Thoughts- Europe Possible Solar Source

It is only a short amount of time when this world will not be livable for any living creature to live on, causing us to maybe relocate somewhere else like Mars, but it is very ridiculous because we are just trying to avoid the problems that we have disturbed the environment’s life cycle. An important aspect to pay attention to is our energy crisis. With our energy crisis getting more intense, our world needs to consider using renewable energies. We need to consider using solar, nuclear, bio-fuel, wind, tide, and other renewable energies. Just like what MacKay says we need to say yes to renewable energy not like what we have been doing for a long time saying no.

Something interesting that MacKay brought up in Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air was that we could put solar panels in the Sahara Desert to help send solar power to energize all of Europe. So much solar energy could be generated from the Sahara desert that it could power the whole world. In fact there is already being propose by a company called Desertec. This could be an important project that could cut down Europe’s Carbon Footprint down significantly. But there are some concerns about having this project come through. It brings up a reoccurring topic that Europe and other Western countries have been relying on Africa for their resources. A specific event that could be remembered is when Belgium had control over the Congo Free State. It was only Belgium that had any benefit from their control over the Congo. Congo ended up not benefitting at all, but were being tortured, killed, or harassed. The Desertec Project has a similar aspect that Europe will benefit but Africa will not (but there will not be any tortured, killed, or harassed).

Even though it seems that there will not be an even outcome, there is a way to help benefit Africa. There could be a factory where citizens of Africa could work in, so people could have jobs and get paid. Also instead of having Europe have all the power, it could have some power be distributed to some parts of Africa. It is important that we do use renewable energy, but not make the same mistakes from the past.

Thoughts: Energy Efficiency

While watching the Deep Clean, during class, I thought it was really interesting about the architectural side of being sustainable with energy. I was surprise that China was making great progress in trying to use sustainable practices. When people think of China, they usually think of how fast they are industrializing and the amount of oil plants are being produce. But hear that they are being more sustainable buildings and people trying to help become more activist toward the environment was a nice sigh of relief. I was also surprise to learn that building take up so much of our energy. It would be the least expected thing that I would expect would take up so much energy. After reading MacKay’s Without the Hot Air, it made more sense, for example he brings up the point how old houses are not energy efficient because they have little holes and cracks that would let the cold or hot air leak out of the house.

The OHSU (Oregon Health and Sciences University) is one of the greenest buildings nationally. It is over sixty-one percent more energy efficient than the require Oregon Code and LEED standards. What I found very impressive is how a place where medical research center and school could be so energy efficient. I would say that anything medical would get a pass-by for being sustainable because they have other things to worry about, but when a medical center like OHSU is sustainable, should mean that all buildings being built should be sustainable too. Even though it might cost more money to build, in the long run the electrical bill will be lower and you could save a lot of money and help contribute to a healthy earth.

It is amazing to see how much energy could be saved if people decide to use more sustainable practices. This will be an important component in a healthy and sustainable world. This week help me realize that maybe I should go back into architecture to create more energy efficient buildings that would also look really cool. I am looking forward to seeing what other sustainable practices will occur in the architecture world in the future.

Thoughts: Big Changes

It is important that people make changes for a more sustainable lifestyle for our future and for a healthier world. But if people just take baby steps, it will not be enough. People need to make big changes in the lifestyle in order for our world to have a future in which we will not destroy our lovely earth.

This is shown through David JC MacKay, Sustainable Energy-Without the Hot Air. For example BBC advice people on how doing a little bit can help save the planet like “switching off your mobile phone chargers when it’s not in use” (3) but MacKay says that a more realistic phrase is that “if everyone does a little, we’ll achieve only a little” (3). It is important for us humans to realize that making some small changes in our life will not be good enough for this world to achieve a sustainable and healthy world.

David also portrays why we have not been able to use alternative energy instead of using what we are currently depending on. He was able to come up with the maximum of 18kWh/d per person while using alternative energy compared to using 125kWh/d per person when using the typical energy that is polluting our earth (109). Through his graphs he shows how people make up lame excuses to change their lifestyle. For example an excuse for solar heating is that it does not have an appealing look. It is such a lame excuse because solar heating only will use 13 kWh/d compared to regular heating and cooling which is 37 kWh/d (109). This also demonstrates how people are not willing to change for the better of the earth because they are too lazy to change or they do not care.

While reading through MacKay’s Sustainable Energy-Without the Hot Air, it was obvious how we need to change our lifestyle in order for our earth to live a healthy life. But in order for this to happen we will have to make big changes, not small ones. It was interesting to see how using alternative energies can make a big difference in how much energy we are consuming. I think that this change could happen, the only problem is that we need more and more people educated about how they could make a difference to make this world a better place.

Thoughts: Big Companies

It is ridiculous how some of these big organizations have all of these rights to do what ever they want to do because they have so much power. It is unfair for the smaller independent businesses to have a say when all of these big companies can basically take them over because of how they can make cheaper products and can produce more bulk than smaller companies. This could be shown through a lesson in my business class. More than 90% of the businesses in the United States are small businesses yet over 90% of the revenue goes to these big corporations. This just helps demonstrates how powerful theses big corporations are.

This helps brings me to my attention about a significant event that took place in Seattle, Washington. There was a meeting with the leaders of the World Trade Organization because they do is “protect is business and growth, not people and the environment, with an underlying assumption that the wealthier a country becomes, the better it is able to protect its people and the environment” (121). There were 150,000 protesters protesting how these big corporations are bad. These protesters are important because they are just regular citizens and they use the nonviolent protesting principles from Gandhi. They held their ground in front of the police, while dealing with pepper spray, tear gas, and riot batons. When protesters needed medical attention, new protesters filled in. it is just ridiculous how these big companies deal with people that are right.

This is important to look back from history because this helps symbolize how these big corporations just use violence as a method to deal with their unsustainable flaws. They do not know how to deal with people that are right so that they instead use tear gas, pepper spray and riot batons to deal with protesters instead of doing the right thing and trying to hear what they have to say. The problem is that they do not want to change; these big corporations just want more money. In order for a more sustainable world, we need to support local businesses and our local economies. It might be expensive at first, but when more and more people start doing it, the price will eventually go down.

Here is a city that uses local living economy that I just happen to find recently

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M__BN7S5Xpw

Thoughts King Leopold II

This week discussion was again very depressing while watching the movie King Leopold’s Ghost. It was hard to believe how harsh humans can be. I just cannot get my head around how King Leopold would just be fine with himself by just killing a lot of people without feeling guilty or terrible about themselves. But it shows how some people are so greedy; they do not care about hurting people if it is for the money.

During King Leopold’s II rein of the Congo Free State, he had killed over five to fifteen million Congolese. This mass murder is even harder to pay attention to the harsh punishment that he put on the Congolese. He did not just kill, he made soldiers rape, torment and cut off feet and hands of these innocent people. He did not even allow the people of the Congo to make there own money from their resources but basically took away their goods. He and his friend Henry Morton Stanley made treaties with the chiefs of most of the tribes in the Congo but they did not even understand what they were agreeing upon because they did not speak the same language. It is not right on how King Leopold could just take over a country just because he was apart of a country that was more developed than most of the African countries. But the reason behind all of this is because of how much money King Leopold was making. It is estimated that he was making around a billion dollars, which was a ridiculous amount of money during that time. It is pretty obvious that King Leopold wanted the money.

What I found very surprising is that King Leopold II is still viewed as a great person in the Western History. I really cannot find a great reason to say that he was great at all except at killing people. In my opinion I feel that Belgium should say that this actually happened, this was wrong that he did that, and that they learn from there mistakes and will not do it again. Even though this mass murder was terrible to think of, it is very important to look back at history so that we will not make the same mistakes over again.

It is also important to show how regular people can have an impact on what is wrong. Through the writings of George Washington Willams’s Open Letter to King Leopold on the Congo and others educate people about what is happening and that common people could make a difference in changing the world in a positive aspect.

Thoughts of Slavery

While reading Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild and The Development of the Anti-Slavery Movement after 1807 by Mike Kaye, an important role of slavery had occurred. The first time when people finally thought that slavery was not moral occurred until the British decided to stop slaving people of Africa. This is the first human rights movement to ever occur in human life.

It is hard for me to grasp that slavery was once a normal action that use to take place on a regular basis. I never realized that slavery was a necessary for all the great civilizations of our past to survive. It is truly amazing in such a short amount of time that we were able to make this world less and less dependent on slavery. There is a good lesson that we could learn from the British Human Rights movement. If people could chose to do the right thing, it is very possible that the government will also believe in making the more moral choice instead of just doing nothing about it. The amount of slavery has cut down a tremendous amount over the past 200 years and will keep decreasing because slavery is now to everybody’s mind that it is really immorally wrong. This could foreshadow what we need to do now so that this world will be a healthier habitat for biodiversity to occur and for a more bright future. We need to be able to live a more sustainable lifestyle, decrease the growing population, and use green technology so that this world will have a good future. People need to team up and protest what they think is right, despite the fact that it could effect our economy. The British protest hurt the sugar industry a lot but at least slavery started to decrease. The same case might have to happen again but it is for a good reason.

Thoughts 4/16

While reading Bartolomes La Casa's A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, I thought an important role that came out of this was that the right facts need to be implemented in our education. It was interesting to see a different perspective than what I was always taught. Back when I was in grade school, I learned only the perspective of Western Culture, that Cortes's brought disease to South America and thats how all the Mayans died. But in La Casa's perspective, we could see that the perspective that I was taught all my life is wrong. It was quite shocking and depressing to read and see the images of Natives being killed for no good reason. The Natives treated them with respect and greeted them with open arms compared to the Spaniards that only wanted there goods and treated them very poorly and killed many of them with burning alive Mayans and slaughtering them with swords.
La Casa's story made me bring up the question on who is right? Most people have learned that disease from Spaniards killed all Mayans, not that the Spaniards purposely killed them all. It could be hard for someone to grasp, which side is right. Its seems that La Casa's perspective is right but why did most of us learn the other perspective? It is kind of like how big corporations are having so much power that they are causing a lot of problems to the world when most people do not even know about it. These big corporations are using very unsustainable techniques for the environment, causing poorer countries to struggle more, and feeding people unhealthy food. Yet we still purchase items form these big corporations while they are still doing harm to this world. The sad part is that most people do not even realize that they are contributing to the harm while purchasing the items. Education will be a key to fixing this problem like how La Casa's tried educated people about what was actually happening. When people are educated about what is right, they will make the right decisions.