Who are police protecting?

This was an interesting topic that Derrick Jenson brought up in his talk about Endgame, or destruction of the Earth.  I believe that the police aren't protecting people but are rather protecting civilization.  Jenson defined civilization as being a way of life that is characterized by the growth of cities.  I believe that police are meant to protect and ensure the growth of cities.  The police are here to protect the citizens that contribute to the net economy of the particular city.  If a certain area within a city is beyond the point of repair, the police will transfer all of their energy towards protecting the civilized people within a town or city.  People that disrupt or hinder the imporation of resources into the city in any way will be expelled by the police.

Google Alerts Update

Google Alerts has been blowing up my e-mail these past few days and I just found an awesome writing topic for my paper.  I spent so much time brainstorming on ideas for my main topic, which is pollution, I forgot to answer a very important question: is it mostly a result of human activity or is it natural?  This article I found talks about the volcanoes in Hawaii contributing to air pollution.  I mainly thought that sulfur dioxide was a result of burning fossil fuels in industries, but I guess it relates to volcanoes too since fossil fuels are being burned naturally as well.  According to National Parks Traveler, Kilauea, a volcano located in Hawaii, has been releasing large amounts of potentially hazardous volcanic gases for nearly three decades.  That is emitting just as much, or more harmful gases into our environment as large industries.  It doesn’t seem like there is a solution to this problem currently because it’s not like we can just plug up the volcanoes.  I will look further into this topic as I begin my paper on sulfur dioxide pollution, natural and unnatural.

Source: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2012/01/if-youre-hawaii-check-out-hawaii-volcanoes-national-parks-program-volcanic-air-pollution9380

Writing Assignment

            Spring semester senior year, I knew I wanted to attend North Carolina State University, but I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life.  When I applied, I chose the First Year College because I knew they would help me make my decision.  My parents were pushing me towards engineering, and I kind of drifted towards that path as I set up my classes for freshman year.  I thought that since I was going to a predominantly engineering based school that I would give it a shot. 

            My first semester here was fine but it wasn’t exceptional.  I had satisfactory grades in all of my class except for Chemistry.  Even with Chemistry holding me back, I still had the goal GPA that I set for myself for the start of college.  It wasn’t until recently that I, thought twice about my intended major, engineering.  I remember we were searching possible career choices in our First Year College class.  Something told me that engineering wasn’t right for me, that I should be doing something to help people on a one-to-one basis.  My biggest dream has always been to be a doctor at a hospital.  I kind of gave up on that dream when I received my acceptance letter to NC State.  I took that as a sign that I needed to be an engineer.  I had no idea what I wanted to do with a degree in engineering, and frankly, I wasn’t looking forward to spending of my life doing math related tasks.  This sudden realization turned me away from engineering and I am currently trying to work towards a degree in Human Biology, which will lead me to medical school and hopefully turn me into a successful doctor someday.

             I came to find the human biology major by hearing about it through people I met randomly.  I would be introduced to a friend of a friends and his/her major would just happen to be human biology.  So I asked questions and heard that this was a major for people just like me; people interested by the human body, planning on becoming doctors.  I was ecstatic to hear about this major and conducted more and more research.  It’s like my life has turned in the opposite direction.  I was dreading this semester because I knew it would require me to take classes that I didn’t want to take, but I’m excited for next semester because I know that every class is going to get me closer and closer to my dream.  I know that it is going to be difficult.  I’m going to have to take more chemistry than I had planned on with engineering, but I’m going to do everything in my power to make it through this rigorous curriculum.

             

Google Alerts/Sustainability

Subscribing to Google Alerts has given me a variety of resources that will help me write my research paper on sulfur dioxide pollution.  I received alerts through my e-mail about articles related to my topic instantly, which allowed me to spend my time doing other homework.  It basically does your research for you, which is what I love about it.  Google Alerts gave me a list of the top five articles for today, so all I had to do was read through them and extract the ones I am using for my paper.  The one I am most fascinated by is found on mountainx.com.  This particular article talks about conservations groups announcing a settlement with Duke Energy to reduce the amount of pollution from coal power plants.  They are doing this by replacing the old coal power plants with new ones, allowing it to burn cleaner.  As a result, this will emit a lot less sulfur dioxide into our environment.

Sustainability is the way in which we protect the earth and the resources that we take from the earth.  Creating new coal power plants is contributing to sustainability of the earth because it is reducing the amount of harmful gases in our atmosphere.  This will allow plants to live longer and protect habitats for terrestrial animals.  The more we do to reduce our carbon footprint, the more we protect the sustainability of our biosphere.  

Harmful Effects of Pollution

            “Island Civilization” was an article written by Nash to make people think rhetorically about the ways in which humans degrade our environment.  There are various sources that would lead people to construct their opinions about our involvement in destroying the world as we know it.  One such source I found on the EPA’s website, which is probably the most accurate in regards to environmental protection (hence Environmental Protection Agency).

            Sulfur dioxide is a highly reactive gas that is formed when fossil fuels are burned.  Since the U.S. industry is so large, a lot of this gas is accumulating in our atmosphere, its source being from factories.  As this gas condenses into our atmosphere, its molecules react with the surrounding H20 molecules to form acid precipitation.  Plants require water and soil to grow, but with acid rain being a factor, the acidity of these two components can be altered in a way to be damaging to the health of the plants.  When the plants die, the animals feeding on the plants die, and the chain reaction continues down the line until we as humans are affected.  So this problem called civilization, or advancement of the human race, has lead to a problem that came back at us.

             We should be out fixing our problems.  Either that or isolate ourselves from the wilderness.  We are doing the world a lot of damage and our failure to protect what has been here for millions of years is inevitably going to wipe us out.

Source: http://www.epa.gov/air/sulfurdioxide/

Island Civilization summary/response

Wilderness means self-willed land.  It was here before we were even created and we are meant to take care of our land, which was a gift from God.  Humans cannot exist without the resources that our earth provides therefore we should protect it.  We cannot forget that we are sharing this earth with thirty million other species and all of us are interdependent upon one other for survival.  Humans have a larger responsibility than all the other species because we have the largest potential to hurt or help our environment.  The island civilization method basically is a means of keeping the human presence away from the wilderness, not the other way around.  It seems like we are currently trying to keep the wild from infringing on human society, but we should be more concerned about our human nature disrupting the other inhabitants of this earth. 

            In order to create this island civilization, we are to put the earth first.  Most people think that the biggest reason the earth’s timeline is shortened is due to the amount of resources we are extracting.  What people do not realize is that these resources will disappear whether we use them or not.  The biggest thing we need to concern ourselves with is not wasting this earth-bound energy.  So much of today’s resources are used on making previous inventions better, which is getting us nowhere in terms of protecting the environment.  We need to use our intellect and resources toward creating something that has never been done.  Going into a new millennium, we should be looking for this new advancement and use it to increase the longevity of this earth. 

            Presently, technology is creating a lot of problems because people are not using it in the way it was intended.  The way we are doing this is by abusing the power of technology.  Cars are a necessity in today’s society, but do we have to drive our car a mile away to a friends’ house?  Biking that distance is doing the earth some good (lowering carbon emissions) and it is doing you personally some good (creating a healthier heart, thus improving life expectancy).  Another scenario is abusing the power of running water, or more specifically, hot running water.  If everyone took steaming, thirty-minute showers everyday then the natural gas that is being used to heat that water is being taken advantage of.

            Scientists are currently concerning themselves with the habitat fragmentation of species due to evolution taking place, but they have not once thought about letting nature run it’s course and isolating civilization.  We think of the earth being our planet, but we are the sole reason the ozone is depleting.  Maybe it is time we turn the tables and delegate the responsibility of protecting this earth to the free-willed inhabitants, or wild ones. 

            We were like aliens coming to this planet from a distant galaxy; a galaxy that revolved around innovation and change.  How could we come and disrupt the wild nature of the earth and not expect any negative outcomes?  If we want to save the earth, we need to think of the environment before we worry about our own needs.  The environment was here before we were, so we need to preserve what is also vital to our existence.