What the hell did happen to sunday!?

"We, however (just as tradition has taught us), on the day of the Lord's Resurrection ought to guard not only against kneeling, but every posture and office of solicitude, deferring even our businesses lest we give any place to the devil" ("De orat.", xxiii; cf. "Ad nation.", I, xiii; "Apolog.", xvi
-QUINTUS SEPTIMIUS FLORENS TERTULLIANUS (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm)

This is the first mention of the idea of a "Sunday rest", we obviously have fallen to the devil if we adhere to Tertullianus. The idea, in a very simplified manner, was that we gave up working on Sunday for public worship of god and to rest. Sunday was actually consecrated during the first three centuries of the Christian religion.
I agree with the Christian Church's idea here. While their definition of devil and mine may be different they definitely had a good thing going there. Unfortunately we are all sinners and inherently evil and now we (the ambiguous we that is America) force people to do stuff on Sunday.
The book A Reasonable Life starts off with this idea and was the nudge I needed to write this blog. People now a days are over worked because they have to be. Everyone always can use more money and the only way to get it is by working. Our nation is completely dependent on that idea of over working to afford items that may not be necessary.
Ferenc Mate talks about baseball on Sunday and how it has changed since he was a child. He makes the great point of how more money to buy the shiny equipment doesn't equate to more fun in the game. I feel this applies across all aspects of life, more money and newer technology does not directly relate to enjoyment.
If we take this idea as fact then one can then rationalize taking a day off to do nothing but relax because the extra work time and money are not going to create a happier life. Now does it need to be Sunday? well probably not but at least one day a week should be dedicated to personal health. Not only will this increase our pleasure in life, making things more tolerable, but it will also increase productivity in the work place because we are refreshed after a break. It would be nice if the day was unanimous amongst people because that would enhance social relations.
I think its incredibly important to have a time when we can decompress. Without that rest time problems, stress and hostile emotions are allowed to build up and that leads to a very unhealthy and unhappy life. It's important to enjoy the feeling of no obligations, of true relaxation because in the end don't we do all this work and racing around to have a happy life? why not actually enjoy it as well?

Black Friday…A Prime Example of What America’s Priorities Are

Another Thanksgiving has passed and families all over the U.S. have made their travels to be with family and stuff their faces with obscene amounts of food. Millions of dollars have been spent on food and gasoline. Thanksgiving is a great holiday don’t get me wrong, but it definitely takes a toll on our environment; mass consuming of food from the industrial food chain and subsequent CO2 output. What is even better is Black Friday, literally what has grown into an annual American tradition every morning after Thanksgiving associated with hordes of people scrambling to stores and fighting for the best deals. I feel like people don’t even really need the things they are fighting to get a hold of and purchase, but just because it’s cheap, brainwashed by corporate America. People are trapped in a society where materialistic items are a priority.

What I’ve learned is that people even in a recession will get their kids what they struggle to get their kids what they want to make them happy. People become so crazed and bent on getting what they set out to get that injury and violence even occurs. Last year for example, the door man for the Walmart in Valley Stream, NY, was trampled and killed by the stampede of people that rushed through the doors when he opened them. No one slowed down to help him, just continued to pressure on through like everyone else, leaving him helpless on the ground. This just goes to show you some of the morals and ethics of people are at. And apparently a sale on a toy, TV, or new gaming system is valued more than a human life.

In an interesting article I came across, eBay published an animated graphic displaying "Black Friday" sales on a map of the United States. “1,027,807 U.S. transactions are displayed on the map with two dots per transaction - one for the seller and one for the buyer…based on eBay sales occurring on November 27, 2009” (Steiner).

Spending at retail stores on Black Friday according to ShopperTrak, increased 0.5 percent from that of the previous year in 2008, which was a total of $10.660 billion as compared to $10.606 billion on Black Friday 2008. (Steiner) Regardless of how sleight the increase, I still find this fact quite profound being that we are in a recession and current environmental situation. What this tells me is that people still have not yet taken any of it seriously. A perfect example of waiting until it is too late. People are clearly ignorant to current crises. $10.660 billion dollars spent in one day! Here’s the kicker, according to Yahoo's "12 Weeks of Christmas" consumer survey conducted by Decipher, Inc. in October, “Nearly 90% of Americans polled will be using the Internet for shopping/researching and more than 70% will use it to purchase gifts this year” (Steiner). That tells me that only about 30% of this year’s shoppers have even participated in the Black Friday event, and that there is still a tremendous amount of spending to come before the Holiday Season comes to an end.

To add to the sad but true fact that many Americans have transformed our holidays into days for people to go out and shop ‘while sales last,’ rather than practice the true meaning of the holiday, and recognize its purpose. A great example of this is the release of the new game called “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.” “Activision Blizzard Inc said it sold 4.7 million copies of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2", or $310 million of sales, on its first day, setting a new record for the video game industry in North America and the UK alone” (‘Call of Duty’). The game also was released the night before Veteran’s Day on November 10, 2009, subsequently people had lined up for hours outside retail stores like GameStop in advance to get their hands on it. I’m sure all of these people were very concerned about honoring their troops the next day, not. Where have our values gone. From class one of the students mentioned a quote from the movie Fight Club that I really liked that went something like this, “What you own ends up owning you.” Very true unfortunately.

Resources

"'Call of Duty' Brings in More Than $300M." abc News Money abcNEWS.com, Nov. 2009. Web. 28 Nov. 2009. .

Steiner, Ina. "eBay Plots 1 Million Transactions on Black Friday Map." Auction Bytes The Independent Trade Publication for Online Merchants Ed. Ina Steiner. Perl Web Blog, Nov. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .

Obama in London

Watching the Michelle Obama speech on TED.com again put a realistic spin on how people should improve their morals and beliefs to something bigger. Barack Obama said “We see the world as it is and as how the world should be, the focus should be on closing the gap of these two ideas combining what the world is and what the world should be,” this is an idea if adapted would better our world as a whole. This concept doesn’t seem hard at all but it seems people are set in their ways and unable to budge for a significant change. We have our leaders such as President Obama that tell us these simple plans for improving our lifestyle and for many it is far reaching. We all know what the world should be like, no pollutants, no war, no global warming, no violence, ect. Yet people are genuinely lost about where to start.
The video to me is a starting point that many take for granted: education. Michelle Obama hit on the fact that women have struggled all through the ages and living in a country where women do have equal rights we should take that opportunity by the horns and be the best that we can be. Like she had said she has never skipped a class, she loved getting A’s, and she never handed anything in late because to her being smart was her top priority. I find this story to be an eye-opener since I do realize I take education for granted, I do not get straight A’s as it is possible to do so nor be the best that I can be. It shows that like the rest of the world I am taking everything that feels so easy for granted, people take the health of our environment for granted, the ability to go to school, our cheap goods, and oil was a major resource we took advantage of and look where the United States is now. By ignoring what really is at stake there could be dire consequences from each of the examples above. It comes back down to what President Obama has said we are not stupid we know the troubles we are faced with but it all depends on how we take our aspiration of what the world should be and combine that ideal with our present.
The last bit of the video Michelle Obama explained the significance of the woman’s role in society just as Nancy Folbre has also touched base on. The woman’s significance in the world has now gone beyond caring for the sick, elderly, and children since we can now become career woman as well. To not take this position seriously I realize I am just like all those other ignorant people who are destroying our world, to morph what we know is wrong and put a bright light on it to make our conscience feel less damaged. I SHOULD make school a priority just as people SHOULD take global warming seriously, we should take these shoulds’ and turn them in to our present because there is only so much time where we can put these shoulds on hold until they blow up in our faces.

World-Saving

It could be so easy-- world-saving, that is. After all, there have been so many attempts, failed and successful, to change society already. For example, during the 1960's, there was an entire generation of people fighting different movements, all with similar goals. Civil rights, women's rights, anti-war, and even anti-government protests were happening everywhere. A brand new culture emerged from this movement and has been put on the back burner for decades. However, the ideals of those indiviuals so dedicated to helping others survived and they will not be quiet any longer. A coalition of people is beginning to emerge once again that wants to save the world. Groups are being created, documentaries taped, books written, lives dedicated to this movement. So what is the common goal? It seems that the common goal is peace with mother nature. We want to be in harmony with our planet and all of those who dwell thereon.
It seems like a simple enough goal to achieve. However, there are many artificial exterior barriers to true and permanent sustainability. I say that these are artificial because I believe that many people are miserable and have absolutely no idea. The true goal of all creatures in existence is nourishment and survival. I think that humans have a deeper sense of what this means-- we want to be happy. In order to feel happy in a world that brainwashes us to participate in unsupervised consumerism, we shop. We accumulate stuff, then we die. And maybe after we die, IF we're lucky, our children will take our stuff and do something cool with it. This does not make any of us truly happy because it is an artificial sort of happiness, and therefore, an artificial barrier. I also say that the barriers to sustainability are exterior because I do not believe that they are true barriers to any of us unless we continue to believe that they are. For example, a low GDP is only bad if you say it's bad. Maybe massive production, trade, and accumulation is not a good thing. And maybe, once we all come to this realization, we will not fall victims to this sort of nonsense. An example of an interior barrier (as I would define it) would be spirituality (not religion because that is usually an organized institution, not an individual's perspective). This would be a true barrier because you cannot change the mind of someone who has different ideals. For example, if one person were to believe that destroying the planet will cause aliens to come take us to their planet which is paradise, there is no changing their behavior toward Earth. Luckily, most people do understand and acknowledge that harming this planet is not so good for any of us who are living here and plan to live here for a while longer.
World-saving could be very easy if we would stop fooling ourselves. What is the point of living an unsustainable life? In another class we learned "that which is not sustainable will end". It's such a simple truth. We all know that oil is a non-renewable resource yet we built our society to depend on it. Each generation is more knowledgable than those preceeding it and we do have the capability to make intelligent decisions. It is a logical step to be sustainable and if we don't, we do not deserve to call ourselves the dominant species on Earth. We are our only enemies. It's as simple as that.

Petroleum addiction and resistance to change

During my little experiment last week, in which I went without internet for five full days, I came to realize that the experiment had many parallels to industrial society's addiction to petroleum. The internet is a relatively unimportant thing to remove from your life (well, it didn't seem that way when it was for a class assignment, but in the scheme of things, from a survivalist standpoint, it obviously is), yet I was totally resistant to it when it seemed like there was no actual reason for it. Society at large is ignorant of, or at the very least in denial of, the fact that in order to genuinely reduce our depletion of natural resources, as well as our emissions of harmful toxins/greenhouse gases, we must make changes that will inevitably affect our lifestyles in big ways. With this in mind, it makes sense that people are so resistant to make these changes. It's human nature: if someone doesn't have a personal motivation for changing things around them, they simply won't be willing to. The veil of unlimited resources that has been pulled over civilization's eyes removes all motivation from the populace. This veil is created by people's easy, constant, mostly nonfluctuating access to resources that we are in danger of depleting, as well as by the misleading notion that some scientists disagree with the general consensus that humans are affecting global warming and depleting resources at an unsustainable rate (which is only true if by "some" you mean "a very small minority"). The idea that Hubbert's peak exists even on a global scale is frightening, but is foreign to most of society.

The illusion that the resources that power all of modern civilization cannot be depleted is very comfortable. It is also very easy to believe when you have not been presented with the information necessary to reach the conclusion that such is not the case, by any stretch of the imagination. I also think that some people really just don't consider these issues, and don't care at all. They believe that it's a problem that future generations will have to cope with, and they probably think that by then... we'll have some miracle cure or some such. I believe that the luxury afforded to richer nations by their unprecedented abuse of natural resources is what fuels this disdain of change. Using less resources means cutting out some aspects of what makes life so wonderful for these people. And in fact, it will take a massive reconfiguration of resource allocation in order for the changes to be effective. Sustainable local economies must be created, which is a gigantic undertaking considering our huge reliance on goods being shipped from all over the world. It is probable that the only way change will ever actually occur is by extreme measures on the part of governments the world over. Infrastructure must be created, and policies must be enforced that are conducive to reducing our dependence on these resources. But, politicians, as smart as they are in all the wrong ways, know that the constituency of people who will vote for someone promising "intrusive policies to evade a devastating worldwide crisis of global warming and resource depletion" is limited, to say the least. Hopefully someone will reconcile this, and Obama has definitely been a step in the right direction, but my feelings on the subject are admittedly rather grim at the moment. I don't always feel this way, though. There are people all over the world who care about this, and I myself have a long life ahead of me during which this issue will continuously by contemplated. There's no doubt in my mind that humans can avert this crisis. It is a matter of whether or not we will.

More than Meat

Some people believe that due to all of the growth hormones that industrial farming puts into our cows and subsequently the food that most commonly finds its way to the supermarket shelves us Americans shop at, we unfortunately ingest these hormones along with other drugs and antibiotics that arguably have negative health affects, and are definitely unnatural to our bodies. Humans are not meant to eat genetically enhanced, drug cocktail formula fed cows inhumanely kept on feed lots filling their faces with corn feed, with the drugs mixed in to keep them alive and make them grow faster. Their bodies were never meant for this way of life; that is why the cows are always sick and need to have the antibiotics in the first place to survive. They were never meant to eat corn, but instead their stomachs were designed to eat grass. Just like cows we’re never meant to live under these conditions, living in the way we do eating the food we eat. As you can see, the system we depend on is not working, and is soon to collapse. Everything is over worked and over pumped with drugs to keep them going in the face of negative consequences.

Over-population is a subsequent cause of this unethical system of factory farming, nitrogen based fertilizers, and feed-lots where cows are stuffed with corn filled with drugs to keep them alive in such inadequate conditions. In my Evolutionary Psychology class we discussed how there is evidence of females having their periods at much earlier ages. We also learned that ovulation is coupled with a high caloric intake. Americans are especially good at this. “Women with sufficient stores of fat are not only reproductively viable earlier, but if is maintained will also be reproductively viable longer” (Gallup). Yes, growth hormones in our food may arguably be a factor of this, but regardless, the obscene availability of food we have simply grown accustomed to, is also a part of the over-population problem. Clearly, the more food made available by this system of nitrogen based fertilizers, and corn fed cows, the more people can eat and the more babies can be made, however even this system has its limits as we are finding out. Not to mention, the food that make its way to our super market shelves that we are eating is unhealthy and unnatural. Sure, there is a lot of it, and it is definitely high in calories, however high in ‘empty’ calories. The food we eat fills us up and leaves us weak. Apart from the drugs, cases of E. coli are also much more prevalent from the Industrial food chain. It is not even clean. The other much healthier food chain we can obtain our food from according to Gary Kleppel our guest speaker, is from the conventional food chain. This consists of produce and livestock farmed and produced right in our backyards. Local farming is a far better solution to supplying food to communities than current industrial systems. Local farming is more humane, cleaner, healthier, as well as even closer, a very important factor. Our food cost is based primarily on the distance the food has to travel to get to us. Our food is generally transported over long distances in trucks before it ever gets onto our plate. According to Kleppel, the more time your food sits in a truck, the fewer nutrients it contains. Also, local farming completely eliminates the need for this transportation, which accounts for a lot of the fuel burned and CO2 emitted into our environment. Local farming also promotes closer-knit closer, bonded communities something I am very fond of. With a community all working together on the same bandwagon, the results are phenomenal as we saw was the case in the movie about Cuba, and their encounter with the power shortage.

The industrial food chain is a major pollution producer, as oppose to that of the conventional system which is carbon sequestering. I feel that it is not a hard decision at all to switch over to the conventional system. I have a high respect for the local farmers, growing up around farmers myself when I was younger in New Jersey. My grandparents owned a tree nursery, and their best friends and neighbors, owned a horse farm. It may not be the best smell, but I love the smell and feel of a farm, it is so natural and right; Freedom from the materialistic mainstream society. Hard-work and raw nature something everyone should experience once.

References

1) Speaker Gary Kleppel

2) Evolutionary Psychology Prof. Gordon Gallup

Condoms against Global Warming

The article presented by Maria Cheng was not that interesting I thought. I think overpopulation in third world countries is quite apparent and there have been ideas of the same sort sprouting from all over. This said, I do not think condoms will make that much of an difference. It is also proven that there is a quite of few of these third world pregnancies come from rape which I doubt they would think to use a condom. Population rise in these countries are due to a ignorant society which is not ultimately their fault since education is not readily available. By not having the education that developed countries such as the US they do not know the dangers of multiple sex partners or multiple pregnancies could do to them. It spreads disease and is doubling their population. They do not think of birth control or condoms because they simply do not care, there is nothing that can be changed in their mind without the education that is so hard for them to get. By not having this education it simply does not make sense to them why they should not have 7 children , to them big families means more hands for work and that makes sense to them.
Also in this article it says that third world countries do not produce much green house emissions which is very true. Even though they do have many people in their country, too much to feed in fact but they do not have one car per family member, the need for material things produced from fossil fuels, bottled water, and other things that are burning fossil fuels in to the air. I am not saying that they do not have a problem, their problem is overpopulation but to say that by giving these countries condoms will cure global warming is just plain dumb. Their overpopulation will hit its peak like all animals, soon there will not be enough food for people and famine and disease will take its part, keeping the population in balance. I do not want to sound cruel but if there is no other way to get to these populations it will eventually become very apparent to them that they should no longer have large families because large families can not all get fed. Trying to give condoms to people who’s main priority is to survive is not a ultimate solution to keep the population from rising, there needs to be more understanding there. It is as if you are voting, you are not going to vote for a candidate just because someone told you to, you are going to want to know what each candidate stands for so you understand what you are doing.
The US has access to free condoms and our population is still rising and we are a main contributor to green house gases in the atmosphere. I think there should be a focus on US more so then these underdeveloped countries because we are lacking education as well, how do we not overly expend our emissions? Even with education we still do not produce as much effort as we should so in all we are worse then third world countries.
I think the UN is on some sort of track to help these countries from being in a very bad predicament in the future but as far as global warming goes that should be more focused on industrialized countries that refuse to change their ways to remain comfortable.

resources
http://news.aol.com/article/un-population-fund-urges-condom-use-to/772145

Assembly Bill 8163

I sort of feel like I'm making up for lost time with the blogging...well actually I am making up for lost time. However this blog I feel is very important, a bill in our assembly is very close to vote and I wanted as many people to take a look as I can get.
It all started when my mom came home from Albany pretty sad about seeing a tractor trailer full of cows heading to a slaughter house. Her experience lead her to discovering this bill and shortly afterwards she contacted me.
This bill regarding humane living conditions for farm animals. Primarily talking about containment of chickens, swine and sows. Currently these animals are so over stuffed into cages they lack the ability to even turn around. This sort of containment creates ideal conditions for bacteria and viral breeding. With this bill passed it will ensure livestock have the necessary living space to go about their business happily.
If you don't have time to visit the site I hyperlinked above, there are ways to help the passing of this bill...

New Yorkers and others need to speak out. If left in the hands of politicians, AB 8163 may not get out the Assembly Agriculture Committee.

1) Contact your state assembly member (click here to search by zip code). Ask your assembly member to formally co-sponsor the bill and thank them if they already have. Sponsorship is particularly important if your assembly member is on the Agriculture Committee (click here for a list of Agriculture members).

2) Contact members of the Agriculture Committee (and be sure to tell them if you are a constituent) and urge them to support the bill through sponsorship and a press release. The Committee has 16 Democrats, 6 Republicans and 1 Independent. The split is more likely to be upstate vs. downstate, instead of Democrat vs. Republican. Reach out to others in their constituencies and ask them to contact committee members. This is very important.

3) Ask people and organizations, especially farmers, ranchers, chefs, restaurant owners, non-profit organizations, celebrities, politicians, veterinarians, journalists, authors, environmentalists, business owners and the like to publicly come out and support the bill either by a letter on their company or personal letterhead or via an official communication that can be reproduced showing their support for passage of the bill. The bigger the name, the better.

4) Ask your village or town to pass a resolution supporting Assembly Bill 8163. The resolution would be non-binding, but it would demonstrate a strong show of support for factory farm reform.

5) Write letters to your local media (newspapers, magazines, TV) and ask them to print the letter or to assign a reporter to cover the bill. (A sample "Community View" published in the Journal News on July 15, 2009)

6) Write to us and voice your support along with any thoughts you have on how to promote passage of this bill.

7) Check back on the site often for updates.

Thank you,
Rick Tannenbaum
The Hilltop Initiative -- Building Coalitions
Valley Cottage, NY
(917) 689-1799
rick@ab8163.com

the most important thing to do is contact your assembly man because it comes down to their decision. Thanks for reading and I hope you all decide to help out!

UN Encourages Safe Sex

Recently there was an article on aol news titled "Fight Global Warming: Wear a Condom". As you can probably guess the article was about the U.N. Population Fund saying that if condoms and family planning advice were made more available to combat our worlds rapidly growing population, it would help us fight global warming. Currently the world's population is about 6.7 billion, and at its current growth rate it is expected to be 9.2 billion by 2050. Overpopulation is already an issue and contribution to global warming, can you imagine how much that contribution would increase if the world's population jumped up so rapidly?

There has been some controversy over this plan, some arguments against it like the fact that the countries where population is increasing the fastest are underdeveloped countries but the more developed countries are the ones contributing the most greenhouse gases. While this may be true, the underdeveloped countries still contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and cutting down the population of more developed countries wouldn't hurt either. Basically while I dont see this plan as being the most effective thing to cut back effects on global warming it would still be effective and it would also help with issues other than global warming like lack of resources to support entire populations.

Belize

In high school I had the opportunity to go on a humanitarian mission to Belize, Central America. Mission 2 Belize’s main goals were to finish up an elementary school they began to build a few years prior to my trip. Help promote the school schools opening and facilitate a summer program. We delivered provisions (rice, beans, flour, and powdered milk) as a gift to all families in the community. Educated people in sustainable farming techniques and worked toward selling a collective farm to improve the welfare of the people. While we were there we lived as the average Belizean. We did not stay in a hotel and commute to our various projects. We lived on the church/school compound, used public transportation, ate whatever the pastor’s family was having, and used out houses.

I bring this up because of our current assignment. Our test asks us to give up something that we feel we “cannot live without.” We all have fears about what life would be like without our luxuries and are presented with an opportunity to overcome it and learn something about ourselves. I had a magnified version of this test in Belize. I didn't have air conditioning in 100 plus degree weather! I didn't have a cell phone, Internet, hot showers, I-pods, fast food, or bottled water. Very large portions of the population live this way everyday while it was only a few weeks for me. One thing I will make clear is that Belize is not the bush. The urbanization and technology have a place here. Its beauty has made it a tourists dream. About 70% of the population works in the service industry (CIA). Many of the people I met worked in the tourism, side by side with our technological indulgences. Even with an experience with our air conditioners, big televisions, flushing toilets, and whatever, that they cannot come home to- they survive. They are truly happy. By experience I know that without these things I can survive and have joy.

I would encourage anyone to experience life in this way, if only for a while. It has been the most enriching experience of my life Belize has given me enthusiasm to continue to serve my community and communities abroad for the rest of my life. Spend time with family somewhere or go on a humanitarian trip; just experience what life is like somewhere else. As Wendell Berry Autumn said in his interview with Jordan Fischer-Smith, there really is a difference between talking about problems and having problems. The only way to truly understand is to "share the fate of that community-- participate in its losses and grief's and hardships and pleasures and joys and satisfactions, so that [you] don't have this ridiculous immunity that [you] now have in [your] specializations and careers. Then [you'd] begin to learn something. New knowledge would come from that, and it would be better than 'information'" (Wendell).

Comment me if you want info on my trip or other trips :]
Sources:
 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bh.html
(From Prof Hirsch’s email) http://arts.envirolink.org/interviews_and_conversations/WendellBerry.html  
Picture: I took this picture on my trip to Belize. This is the school we worked on during the day and slept 
in at night  

Save yourself, save the planet

"There is no degree of separation between the health of the environment and the health of us," said Jamie Rappaport Clark to a reporter from the Associated Press.
I was cruising the news reports on google regarding the Defenders of Wildlife, when I came across that quote and thought it was quite profound. Sure it's something I've heard and hopefully we have all heard thousands of times but the way it was worded here just seems to fit. Perhaps its the witty use of the word degrees when talking about environmental health in the age of global warming. Regardless of what it was that makes me like the quote, it also made me realize that even though people in certain crowds have heard this a lot for some people it's probably a first.
I feel a lot of people see environmentalists as out to save the earth and the animals, which I would hope they are, but what people fail to see is that if we don't, we die. I'm not really sure we should sugar coat it anymore, if our planet becomes uninhabitable we don't have anywhere else to go, resources run out and it's very likely to lead to the extinction of the human race. We talk a lot about going green to save the planet but there isn't really any focus on what happens if we don't unless you go out of your way to find it.
I hate to say it but no one gets scared when you tell them carbon levels are still rising. The idea that polar bears could go extinct doesn't scare people. The video footage of a polar bear swimming in the ocean with no ice in sight almost brings me to tears but I don't a lot of people are moved enough to do something.
But can you scare people with something so serious without making them think they are all doomed?
I think you can. Regardless of what we do today and in the future, earth will be here. If we die off as a species and the planet is rendered uninhabitable, it's only a matter of time before conditions will again be favorable for life.
It's a bit arrogant to think we will destroy our planet, when in reality we will destroy ourselves and earth will recover. The earth is timeless compared to the humans presence on its surface.
I feel this point needs to made as frequently as that of the polar bears because some people do not care about the fate of animal but they will listen if something they care about is in danger.
This is just another way to speak someone elses language. Science is difficult to understand to say the least and a lot of people wont spend the time to understand the many concepts of global warming and non-renewable resources. Just like we need to speak buisiness to corporations we need to speak to the every day person in a language they understand and have a vested interest in.

Cortez

During class on Monday we discussed grooming and how it can bring creatures closer together. We talked about its importance in ape and monkey society and we touched a little on how we as humans like to be groomed. The discussion in class had me thinking about my own experiences with "grooming" and perhaps the most cantankerous, yet unquestionably loved, member of my family.

Cortez, my Quaker Parakeet.

As you can see he is posted above locked safely away in his cage. Though a lot of the times this is not the case, he is usually out marauding on my screened in porch.
To say he is hard to deal with would be a gross understatement but to say that it wasn't worth it would be even worse. Him and I have had a shaky road together, he squaks at 6 in the morning because hes hungry and wants me to come eat with him, he is incredibly picky with his food and will become aggressive if he doesn't like what your offering, he doesn't like change, did I mention he is loud enough that I can hear him while im out walking? He has drawn blood over simple things. Him and I do not communicate well.
HOWEVER, there is one thing that brings us together. You guest it, grooming. He will let me scratch his head, rub his feathers during a molt and otherwise groom him and he does not hesitate to return the favor. He grooms my goatee which he feels is perpetually disgusting and my hair with his beak. This activity requires tremendous trust on each others part because we both let our guards down to "groom". This is the activity that brings us together and allows us to grow in a human-bird relationship where no other form of communication really works. Sure he can respond to commands (when he feels like it) and he can talk but he truly understands me when I groom him. It's our way to build trust and enjoy an mutually beneficial relationship.
So whether its grooming or gossip I feel it really can bring people together in ways that are otherwise impossible.

The Civic and the Divine

Many people have a tendency to care with our words and not by our actions. We sit in our warm homes and watch as the world wastes away on our large televisions. We pity the poor souls and whine for somebody, somewhere to do something about it. As the program cuts to commercial, we go back to eating our box meals like nothing ever happened. What will it take for us to change? What will it take for us to take seriously the degradation of our planets, societies, families, and whatever and realize that it is going to take a collective strength to change anything? We seem to be firmly rooted in the desire to attain the OUR “American Dream” not realizing it’s only a shadow.

I really enjoyed F.G. Baileys notion of the “civic” and the “divine.” Again, the “civic” refers to the rights, responsibilities, and obligations that bind both and individual and their group. The “divine” is the thing that becomes greater than an individual and the activities of the group. The idea of a collective coming together for something greater than any one individual within is close to how my family operates. The paternal side of my family is huge. My Dad has eleven brothers and sisters and all except one live extremely close together. You can find seven Bragg households from one street to the next! My Mom comes from a family that has too many members to count (between biological, adopted, and foster children). The roles within my family are a little blurred. Our responsibilities are atypical but there is a common goal that binds us all together, the “divine”. Even as everyone grew up and out (but not too far away), the ideal remained. We take care of one another. We give of our surplus to ensure another does not go without. We come together so solve problems and there is truly strength in numbers.

This is unlike average. Many would prefer to have much and it’s not even a thought to share ones home, food, money, and companionship with someone outside their nuclear family. We want OUR bottled water, OUR organic foods, OUR healthcare, OUR luxury cars, OUR American dream. And our sense of entitlement, our individualism thwarts others. As the Jeff Dardozzi article proposed, it is going to take a collective effort to survive- to turn this ship around to have sustainable living practices. This is much greater than individuals and their desires. Like my family, local communities to global communities will have to come to truly make a difference. It wont be easy... but like I said, there is strength in numbers.

Jevons's Paradox

The concept of the "rebound effect" originated in economist W. Stanley Jevons's The Coal Question. Although this was published in 1865 and was in reference to steam engines, the idea that technological improvements in efficiency will not necessarily lead to decreased consumption of resources rings truer than ever in today's age. Many people (the vast majority, really) continue to consume energy resources without so much as flinching at the fact that these resources are being depleted. It has been easy for them to do so, given that there has been nothing other than slight fluctuations in prices to make it tangible. The government (in the U.S. as well as in the rest of the world) has avoided addressing the necessity of pervasive, regulated efforts to decrease society's dependence on, and obscene consumption of, depleting resources. Obviously, as with most of our governments' follies, this negligence is largely due to their desire not to upset constituencies with inconvenient truths. A politician that runs on a platform of limiting citizens' petroleum consumption in unlikely to win, plain and simple. However, the ignorance among citizens that has resulted from this sort of culture has led them toward the convenient mentality that a sort of "silver bullet" is inevitably going to save us from our absolute dependence on resources that we are absolutely going to run out of some day.
In the short term, the sort of advances that have been made in improving the efficiency of petroleum consumption have ultimately led consumers to save money. Improvements in housing insulation and car engines, for example, should theoretically conserve petroleum. This, however, is when the rebound effect rears its ugly head. The improvements in heating homes only led to monetary saving for people, and so people in turn built more, larger houses that required more energy to heat, and adopted other behaviors that required more energy overall. Engines as well. As engines improved, people began driving further and more often. They didn't simply save money by using less gas for the same activities: they used the money saved to buy Hummers and be active consumers in an economy that is inherently inefficient as far as the nonrenewable resources. The rebound effect is ubiquitous in our economy. Even something like word processing, which was initially lauded as something that would save trees and create a "paperless office," ultimately led to an increase in paper usage, as it became easier to type and print words.
What this effect ultimately means to us, as inhabitants of this planet, is that we cannot simply hope for technological improvements to better our pattern of consumption of nonrenewable resources (that pattern being "consume without mercy or foresight"). It is up to us to establish a way of living which, in direct contradiction to the past few hundred years of cultural conditioning, doesn't require, or even allow, the massive, non-stop consumption of these resources that has been taking place. It is possible, but will be difficult given humans' general tendency to stick with what's comfortable. And the illusion of unlimited nonrenewable resources is indeed comfortable.

How to Recycle

I was talking to some of the people who live on my floor and they brought to my attention that they really have no idea how or what to recycle. I did a little searching on the internet and found this website: http://earth911.com/ . I hope this helps all of those who are just as concerned as the people on my floor but want to start a recycling regimen. Good luck!

Jevons' Paradox and The Sea of Selves

Economist W. Stanley Jevons first used the “rebound effect” or Jevon’s Paradox, in 1865, in his essay The Coal Question. The term was used to describe the use of coal and improvements in efficiency of steam engines at the time. Jevons stated, “It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that economical use of fuel is equivalent to diminished consumption.” He went on to explain that in fact, the very opposite is true in reality. During the 1980’s Jevons idea resurfaced in the work of two new economists, Daniel Khazzom and Leonard Brookes. They looked at the improvements in technology and their subsequent affect on the total energy use of a society. Their argument was that new and improved technology leads to an increase in overall energy consumption.

This Paradox can be seen in virtually anything. Costco and Sam’s Club, in which exclusive membership is required and so called “discounted” items can be purchased, displays this paradox. There seems to be a benefit but in reality since these stores generally only offer sales in bulk, that is large quantities, you actually end up spending more and acquiring more than you need. Another obscure example could be seen in alcohol consumption and tolerance. The more and more you drink alcohol the higher your tolerance becomes, thus the more alcohol you require to get “drunk”, which is hazardous to your health and results in greater money (resource) spent on alcohol and intensifies all of the negative effects of alcohol. This is a lose-lose situation.

When thinking about consumer spending I could not help but think of Annie Leonard’s video on “Stuff”. There is so much emphasis on consumer spending because our country’s economy is reliant on this “materials economy”. In our system is you do not buy things you do not matter. The importance of shopping and consuming in this country can easily be seen in times of tragedy like 9/11, when President Bush told us to SHOP. Our forefathers created this emphasis on consumption; President Eisenhower said that the main concern of our country should be to produce more consumer goods. Planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence conform our minds to the ideas of this consumer economy. Many consumer products are planned to break, many even studied to figure out at what time is most appropriate and will lead the consumer to repurchase a product. If products do not break than T.V. commercials and media will encourage social reform and change to the “norms”, so that Jacket with the hood is no longer fashionable and now Jackets with high collars are, forcing consumers to buy new Jackets when their old ones are in perfect condition. If consumers stopped spending so much many companies would lose money and possibly go out of business, which in turn would result in the loss of many jobs and increase unemployment.

Adam Curtis explained his theory of the sea of selves in a BBC documentary named Century of the Self. Curtis meant to detail the progression of human in societies like America to slowly but surely become more and more selfish. We are mostly concerned about ourselves and if not ourselves, our immediate families. We do not feel obligated to feel concern for others, may it be neighbors or fellow countrymen, or even our planet for that matter.

F.G. Bailey, an anthropologist, focused his studies on humans and power and collectivities. He used the terms civic and divine to explain two of the five terms used to describe the human persona. Both social aspects, the Civic refers to morality and what is right, just, and appropriate while the divine alludes to being part of something greater than oneself, a greater picture. Humanity lacks these two aspects of persona more than the rest. Many of us in the sea of selves do not see the greater picture of our existence and only conform to morals and regulations put before us by our leaders, without questioning them.

I liked this article and I think Jeff Dardozzi has unearthed a subject of humanity that is universal and will have to be dealt with universally. People across the globe are slowly learning how efficiency leads to greater losses and this can and will be seen in oil consumption. Once again as always the solution to this Paradox and many other problems that plague our current society is change, but this change must be universal and done by many on the whole. This is why, in my opinion, this assignment was assigned for Veteran’s Day because soldiers are very aware of the “divine” and its benefits and essentiality. They come together as one and work towards common goals and put no man above another. We as the human race can use them as a model for what can be done with a common mind and a sense of being something greater than ourselves. This idea of divinity coupled with true sense of civic, for earth, made by collective minds and not pushed upon us by government, will save us from this paradox.

Reference:

1) The Spector of Jevons' Paradox by Jeff Dardozzi

2) The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard- www.storyofstuff.com

The Rebound Effect

The Rebound Effect, also known as Jevons' Paradox, says that as we attempt to solve our future problems by increasing efficiencies in technology and using better sources of energy that the problems will only be magnified. An example of this would be world hunger-- as we try to feed starving peoples throughout the world, they become nourished and their chances of procreation increase. As these people have more children (who in turn have more children and so on), food resources are further and further depleted, leaving more people starving than there were initially. Therefore, feeding the starving will only increase world hunger. Another example of Jevon's Paradox is antibiotics. Initially we use antibiotics to fight off a bacterial illness. As we continue to use antibiotics more frequently thereby healing more people, the bacteria evolve so that they are antibiotic-resisitant. If this becomes a serious problem (which is very possible if antibiotic use is not regulated), the resistant strains will make more of us sicker than ever.
As more of these paradoxes present themselves, society has a very interesting response--spend. We spend, spend, spend in order to preserve what we think is in our control. After all, that's what agriculture is all about, right? And since our society's roots stem from those people who first became agriculturalists, we have told each other for thousands of years that we can control everything in nature from bacterial infections to the carbon cycle. For thousands of years we have been patting each other on the backs, congratulating ourselves for yet another triumph over nature. Now that we are starting to realize the serious consequenses of our actions, we are depending on the only thing that we still know how to do after we've wiped out all of our insticts. Now is the time to shop.
What exactly do we shop for? You name it, we buy it-- hand sanitizers, cleaning products, organic produce, bottled water, Ramen noodles, EZ Cheez, magic lotions, carpet cleaners, real estate, solar panels, fall-out shelters, solar lightbulbs, air conditioning, Ford F150's, chewing gum, MP3 players, recycled paper, sailboats, tupperware, protein shakes, trendy boots, Pepto Bismol, and sunscreen, and we all believe that if we are the best shoppers we can be, the world will be saved. Maybe if I buy one less cup of coffee in that darned paper cup--but oh, that's right. They give us recycled cups now, so if we waste a little more it won't really make a difference. The truth is, I have no idea what will happen if we stop spending so much money. I was brought up in the same society as all of the spenders, and so, I am also a spender. I do believe to a certain extent that spending can save me and my family, even though a part of me knows how wrong that may very well be.
Jeff Dardozzi, the author of "The Spector of Jevons' Paradox", referred to something he called the "sea of selves". The "sea of selves" is the group of consumers who believe that spending will save them. In other words, their spending is a self-interested act, not an act of compassion in an attempt to change how we operate or fix the problems that we have created. In class, we also discussed Bailey's notion of the civic and the divine. The civic is a set of rights, obligations, and responsibilities that bind the collective and the individual while the divine is something greater than one's self and that activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world. These two ideas may be the solution that we have all been so frantically searching for from behind our big screen televisions while relaxing in our recliners.
We need to become activists. We need to reinvent our local communities. We need to stop saying that we can't and believe that we can, because the truth is that WE CAN make a difference. The Rebound Effect is a real thing. This can accurately be applied to many situations. Consumer spending can change the products that are created if the majority of the population chooses to make better decisions. However, we truly need to seek methods that involve innovation, reinvention, and traditional practices. After all, is that not what human beings take pride in? We are the race that has defied the odds for centuries--let's do it one more time, but this time, let's do it for a greater purpose than ourselves; let's do it for our neighbors.
It is very appropriate to post this on Veteran's Day. These honorable men and women sacraficed their lives for our well-beings. In my opinion, the least we could do is give something back to them. Let's sacrafice a little for the many, as our troops have done for us over and over again.

The Paradox Box

Jevons Paradox, also known as the rebound effect, is the suggestion that increased efficiency of resources alongside technological advances will lead to greater energy consumption. The effect is that conservation and efficiency first decreases the demand and that reduces the price of an energy resource. Then, with a decline in cost, there is an increased the demand, therefore increasing overall resource use. This effect occurs because the resource is now available to more people and can be expended extensively. A great example Jeff Dardozzi gives of Jevons effect with the Tata. While many all over the world are trying to reduce emissions and the use of fossil fuels, the Tata Nano is introduced. This will be the introduction to the worlds cheapest and most fuel efficient car (The Oil Drum). Its affordability will introduce a consumer population of roughly two billion people which will certainly not at all decreasing oil consumption (Dardozzi). Another clear example given is the wonder of word processing. Before the explosion of personal computers, typewriting was not an enjoyable process. They were expensive and extremely time consuming. Many believed that we’d eventually go “paper-less” but they were very wrong because the cost to print dropped and paper use increased dramatically. The rebound effect in action!

There is so much emphasis on spending because it’s the hand that keeps our capitalist pot stirring. The power of the consumer who buys the resource efficient product causes the reduction of price. That then increases the buying power of other consumers allowing them to spend and use more resources. Even if money is saved it will eventually be spent somewhere in the economic system that requires energy. The ability for individuals to spend is the force that supports global economies so if consumers were to stop spending economies would virtually collapse. One thing, everyone heard in the news during our nations recent recession was to spend because to not do so would halt all economic movement.

In the Century of the Self documentary, Adam Curtis describes the transformation of our society by corporate America as a “sea of selves.” I believe that he meant that we have become a culture of individuals. We “look out for number one” and make life decisions based on personal desires and have lost a true sense of community.

F.G. Bailey’s notion of the “civic” refers to the rights, responsibilities, and obligations that bind both and individual and their group. The “divine” is the thing that becomes greater than an individual and the activities of the group. The workings of the “civic” and the “divine” are paramount in order for society to transform from a “sea of selves” into a collective society, a true community. Only with relationships and interdependence will we be able to break free from the paradox box and truly make a change.

I really enjoyed Jeff Dardozzi’s essay. It made me think more about the outcomes of the decisions our society makes. It reminds me that every action truly does have a reaction and not always the one desired. It is important for people to realize that it is going to take a collective effort to problem solve effectively. People will have to once again learn the art of putting others before themselves. That is why this assignment is due on Veteran’s Day. There are a few who understand both the “civic” and the “divine” and they have devoted their lives, if only for a while, for the collective- which of course includes people they will never meet. I hope it is in their example that we will follow.

May God bless them all

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3561

Veterans Day...Time to Return the Favor

The rebound effect also known as the Jevon’s Paradox is the term given to the phenomenon that greater energy efficiency and new renewable energy technological advancements will produce energy savings, however when looking past this simple assumption we find that things do not always work out so conveniently and that in the long-run, may result in higher energy consumption. Completely undoing any work done to improve the situation. Resource efficiencies as well as renewable energy technology provides the opportunity of population growth and sustainability, and because there is a direct correlation between population size and energy consumption, its valid to say that increase in energy usage is a product of the world being more efficient than ever before. A truly vicious cycle. Think about it, when you save money you usually tend to spend it on some other consumer goods, hence increasing energy consumption. For example, investing in a hybrid car which save s you ‘X’ dollars a year, and that energy efficient refrigerator, or central air conditioning system, which saves you more. How about solar panels? Sure these investments most definitely save you money and pay for themselves in the long-run; however what do you do with all that money saved. People generally turn around and use because, whether it be burning a hole in their pocket, or now they can spend more frivolously on non-necessities. Transportation is a big one, with the invention of more efficient means of travel, such as the automobile and the plane; people consume more fossil fuels and energy than they ever had. So here’s the point, the solution to these gas guzzlers particularly the SUV, are small hybrid cars, they can save you all kinds of money on gas. However, with this extra money saved people go out and spend it on more consumer goods, which require oil for factories to make. Hence the more purchasing of consumer goods, the faster we fuel the fire.

Perhaps, with the extra money saved a child’s Christmas tree on Christmas morning will be surrounded by double the amount of presents (consumer goods) than it would normally. Is this necessary? There many examples that can be made. When things are cheaper, people rush out and buy it, why do you think coupons and sales even exist. It is all psychology, to stimulate spending. Our country has even made a Holiday for crazed spending; it’s called Black Friday, the morning after Thanksgiving. Sales are announced days in advance letting the masses know what cheap deals they can get and people will rush out and fight to the death literally for these products, such as cheap computers, printers, DVDs, games, the list goes on, regardless of whether or not they really need it. It’s a shame that holidays have been turned into key dates for mega sales, probably due to the fact that people are off, so they can make it to the sale. Electronics in my opinion have to be one of the worse; it seems as if every time you go out and purchase a new computer, TV, camera, whatever it may be, it is always outdated in no time, replaced by something newer and shinier. So what do we do when a new more efficient model of TV comes out, we go out and purchase it. In fact we like them so much, that we purchase one for every bedroom of the house. Oh and don’t forget, Blue Rays look so much nicer on these TVs. In order to get your money’s worth better go out and a few Blue Ray players to, not to mention install a nice HD cable package too, so you can see every drip of sweat and dirt on your favorite baseball players face.

Humans are essentially hard-wired to go out and spend. Society puts so much emphasis for consumers to buy these goods to keep the economy strong and healthy. As long consumers stop consuming, the US economy will not grow. If people stopped buying, due to the lack of demand products will stop being produced. The flow of money will be haltered, having effects on taxes and prices of resources. I like to think of money as a ‘mess’ we are stuck in. It’s sort of a domino effect both ways, as the cost of energy decreases, people spend more buying the latest and greatest, this is economic growth. However this growth is proving to be detrimental to our Earth’s health. As the cost of energy increases, people won’t have the extra money to spend anymore; and if struggling to afford the necessities due to producers dwindling because their own financial losses, the economy will quickly shrink and fall apart weakening our country.

“Sea of selves" is Adam Curtis’ description of people’s mindset in today’s society. In his documentary “Century of the Self”, he explains how people are very egocentric and only think in terms of what would benefit themselves rather than others. He stresses how important it is that we relinquish ourselves from this imaginary freedom based on endless consuming, to have any chance ‘collective’ survival, of the massive hurdles that lie ahead of us. It’s going to take the joint effort of all of us for a chance to make things better and perhaps cushion the Earth’s retaliation toward years of punishment our destructive society.

In Tactical Uses of Passion written by political anthropologist F.G. Bailey, he mentions the ‘civic’ and the ‘divine’, the social aspects of personality. “The civic alludes to the set of rights, obligations and responsibilities that bind the collective to the individual and vice versa. The divine alludes to the notion of something greater than one's self and that the activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world” (Dardozzi 5). Thus, by paying more attention to the rights of others and recognize we are all collectively part of something greater than our individual, we can then relinquish ourselves from the materialistic fallacy of freedom we live in. We will then be able to experience what true freedom really is working side by side for the greater good.

I really enjoyed Jeff Dardozzi’s essay, “The Spector of Jevon's Paradox”. He opens the eyes of readers to how ignorant we are to the fact that through the purchase more efficient goods, and our struggle to become a more efficient society, we are in fact digging ourselves into a deeper whole, and consuming even more energy due to the left over cash saved. It is obvious that people need to sacrifice their egocentric attitudes and work together in order to experience true freedom and better take care of Earth our home, however why doesn’t anyone budge? This is the problem. I think more people are actually more aware of our problems than some may think, however don’t care enough to do anything to help. The refusal to look any deeper into the consequences, for example how our way of life may affect our kids, and the ultimately the implications unto the future of the human race.

Veteran's Day is a national holiday meant to commemorate and honor military veterans, people who risked everything they had to ensure the well being of their country and those Americans who live in it. They ensured that Americans could enjoy everything we have today. This extremely selfish act, an example of Bailey’s explanation of the divine social aspect, they fought for a greater cause. Thus I believe Veteran’s Day is an appropriate day for this blog, Americans now need to do to return the favor, not selfishly and ignorantly turn the day commemorating the selfless acts of soldiers into another mega sale. We as citizens now need to make the sacrifice, to pave the way for the future.

Resources

Dardozzi, Jeff. The Spector of Jevons’ Paradox. Google. < a="v" q="cache:MlS7zSutpAIJ:humanitieslab.stanford.edu/MAHB/admin/download.html%3F" hl="en&gl="us&pid="bl&srcid" sig="AFQjCNEPiLPzlvEf4vE5v57hZH4rCgmdnw">.

Jevons' Paradox

Jevons' paradox describes the effect of increasing efficiency by technological advances and how this effects resource use. It states that as technology increases the efficiency of resource use the price of that resource will go down. This causes an increase in demand which causes an increase in consumption. In the American economy this is a good thing. This is because people who are spending less on each item or resource the consume the more money they have to spend on other consumables which helps the economy to expand. From the environmentalists perspective the fact that resources are being used up at an accelerating rate is disturbing as it means that the idea of increased efficiency and conservation are flawed and that another mechanism for slowing resource loss must be sought. The idea behind conservation that has environmentalists shouting from there rooftops is the fact that if we all used less than we do now, we will have more to use later on. This means a decrease in spending on the part of the American people. This is bad for economists who would wish for people to spend all they have the second it comes in the door. This is because, in order for our economy to continuously expand people need to be making more money and spending that money with increasing efficiency and speed. This idea has been promoted for decades causing the American population to see themselves as consumers first and human beings second. The American dream states that if you work hard and make lots of money you to can have a pile of stuff and a big house to put it in. This individualistic country encourages people to do whatever it takes to get to the top irregardless of whether it is good for the whole of society. This has created a "sea of selves" a population all looking out for #1. Due to the free market ideals that have been driven into us since birth this sounds like a great place where one can get on top by there own means and take care of themselves and there family without having to worry about what the rest of the country is doing, but I believe that this behavior is destructive to our nation. In order to survive a democracy requires civic participation of all its people and a collective identity which cements society together. This leads to F.G. Bailey's aspects of the human personality that allows us to work together. One part is called the civic and the other is called the divine. The civic refers to the set of rights and responsibilities that bring people together. The divine refers to the idea that something exists which is greater than ones self and that to act together to work on behalf what is greater is the job of individuals. I believe that this notion exists in society today in people looking out for the greater good of all. The only problem is that you need to have these people empowered by those around them to act collectively to work towards a common goal. The "sea of selves" is a hypnotic trance which is not easily broken. With the promise of riches and a better life for themselves and there family the masses march toward the demise of the country that has allowed them to act this way for so long. This is why I feel that the idea of Jevons' paradox with be the demise of any population which oversteps its bounds and reaches the end of their once plentiful resources. The power in America is with those who have all the money and they are interested in themselves. This means that they will promote the spending spree economy as long as they possibly can and at the end they will get out in time to watch it all crash upon the ones they used to prop it up.
I feel that this assignment was due on Veterans day because this day symbolizes civic duty on its grandest scale. There is no greater sacrifice of self that to give ones life for the greater good of all. The men and women who have joined the armed forces as a call to duty represent the attitude we should all take toward our country. To serve our community and our country with honor and the strictest of discipline, to do what is right in the face of danger and to serve for the betterment of all independent of what they themselves want. This day Celebrates there sacrifice and inspires us all to follow the same path.

The Paradox

Jevron's Paradox is the idea that increased efficiency creates more demands and therefore immediately negates the original efficiency. Its a very simple paradox to see in everyday life, as we make something easier to do more people do it. The best example in the essay, in my opinion at least, is about typewriters. Dardozzi states that when typewriters were slow and expensive but with the creation of computers and the "paperless office" the price per word to print decreased and paper consumption skyrocketed.

Dardozzi also uses highway improvement as an example. Stating that improvements in the highway increase carrying capacity which in turn leads to increased traffic congestion. Then more maintenance is required due to the fact that the highway is being used by more cars.

Dardozzi argues that we are already in the Paradox and that no current approach to climate change and peak oil will get us out. Our current attempts will have a worse effect in the long run.

There is an emphasis on consumer spending because in a way, spending fuels the paradox. When prices go down due to increased efficiency, more people purchase the product who couldn't afford it before. The decrease in price opens up a whole new level of consumers to the product. How ever increased spending stimulates the economy and keeps things moving. Also like to purchase things, it's a social symbol for wealth. We are basically told everyday to purchase goods, we get personal satisfaction out of it and it helps to boost our economy but it also keeps us in Jevron's Paradox. If consumers immediately stopped purchasing things the economy would crash and our country would go into another economic crisis. How ever according to Dardozzi making people see the flaw of buying a lot would help to bring us out of the Paradox.

When Adam Curtis mentions the "sea of selves" in his documentary Century of the Self, he is referencing how corporate America has created a sea of individuals who need to consume for them selves. This demolishes any idea of a collective survival according to Dardozzi.

Bailey's idea of the civil and divine aspects of human cultures are two ideas of what Dardozzi thinks we as people have lost. The "civic" alludes to a setr of rights and obligations that bring an individual into a large collective. The "divine" is the idea of something greater than the individual and that your groups actions are significant on a world scale.

While I do believe some of this essay, I think a lot of it may just be banter. I strongly agree we need a larger sense of the civic and the divine but not so much so that we become individually mindless. Yes increased efficiency does sometimes cause increased use but a lot of the time the relationship is indirect. Even if energy is renewable it will still be limited to some extent and it wont be harmful to the environment so increased use wont be much of a problem. Also to agree with this essay you'd need to accept that techno logic inventions are putting us down the wrong path. I would say that to be true if we played by the "rules" of this paradox but when in the history of mankind have we decided to simply play by the rules? It's perhaps one of our greatest assets, it is our ability to constantly overcome challenges by consistently "cheating" or working outside the laws of nature and now we are closer then ever to doing so without harming nature in the process.

This is appropriate for Veterans day because the mentality shared by soldiers must be a model of Bailey's civic and divine. To put their lives on the line, to go through horrors untold, these men and women must believe in their unit and in something more then themselves. This is the very thing that Dardozzi argues we all need in order to escape catastrophe.

Veteran's Day Blog

"Jevon's Paradox" is a term that was originated by economist W. Stanley Jevons in The Coal Question. Jevon's wrote "It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that economical use of fuel is equivalent to diminished consumption." While Jevons lived in the late 1800's and was writing about coal consumption and efficiency, Jevon's Paradox still exists and can be easily applied to our society today. Jevon's Paradox, or as it commonly referred to- the Rebound Effect, seeks to explain that energy efficiency will lead to more investment in capital which could negate the conservation we are trying to achieve. Increasing efficiency will lead to more energy consumption for several reasons. One cause for higher energy consumption is that by being energy efficient people will have more money to put back into the economy, which they will because we live in a society where spending is the best thing an upstanding citizen can do. Yet another reason why efficiency is negated because while one person can be worried about their energy consumption, the same can't be said about everyone. Therefore, while some people will change their habits to consume less energy there will always be those who will not change their habits and negate the efforts of the aforementioned. One example of the rebound effect can be found in the way we eat. With the growing realization of the high cost of meat, some people might turn to vegetarianism or become pescatarians. While this would save us in terms of decreasing energy to raise and kill beef, transportation costs, and enviromental costs, it would increase the amount of seafood we consume. The oceans are already being exploited and "over-fished." Increasing the amount of shrimps, salmon, and other popular seafoods could likely result in near-extinction rates in those species. Another example of the rebound effect can be the rise of hybrid and/or electric cars. While these cars will certainly help lessen our carbon emissions, they will only result in more consumer spending. Hybrid cars are still much more expensive than traditional gas guzzling cars. An increase in their production might lessen the cost, yet the parts will remain expensive. Therefore, when the time comes for a new battery owners will find that it will be much more expensive than they thought. As Blake Alcott noted, "one person's doing without enables another to do."

Consumer spending is so emphasized in our culture mainly because it keeps the systems of power in control. As Dardozzi write, "the West has developed the technical prowness to repeatedly extend civilization's capacity to overstep the biophysical constraints of the environment, which has been the driving cause of the ecological crisis." Since the creation of the universe, organisms evolve to be better than their ancestors. The point being to live longer and reproduce, this point has been completely embraced by the human race. Humans want to live, everything they do is meant to better their lives and expand it. Reproducing is how humans keep their race alive. Thanks to the industrial and agricultural revolutions, humans have also emphasized another point- a class based social system. There are those who work for a living and those to have people working under them, making them richer. Those in control now seek only to stay in control. Dardozzi writes, "It is not without coincidence that the path out of Jevon's Paradox is also the same path out of the social and ecological crisis."

The BBC documentary "Century of the Self," is about how corporate America, run by those who seek to stay in control, has shaped our society today. Adam Curtis chronicles how our lifestyles have changed to be completely dependent on corporate America, we are worth as much as we can spend. The term "sea of selves" refers to our complete surrender to corporate America. Dardozzi writes, "our steadfast refusal to surrender illusions of freedom for the sake of the collective survival and well-being are conditioning us to fail." We have been conditioned to shop, shop, shop. Even in the face of a national tragedy, September 11th, our president encouraged us to shop. Unless we can learn to stray away from this corporate mentality, we will remain slaves to corporate America and continue to degrade our planet and actively engage in our demise.

Bailey writes that there are several aspects to the human persona. He writes that in order to have a successful dynamic in a community, organizational, and collective human setting we must have civic and divine elements at the core. These are social aspects of our personalities that allow us to successfully participate in society. The civic element refers to our "set of rights, obligations, and responsibilities that bind the collective to the individual and vice versa." Knowing that we all are subject to the same rules and punishment bond us, by having us all behave the same way, and connect us to the higher systems of control because we are collectively kept in check. The divine elements of the human persona refer to "the notion of something greater than one's self and that the activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world." This means that we have a sense of a greater power in place, in this case we can say that the greater power is the government, we are connected to it because we can elect our officials and trust that they will upkeep the rules we are subject to. Even though we are individuals, together we create a collective society and in order to maintain the harmony we must all adhere to the same rules or suffer the consequences.

I believe that Jeff Dardozzi's essay has hit the nail on the head. In terms of being ecologically efficient, this is a complicated term. He has illustrated how efficiency will only lead to increase spending in other sectors, or by others who are in effect "picking up the slack." Efficiency is a difficult thing to achieve because no matter how much we think we can diminish our ecological footprint, everything we do has a consequence. The rebound effect is scary to think about because it states that efficiency is not the answer, leaving us all wonder what it will actually take to save this planet.

I have one main reason for rationalizing why this blog was due on Veteran's Day. That reason is that after reading this article, after painting a gloomy picture for our fate, we are left to wonder what are our soldiers fighting for? Out there in the world, there are men and women who are offering their lives to defending this country. What are their ideals? What part of America are they defending? Are they defending the interests of those in control, are the defending the right of those in power to keep the masses under control? To keep the people shopping? To give them false hope with efficiency, knowing that in the end it is not a solution so much as a whole new problem? Or, are the fighting for the right of the masses to break free from the collective and away from the organisms in control? Are the fighting for the right of one person to stand up and push away from the mainstream solutions offered to us? We have to wonder what these dedicated men and women are overseas for. It would be a depressing thought to say they are risking their lives in vain.

Jevon's Paradox

Jevon's Paradox, sometimes referred to as rebound effect, is a concept used to explain that increased resource efficiency and renewable energy technology would actually cause an increase in the use of resources instead of saving it. This is due to the fact that energy saving technology increases demand for the used energy source, essentially increasing the overall energy usage. For example, in highway improvements, as roads are improved the carrying capacity of the highways increases and therefore traffic congestion increases, eventually leading to the roads needing to be repaired more often. Before personal computers were available everywhere, typewriting a document took a long time and was costly, but with the efficiency provided by computers cost to type and print a document dropped and greatly increased the amount of paper used.

Today, our society is completely dependent on consumer spending. Excessive spending and economic growth is encouraged in our economy, even if it means sacrificing natural resources and our environment, because it keeps our economy running. We have become so reliant on on excessive consumerism that if we stopped spending so much it would almost certainly lead to economic issues, if not a full economic collapse.

Filmmaker Adam Curtis describes our society as a "sea of selves". In other words people buy anything that they believe would be beneficial to themselves, without consideration of how it affects others. Our "sea of selves" is dominant and the selfish, materialistic aspect of our society is perpetuated. This idea is related to Bailey's notion of "civic" and "divine" aspects of society. "Civic" includes the individual aspects of society like rights, obligations and responsibilities, while "Divine" includes the idea that there is something more important than oneself and what the collective population does affects the world.

I think Jevon's Paradox is a very accurate description of our world today. Jeff Dardozzi's essay, "The Spector of Jevon's Paradox", does a good job of putting the paradox idea into a perspective of our modern society and gives good reasoning, excessive spending and self focused culture, for why our society has succumb to Jevon's Paradox. Veterans day is an appropriate time to observe Jevon's Paradox, since it is ironic how we celebrate the people in our military who gave their time, energy and sometimes their lives for the collective good, with our selfish, expensive way of life.

Veteran's Day

The rebound effect describes the increased consumption by individuals as a result of various steps taken to make something more efficient and consumer costs decrease. When the consumer cost decreases the individual spends what the amount its saving elsewhere. It goes along with the idea of "I'm saving money here so I can use what I saved to buy _____(insert something you’ve been saving for here!)." Jevon's paradox is a belief that with increased resource efficiency and developed energy technologies we will be able to rescue the earth from its current crisis. The problem with Jevon's paradox is that this will lead to more consumption or the rebound effect. For example, if an individual was to buy an eco-friendly car whether it is a hybrid or just a smaller more fuel-efficient car they will save gas money. If their new car is 45% more fuel-efficient they will be saving 45% of the money they used to spend on gas. So the individual is very excited that he or she is helping the environment and saving all this money and decided that with the extra cash they're going to buy that new cell phone they've always wanted. Similarly, down the road a family is redoing their kitchen and bathroom in their older home. They decided to update the windows and appliances to more energy efficient ones. They realize that they are saving X number of dollars each month due to the energy efficient appliances and windows so they decide to use the money to upgrade to the premium cable package with all of the movie channels. Again we see that the individuals use the money they save and buy something else. We have what is referred to as a desire-based economy; we buy the things we want to buy. This dates back to the 1920’s when the Model-T cars and the radios were starting to become affordable. In American Political and Social History I learned that this is where our present ideology of desiring the latest model comes from. The radio was used to fuel advertising and even back then they urged people to consume the newest things. This is where the idea of “I need” originally changed from necessities to disguised desires. The only way we can keep our economy going is by continuing to consume because that is how we made it and how it has been since the 1920’s. This is why when we are discussing the rebound effect and Jevon's paradox there is so much emphasis on consumer spending. One way out of Jevon’s paradox was looked at in Tactical Uses of Passion where Bailey analyzes the ideas of the civic and divine. The civic having to do with the individual self and the divine suggesting that there is something bigger than us. He feels that we need both the elements of the civic and divine at the center of our social life therefore there is something more than just yourself and your immediate family. Similarly, in class we watched an Adam Curtis film and heard him described us as a "sea of selves". Which basically means that we all think and act for ourselves. We buy things that we want without thinking about the consequences to ourselves, to others in society, or to the environment. This ties into Bailey’s notion of the civic and the divine. If we are only looking out for ourselves how are we ever going to worry about our planet? Many people don’t think on a global scale some don’t even think on a society scale and that it why the global crisis we are facing is not even a thought let alone a crisis for some people. Dardozzi looks at Jevon’s paradox and questions whether or not it’s justified. Dardozzi’s essay discusses why he feels that conserving energy will not be enough. One reason he feels this way is because of The Rebound Effect. He states that “every measurable increase in efficiency will serve to perpetuate this desire-based economy” As I mentioned earlier the only way to keep our economy going is to continue to consume. Consuming is a big part of why we are in our current situation in the first place. Dardozzi feels that the only way we can get out of this is if we find a way to keep the savings gained by the efficiency improvements out of the economy so that the cycle doesn’t continue. I agree with Dardozzi. There has to be a way that we can stop the money that is saved by efficiency improvements from cycling back into the economy. I think a way this can be achieved is through Bailey’s idea of the civic and the divine. If we can get people to stop thinking on the individual level they would be much more likely to try and put an end to The Rebound Effect. The reason this blog is due on Veteran’s day is because this is the day we recognize the Veteran’s of this country who sacrificed their lives for us. Their selfless acts are recognized and honored today and yet were discussing how selfish our society is. It is very disheartening to think that the majority of people in our society are not like the people were honoring today. So many people take for granted the safety of our nation and don’t think twice about what sacrifices veterans’ and their families have made. It is nothing short of ironic, how we are discussing our wish for people to think about others and help save the planet we live on while were honoring the people who do just that, they think about everyone else and do their best to protect the country we live in.

American Political & Social History -Laura Wittern-Keller

No more bottled water!

In class we discussed the limited resource that is water. I took a public health class in my freshman year and this was one of our topics in which we had a guest speaker for. This woman studied African life most of her life and one of her horror stories from studying the culture up close and personal was the lack of water and its effects on the public. She said the typical woman had to go back and fourth from a spring 3-5 times a day, the spring would be far from the village and typically the woman would have a baby with her as well. So on top of holding a baby she would carry a huge bucket of water that would be very heavy. Sometimes the spring would not be full and the woman would have to wait until water would rise to the top. Not only is this strenuous work that pregnant women and women with children should not have to do on top of that the water is not safe to drink because there are no filters the government tried to fix this by dispensing straws that had a filter built in but this proved to be inefficient and a scarce product. Another way the government intervened was by making boreholes, a total of 3,000 in all of Africa but this also was inefficient since these boreholes would stop working, 90% do not function properly, and nobody knows how to fix them, leaving the villagers in the same state they were in. The problem isn’t that there is no water in Africa, these communities just simply can’t afford it, they can not even get electrical pumps to get water out of the earth they live on because their government wants to charge them money that they do not have.
On the other side of this water extreme is America and our water consumption, and it isn’t the water coming out of the tap that is essentially free, it is our growing bottled water industry. It is estimated that a consumer spends around 1400 dollars in bottled water a year, that is just stupid, when we can get the same thing from our kitchen faucet. In a article I read Pepsi’s Aquafina is TAP WATER in a bottle so we are wasting materials and oil to put water that is available to the majority of Americans in a plastic bottle. In fact it costs the US 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce these plastic bottles not including the oil in transportation. Since oil is also a depleting resource people should be aware of what they are buying and stop purchasing bottled water. There is nothing wrong with tap water since it is closely regulated and tested, in comparison with Africa we are extremely lucky to have this tap water so why waste money and oil.

sources:
http://www.off-grid.net/2007/08/15/why-no-bottled-water-from-africa/