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.

In this article "The Palin Problem", the author imagines a scenario where McCain loses next Tuesday election and expects what Sara Palin will do in this case. Is she going to cut her relation with McCain and present herself as the Republication Party leader? According to the article the conservatives have to change their policy and "adopt thier economic massage to address the insecurities of the culturally conservative working class". Another issue is immigration which could be brought up on the table. The author expects Plian could take advantage of these issues and be the republican candidate for the next election. Who knows?

What I did not understand, why McCain compaign did not realize this before?

The Story of Stuff documentary film by Annie Leonard, describes in a very effective visual presentation the life cycle of the stuff "the materials economy" starting form Extraction of the raw materials, production of goods from these materials after adding toxic substances to them, distribution of these goods, consumption "the heart of the system" and finally disposals. She explains the negative affect of over consuming of the limited natural resources, not only on these resources but to the whole environment including humans.

Annie emphasizes the plan "so intestinal" to drive the people to be crazy about shopping "making consumption our way of life" by Governments & Co-operations alliance. In order to achieve their goal, Annie pointed out two strategies the Planned Obsolescence and Perceived Obsolescence.

According to the film 99% of the goods bought in North America are trashed within 6 months.

Fortunately, I do not have the habit of buying things just because it is obsolete. I think female are more subject to Adv and fashion than males. The evidences provided with this film clearly show the negative effect of globalization on environment, including global warming.

Global Warming

The United Nations scientific panel declares that global warming is a reality. Human activities are "most likely" the main factor for this increase in temperature for the last 50 years. The average surface temperature of the earth increased by 1 degree Fahrenheit sine 1900 according to the report. The question now is not whether there is an influence of human activities on global warming but rather what to do about it. Al though greenhouse effect helped to warm the earth at early stages, which was necessary to prevent live on this plant, the increase concentration of carbon dioxide will result in warmer plant.