Organizational psychology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizational psychology - Assignment Example Administers process organizational tasks and establish work environments. Leaders are mainly mandated with execution of administrative duties, inspiring supporters and creation of underlying common managerial cultures and tenets (Leonard et al, 2013). While managers deal with the underlying intricacy, leaders deal with initiating and adjusting underlying change (Aamodt, 2013). Leaders are majorly mandated with undertaking tasks that pertain to setting a way or idea, aligning populace to share goals, collaborating and motivating. Approaches of studying leadership in I/O psychology are widely categories into Leader-focused, Contingency-focused and Follower-focused approaches. Leader-focused approaches mainly focus on the organizational leaders in determining the underlying features of real leadership. Trait approach defines effective leaders to being having particular traits that are lacks in the ineffective leaders (Hersen & Thomas, 2003). The approach is mainly utilized in predicting leader emergence. Leader emergence is mainly predicted via analysis of the traits such as high intelligence, elevated desires for dominance, lofty self-motivation and communally perceptive (Aamodt, 2013). Behavioral approach as a leader-focused approach mainly emphases on the prevailing behaviors that differentiate effective from the corresponding ineffective leaders. Two main categories of leadership are contemplation and instigating structure. Behavior that is related with category of consideration pertains depiction of subordinates that they leaders value and care about them (Leonard et al, 2013). Moreover, behaviors that are related to initiating structure entail simpl ification of the task performance of the prevailing groups (Aamodt & Aamodt, 2007). Power and influence is also approach of leader-focused that mainly pertains to the means on how effective leaders influence people in line with the underlying organization’s mission and objectives (Hersen & Thomas, 2003). The degree of influence of a leader relies on the social power and corresponding probable in regard to manipulating their subordinates (Messick & Kramer, 2005). The major foundations of supremacy entail forcible power, authentic power, referent power, reward power and informational power. Leaders normally utilize numerous diverse tactics in manipulating others in their respective organization. The common tactics mainly entail rational inducement, inspiring appeal, session, ingratiation exchange, alliance, individual appeal, and pressure and legitimating (Hersen & Thomas, 2003). Contingency-focused approaches of leadership are the most dominant and are mainly based on the lead er’s efficacy on their capability in assessing and adapting to their behavior. The theories within this approach assume that the prevailing leaders are capable of reading the underlying a circumstance and dexterously employ a leadership style that warrant the individuals connections in behavior task at hand (Lowenberg et al, 1998). The main theories in the Contingency-focused approaches are Fiedler’s Contingency theory that outline that effectiveness of a leader depends on the underlying collaboration amidst their features and corresponding characteristics of the condition (Aamodt & Aamodt,

Discovering philosophy. Structure of Personality Essay Example for Free

Discovering philosophy. Structure of Personality Essay Structure of Personality Introduction The Components The Id            According to Freud, the id is unconscious behavior of human beings which are considered to be primitive as well as instinctive and one is born with id (White, 1996). Under this component, there is the need for satisfaction to the needs to be provided immediately, the desire and the variouswants that human beings have. When one fails to satisfy these needs and wants, it leads to tension and anxiety. Freud observed that id tends to resolve or remove the tension and anxiety brought by the pleasure principle through imagination. The Ego            The Ego is another component of personality in humans and according to Freud; it is involved in dealing with real issues in life of human beings. The ego ensures that the people are able to express the impulse of id in a manner that is considered acceptable and realistic in the real world(White, 1996). The ways through which id impulses are satisfied need to be socially acceptable and realistic based on the principle of reality. The costs and the consequences of the actions in satisfying the pleasure principle are considered before making a decision. Superego            The final component as identified by Freud on personality structure is the superego. This is considered to be the aspect which holds all the ideals and moral standards that human beings possess internally(White, 1996). The moral standards and ideals are acquired from the society and parents, giving human beings the sense of what is right and what is considered to be wrong. The ability of human beings to make judgment on issues in life comes from the guidelines provided by superego and this, according to Freud, starts at about the age of five years(White, 1996). According to Freud, there are two primary parts of superego which include ego ideal as well as the conscience. Ego ideal is concerned with good behavior while conscience is for bad behavior. Reference White, T. I. (1996). Discovering philosophy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Source document

Nathaniel Hawthornes The Artist of the Beautiful Essay -- Hawthorne A

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Artist of the Beautiful "He had caught a far other butterfly than this. When the artist rose high enough to achieve the beautiful, the symbol by which he made it perceptible to mortal senses became of little value in his eyes while his spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of the reality." -Hawthorne, "The Artist of the Beautiful". In "The Artist of the Beautiful" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, creative process is represented as the practice of creating an animated mechanism in the shape of a butterfly and imbuing it with the spirit of Owen Warland – the pursuer of beauty. Owen is confronted with the skepticisms of Robert Danforth, a blacksmith, and Peter Hovenden, a retired watch maker. Both Robert and Peter describe Owen's effort to create beauty as a futile struggle while he could be making watches that are useful and profitable. Owen's love toward Annie Hovenden, daughter of Peter Hovenden, puts Owen in a very difficult position of loving the daughter of his enemy. After witnessing two incidents of destruction of his project, receiving the despairing news of Annie's marriage to Robert, and long days and night of toil, Owen finally presents his product of a small machine as a belated-bridal gift to Annie. The story suggests that art is a personal pursuit of the artist's ideal that takes his or her imagination and intellect beyond the real world to see beauty. The artist strives to produce a materialized representation of his or her vision of beauty. This act of creativity involves effort, toil, inspiration, failure, and is accompanied by the scorn and criticism of others who do not understand, as Arthur Koestler puts, the bisociative connection the artist makes in his inspirati... ...est of the society. Owen presents his final product, an animated butterfly, as a belated bridal gift to Annie. The butterfly that Owen made is so lively that Annie, Robert, and Peter question whether it is alive. To this question, Owen responds that his work has "absorbed [his] own being into itself' and it is a "[representation] of his intellect, the imagination, the sensibility, and the soul of an Artist of the Beautiful" (350). The butterfly well might be a representation of the spirit of an artist as its beauty and light diminishes in "an atmosphere of doubt and mockery" (352). Although the cost of his toil and thought was only to be shattered again by a stroke of a baby, the destruction of his masterpiece did not disappoint him for he "rose high enough to achieve the beautiful... [and] his spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of the reality" (354).

Essentialist and Post Structuralist Theories of Race and Ethnicity Essay

Identity Analysis Toward Productive Pedagogies: An Essentialist and Post Structuralist Perspective Race and ethnicity will be used to analyse the central theme of identity from an essentialist and post structuralist perspective. Definitions of race and ethnicity will be presented and distinctions made between the two categories. The character Eva from the film The Freedom Writers will be used as a medium and present an argument that race and ethnicity are social constructs but not absent of essentialist influences. Following a self reflection of my own identity the similarities between Eva and I show a congruence between essentialist perspectives of race and ethnicity to the existence of ethnic tensions and prejudice. In the context of Post structural theory it will be argued that it offers a more realistic and progressive appraisal of identity as fluid and changing through social contexts. Differences between Eva’s and my own identity serve to highlight the inequality of dominant culture over ethnic minorities. Therefore, pedagogical strategies will be examined from a post structural perspective as a means to promote inclusivity and authentic Indigenous perspectives within the classroom. Essentialist theories about ethnicity and race present these identity themes as fixed and unchangeable. Weber (1978) defines race identity as â€Å"†¦ common inherited and inheritable traits that actually derive from common descent† (p. 368 ). The character Eva from the film The Freedom Writers identities her race as â€Å"†¦ those south of the border†, or specifically Hispanic. Ethnicity from an essentialist perspective differs from race as Zagefka (2008) ascribes to the notion that â€Å"†¦ essentialist accounts of ethnicity maintain that ethnic groups have a certain ‘essence’ which determines their character† (p. 1). Therefore, essentialist ethnicity elaborates on race identity informing that behavioural traits are also biologically determined. Eva’s statement â€Å"We fight over race, pride and respect† illustrates the essentialist nature of fixed, unchangeable boundaries that exist between her group and other ethnic groups. Eva’s racial hatred of the other ethnic groups is evident through her gang affiliations and violent behaviour toward them. An essentialist perceptive would assume that Eva’s racial hatred is determined at birth but as Eva’s character develops throughout the film the essentialist perspective loses validity and Eva’s sense of identity is seen to be socially constructed. Post structural theory maintains that race and ethnicity are socially constructed presenting Eva’s identity as fluid and evolving. However, Morning (2006) concludes that â€Å"†¦ the conception of race as rooted in biological difference endures, at least in the United States today†. Therefore, ethnicity offers a more authentic analysis of Eva’s identity formation from a post structuralist perspective then the residual of essentialism that exists in relation to her racial conceptualisations. In Eva’s formative years her subjectivities about race were essentialised from her fathers’ emphasis of her origins and therefore the â€Å"†¦ need to protect your own†. The violence from other ethnic groups and the arrest of her father because of his ethnic background resulted in an intense hatred for white people. Eva â€Å"†¦ hated white people on sight†. Eva’s hatred developed over time through social contexts involving ethnic and racial violence. Eva’s changing identity is represented from a post structural perceptive through narrative and social interactions in Mrs Gurwall’s classroom. Marra (2005) states that â€Å"Narrative is a powerful means of constructing different kinds of social identity, including ethnic identity†¦. † (p. 2). Using a diary as an artefact Eva is able reflect on her own subjectivities about identity to better understand her beliefs and values (J Nailer, 2005 p. 152). Through social interactions in the classroom under the guidance of her teacher Eva’s ethnic identity is reconstructed to establish a type of class ethnicity involving students from different races. As a self reflection process my own personal identity can be examined through essentialist and post structural perspectives centred on themes of race and identity. During my childhood years race identity was represented from an essentialist perspective. I identified as a member of the white race and was educated from a white, colonial historical perspective. Instilled from an early age was the notion that being black meant being inferior. Not only did I perceive Indigenous people as those who sat in the park and got drunk but I engaged in racist language such as ‘nigger’ and ‘coon’. My prejudice is highlighted by Brickman (2009) who suggests â€Å"Indeed, for social categories based on race, increased endorsement of genetic theories (one component of psychological essentialism) has been linked to increased prejudice† (p. 2). My parents assisted in the facilitation of my racial essentialism as did many other adults and peers of my own racial group. During my formative years my identity based upon being a member of the white race assumed greater intelligence, privilege and more appropriate behaviour than Indigenous peoples. The distinction between race and ethnicity is evident when according to Chandra (2006), an ethnic group is â€Å"†¦ a named human population with myths of common ancestry, shared historical memories, one or more elements of a common culture, a link with a homeland and sense of solidarity† (p.403). This statement relates to when I left my small town and attended an affluent private college whilst undertaking university study. Although surrounded by members of the same white race I identified with an ethnic group in the context of people from my own town. The essentialist and constructiveness theories for identity are distinct yet in practice difficult to separate. Ayirtman (2007) presents constructionist perspectives as â€Å"†¦ the intersubjective formation of individual identities through confrontation and interaction with other(s)† (p.10) whilst Chandra (2006) proposes that changes in ethnicity are constrained by â€Å"descent-based† attributes. In the context of race and ethnicity both statements were appropriate to the way I constructed my own identity throughout my adult years. The immersion in multiculturalism from a large city and university institution influenced me to many different races and ethnic groups. The confrontation of cultural diversity increased fluidity in the boundaries that constituted my identity about themes of race and ethnicity. However, the recognition of cultural differences in relation to my original culture and race still left intact some relatively fixed boundaries around essentialist perspectives. It is evident that Eva and I had different life experiences yet similarities emerge between our two identities. Prominent commonalities between Eva and I relate to the essentialist perspective of race and ethnicity our childhood and adolescence years. Both Eva and I expressed prejudice toward other ethnic groups based on the biological characteristics of race and ethnicity. In relation to ethnicity and race the formative years consisted of seemingly fixed and rigid boundaries around identity groups. Juteau (1996) describes these boundaries as â€Å"†¦ monolithic and static, seen as grounded in common origin, genealogy and ancestry† (p. 57). Similar to Eva the fixed nature of my identity boundaries correlated to racial and ethnic tensions resulting sometimes in violence, in varying degrees. Despite essentialised race and ethnicity in formative years commonalities exist between Eva and me through a post structuralist perspective. Racial prejudice was socially constructed through repeated discourses of conflict between racial groups throughout childhood and adolescence. Narrative through the evolving artefact of a diary allowed both Eva and I to analyse our subjectivities about aspects of our identities and both had the experience of an excellent teacher through which effective social interactions allowed empowerment and progressive reconstruction of identity. A key difference between me and the character Eva in The Freedom Writers is that I identified with the dominant Discourse in society and Eva identified as a member of a minority ethnic group. Thomson states â€Å"A successful school student is one who has acquired much of the dominant ‘habitus’, that is, ways of being in the world, as well as the cultural and symbolic capital derived from their schooling† (p. 8). An analysis of Thomson’s statement works on two levels. At the school level, and identifying as a member of the dominant culture, allowed me to be familiar with school discourse and the knowledge’s valued there in. Eva’s ethnic and racial identity immediately placed her at odds with the school discourse which restricted her acquisition of cultural capital. At the level of society I was able to exert more agency through the social influence that a familiar discourse facilitated. A seemingly natural relationship existed through identification with a common culture, language and physical race attributes. Eva’s race and ethnicity reduced the agency she could exert against the dominant culture. Her common culture and race attributes are at odds in a society where the majority race was white. The similarities and differences evident between Eva’s identity and my own identity offer invaluable understandings to develop positive, productive teacher-student interactions in the classroom. Taking a post structural approach to pedagogy teachers can be aware that their own subjectivities will influence the way they teach. (Nayler 2005). . In a multi-cultural scenario where individual students bring a variety of cultural identities into the classroom a teacher faces the challenge of facilitating inclusive pedagogical practices. Carrington advises that â€Å"†¦ the teacher facilitates a culture of respect and value for all members of the class. † (p. 113). This statement requires student interactions that involve listening to other students and being encouraged to support each other through peer assisted learning. Classroom organisation must allow students to actively participate in whole class, group collaboration, independent and problem- based learning. These student practices must be based around purposeful knowledge that engage what Thomson (2002) refers to as a student’s â€Å"†¦ virtual schoolbag† (p. 1). Through strong relationships between teacher, parent and community what students have learnt at home and in wider society can be transferred into the classroom. Therefore individual student’s â€Å"†¦ knowledge’s, narratives and interests† can be recognised and built upon with high teacher expectations of connecting them to the valued knowledge’s of the school curriculum. (Thomson, 2002). More specifically, is the need to embed Indigenous perspectives into the classroom. When embedding Indigenous studies into the classroom teachers (non-indigenous especially) need to access authentic knowledge and often admit their shortcomings in relation to skills and knowledge required to teach such units. Miller, Troy and Currell (2005) point out the risk that â€Å"as members of the dominant culture (we are all white Australian), perhaps we found it easy to revert to a knowledge base that we had naturally accepted since early childhood† (p. 61). Teachers must be critical about the resources they select to teach Indigenous studies whilst forging strong relationships with Indigenous communities. These factors will ensure that Indigenous studies are taught from an indigenous perspective and not corrupted by social, political and historical perspectives of the dominant culture of which many teachers identify with. The identity categories of race and ethnicity can be analysed from an essentialist and post structuralist perspective. The post structural perspective of race and ethnicity presents a more authentic analysis of identity as being influenced by different social contexts. Whilst the post structural perspective offers a more progressive application to Eva’s and my own identities essentialist influences are not invisible. The commonality of prejudice through race and ethnicity being essentialised offers an excellent reference point to show the usefulness of a post structural approach to productive teacher pedagogies. A post structural perspective offers the opportunity for teachers to critically reflect upon their own subjectivities in the context of their own identities. Teachers can therefore adopt pedagogical strategies that promote inclusiveness in the classroom and embrace the richness of cultural diversity, whilst linking the diverse array of knowledge’s to the value knowledge’s of the school curriculum. References 1. Marra, M (2005). Constructing Ethnicity and Leadership Through Storytelling at Work. Retrieved from http://www. mang. canterbury. ac. nz/anzca/FullPapers/06WorkCommFINALed. pdf 2. Carrington, S. (2007). Classroom relationships, pedagogy and practice in the inclusive classroom. In M. Keeffe & S. Carrington (Eds), Schools and diversity(2nd ed. ). (pp. 108-127). Sydney: Pearson Australia. 3. Miller, M. , Dunn, T. & Currell, K. (2005). Learning and the importance of knowing: Student perspectives on centralising Indigenous knowledge in their preparation as teachers. In J. Phillips & Lampert (Eds), Introductory Indigenous studies in education: The importance of knowing. (pp. 60-79). Sydney: Pearson Australia. 4. Thomson, P. (2002). Vicki and Thanh. In Schooling the rustbelt kids:Making the difference in Changing times (pp. 1-18). Crow’s Nest: Allen & Unwind. 5. Nailer, J. (2005). Understanding ourselves. In J. Austin (Ed), Culture and Identity (2nd end). (pp. 139-154). Sydney: Pearson Australia 6. Morning, A. (2006). Ethnic Classification in Global Perspective: A Cross-National Survey of the 2000 Census Round. Retrieved from http://as. nyu. edu/docs/IO/1043/Morning_2008_Ethnic_Classification_in_Global_Perspective. pdf 7. Brickman, D. (2009). The Implications of Essentialist Beliefs for Prejudice. Retrieved from http://deepblue. lib. umich. edu/bitstream/2027. 42/63752/1/dbrick_1. pdf 8. Chandra, H. (2006). What is Ethnic Identity and does it Matter. Annual Review of Political Science, 9, (pp 397-424. ) Retrieved from http://www. nyu. edu/gsas/dept/politics/faculty/chandra/ars2005. pdf 9. Juteau, D. (1996). Theorising ethnicity and ethnic communalisations at the margins: from Quebec to the world system. Nations and Nationalism, 2(1), (pp 45-66. ) Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary. wiley. com/doi/10. 1111/j. 1354-5078. 1996. 00045. x/abstract 10. Ayirtman, S. (2007). Recognition through Deliberation: Toward Deliberative Accommodation of Cultural Diversity. Retrieved from http://arts. monash. edu. au/psi/news-and-events/apsa/refereed-papers/political-theory/sayirtman. pdf 11. Zagefka, H (2008). The concept of ethnicity in social psychological research: Definitional issues. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33(3), (pp 228-241. ). 12. Gruwell, E (Writer), & Lagravenese, R (Director). (2006). In D. Devito, M. Shamberg, & S. Sheer (Producers), The Freedom Writers. Paramount Pictures.

Cultural Self-Analysis Essay

I identify with a White Northern European background mixed with some Native American and Irish, I think. I identify as White since my family doesn’t identify with any other culture than this. Personally I am sad that I do not know truly what culture I descend from because my family is so mixed up and uneducated. I feel I have lost a lot in that. My family is very Christian, Southern Baptist to be more precise. No other religious values were considered or taught to us because, if â€Å"you didn’t obey the good book then you were going to Hell† is the sort of thinking my family has. I consider myself to be of the Catholic faith, which really pisses my family off. I have taken several religious classes since I have started college and I have drawn the conclusion that no matter what religious sect you are in as long as you are a good person and treat others the way you want to be treated, then you will be okay. I am female. Females are supposed to be girly and take care of the household. But if you do not get out and help the men too, then you are considered lazy. There is an undercurrent of sexism within the family. Marriage is male-female only and children are not to be raised out of wedlock although that last one has loosened with the changing times. Adoption is okay. Childrearing used to be a mix of corporal punishment and grounding, but since the great-grandparents have passed the parents have become looser. Where it used to be figure things out on your own, even if you are in over your head, now everyone pulls together and takes the lost ones in to help out. I am 37. I try to stay within my age group, but I find that have a mixed group of friends, age wise. I respect my elders and parents, but they do  drive me crazy with their stale values and beliefs. I hold my tongue a lot and there is a lot of eye rolling, but I love them and I know they will always be there for me. And sometimes I can get them to come around to my way of thinking. I was raised in south eastern Kentucky until I was 12 then I moved to the big state of Ohio. I was raised by my grandparents there. It helped me get away from the small town minded people and ways of south eastern Kentucky, which I think help me become more aware of the different people and cultures out there, but then I found myself back here when I turned 19 to help my mother take care of my two brothers and two sisters. I am the oldest of five children and I have always taken care of my brothers and sisters. Even when I went to live with my grandparents, I bought school clothes, supplies, and Christmas gifts for them because my mom couldn’t afford it. So, I have felt like I have been an adult my whole life. Music wise I like rock, but I will listen to anything except the rap of today. I say the rap of today because the rap I listened to in the eighties and early nineties was not the same. Clothing wise, I wear what I like and what is comfortable. I don’t usually keep up with the times because most of that stuff isn’t made for full figured ladies like me. No dresses or girly stuff for me. I do not wear makeup, which my husband doesn’t mind, which I think is why I look younger than I am. My family claims to be Republican, but they don’t understand they are truly Democrats. I always say you can’t be poor and a Republican. They have issue with the changing laws allowing gays to marry and adopt and all. They are also pro-life and there is no changing their minds about that, even if there was an extenuating circumstance like the girl being raped, still to them it is wrong. I am a full Democratic myself, but I vote for who I think will do the best job, and I believe that people should be free to choose how they want to life and should have access to basic rights. I also believe that wealth needs to be spread more evenly among all persons of a nation. I think that the United States needs to adopt more of the systems of other countries so that everyone is taken care of. I don’t think I belong to any particular group. It basically is my husband, my son, and I against the world. I teach my son to be kind to everyone and never stop learning or growing, to be the best him he can be.

Animal Farm Essay

Animal Farm Essay Animal Farm Essay Moshe Kramer Explore the ways in which Orwell changes the reader’s attitudes toward Napoleon in Animal Farm. ‘Animal Farm’ is a satirical allegory which mocks Communism and the Soviet Union. Orwell does this by subtly criticising every aspect of communism by using the parallel parable of animals on a farm. Orwell himself refers to the book as a fairy tale. This is clear from the simple, almost child-like style that the book is written in. Orwell writes in this fashion to give him license to ridicule Communism and Stalin without being too controversial and direct. Joseph Stalin is represented in ‘Animal Farm’ by the â€Å"large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar†: Napoleon. He â€Å"was not much of a talker but with a reputation of getting his own way.† This is how Napoleon is first introduced in the book. At first Napoleon is portrayed as a quiet but resourceful pig as he â€Å"served out a double ration of corn to everybody.† The celebrative and joyful tone of this sentence reflects the freedom and happiness that the animals felt. The repe tition of â€Å"Snowball and Napoleon† when orders are given by the pair suggest that they were the ones in charge. However Snowball being mentioned first every time suggests that he seemed destined to become the next leader of the farm (just like Trotsky- his parallel- had been in Russia). At first he was just seen as an alternative leader with different ideas as he â€Å"took no interest in Snowball’s committees†. The first allusion to Napoleon’s true motives takes place when he distracts the animals so he can take the milk and apples for the pigs. â€Å"That will be attended to† he said. The short sentence alludes to the selfish intentions that Napoleon was concealing. This is the point where the transformation of Napoleon by Orwell began; from a seemingly calm and composed potential leader to the exploitative dictator that he eventually becomes. Further negative characteristics of Napoleon are displayed in the following pages. He is not mentioned at all during â€Å"the battle of the cowshed,† which alludes to his cowardice and weakness of character. Napoleon â€Å"urinated over the plans† that Snowball had created to better the life of the animals. This shocking event in a so-far conservative and innocent book -along with the long sentence that it happens in- draws attention to the fact that Napoleon was counter-productive and power hungry rather than actually wanting to improve the animals’ quality of life. Further evidence of this is that: â€Å"Napoleon produced no schemes of his own.† This apparently solid statement is riddled with irony since all Napoleon did do was scheme- but just nothing productive. For example when he took the puppies â€Å"away from their mothers† and â€Å"the farm soon forgot of their existence.† The fate of these dogs is soon revealed as Napoleon  "uttered a high-pitched whimper† and â€Å"nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball†. The powerful verbs and adjectives: â€Å"enormous,† â€Å"bounding,† and â€Å"dashed,† allude to the intensity of Napoleon’s evilness and his complete willingness to utilise force and exploitation to achieve his self-seeking aims. His expulsion of Snowball also hints to his shrewd and cunning personalities as he had been planning for this for a long time. This is the first major action that Napoleon does that confirms and exposes his exploitative and selfish tendencies. The reader’s attitude towards Napoleon is further changed and developed when he uses a combination of Squealer, the growling dogs and the sheep’s bleating chorus of â€Å"four legs good, two legs bad,† to eliminate any possible opposition to his position of power. Later â€Å"Napoleon announced that the windmill was to be built after all.† This was an endeavour that Napoleon had previously been bitterly opposed to. However Squealer justified this action by saying that â€Å"Napoleon had never in reality been opposed to the windmill,† but it had been his idea from the start. Animal Farm Essay Animal Farm Essay Orwell was born Eric Hugh Blair in 1903 to Richard and Mabel Blair in Motihari, Bengal. Orwell had two sisters but was never able to grow close to them as a result of his distant travels. About eight years later Orwell was shipped to England where he would begin what would become a rather promising foundation to his education. Orwell graduated from Eton at age eighteen only to be sent back to India as he acquired the job of an Imperial Police Officer. Following his five years of service Orwell moved to London by free will where he truly absorbed the world of the unequally impoverished. Grasping these sights would soon spark something in Orwell as they helped lay the foundation for his two well-known political satires â€Å"Animal Farm†, and â€Å"Nineteen Eighty-Four†. Not only bound to books, Orwell wrote an intricate essay â€Å"Politics and the English Language† depicting how manipulation can result from vague writing as he continued to branch out from his pri mal ideas. At the age of forty-seven unfortunately, Orwell pasted away due to an artery bursting in his lung. Luckily, his works are here to continue to entertain as well as enlighten readers. â€Å"Animal Farm† by George Orwell is a novel based on the lives of animals living on the Manor Farm. Even though the title of the book suggests the book is simply about animals, the story is a much more in depth re-creation of the workings of society in Communist Russia. The animals in the book show identical characteristics to those that were a part of the Russian Revolution. The animals of Manor Farm are unhappy, in fact, growing angry. Jones the farmer is not only a drunk, but also a terrible farmer. Led by the pigs, which are the â€Å"brain workers†, a successful revolution is carried out. They plan a future for the good of all animals, as they hope for a better life. They operate the farm themselves as they struggle through the hard times and battle to retake the farm. L ater on there are political struggles between the pigs who can’t agree who should be leader as they are filling up with greed. With greed there is always downfall. The pigs seem to be changing the rules to suit themselves while having ways of frightening those who speak out, similar to that of the Russian KGB. The one pig that really had a good heart (Leon Trotsky) is run out by the power hungry pig (Stalin). The plan turns into a nightmare, as living conditions for the animals fall even worse than before. In the end the provisions from the start are broken as pig befriends man and man befriends pig turning the sole purpose of animalism into something completely different. Disturbingly, it was â€Å"impossible to say which was which†, as the differences of both pig and man were no longer present. Animal Farm’s purpose is to shed light on the Russian Revolution by sizing down the different parties and armies to a sense where their interactions are more understand able. The characters in the story are given extremely similar characteristics to those that actually took part in the Russian Revolution. The satire in Animal Farm is not direct, but allegorical because the human beings are disguised as animals. The actual â€Å"human† beings in this story symbolize the capitalist class of society, while the animals represent Communists. The Rebellion against Mr. Jones is most likely a historical portrayal of the Russian Revolution, while the sign of the hoof and horn on the flag adopted by the animals is the hammer and sickle on the Russian flag. Orwell’s â€Å"Animal Farm† can be enlightening to readers on the subject of the Russian Revolution and its ties, as it’s basically a re-enactment. This book does have great significance as it helps the average person look past the face of communism and into the horrors that it created. Orwell’s book completely covers the topic, but only

Social Impact Of The Internet Essays - Geography Of Asia

Social Impact Of The Internet Essays - Geography Of Asia Social Impact Of The Internet Introduction The advent of Internet communication technology is in and of itself, a positive move toward overall global advancement, but the costly social impact is what concerns Lebanese families and sociologists alike. This fear is further amplified by the anticipated social disintegration that may result. The positive aspects of the Internet: As a result of the Internet there is almost nothing that cannot be accomplished from the comfort of one's own home; grocery shopping, buying merchandise, paying bill, researching for term papers and even striking up relationships with people half way across the world. Communication, which once consisted of putting pen to paper, has now been reduced to a few key strokes and a click of a mouse; indeed, people are able to correspond via E-mail faster and easier than traditional mail services could ever hope to offer. The positive aspects of the Internet are immeasurable and go without saying; this paper's focus is on the negative effects of the Internet. The social impact: A. Alienation: Alienation from institutions such as the family, education and places of work may result from the following factors: Lack of face-to-face socialisation is turning into a considerable problem for those who have locked themselves inside the anonymity of their computers. Indeed studies have shown the tendency for people to become significantly stressed, depressed and lonely with each hour spent in the obscure world of Internet chatting. Because there is proof to substantiate the claim that the longer people spend chatting on the Internet the less sociable they become, a considerable amount of further research must be done to determine the extent of damage this has on society. It is clear that even though Internet chat rooms provide much the same interactive approach to socialisation, the social implication is that it gravely lacks the in-person connection required in order for people to develop acceptable social skills. This will also affect negatively the way young teenagers socialise with family members, friends and strangers in society. The reason of this concern is the closely-knit society that we live in; Arab society dictates strong interpersonal relationships whether be it with family members or friends. So as we can see, lack of face to face interaction will result in a fair amount of stress on the fragile Lebanese society, which a large part of it is based on an emotional relationship with each other, and as Patai wrote the Arab nation as an Arab family. B. Loss of own culture: In a critical time where social integration is high on the agenda in post war Lebanon, the Lebanese society is finding itself competing not only with the existing forces of disintegration, but also with a new unanticipated one. The Internet introduces an invasion of western cultures into the homes of unsuspecting parents, which may lead to a loss of one's own culture and adopting a new foreign one. The adoption of a new culture will cause the general public to resist this change, thus the consequences will lead the youth to feel rejected and further amplify the already existing social problem of alienation from society as a whole. This alienation from the Arab culture will lead the youth to strongly get attached to the new culture that they have adopted, which will again translate into a disastrous disintegration. C. Loss of identity: Having mentioned the factors that may lead to alienation and loss of culture, it follows that these factors will also lead to a loss of identity. In a time where national identity plays an important role in the social integration of Lebanon, we cannot afford to let such a new force as the Internet to destroy what we've been trying to build, and there are some results of our efforts, for example, Qanna, Arnoun, and recently Jezzine and the Asian basket ball tournament where Lebanon won. Watching these incidents unfold in front of me, gave me hope for a united Lebanon, since incidents like these were so hard to come by before, now we are seeing more and more social integration between all factions in Lebanon. Seeing all this, and getting a sense of nationalism I also get the shocking news about the Internet and its effects on our society, did you know that 85%

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Estas preguntas aplican tanto a matrimonios entre un varà ³n y una mujer como al celebrado entre dos personas del mismo sexo, ya que las leyes federales de EE.UU. reconocen la legalidad del matrimonio igualitario y, por lo tanto, es posible derivar beneficios migratorios de dicho matrimonio. Noviazgo y boda  ¿Dà ³nde se conocieron? ¿En quà © momento pasaron de ser amigos a ser novios? ¿Quà © actividades hacà ­an en comà ºn cuando eran novios? ¿Quà © gustos y aficiones tienen en comà ºn? ¿Por quà © han tenido un noviazgo tan corto (o tan largo)? ¿Quià ©n decidià ³ que era una buena idea casarse? ¿Dà ³nde se celebrà ³ la boda? ¿A cunta gente invitaron? ¿Quià ©nes estaban presentes por parte de cada una de las familias?Describe la ceremonia y el banquete.  ¿Algo fuera de lo comà ºn? ¿Quà © se sirvià ³ para comer y para beber? ¿Cà ³mo se decidià ³ el menà º? ¿Quià ©n pagà ³ por el banquete? ¿Hasta que hora durà ³ la recepcià ³n? ¿Dà ³nde fue la luna de miel? ¿Por quà © decidieron ese destino? La vida en comà ºn  ¿Quià ©n de los dos se levanta generalmente antes? ¿A quà © hora? ¿Quià ©n hace el desayuno? ¿Quià ©n hace la comida y la cena? ¿Quià ©n hace la compra? ¿Quià ©n lava los platos? ¿Quià ©n plancha? ¿Dà ³nde se guarda la ropa de invierno? ¿Cul es la comida preferida de tu esposo/a? ¿Quà © comida detesta tu esposo/a? ¿Cuntas veces a la semana salen a comer fuera? ¿Cul fue la à ºltima pelà ­cula que vieron juntos? ¿De quà © color son las cortinas de cada cuarto de la casa? ¿Quà © electrodomà ©sticos hay en la cocina? ¿De quà © tamaà ±o es la cama matrimonial? ¿Tienen televisià ³n en el dormitorio? ¿Cà ³mo es el pijama preferido de tu esposo/a? ¿De quà © lado de la cama duermes? ¿Cul es la marca de crema, champà º, crema de dientes, etc que utiliza tu esposo/a?Si se utiliza algà ºn mà ©todo anti conceptivo,  ¿cul? ¿Cundo tuvo la esposa su à ºltima menstruacià ³n? ¿Cundo es el cumpleaà ±os de cada uno? ¿Quà © celebrac iones se festejan en la casa? ¿Quà © hicieron juntos en el à ºltimo dà ­a feriado? ¿Cul es el programa de televisià ³n favorito de tu esposo/a? ¿Cul es la estacià ³n de radio que prefiere escuchar tu esposo/a?  ¿Cul es la marca de la cmara de fotos? ¿Cuntos autos tienen? ¿Cuntos telà ©fonos de là ­nea fija hay en la casa? ¿Cul es el servicio de internet, cable? ¿Cuntas televisiones hay en la casa y en que cuarto se encuentran? ¿Quà © revistas leen o tienen suscripcià ³n? ¿Viven en una casa o apartamento? ¿Cunto se paga de renta o de hipoteca?Si hay mascotas,  ¿quià ©n las pasea y quià ©n las lleva al veterinario y cules son sus nombres? Familia  ¿Con quà © frecuencia visitan o se va a ver a la familia polà ­tica? ¿Cà ³mo te llevas con tus suegros? ¿Les has hecho regalos o te los han hecho? ¿Con quà © otros miembros de la familia se tiene relacià ³n frecuente? ¿Cundo fue la à ºltima vez que los viste?Si se tienen nià ±os,  ¿quià ©n los levanta? ¿Quià ©n les hace de comer la mayor parte de las veces? ¿Cul es su comida favorita? ¿Quià ©n los acuesta? ¿Cul es su cuento favorito? ¿Cul es su juguete favorito? ¿Van solos al retrete? ¿Utilizan asiento extra en el auto? ¿Quià ©n es la persona que los cuida cuando los padres estn fuera de la casa? Problemas que pueden surgir en la entrevista para la residencia Si Inmigracià ³n cree que se est ante un matrimonio falso para obtener la tarjeta de residencia, habr consecuencias serias por esa boda de conveniencia, si bien son ms problemticas y graves para el cà ³nyuge extranjero que se casà ³ por los papeles. Por otra parte, si un ciudadano llega a la conclusià ³n de que se han casado con à ©l o ella sà ³lo por los papeles, tiene dos opciones: denunciarlo  o, si es posible, cancelar la tramitacià ³n del permiso de residencia antes de que à ©sta sea definitiva. Adems, tener en cuenta que el divorcio cuando la residencia se obtiene por matrimonio puede tener efectos migratorios importantes, por lo que hay que analizar bien las posibles consecuencias, aà ºn cuando el divorcio se produzca despuà ©s de haber levantado la condicionalidad de la green card y, por lo tanto, haber obtenido la tarjeta de residencia permanente. Por à ºltimo, si  el matrimonio es abusivo y resulta muy dificultoso para el cà ³nyuge extranjero permanecer conviviendo con el esposo o esposa ciudadano porque todavà ­a no se ha levantado la condicionalidad de la green card, es  posible consultar con un abogado opciones migratorias, incluido  VAWA para và ­ctimas de violencia domà ©stica. Consejos para la entrevista y despuà ©s Si la entrevista tiene lugar en Estados Unidos y uno de los cà ³nyuges no habla bien inglà ©s, puede llevar a un intà ©rprete a las oficinas del USCIS. No se permite que el marido o la mujer que sà ­ habla inglà ©s traduzca para su cà ³nyuge en este tipo de situaciones.   Si todo va bien, como es realmente en la mayorà ­a de los casos, lo esposos de ciudadanos americanos deben saber que pueden obtener la ciudadanà ­a americana tras tres aà ±os de matrimonio. Es muy conveniente considerar la posibilidad de naturalizarse cuanto antes ya que hay importantes diferencias entre un ciudadano y un residente. De interà ©s para indocumentados que estn pensando en casarse Los migrantes indocumentados no siempre pueden legalizar su situacià ³n mediante una boda. Es muy conocer cules son las opciones en un  matrimonio con un ciudadano  y tener muy en cuenta que no hay opciones de ajustar estatus en los casos de  matrimonio con un residente. 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Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Finance - Essay Example To conduct this purpose commercial banks tend to lend money to private individuals as well as organizations so these individuals and organizations can use this money to make further investments and conduct expenses. Another purpose of such banks is to accept deposits made by individuals and organizations (Viney, 2009, p.50). Commercial banks even conduct several secondary functions which include: creation of credit, funds transfer and services that are general in nature. Sources and Use of Funds The main source of finance for commercial bank which contributes heavily to its cash inflow is deposits. Deposits are regarded as the money that a particular commercial bank’s account holder transfers to the bank for the purpose of safekeeping in order to use this money whenever the account holder needs it. These deposits are added by two kinds of account holders, these include those who have a saving account and who hold a current account. Other than deposits, commercial banks even at tain funds through the act of borrowing money. Commercial banks do not normally borrow money but in order to respond to short term financing needs it borrows money from other banks or they even borrow money through the Federal Reserve (Madura, 2011, p.442). Banks even earn money through by charging for the various services it provides to its account holders from those who have borrowed money. Those who borrow money pay interest which is the return that commercial banks attain for providing the service of borrowing money. Commercial banks even obtain finances by putting up its stock for sale on the stock market; this is mostly done when the bank wants to expand in size. There are different uses of a commercial bank’s funds, they primarily use their funds in order to lend money and this is the main way through which they earn profit for their services. These loans are provided for a particular period of time and the bank charges a fixed rate of interest on these loans and in or der to provide loans, they obtain collateral in shape of property and assets from the borrowers (Viney, 2009, p.60). In most cases the collateral is the asset that is being financed by the commercial bank itself. These loans are provided for the purpose of consumer lending and organizational lending. Another primary use of the funds of banks includes purchase of securities that are short term in nature. Banks even use their funds to conduct activities that are not stated on the balance sheet of the bank. These activities include: forward contracts, standby letter of credit and others. Commercial Banks and Businesses Commercial banks are of great importance to any business or organizations. The main way in which a business uses a commercial bank is that a commercial bank is a source of finance for a business. Both large organizations as well as small and medium sized organizations rely on commercial banks for financial purposes. There are several reasons due to which a business may b orrow money from a particular commercial bank. Businesses obtain loans for the purpose of commercial mortgages, this means that when a business wants to purchase a new building or a factory or any other asset it resort to commercial mortgages. Businesses even obtain loans for the purpose of the purchase of new equipments so the business can obtain equipments and machinery in order to remain competitive in the market (Madura, 2011, p.450). A major reason due to which organizations borrow

What is the Buddhist Critique of the Christian understanding of God Term Paper

What is the Buddhist Critique of the Christian understanding of God - Term Paper Example Whatever the case, misconception of religious aspects have elicited debates which tend to prove or disapprove practices that do not conform to the perceived beliefs. The concern is not to discredit the practices observed, but to contend to factors that led to such practices. Recent development in the religious circle indicates a practice, which does not seek to find the truth, but creates competition among the religionists. The suspicions that a given group of religionist directs towards others does not portray the intention of religion in humanity. The aim of this paper is critique Buddhist understanding of the God served by Christians. Christian Understanding Christianity is a religion that traces its foundation from the teaching, death and life of Jesus Christ. The focus on Jesus Christ by Christians point to the God they serve. History of Christianity points various incidents when God revealed Himself to men. Understanding the concept of Christian faith necessitate the understand ing of nature of God they serve. Christians profess to serve a God who is monotheist and posses qualities such as ever presence, exercises control over nature and has the ability of redeeming humankind from its predicament.Human beings feel that it is wrong to commit ill against a fellow human being. Religionists contend that perception professed in religious faiths tend to promote harmony in humanity. Pointing at the Christian understanding, human beings co exists as a family whose head is God. The teaching of Christianity project evil deeds as influences, which distract the moral will of God. Humankind has thus been lost because of the practices, which they do. The road to redemption from this lose is through Jesus Christ. Redemption from the evils in the concept of Christian understanding is to focus on Jesus Christ whose misery in death and resurrection redeemed humankind from all sin3. The concept of Christian faith has the following elements punishment for sins, redemption, fo rgiveness and new birth. Christians’ belief observes sin as a factor that separate human beings from divinity of God. God is a divine creature above other creatures. The explanation of Gods existence transcends thought which argue on His visibility. Redemption is relevant to Christians because of the separation created by sin4. The point in the Christian tradition is to serve a God that redeems humankind from the ills of sin. Forgiveness element bring a Christian back to the fold of God since the stain of sin would no longer influence relationship between human beings and God. Forgiveness of sin can only happen when a person believe in the teaching of Jesus and profess the same faith to others. Not until then, human beings have no power over sin. The concept of new birth differentiates a Christian from other human beings who do not profess the same faith. The nature of God that Christians serve is unique in the sense that God respect life, project love, natural order, and har mony. These aspects influence Christians to develop attitudes, which promote the teachings of Jesus Christ. Respect for human life eliminates all manner of evils that a person would be intending to do to the other fellow. Christian doctrines define life and penalty of sin as death with a meaning that the whole idea behind Christianity is life5. Human life is precious or valuable above all other things. The giver of life is thus creature above ot

Implications of Gambling Industry on UK Business Environment Essay Example for Free

Implications of Gambling Industry on UK Business Environment Essay Gambling opportunities have sharply increased all over the UK in a short period of a couple of years. It has been transforming into a socially acceptable means of entertainment due to the increasing leniency in laws regarding gambling. Gambling has been made available in all areas of the city and special facilities have opened for this purpose. Betting offices, clubs, and casinos are just a few examples of such places. â€Å"Gambling is playing games involving chance or placing bets in the hope or expectation of winning money. Gambling takes many forms, from buying lottery tickets in a raffle to playing the football pools or betting on the Grand National to table gaming in casinos. † (Basic facts about the British Gambling Industry, pg. 2) Developments in science and technology have open new gates for gamblers on a global scale. Nowadays, gamblers can take advantage of online gambling facilities to indulge themselves in these activities without leaving their houses just by using their credit cards. The government has further opened opportunities to gamble on telephones if you have activated an account with a bookmaker. According to a report prepared by KPMG, the total amount betted on gambling activities in Britain in the year 1998 reached 42,121 million pounds. The amount spent in casinos was the topmost which calculated up to 18,547 million pounds. A Brief History of Gambling in Britain â€Å"The high point of gambling in Britain is considered to be a period of aristocratic excess in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Upper-class gaming was characterized by deep play (defined by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham as gambling for stakes so high that it becomes irrational) and crazy, eccentric wagers, such as the one apparently struck by the northern baron who bet he could make it to Lapland and back within an allotted time, accompanied by two reindeer and two native females. He won his bet. † (Atherton, pg. 28+) The Gaming Act of 1845 declared the games of chance as illegitimate. For a long period of time until 1960, gambling carried on inside the UK as an illegal business. It was in 1960 that the government took a major step in the legalization of this industry. Hence, the betting and gaming Act of 1960 was introduced for this legalization process. The Betting and Gaming Act of 1960 altered the previous laws and paved the way for the development of gambling outlets especially casinos all over the UK. Since this was the first time that gambling was permitted in the UK, the government did not take necessary precautions to control the side effects that are associated with gambling activities. This was the major cause of the rise in crimes in Britain at that time since criminals found these new legalized gambling outlets and casinos as a good place to strengthen their footholds. Moreover, loans and losses in gambling gave birth to new criminals as addicted gamblers adopted thefts, burglaries, and other money-making crimes to fulfill their gambling compulsions. As time passed, lawmakers realized the need for a new act that would focus on these issues that have risen after the legalization of gambling. Therefore, the Gaming Act of 1968 was brought in to impose certain restrictions on the gambling industry. With the introduction of the Gaming Act of 1968, the Gaming Board was seriously planning to put a ban on Roulette but they succumbed to the demands of the gambling industry. (http://www. hca. heacademy. ac. uk/resources/TDG/reports/gaming-example-wolfe. ppt) The launching of the National Lottery and the increasing trend in online gambling during the 1990s led to the revision of betting duty by the British government. Afterwards, the government decreased the taxation on betting activities by a considerable amount. General Betting Duty (GBD), a particular type of tax on betting activities that was charged on the percentage of stakes has been replaced by another one, known as Gross Profits Tax (GPT). This new type of tax is charged on the net profits that a bookmaker makes. They also decided to replace the current general betting duty (GBD), levied as a proportion of betting stakes, with a gross profits tax (GPT), based on the net revenue of bookmakers. (Paton, et. Al, pg. F296)

Comparing Allegory in Masque (Mask) of the Red Death and Dr Heideggers Experiment :: comparison compare contrast essays

Allegory in Masque of the Red Death and Dr Heidegger's Experiment Edgar Allan Poe's writing style is based on the supernatural and the unknown. In The Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero invites the revelers to come to the castle to party until the danger of pestilence is gone. The party was interrupted by an intruder who was dressed in all black (like the Grim Reaper) and was associated with the plague of the "red death." The reaper killed everyone one by one in the end. The Masque of the Red Death is an allegory. An allegory is symbols that are presented in the story that have two levels of meaning. An example can be the clock in the story. The clock told time and represented the time they had left before they died. There were seven chambers that were different colors, and the last chamber was black, which was the last chamber that represented death. I think the seven rooms symbolized the days until you die and the clock symbolized the time until you died. Dr. Heidegger brings over four of his friends to try an experiment on them in the story, Dr Heidegger's Experiment. There were three men and one woman named Widow Wycherly. They were all solemn people who had been unfortunate in life. In the past, the three men used to fight over the widow to the point of almost killing each other. Dr. Heidegger had a mysterious folio volume which was said to be magical (supernatural). He pulls out an old rose from it and turns it back to life by putting it in water called the Fountain of Youth. His friends couldn't believe that a rose was brought back to life and passed it off as a hoax. So, Dr. Heidegger gave them all a glass of the Fountain of Youth to make them believe its powers. After all of them took a gulp they were turned young again. The old people became so happy and cheerful and so full of life again like they once were in their prime. They were all happy and dancing and soon it turned into a riot where they started fighting o ver Widow Wycherly again, causing them to spill the Fountain of Youth all over the floor.

Fossil Fuel versus Solar Power: Where the Line Meets the Circle Essay

Fossil Fuel versus Solar Power: Where the Line Meets the Circle There are a number of benefits to building a house that utilizes direct solar energy as compared to current conventional designs, which are largely powered and heated by energy from fossil fuels. According to a number of estimates, it is actually cheaper in the long term to incorporate solar energy into building design. Solar energy is far cleaner than fossil fuel derived energy, and therefore is far less impacting on the health of humans and the environment. There are a number of innovative technologies that have been developed for nearly every application of solar energy, thus making its use comparably convenient to fossil fuel use, but with greater assurance of long-term dependability. While it is currently still cheaper to build a home around the theme of fossil fuel power, the cheap supply of this finite resource is rapidly diminishing. The years that are left in which fossil fuels will be accessible to the general public are numbered for certain. One of the factors contributing to the widespread misconception that this is not so is the overestimation of fossil fuel reserves due to varying regulations regarding proved oil reserves among different countries (Campbell & Laherrere, 1998). Problems of this nature have occurred with the former Soviet Union (Campbell & Laherrere, 1998). Another factor is deliberate misrepresentation, which is highly probable in the case of OPEC estimates from 1998, in which three hundred billion barrels of oil were added to OPEC reserve estimates without any accompanying reserve discoveries (Campbell & Laherrere, 1998). While fossil fuels are a form of stored solar energy and thus finite, direct solar energy can be consid... ...th’s natural energy flows. This could be described as an interdependent system rather than a dependent system as is the case with fossil fuels. References Cited Campbell, C.J. & Laherrere, J.H. (1998). The End of Cheap Oil: global production of conventional oil will begin to decline sooner than most people think, probably within ten years. Scientific American. Gould, S.J. (2000). The Golden Rule: a proper scale for our environmental crisis. Chapter nine from The Earth Around Us: maintaining a livable planet. New York, Freeman. Web references: Glass on Web. (2003). http://www.glassonweb.com/articles/article/221/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2000). http://www.eere.energy.gov/erec/factsheets/solrwatr.html Solarenergy.com. (1997 - 2001). http://www.solarenergy.com/ Sun Ovens International, Inc. (2003). http://www.sunoven.com/usa.asp

Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming?

Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? A REVIEW OF THE FACTS APRIL 2007 AUTHORS James Wang, Ph. D. Bill Chameides, Ph. D. Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? The case for attributing the recent global warming to human activities rests on the following undisputed scientific facts: †¢ Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere. †¢ Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to over 380 ppm.Current concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are unprecedented in at least the last 650,000 years, based on records from gas bubbles trapped in polar ice. †¢ Independent measurements demonstrate that the increased CO2 in the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels and forests. The isotopic composition of carbon from these sources contains a unique â€Å"fingerprint. † †¢ Since pre-industrial times, global average temperatures have increased by about 0. 7? C , with about half of the warming occurring over the past few decades. The only quantitative and internally consistent explanation for the recent global warming includes the intensified greenhouse effect caused by the increase in CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The U. S. National Academy of Sciences—the independent organization of the country’s most renowned scientists established by Congress to advise the nation on scientific and technical issues—has concluded: â€Å"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. Some argue that the recent global warming is due to natural fluctuations and not to human activities. This argument and its fallacies are discussed below. Argument 1: CO2 is not coming from human activities CO2 has natural sources: volcanoes for example. All animals exhale it. How can human activities be affecting the concentration of CO2 on a global scale? The Facts Natural processes e mit large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, but they also remove it—at nearly identical rates.This balance maintained the concentration of CO2 at a stable level for thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution. In the case of global warming, the question is: What is causing the increase in CO2 concentrations? The answer turns out to be incontrovertible. The isotopic composition of carbon in atmospheric CO2 provides a unique â€Å"fingerprint† that tells scientists that the lion’s share of the additional CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels. Argument 2: No one really knows why the climate variesThe global climate has fluctuated considerably over the Earth’s history, either for unknown reasons or because of â€Å"internal variability† in the climate system. We do not know enough about the climate system to attribute the present global warming to any specific cause. The Facts It is true that the Earthâ⠂¬â„¢s climate has exhibited wide swings over geologic time due to natural processes. However, scientists have reasonable qualitative explanations for most of the significant variations in 2 limate over geologic time;1 they can be largely attributed to specific processes, not to unknown internal oscillations. Many of the major climatic changes can be traced to changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun (Hays et al. Science, 194, 1976, pg. 1121). Others can be linked to specific events (such as the impact of a comet or meteorite or the assembly or breakup of supercontinents) that led to large changes in the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases.For more recent times (the past millennium), scientists have been able to quantitatively attribute the major temperature fluctuations to changes in solar activity, volcanic eruptions, and human-produced greenhouse gases and particulate pollution. These natural processes can not explain the current warming. Argument 3: The Medie val Warm Period disproves global warming The current warming trend is analogous to the Medieval Warming Period (MWP). Since the MWP was obviously a natural event, the current warming is also likely caused by natural processes. The FactsThe Medieval Warm Period (MWP) refers to a relatively warm period lasting from about the 10th to the 14th century. 2 However, the initial evidence for the MWP was largely based on data3 gathered from Europe, and more recent analyses indicate that the MWP was not a global phenomenon. A number of reconstructions of millennium-scale global temperatures have indicated that the maximum globally averaged temperature during the MWP was not as extreme as present-day temperatures and that the warming was regional rather than global. Perhaps the most well-known of these is that of Michael Mann and colleagues (Nature, 392, 1998, pg. 779).Their reconstruction produced the so-called â€Å"hockey stick† graphic that contributed to this conclusion in the 2001 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: â€Å"The†¦'Medieval Warm Period' appear(s) to have limited utility in describing trends in hemispheric or global mean temperature changes in past centuries. † The accuracy of the â€Å"hockey stick† graphic was widely discussed in the press when the Mann et al. methodology was criticized by McIntyre and McKitrick (Geophys. Res. Lettr, 32, 2005, pg. L03710). Less attention was given to subsequent studies, such as that of Moberg and colleagues (Nature, 433, 2005, pg. 13) and Osborn and Briffa (Science, 311, 2006, pg. 841) that were based on different, independent methodologies but reached conclusions similar to Mann. Observations of melting high altitude glaciers are perhaps even more telling. Andean glaciers that have been intact for more than 5,000 years are now rapidly melting (Thompson et al. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. , 103, 2006, pg. 10536). If the MWP was truly global, these glaciers would not have sur vived. More generally, it is a logical fallacy to argue that because the climate has changed in the past due to natural causes, the current warming trend must also be due to natural causes.The debate over the magnitude and causes of earlier climate change such as the MWP is of scientific interest, but it does not invalidate the considerable direct scientific evidence that human-produced greenhouse gases have been causing the Earth to warm recently. Argument 4: Recent predictions of a new ice age disprove global warming In the 1970s climate scientists were saying an ice age was imminent. Now they say the Earth is warming. They don’t know what they are talking about. The FactsThe Earth’s climate for the past 2 million years has been characterized by ice ages lasting close to 100,000 years, punctuated by relatively short (10,000- to 30,000-year) warm periods or â€Å"interglacials. † The swing from glacial to interglacial is caused by changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun amplified by natural feedbacks involving greenhouse gases (Hays et al. Science, 194, 1976, pg. 1121). The Earth entered the present interglacial about 10,000 years ago. All things being equal (i. e. , in the absence of a large human-produced source of CO2) it is highly likely that the Earth will swing back into a glacial period or ice age.But this will not occur for thousands of years. 3 As early as the 19th century, scientists recognized that greenhouse gases warm the planet, and that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide could lead to global warming on time scales of decades to centuries—much shorter than the fluctuations related to ice ages and interglacials. Around the same time, global temperatures began to increase and scientists became increasingly concerned that humans were interfering with the climate. In the 1950s the upward trend in global temperatures unexpectedly halted and temperatures declined somewhat.This led some scientists to become c oncerned about global cooling and, in turn, to headlines in the popular press about an imminent ice age. What the skeptics fail to admit is that within the scientific literature—as opposed to the popular press—global warming remained a serious concern. Many scientists of the time argued that whatever the cause of the cooling, natural or otherwise, it would be eventually overshadowed by the warming effect of carbon dioxide. In 1979, the National Academy of Sciences warned that a doubling of carbon dioxide would increase global temperatures by 1. 5 to 4. oC (Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment, NAS Press, 1979) and shortly thereafter a resumption of the upward trend in temperatures was detected. Over the past quarter century, scientific research on global climate change has intensified, and programs on an international scale have been organized. More and more data are included in computer models that are capable of recreating past trends and more precisel y predicting future scenarios. We now know that the mid-20th century pause in global warming was caused by pollution from burning coal, which produced tiny particles or aerosols that blocked the energy from the sun.As aerosol emissions were controlled but greenhouse gas pollution continued to increase, the cooling effect of the aerosols was overwhelmed by the greenhouse gases, and global warming resumed. Argument 5: Scientists cannot â€Å"prove† current warming is not natural Climate scientists can not prove that the current warming is not due to natural processes and therefore can not claim with certainty that the warming is due to human interference. The Facts It is of course true that, in a complex system like climate, it is virtually impossible to prove a negative; i. e. that natural processes are not causing the current warming. What we can do is eliminate every possible natural explanation that can be posited. Thermodynamics tells us that the warming of the Earthâ€⠄¢s lower atmosphere must arise from one or more processes that supply excess heat to the lower atmosphere. Besides the greenhouse effect, the viable processes are (1) increased output from the sun; (2) increased absorption of heat from the sun due to a change in the Earth’s planetary reflectivity or â€Å"albedo†; and (3) an internal variation in the climate system that transfers heat from one part of the Earth to the atmosphere.Direct observations confirm that none of these explains the observed warming over the latter half of the 20th century. For example there has been no appreciable change in solar output over the past two decades (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Change in solar output from 1980 to 2005. Figure 1 shows the relative change in solar output determined from two of satellite measurements over a two-decade period. The data show variability in solar output corresponding to the 11-year sunspot cycle, but no secular trend. Source: After Lean and Froelich, 2006. 4 Satellite data reveal that the Earth’s reflectivity increased (causing cooling instead of warming) in the ’60’s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s and has decreased modestly since. 4 The overall warming from the recent decrease in reflectivity is also small compared to the greenhouse warming. In the case of internal variations, the ocean is the only viable reservoir of internal heat that could have caused the atmosphere to warm on decadal time-scales. However, observations show that the heat content of the ocean has increased instead of decreased over the past few decades (See Figure 2).This indicates that the atmosphere has been a source of heat to the ocean rather than vice versa. Moreover, the amount of heat increase in the ocean is consistent with what is needed to balance the Earth’s energy budget given the excess heating from the enhanced greenhouse effect and the amount of excess heat observed to be stored in the atmosphere (Hansen et al. Science, 3 08, 2005, pg. 1431). In other words, the amount of heat stored in the ocean over recent years matches the amount of heat that models predict should be trapped on Earth due to the increase in greenhouse gases. Figure 2.Change in heat content of ocean 1955 to 2005 Source: After Levitus et al. 2005. FIGURE 2 SHOWS THE RELATIVE CHANGE IN THE HEAT COTENT OF THE OCEAN FROM 1955 TO 2005 BASED ON A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF OCEAN TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS. THE DATA SHOW SHORT TERM VARIABILITY BUT A CLEAR UPWARD TREND ON DECADAL TIME-SCALES. Conclusion †¢ The Medieval Warm Period does not represent an analogy to the warming of the late 20th century, for which scientists have independent evidence of human causation, and the evidence strongly suggests that the MWP was a regional, rather than a global phenomenon. Our understanding of the climate system is sufficient to provide qualitative models for most global or hemispheric climatic variations over geologic history and quantitative models for variations over the past millennium. †¢ The Earth’s climate may return to ice age conditions in thousands of years, but this does not preclude devastating effects from global warming over the next few centuries. 5 †¢ All known natural explanations for the current global warming trend have been eliminated by direct observations.The human-intensified greenhouse effect provides the only quantitative explanation for the current warming trend. About the authors Dr. Wang received his doctorate from Harvard University and works as a climate scientist at Environmental Defense. He has published several peer-reviewed papers on the global methane budget and was the author of â€Å"The Latest Myths and Facts on Global Warming,† which was read into the congressional record by Senator John McCain in 2005. The report is available at http://www. undoit. org/pdfs/mythsvfacts. pdf. Dr. Chameides, chief scientist at Environmental Defense, is a member of the U.S. National A cademy of Sciences and has been named a National Associate of the National Academies. He is also an American Geophysical Union Fellow, and has received the American Geophysical Union's Macelwane Award. Dr. Chameides has served as editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research and is the author or coauthor of more than 120 scientific publications and five books. He received his doctorate from Yale University. The explanations are qualitative instead of quantitative because we do not have quantitative data from these events in the distant past to construct their exact histories. It has been suggested based on temperature reconstructions and model simulations that the MWP may have been caused by increased solar activity or a dearth of volcanic activity. 3 th Because worldwide temperature measurements do not exist before the 19 century, temperature records before th the 19 century are based on reconstructions of the temperature from the variations in temperature-sensitive proxies (e. g. , tree rings, isotopes in ice cores). 4 These variations are possibly due to changes in the concentrations of atmospheric aerosols produced from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass. 1 6 Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? A REVIEW OF THE FACTS APRIL 2007 AUTHORS James Wang, Ph. D. Bill Chameides, Ph. D. Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? The case for attributing the recent global warming to human activities rests on the following undisputed scientific facts: †¢ Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere. †¢ Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to over 380 ppm.Current concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are unprecedented in at least the last 650,000 years, based on records from gas bubbles trapped in polar ice. †¢ Independent measurements demonstrate that the increased CO2 in the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels and forests. The isotopic composition of carbon from these sources contains a unique â€Å"fingerprint. † †¢ Since pre-industrial times, global average temperatures have increased by about 0. 7? C , with about half of the warming occurring over the past few decades. The only quantitative and internally consistent explanation for the recent global warming includes the intensified greenhouse effect caused by the increase in CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The U. S. National Academy of Sciences—the independent organization of the country’s most renowned scientists established by Congress to advise the nation on scientific and technical issues—has concluded: â€Å"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. Some argue that the recent global warming is due to natural fluctuations and not to human activities. This argument and its fallacies are discussed below. Argument 1: CO2 is not coming from human activities CO2 has natural sources: volcanoes for example. All animals exhale it. How can human activities be affecting the concentration of CO2 on a global scale? The Facts Natural processes e mit large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, but they also remove it—at nearly identical rates.This balance maintained the concentration of CO2 at a stable level for thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution. In the case of global warming, the question is: What is causing the increase in CO2 concentrations? The answer turns out to be incontrovertible. The isotopic composition of carbon in atmospheric CO2 provides a unique â€Å"fingerprint† that tells scientists that the lion’s share of the additional CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels. Argument 2: No one really knows why the climate variesThe global climate has fluctuated considerably over the Earth’s history, either for unknown reasons or because of â€Å"internal variability† in the climate system. We do not know enough about the climate system to attribute the present global warming to any specific cause. The Facts It is true that the Earthâ⠂¬â„¢s climate has exhibited wide swings over geologic time due to natural processes. However, scientists have reasonable qualitative explanations for most of the significant variations in 2 limate over geologic time;1 they can be largely attributed to specific processes, not to unknown internal oscillations. Many of the major climatic changes can be traced to changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun (Hays et al. Science, 194, 1976, pg. 1121). Others can be linked to specific events (such as the impact of a comet or meteorite or the assembly or breakup of supercontinents) that led to large changes in the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases.For more recent times (the past millennium), scientists have been able to quantitatively attribute the major temperature fluctuations to changes in solar activity, volcanic eruptions, and human-produced greenhouse gases and particulate pollution. These natural processes can not explain the current warming. Argument 3: The Medie val Warm Period disproves global warming The current warming trend is analogous to the Medieval Warming Period (MWP). Since the MWP was obviously a natural event, the current warming is also likely caused by natural processes. The FactsThe Medieval Warm Period (MWP) refers to a relatively warm period lasting from about the 10th to the 14th century. 2 However, the initial evidence for the MWP was largely based on data3 gathered from Europe, and more recent analyses indicate that the MWP was not a global phenomenon. A number of reconstructions of millennium-scale global temperatures have indicated that the maximum globally averaged temperature during the MWP was not as extreme as present-day temperatures and that the warming was regional rather than global. Perhaps the most well-known of these is that of Michael Mann and colleagues (Nature, 392, 1998, pg. 779).Their reconstruction produced the so-called â€Å"hockey stick† graphic that contributed to this conclusion in the 2001 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: â€Å"The†¦'Medieval Warm Period' appear(s) to have limited utility in describing trends in hemispheric or global mean temperature changes in past centuries. † The accuracy of the â€Å"hockey stick† graphic was widely discussed in the press when the Mann et al. methodology was criticized by McIntyre and McKitrick (Geophys. Res. Lettr, 32, 2005, pg. L03710). Less attention was given to subsequent studies, such as that of Moberg and colleagues (Nature, 433, 2005, pg. 13) and Osborn and Briffa (Science, 311, 2006, pg. 841) that were based on different, independent methodologies but reached conclusions similar to Mann. Observations of melting high altitude glaciers are perhaps even more telling. Andean glaciers that have been intact for more than 5,000 years are now rapidly melting (Thompson et al. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. , 103, 2006, pg. 10536). If the MWP was truly global, these glaciers would not have sur vived. More generally, it is a logical fallacy to argue that because the climate has changed in the past due to natural causes, the current warming trend must also be due to natural causes.The debate over the magnitude and causes of earlier climate change such as the MWP is of scientific interest, but it does not invalidate the considerable direct scientific evidence that human-produced greenhouse gases have been causing the Earth to warm recently. Argument 4: Recent predictions of a new ice age disprove global warming In the 1970s climate scientists were saying an ice age was imminent. Now they say the Earth is warming. They don’t know what they are talking about. The FactsThe Earth’s climate for the past 2 million years has been characterized by ice ages lasting close to 100,000 years, punctuated by relatively short (10,000- to 30,000-year) warm periods or â€Å"interglacials. † The swing from glacial to interglacial is caused by changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun amplified by natural feedbacks involving greenhouse gases (Hays et al. Science, 194, 1976, pg. 1121). The Earth entered the present interglacial about 10,000 years ago. All things being equal (i. e. , in the absence of a large human-produced source of CO2) it is highly likely that the Earth will swing back into a glacial period or ice age.But this will not occur for thousands of years. 3 As early as the 19th century, scientists recognized that greenhouse gases warm the planet, and that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide could lead to global warming on time scales of decades to centuries—much shorter than the fluctuations related to ice ages and interglacials. Around the same time, global temperatures began to increase and scientists became increasingly concerned that humans were interfering with the climate. In the 1950s the upward trend in global temperatures unexpectedly halted and temperatures declined somewhat.This led some scientists to become c oncerned about global cooling and, in turn, to headlines in the popular press about an imminent ice age. What the skeptics fail to admit is that within the scientific literature—as opposed to the popular press—global warming remained a serious concern. Many scientists of the time argued that whatever the cause of the cooling, natural or otherwise, it would be eventually overshadowed by the warming effect of carbon dioxide. In 1979, the National Academy of Sciences warned that a doubling of carbon dioxide would increase global temperatures by 1. 5 to 4. oC (Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment, NAS Press, 1979) and shortly thereafter a resumption of the upward trend in temperatures was detected. Over the past quarter century, scientific research on global climate change has intensified, and programs on an international scale have been organized. More and more data are included in computer models that are capable of recreating past trends and more precisel y predicting future scenarios. We now know that the mid-20th century pause in global warming was caused by pollution from burning coal, which produced tiny particles or aerosols that blocked the energy from the sun.As aerosol emissions were controlled but greenhouse gas pollution continued to increase, the cooling effect of the aerosols was overwhelmed by the greenhouse gases, and global warming resumed. Argument 5: Scientists cannot â€Å"prove† current warming is not natural Climate scientists can not prove that the current warming is not due to natural processes and therefore can not claim with certainty that the warming is due to human interference. The Facts It is of course true that, in a complex system like climate, it is virtually impossible to prove a negative; i. e. that natural processes are not causing the current warming. What we can do is eliminate every possible natural explanation that can be posited. Thermodynamics tells us that the warming of the Earthâ€⠄¢s lower atmosphere must arise from one or more processes that supply excess heat to the lower atmosphere. Besides the greenhouse effect, the viable processes are (1) increased output from the sun; (2) increased absorption of heat from the sun due to a change in the Earth’s planetary reflectivity or â€Å"albedo†; and (3) an internal variation in the climate system that transfers heat from one part of the Earth to the atmosphere.Direct observations confirm that none of these explains the observed warming over the latter half of the 20th century. For example there has been no appreciable change in solar output over the past two decades (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Change in solar output from 1980 to 2005. Figure 1 shows the relative change in solar output determined from two of satellite measurements over a two-decade period. The data show variability in solar output corresponding to the 11-year sunspot cycle, but no secular trend. Source: After Lean and Froelich, 2006. 4 Satellite data reveal that the Earth’s reflectivity increased (causing cooling instead of warming) in the ’60’s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s and has decreased modestly since. 4 The overall warming from the recent decrease in reflectivity is also small compared to the greenhouse warming. In the case of internal variations, the ocean is the only viable reservoir of internal heat that could have caused the atmosphere to warm on decadal time-scales. However, observations show that the heat content of the ocean has increased instead of decreased over the past few decades (See Figure 2).This indicates that the atmosphere has been a source of heat to the ocean rather than vice versa. Moreover, the amount of heat increase in the ocean is consistent with what is needed to balance the Earth’s energy budget given the excess heating from the enhanced greenhouse effect and the amount of excess heat observed to be stored in the atmosphere (Hansen et al. Science, 3 08, 2005, pg. 1431). In other words, the amount of heat stored in the ocean over recent years matches the amount of heat that models predict should be trapped on Earth due to the increase in greenhouse gases. Figure 2.Change in heat content of ocean 1955 to 2005 Source: After Levitus et al. 2005. FIGURE 2 SHOWS THE RELATIVE CHANGE IN THE HEAT COTENT OF THE OCEAN FROM 1955 TO 2005 BASED ON A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF OCEAN TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS. THE DATA SHOW SHORT TERM VARIABILITY BUT A CLEAR UPWARD TREND ON DECADAL TIME-SCALES. Conclusion †¢ The Medieval Warm Period does not represent an analogy to the warming of the late 20th century, for which scientists have independent evidence of human causation, and the evidence strongly suggests that the MWP was a regional, rather than a global phenomenon. Our understanding of the climate system is sufficient to provide qualitative models for most global or hemispheric climatic variations over geologic history and quantitative models for variations over the past millennium. †¢ The Earth’s climate may return to ice age conditions in thousands of years, but this does not preclude devastating effects from global warming over the next few centuries. 5 †¢ All known natural explanations for the current global warming trend have been eliminated by direct observations.The human-intensified greenhouse effect provides the only quantitative explanation for the current warming trend. About the authors Dr. Wang received his doctorate from Harvard University and works as a climate scientist at Environmental Defense. He has published several peer-reviewed papers on the global methane budget and was the author of â€Å"The Latest Myths and Facts on Global Warming,† which was read into the congressional record by Senator John McCain in 2005. The report is available at http://www. undoit. org/pdfs/mythsvfacts. pdf. Dr. Chameides, chief scientist at Environmental Defense, is a member of the U.S. National A cademy of Sciences and has been named a National Associate of the National Academies. He is also an American Geophysical Union Fellow, and has received the American Geophysical Union's Macelwane Award. Dr. Chameides has served as editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research and is the author or coauthor of more than 120 scientific publications and five books. He received his doctorate from Yale University. The explanations are qualitative instead of quantitative because we do not have quantitative data from these events in the distant past to construct their exact histories. It has been suggested based on temperature reconstructions and model simulations that the MWP may have been caused by increased solar activity or a dearth of volcanic activity. 3 th Because worldwide temperature measurements do not exist before the 19 century, temperature records before th the 19 century are based on reconstructions of the temperature from the variations in temperature-sensitive proxies (e. g. , tree rings, isotopes in ice cores). 4 These variations are possibly due to changes in the concentrations of atmospheric aerosols produced from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass. 1 6