Wednesday, July 20, 2011
ExxonMobil's Response to Peal Oil
In the book, Peak Everything by Richard Heinberg, one of the topics that Heinberg focuses on is bridging peak oil and climate change activism. He discusses about activists involved in peak oil and climate change that some agree is a good thing while others disagree. Of the many oil companies existing, ExxonMobil gives a negative view of the peak oil and climate change issue arguing that “Peak oil theory is garbage” (Heinberg 148). ExxonMobil, like many other companies, are dependent on the world’s “solution,” which in this case is to use whatever resources left because it will take decades for them to disappear. This is not true because the purpose of companies like oil is to sell their product and profit. Clearly, ExxonMobil does not want to consumers to buy less oil only to help the environment. This will negatively impact its business. In my current essay “Destroyed World,” I argue that in the future we will be ten times as busy as we are now. The example of ExxonMobil here is relevant to my discussion because statics have shown that natural resources are rapidly declining and climate change is increasing.
Southen's Photostream
link to the photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/southen/2184781085/in/photostream/
Respond to the content and affect:
This is an urban night shot taken on January 10, 2008 of downtown Detroit. The lower level is the downtown YMCA where you can see people doing gym with both simple and complex machines. In the background is the Book Cadillac Hotel, which was under the construction of renovation at the time the snapshot was taken. According to the picture, everything you see is produced from modern advanced technology. For example for physical education, there are machines that are built for multiple workouts. This can be a machine that is built to work with your chest, back, and arms. Based on the picture, it is unknown whether the back of the floor is the same as the view in the front. But, we can conclude that even the exterior is made out of glass. Glass comes from sand.
Why are these important? Yes, it is true that for the most part we do not need sand in our lives. But, animals, creature, and plants do. They are part of the ecosystem. For instance, when we take sand, we destroy habitats for some creatures like worms. These creatures can approach to the point where there will not be enough to produce more. We might say “Who cares about worms?” Well, worms in fact play a role in the growth of plants. Thus, we eat plants including celery and spinach.
In the background we see the Book Cadillac Hotel. This hotel was built by Detroit’s famous Book brothers, and was the tallest hotel in the world at its completion in 1924. This is important because nowadays, there are hotels equally the same heights or more as the Book Cadillac Hotel. We can conjecture that the materials used to build such extravagant hotel are extremely complex. Back in the days, there were only rectangular shaped buildings. This picture shows shapes that somehow can be explained as one shape of top of another shape. Products like steel and brick are used to build such tall buildings. This matters because when we use these materials, we define ourselves what William Catton will call as “overshoot.” To overshoot means to go too far, to go beyond limits accidentally-without intention (Overshoot 1). Sometimes, we build buildings for the purpose of its appearance and tourist attraction. Yes, we benefit from this because we make more profit. But, we do not benefit the earth. We can do the same jobs in a rectangular-shape formed building opposed to a sophisticated-looking building. As you can see that this picture does not only hold a serene view. There is a whole story behind it.
Respond to the content and affect:
This is an urban night shot taken on January 10, 2008 of downtown Detroit. The lower level is the downtown YMCA where you can see people doing gym with both simple and complex machines. In the background is the Book Cadillac Hotel, which was under the construction of renovation at the time the snapshot was taken. According to the picture, everything you see is produced from modern advanced technology. For example for physical education, there are machines that are built for multiple workouts. This can be a machine that is built to work with your chest, back, and arms. Based on the picture, it is unknown whether the back of the floor is the same as the view in the front. But, we can conclude that even the exterior is made out of glass. Glass comes from sand.
Why are these important? Yes, it is true that for the most part we do not need sand in our lives. But, animals, creature, and plants do. They are part of the ecosystem. For instance, when we take sand, we destroy habitats for some creatures like worms. These creatures can approach to the point where there will not be enough to produce more. We might say “Who cares about worms?” Well, worms in fact play a role in the growth of plants. Thus, we eat plants including celery and spinach.
In the background we see the Book Cadillac Hotel. This hotel was built by Detroit’s famous Book brothers, and was the tallest hotel in the world at its completion in 1924. This is important because nowadays, there are hotels equally the same heights or more as the Book Cadillac Hotel. We can conjecture that the materials used to build such extravagant hotel are extremely complex. Back in the days, there were only rectangular shaped buildings. This picture shows shapes that somehow can be explained as one shape of top of another shape. Products like steel and brick are used to build such tall buildings. This matters because when we use these materials, we define ourselves what William Catton will call as “overshoot.” To overshoot means to go too far, to go beyond limits accidentally-without intention (Overshoot 1). Sometimes, we build buildings for the purpose of its appearance and tourist attraction. Yes, we benefit from this because we make more profit. But, we do not benefit the earth. We can do the same jobs in a rectangular-shape formed building opposed to a sophisticated-looking building. As you can see that this picture does not only hold a serene view. There is a whole story behind it.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Peak Everything + Overshoot (Quick notes for essay)
The three aspects that I think are important for the future are sustainability, machines, and famine. Sustainability is the way humans interact with the environment. sustainable development is described as development that "meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Heinberg 86) We end up using many nonrenewable fossil fuels for jobs that we can do ourselves.
Machines did not appear until the age of farm life, when farmers produced substantial amount of food and sold them for money and family needs. Machines in the future will disappear and so will our way of living. Human labor force will replace the work machines currently do.
Food made its "boom industry" in the 19th century. Today, there are millions children who go to bed starved. This will not be the case in few decades because we will surely enter a famine, a period of time when there will be shortages of food.
Overshoot means to exceed the limits accidentally, without intention.
Machines did not appear until the age of farm life, when farmers produced substantial amount of food and sold them for money and family needs. Machines in the future will disappear and so will our way of living. Human labor force will replace the work machines currently do.
Food made its "boom industry" in the 19th century. Today, there are millions children who go to bed starved. This will not be the case in few decades because we will surely enter a famine, a period of time when there will be shortages of food.
Overshoot means to exceed the limits accidentally, without intention.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
List of New Words
Perilous is being in a risky situation. A case that shows this is the peak of oil. We will face great challenges when oil comes to a point where it is nowhere found in the US.
Lexicon is when something has set a record in history. You can blow the largest bubble and set a worldwide record in which you will eventually becomes recognized.
Unprecedented is having no experience or not being familiar. According to statistics, many types of fish are at the risk of becoming extinct. This is something we have never faced before and therefore we will be unfamiliar when we come across at this era in the future.
Exacerbate is the increase of damage. For example, global warming occurs because of such factors as throwing empty cans on grassland areas. This leads the grassland to be in a less healthy condition.
Mitigating is to lessen a damage that has already been done. We need to soon think of a way to mitigate to prevent consumers from depending severely on oil.
Lexicon is when something has set a record in history. You can blow the largest bubble and set a worldwide record in which you will eventually becomes recognized.
Unprecedented is having no experience or not being familiar. According to statistics, many types of fish are at the risk of becoming extinct. This is something we have never faced before and therefore we will be unfamiliar when we come across at this era in the future.
Exacerbate is the increase of damage. For example, global warming occurs because of such factors as throwing empty cans on grassland areas. This leads the grassland to be in a less healthy condition.
Mitigating is to lessen a damage that has already been done. We need to soon think of a way to mitigate to prevent consumers from depending severely on oil.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Book Preface
The purpose of life is to live within mistakes. The more mistakes we make, the more we grow as a person. Most people say it's not good to make the same mistakes over and over again. I say, of course it is. Each time we do something wrong, we realize what went wrong. Furthermore, our brain distinguishes our strengths and weaknesses as well as defines one of the many things that make up our personality.
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