Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Peak Oil Survival and The Skill of Ecological Perception

What people decide to do in response to economic failure always results in negative global impact. The essential idea that people have when finding solutions for any economic problem is beneficial to society. These “solutions” that the government and other people come up with are the problem. Humanity does not understand that no matter what we do, we add on to the earth’s destruction. This destruction can be easily seen through Aric McBay’s book “Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life after Gridcrash”. The author portrays to society that in our effort to fix one problem another one is created. According to McBay, oil consumption has led the world to oil depletion. This is seen as the most impactful resource that any nation must deal with. With people buying cars, oil percentages have decreased in the world and as a result of oil usage greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. The countries that are aware of global warming and its progress on the planet have tried to create new ways to deal with fossil fuel emissions in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, when these engineers created the hybrid car they did not realize that it would consume more energy than a regular SUV car. With a hybrid car fossil fuel consumption and exposure to the air would decrease but at the same time still increase global warming. Yes, hybrid cars lower fossil fuel exposure but it consumes more electrical energy and requires specialized and well educated engineers. This is just one example among others that McBay uses to show humanity that it is pointless to find solutions to any problem.
Meanwhile Aric McBay explains to society that the effort people put in to fix a problem is not exactly a solution, Laura Sewall talks about love and earth compassion. She believes that because love triumphs all people will willingly stop ignoring the planet and think of ways to help prevent the issue of global warming. This belief has been used as a way to show how people can change their view in social affairs. People with honor and experience with natural disasters can take the initiative to help the planet from continuous global heating. This aspect Laura portrays is that humanity can change what they do to the planet. These two aspects of literature can help people think and become aware of their surroundings.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Whiteness and World Without Humans

Monica August 3, 2009
Writing Seminar I

The issue of global warming has expanded and as a result experts have had conversations about it and written about the impact of our existence. In “The Deconstruction of Whiteness” and in The World without Us personification of buildings and the earth is expressed. In the conversation between Anthony and Carl, Anthony says “wanting to hear the voice of the earth, the notion that nature is crying out in pain…” (Anthony 265) Through his use of personification he shows us how the planet is being affected by our existence. We have created several corporations where the earth has made the earth feel pain of our lifestyle and from our consumption of toxic products. Similarly, the essay “The City without Us” states “Buildings groan as their innards expand and contract; joints between walls and rooflines separate.” This essay shows us that our existence has helped deteriorate the buildings in cities. This is according to our malfunction of not keeping water out of below ground areas. When water passes through the cement cracks form and a pathway for future water appears. These two works of literature help us understand the bad conduct we have with nature.
When we ignore nature we ignore the mishaps that we cause to our own creations. When the earth feels pain we feel pain, in this case the fact of cracks in buildings where in the end buildings collapse. Although both sources talk about the issue of global warming one takes the path about a world without us. This piece of information states that if we did not exist then the destruction we have caused would stop, yet it will take the planet a long period of time to re-adjust itself. The second source which is a conversation between two people tells us that if we don’t let the issue of racism end then our planet will harvest more disasters. With racism come inequality and no understanding, thus leading to the decline and extinction of the earth.