Our Planet
Many people talk about the change they want to be in the world. Derrick Jensen and Bill McKibben are environmentalists their focus is how the environment is being affected. Both environmentalists agree to put blame on the substandard government for their insufficient care towards the environment. The goal is to see a positive change on the environment, for a better world. Jensen and McKibben both want to make changes for a better world, but both have different ideas on how to do so. Now, their differences: McKibben’s solution is to significantly decrease the amount of consumption and Jensen solution is for people to value what is necessary. The issue addressed here is people are consuming so much that the world is already affected.
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They put the blame on Americans for over consuming. They both know that our habits are affecting the rest of the world. It was stated in the film that "most of our economy relies heavily on fossil fuels (coal, natural gas)" a necessity for transportation. Narain also holds us accountable for consuming more than we need and for not moving on to new sources of energy. The United States is one of the biggest consumer societies, thus leaving developing countries in the ruins. Another factor that concerns Jensen is the way that Americans use their money. For example, Jensen says : “we may accumulate wealth, the marker of ‘success’ in this culture… in doing so we give up our empathy…”(2). There are two measures of wealth in the United states: one measure is money and the other is non-renewable resources including oil, coal, natural gasses, petroleum, and so forth. These are two things the United States is unwilling to give up because it is part of the “American Dream” to have money, big house, exotic cars, clothes, and accessories. The idea is spending without thinking –– hyper-consumption. Jensen states in his article that “part of the problem is that we’ve become victims of a campaign of the systematic misdirection” (1). In other words, Jensen believes our focus revolves around money and luxury, and for this reason, Jensen says “personal change does not equal social change”(1). Meaning that a simple life will not change the course of nature. Not only because the damage has already been done, but also because it would take more than one person to change how we are
The people that imperfectly try to save the environment understand that environment may not be as healthy as it could be but still work hard to help it as much as they
Silko and Nelson both understand the importance of caring for the earth and not abusing it, for it helps them
I can explain the authors style and writing. The authors style is mostly using figurative language, but she's mainly using personification, one way of the author using personification is when she stated '' The Earth is growing quiet.'' The author, Cynthia Rylant, also uses like or as, alliteration, and symbolism in her writing as well. In the short story, In November, The author stated ''The trees' are spreading their arms like dancers'.''
(AGG) " Once you need less, you have more"- Anonymous (Quotes Native); Materialism takes over people 's lives and makes them want more, but this doesn 't necessarily mean that they are happy with more material. (BS-1) Materialism can be seen through interactions between characters and have become a part of everyday life. (BS-2) Materialism is also a major part of society itself, the people in power want others to have material. (BS-3) When people get away from material, they find happiness, which is what materialistic people have been looking for all along; but they are looking in the wrong place.
In The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, written by Alexandra Robbins, the reader is expected to connect the lack of individuality of many in high schoolers to the results of the social and biological experiments by Asch and Berns. Throughout the story, Robbins in constantly showing how high schoolers are conforming to peer expectations, despite their own personal interests. Because of a fear of rejection for uniqueness, many high schoolers share the opinions that “I have to be the same as everybody else, or no one will like me.” Personally, I have observed similar experiences. People fear being different.
Due to McWilliams’ strong claim, evidence, warrant, backing, and rebuttal to counter arguments, his argument is therefore an effective one, according to the Toulmin method. The most important and key components, that are vital to an argument, are the argument’s claim, qualifiers, as well as the evidence the author uses to support their argument. If there were no claim, then the author has no firm stance or basis for their argument, because they would have nothing to defend or persuade their readers of. The claim James E. McWilliams makes in the article “The Locavore movement: Why Buying from Nearby Farmers Won’t Save the Planet” is that since there are so many factors that are attributed to the destruction of the earth and the waste of tons of energy ,that the locavore movement is not quite saving the planet simply by focusing
In the article “How I Discovered the Truth about Poverty” Barbara Ehrenreich gives her view in poverty and explains why she think Michael Harington’s book “The Other American” gives a wrong view on poverty. She explained that Harrington believes that the poor thought and felt differently and what divides the poor was their different “culture of poverty.” Ehrenreich goes on to explain on how the book that became a best seller caused so many bad stereotypes on the poor that by the Reagan era poverty was seen as “bad attitudes” and “faulty lifestyles” and not by the lack of jobs or low paying jobs. And they also viewed the poor as “Dissolute, promiscuous, prone to addiction and crime, unable to “defer gratification,” or possibly even set an alarm clock.”
(AGG) “Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none” (DeVos). Some people think that money can buy happiness, but it does not give anything more. (BS-1) In the book Fahrenheit 451, Montag, the main character, lives in a society where people are obsessed with the materials around them.
Michael Pollan publishes an inspiring article, "Why Bother?" to The New York Magazine in April 20, 2008. Pollan desires to discusses the problems with society and how climate changed can be impacted. With only a few words in one can tell how passionate Pollan is in illustrating his "why bother?" question.
The article talks about poverty within america and the issues and resolutions connected to the economy. In “It is Expensive To Be Poor” Ehrenreich claim is that people in poverty are not in that situation because of self habits but because they simply do not have money at the moment. she explains that anyone
McKibben believes and recommends that conservation is the only way towards attaining water and resource sustainability and Jensen thinks that there is unfairness in resource distribution, with the poor or powerless households acting as the scapegoat for all of the contributors to resource
First , many people have heard of the phrase “Go Green” which basically stands for recycling and reducing the amount of waste. “ Waste Not, Want Not” is an essay written by Bill Mckibben. He goes into great detail about how wasteful America really is. I couldn't help but agree with this essay because the things we do in our everyday life are slowly destroying our earth. We as Americans often get more of things than we need.
"Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body" (George Carlin). Comedian, social critic, and author George Carlin's words may seem laughable, but his underlying point rings true for our society today: fulfillment does not lie in material possessions. This idea of materialism appears in several pieces of literature, including Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 features a 30-year-old "firefighter" named Guy Montag, who lives in a futuristic society revolving around technology such as wall-sized TV's and "seashell" radios. Though conscious of his luxurious lifestyle, and how fortunate he must be, he comes to the conclusion that constant self-indulgence leads
Have you ever dived head first into a piece of writing that has you swimming laps across the pool because of all the great things the writer fills the piece with? Brian Doyle is such a writer that could do just that. He is mesmerizingly alluring throughout his writing to say the least. Most all of Doyle’s pieces seem to reflect his appreciation of language; words, phrases, sentences, how things sound and more. The essay entitled “The Meteorites”, by Brian Doyle, is really well written due to the fact of his well thought out diction, which flows throughout the essay while having imagery intimidatingly piggy back along.
In the article, “Forget Shorter Showers” by Derrick Jensen, the author shows the reader how they are not truly saving the earth by showering less, producing less waste or by limiting use of power. In fact, Jensen is placing the blame more toward a political based problem and more on the elites of the world who tend to blame the individuals. Jensen’s article tends to lean more toward the anti-capitalistic view of capitalism causing the earth to crumble due to the government and the elites of the world. These facts are proven by Jensen’s research into the actual use of energy consumption showing that individuals tend to use only a fourth of it, leaving the rest to be wasted away by the big corporations. Jensen also furthers his argument by showing the amount of waste used by citizens.