Hasan Cave

In our assignment for a photostory, I listened and watched one about Hasankeyf. Hasankeyf is a cliff with old caves and it is still occupied by inhabitant. It is located in the eastern part of Turkey next to the border of Iraq and Syria. Because of its remote location it is difficult to reach the place remained untouched. However, the place is now under threat because of the new dam project. In 5-7 years the place will be covered by water. The Turkish Government has a plan to move the mosque located in the area to higher ground, but the plan is limited in the scope and difficult to implement without destroying it.

The pictures give a visual view of the situation as if I am in that place. It was very effective to use visualization. I think now I had vision in my mind about the place. Without using the photos I hardly could imagine how the place looks like and I might forget about it after reading.

To watch the photostory click here

Today I found a study in the New York Times on how US could cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases. The study suggest a change in the lighting, heating and cooling of buildings would reduce carbon dioxide emission. Another way the report mentioned is to make consumers to pay attention to energy use in choosing machines or equipment.

Educating people about wasteful energy consumption could leverage their awareness and promote reduction in "carbon littering".

I found an article which talks about soil pollution. According to the article the main cause of soil pollution is war, because many countries suffered from food shortage after world war. As a result, they used fertilization and other chemicals in order to increase their food production. One of these chemicals was DDT. Also in 1970's the Americans used the Dioxin in the Vietnam War.

The Glass industry is another source of soil pollution because they use Arsenic which is a very poison material.

In his article "Deforestation in the Amazon", Rhett A Butler discusses the reasons for the Amazon deforestation. He argues that deforestation is highly correlated with the economic health of the country.

According to the writer deforestation in the Amazon is the result of several activities, the foremost of which include:

Clearing for cattle pasture.
Colonization and subsequent subsistence agriculture.
Infrastructure improvements.
Commercial agriculture.
Logging.