Evaluating The Sources :)

I will now be evaluating some of the sources I have used to reflect upon..

2012 - Yesterday in class we watched 2012. The goal in this movie was to show us what is going to happent to this world if we don't take action now itself and try to protect it. Although we did not get through the entire movie I have a brefit knowledge of what happens in the end. I think the motives behind this movie were good; trying to scare us so we will protect our planet. But there is a bad riddance in every good deed. Due to the exachiration in this movie people will think all the warnings about global warming are just another exatiration when in fact they are not. However what we must comprhend is the fact that this is a Hollywood movie and it's main priority is to create a block buster that will earn them good money whilst at the same time trying to give out a message.

Baraka - This was the first movie we watched. Like I said prior to this on my blog you need to really think about this movie and analyze what we see in order to get the deep message within, but that message is amazing. I think that this movie was a good source to us as it put so much into perspective. I didn't think it was biased at all and all it tried to show us was regardless whether it's the materialistic world or the natural, we are all interconnected through one another and the fact that one's action has a major impact on the other.

The 11th Hour - This movie was just another typical movie. The reason I was somewhat negative about this on my blog was because we see things like this so very often and it's nothing new to us. But if we are evaluating the source itself I think it's pretty good. They got all their facts right and they emphasized on that fact that we need to start changing. I guess to an extent they were very one-sided and talked so much about what WE are doing to this environment which kind of made me angry but at the end of the day I guess that was the point of this movie.

Yesterday in class we watched this very interesting clip of this women trying to tell us what we are doing. It was the same old as she said we use all of earths natural resources and what we end up giving back are the toxics. However she used this one line which made her story different from everyone else's and thats when she said that way in which everything occurs (trees cut down from the natural world, transported to factories, distributed to stores, consumption and finally disposal) is in the form of a linear line when in fact the world is a sphere. When I heard this line it really stuck to me because a linear line and a sphere just don't go together. I really liked this source and I thought it was a good way of getting the message across as she focused alot on polluting forms such as consumptions which we all gladly take part in!

Final Question.

What is meant by the term "environmental overdraft?" How does it help to use economic terms when dealing with the environmental issues? Explain.

What is meant by the term “Environmental Overdraft?”

After doing a lot of research on this term I was unfortunately unable to find any search results for “Environmental Overdraft”. Due to this fact I researched the definition of Environment which I found to be the term very similar to Ecology.

Environment – A natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth.

Ecology – The science of the relationships between organisms and their environments.

Due to this fact I believe it is safe to say that the Environment Overdraft and the Ecological overdraft are more or less the same.

What is then meant by Environmental/ Ecological Overdraft?

The definition of Ecological Overdraft is the point at which human consumption exceeds the ability of earth to sustain it. As this world develops our needs increase as well.However the Earth can only produce so much within a year, so we are basically are creating a debt for ourselves by consuming more than what is produced. In 2007 the Ecological Debt was three days prior to what it was in 2006 which itself was three days earlier to what it had been in 2005. It is said by the NEF that ever since humans began living beyond their environmental capacity since the 1980’s the date has been moved steadily backwards annually. As I mentioned prior to this in my blog it is also said that if all the nations had the same consumption rates as the United States it would take 5.3 planets to support us. The Ecological Overdraft is nothing like the Tsunami or an Earthquake which will suddenly destroy this world, however it is a work in progress. A natural disaster will soon occur due to this but the only different between this and the “typical” natural disasters is the fact that we has humans are the people triggering it.

In order to gain a better understanding of what the term Environmental/Ecological Overdraft meant, I did some research on the Ecological Footprint. The Ecological Footprint is the measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems. It does this by comparing the human demands with the Earth’ ecological capacity to stimulate and regenerate. It also “represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste”. Using this we can estimate how many planets it would take to support humanity if everyone lived in a given lifestyle. The ecological footprint for 2006 has been estimated at 1.4 planets which means the Earth uses it’s resources 1.4 times faster than Earth can restore them. When this is all put into numbers it is quite shocking as to what we are doing to this Earth.

How does it help to use economic terms when dealing with environmental issues?

I believe the usage of economic terms when dealing with different aspects pertaining to environmental issues helps the society to better understand the issues at hand. In other words it helps create an impact and enables us to relate particular environmental issues into something that we all understand and value like properties or cars.

For example - we all know that there is great value in a rainforest. If one wants to take the Sinharaja rainforest which is a world heritage site situated in Sri Lanka into consideration, whilst one appreciates the so called “value” to society one is simply unaware of how important the rainforest is, firstly to the local community, next for the country at large and more broadly to the world at large. The Sinharaja rainforest is a primary tropical rainforest covering a land of 20 km East to West and 7 km North to South and has pretty much been taken for granted by us - Sri Lankan. I know that the few, who have seen it, appreciate the scenic beauty. However, none of us truly appreciate its resources and the oxygen and other benefits it gives to the atmosphere at large.

However, if there was an economic value attached to that rainforest, I believe we will all realize how much it is in fact worth to society and see it in a whole new light. Since I could not find any sites which gave an economic value to the Sinharaja rainforest, I researched on other world famous rainforest and settled on the Amazon.

The Amazon is undoubtedly the world’s greatest natural resource, and if it were to be taken as a country, it would be the 9^th largest country in the world. However, like every other rainforest worldwide, the Amazon too is being destroyed for economic reasons. What’s not appreciated readily is that the Amazon is the home to both animals and humans. Without realising the true value of this vast resource, the Amazon too is being destroyed little by little by the harvesting of timber, for cattle grazing and for the use of the land for agriculture by those who surround it. In this respect they have placed a value of the Amazon at US$ 400 per acre for the harvesting of timber.

However, when I compare it with the value per acre which has been given for maintaining the Amazon as it is, it’s worth goes up to $2400 per acre which is almost 6 times the value of merely harvesting it for timber. Thus the placing of an economic value in that manner makes us realise that it is far more important and far more valuable for us to sustain and nurture a rainforest of that magnitude rather than merely harvesting it for timber. Not only will it spread awareness among us but it will give the ingenious people in those respective areas an incentive to look after the forests. It helps us to realize and understand the value of the rainforest as it is and helps us to understand the value of the environmental issues that could come about if we were to destroy the rainforests.

Similarly when one talks broadly of the greenhouse effects or global warming and the resultant rising of the seas, it would help us to understand how it could affect us in our every day life if we can translate it into a known currency or in offer words translate it into a known economic term.

Why should the nations that own the Amazon not seek to profit from it rather than keeping it for the good of all mankind? Would it not be better if they were to use its vast resources firstly and primarily to enrich the lives of their own citizens?

These are the questions that can be answered if one were able to put an economic value to the benefits it might be able to obtain for instance by the sale of the carbon credits. A carbon credit is an estimated term for the effect that a particular act has for the saving of pollution. If one were to calculate the carbon credits that could be attributed to particular rainforest countries in which they are situated would be able to sell or trade those carbon credits to the developed world which counties such as the USA could then go about with their industries having done something to preserve the ecological wellbeing by safeguarding that rainforest.

I believe that reasons such as what I have outlined above greatly helps us to deal with different environmental issues if it can be equated and reduced to economic terms, and for that reason economic terms such as a carbon have become common place today.

Captain Planet.

As a kid I used to love this show called Captain Planet. I never really got the main concept of it but I was fascinated with the powers the characters consisted of which are in fact elements of the Earth (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water). I got a little bored today and I was just looking up on Captain Planet and what I found was very interesting. Attached below is the article! take a look.

Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, is awakened from a long sleep by human activity threatening ecosystems, taking place across the globe. Realizing that the damage is extensive, Gaia sends five magic rings, each with the power to control an element of nature and one controlling an extra element, heart, to five chosen youths across the globe: Kwame from Africa, Wheeler from North America, Linka from Soviet Union (changed to Eastern Europe after the Soviet Union's collapse), Gi from Asia and Ma-Ti from South America.

These five are subbed the Planeteers and given the task of defending the Earth in the case of the greatest of disasters and making effort to keep others from happening. Gaia uses her "Planet Vision" to discover where the most devastating destruction is occurring and sends the Planeteers to help solve the problem. The Planeteers use transportation based on solar power to avoid causing pollution themselves.

In situations that the Planeteers cannot resolve alone, they can combine their powers to summon Captain Planet, a magical entity who possesses all of their powers magnified, symbolizing the premise that the combined efforts of a team are stronger than its individual parts. Captain Planet only appears in his Captain Planet garb. These are not clothes but elements of the Earth that are integral to his composition. He is able to rearrange his molecular structure to transform himself into the various powers and elements of nature. Captain Planet's outfit does not represent a specific culture.^{[citation needed]} He has grass-green hair, sky-blue skin, earthy brown eyes, a fire-red chest, gloves, and boots, and a sun-yellow globe insignia. In a manner similar to the early Superman, Planet has seemingly godlike superhuman powers, and seems to gain more proportionate to whatever the situation requires. Nevertheless, he is weakened by pollutants which sap his strength, from smog to nuclear radiation. The Planeteers cannot use their individual powers while Captain Planet is "active".

Despite his vulnerability to pollution, Captain Planet is a formidable and valiant hero. Once his work is done, Captain Planet returns to the Earth, restoring the Planeteers' powers. When he does this, Captain Planet reminds viewers of the message of the series with his catchphrase, "The power is yours!"

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I think this is a fabulous show for small kids to watch as it educates children on Global Warming and at the same time it inspires us showing we have the POWER to make a difference.

Interesting Facts :)

• Your food is harmed and made more expensive by earlier thaws and later freezes. Thaw and freeze dates are occurring a week earlier and later than they did 150 years ago.This affects our society’s agriculture by potentially damaging the food supply, making crops pricier, and even making global warming worse.
  

• The U.S. will turn into a dustbowl as the agricultural belt moves northward into Canada. Global warming is happening faster at northern latitudes, so these areas will have longer growing seasons in the future as places like the American Midwest become too hot and dry to grow as many crops.
  

• Catastrophic hurricanes are more likely to hit your home.Between 1970 and 2004, the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes worldwide has nearly doubled. In the 2000s, there were as many dangerous category hurricanes as the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s combined.
  

• You will suffer from a longer, more intense allergy season than before. Research has shown that the higher carbon dioxide levels in the air, plus the warmer temperatures, force plants to bloom earlier and produce more pollen.
  

• You may not have enough water to drink. In the western U.S., mountain snowpacks provide up to 75% of the water supply. Huge cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Denver totally depend on this snow, and as global warming gets worse, the existing snow will melt and less new snow will be falling.
• Deadly smallpox could re-emerge as permafrost melts. This layer of permanently frozen soil beneath the ground’s surface is thawing. Not only could this destroy buildings and railroad tracks, but as the ground thaws, corpses buried long ago could get discovered and end up infecting you with a devastating disease.

See For Yourself.

Whilst researching about the Ecological Footprint I found this site which allows you to take a quiz to see how much damage you are causing. Check it out :)

http://www.myfootprint.org/

Help Yourself.

I found this pretty great site and it basically tells us how we can help yourselves indirectly and that is ways and methods of reducing the Ecological Overdraft.

http://globalfootprint.blogspot.com/2006/10/thoughts-on-day-planet-tips-into.html

Is It Too Late?

I found this poem while searching for poetry related to Global Warming and I found it quite interesting. What was different in this poem to all the poems I read before was the fact that he pointed out that even though we may change our lifestyle it won't really have an impact on Global Warming. He addresses the most important question of all. Is it too late to save the human race?

Global warming?

The Environmentalists believe in evolution

Yet refuse to believe

The planet is evolving

Yes there is climate change

Yes there is global warming

But leaving the car at home won't stop it

Weather patterns are cyclical

And we are still coming out of an ice age

And therefore the global thermometer is rising

We are evolving as we have many times before

Britain has been desert, oasis

Ocean and tundra in its history

Long before man came on to the scene

What arrogance to think

We have so much influence on something so vast and complex

Our planet will continue

To evolve as it did before we arrived

Long after we are but a distant memory

The whole issue is being used by the cheese cloth and sandal brigade to intimidate people into changing there lifestyles

This will have no effect on the global climate whatsoever

- Paul Curtis

I feel that this poem may seem a bit biased at times but I think everything he says is the truth. Scientist and Environmentalist likes believing that there is still hope and if we all make a change we can save ourselves? but is it true? or like this poem said, is it too late?