Environment: Pollution and Human Activity

Last Updated: 17 Mar 2023
Pages: 29 Views: 1761
Table of contents

Nowadays the Earth faces a number of serious problems, such as the environment pollution, the increasing population, the fatal effects of nuclear weapons, etc. The problems arising from not just development in terms of science and technology but also the increase in human demands based on population and economy.

According to Professor David Karoly from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne, it is time to take urgent action to slow global warming by human activities, because the impacts of human-caused climate change in many natural systems much earlier than previous studies had projected which are being seen (Proof: humans have damaged earth, 2008). There is inconvertible fact that in history of humanity, human causes detrimental effects on earth. Indeed, human activity affects nature and human environment. For centuries, many activities of human have destroyed ecosystem of the Earth.

Deforestation and over-hunting is one of the main causes of this serious situation. The world is very big, but natural resources are not endless. In fact, Dave Gilbert (2012) announced that nearly a fifth of the Brazilian forest has been lost since 1970. That means all of the trees, plants, insects, animals and people who live there either killed or forced to find a new home. The world population is growing rapidly, so people need food and shelter. Many food and housing means that they need more land from nature. Therefore, they cut down trees to build houses, deforest to plant vegetables and raise cattle.

Order custom essay Environment: Pollution and Human Activity with free plagiarism report

feat icon 450+ experts on 30 subjects feat icon Starting from 3 hours delivery
Get Essay Help

They destroy natural areas in order to expand cities and towns, and they overuse natural resources. Now people only can see some animals in the zoo because they have disappeared in nature. In addition, intensive and indiscriminate fishing in freshwater systems, such as Lake Victoria in East Africa have catastrophic effects may prove to biodiversity (Elsa & Michael, 2011). Poaching is not only a serious problem but also massive over-fishing. Many nations have banned illegal activities, but enforcement is very difficult. Industrial pollution and daily waste is also a major factor affecting the environment.

Admittedly, people are producing more and more rubbish, because they prefer to eat the ready-made food. This has given rise to the rubbish production. These garbage produce in many ways and unfortunately, have bad effect on ecosystem. Susan Patterson (2014) showed that farmers in the U. S. use about 450 billion kilograms of pesticides every year, so most of the rivers and streams in the U. S. have more chemicals that cause cancer and birth defects. In industry, many companies are causing a lot of pollution. The fast rate of growth of chemicals industry has seriously affected the health of not only the environment but also the population.

The companies have chimneys that emit bad toxic that pollutes the air. They also use chemicals that are bad for the environment. The chemicals have bad environmental effect on the water and ground. The environment’s pollution levels are important, because it can effect badly on human bodies. Air pollution can affect the ability to breath, water pollution can affect human health, and lastly the ground pollution can affect all sorts of different cancers, such as lymph node cancer and stomach cancer. Correspondingly, the companies also occupy many places where animals and plants live.

The projects improve roads and highways between beautiful greenwood and virgin forest. Therefore, with decreasing forests, people face to increase the gas of carbon dioxide that there are not enough plants to absorb it. According to Chennal (2012), as many as 300 volunteers from Youth Exnora International and HCL Technologies cleaned Marina Beach on July 4. For resolving the increasing stress on the environment and resources, and also responding to the ever-increasing demands of the citizens for environmental quality protection and improvement in ecological environment, many organizations and campaigns is set up to protect environment.

On the other hand, the modern life brings human many convenient things such as road and cars. Human can travel or go to other places more conveniently. They also have more convenient and entertaining things such as television, microwave, computer, and air conditioner. No one can deny that some human activities make the earth a better to live. However, these things could destroy our environment. A lot of air pollution emits to environment from electricity generation. Exhausted gas from cars and flue gas from factories also pollute the air.

Besides, the natural resources that used as the main energy are not endless as we thought. Modern industries need more and more resources such as oils, gases, fuels, and water. So, people faced to the serious problems such as the shortage of fuels and water. Human will die of thirst if they waste water, or die of hungry if they waste the needful fuels that they need for cooking food. If human are not careful about how we use the natural resources, they will lose many of them in the near future.

The Earth is being changes by human-caused. Many people are still trying to protect the environment against danger. With practical activities such as planting trees, building national parks, protecting danger animals, etc. However, the bad influences are outweighed the good. Human activity is harming not only the Earth but also the living habitats of animals and people. In sum, people should consider carefully before doing something to minimize bad influences on the earth and protect the human life.

Environmental Studies Essays - Environmental Management Systems

Will Environmental Management Systems and associates Environmental Reporting enterprises aid the construct ofSustainable Development in application?

The International Organization forStandardization ( ISO ) is a federation of non-governmental organisations ( NGOs ) created to lucubrate and better international criterions. The ISO initiallycreated general direction criterions ( the ISO 9000 Series ) for organizationsand industries that acknowledged the value of a systematic attack tomanagement. However, as economic growing and the environment have frequently been inconflict with one and other ( and industries today face many political, socialand economic force per unit areas to better their environmental public presentation - Gale, 1996 ) the ISO further developed the 14000 Series, which applied the same managementsystem as the 9000 Series to companies ' environmental issues ( The LexingtonGroup, 2005: 5 ) .

The rules behind the ISO 14000 Series apply to any organisation, public or private, whose activities, merchandises or services interact straight or indirectly with the environment ( The Lexington Group, 2005 ) . The ISO 14000 Series rapidly becametheenvironmental policy criterion for companies to follow, and since its constitution in 1996 1000s of organisations have adopted the Environmental Management Systems ( EMSs ) . EMSs are used in the public and private spheres, at all graduated tables, from national to local authorities, and from big multi-national corporations to little in private owned concerns.

This essay will discourse if, and towhat extent, EMSs ( and specifically the Environmental Reporting subordinate ) will help the construct of sustainable development in application. This essay isstructured as follows: foremost, it discusses the most of import of the ISO 14000standards, the EMS ; 2nd, it considers another ISO 14000 constituent, Environmental Reporting ; 3rd, it analyses and considers the variables andapplication of sustainable development ; 4th, it turns to a few instance studiesto exemplify how EMSs work in pattern ; and eventually, it draws some conclusionsabout how effectual these criterions are in helping the construct of sustainabledevelopment.

Environmental Management Systems

As discussed in the Introduction, the ISO 14000 Series was developed to use the ISO 's widely recognizedmanagement systems to a company 's environmental issues ( The Lexington Group,2005 ) . The EMS, or ISO standard 14001, rapidly became the internationallyrecognized model for environmental direction, measuring, rating andauditing ( GreenBiz, 2005: 1 ) . To name a few illustrations, the duties ofthe EMS include: making a elaborate environmental policy for an organisation, analyzing the environmental impact of its merchandises, activities and services, set uping environmental aims, helping the organisation in meetingits legal and regulative demands, supplying preparation to employees, andoverseeing the company 's auditing process.

The EMS meets international criterions, but is tailored to specific operations, leting companies to command the environmental impact of their activities, merchandises, and services ( GreenBiz, 2005: 1 ) .

Though an organisation could, ofcourse, set up these really guidelines and parametric quantities themselves, companiesoften find that ISO 14001 adherencehelps to run into the ever-increasingenvironmental criterions and concerns of the planetary market place ( GreenBiz,2005:1 ) . Other likely benefits for a company efficaciously implementing an EMSare legion and include, among others:

. a more effectual and systematic attack to pull offing itsinteractions with the environment ( The Lexington Group, 2005 ) ;

. bettering cost-effectiveness ( by salvaging the money and staff timenecessary to pull off environmental personal businesss independently - The Lexington Group,2005, every bit good as by bettering efficiency and in bend cut downing the costs ofenergy, stuffs, all right and punishments - Morrow and Rondinelli, 2002:162 ) ;

. leting companies to convey their environmental policies moreeffectively to neighboring communities and other stakeholders ( The LexingtonGroup, 2005 ) ;

. and bettering their image and pulling clients through theestablishment of a strong image of corporate duty ( Morrow andRondinelli, 2002: 163 ) .

All of these benefits, of class, increase the likeliness that companies will assist lend to sustainabledevelopment. However, the cost and benefits of an EMS ( and in bend, theprobability that the EMS will play a function in sustainable development ) fluctuateconsiderably depending on a scope of standards. These might include: the type oforganization, its bingeco-efficiency, the organisation 's possible environmental impacts or hazards, the extent towhich a company antecedently implemented facets of environmental sustainability, and the premium placed on sustainability by the organisation 's stakeholders andcustomers ( The Lexington Group, 2005 ) .

Whilst this subdivision has outlined EMSs and their possible beneifts, the undermentioned subdivision will discourse Environmental Reporting, its association and influence on EMS, and its part to the sustainable development of organisations.

Environmental Coverage

Corporate coverage is an essentialcomponent of concern direction. It is defined as the voluntary publicpresentation of information about an organisation 's non-financial public presentation -environmental, societal and economic - over a specified period, normally afinancial twelvemonth ( Department of Environment and Heritage, 2005: 1 ) . These can bemade public in a assortment of ways, including as a stand-alone papers, on a companywebsite, or as a constituent of an Annual Report ( Department of Environment andHeritage, 2005 ) .

An Environmental Report is a cardinal constituent of the ISO 14000 Series, and an indispensable measure to increasing transparence and, as a consequence, answerability in a company 's environmental patterns ( Department of Environment and Heritage, 2005 ) . The pattern of Environmental Reporting is going more common because of force per unit area from stakeholders, every bit good as a general public demand for increased openness on environmental issues ( Kolk, 1999 ) . Further, some states have now begun to enforce legal duties on houses to bring forth Environmental Reports ( Kolk, 1999 ) .

A Corporate Environmental Report ( CER ) is, in kernel, a agencies to leaving a company 's environmental performance.Arguably, the most of import map of the CER is to let the organizationto evaluate its observation of the environmental policies, ends and objectivesset out in its EMS ( United Nations Environment Programme, 2005 ) . It is alsoused to: exhibit a company 's EMS and corporate duty ; show tokey stakeholders, every bit good as to clients, that it is following with theirdemands ; assist a company path its ain advancement and place internal strengthand failings ( United Nations Environment Programme, 2005 ) ; and measure itscurrent public presentation and put farther hereafter ends.

The general social demand for increased transparence on environmental issues, and in bend environmental coverage, is exemplified by the fact that the most complete studies are published by industries with hapless or controversial public images, i.e. , the chemical or lumber industries ( Davis-Walling and Batterman, 1997 ) .

In so long as there is objectivityand honestness, environmental coverage can be conducted either internally orexternally ( Rice, 2005 ) . Undeniably, for environmental coverage to beworthwhile, it must be believable, and there is increasing force per unit area from twospecific waies to verify environmental studies: foremost, there is asignificant move from environmental statements and purposes to quantified, comparable, verifiable, and even verified information ( Kolk, 1999: 225 ) ; andsecond, the demand of independent, third-party confirmation andcertification as an about expected component of every worthwhile attempt ( Rice, 2005: 1 ) .

Though Environmental Reporting hasa large function to play in helping the long-run sustainability of an organisation, it is however a procedure plagued with jobs. Research seems to indicatethat environmental coverage is typically lacking and non of a standard tosatisfy the information demands of assorted categories of study readers ( Deegan andRankin, 1999 ) . An independent survey of the environmental studies of the Fortune50 houses found that none provided information that was sufficient forcomprehensive or comparative analyses of environmental public presentation ( Davis-Walling and Batterman, 1997: 1432 ) . Research suggests that one of thebiggest jobs is that a company can get down its environmental reportingwhenever it wants, and that this frequently leads to dissatisfactory consequences.

Environmental Reporting, so, typically comes before the EMS, and could therefore merely act as a statement ofobjectives, and non the researched and analysed study on the achievement ofenvironmental aims under an EMS that it 's meant to be. To be practicaland effective ( and non merely a statement of environmental policies ) environmental coverage should truly be developed farther along theimplementation of the ISO 14000 Series. Additionally, it should be a continuousprocess, and referred back to once more and once more in an effort to consolidate theEMS and efficaciously analyze the companies ' advancement.

This chronology supports the ISOspecification that organisations seekuninterruptedbetterment: bycontinually describing, as opposed to supplying a one-off initial study, organisations can repeatedly measure and accommodate their EMS. In kernel, it isimportant to underscore that the CER is a agency to environmental betterment andgreater answerability, non an terminal in itself ( United Nations EnvironmentProgramme, 2005: 1 ) .

Consideration of the variables and application of Sustainable Development

The term 'Sustainable Development'was foremost used in 1987 inOur Common Future, besides known as theBrundtland Report of the United Nations ' Commission on Environment andDevelopment ( WCED ) . The definition offered by the Brundtland Report is stillthe most normally used today, and describes Sustainable Development merely, andarguably mistily, as development that meets the demands of the present withoutcompromising the ability of future coevalss to run into their demands ( WCED, 1987:43 ) .

Sustainability is frequently regarded as the 'buzz-word ' of development policy in the 21stCentury. Indeed, as The Economist competently stated: No 1 in their right head is against 'sustainable development ' . Everyone thinks it would be terrific if there were less poorness, less pollution, less disease, less war, less corruptness ( 2002 ) . As an umbrella-term, its WCED definition has been instrumental in making a consensus, but less helpful in making and sketching a model for its accomplishment.

Presently, there are in the part of 70 different definitions for Sustainable Development, and each allows organisations to construe the term in whatever manner they see fit. For that ground, EMS and Environmental Reporting are particularly of import for giving public and private administrations likewise, from a national to a local degree, the standardized model necessary non merely for showing their committedness to the pattern of sustainability, but for doing progress towards its existent accomplishment.

As mentioned in the Introduction, economic growing and the environment are frequently regarded as being at odds, andthe ISO 14000 Standards are peculiarly of import for assisting organizationsand industry to make their coveted degree of sustainability, and to incorporatethe environment into their general model. Determining an EMS is anorganization 's first, and most critical measure in set uping what itsenvironmental facets are, and how it is traveling to cover with them. That said, any organisation can develop an EMS, and though it is an of import startingpoint, it proves small about an organisation 's sustainability in and ofitself.

Environmental Reporting is hence indispensable non merely to move as the company 's ain environmental audit, but to show to stakeholders and society that they are so carry oning themselves in a sustainable mode. Furthermore, accomplishing sustainability is a complicated and long-run ( if non lasting ) procedure ; Environmental Reporting allows a company non merely to measure its achievements, but besides the chance to re-evaluate its mark. The undermentioned subdivision outlines some instance surveies of how organisations have used EMS and Environmental Reporting to minimise their environmental impact.

Case Studies

This subdivision will show a fewcase surveies to exemplify the value of EMSs and Environmental Reporting. Eachcase survey has been selected to demo scope in the pertinence of thestandards every bit good as to show their usage in both the populace and privatesectors.

Solid Waste Management Division, Department of Public Works. Berkeley, California, USA.

Description

The Solid Waste Management Divisionis Berkeley 's municipal waste aggregation and disposal installation. It collectsplant dust, garbage and recycling from about 40,000 residential andcommercial belongingss, every bit good as runing a transportation station, anoil-recycling terminal, and a slump and buy-back recycling Centre. The SolidWaste Management System decided to implement an EMS ( affecting approximately 25 per centum of their 102 employees ) for a assortment of grounds, including: improving thefacility 's environmental public presentation, every bit good as employees participation inthis betterment ; doing the peculiar division consistent with the City'soverall environmental rules ; the EMS ' value as a marketing/publicrelations tool ; the decrease of costs ; and eventually, an increased competitiveadvantage.

Decisions

Through implementing an EMS, theSolid Waste Management Division was able to jointly find whatenvironmental impacts the installation had, or might hold in the hereafter. These werethen ranked and ends set to decrease the environmental impact of the facility.These included: extinguishing 98 per cent of dust atoms, cut downing theelectricity used by 250Kwh yearly, bettering the control of hazardousmaterials brought into the site by 75 per cent, adding three mailings per yearto enhance consumer engagement in recycling aggregation, cut downing waterconsumption by 25 per cent, and cut downing figure of pickups scheduled to reducefuel ingestion and emanations.

Some of the direct benefits andcontributions to Sustainable Development have been: a decrease in airpollution for the full City of Berkeley ; deriving regard and bettercooperation from the Department of Public Works, including budget alterations ; andconsultation by other City of Berkeley Departments and other Solid Wastepractices all over the United States. Additionally, carry oning an EnvironmentalReport to find the effects of the EMS allowed the installation non merely to hum betterments that it had already made, but to analyze them and put newtargets such as: revising the occupation descriptions, rerouting to cut down the numberof stat mis covered each twenty-four hours, and implementing a new dust suppression system.

Beacon Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, United Kingdom.

Description

One facet of the Beacon Council'sEnvironmental Reporting System is a to the full computerised monitoring andtargeting ( M & A ; T ) system for measuring public presentation at all 600 of theirbuildings. Datas from all public-service corporation suppliers ( including electricity, gas, coal, oil, biomass, and H2O ) are recorded in the specializer system. These are thenmonitored and benchmarked against national public presentation, and make the abilityto instigate disciplinary action to better public presentation.

Decisions

As reported by the Beacon Council, the M & A ; T system carries out the undermentioned maps: sets energy marks andmonitors public presentation ; sets energy budgets and controls expenditure ; validatesand verifies measures and recovers overcharges ; and proctors and reduces CO2emissions. The continual coverage of the M & A ; T system has been critical in itsconstant monitoring and improving of the Beacon Council 's environmentalsustainability.

Gillepsie Decals, Inc. Wilsonville, Oregon, USA.

Description

Gillepsie Decals, Inc. is a40-employee screen-printing company in Oregon. To develop an EMS, the companytook the undermentioned stairss: foremost, it developed its environmental policy ; 2nd, it identified the company 's environmental facets and so ranked them in orderof importance ; and 3rd, it set out environmental ends and developed programsto achieve them.

Decisions

The company made a figure ofimprovements and took important stairss towards accomplishing environmentalsustainability. Two notable illustrations are: one, they reduced the sum ofwaste ink by developing criterions for ink commixture, and a computing machine record ofcolours and mixes for repetition occupations ; and two, they reduced their H2O use by requestinginformation from other companies on their H2O recycling systems, bypurchasing bottled imbibing H2O for employees ( and thereby bettering employeespirits ) ; and by put ining low-flush lavatory theoretical accounts.

Gillespie 's have stated their committedness to uninterrupted environmental betterment, and have decided to develop other environmental facets in the hereafter. It is ill-defined whether Gillespie 's carried out Environmental Reporting, but it is evident that this procedure would be utile for both corroborating the environmental betterments already made, and finding what remains to be done to accomplish the coveted degree of sustainability.

Decision

EMS and Environmental Reportingwill so assistance in the construct of Sustainable Development in application. TheCase Studies in the old subdivision demonstrated some of the positive resultsof an organisation 's execution of an EMS. All three illustrations illustratedhow an EMS, and Environmental Reporting, contribute to the improvedenvironmental public presentation of the establishments in inquiry. The Gillespie CaseStudy was a really small-scale illustration of EMS that demonstrated how the systemcould work even for a little company.

Furthermore, the first two instance surveies surely are a presentation of how the EMS and Environmental Reporting can lend to more than merely their establishments environmental public presentation. In the Berkeley illustration, it showed non merely how an EMS can lend to Sustainable Development for the individual establishment, but besides how this affects the metropolis as a whole, and can act upon similar establishments nation- ( or even world- ) broad. The Beacon Council Case Study is a utile illustration of how EMS can do non merely environmental sense, but fiscal sense as good.

The first two illustrations besides servedto exemplify what a critical constituent Environmental Reporting truly is. Theyvalidated Rice 's line of concluding that for an EMS to be effectual, theEnvironmental Reporting non merely has to happen, but occur continuously.Environmental Reporting demands to be pushed farther down the time-line of theISO 14000 Series, and be something that occurs after the EMS has beenimplemented ( so it acts non merely as a statement of aims but as an actualreport ) , and on a continual footing because sustainability it non a one-off andsimple accomplishment.

The Gillespie illustration is hence a utile illustration of how EMS can be effectual, but without consistent re-evaluation and uninterrupted coverage, the first set of alterations are improbable to be followed by another set. If this is the instance, an organisation 's environmental public presentation will at best remain dead, but more likely diminution, alternatively of continuously bettering. This will surely non help the construct of Sustainable Development in application.

EMS and Environmental Reporting arenot, nevertheless, the Panacea for Sustainable Development. Reviews of thestandards that are proffered merely because they do non vouch SustainableDevelopment are contrary, and hazard throwing out the babe with the bathwater, or rejecting the indispensable with the unessential. EMS and EnvironmentalReporting are instead two individual parts of a possible solution with an infinitenumber of constituents. They should be seen, and valued, as such.

Plants Cited

Berkeley, City of ( 2005 )Solid Waste Management Division, Department of Public WorksCase Study, available from Eco-efficiency is the primary manner in which concerns can lend to theconcept of sustainable developmentThe vision of eco-efficiency is merely toproduce more from less. Reducing waste and pollution, and utilizing fewer energyand natural stuffs is evidently good for the environment. It is alsoself-evidently good for concern because it cuts companies ' costs, excerptsfrom the Bulleting of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development ( The Lexington Group, 2005: 6 ) .

Product of My Environment

Xavier Rodriguez Expos 101 Assignment # 3 F. D. Professor: Debra Keates 10/22/12 “What Means the World to You” What is important to someone varies from person to person. These things can be displayed in different forms and approached in various ways. This is seen within O’Brien, Stout and Fraser’s essays. O’Brien understands what inspires human connection and he manipulates the truth of his story in order to capture the attention and respect of others. He justifies his decision to distort his story based on the impact it has on the reader.

For every author, O’Brien argues that the aim is to get one’s point(s) across; to bring attention to what matters the most to them. Regardless the category, this is done by expressing one’s objective with feeling and a sense of importance. In Caroline Fraser’s, “Rewilding North America,” she uses convincing evidence to prove to the reader that reserves and corridors promote the well-being of wildlife and humans alike. Similarly, Martha Stout has a biased opinion.

Stout sets out to demonstrate to readers in “When I Woke Up on Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday” that counseling is important for clients who have experienced trauma by sharing individual client stories. The way people define truth and the information they provide can determine how others will evaluate the story. There are different ways to connect to a reader. The writer’s objective and the audience both influence these decisions. O’Brien’s storytelling method may involve embellishments that bend the truth rather than adhere to it.

Had he authored either Fraser or Stout’s essays, the objective may have been the same, but the style would likely have been quite different. Within their respective essays, Fraser and Stout’s definitions of truth can be observed and interpreted. Both authors cite massive research projects, specific cases and general statistics to communicate their theory. It would appear, that unlike O’Brien, both Fraser and Stout are more concerned with providing support for their story and/or objective. O’Brien did not bother with ensuring that his facts were correct, but rather that the message was clear.

Facts and evidence, however, are very important components of Fraser and Stout’s “truths”. Fraser relies on scientific evidence to gain attention from her audience. While O’Brien may not disapprove of this method, he may see it as unnecessary. As she writes “In the United States, for example, deer-vehicle collisions alone occur up to one and a half million times each year, costing some two hundred lives and $8. 8billion annually; collisions also imperil the survival of twenty-one endangered and threatened species”(123).

Another example of Fraser’s tendency to provide explicit scientific evidence is when she describes Fraser writes about the Banff Project scientists and their impact on the concept of Rewilding as they collected “footage from cameras mounted on the underpasses [which show] bears and mountain lions approaching the wire cautiously, sniffing, and peering around” (123). The animals questioned the underpass at first, just as any creature would do when coming upon something unfamiliar. Shortly thereafter, “most of them burst over or under the wires, galloping off” (123).

O’Brien would say that Fraser’s method of getting attention to her theory would be a great approach, however, if all that evidence is needed then his way to get through to people would not be relatable because to his own because he believes in simplicities and getting through to people with tantalizing and basic approaches such as emotions to capture the attention of people and his ability to tell a story and his way of articulating the facts or details. Regarding O’Brien’s argument that a piece of writing or a story should create an emotional connection, Fraser’s writing falls short.

Fraser does make some attempts to build a feeling of empathy for the animals whose lives are positively impacted, as she writes “in 1993, Pluie lost her collar, which was found with a bullet hole in it. The wolf herself was shot dead two years later, along with her mate and several pups” (112). Even still as she integrates statistics and hard facts when she wrote “in the last 15 years or so, 27-percent of the known wolf deaths have been from the railway, and 60-percent were on the highway. Just 5-percent were natural... The Bow Valley used to have three packs.

Now it has one. In 1996, three of the four pups born to this pack were lost to the highway. The next year, none of the five pups born survived, and we know at least one was hit on the railway. During 1998, the pack had no pups and was down to three members” (112). In this segment, Fraser uses a specific story to draw in the reader and build a connection. However, these moments are too few and far between, as Fraser spends a good deal of the essay providing long descriptions of scientific theory and jargon relevant to her field.

For example, Fraser spends five pages outlining the development of the term “ecosystem”, “equilibrium theory” and the consequent theory supporting the use of corridors and reserves, which she is generally supporting throughout her essay. Further she has a tendency to provide irrelevant and ridiculous amounts of detail, which loses the reader’s interest. For example, Fraser writes, “Conservation biology is a small world:” and she elaborates, “Michael Soule sat on the committee at the University of Michigan that supervised Newmark’s dissertation. The study percolated in Soule’s mind as went to his next job, at UC Santa Cruz.

Sitting in his kitchen one day, Soule was talking to his friend Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher who founded ‘deep ecology’... ” While these details may be an attempt to grab the reader’s attention, they have the opposite effect. O’Brien might describe Fraser’s approach as dry and fruitless. The author’s have various styles they attempt to use to get across to their audience, as is their technique. When compared to Fraser, Stout’s approach would be more favorable to O’Brien because there is less technicality used, less use of attempt to convince the reader that her topic of dissociation is fact and is somewhat curable.

She uses interconnections to demonstrate her therapist to client bond. The method that she uses is relaxed and simple yet effective by exposing the way dissociation is triggered, and how it happens to everyone whether or not the individual realizes it or not. “Sometimes dissociation can occur when we are simply confused or frustrated or nervous, whether we recognize it or not” (Stout 384). After her clients get an understanding they begin to feel and get a better sense of the things that matter to them and are more important them by working to get a grasp on the things which are simpler to connect with.

Stout convinces people that her evidence is true by walking through alongside her patients in defining lost memories and times and situations and fills in the gaps necessary in order to help her clients feel closure, happy( satisfaction) and free. Allowing them to function with a more clear mind. She sees the way people are deeper than what is seen on the surface and have the ability to do the same things as anyone else can. Stout says, “All human beings have the capacity to dissociate psychologically, though most of us are unaware of this, and consider “out of body” episodes to be far beyond the boundaries of our normal experience.

In fact, dissociative experiences happen to everyone and most of these events are quite ordinary” (388). Due to dissociation being an occurrence that is not identified with ease, the majority of society does not recognize that we all in fact dissociate. When it comes to straightforwardness, a person can be sincere but not report the truth due to naivety or in order to try to get a deeper meaning. O’Brien states, “In any war story but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen” (71). The truth is not out in the open and is hidden. This in turn plays on the accuracy of an experience.

When retelling an experience, the sequence of events has to be objective or have an unbiased view. Often unbiased or objective views can be lost. O’Brien uses the statement “true war story” throughout his essay. The use of the word “true” causes the essay to have a biased view Stout’s ability tot be effective and connect with the reader is kept at a strong tempo when she gives strong interesting and powersfl insights How effective is Stout at connecting with the reader? If she is effective, find an example of a time in which she is. In Stout’s essay, she writes how “we can go somewhere else.

The part of consciousness that we nearly always conceive as the ‘self’ cannot be there for a few moments, for a few hours and in heinous circumstances for much longer” (p 388). Everyone has moments where they go somewhere else in their own heads to cope or protect themselves from a situation, being distracted by something, mentally escaping into a film at a movie theater, or getting lost in a day dream are all little examples of how ordinary and everyday individuals dissociate. Add something about use of language. How does O’Brien use language? How about Fraser? Stout? What might O’Brien think of their uses of language? Examples: O’Brien use metaphors? artsy, elaborate descriptions? Fraser: scientific language? dry at times? Stout: personal anecdotes? also vivid descriptions? ” Both authors illustrate the problems that animals and humans face and the ways they go about coming to conclusions and solving situations and problems. The role that language plays in determining truth to O’Brien, is the studies and usage of the manmade effects have on animals and what gets into the minds of humans. Fraser and Stouts style of writing differ from O’Brien’s by one (Stout) using counseling and the other (Fraser) using convincing evidence.

Stout uses counseling as a means to support her assessments of her clients individual case. As Fraser uses convincing evidence in order to support her promotion of resources and corridors as being beneficial to both animal and humas. Fraser motivates people to act In “Rewilding North America,” by writing about the development of the concept of rewilding, a conservation method designed to save species from extinction by restoring “connectivity” in nature, “holding out the hope and promise that [through this project] humanity could heal the environmental damage that had already been done” (119).

Her evidence is adequate proposed solution to a problem must be tangible and realistic. Rewilding encompasses both aspects exactly. Another reason why rewilding has a better chance for success is the fact that it is natural. The combination of these three aspects makes rewilding the favorable and more effective solution to eliminating animal suffering Animals roamed planet Earth for nearly 600 million years prior to the appearance of the genus Homo. During all that time, many creatures and species came and went. By and large they evolved, disappeared and became extinct all due to nature, geography, environment and natural events.

Animal extinction is a natural process, but nonetheless the rate has heightened because of mans’ interaction with animals. Humans tend to cause our wild animal neighbors much more trouble than they do to us, as each day we invade thousands of acres of their territories while destroying their homes. These crises occurring in nature beg for humans to do something to eliminate or lessen the foreseen calamities. Caroline Fraser, in the essay “Rewilding North America” provides what can be appreciated as a balance between the latter two potential solutions.

She explains the concept of rewilding, a large-scale conservation method aimed to restore and provide connectivity between animals and humans. The idea of rewilding is a marriage between synthetic biology and interspecies empathy because it constructively encompasses aspects from both approaches. Rewilding is a feasible solution to eliminate animal suffering that is not only natural but also is a tangible and realistic one, in comparison to the ideas of stout and o’brien. Rewilding is an appropriate solution to the problem of species extinction because it is primarily a natural process.

Rewilding, like most natural processes, does not affect animal’s lives in any significant negative way. Fraser writes about Banff Project scientists and their impact on the concept of Rewilding. They collected “footage from cameras mounted on the underpasses [which show] bears and mountain lions approaching the wire cautiously, sniffing, and peering around” (123). The animals questioned the underpass at first, just as any creature would do when coming upon something unfamiliar. Shortly thereafter, “most of them burst over or under the wires, galloping off” (123).

O’Brien would say that Fraser’s method of getting attention to her theory would be a great approach, however, if all that evidence is needed then his way to get through to people would not be relateable because to his own because he believes in simplisties and getting through to people with tantalizing and basic approaches such as emotions to capture the attention of people and his ability to tell a story and his way of articulating the facts or details. One patient in particular, named Julia, is a successful producer of documentary films.

As a child, Julia underwent child abuse and was skillfully able to remove herself from the horrific situations. The trauma Julia experienced as a child causes her to dissociate now as an adult yet, she carries her life as anyone else would. “I met her when I she was thirty-two, and an intellectual force to be reckoned with. A conversation with her reminds me of the New York Review of Books, except that she is funnier, and also a living breathing human being who wears amethyst jewelry to contrast with her electric auburn hair” (Stout 385).

From the description given by Stout in her essay, Julia does not fit into the category that society has placed her in. She overrides the stereotypes and labels because she is not any different from what society perceives as “normal. ” She is intelligent and successful; everything society wants her to be but for some reason she is perceived otherwise. Patients like Julia commonly experience dissociation more severely because of the traumatic experiences they have been through. Why should someone who dissociates, and receives therapeutic assistance to confront their issues, be perceived in society as being different from someone who does not?

Dissociation should not negatively categorize its victims, but rather serve as a common ground between people because all people dissociate. “We can go somewhere else. The part of consciousness that we nearly always conceive as the ‘self’ can not be there for a few moments, for a few hours, and in heinous circumstances, for much longer” (Stout 388). Everyone has moments where they go somewhere else in their own head to cope or protect themselves from a situation. Being distracted by something, mentally escaping into a film at a theatre, or getting lost in a day dream are all minuet examples of how ordinary, everyday individuals dissociate.

Dissociation is an obstacle that Stout’s patients encounter on a day to day basis, and, unfortunately, classifies them in society to be “abnormal. ” Society has a picture of what “normal” is supposed to be; but what makes one individual more “normal” than the next? While Stout’s patients are looked upon negatively as being strange because they dissociate; they are no different from a man who enjoys a film at a theatre. “This perfectly ordinary man is dissociated from reality. Effectively, he is in a trance.

We might label his perceptions as psychotic, except for the fact that when the movie is over, he will return to his usual mental status almost instantly. He will see the credits. He will notice that he has spilled some popcorn, although he will not remember doing so” (Stout 388). Someone who society would categorize as a “normal man,” experiences an example of what Stout’s patients bear regularly. The film watcher is in no contrast with Julia, or any of Stout’s other patients; therefore, society has misinterpreted what is considered the norm.

Stouts essay would be evaluated using o” brien’s definition of truth by agreeing in the wyas that there are many times that people allow their minds to drift and take over. Imagination is what O’Brien uses and the imagination of these characters are what allow them to face and deal with their traumatic experiences and allows them totake stances in their places that may or may not be realistic. She uses language by its literal form in human communication with her clients, talking and assessing what they lack and how they is a solution through language and rehearsal processes assist in one having an ability to adapt to normalisity.

This is like o’briens as he is most effective with speaking and using language and mind as his tools to paint pictures to the stories he makes. These two are more natural and effective and simplistic yet powerful. When frasers compared to the authors approaches she takes more of a scientific stance as to where she provides evidence and actual facts from her discoveries. Stout says, “I believe that most of us cannot know what we would do, trapped in a situation that required such a seemingly no-win decision” (382).

Stout’s patients are wrongfully perceived as “insane”, yet no one has bothered to put themselves in their position. Dissociation experienced at the caliber that Stout’s patients do, is normal to them. What society perceives as “normal,” and what Stout’s patients perceive as normal, is identical because Stout’s patients see themselves that way. Dissociative episodes are what they have been experiencing for most of their lives; therefore, it is what they see as the norm and society should not reprimand them for that. “A True war story is never moral.

It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things they have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it” (347). In short, it gives you a view of how to take in the war story. It differs from the usual happy and uplifting war story and gives a realist and somber approach to reading a war story. The following will explain the importance of this passage and how it relates to the short story. Reason why he wouldn’t agree with fraser. “True war stories do not generalise. They do not indulge in abstraction or analysis;.

For example: war is hell. As a moral declaration the old truism seems perfectly true, and yet because it abstracts, because it generalizes, i can’t believe it with my stomach. Nothing turns inside. It comes down to gut instinct. A true war story, if told truly, makes the stomach believe” (O’Brien, p. 274). * In “Rewilding North America”, Fraser mentions a man named Harvey Locke, and how he said “I choose those words, ‘Yellowstone to Yukon,’ because they’re deep symbols in peoples brains. If I say those words in Stuggart, Germany, in Toronto, in new York, or in Tokyo, everybody knows what I’m talking about” (Fraser 121).

He was talking about the title of his catch phrase because it would grab the attention of people who shared a common interest. He knew that there were people who would be interested in “Y2Y” because they shared a common concern that mattered to them when it involved rewilding animals. Similarly, in her essay, Martha Stout writes about a conversation she was having with a woman named “Julia” and how she had asked, “do other people remember those things, about their teachers, and going to their graduation, and learning to drive and so on? (Stout 387). Meaning the way other people think about situations that have occurred in their pasts. Things that were at some point so important, things that mattered to them, at least in those years of age and time. The process that pertains to what matters comes in all forms. In Fraser’s excerpt she was talking about the sciences and how the topic of concern would have the ability to bring awareness to her idea of restoration.

There are other ways like in Stouts, she being the psychologist who works with clients, discusses and rehearses situations alongside her clients in order to recover what was supposed to be significant and have some level of importance at one stage in her client’s life. In these cases the process of restoration. There are unlimited topics of discussions which coincide with interpersonal relationships like the ones that Tim O’Brien attempts to establish by using war as the main topic, something that has long time been a concern of people.

Something that he knows will draw people in and make them invest their time and feelings into what matters to him. However, each individual designs their stories from past and present experiences differently. There is a diverse level of severity and truth. Things that really happened and things that could have happened and how story tellers fill in those gaps, is completely up to their discretion. In “how to tell a true war story,” O’Brien writes, “ you can tell a true war story by the questions you ask.

Somebody tells a story, let’s say, and afterward you ask, ‘is it true? ’ and if the answer matters, then you’ve got your answer” (p276). In O’Brien’s story he writes a letter to his fallen friends relative. In it he goes into great detail that is both deep and disturbing. He mentions both the ways “Lemon” was a person he has deep love for and the gruesome ways his life ended. The truth came out towards the end after what mattered to him was not reciprocated by Lemons sister, which left a gap, a place of question to the person who leaves the questioner questioning.

This then makes him give up in a sense, as if he were to break down which ironically is done mainly by his own accord because there was never a simple response to his letter of make believe. There are many things that happen in all our lives both good and bad and these things contribute to who we are, the ways we communicate and how we communicate, how we present ourselves and go about every day life. These things make us aim to make what matters to us a factor and a reality when it comes to achieving.

What matters in each individuals life of course varies. There are times when what matters becomes something that is shared by many, creating a movement, like in Fraser’s Rewilding how there was a problem she assisted in shining light into the problem and successfully there was others who began to share the importance of restoring wildlife. In Marta Stout’s story creating an ability to connect the missing parts of her clients’ lives contributed to a better life. What mattered to her was helping her patients get a grip on their mental stabilities.

Then there are some who some, when thought about can seem selfish because what matters to them is how they feel on account of others and in the process if others get left in question to fulfill what matters. In all the stories there was something of importance to the writer, something that mattered at some point enough to write about it. Sometimes those things are not relevant or seem to be when first thought about, but then many stories are designed to the knowledge of the person whose captivated your attention and sometimes afterward you might ask, ‘is it true? and if the answer matters, then you’ve got your answer” so O’Brien says. As long as the things that are being exchanged consist with a level of importance it does not matter how real or how fake it may be. What matters is the lessons learned, the communication and the processes that go into exchanging. As long as you know what you believe and know, truth will always be left for your decision to what is and is not true.

Related Questions

on Environment: Pollution and Human Activity

Essay On How Humans Affect The Environment?
Human activities such as deforestation, pollution, and overconsumption of natural resources have significantly impacted the environment. These actions have led to climate change, loss of biodiversity, and other environmental problems that threaten the sustainability of our planet.

Cite this Page

Environment: Pollution and Human Activity. (2016, Aug 15). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/environment-pollution-and-human-activity/

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

plagiarism ruin image

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you’re on board with our cookie policy

Save time and let our verified experts help you.

Hire writer