related to Westerners. Apparently, these certain groups feel invaded as western customs are forced into their culture thus many religious groups in the Middle East (and probably some other parts of the world) will actively protest globalization in order to preserve their culture. This issue sort of goes back to the idea of the greater good, and it is somewhat impossible to make everyone happy. What we can do is cater to the majority which is to continue a mostly unregulated globalization.
So I guess in the end, it seems kind of unreasonable to stop globalization, because it is an extremely daunting task to regulate business practices in every single country, because I am sure that the people in charge of whatever billion dollar corporation will try anything to maneuver around any detrimental rules. Globalization is just something that people will have to learn to live with.
Globalization
Globalization might sound great. We learn more about the cultures of other countries. We get to try different foods, different clothes, and different music. We also can help out each other in times of need. Everyone learns to accept each other, in theory. However, globalization also brings with it other concepts, such as cosmopolitanism and the idea of a world government. The danger is there.
Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community, which means, one nation’s actions would be judged on the basis of an international set of moral laws. This may sound great. After all, America’s morals would probably be a huge factor in the creation of the international set of morals. America’s morals are what allowed us to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Also, if America ever acted up, like we did by abandoning Afghanistan after pushing back the Soviets, then we would be held accountable to our own moral laws. When I say moral laws, I don’t necessarily mean the ICC. I mean the invisible and understood moral rules that are spread through the process of globalization. These moral rules, however, allow us to destroy other nations. Here’s an example: Christianity focuses on spreading its religion and moral views. This is called converting. When Christianity established this set of moral rules in the European/Middle Eastern region, it had the ability to announce war on the Islamic world. The Crusades are known to be the Christian wars for the holy land. However, its ability to continue derived from the moral rules that the Christians had put into place. The Muslims were seen as a threat to the Christian way of life. Therefore, it was okay to annihilate them (of course, the Christians were not successful in annihilating the Muslims). In this way, globalization leads to a more interconnected world, where the moral rules and threats to security allow larger nations to justify acts of violence against weaker nations.
Also, globalization can lead to a world government. Keep in mind that this is different from a single moral community. In a single moral community, the invisible threads are tied between different nations. A world government, however, is something that the nations create. This world government would have slightly more visible strings attached to each of the nations. A world government is like a puppeteer that the puppets made. Why is a world government bad? A world government has the ability to stop immoral acts and crimes against humanity after all. A world government is not bad because it is powerful. It is bad because of the way it uses its power. Rather, a world government is bad because of the way it is forced to use its power. For instance, egalitarianism becomes much more possible with a stronger central government, and it is very likely to get out of hand. However, the world government would be put into place completely equal rights after birth because of the push it receives from the nations. The danger here is not in the concept of strings itself, but in the visibility of the strings. If the strings were invisible, a world government would be a positive thing for the world. However, the nature of globalization would likely bring about a very visible world government.
This blog post may seem to have sidetracked slightly. However, globalization is not bad because it connects the world. It is bad because of what the connection would lead to.
Globalizationnnnn
Globalization, which is necessary to sustain the economy the United States usually prides itself in, is not a practice I wholeheartedly agree with. Importing our products from China and our workers from Latin America just to cut prices is not all Globalization is about. Unfortunately, with omnipresent internet and the progression of technology, it seems that globalization has come too far to be controlled. While some of the effects have been beneficial to not only our country, but other ones around the world, I feel as if some effects exist just to mock how important the United States thinks it is.
One of my favorite aspects about globalization is that it allows people from different cultures to connect and explore new things. Many college students now learn one, two, or three foreign languages so that they can be competitive in their respective job, which will undoubtedly do business with other parts of the world. When these students not only learn a language, but learn about the culture, they are showing how important it is to understand and find interest in other countries. So many Americans refuse to venture even so far as a genuine Polish restaurant, or any store not Americanized, that the ones that do find themselves embraced by an exciting culture they can now be a part of. I think that understanding other cultures and visiting different countries to see their lifestyles and how they act differently from Americans is incredibly important and a key component to becoming fluent in a foreign language.
Unfortunately, technology allows us to sit back and have long distance phone calls and even more impersonal emails. Instead of reveling in another culture, we push our culture onto them, planting McDonalds anywhere we can find, across seas, down in Latin America, etc. While the Americans may have coined McDonalds, and while it may be a large part of our culture, don’t you think there is any other better restaurant we could share? If you go to the right foreign restaurants here, you get an actual meal, for the most part cooked (not fried) by people who actually lived in that country. Why don’t we have American versions of these in other countries? No, we prefer to just quickly build a profitable McDonalds where the locals can work for minimum wage. That’s how we want America being seen.
Globalization has also led to tourism around the world, but with this tourism do you really get to see the city or country you’re in? No. Most large cities have certain sections where all their hotels are so that the tourist is conveniently in a spot where they can have an Americanized visit to all the tourist spots which just happen to be next to McDonalds and KFCs, without ever having to speak another language. What exactly does a tourist gain by this? Usually not too much.
The point here is that globalization has positive effects on our economy and the efficiency of global products, but many negative effects on how we interact with other countries. It would not only help our business relationships, but our country, to delve deeper into other countries’ culture and perhaps learn from it.
One of my favorite aspects about globalization is that it allows people from different cultures to connect and explore new things. Many college students now learn one, two, or three foreign languages so that they can be competitive in their respective job, which will undoubtedly do business with other parts of the world. When these students not only learn a language, but learn about the culture, they are showing how important it is to understand and find interest in other countries. So many Americans refuse to venture even so far as a genuine Polish restaurant, or any store not Americanized, that the ones that do find themselves embraced by an exciting culture they can now be a part of. I think that understanding other cultures and visiting different countries to see their lifestyles and how they act differently from Americans is incredibly important and a key component to becoming fluent in a foreign language.
Unfortunately, technology allows us to sit back and have long distance phone calls and even more impersonal emails. Instead of reveling in another culture, we push our culture onto them, planting McDonalds anywhere we can find, across seas, down in Latin America, etc. While the Americans may have coined McDonalds, and while it may be a large part of our culture, don’t you think there is any other better restaurant we could share? If you go to the right foreign restaurants here, you get an actual meal, for the most part cooked (not fried) by people who actually lived in that country. Why don’t we have American versions of these in other countries? No, we prefer to just quickly build a profitable McDonalds where the locals can work for minimum wage. That’s how we want America being seen.
Globalization has also led to tourism around the world, but with this tourism do you really get to see the city or country you’re in? No. Most large cities have certain sections where all their hotels are so that the tourist is conveniently in a spot where they can have an Americanized visit to all the tourist spots which just happen to be next to McDonalds and KFCs, without ever having to speak another language. What exactly does a tourist gain by this? Usually not too much.
The point here is that globalization has positive effects on our economy and the efficiency of global products, but many negative effects on how we interact with other countries. It would not only help our business relationships, but our country, to delve deeper into other countries’ culture and perhaps learn from it.
Journal Entry- 4/26/10
Globalization is present all around the world in today's modern society. It attempts to reach beyond the regular national and domestic markets to interconnect markets all around the world without restriction, and therefore increasing economic diversity and the amount of consumers in our market. There are, however, many advantages and disadvantages to this policy. First off, I believe that ideally, this is a very profitable policy of economic development. It allows businesses in the US to reach out to more people and potential buyers. This could increase development and production and lead to more and better technology in order to produce more of these goods. That is the main benefit that I see when comtemplating the best effect of globalization. Next, it also allows for cultural diversity. If we extend our market to cultures all over the world, then I believe that over time, our products that are being sold to them will began to reflect their best interests in order to keep them coming back to buy from our market. A down side to this is taking away from American nationalism and lack of preservation of our own culture. Also, many other countries in the world have economies that aren't as fortunate as ours here in the US. We have a booming economy and production is out of this world compared to many other developing and third world nations, yet we still consider ourselves to be in a recession. If these poorer nations are attempting to interact with our economy through globalization, how are they going to afford almost anything that our country produces? This idea leads me to another downfall of globalization: the tendency for goods produced in our country to gradually decrease in quality to allow for these countries to afford what we are producing because in America, cheaper quality usually means cheaper production. With all this being said, it could also have a positive effect if techonology continues to increase with new and cheaper production rates. This could lead to increased competition between businesses which could have the potential to decrease the prices for goods here in the US. Globalization is also viewed as the integration of societies as well. This would have a much more dramatic effect on globalization and my opinion of its effectiveness. I like the fact that America is considered "the melting pot" with many cultures and backgrounds blending to form a one of a kind diversity here in America that is hard to find anywhere else in the world. But if globalization took place, our melting pot could potentially overflow, leading to too many cultural influences, and we might forget our country's natural value and culture. Overall, globalization, as with any idea or foreign policy, has its ups and downs. The question is whether the scale tips more to the positive or negative direction. In my opinion, the world today has too many issues for this policy to be perfectly set into place. It would need strict regulation and rules, therefor defeating the purpose of the idea of an ever-expanding marketplace.
Globalization is present all around the world in today's modern society. It attempts to reach beyond the regular national and domestic markets to interconnect markets all around the world without restriction, and therefore increasing economic diversity and the amount of consumers in our market. There are, however, many advantages and disadvantages to this policy. First off, I believe that ideally, this is a very profitable policy of economic development. It allows businesses in the US to reach out to more people and potential buyers. This could increase development and production and lead to more and better technology in order to produce more of these goods. That is the main benefit that I see when comtemplating the best effect of globalization. Next, it also allows for cultural diversity. If we extend our market to cultures all over the world, then I believe that over time, our products that are being sold to them will began to reflect their best interests in order to keep them coming back to buy from our market. A down side to this is taking away from American nationalism and lack of preservation of our own culture. Also, many other countries in the world have economies that aren't as fortunate as ours here in the US. We have a booming economy and production is out of this world compared to many other developing and third world nations, yet we still consider ourselves to be in a recession. If these poorer nations are attempting to interact with our economy through globalization, how are they going to afford almost anything that our country produces? This idea leads me to another downfall of globalization: the tendency for goods produced in our country to gradually decrease in quality to allow for these countries to afford what we are producing because in America, cheaper quality usually means cheaper production. With all this being said, it could also have a positive effect if techonology continues to increase with new and cheaper production rates. This could lead to increased competition between businesses which could have the potential to decrease the prices for goods here in the US. Globalization is also viewed as the integration of societies as well. This would have a much more dramatic effect on globalization and my opinion of its effectiveness. I like the fact that America is considered "the melting pot" with many cultures and backgrounds blending to form a one of a kind diversity here in America that is hard to find anywhere else in the world. But if globalization took place, our melting pot could potentially overflow, leading to too many cultural influences, and we might forget our country's natural value and culture. Overall, globalization, as with any idea or foreign policy, has its ups and downs. The question is whether the scale tips more to the positive or negative direction. In my opinion, the world today has too many issues for this policy to be perfectly set into place. It would need strict regulation and rules, therefor defeating the purpose of the idea of an ever-expanding marketplace.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
“No one has ever suggested that a single nation should range over the world like a knight-errant, protecting democracy and ideals of good faith, and tilting like Don Quixote.”
- Ohio Republican Senator Robert A. Taft, 1939
In the terms of globalization many of us think about diversity and toleration: mostly positive stuff. We allude to “the melting pot”, we laud the prospect of US liberalism, and we pull examples from all the diversity in the US culture. While these observations are undeniable, I think we are missing a crucial area in the discussion about globalization: the rest of the globe. So in this journal entry, I will be talking about the type of globalization that is synonymous to what professor of modern history, Reinhold Wagnleitner, calls “Cocacolonizaiton”.
The concept of cocacolonization is simple; it is the spread of American culture. In the recent years, with the aid of business interests and the internet and other types of media and communications, there has no doubt been a spread of Americanism (if this is too specific then western culture would do) in the globe. This spread is apparent when you see people of other cultures wearing western style clothing, going to fast food restaurants such as McDonalds, living in western style homes, etc. In this sense, the US does not seem to be the only one in “the melting pot”, but rather the whole world has now become a melting pot.
If we continue to use the melting pot analogy, I think globalization becomes problematic if we consider who is choosing the ingredients to the pot. It seems that not all cultures become accepted in the new over- culture. People seems to neglect the other and they seem to shun and discriminate against those who are not conforming to the new westernized world. Therefore, those who choose which culture is worth putting in the mix are also those who choose which ones should be left out. Whether the person or thing that makes this decision is good or bad or whether the decision itself is intended to do good or evil, the practice of exclusion is evident in globalization. For example in America, Native, hippie, “red-neck”, etc cultures are cultures, even if in the mixing pot, that are looked down upon (at least to the general public). These cultures represent, as postmodernist authors call, “the other”. In the global scale, “the other” points to the nations or groups of people that do not conform to western culture. Preservation of tradition becomes an object for the entertainment industry. Preserving traditional practices is considered old fashion. These are just minor stuff that globalization brings. The major implication of globalization is that the non-conformists become neglected. If you analyze global trends and economy, you will see that only the countries that are within the western frame of thinking are the ones considered allies and the ones who are well off. Countries such as China (at the time before they started westernizing), countries in the Middle East, Japan (at a time before they were forced to adopt westernization), and countries in Africa are all examples of how those who do not conform to the “globalization” are left for the worse.
My argument therefore is not whether or not globalization is good (I think KFCs around the world, although not the healthiest thing, are pretty good things, definitely saved me in China). My argument is that the prospect of singular cultural promotion opens up the possibility of discrimination.
- Ohio Republican Senator Robert A. Taft, 1939
In the terms of globalization many of us think about diversity and toleration: mostly positive stuff. We allude to “the melting pot”, we laud the prospect of US liberalism, and we pull examples from all the diversity in the US culture. While these observations are undeniable, I think we are missing a crucial area in the discussion about globalization: the rest of the globe. So in this journal entry, I will be talking about the type of globalization that is synonymous to what professor of modern history, Reinhold Wagnleitner, calls “Cocacolonizaiton”.
The concept of cocacolonization is simple; it is the spread of American culture. In the recent years, with the aid of business interests and the internet and other types of media and communications, there has no doubt been a spread of Americanism (if this is too specific then western culture would do) in the globe. This spread is apparent when you see people of other cultures wearing western style clothing, going to fast food restaurants such as McDonalds, living in western style homes, etc. In this sense, the US does not seem to be the only one in “the melting pot”, but rather the whole world has now become a melting pot.
If we continue to use the melting pot analogy, I think globalization becomes problematic if we consider who is choosing the ingredients to the pot. It seems that not all cultures become accepted in the new over- culture. People seems to neglect the other and they seem to shun and discriminate against those who are not conforming to the new westernized world. Therefore, those who choose which culture is worth putting in the mix are also those who choose which ones should be left out. Whether the person or thing that makes this decision is good or bad or whether the decision itself is intended to do good or evil, the practice of exclusion is evident in globalization. For example in America, Native, hippie, “red-neck”, etc cultures are cultures, even if in the mixing pot, that are looked down upon (at least to the general public). These cultures represent, as postmodernist authors call, “the other”. In the global scale, “the other” points to the nations or groups of people that do not conform to western culture. Preservation of tradition becomes an object for the entertainment industry. Preserving traditional practices is considered old fashion. These are just minor stuff that globalization brings. The major implication of globalization is that the non-conformists become neglected. If you analyze global trends and economy, you will see that only the countries that are within the western frame of thinking are the ones considered allies and the ones who are well off. Countries such as China (at the time before they started westernizing), countries in the Middle East, Japan (at a time before they were forced to adopt westernization), and countries in Africa are all examples of how those who do not conform to the “globalization” are left for the worse.
My argument therefore is not whether or not globalization is good (I think KFCs around the world, although not the healthiest thing, are pretty good things, definitely saved me in China). My argument is that the prospect of singular cultural promotion opens up the possibility of discrimination.
Globalization
Globalization has been around for ages, but just recently has it been getting more and more acknowledgement. With the usage of the Internet, it is far easier to get connected with other cultures around the world. What exactly is globalization? According to globalization101.org, globalization is “is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.” There are several positive aspects to globalization; however, there are also negative aspects too. I have yet to figure out what stance I will take for this argument. It seems that my vote could go either way. I guess now is a good time to dig a little deeper in my research. I am not sure if there is a right or wrong side to globalization, though.
One positive outcome from globalization is that money is going to developing countries. This gives a greater chance for those people living in those countries to succeed economically, as well as help the way of life become well off than before. Since more money is being brought in, the developing countries can now start to spend time helping the people living in these countries. Developing countries are also able to have the current technology without having to go through the trouble in going through the time and money to develop the technology. Also, there is now a sense of competition going on between countries. This encourages creativity, and opens up to new ideas. This also helps keep the prices of goods and services relatively low because other countries do not want to be put out of business, in a way. Since more and more countries are able to communicate, official governments are finding easier, better ways to communicate back and forth with each other. They can now work things out easier because there is an improved ability to interact and communicate. Also, I find it pretty cool how now everyone can experience what other people in different countries experience. I think it is cool that we can witness and have access to other forms of culture. I like the fact that we have options.
On the other hand, there seems to be several negative aspects to globalization. For example, globalization leads to the outsourcing of jobs. While it provides jobs in one country, it gets rid of jobs from another country. Under Clinton, NAFTA was created. This allowed the trade barriers for the USA, Canada, and Mexico to go away so there wouldn’t be a tax on trade. As an outcome of NAFTA, the USA started closing down factories in the USA and moved them down to Mexico. That way, the companies were spending less on employees. This then causes the former employees in the US jobless. Another negative aspect that some people argue about is the fact that globalization erases the individuality of each individual country. People claim that because of globalization, they unique culture is going away. Right now, I feel as if globalization is a good thing because we are connecting around the world, and we are just bridging a gap that will help make us one.
Globalization: What is it?
Globalization is something that does not sneak up on you. It has been going on since the days of the American Revolution. However, with the internet spurring it on, it seems that globalization has been growing in leaps and bounds. I personally don't see it as a good or a bad thing, it is just the path that the world seems to be going.
The whole idea of globalization in itself is a little bit complicated so I should probably explain it. Plainly stated, globalization is a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and trade. Now even that is a little bit confusing at first but thankfully history can willingly provide us with an example. After the United States won their independence the people of the certain colonies did not consider themselves as Americans rather they identified themselves as Virginians of Georgian or whatever it may be. It was even written in the Constitution that "these United States" and you know the rest. Not until later was it understood to be one nation with many states instead of a nation made up of states(officially called a Confederacy). But eventually the people of America had to pull themselves together and use all of their strength to fight off the British again in the War of 1812. It is wholly possible that there will come a time where the whole Earth will have to fight together as humans to defend our race from another race. That is one way that globalization could ultimately happen but is highly unlikely it will be the first way that globalization occurs. The other option, which is happening right now, is by business.
The internet has created a world in that markets that a company did not think were plausible are now within reach. Today, the largest and most successful companies are the ones that have many division all over the world. How business will engage globalization is in this manner. Businesses seeking to expand their sales will spread to different countries all over the world. Eventually, all of the major developed nations will have companies in each other. Then, since it is equally to do without them, there will be no tariffs between these countries. The North American Free Trade Agreement is a forerunner to such an idea. Then, as business dictates language there will become a global language ( or group of languages). Just as the Romans conquered their subjects, they forced them to learn Latin. This caused them to lose their own culture and individuality. I see that business( a nicer way of saying MONEY) will force out certain language from "circulation" so to say.
Although this may sound frightening to think about the world's diversity being melted down to only one it is something that cannot be fought. Globalization will eventually consume culture. It is somewhat of a culture Darwinism. The strongest ones will choke out the less desirable ones. But, as I said, it is not something that can be stopped. Although the world's diversity is beautiful, diversity doesn't make any money. And in the end, money win.
The whole idea of globalization in itself is a little bit complicated so I should probably explain it. Plainly stated, globalization is a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and trade. Now even that is a little bit confusing at first but thankfully history can willingly provide us with an example. After the United States won their independence the people of the certain colonies did not consider themselves as Americans rather they identified themselves as Virginians of Georgian or whatever it may be. It was even written in the Constitution that "these United States" and you know the rest. Not until later was it understood to be one nation with many states instead of a nation made up of states(officially called a Confederacy). But eventually the people of America had to pull themselves together and use all of their strength to fight off the British again in the War of 1812. It is wholly possible that there will come a time where the whole Earth will have to fight together as humans to defend our race from another race. That is one way that globalization could ultimately happen but is highly unlikely it will be the first way that globalization occurs. The other option, which is happening right now, is by business.
The internet has created a world in that markets that a company did not think were plausible are now within reach. Today, the largest and most successful companies are the ones that have many division all over the world. How business will engage globalization is in this manner. Businesses seeking to expand their sales will spread to different countries all over the world. Eventually, all of the major developed nations will have companies in each other. Then, since it is equally to do without them, there will be no tariffs between these countries. The North American Free Trade Agreement is a forerunner to such an idea. Then, as business dictates language there will become a global language ( or group of languages). Just as the Romans conquered their subjects, they forced them to learn Latin. This caused them to lose their own culture and individuality. I see that business( a nicer way of saying MONEY) will force out certain language from "circulation" so to say.
Although this may sound frightening to think about the world's diversity being melted down to only one it is something that cannot be fought. Globalization will eventually consume culture. It is somewhat of a culture Darwinism. The strongest ones will choke out the less desirable ones. But, as I said, it is not something that can be stopped. Although the world's diversity is beautiful, diversity doesn't make any money. And in the end, money win.
Globalization
Globalization, unfortunately, is the first issue so far that I can’t rant about since I didn’t even know what it meant until 10 minutes ago. Based on what I’ve read however, there are two main standpoints on this issue. Corporate businessmen like globalization because it allows them to outsource jobs to location such as China and Mexico where they can pay their employees barely anything to make the same finished product. On the other hand, globalization is bad for average laborers who are forced to compete with other people from around the world and in many cases, wind up losing their jobs anyway.
In my newly-formed opinion, I would most likely take some kind of middle ground. From what I know, too much power vested in the corporate elite is what is known around the world as fascism – something which is definitely not beneficial to any nation. However, at the same time, globalization promotes trade and communication between all nations of the world – an aspect which is necessary to the growth and development of our own country. So if it were up to me, I guess I would make some sort of regulations on corporate growth. Unfortunately however, this would mean that most corporations would just pack their bags and move their businesses to a place where their activities will be entirely unregulated. All right forget this; I’m just going to side with big businesses. The bottom line is if globalization were regulated then this country would just completely collapse into itself. Big businesses hate being told what to do and at the same time, if we choose to start isolating ourselves, then we will lose our foothold in the global economy – something which cannot happen.
Let’s face it, average laborers around the world have gotten the short end of the stick since the inception of organized society. Even if I sat here screaming about human rights with a bunch of other Jimmy Carter-type people, the fact of the matter is that just by judging the trends of society, I know this will never change. Too bad for them they should have worked as hard as they possibly could in school to at least make an attempt to avoid this fate. Why did I use the allusion to Jimmy Carter – because due to his complete lack of understanding of foreign policy, he almost started World War III because he decided he was going to tell the Soviet Union and China how they should treat their own people. Yes, human rights are important, but unless you want anarchy, I don’t understand how you can just completely reject globalization. Seriously, if you are completely against globalization (and yes this is about to be an ad-hominem argument), you’re an idiot.
At this point in time what corporate businesses really have to worry about is how not to completely alienate their workers – something which would also cause the United States to collapse into itself. They have to figure out away to keep screwing them over in moderation to keep them from rising up and starting strikes and rallies. If most corporation master this then globalization will continue in the manner in which it has thus far – something which is necessary if the United States is to remain a worl
In my newly-formed opinion, I would most likely take some kind of middle ground. From what I know, too much power vested in the corporate elite is what is known around the world as fascism – something which is definitely not beneficial to any nation. However, at the same time, globalization promotes trade and communication between all nations of the world – an aspect which is necessary to the growth and development of our own country. So if it were up to me, I guess I would make some sort of regulations on corporate growth. Unfortunately however, this would mean that most corporations would just pack their bags and move their businesses to a place where their activities will be entirely unregulated. All right forget this; I’m just going to side with big businesses. The bottom line is if globalization were regulated then this country would just completely collapse into itself. Big businesses hate being told what to do and at the same time, if we choose to start isolating ourselves, then we will lose our foothold in the global economy – something which cannot happen.
Let’s face it, average laborers around the world have gotten the short end of the stick since the inception of organized society. Even if I sat here screaming about human rights with a bunch of other Jimmy Carter-type people, the fact of the matter is that just by judging the trends of society, I know this will never change. Too bad for them they should have worked as hard as they possibly could in school to at least make an attempt to avoid this fate. Why did I use the allusion to Jimmy Carter – because due to his complete lack of understanding of foreign policy, he almost started World War III because he decided he was going to tell the Soviet Union and China how they should treat their own people. Yes, human rights are important, but unless you want anarchy, I don’t understand how you can just completely reject globalization. Seriously, if you are completely against globalization (and yes this is about to be an ad-hominem argument), you’re an idiot.
At this point in time what corporate businesses really have to worry about is how not to completely alienate their workers – something which would also cause the United States to collapse into itself. They have to figure out away to keep screwing them over in moderation to keep them from rising up and starting strikes and rallies. If most corporation master this then globalization will continue in the manner in which it has thus far – something which is necessary if the United States is to remain a worl
Globalization
There are both pros and cons to globalization. Although, right now I believe there are more negative things than positive things about globalization. I think that when globalization first started it was with good intentions. People were just thinking about how nice it would be to get goods and materials from other countries and have a nice flow of products around the world. Now, as globalization has progressed and people have become greedier, there are more negatives. One of these negatives is the outsourcing of work to other countries. The reason these jobs are being moved is because the cost of labor can be pushed way down in some other countries, where people will work for anything. These people are working in terrible conditions, they are forced to work overtime, and they are paid ten cents an hour. These jobs are not helping any of these workers get anywhere in life. They are also not helping the economies of any of these sorts of countries, which was a goal of globalization. Globalization is supposed to help these countries, not hurt them. Globalization further exposes the inequalities in the world, which are inevitable, but then creates an even more unjust world. This happens through the exploitation of the workers in these countries that are underdeveloped. Since the economies of these countries are not boosted through the process of globalization, but other wealthier countries are, there is an even bigger divide between the wealthy and the poor. The wealthier countries keep getting wealthier and gaining more power, but the poorer countries keep getting poorer and nothing is there to help them develop further. Also, globalization is not controlled democratically, so it cannot represent the people of the world at large. This helps explain the growing divide between the rich and poor countries of the world. Globalization also intensifies long term problems around the world, such as the deterioration of the environment. Since large corporations are moving all over the world, there is pollution in countries that have never had significant amounts of it before. Globalization can’t really be controlled. The progression of technology, which drives globalization, cannot really be predicted or controlled. Also, apart from some minimal rules of competition, there is no single set of rules for the entire world to follow. There are some positives to globalization though. There is more ease in the transportation of goods all over the world. Also, the communication between the individuals and corporations of the world is increased. Although the exploitation of workers in underdeveloped countries is a horrible thing, there is an advantage to the cheaper cost of employment. The goods made in the underdeveloped countries drive the prices of products down, which would theoretically stimulate the economy. There is another problem created with this though. Large corporations that can afford to globalize drive the prices down and reduce competition with smaller businesses. It is easier for monopolies to occur with globalization. Overall, I think that globalization has more issues than positive assets right now.
Globalization
In APUSH if there’s one thing I’ve heard Mrs. Smiley say multiple times it’s that, “Any country that has a McDonalds hasn’t been to war recently.” If this statement is true then I think the power and importance of globalization is more than just about economic growth it’s about keeping international peace. I’ve also heard it said that countries that trade together are less likely to go to war. This makes sense since technically we haven’t declared war with anyone since World War II.
I think that globalization has in many ways also help remove cultural stereotypes. While it’s unfortunate that still many ignorant people still believe that certain stereotypes are true, those who work in companies and get involved with other cultures and societies help to eliminate those kinds of thoughts. Globalization has also lead to international caring, I guess is how I would describe it, because businesses operate and get involved in multiple countries the issues that plague those places become international issues and thanks to America’s help all attitude; charities are set up to help these countries and the people that love there.
While the downside to the connections that businesses make is that they take away the possibility of jobs for unemployed Americans and exploit the lower wages people are willing to except it in these foreign countries. I think that these foreign jobs are important. Like it’s been said, “Countries that trade together rarely go to war” and that’s important to keep in mind. These international connections between businesses keep some resemblance of peace between countries. It’s like with America and China, neither of the countries necessarily like each other but because trade is so important they keep a mutual peace between the two. While I naively hope that World Peace will one day exist I know that it most likely won’t anytime soon and in replacement of this I can accept international trade as long as it keeps countries in tolerance of each other.
Globalization is also important because honestly I think it’s done a lot for travel. The international connections that countries make, make it possible for people to travel around the world and broaden their horizons. It’s made it possible for people to gain an appreciation for the other countries and ways of life. It’s allowed people to decide the kind of life they want to live by allowing people to explore the world and find a lifestyle that appeals to them. Someone who grew up in the backwoods of North Carolina could move to and own vineyard in Italy if that person wanted to. With globalization possibilities are virtually endless. The importance of travel is also to help enhance the culture of America. By exploring other cultures businesses can bring products they’ve gotten from other countries or pull inspiration from things they seen in those places to America. These products could lead the next big thing and change the way people do things forever after that. Globalization in some ways be described as a necessary evil.
04.25.10 Globalization
This topic has been a hot issue for a long period of time. It has been going on ever since I could possibly remember, and it still is an issue that people all over the world is paying interest in. Globalization is a process where the walls that have been separating each countries from each other breaks down, which lets the globe become a one big group in a sense. It is like creating a roadway not only through the United States, but also through wherever place you can possibly imagine, even over sea places in Asia or Africa. Everything can be traded from country to country and going over the borderlines will not as hard as it used to be. It is opening the gateway to uniting the many unique diverse countries into one globe.
Often in airline commercials, in order to show an aspect of diversity, they display people of different races with their own traditional clothes on and saying hi in their own language. This is the typical image of diversity and uniqueness of each country, but the globalization might be ruining this main characteristic of it. As the globalization is growing and growing, the number of countries learning English is growing; not only learning, but some countries are even accepting it as their first language. If this process goes on, I am worried that all the different continents will become the same. There will not be a unique characteristic that you can find in each country but the same English speaking people with the same kinds of buildings everywhere. There will be one fashion trend that goes on through the whole globe and same foods will be found anywhere you go. McDonalds will not be the only thing you can find wherever you go; everything on the farthest away place will be just the same as where you are living. This might be an exaggeration of what might happen, but I do think globalization might end up creating a unity to the unique countries existing. In order to catch up to what the rest of the world is doing, all the countries will try to follow whichever country that has the greatest power. All the countries will try hard to be the greatest influencing power, which might cause conflicts between them. Being the world power has been something that all the countries have worked hard to do ever since they realized there are other countries than the one they are living in. The globalization will result in creating a greater will to become powerful among the countries that have been changing similar to each other.
I believe that the countries keeping their own traditions that they have continued for a long history. Globalization might pressure small and weak countries to leave their traditions behind and follow the stronger countries. Trade and communication between countries are necessary but it should not be the main goal of the countries and become a guideline to becoming a successful and strong country.
Often in airline commercials, in order to show an aspect of diversity, they display people of different races with their own traditional clothes on and saying hi in their own language. This is the typical image of diversity and uniqueness of each country, but the globalization might be ruining this main characteristic of it. As the globalization is growing and growing, the number of countries learning English is growing; not only learning, but some countries are even accepting it as their first language. If this process goes on, I am worried that all the different continents will become the same. There will not be a unique characteristic that you can find in each country but the same English speaking people with the same kinds of buildings everywhere. There will be one fashion trend that goes on through the whole globe and same foods will be found anywhere you go. McDonalds will not be the only thing you can find wherever you go; everything on the farthest away place will be just the same as where you are living. This might be an exaggeration of what might happen, but I do think globalization might end up creating a unity to the unique countries existing. In order to catch up to what the rest of the world is doing, all the countries will try to follow whichever country that has the greatest power. All the countries will try hard to be the greatest influencing power, which might cause conflicts between them. Being the world power has been something that all the countries have worked hard to do ever since they realized there are other countries than the one they are living in. The globalization will result in creating a greater will to become powerful among the countries that have been changing similar to each other.
I believe that the countries keeping their own traditions that they have continued for a long history. Globalization might pressure small and weak countries to leave their traditions behind and follow the stronger countries. Trade and communication between countries are necessary but it should not be the main goal of the countries and become a guideline to becoming a successful and strong country.
globalization
What is globalization? I currently have no clue what it means but while watching desperate housewives I am determined to Google it and figure it out. I am definitely not in the mood to be writing this blog. It has been the longest weekend of my entire life I am pretty sure. But okay back to the subject… So what I have discovered from my internet search, globalization is basically creating a universal, world wide government. My opinion on the subject is neither good nor bad. There are good and bad things about both. I guess I would say my opinion lands in a gray area. Globalizing the government would not necessarily be a bad thing. For instance, in countries that are communist and poor or are underdeveloped globalizing could possibly reverse their status in the global economy. However, it could also be a negative change for the less fortunate nations. Changing their entire system could really put a crushing weight on the stresses of the nation. Because America is, or at least thinks it is, the most powerful or “best” country and has the best governmental system, the citizens of the United States would make other countries conform to their mannerisms of the law and government. However, it has taken centuries to develop the accomplished government of the United States and it is still in the process as we speak right now. If we asked the underdeveloped nations to join us, they would have so much catching up to do it could more than likely drown them in debts and stresses they are not accustomed to. Globalization could produce a positive outcome as well. For those living in places like Iraq, the change to a global governmental system could change their lives. A stronger government could lead to more government jobs and spending. More government spending and jobs would put more money in to their economy and they would be able to flourish and be prosperous. Also, the poor, starving children in Africa could positively benefit from global government improving because if the federal government officials stepped in, they would be given shelters and soup kitchens where they would not starve or live outside in the cold, or hot. People automatically assume that conformity in the government would only be negative, but I do see how the American government could potentially be negatively effected. If the strong government of the United States was not going to spend all of its’ time and energy on one country but on many, Americans would not be as spoiled as we are now. Our economy may suffer because we would be forced to do this thing not many people are aware of; it is called sharing. Citizens of America are scared of globalization because they are greedy. They do not want their tax dollars and wealth to be spent on anyone besides their own flesh and blood. I do not think I would be so skeptical if I had to pay taxes. I would be stand offish to pay higher taxes for other people too.
The Theoretical Globe for a Steep Cost
Brittany Liebenow
Globalization
25 April 2010
The Theoretical Globe for a Steep Cost
Globalization essentially allows for powerful countries to gain more power and less powerful countries to remain dependent on these powerful countries. Although globalization technically unites countries in the name of trade and the economy, it does globalize the world both culturally and economically. What does that mean exactly? Globalization expands the markets of a company past that company’s home country. It allows the company to distribute both its products, and the cultural aspects they carry with them, across the globe. Once exposed to these outside markets and products, the people of the new country start using these products just as the original country would. The act of using and buying these products is, in it of itself, part of a country’s culture. Once people start consciously choosing newly introduced products over their own traditional products, the people are moving away from their traditional products and traditional cultures. An excellent example of this is the spread of so-called modern clothing. Jeans and t-shirts, because of increased globalization, have infiltrated the styles of many countries throughout the world.
This globalization of products thus leads to globalization of culture. The globalization of culture is something that most people would agree is a very bad thing. Because one global culture cannot include every aspect of every culture, vast amounts of cultural heritage would fall out of use. These cultural aspects are not only important to maintain because of their intrinsic value, but many cultural aspects lost to time are dearly missed. Latin, although not necessarily lost to globalization, was lost to time and lack of use. Have we as a world missed Latin? Of course we have. One only needs to look at the course catalogue for a typical American high school to realize that Latin is missed enough to become a full foreign language program. It is also the basis of the English and many other languages. Upon the decline of Latin, few were worried about the impact learning Latin would have on learning other languages, which brings up another important point. Globalization of culture could push aspects of culture away that no one realizes are important. Like Latin, we could later be striving to keep alive something important that we, as a world, let die.
In this day and age, globalization is usually discussed less in terms of culture and more in terms of economies and business. Globalization of business is also bad for two reasons. The first reason is that large companies that have the money and ability to globalize often also have the ability to offer lower prices than already established, smaller companies. As a result, large global companies can create worldwide monopolies and drive small businesses to extinction. As an American, this concept is absolutely appalling.
The second reason is one often repeated: globalization leads to human rights violations. If a business does not want to abide by the human rights laws of their original host country, the business can, with globalization, move production to a country filled with people willing to work in abusive conditions with little pay. People in poverty in such countries are not willing to fight against these human rights violations because they desperately need the money. This creates a never-ending spiral backwards in human rights history.
Globalization
25 April 2010
The Theoretical Globe for a Steep Cost
Globalization essentially allows for powerful countries to gain more power and less powerful countries to remain dependent on these powerful countries. Although globalization technically unites countries in the name of trade and the economy, it does globalize the world both culturally and economically. What does that mean exactly? Globalization expands the markets of a company past that company’s home country. It allows the company to distribute both its products, and the cultural aspects they carry with them, across the globe. Once exposed to these outside markets and products, the people of the new country start using these products just as the original country would. The act of using and buying these products is, in it of itself, part of a country’s culture. Once people start consciously choosing newly introduced products over their own traditional products, the people are moving away from their traditional products and traditional cultures. An excellent example of this is the spread of so-called modern clothing. Jeans and t-shirts, because of increased globalization, have infiltrated the styles of many countries throughout the world.
This globalization of products thus leads to globalization of culture. The globalization of culture is something that most people would agree is a very bad thing. Because one global culture cannot include every aspect of every culture, vast amounts of cultural heritage would fall out of use. These cultural aspects are not only important to maintain because of their intrinsic value, but many cultural aspects lost to time are dearly missed. Latin, although not necessarily lost to globalization, was lost to time and lack of use. Have we as a world missed Latin? Of course we have. One only needs to look at the course catalogue for a typical American high school to realize that Latin is missed enough to become a full foreign language program. It is also the basis of the English and many other languages. Upon the decline of Latin, few were worried about the impact learning Latin would have on learning other languages, which brings up another important point. Globalization of culture could push aspects of culture away that no one realizes are important. Like Latin, we could later be striving to keep alive something important that we, as a world, let die.
In this day and age, globalization is usually discussed less in terms of culture and more in terms of economies and business. Globalization of business is also bad for two reasons. The first reason is that large companies that have the money and ability to globalize often also have the ability to offer lower prices than already established, smaller companies. As a result, large global companies can create worldwide monopolies and drive small businesses to extinction. As an American, this concept is absolutely appalling.
The second reason is one often repeated: globalization leads to human rights violations. If a business does not want to abide by the human rights laws of their original host country, the business can, with globalization, move production to a country filled with people willing to work in abusive conditions with little pay. People in poverty in such countries are not willing to fight against these human rights violations because they desperately need the money. This creates a never-ending spiral backwards in human rights history.
Globalization
American, Chinese, African, French and Mexican are all labels the world places on people traveling or living around the world. Over the past decades Globalization has become part of the daily routine: video chat with someone in Tokyo, order Chinese made products and so on and so forth. Yes, it may seem as though globalization may have some short-term benefits but in the long term it is detrimental to the relations between different races and countries. Expanding global markets and personal goals should not be the driving force behind the world.
The international aspect to American society has had a more beneficial outcome than a negative one. However, not all societies functions as Americans do and there are always those Americans who feel the need to take advantage of the system in various ways. And as more people migrate to come live in the land where dreams come true, more of our business has been traded internationally. The biggest issue with globalization is that at the end of the day people are classified by where they are indigenous to. This reoccurrence will restrict world peace because loyalty will lies in ones home even if ones house has been the one to provide every opportunity for their life.
It is an unfortunate thing that the world cannot just be one and have a functional existence but there is a reason why to a certain extent globalization does not work. Let us look at just the United States as an example. Within our own country, states exist because different areas have different personalities, views, and moral beliefs that one overall government can not accommodate. While the federal government does have final say, the states are the ones who represent their areas within the federal government. This is just the case within the united states and we are a democracy with little corruption in the equation. How is a government supposed to watch over the whole world with all of its disease and famine and corruption if the United Nations can not put a dent in the problems the world has right now?
Globalization might aid the economy now, but in the long run Americans are going to end up unemployed because all of the unskilled jobs are going over to the Asian countries who do not require their workers to have health benefits or a minimum wage. All the while, the big businesses are starting to control the world economy because with out them more than one country will collapse under the loss. What if McDonalds were to go out of business? All those jobs lost means millions, if not billions, would go into debt and less money would be circulated into the economy resulting in a very hurt economy. All this is due to globalization.
This is not to say that globalization has not had any positive influences. Societies are now used to interacting with different races and job markets have opened up. The economy thrives and communication has increased. Peace is on its way to being. However, war is still prominent and racial slurs have become common language. It may be ones opinion whether or not globalization is good or not but either way it is happening and the world has got to cope with it.
The international aspect to American society has had a more beneficial outcome than a negative one. However, not all societies functions as Americans do and there are always those Americans who feel the need to take advantage of the system in various ways. And as more people migrate to come live in the land where dreams come true, more of our business has been traded internationally. The biggest issue with globalization is that at the end of the day people are classified by where they are indigenous to. This reoccurrence will restrict world peace because loyalty will lies in ones home even if ones house has been the one to provide every opportunity for their life.
It is an unfortunate thing that the world cannot just be one and have a functional existence but there is a reason why to a certain extent globalization does not work. Let us look at just the United States as an example. Within our own country, states exist because different areas have different personalities, views, and moral beliefs that one overall government can not accommodate. While the federal government does have final say, the states are the ones who represent their areas within the federal government. This is just the case within the united states and we are a democracy with little corruption in the equation. How is a government supposed to watch over the whole world with all of its disease and famine and corruption if the United Nations can not put a dent in the problems the world has right now?
Globalization might aid the economy now, but in the long run Americans are going to end up unemployed because all of the unskilled jobs are going over to the Asian countries who do not require their workers to have health benefits or a minimum wage. All the while, the big businesses are starting to control the world economy because with out them more than one country will collapse under the loss. What if McDonalds were to go out of business? All those jobs lost means millions, if not billions, would go into debt and less money would be circulated into the economy resulting in a very hurt economy. All this is due to globalization.
This is not to say that globalization has not had any positive influences. Societies are now used to interacting with different races and job markets have opened up. The economy thrives and communication has increased. Peace is on its way to being. However, war is still prominent and racial slurs have become common language. It may be ones opinion whether or not globalization is good or not but either way it is happening and the world has got to cope with it.
Globalization: the dumbest idea that has ever crossed any ideologists’ minds. Globalization of the world will destroy the world and here is why. By being mostly independent from other countries, the United States and other powers across the world are able to set up their own nationalistic viewpoints and economic standards. Some of these economic standards work in certain parts of the world however in some parts of the world; these so called economic standards will not work in certain regions. Globalization is going to lead to one big government that runs every thing the same way which might lead to the downfall of the human race. I do agree that countries should communicate and trade with each other but there shall never be a globalization of government where one group of people has authority over multiple countries. This would be too much power for a certain group of people and they would not be able to handle it with the multiple languages that people speak today. The idea of globalization just sucks in general and it seems like the communists support it because they think that everyone in the world should be equal and receive everything in equal persons. This is a horrible idea and would give people no motivation to work harder than they are required because than they would be receiving the same amount of money and resources that another person receives who works less hard than they do. Bringing countries together into one big country would defeat the nationalistic idea and in my opinion is a bad thing. Countries need to veer away from the globalization movement and start their nationalistic ideas from scratch. Everything is too global today. The communication with other people in other countries is one thing but if society, laws and similar ways of life become apparent across the globe the lack of individuality would be seen and culture could be lost. Culture is very important to the global economy as well. Different cultures across the world are what makes up the diversity in all various sorts of categories: clothing styles, food, housing accessories, ECT. Some globalists out there, according to wikipedia, feel like if they get every person in the world to follow a certain routine, then they can supposedly save the environment and the earth from further destruction and war. War will always be present no matter what. You cannot eliminate different nations across the globe and make one big world nation. People would start to believe in different ideologies and beliefs and war would eventually break out. Globalization is a horrible idea and needs to be thrown in the dumpster along with all the other left sided hippy beliefs. In my opinion, globalization falls in the same category as socialism and communism because it is basically eliminating your competition or eliminating the competitive nature of one country and making everything the same. Diversity and difference are good things in which globalists need to realize. Globalization should not even be a thought as humans strive forward to better improve their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Globalization
In today’s world, globalization is present everywhere you turn. Globalization, the inter-mingling of different cultures, economics, and societies, is common in every building or community you go to. As you drive down the road in Atlanta, you will see different types of restaurants and stores based on different cultures. There are some shopping centers that are based on one nationality or culture, especially Chinese. Stores conjoin different products from all over the world. These traits of globalization is present within the stores and can been shown on the outside as well. It kind of sticks out when you pass a shopping center where all the signs are in Chinese or Spanish.
Our nation, the so-called “Melting Pot”, is like the crown jewel of globalization. Our nation has become internationally evolved ever since the end of the first Great War. To prevent wars and conflicts, we have allowed our nation to become more open to outside nations. Within these nations, some of their citizens immigrate into our nation and bring their culture to our society. Some say our increase in foreign affairs is due to economic interest while others say for own security, I say that we can not solely look at America becoming more involved in other nations when those nations citizens are changing so much in our own society. The take over of foreign businesses may be good in bringing money into the country but is there a limit that needs to be imposed in order to prevent our nation from becoming completely dependent on foreign nations? In the early 20th century, America had a foreign policy of isolationism. The American citizens wanted America to not be involved in foreign affairs and believed America could stand-alone. There was rarely any foreign business occurring within our nation and not a lot of trade coming into the country. Markets within our nation prospered as America produced most of what it needed instead of having the materials brought into the country.
So why has America became so intertwined with hundreds of different cultures and nationalities? Politicians have broken down immigration laws and other aspects that hampered immigration. Some believe that this is good while others prefer to go back to a nation around isolationism. Globalization has occurred in America due to foreigners coming here to live the “American Dream.” They still believe that America is the land of opportunity. This idea might have been so earlier in our nation’s short but prosperous history but it is not present in today’s society.
Competition in today’s economy has nearly destroyed any chance of a foreign immigrant, who is not highly educated, from ever becoming a wealthy person. This leads to my overall belief that globalization may be a good event economically but it may hurt some people who are in it. Even though it may hurt people though, it is a good event to occur to help our nation be prosperous. You can rarely do anything that involves many different people and have it make everyone happy. A lot of the dislike or hatred of Globalization is from personal beliefs about other races. A lot of people do not like globalization because they feel threatened from the competition that immigrants may bring for local jobs. Globalization may help a nation as a whole; it may actually hurt some citizens’ economic opportunity within their communities. They believe the immigrants will take the jobs in their community that the locals want to have. This shows how globalization may help the nation but it may also hurt some of the citizens within it.
Our nation, the so-called “Melting Pot”, is like the crown jewel of globalization. Our nation has become internationally evolved ever since the end of the first Great War. To prevent wars and conflicts, we have allowed our nation to become more open to outside nations. Within these nations, some of their citizens immigrate into our nation and bring their culture to our society. Some say our increase in foreign affairs is due to economic interest while others say for own security, I say that we can not solely look at America becoming more involved in other nations when those nations citizens are changing so much in our own society. The take over of foreign businesses may be good in bringing money into the country but is there a limit that needs to be imposed in order to prevent our nation from becoming completely dependent on foreign nations? In the early 20th century, America had a foreign policy of isolationism. The American citizens wanted America to not be involved in foreign affairs and believed America could stand-alone. There was rarely any foreign business occurring within our nation and not a lot of trade coming into the country. Markets within our nation prospered as America produced most of what it needed instead of having the materials brought into the country.
So why has America became so intertwined with hundreds of different cultures and nationalities? Politicians have broken down immigration laws and other aspects that hampered immigration. Some believe that this is good while others prefer to go back to a nation around isolationism. Globalization has occurred in America due to foreigners coming here to live the “American Dream.” They still believe that America is the land of opportunity. This idea might have been so earlier in our nation’s short but prosperous history but it is not present in today’s society.
Competition in today’s economy has nearly destroyed any chance of a foreign immigrant, who is not highly educated, from ever becoming a wealthy person. This leads to my overall belief that globalization may be a good event economically but it may hurt some people who are in it. Even though it may hurt people though, it is a good event to occur to help our nation be prosperous. You can rarely do anything that involves many different people and have it make everyone happy. A lot of the dislike or hatred of Globalization is from personal beliefs about other races. A lot of people do not like globalization because they feel threatened from the competition that immigrants may bring for local jobs. Globalization may help a nation as a whole; it may actually hurt some citizens’ economic opportunity within their communities. They believe the immigrants will take the jobs in their community that the locals want to have. This shows how globalization may help the nation but it may also hurt some of the citizens within it.
Globalization
Globalization or the inter-mingling of different cultures, economies, and societies has become an essential part of our world. Whether it is the racial diversity within an American school or the world-wide economic trade system, globalization is apparent everywhere you look. After doing research on what exactly this term “globalization” entails, I found that it is comprised of many parts, both positive and negative. Though many would automatically assume that globalization is a good thing because it seems to unite the world on common grounds; it actually has some negative effects as well.
Over the years politicians have drastically broken down geographical borders in order to hamper trade, increase interdependence and prosperity, and ultimately decrease the chance of future war. Though at face value one may agree that such practices are essential to a nation’s prosperity, often times globalization leads to a decrease in a country’s nationalism. If everything within a country is foreign produced or financially exported the “home-grown”, prideful attitude is seemingly diminished within that society. I believe that pride in one’s country is crucial for success and the well-being of that country should come before the well-being of others. The United States is a good example for taking globalization too far. Many consider the United States as the epitome of a cultural melting pot. Ever since the early 1900’s the U.S. has attracted many foreign immigrants to the so-called American dream. But this American dream has dissipated over the years because America is no longer the center of trade and economic prosperity. Many U.S. corporations export jobs to other nations because countries such as India will work for less pay. For example, a couple months ago my computer broke down because of a virus and we ended up having to call the HP computer customer service to figure out how to get it fixed. We were immediately put in contact with a man working for HP in Mumbai, India who was able to get on our computer from Mumbai and get rid of the virus. I thought it was pretty cool that some random guy in India fixed my computer but at the same I couldn’t help but wonder why HP had exported that job. From my understanding there is a pretty high unemployment rate within our country, so why not give these unemployed people the job of fixing my computer? Ah yes, I forgot that corporations within America are quite selfish when it comes to the use of their money.
Globalization has also produced negative effects such as the globalization of illegal drugs. With all types of markets expanding their boundaries, the drug market is not excluded. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime issued a report that the global drug trade generates more than $320 billion a year in revenues which accommodates the more than 50 million worldwide users of heroin, cocaine, and other synthetic drugs. Border patrols, etc. have therefore had to crack—no pun intended—down on immigrants coming into the country.
Though the unity of cultures and societies can produce peace throughout the world, the attitude within one’s own country may in turn be one of unrest and negativity.
Over the years politicians have drastically broken down geographical borders in order to hamper trade, increase interdependence and prosperity, and ultimately decrease the chance of future war. Though at face value one may agree that such practices are essential to a nation’s prosperity, often times globalization leads to a decrease in a country’s nationalism. If everything within a country is foreign produced or financially exported the “home-grown”, prideful attitude is seemingly diminished within that society. I believe that pride in one’s country is crucial for success and the well-being of that country should come before the well-being of others. The United States is a good example for taking globalization too far. Many consider the United States as the epitome of a cultural melting pot. Ever since the early 1900’s the U.S. has attracted many foreign immigrants to the so-called American dream. But this American dream has dissipated over the years because America is no longer the center of trade and economic prosperity. Many U.S. corporations export jobs to other nations because countries such as India will work for less pay. For example, a couple months ago my computer broke down because of a virus and we ended up having to call the HP computer customer service to figure out how to get it fixed. We were immediately put in contact with a man working for HP in Mumbai, India who was able to get on our computer from Mumbai and get rid of the virus. I thought it was pretty cool that some random guy in India fixed my computer but at the same I couldn’t help but wonder why HP had exported that job. From my understanding there is a pretty high unemployment rate within our country, so why not give these unemployed people the job of fixing my computer? Ah yes, I forgot that corporations within America are quite selfish when it comes to the use of their money.
Globalization has also produced negative effects such as the globalization of illegal drugs. With all types of markets expanding their boundaries, the drug market is not excluded. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime issued a report that the global drug trade generates more than $320 billion a year in revenues which accommodates the more than 50 million worldwide users of heroin, cocaine, and other synthetic drugs. Border patrols, etc. have therefore had to crack—no pun intended—down on immigrants coming into the country.
Though the unity of cultures and societies can produce peace throughout the world, the attitude within one’s own country may in turn be one of unrest and negativity.
Globalization
This week’s blog topic is globalization. Because I have don’t have a great deal of knowledge on this subject, I first did a little research to better inform myself on this topic. Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world. The term is sometimes used to refer to economic globalization: “the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology”. Globalization is usually recognized as being fueled by a combination of many factors, including economic, technological, cultural, political, and biological.
Globalization is not a new phenomenon. For thousands of years, people have been buying and selling goods to and from each other in different countries. Likewise, people and corporations have been investing in enterprises in other countries. The current wave of globalization we are experiencing now has been driven by policies that have opened economies domestically and internationally. Many governments have adopted free-market economic systems, increasing their productive potential and creating new opportunities for international trade and investment. Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to business and have established international agreements to promote trade in goods, services, and investment. Taking advantage of new opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built foreign factories and established production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners. Because of this, we can see that a defining feature of globalization is an international industrial and financial business structure. Technology has been the other principal driver of globalization. Advances in information technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life. Information technologies have given all sorts of individual economic consumers, investors, and businesses valuable new tools for identifying and pursuing economic opportunities.
In my opinion, the world will never completely globalize. There are too many factors that would prevent the whole world from agreeing on political issues, economical issues, technological issues, and cultural issues. Globalizing would take away from the uniqueness of a specific country and the people living in that country. It is evident that globalization would be extremely difficult to accomplish in our society because we see that many countries hold vastly differing opinions on the very issues that globalization strives to integrate. The countries of the world will never be able to come together and agree on one common economy, one common government, one common culture, or one common language. Supporters of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living, while opponents of globalization claim that the creation of an international free market has benefited multinational corporations at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people. Globalization has been shown to carry both positive and negative effects. It is often difficult to measure whether the positive effects are worth the great deal of time and effort but into this complex process.
Globalization is not a new phenomenon. For thousands of years, people have been buying and selling goods to and from each other in different countries. Likewise, people and corporations have been investing in enterprises in other countries. The current wave of globalization we are experiencing now has been driven by policies that have opened economies domestically and internationally. Many governments have adopted free-market economic systems, increasing their productive potential and creating new opportunities for international trade and investment. Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to business and have established international agreements to promote trade in goods, services, and investment. Taking advantage of new opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built foreign factories and established production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners. Because of this, we can see that a defining feature of globalization is an international industrial and financial business structure. Technology has been the other principal driver of globalization. Advances in information technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life. Information technologies have given all sorts of individual economic consumers, investors, and businesses valuable new tools for identifying and pursuing economic opportunities.
In my opinion, the world will never completely globalize. There are too many factors that would prevent the whole world from agreeing on political issues, economical issues, technological issues, and cultural issues. Globalizing would take away from the uniqueness of a specific country and the people living in that country. It is evident that globalization would be extremely difficult to accomplish in our society because we see that many countries hold vastly differing opinions on the very issues that globalization strives to integrate. The countries of the world will never be able to come together and agree on one common economy, one common government, one common culture, or one common language. Supporters of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living, while opponents of globalization claim that the creation of an international free market has benefited multinational corporations at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people. Globalization has been shown to carry both positive and negative effects. It is often difficult to measure whether the positive effects are worth the great deal of time and effort but into this complex process.
Globalization
So globalization, I know always start my blogs out with “So…” but that is what starts my thinking process, but anyways globalization. I literally had no idea what this term meant and I had never actually heard of it before, so I did the logical thing and looked it up on Wikipedia for a reliable answer: “…a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and trade.” After reading this definition I truthfully still did not know what globalization was, but I do know that it has been around a while-it is not a brand new idea. From what I understand it really is not even a thought up method but something that happens almost naturally that has been given a name. Some other definitions were phrases like, “the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labor...” or "the diminution or elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result." Globalization seems to have both good and bad points to it, and is quickly picking up speed in the business world. So globalization, it has to do a lot with trading and keeping countries on friendly terms with one another and preventing war. This is always a positive thing because the last thing we need is World War III. Not to say if we did not practice globalization we would have another world war, but it just helps keep countries on good terms. A danger I think to globalization is that with all of these different culture floating back and forth everything will get less personal and less unique. One culture is bound to dominate over the others (most likely American) and that is no fun. And if one country has an economic collapse what happens to the other countries connected to it? So like I said there are good aspects and bad, but even if the bad did outweigh the good would we be able to stop it? Globalization I mean. It is pretty natural to want to trade back and forth with different countries and have new products and ideas available. I guess we could adjust some of our trading guidelines: elimination of tariffs; creation of free trade zones with small or no tariffs; reduced transportation costs, especially resulting from development of containerization for ocean shipping. Anyways I kinda like globalization because it allows us to partake of other cultures and their way of life. It helps us learn about other countries through their products and merchandise which I think is good for Americans because we do not really reach out that much it seems. We just tend to dominate and think of ourselves as higher and not want to expand outside our country. I think we should learn that not everyone is obsessed with us like we our with ourselves.
Its A Small World After All...
Robert Overholt
Globalization
The world is getting small.
You look around and see different nationalities mingling, becoming friends, getting married. It is simply unbelievable how much integration has taken place in the last few decades. In America as well as across the world, many cultures have coexisted with minor tension. Yet, globalization is not simply everybody living happily together like in the Disney Ride, It’s a Small World. Globalization is not always a positive.
The Roman Empire thrived for many years on diversity. They welcomed the cultures of conquered peoples and embraced each different practice. As the empire rapidly expanded, the number of cultures grew and eventually there was no unity among the population. This lack of a cultural foundation led to their downfall. There territory and influence spread farther than they could handle, and they had no culture or religion to fall back on when the Empire was destroyed. As a result, the fall of the Roman Empire was one of the most ponderous collapses in history. Could this be our fate? By embracing a global network of cultures, are we also ridding ourselves of a cultural backbone?
Personally, I am ambivalent about globalization. From a cultural standpoint, globalization is brilliant. It teaches kids as well as adults to work with people that come from different backgrounds. In order to be successful in such a fast-paced and far-flung economy, one has to be able to work with people of different cultures. Moreover, by blending cultures, we develop an in depth understanding of the lifestyles in other parts of the world. Whether an American goes to India or an Indian goes to America, the exposure is positive to character development.
On the other hand, by being exposed to so many cultures we often lose sight of our own. For example, an immigrant from Indonesia may be accustomed to certain traditions. If that child is exposed to a European child who is not involved in as many traditions, the Indonesian child may think his traditions are stupid and unnecessary. This is a prevalent occurrence that I have witnessed first hand in America. Cultures should be exposed to other cultures and appreciate them, but not at the expense of their own culture. Americans struggle with this concept. We try to convert every immigrant to the American way. In our eyes, it is the American way or the highway to the airport back to their country. In the interest of preserving a cultural foundation, this may be a positive. If you flip the situation, an American visiting China is naturally going to adapt to Chinese ways. It is the cycle of globalization.
In our modern world, a collapse such as that of the Roman Empire seems unlikely. However, history does tend to repeat itself. Globalization has its positives and negatives, and hopefully the former will prevail. We have become obsessed with embracing different cultures at the expense of nationalism. It all depends on your priorities. Are you an American or an immigrant living in America?
I never did like that ride at Disney. Those chanting faces are terrifying.
Globalization
The world is getting small.
You look around and see different nationalities mingling, becoming friends, getting married. It is simply unbelievable how much integration has taken place in the last few decades. In America as well as across the world, many cultures have coexisted with minor tension. Yet, globalization is not simply everybody living happily together like in the Disney Ride, It’s a Small World. Globalization is not always a positive.
The Roman Empire thrived for many years on diversity. They welcomed the cultures of conquered peoples and embraced each different practice. As the empire rapidly expanded, the number of cultures grew and eventually there was no unity among the population. This lack of a cultural foundation led to their downfall. There territory and influence spread farther than they could handle, and they had no culture or religion to fall back on when the Empire was destroyed. As a result, the fall of the Roman Empire was one of the most ponderous collapses in history. Could this be our fate? By embracing a global network of cultures, are we also ridding ourselves of a cultural backbone?
Personally, I am ambivalent about globalization. From a cultural standpoint, globalization is brilliant. It teaches kids as well as adults to work with people that come from different backgrounds. In order to be successful in such a fast-paced and far-flung economy, one has to be able to work with people of different cultures. Moreover, by blending cultures, we develop an in depth understanding of the lifestyles in other parts of the world. Whether an American goes to India or an Indian goes to America, the exposure is positive to character development.
On the other hand, by being exposed to so many cultures we often lose sight of our own. For example, an immigrant from Indonesia may be accustomed to certain traditions. If that child is exposed to a European child who is not involved in as many traditions, the Indonesian child may think his traditions are stupid and unnecessary. This is a prevalent occurrence that I have witnessed first hand in America. Cultures should be exposed to other cultures and appreciate them, but not at the expense of their own culture. Americans struggle with this concept. We try to convert every immigrant to the American way. In our eyes, it is the American way or the highway to the airport back to their country. In the interest of preserving a cultural foundation, this may be a positive. If you flip the situation, an American visiting China is naturally going to adapt to Chinese ways. It is the cycle of globalization.
In our modern world, a collapse such as that of the Roman Empire seems unlikely. However, history does tend to repeat itself. Globalization has its positives and negatives, and hopefully the former will prevail. We have become obsessed with embracing different cultures at the expense of nationalism. It all depends on your priorities. Are you an American or an immigrant living in America?
I never did like that ride at Disney. Those chanting faces are terrifying.
Globalization
Globalization, from my understanding according to Wikipedia, is the “process in which economies, societies, cultures, technology, and languages” all blend into one mega-global idea. It’s like mixing up a whole variety of things that becomes common throughout the whole world, eliminating barriers around countries. This is done through trade, migration, and foreign investments. Honestly, it’s something that contains positives and negatives of which both I agree with. So, on each individual aspect of globalization, I will assert some sort of opinion on. First we have economic globalization. This is a decent opportunity for countries in a lesser state. If huge companies transfer to these countries, their economy would better itself, I would assume. The company’s wealth means more spending throughout the economy in that specific region. I’m going to skip over societies… Then, we have cultures! The blending of cultures is a good thing; it allows people to become more aware and accepting and it’s also a learning opportunity for anything. However, if all the cultures keep blending and mixing and integrating, there may be no individual culture left. Every country would become less and less distinct and more, well, conformed. And we all know that foolish consistencies are the hobgoblin of little minds. Do we want hobgoblins? Do we want little minds? I think not! The individualities of all cultures would slowly fade, and for me, I think that’s severely unfortunate. Now for technology. What would we do without it? HOW COULD WE POST THESE BLOGS WITHOUT IT?! Oh, the horrors! Okay. So if I just take a look around my house and point out all of my electronics, we can see that the globalization of technology deserves an A+. My computer is an HP, which is American, so that counts for America’s contribution to globalization. As for everything that DOESN’T come from America, here is the list. A BMW motorcycle from Germany, a Toyota from Japan, two Acura’s from Japan, A Sony camera from Japan, two Yamahas from Japan… well you get the point. Most of what people own aren’t even from our own country. They’re from Japan (probably the most electronically dominant place ever). Or they’re from Germany, China, or anywhere. To me, technology should absolutely be globalized. Lastly, there is language. Language barriers are an absolute pain and it’s always obnoxious walking through Costco listening to people scream at each other in Vietnamese, because quite frankly it is rude. If I moved to another country and only spoke English, I wouldn’t be able to get away with it. But no, not here. This is a different topic I suppose. But I think that languages are unique to cultures and therefore shouldn’t be globalized. If you live in a certain country, speak the language that is native to it and nothing else. On the other hand, knowing a bunch of languages is key to businesses now because of this globalization. We have business affairs with other countries and miscommunication would be a huge downfall. On the business aspect of it, it’s good. On the cultures aspect of it, it’s bad. Overall, for business growing and expanding in order to make huge profits, globalization is a very good thing. All the other parts, I’m not so sure about…
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Responce to Kristen's : The Global Warming Hoax
I generally agree with Kristen's thoughts on the issue. But, I don't think that just because this winter was a cold one doesn't mean global warming is false. The patterns they look at are over long periods of time, not only one season.
I thought the facts about ice very interesting. The proponets of global warming always want to talk about the danger of losing ice mass. First of all, beside the fact that if there was less ice there would be more water (don't see that as a huge issue), and also here we have here some data saying ice mass is increasing! I also agree with her criticism of America. It seems that America is always only looking at one side of the issue, and if you don't agree with global warming then you're an energy hog and only care about extraditing resources for personal gains. Global warming is an issue at the moment because it cannot difinitely be disproved. Until we know for certain one way or another we should cover all our bases. But, the emphasis should be taken off such a theory and be one other more impending issue. I feel that Al Gore has created this chaos by using scare tactics and also by making us feel guilty because the US uses more per person of just about everything than any other country on the nation.
I thought the facts about ice very interesting. The proponets of global warming always want to talk about the danger of losing ice mass. First of all, beside the fact that if there was less ice there would be more water (don't see that as a huge issue), and also here we have here some data saying ice mass is increasing! I also agree with her criticism of America. It seems that America is always only looking at one side of the issue, and if you don't agree with global warming then you're an energy hog and only care about extraditing resources for personal gains. Global warming is an issue at the moment because it cannot difinitely be disproved. Until we know for certain one way or another we should cover all our bases. But, the emphasis should be taken off such a theory and be one other more impending issue. I feel that Al Gore has created this chaos by using scare tactics and also by making us feel guilty because the US uses more per person of just about everything than any other country on the nation.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Global Warming
Since almost everyone has decided that global warming is not real, I have decided to be the devil’s advocate. I am going to show you that warming is indeed happening right now and that a huge chunk of it is anthropogenic.
First, the overall trend shows that the temperatures are increasing. But wait a minute, Nick. Doesn’t the fact that we got some flurries a couple times after February prove that global warming isn’t real? No. The last 12 or so years have been the warmest years that have ever been recorded. 1998 was the warmest year we’ve ever had, and although it was an El Nino year, it was the warmest El Nino year we ever had. In fact, 2005’s temperature rivaled 1998’s even though 2005 was not an El Nino year. Even if 2010 turns out to be slightly cooler than 2009, there is enough evidence to show that the general trend is increasing temperatures.
Also, the glaciers seem to be an indicator of the warming issue. Glaciers are rapidly shrinking in places such as New Zealand, Switzerland, and Norway. It is true that there has been an increase in glaciers in some parts of the globe. However, those result in local cooling and precipitation, and there is an overall trend of declining glaciers. Compared to the Arctic sea ice cover recorded by satellites in 1979, the current ice cover is 20% lower. Scientific data shows that over the past 30 years, the global temperature has increased by about .2 degrees Celsius.
Okay. Maybe the earth is warming up. But that’s not a big issue. It’s the earth’s natural cycle of warming. The earth has its warm times and has cool times. That’s a pretty true statement that the earth is constantly changing, yet people have definitely contributed to global warming. The rate at which the earth is heating up is not natural. Also, keep in mind that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere now is the greatest it has been for 650,000 years.
Almost no one can think of a better explanation of the earth’s atmospheric conditions than the greenhouse effect. In fact, skeptical scientists often agree with the greenhouse effect. However, they choose to ignore it since the model shows that increased fossil fuel consumption would cause global warming. These skeptics try to poke holes in the model and sometimes do manage to point out a small irregularity. However, while the model is not perfect, these skeptics cannot think of a better way to explain the earth’s conditions.
While we are on the topic of these skeptics, we must examine their work. Much of the work for global warming has been published in scientific journals, while the skeptic’s work is published outside of these journals. What’s the difference? For a scientist’s work to be published in a journal, it must go through many levels of peer review. In fact, it often takes several years before something is given the okay to be published. The amount of scrutiny in peer reviews is nothing to sneeze at.
Also, there is a large scientific consensus that global warming is real and anthropogenic. 97% of climate scientists agree that temperatures have increased, and 80% of all American climate scientists believe that it is human-caused.
Finally, there are some of you who are willing to blame volcanoes and water instead of yourselves. People create about 25 gigatons of greenhouse gases every year. If you find a year that had the most volcanic activity, the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by volcanoes would be about .1 gigaton. As for the water vapor, it is already incorporated in the climate scientists’ models of global warming. They realize that water vapor is indeed a greenhouse gas, and therefore, is just one more reason why we have to be careful about our CO2 output.
Many of you point to some climate scientists and cry out that they have a hidden political agenda. It’s hard to believe that we actually read the same passage for the timed writing. Also, I don’t even need to talk about the possibility of skeptics’ agendas as well. Some of you say that we should not be listening to Gore since he’s just a bitter loser. Not everyone who believes that climate change is real is a follower of Gore. There are many other climate scientists that make their case quite well. Do not confuse what I am doing with something else. Who knows, I might really be the so called devil’s advocate. I am not, however, Gore’s advocate.
04.18.10 Global Warming
Global Warming is the warming of the Earth due to the pollution caused by many different sources. It has been an international issue that is a quest to solve. Many argue that by reducing pollution, we can at least stop the temperature of Earth from rising. They hold campaigns and advertisements to reduce the pollution we are causing to the nature. It sounds as if by recycling and using an environment-friendly energy source, the global warming will be stopped, and the Earth would become a safe and happy place again. It seems like they are worried about what to come, like the icebergs melting that causes the sea level to rise. It is a big problem since peoples’ safety and a big portion of civilization may be in trouble, but whether if it can be stopped by us trying to reduce pollution is unclear.
My opinion on Global Warming is that it is just a natural phenomenon. The pollutions caused by smoke and other unnatural substances are only making it happen quicker; it is speeding up the warming of the Earth, but it is a period that is eventually to come. There was Ice Age when the Earth was a ball of ice, and now it is time for the Earth to become a ball of fire. I believe it will not become that much hot enough to be a ball of fire but it will eventually heat up as it became colder millions of years ago. The amount the pollution is speeding up the warming is tiny compared to the years past since the Earth was first formed.
Earth is not a consistent object that does not change; it is always moving and spinning, and everything on Earth keeps on changing. People build up huge buildings and cut down trees. Keeping the Earth from warming up is impossible since everything on Earth is meant to change and is currently changing; it has changed from the period when dinosaurs used to live to Stone Age to machine civilization and the present time. People who insist that we have to stop the global warming that can change the situation on Earth different from how it is right now should realize that a civilization or the Earth itself cannot stay unchanged for a long period of time. Perhaps in the future, as the temperature of the Earth rises, there might be scientific inventions that can make people live under the hot condition or even live under water. Instead of searching for a way to stop the changes happening, it would be more effective to figure out a way to adapt in the new environment we will eventually face.
The mammoths are now extinct and cannot be seen in this world except through the fossils they have left behind, but people have survived. If we were able to survive the cold freezing Ice Age, the global warming brining us a Warm Age should not be a fear to stop from happening; it should be something we can face and figure out a solution for.
My opinion on Global Warming is that it is just a natural phenomenon. The pollutions caused by smoke and other unnatural substances are only making it happen quicker; it is speeding up the warming of the Earth, but it is a period that is eventually to come. There was Ice Age when the Earth was a ball of ice, and now it is time for the Earth to become a ball of fire. I believe it will not become that much hot enough to be a ball of fire but it will eventually heat up as it became colder millions of years ago. The amount the pollution is speeding up the warming is tiny compared to the years past since the Earth was first formed.
Earth is not a consistent object that does not change; it is always moving and spinning, and everything on Earth keeps on changing. People build up huge buildings and cut down trees. Keeping the Earth from warming up is impossible since everything on Earth is meant to change and is currently changing; it has changed from the period when dinosaurs used to live to Stone Age to machine civilization and the present time. People who insist that we have to stop the global warming that can change the situation on Earth different from how it is right now should realize that a civilization or the Earth itself cannot stay unchanged for a long period of time. Perhaps in the future, as the temperature of the Earth rises, there might be scientific inventions that can make people live under the hot condition or even live under water. Instead of searching for a way to stop the changes happening, it would be more effective to figure out a way to adapt in the new environment we will eventually face.
The mammoths are now extinct and cannot be seen in this world except through the fossils they have left behind, but people have survived. If we were able to survive the cold freezing Ice Age, the global warming brining us a Warm Age should not be a fear to stop from happening; it should be something we can face and figure out a solution for.
Go Green
We eat it, drink it, smell it, hear it, buy it, and most importantly, we use it. It is the environment. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the environment is either the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded, the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival, or the aggregate of social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual or community. The air, water, earth, and life around us are all part of a larger system that has been created to work together in order to sustain life. The problem the blue planet is facing today is that after all of the years that humans have left their mark on the face of the earth we are starting to see detrimental effects. Rivers are running with foul and polluted water, nuclear waste is being buried in the hearts of mountains, oil and trash is threatening the lives of countless marine animals, more species are going extinct every day from heavy deforestation in rainforest areas, and humans are finally realizing that they are contributing to the crumbling of an environment that would have been just fine had we not been in it.
People have been alerted of the destructive path that humanity has been traveling. Huge “Go Green” Campaigns have been launched all across America. There are commercials that encourage recycling, movies and television shows that attempt to bring peoples attention back to the environment, and new technology that claims that it is energy efficient and earth friendly. The new fad is to have a hybrid car, an extensive recycling system, or even just a bag that has been stamped with the recycling emblem and the words “reduce, reuse, and recycle”. Green is the new black.
But despite the new trend of “greenliness” there are people who do not understand what all of the craze is all about. They do not have an understanding of the term “global warming” or scoff at the idea that humans could be slowly, or quickly, killing the planet. Attention was brought to the topic of global warming by Al Gore. He made public announcements and even wrote books about his belief that an increase in earth’s atmospheric and oceanic temperatures were predicted to occur due to the greenhouse effect resulting mainly from pollution. This greenhouse effect occurs when gases are released into the atmosphere and trapped there. They heat up and, like the plant in a green house, so does the earth. Unfortunately for Gore’s theory many places on earth have been experiencing uncharacteristically cold weather and areas such as Georgia have had winters to rival those of areas much farther north.
However, whether or not global warming is true is not actually a fundamental argument in the quest for a healthier environment. It was simply a catalyst that got the general public concerned for their environment and caused a general interest in preserving the home planet. People love green spaces, animals, and the hope of tomorrow and those sentiments are what are driving forward the campaigns for better technology and better methods of conservation. So go ahead and jump off of the band wagon of big cars and big waste and join in the carpool line of people who care about their earth and want to insure that the generations to come will have clean air to breath and fresh water to drink.
People have been alerted of the destructive path that humanity has been traveling. Huge “Go Green” Campaigns have been launched all across America. There are commercials that encourage recycling, movies and television shows that attempt to bring peoples attention back to the environment, and new technology that claims that it is energy efficient and earth friendly. The new fad is to have a hybrid car, an extensive recycling system, or even just a bag that has been stamped with the recycling emblem and the words “reduce, reuse, and recycle”. Green is the new black.
But despite the new trend of “greenliness” there are people who do not understand what all of the craze is all about. They do not have an understanding of the term “global warming” or scoff at the idea that humans could be slowly, or quickly, killing the planet. Attention was brought to the topic of global warming by Al Gore. He made public announcements and even wrote books about his belief that an increase in earth’s atmospheric and oceanic temperatures were predicted to occur due to the greenhouse effect resulting mainly from pollution. This greenhouse effect occurs when gases are released into the atmosphere and trapped there. They heat up and, like the plant in a green house, so does the earth. Unfortunately for Gore’s theory many places on earth have been experiencing uncharacteristically cold weather and areas such as Georgia have had winters to rival those of areas much farther north.
However, whether or not global warming is true is not actually a fundamental argument in the quest for a healthier environment. It was simply a catalyst that got the general public concerned for their environment and caused a general interest in preserving the home planet. People love green spaces, animals, and the hope of tomorrow and those sentiments are what are driving forward the campaigns for better technology and better methods of conservation. So go ahead and jump off of the band wagon of big cars and big waste and join in the carpool line of people who care about their earth and want to insure that the generations to come will have clean air to breath and fresh water to drink.
Go Green
We eat it, drink it, smell it, hear it, buy it, and most importantly, we use it. It is the environment. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the environment is either the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded, the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival, or the aggregate of social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual or community. The air, water, earth, and life around us are all part of a larger system that has been created to work together in order to sustain life. The problem the blue planet is facing today is that after all of the years that humans have left their mark on the face of the earth we are starting to see detrimental effects. Rivers are running with foul and polluted water, nuclear waste is being buried in the hearts of mountains, oil and trash is threatening the lives of countless marine animals, more species are going extinct every day from heavy deforestation in rainforest areas, and humans are finally realizing that they are contributing to the crumbling of an environment that would have been just fine had we not been in it.
People have been alerted of the destructive path that humanity has been traveling. Huge “Go Green” Campaigns have been launched all across America. There are commercials that encourage recycling, movies and television shows that attempt to bring peoples attention back to the environment, and new technology that claims that it is energy efficient and earth friendly. The new fad is to have a hybrid car, an extensive recycling system, or even just a bag that has been stamped with the recycling emblem and the words “reduce, reuse, and recycle”. Green is the new black.
But despite the new trend of “greenliness” there are people who do not understand what all of the craze is all about. They do not have an understanding of the term “global warming” or scoff at the idea that humans could be slowly, or quickly, killing the planet. Attention was brought to the topic of global warming by Al Gore. He made public announcements and even wrote books about his belief that an increase in earth’s atmospheric and oceanic temperatures were predicted to occur due to the greenhouse effect resulting mainly from pollution. This greenhouse effect occurs when gases are released into the atmosphere and trapped there. They heat up and, like the plant in a green house, so does the earth. Unfortunately for Gore’s theory many places on earth have been experiencing uncharacteristically cold weather and areas such as Georgia have had winters to rival those of areas much farther north.
However, whether or not global warming is true is not actually a fundamental argument in the quest for a healthier environment. It was simply a catalyst that got the general public concerned for their environment and caused a general interest in preserving the home planet. People love green spaces, animals, and the hope of tomorrow and those sentiments are what are driving forward the campaigns for better technology and better methods of conservation. So go ahead and jump off of the band wagon of big cars and big waste and join in the carpool line of people who care about their earth and want to insure that the generations to come will have clean air to breath and fresh water to drink.
People have been alerted of the destructive path that humanity has been traveling. Huge “Go Green” Campaigns have been launched all across America. There are commercials that encourage recycling, movies and television shows that attempt to bring peoples attention back to the environment, and new technology that claims that it is energy efficient and earth friendly. The new fad is to have a hybrid car, an extensive recycling system, or even just a bag that has been stamped with the recycling emblem and the words “reduce, reuse, and recycle”. Green is the new black.
But despite the new trend of “greenliness” there are people who do not understand what all of the craze is all about. They do not have an understanding of the term “global warming” or scoff at the idea that humans could be slowly, or quickly, killing the planet. Attention was brought to the topic of global warming by Al Gore. He made public announcements and even wrote books about his belief that an increase in earth’s atmospheric and oceanic temperatures were predicted to occur due to the greenhouse effect resulting mainly from pollution. This greenhouse effect occurs when gases are released into the atmosphere and trapped there. They heat up and, like the plant in a green house, so does the earth. Unfortunately for Gore’s theory many places on earth have been experiencing uncharacteristically cold weather and areas such as Georgia have had winters to rival those of areas much farther north.
However, whether or not global warming is true is not actually a fundamental argument in the quest for a healthier environment. It was simply a catalyst that got the general public concerned for their environment and caused a general interest in preserving the home planet. People love green spaces, animals, and the hope of tomorrow and those sentiments are what are driving forward the campaigns for better technology and better methods of conservation. So go ahead and jump off of the band wagon of big cars and big waste and join in the carpool line of people who care about their earth and want to insure that the generations to come will have clean air to breath and fresh water to drink.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The Enviroment
Last Friday, in class, we had to write a timed essay in which we discussed the methods a given author ( I don’t remember his name) uses to satirize the opposing arguments of an environmentalist and a so-called people-first critic. Upon reading both arguments it became clear to me that the preservation of the environment has turned into an entirely political issue from a more keeping-the-earth-from-combusting-into-a-fiery-ball type issue. The problem with this is of course the fact that because of all of this political bickering nothing will be done.
In order to discuss this issue more thoroughly I researched a more specific aspect related to the environment called global warming – or the gradual heating up of the atmosphere in layman’s terms . Though there is overwhelming evidence supporting the idea of global warming including the consensus of the majority of scientists studying the issue, it remains a theory (like gravity). What this means is that in the real world, there is no consensus because there is always of group of people who will choose to, against all odds, go against scientific theory, reason, and logic. The problem with all of this is because of the fact that there isn’t an overwhelming majority vouching for the existence of global warming or they are just a silent majority, then this means that nothing will be done about this issue because it cannot be proven. So humanity will continue to ignore the issue and eventually the world become inhabitable because of this.
The fact of the matter is we can all sit around and talk about how we are going to conserve, how we are going to recycle, and how we are going to by hybrid cars instead of enormously unnecessary gas-guzzling giants. In the end, however, nothing major will be done in the matter. Humanity will continue to consume the earth’s limited resources and pollute the atmosphere until one day the earth will no longer be able to support life. Why? Because in this day in age, the ruling class lives in such comfort and bliss that they will never be able to come to terms with the fact that such a grim future lies ahead.
The question now is whether technology will develop fast enough for society to discover loopholes around its current way of life. For example, maybe we will be able to colonize Mars before the Earth becomes uninhabitable. Maybe we will find an alternative energy source efficient enough to quench our seemingly unlimited thirst for oil and natural gas. At this point, its really all up to maybe.
So I’ll give you my honesty opinion. If you really think you can help the environment by recycling your Coke can then you really must be kidding yourself. If you think that by voting for so and so, the environment will be saved and the issue of global warming will be solved, you are again really kidding yourself. Politicians don’t care about the environment- they care about promoting their political agenda. Lets just hope that those “crazy”, “know-it- all” scientists, who seem to have gotten the short of end of the stick throughout human history, can figure out a way to save us from our age-old moronic selves.
In order to discuss this issue more thoroughly I researched a more specific aspect related to the environment called global warming – or the gradual heating up of the atmosphere in layman’s terms . Though there is overwhelming evidence supporting the idea of global warming including the consensus of the majority of scientists studying the issue, it remains a theory (like gravity). What this means is that in the real world, there is no consensus because there is always of group of people who will choose to, against all odds, go against scientific theory, reason, and logic. The problem with all of this is because of the fact that there isn’t an overwhelming majority vouching for the existence of global warming or they are just a silent majority, then this means that nothing will be done about this issue because it cannot be proven. So humanity will continue to ignore the issue and eventually the world become inhabitable because of this.
The fact of the matter is we can all sit around and talk about how we are going to conserve, how we are going to recycle, and how we are going to by hybrid cars instead of enormously unnecessary gas-guzzling giants. In the end, however, nothing major will be done in the matter. Humanity will continue to consume the earth’s limited resources and pollute the atmosphere until one day the earth will no longer be able to support life. Why? Because in this day in age, the ruling class lives in such comfort and bliss that they will never be able to come to terms with the fact that such a grim future lies ahead.
The question now is whether technology will develop fast enough for society to discover loopholes around its current way of life. For example, maybe we will be able to colonize Mars before the Earth becomes uninhabitable. Maybe we will find an alternative energy source efficient enough to quench our seemingly unlimited thirst for oil and natural gas. At this point, its really all up to maybe.
So I’ll give you my honesty opinion. If you really think you can help the environment by recycling your Coke can then you really must be kidding yourself. If you think that by voting for so and so, the environment will be saved and the issue of global warming will be solved, you are again really kidding yourself. Politicians don’t care about the environment- they care about promoting their political agenda. Lets just hope that those “crazy”, “know-it- all” scientists, who seem to have gotten the short of end of the stick throughout human history, can figure out a way to save us from our age-old moronic selves.
The environment matters.
Global warming and the environment, I’m not quite sure if these are separate issues, or if I’m supposed to write how global warming is affecting the environment- if it is at all, but here it goes. Global warming is a really weird issue that people try to make a really big deal about it, but it just is not, I do not think anyone really cares because no one thinks it is really making an impact on our environment. I mean but that is just what I think so do not get all offensive if you think otherwise. Really though when you look at the big picture, it is not going to affect us, it is not so do not worry about it. Just leave all that stuff for our great-grand children to figure out because maybe, just maybe, it will affect them, but not us. If the earth hasn’t blow up in flames or frozen solid by now I do not think that in the next maybe 80 years that we will be living it is going to happen to us. You can probably tell that I hate global warming and the idea of it, and I really just think it is stupid. For some reason when I think of global warming I think of Al Gore, it is weird- not really a good mental picture. The environment for me is another story- I really care about the environment and keeping it clean and preserving it for years to come. It is something everyone can do, even just a little goes a long way and it makes for a better and healthier life for us and future generations. From recycling to planting trees, picking up trash, setting aside national parks, keeping our planet clean should be a priority for everyone. This is our home and we should treat it with respect just like we would with our own houses and valuables. If we mess it up now we cannot just start over, we need to start now so that it only gets better and better. Think of the wildlife, millions of animals are killed each year by destroying natural habitats or pollution or hunting. These things can be, and should be, avoided and stopped. One of my favorite commercials on TV is the one where they are using the soap they are advertising to clean the animals off because the animals are covered in muck, and oil from polluted water. It is just so sad to see those animals suffering. I am not a tree hugger or animal lover (not saying that I do not like animals) I just care about the environment, and it is important to me to keep it clean and beautiful for us and our children and their children. I get this attitude from my dad who is a total outdoorsman and wildlife lover. He taught me to appreciate the world we live in and learn about it. Once you know the details of something it makes it harder to ignore it.
The Modern Day "Snake Oil" Idea: Sold by Ale Gore
So technically this is the global warming and the environment. As I sit here writing this I don't understand which one I want to talk about. As for global warming, I consider it a bunch of Hoopla. Just like the writing that we analyzed, I believe this global warming to be an attempt from the far left to attract attention to a cause and drain funds. Does it make sense for a man that was beaten in a tight and controversial presidential election ( who political career seemed to be "all or nothing" on the election) then begin to become the flagstaff for the entire global warming buzz? Of course it does! This could not become a better example. For the man who claimed to create the Internet, after losing the election he is looking for any possible way to reach a podium and global warming is his medium.
Let me say that yes I agree with protecting the ozone layer and the environment but I believe that there is unproductive hysteria that is coming out of it. Over the history of time, the earth has shown itself to go through phases where it is hotter and where it is colder. The Ice Age was a specific time of intense cold that was not caused by any outside human interference. Scientists have tried to draw attention to number claiming that in ten years all the glaciers will be melted and the ocean will rise up so many feet. First of all I don't find that very frightening at all; that there might be a possibility that there will be less ice and more water. There are much more impending crises than global warming such as unfriendly or terrorist acquisition of nuclear warheads. But that is not even the point. Even if these projections are true, according to the pattern the Earth has been on, they will not continue to rise forever.
All that being said I do agree with preserving the environment. Even though any of these efforts that we wish to protect will not be lost during our lifetime, it is our responsibility to secure the same national species diversity and beauty to our grandchildren that we are experience. Nearly every year my family and I go on a vacation to the West. On these trips we spend much time visiting and enjoying the magnificent National Parks. We are bless to live in a county with so many diverse climates to enjoy. But with this blessing comes a responsibility to protect what has been given to us. To see the prairie land of antelope pestered by windmills, looking up at a beautiful mountain and then noticing a home littered on the side, watching salmon attempt to jump up a newly constructed dam in vain hurts me. As we as humans become more and more developed we must not sacrifice the beauty of the land for a short gain of money, because once it's gone it can't come back! Just think how special it would be to take your grandchildren on a trip to Yellowstone( just as your grandparents took you) and realizing that it doesn't look one spec different than from when you last saw.
Let me say that yes I agree with protecting the ozone layer and the environment but I believe that there is unproductive hysteria that is coming out of it. Over the history of time, the earth has shown itself to go through phases where it is hotter and where it is colder. The Ice Age was a specific time of intense cold that was not caused by any outside human interference. Scientists have tried to draw attention to number claiming that in ten years all the glaciers will be melted and the ocean will rise up so many feet. First of all I don't find that very frightening at all; that there might be a possibility that there will be less ice and more water. There are much more impending crises than global warming such as unfriendly or terrorist acquisition of nuclear warheads. But that is not even the point. Even if these projections are true, according to the pattern the Earth has been on, they will not continue to rise forever.
All that being said I do agree with preserving the environment. Even though any of these efforts that we wish to protect will not be lost during our lifetime, it is our responsibility to secure the same national species diversity and beauty to our grandchildren that we are experience. Nearly every year my family and I go on a vacation to the West. On these trips we spend much time visiting and enjoying the magnificent National Parks. We are bless to live in a county with so many diverse climates to enjoy. But with this blessing comes a responsibility to protect what has been given to us. To see the prairie land of antelope pestered by windmills, looking up at a beautiful mountain and then noticing a home littered on the side, watching salmon attempt to jump up a newly constructed dam in vain hurts me. As we as humans become more and more developed we must not sacrifice the beauty of the land for a short gain of money, because once it's gone it can't come back! Just think how special it would be to take your grandchildren on a trip to Yellowstone( just as your grandparents took you) and realizing that it doesn't look one spec different than from when you last saw.
The Environment
People need to respect the environment more. I’m not excellently educated on global warming, but I do know the basics about it. It’s the rising of the global surface temperature over time. Scientists think it is caused by both human activity and natural phenomena. I personally believe in global warming. I can still respect a person who thinks that there needs to be more concrete evidence of global warming. I cannot, however, respect a person who takes things to another level and completely disregards that there is anything wrong with the way the environment is being treated though. You don’t have to believe that global warming is true to realize that there are problems with the environment right now, mostly due to the way people all over the world treat our Earth. There are so many things we can all do to help the environment, and some people are either too stubborn or uneducated to do their part. I can admit that there is probably more that I could do, since I feel quite strongly about this topic, but I recycle and I don’t litter and I try not to waste water. I am an avid supporter of alternative fuel sources. There are some people that still don’t recycle, although I think that this country as a whole has more recyclers now than ever before. There are still far too many people who litter and waste water though. I think a lot of these people don’t even think about what they’re doing. I could see someone tossing a plastic bottle into a river, not even thinking about the fact that that bottle will travel down that river and probably make it into the ocean where an abundance of other species live and are affected by that act. Imagine that multiplied by millions. I think it is people’s lack of thought about the other species on this planet that really makes me angry. We are not the only living things on this Earth. We share the Earth with a vast amount of other species and we are all connected. What we do affects them, and the numbers or extinction of other species affects us. The fact that all of the pollution we are causing is affecting other species that have no control over it whatsoever is really sad. I feel that alternative energy sources would do the U.S. some good right now. I’m not saying that we should completely do away with oil and gasoline as a country right away because that wouldn’t work, but we do need to become gradually less dependent. The supply of oil that we have will not last forever. It is depleting and it doesn’t replenish itself. There are actually people who think that oil replenishes itself in the inner core of the Earth. It doesn’t work like that. People should become more open minded about the idea of solar powered homes and cars, wind energy, and maybe even ethanol fueled cars. I myself am hoping that scientists will find a way to make safe hydrogen powered vehicles. The exhaust of these hydrogen powered vehicles would be water, and that would be awesome. Way better than these greenhouse gases we have going on right now.
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