Environmentalists say the earth is undergoing drastic negative changes due to our use and misuse of dangerous chemicals. They say we should all take steps to “go green” and, in doing so, make the earth a cleaner environment to live in. But how much are our efforts actually helping the planet? Has this initial concern for the earth turned into a big advertising scam for money? The new picture of peace and friendliness – new, fresh, and green – a newly sprouting plant coming out of a clump of dirt in the hand of an “eco-friendly” and “eco-aware” person – depicts the way we feel we should serve the earth in putting forth the effort to take minimal steps. But what good does our effort really do?

LOCATION OF SOURCES:

Geosystems, by Christopherson
Exploring Creation through Chemistry, by Dr. Jay L. Wile
Exploring Creation through Biology, by Dr. Jay L. Wile
Ecological Revolution, by John Bellamy Foster
Human Right to a Green Future, by Richard P. Hiskes
Nature in Common?, edited by Ben A. Minteer
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter052903.asp, Ann Coulter
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter101300.asp, Ann Coulter
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans, Ann Coulter

http://www.environmentalism.com/

http://www.sepp.org/

http://www.lomborg.com/

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/Carboniferous_climate.html

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans

http://www.bible.ca/ef/topical-save-the-baby-humans.htm

http://pleasebekind.com/whales.html

http://www.thinkgreen.com/?gclid=CJr6_qiHzZwCFQZinAodPTn8Jw

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/ultimatego-green/

http://www.gogreeninitiative.org/

http://www.epa.gov/newsroom/gogreen/

Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson
The Deniers, by Lawrence Solomon
Green Hell, by Steven Milloy
Heaven and Earth: Global Warming — The Missing Science, by Ian Plimer
Climate of Extremes, by Patrick Michaels; Robert Balling Jr.
Red Hot Lies, by Christopher Horner
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism, by Christopher Horner
The Really Inconvenient Truths, by Iain Murray
Unstoppable Global Warming, by S. Fred Singer
Cool It, by Bjorn Lomborg
Eco-Freaks, by John Berlau
Rethinking Green, by Robert Higgs; Carl P. Close

SUB-QUESTIONS:

What has been done by environmentalists, etc. to lessen pollution and the effects of carbon-based toxins which are claimed to be destroying our planet?

How are we being encouraged to be more eco-friendly, and what is actually being done?

* Recycling
* Commercials/Advertising

What are the advocates of “saving the earth” through saving energy resources actually doing to the earth? Are they actually helping out, or are they acting in opposition to their own pleas like Al Gore?

How are these people getting the attention of the public?

* Advertising
* commercials
* New worldwide, globally understood symbol of “going green”

Why/How are these advertisers overdoing it?

* Overstressing the actual condition of the earth & its future if we dont jump on the band wagon.
* We’re not all going to die.
* Animals/Polar bears actually going extinct? and to what extent?
* How much are we being directly and indirectly affected by the ozone layer depletion?
* How much is recycling actually helping the planet? Does everything we recycle actually get reused?
* How many labelled “eco-friendly” products are actually eco-friendly?

1. Today, environmentalists impose upon Americans the melodramatic view that life as we know it will soon be swallowed up in an earth-engulfing catastrophe, but they present this view more as a psychological thrill than by reality.
2. Environmentalists today press upon the public the idea that our world as we know it is quickly fading, or as some have put it, “rolling off a cliff” and that we, somehow, will be able to save it, but this idea is entirely misconstrued from its basis and blown out of proportion.
3. Our planet Earth, it is true, needs some degree of attention in order to keep the atmosphere we interact with clean, however, environmentalists of today have taken this idea to an unhealthy extreme, even sacrificing human necessities for the sake of the planet.
4. Environmentalists today have begun to obsess dramatically over saving a planet that is not dying.
5. Today, the happy idea of taking measures to keep the earth clean has whirlpooled into an unhealthy and unrealistic obsession.

Transitional Statements:

1. In light of this information, it is made clear that the Earth cannot benefit to any significant degree from even a massive amount of effort on our part.
2. In the end, we see that the earth will not dramatically benefit from the futile efforts of mankind.
3. With this in mind, the drama of environmentalists appears folly and a waste of time, effort, and money for all that is put into this extremism.
4. Several forms of to,ic pollution through aerial emission of chemical waste come to mind which demonstrate this issue.
5. Other times, the issue concentrates on the overall effect of a given source of pollution. One of these concerns…
6. All in all, the public is not actually at risk when all is taken into the proportional perspective. However, this low-risk melodrama is the source of all the advertised worry. Such is the case with global warming.

major areas of interest:

• Global Warming
• Depleting Ozone Layer
• Carbon-based Toxins
• Saving Energy
• Pollution
• Preventing Pollution
• Saving the Animals
• Car Exhaust
• Recyling
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73seguwfW80 
• Acid Rain
• Eco-Friendly Products
• Going Green
• Save the Planet
• Advertising
• “Best Green Commercials”
• #3_ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/23/green-commercials-video_n_291746.html?slidenumber=4#slide_image
• #2_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/23/green-commercials-video_n_291746.html?slidenumber=1#slide_image
• #1_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/23/green-commercials-video_n_291746.html?slidenumber=2#slide_image
• Extremism and Obsession

Recent News:

• Obama gave a speech to the UN concerning climate change, referring to the people of some unspecified countries apparently having to escape the dangers of this phenomenon as “climate refugees.”
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/obama-un-climate-change-s_n_294628.html
• Harrison Ford is creating an environmental coalition called ”team earth” for people to discuss issues together rather than separately. He is trying to get one million people to sign on for it.
• http://www.teamearth.com/
• The New York State Senate just passed a landmark energy efficiency and green jobs bill which requires funds to be loaned for the improvement of energy efficiency in businesses and houses in attempt to curb global greenhouse gases.
• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/energy-environment/14green.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Questions Being Debated:

• Durston-Lungren debate on protecting the environent.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PwDj_Qc_Bw
• The Environmental Debate
• http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/6243/debate.html

Problems Yet to be Solved:

• How to lessen pollution
• How to generate huge quantities of non-carbon-based sources of energy

Looming Challenges:

• Reaction of the public to any new agenda or technology that has potential to harm the environment.
• Repair of older technology that will soon be recognized as harmful to the environment.

Analysis of original source:

• Why are all these shops having non-stop events?
• Is it so that they can boost sales that are currently falling due to the economic stress?
• If so, how will they pay for all the extra employee hours, food and entertainment they are providing on this night?
• Wouldn’t that cost counter any gains they might make from sales?
• Many people will hear about this event and come only to take advantage of the free food and entertainment.
• This night of events will also cause further competition between the shops for the attention of customers: each shop will try to attract the most customers by having the best form of entertainment. Who has the best food? Who has the hottest celebrity?
• It will no longer be about sales to the customers as much as it will be about the parties.
• It is mentioned that shopkeepers should be handing out champagne at every two blocks.
• This is a form of cheating the customer. If the shops are willing to stoop to trick the customer into buying something while under the influence of their free champagne, how else will they take advantage of the shopper?
• Why then should we trust or admire these shops in the future? If shoppers start thinking in this way, the shops’ sales will go down and they will be worse off than before, completely reversing the desired effect of the night in the end.

Meta-analysis of Tiffany’s analysis:

Tiffany made a good list of informative details about the event. However, like we talked about in class, she could have gone into more depth, asking questions such as why and how to come up with a new perspective on the article. In this way, she could have ended with a deeper understanding of  the possible motives and outcomes of the event proposed in the article. Perhaps she could have looked at the article from all the perspectives of a paranoid penny pincher, a shopoholic, a competetive owner of a big shop, a stressed sales clerk, a competing restaurant owner, an owner of a small shop, and a curious pedestrian to come up with different questions to ask. I, personally, would like to know what the individual motives behind this event were for each person or shop involved and how they play into the desired outcomes. I would ask what the actual outcomes are for this event versus what was intended and how each of these ideas affected each other at the end of the night. Does it look like a motivating success or an extravagant sales pitch? Will it have any effect on sales in the longrun or in contrast to the amount of money spent on the night?

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=503692&publicationSubCategoryId=200

1. Obama says that America can afford to have universal health insurance, but the country is currently in debt.
2. Of course it would be more affordable to do universal health insurance because it would cut down severely on the quality of the medical care provided.
3. Obama realizes that a lot of people are counting on him.
4. He offers positive advice for students to be determined in their studies.
5. He gave speeches in schools to start off the year, but he was not welcome everywhere.
6. He tried to sell his agenda in the schools through a lesson plan that encouraged students to “help the president.”
7. He wants students to discover themselves.
8. He warns against the haunting dangers of facebook.
9. Obama says he is inspired by Ghandi.
10. Obama caused much controversy with his school speeches, and some say he was overstepping his boundaries.