Evironmentalism Essays - Energy Development, Energy Economics

Evironmentalism Essays - Energy Development, Energy Economics Evironmentalism Evironmentalism: The Next Step Broad Social Change Through Personal Commitment Introduction In the last thirty years, America has witnessed an environmental revolution. New laws like the 1963 Clean Air Act and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act forged new ground in political environmentalism. Social phenomena like Earth Day, organized by Dennis Hayes in 1970, and the beginning of large-scale recycling, marked by Oregon's 1972 Bottle Bill, have help change the way Americans think about the environment. As we approach the third millennium, however, we must reconsider our place on the planet and reflect on our efforts and progress towards a sustainable society. As global warming becomes a scientific reality, natural disasters make monthly appearances in the headlines, and communities continue to find their ground-water contaminated by industrial and nuclear waste, we must ask ourselves: are we doing enough? The environmental movement in the past has largely been a social and political phe nomenon. While many of us recycle (yet still only 35 percent of us) and take dead batteries to our town's Hazardous Waste Day, most Americans have not made the environment a personal issue. Very few of us have taken the kind of personal life-changing steps that are necessary to create an environmentally sustainable society. It is simply naive to believe that America's present rates of consumption, waste production, and environmental contamination are sustainable. The kind of social change required can only happen when we as individuals embrace the effort in our everyday lives. Only then will corporate America and the government realize that they too must change to maintain their customer base and public support. This kind of personal commitment to change would also create a new social ethic based on the environment under which people and companies who do not care for the earth would be held socially and financially responsible. In six parts, this article will re-examine our place in the environmental movement and investigate exactly what changes we can make in our personal lives to bring about positive change. These areas are transportation, energy, recycling and waste management, toxins and pollution, food, and water. Some of the changes discussed will require sacrifice. But, more important, these changes will often simplify our lives, bring our families and communities closer together, and help us to better understand, revere, and coexist with the world upon which each of us is directly dependent. Transportation The invention of the automobile is one of history's greatest environmental disasters. The automobile decentralized our society. People with cars moved out of the city and drove to work from their suburban homes. Before the automobile, agriculture was local. Food was grown by farmers living in what was soon to be the suburbs, and delivered fresh to markets in the cities. Because of the short distance food had to travel, farmers didn't need to add pres ervatives or other additives to maintain freshness. Clearly, the automobile, like other harmful inventions, makes our lives easier in many ways, but how often do we consider the environment when weighing these benefits? Fossil fuels account for the automobile's most significant effect on the environment. Not only are the emissions from cars and trucks toxic to every air-breathing organism, but every step of the fossil fuel process, from extraction to disposal, is bad for the environment. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), millions of gallons of untreated water contaminated by the drilling processes are dumped into waterways and oceans annually. Once extracted, fossil fuels are frequently refined on site, burying 179 million tons of toxic waste annually. During transport, an average of 1 million gallons of oil is spilled into the ocean each month. Upon arrival, fossil fuels are usually burned in automobiles or power plants. The average coal-burning power pla nt burns about 10,000 tons of coal in a single day. With even a low estimate of five per cent waste, that leaves 500 tons of toxic waste produced each day by a single power plant. If used in cars, oil must be refined further, wasting more energy and creating more toxic waste before drivers purchase it. The combustion engines used in cars and trucks emit toxic gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect and acid rain, deplete the ozone

Rock Island Union Prison

Rock Island Union Prison In August 1863, United States Army began construction of the Rock Island Prison. Located on an Island between Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois, the prison was designed to house captured Confederate Army soldiers. The plan was to build 84 barracks with each one housing 120 prisoners along with their own kitchen.  The stockade fence was 12 feet high. There was a sentry placed every one hundred feet with only two openings to get inside. The prison was to be built on 12 acres of the 946 acres that encompassed the island. The First Prisoners In December 1863, the yet unfinished Rock Island Prison received its first prisoners who had been captured by General Ulysses S. Grant troops during  the Battle of Lookout Mountain,  in Chattanooga, Tennessee. While the first group numbered 468, by the end of the month the prison population would exceed 5000 captured Confederate soldiers, some of them also having been captured at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Tennessee. Temperatures were below zero degrees Fahrenheit in December 1963 when those first prisoners arrived. The temperature would be reported as low as thirty-two degrees below zero at times during for the rest of that first winter.   Disease and Malnutrition at Rock Island Since the construction of the prison was not completed when the first Confederate prisoner’s arrived, sanitation and disease, especially a smallpox outbreak, were issues at that time.  As a response,  in the spring of 1864, the Union Army built a hospital and installed a sewer system which helped improve conditions inside the prison walls immediately, as well as ending the smallpox epidemic. In June 1864, Rock Island Prison severely changed the amount of rations that prisoners received due to how Andersonville Prison was treating Union Army soldiers who were prisoners. This change in rations resulted in both malnutrition and scurvy which led to the death of Confederate prisoners at the Rock Island Prison facility. During the time  that Rock Island was in operation, it housed over 12,000 Confederate soldiers of which nearly 2000 died, but although many claim that  Rock Island was comparable to the Confederate’s Andersonville Prison from an inhumane standpoint only seventeen percent of their prisoners died compared to twenty-seven percent of Andersonville’s total population. In addition, Rock Island had enclosed barracks versus the man-made tents or totally being in the elements as was the case in Andersonville. Prison Escapes A total of forty-one prisoners escaped and were not recaptured. One of the largest escapes occurred in June 1864 when several prisoners tunneled their way out. The last two were caught as they came out of the tunnel and another three were caught while still on the island. One escapee drowned while swimming across the Mississippi River, but another six successfully made it across. Within a couple of days, four of those were re-captured by Union forces but two were able to completely elude capture. Rock Island Closes The Rock Island Prison closed in July 1865 and the prison was totally destroyed shortly thereafter.  In 1862, the United States Congress established an arsenal on Rock Island and today it is our country’s largest government operated arsenal that encompasses almost the entire island. It is now called Arsenal Island. The only remaining evidence that there was a prison that held Confederate soldiers during the Civil War is the Confederate Cemetery where approximately 1950 prisoners are buried. Additionally, the Rock Island National Cemetery is also located on the island, where the remains of at least 150 Union guards are interred, as well as over 18,000 Union soldiers.

Dry needling of a verrucae pedis and effectiveness of this Essay

Dry needling of a verrucae pedis and effectiveness of this intervention - Essay Example etc., or total removal of the lesion/s by surgery (electrocautery, cryosurgery, complete surgical excision or treatment with lasers) (Patel, 2005, Merck). Persistence and recurrence has always been a nagging problem with Verrucae pedis. HPV virus has more than a 100 strains and is a difficult infection to control despite availability of vaccines incorporating the most prevalent strains. It has been noticed in a study that HPV 7 was the predominant genotype responsible for verrucae in male patients, particularly in the toe web areas (Sun et al, 2010). Verrucae usually result after infection by the HPV virus through skin abrasions, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. They are primarily localized in the epidermal layer of the skin making them resistant to the action of host cellular immune responses (Merck). ‘They are sharply demarcated, rough, round or irregular, firm, and light gray, yellow, brown, or gray-black nodules 2 to 10 mm in diameter’ (Merck). Verrucae can be distinguished from corns and calluses from their tendency to be flattened by pressure and evidence of cornified epithelium surrounding the lesion. They are usually tender making standing as well as walking difficult for the sufferer. They have a tendency for pinpoint bleeding when the surface is pared away (Merck). Although some Verrucae may disappear spontaneously, others require specific treatment. It is important to establish and confirm the diagnosis prior to initiating any treatment as numerous viral and fungal lesions affect the human skin (Trent et al, 2001). These include infections with Herpes simplex, herpes zoster, tinea, candida and numerous other organisms which might present similar lesions. A total cure rate of 87% has also been reported by intralesional treatment with either a single or double injection of bleomycin sulfate (Salk & Douglas, 2006). Needling is a technique which has gained popularity over the recent years. This particular intervention was described

Dance Critical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Dance Critical Analysis - Essay Example Her body was expert in making curved patterns, waves, propels, rises, and drops. Her body movements were quivering and quaking with the music, which was some Egyptian melody. Since I knew that in belly dance, the audience is supposed to give attention to individual movements of all body parts instead of foot movements, I closely observed the patterns the dancer was making with her body parts, and especially, the belly, which was moving with extraordinary vigor and control. I saw that her hands and arms were moving sinuously, just like serpents fly in the air. The background was striking, and the colors in it and the dancer’s dress were vivid and bright. The dance itself was very emotion-evoking, as I found the dancer dancing in the happiness of finding her love. I would love to learn and attempt this dance style, and if I get a chance, I would definitely pay to go see this dance in

Compare two short stories where the characters face difficult Essay

Compare two short stories where the characters face difficult situations We are comparing the stories ‘Flight’ by Doris Lessing and ‘Your shoes’ by Michele Roberts. They both deal with the issue of daughters leaving home and how it affects the whole family. In ‘Flight’, the granddad is affected most severely but in ‘Your Shoes’, it is the mother. ‘Your Shoes’ is written in a first person narrative from the mother’s perspective. ‘Flight’ is written in the third person. The main theme of the stories is growing up and letting go/ moving on. In ‘Fight’ the granddad is overprotective of the granddaughter and she craves freedom from him and the atmosphere of the house she has grown up in. Her granddad makes her feel that getting married and moving away is wrong, ‘She’ll marry him next, I’m telling you; she’ll be marrying him next!’. In ‘Your Shoes’ there is a similar theme of over protectiveness and inability of the guardian to let go. However, in ‘Your Shoes’ the daughter actually runs away from the mother, whereas in ‘Flight’ the granddad simply feels that she is running away. The two stories conclude in very different ways. In ‘Flight’ the granddad symbolises that he is finally ready to let go of his granddaughter by releasing, if only for a short while, the pigeon that has symbolised her throughout the whole story. In ‘Your Shoes’ it contrasts this by the mother becoming increasingly unstable as the story progresses and ending with her seeming to have a mental breakdown. In ‘Flight’ the characters deal with the difficulties very differently than in ‘Your Shoes’. The granddad in ‘Flight’ tries to lock his granddaughter away from the world and convince himself he is doing it for her own good. The gra... ...of the mother’s family history, which shows that she didn’t take the side of her mother either, but went onto her father’s side. In ‘Flight’ and ‘Your Shoes’ the characters deal with the similar difficulties very differently. Both authors use symbolism to emphasise the difficulties or dilemmas, pigeons are used in ‘Flight’ and trainers are used in ‘Your Shoes’. The symbols in both stories relate to travelling or a journey. I think that the symbolism is effective in both stories but more so in ‘Your Shoes’ as the shoes represent several things; the pureness that the mother wants the daughter to have, the overbearing nature of the mother, the mother’s obsession with order and the fact that the mother can communicate better with a pair of shoes than she can with her own daughter. In comparison, I enjoyed ‘Your Shoes’ far more and found it more interesting. Compare two short stories where the characters face difficult Essay Compare two short stories where the characters face difficult situations We are comparing the stories ‘Flight’ by Doris Lessing and ‘Your shoes’ by Michele Roberts. They both deal with the issue of daughters leaving home and how it affects the whole family. In ‘Flight’, the granddad is affected most severely but in ‘Your Shoes’, it is the mother. ‘Your Shoes’ is written in a first person narrative from the mother’s perspective. ‘Flight’ is written in the third person. The main theme of the stories is growing up and letting go/ moving on. In ‘Fight’ the granddad is overprotective of the granddaughter and she craves freedom from him and the atmosphere of the house she has grown up in. Her granddad makes her feel that getting married and moving away is wrong, ‘She’ll marry him next, I’m telling you; she’ll be marrying him next!’. In ‘Your Shoes’ there is a similar theme of over protectiveness and inability of the guardian to let go. However, in ‘Your Shoes’ the daughter actually runs away from the mother, whereas in ‘Flight’ the granddad simply feels that she is running away. The two stories conclude in very different ways. In ‘Flight’ the granddad symbolises that he is finally ready to let go of his granddaughter by releasing, if only for a short while, the pigeon that has symbolised her throughout the whole story. In ‘Your Shoes’ it contrasts this by the mother becoming increasingly unstable as the story progresses and ending with her seeming to have a mental breakdown. In ‘Flight’ the characters deal with the difficulties very differently than in ‘Your Shoes’. The granddad in ‘Flight’ tries to lock his granddaughter away from the world and convince himself he is doing it for her own good. The gra... ...of the mother’s family history, which shows that she didn’t take the side of her mother either, but went onto her father’s side. In ‘Flight’ and ‘Your Shoes’ the characters deal with the similar difficulties very differently. Both authors use symbolism to emphasise the difficulties or dilemmas, pigeons are used in ‘Flight’ and trainers are used in ‘Your Shoes’. The symbols in both stories relate to travelling or a journey. I think that the symbolism is effective in both stories but more so in ‘Your Shoes’ as the shoes represent several things; the pureness that the mother wants the daughter to have, the overbearing nature of the mother, the mother’s obsession with order and the fact that the mother can communicate better with a pair of shoes than she can with her own daughter. In comparison, I enjoyed ‘Your Shoes’ far more and found it more interesting.

Chronic Disease Risk Assessment Essay

When I did the assessment for chronic diseases I chose to do one for Diabetes because I am considered obese with a BMI of 39. 9 so with this certain risk factor of obesity I run the risk of developing diabetes, the assessment states â€Å"Compared to a typical woman my age, my risk of developing diabetes is above average† that is very scary because I know that diabetes can be dangerous and cause many other health problems, also it runs in my family, my father developed diabetes because of his weight, and now he does not have any working kidneys and has to do dialysis 4 days a week and requires a transplant, so my chances are high up there. There are a number of different types of diabetes, you have; Type 2, Type 1, Gestational diabetes, Pre-diabetes, lada, mody, Diabetes Insipidus, out of all these types there are some types of diabetes more prevalent than others, the most common type is Type Two, and this type can causes damage to both large and small arteries. This artery damage can result in medical problems, both common and serious; Heart attack, stroke, amputations, kidney failure, and blindness. Type Two can also cause damage to your nerves, you have a percentage of 60% to 70% of diabetics that develop diabetic nerve damage, with that you can result in the following health problems; Peripheral neuropathy, stomach and bowel problems, dizziness when standing, sexual-function problems, and localized nerve failures. With all of these health problems and potential complications you can significantly shorten the life of a person with type 2 diabetes. They all have the ability to diminish the quality of life. You can avoid these problems and even prevent them through diet and exercise, use of medication, and careful control of your blood sugar levels. With diabetes the best way of avoiding the risk of developing it is to avoid it altogether, you can make sure you talk with your doctor about your risk of getting diabetes and how to avoid it, start screening for early detection, these screening test will help to find diabetes when it is most likely to be treatable. With the screening test it will uncover the pre-diabetic state before your blood sugar rises. If you are considered over weight you should talk with your doctor about doing a screening test so that you catch it on time and are able to take care of it before it may cause any major problems. You can change your life style by getting more exercise and keeping more hysically fit, change your diet by replacing any unhealthy foods with more organic and nutritional foods, with the right amount of proper food and exercise you can take your own personal stand against diabetes, if you take the necessary steps to lose the weight you will lower your chances of developing diabetes, and extend your life expectancy, and you will not have to worry about developing any other health problems that diabetes may cause, diabetes is like a domino effect, once you have diabetes you can develop other health problems and all of them will have a negative effect on your life, making sure you lead a positive, an d healthy life style will lower your chances of developing diabetes or any other chronic disease that may reduce your longevity of life.

What Is a Nut Graph in Journalism

A nut graph is a  paragraph in which the main points of a story are summarized. Nut graphs are often used in conjunction with delayed ledes on feature stories. A feature story may begin with a delayed lede, often featuring description or an anecdote, that can last several paragraphs. That is then followed by a nut graph that outlines the main points of the story. Alternate Spellings: nutgraph, nutgraf, nut graf Examples: He used the nut graph to fully lay out what his feature story was all about.