Geography In The News

Oil Sands in Canada

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Author Note

Oil Sands in Canada

Athabasca oil sands are Canada's largest oil deposits. Canada exports oil to different countries including America. Currently, the major oil sources for America are The Alberta tar sands. These oil sands produce and supply more oil than any other source in Canada. The political and economic development of Canada is highly dependent on the oil industry of Alberta. CITATION STE19 \l 2057 (Leahy, 2019) Undoubtedly, Canada just cannot afford to lose this oil trade business as it produces around 460,000 jobs and approximately $20 billion into its economy annually.  CITATION Can \l 2057 (Sands, 2019)

Besides the benefit it provides, the oil sand companies in Canada have some serious and harmful effects on the environment. The Alberta tar oil sands are located by the river of Athabasca. When the water from the river is transferred into the lake, it creates one of the most important ecosystems of freshwater. But, the sand of oil fields of Alberta contains a chemical, known as bitumen. Bitumen is often carried inside the pipelines. However, this chemical can easily spill and leak into the water, thus polluting the ecosystem. CITATION MAL18 \l 2057 (Mullin, 2018) Thus, the creatures living underwater in that ecosystem are highly affected. Thousands of ducks became the victims of this chemical in 2008 and therefore died. CITATION JOD10 \l 2057 (Sinemma, 2010)

Moreover, the increase in water pollution due to the waste coming from the oil sands has taken many precious human lives by spreading some life taking diseases like cancer and brain tumor. (Gosselin & Xu, 2010) These deaths revoked the attention of people and the oil sand companies were asked to test the quality of water and make the necessary changes to protect lives and the overall environment. However, surprisingly, the oil companies rejected this issue of pollution & continued their procedures to put the lives of the citizens in danger. The viewpoints, attitude, and behaviors of these oil sand companies are fully against the following three basic pillars of social teaching CITATION CAT \l 2057 (WASHINGTON):

Importance of life and grace of human beings

Fulfillment of rights and responsibility

Care for the creation of God

Due to this unexpected and surprising behavior of oil sand companies, the general public has to condemn and criticize their activities and try their best to produce improvements. 

The oil companies, however, can make the excuse that they were not careful enough about their operating procedures, which caused the mixing of some toxic chemicals in the freshwater. Numerous people were getting sick after using the polluted water, made the water quality suspicious for the scientists as well as the general public. (Timoney, 2012) Afte reporting of this issue, it was expected that these companies will pause their businesses for some time and carry out proper investigation about the in, as it was very serious and had taken many precious lives. However, the companies repeatedly stated that the water was safe/clean and did not carry out any kind of investigation. They completely ignored the fact that people were dying due to the usage of polluted water. The only things that mattered to the companies were their reputation and the profit they were generating out of their businesses. 

At this crucial time, the oil sand companies of Alberta, who are solely responsible for this issue, should come out and take the responsibility for resolving this problem. When the issue of polluted water was raised against them, the Alberta oil sand companies, instead of investigating the issue, made a comparison with an American electricity producing company. They stated that the production of electricity with the help of coal produces forty times the pollution than their own oil sands. The thought process and logic of these companies is shameful and disappointing.

References

Gosselin, P., Hrudey, S. E., Naeth, M. A., Plourde, A., Therrien, R., Van Der Kraak, G., & Xu, Z. (2010). Environmental and health impacts of Canada’s oil sands industry. Royal Society of Canada, Ottawa, ON, 438. (Gosselin & Xu, 2010)

BIBLIOGRAPHY Leahy, S. (2019, April 11). This is the world's most destructive oil operation—and it's growing. Retrieved from National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/alberta-canadas-tar-sands-is-growing-but-indigenous-people-fight-back/

Mullin, M. (2018, January 30). What we know – and don’t know – about diluted bitumen. Retrieved from The Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-diluted-bitumen/article37799406/

Sands, C. O. (2019). Economic Contribution. Retrieved from Canada's Oil Sands: https://www.canadasoilsands.ca/en/explore-topics/economic-contribution

Sinemma, J. (2010, August 9). Bird death totals don't add up: study. Retrieved from EDMONTON JOURNAL: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Bird+death+totals+study/3490514/story.html

WASHINGTON, C. C. (n.d.). Catholic Social Teaching. Retrieved from CATHOLIC COMMUNITY SERVICES: https://ccsww.org/about-us/catholic-social-teaching/

Timoney, K. (2012). Environmental and health impacts of Canada’s bitumen industry: in search of answers. (Timoney, 2012)

Remillard, C. (2011). Picturing environmental risk: The Canadian oil sands and the National Geographic. International Communication Gazette, 73(1-2), 127-143.

Smandych, R., & Kueneman, R. (2013). The Canadian-Alberta tar sands: A case study of state-corporate environmental crime. In Global Environmental Harm (pp. 105-127). Willan.

Kelly, E. N., Schindler, D. W., Hodson, P. V., Short, J. W., Radmanovich, R., & Nielsen, C. C. (2010). Oil sands development contributes elements toxic at low concentrations to the Athabasca River and its tributaries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(37), 16178-16183.

Percy, K. E. (2012). Alberta oil sands: Energy, industry and the environment (Vol. 11). Newnes.

Finkel, M. L. (2018). The impact of oil sands on the environment and health. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, 3, 52-55.

Health In Rural And Remote Areas

Health in rural and remote areas

Introduction

Rural health appeared as a major concern in 1990s when Australian government understood and analysed the status of rural health as evidence from mainstream health program. Taking into account the fact that health institutions are failed in meeting the health needs of people, it is asserted that about 7 million people in Australia are living in the areas outside major cities and this gap paves the way for depressed standards of living. People who are living in remote and regional areas have frequently reported about poor health risk profiles. A common example is, people living in rural areas are more prone to drink alcohol, smoke and be overweight. There is a decreased ratio of education, lower income and other factors that are associated with the circumstances of poor health. It is a common observation that rural population is less likely to have access to health facilities. Due to increasing road distances, people prefer self-medication over opting for better health services. It is significant to note if people ever dare to avail the services out there in cities, the conditions and circumstances are so worst that there is hardly any chance of positive retrieval. The most devastating fact is, Torres Strait and Aboriginal people are becoming population that is a victim of increasing remoteness, on average, and Indigenous Australians are towards more poor health outcomes as compared to other Australians. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). It is important to note that there is a greater rate of death in remote and regional areas as compared to major cities, in regional areas the death rate is 1.05-1.15 times as compared to remote areas where the ratio is 1.2-1.7. It asserts a three times greater rate of death in regional people. People who live in rural areas generally have poorer health than the major city counterparts reflected in their higher levels of diseases, mortality and health risk factors.

Determinant and outcome

There are several factors that contribute to the analysis of facts and figures paving the way for economic barriers, inferring that it leads to increased death rate, ratio of disease and a high mortality rate. It is asserted that there are certain variables that reflect the interventions required for the analysis of rural health status. These determinants are termed as geographical location, socio economic characteristics, rural lifestyle and race. (Healthstats.nsw.gov.au, 2019).

Geographical Location and rural environments

Rural environment and geographical location play a major role in having an influence on the health status of rural population. It is affirmative that the burden of zoonosis is at its peak in rural area, especially in the subject of agricultural employees. In New Zealand, the access to have safe drinking water is sometimes poor in communities where people belonging to Maori are overrepresented or termed as representations. There is a high rate of infectious diseases in Australia taking into account Aboriginal people having substandard supply of water resources, sanitation and washing facilities. It is important to note the characteristics of rural population referring to compound problems that originate from more social causes and fundamental structure. It would not be wrong to say that extensive geographical boundaries are facing major issues regarding healthcare because services are dispersed as low-density because of a greater distance to approach these services and limited chances of having a positive outcome. It is more significant to note that the major determinant of access to services refers to both preventive care and ill health treatment. Travelling to long distance in order to approach health centres have incorporated a restricted diagnosed capacity with large number of delayed treatments. There are incomplete strategical capabilities related to health in rural areas. Adverse health outcomes are also accompanied by a low level of screening and a delayed diagnosis of major health concerns due to poor access to health care services. (Phillips, 2009, pp.2-9).

Rural Lifestyle

Rural Lifestyle is still termed as one of the major determinants of remote health taking into account that rural-urban differences in the incidence of disease and illness are more towards the outcome of occupational hazards. In a simplified form, it refers to personal behaviour rather than rurality. Rural industries are posing a major threat to people because there is increased exposure to certain chemicals that can act as a precursor of biological, mechanical, physical and chemical hazards. There is a massive death rate associated with fisheries and forestry, adhering to the fact that occupational hazards are one of the core reflectors of death rates and disasters. The most prevalent factors of death rate are mining and agriculture in Australia, New Zealand and the US. Lifestyle has a direct impact on the patterns of health behaviour and health literacy, acting as one of the characteristics of remote communities. Rural population and remote communities are a major precursor of the increasing health patterns, there is a great incidence of less healthy behaviours as compared to urban areas. There is a low level of physical activity, unhealthy nutrition, elevated rate of smoking and a high ratio of alcohol consumption. Moreover, the status of socioeconomic disadvantages reflects psychological stress and a threat to better lifestyle. Rural people are more towards preventive screening measures, water safety and exercise regularity. The increasing stance of risk-taking is reflected in the adverse health outcomes in compliance with certain conditions specifically injuries. The relationship between poor health and high rate of risks is inferred by the analysis of health effecting behaviour. It refers to the relationship between people such as individual families, communities and organisms. Although the rural population is more towards being self-sufficient taking into account that they are more supportive towards each other, there is a lack of confidentiality and anonymity habits in the rural dwellers. There are certain psychological factors as well that are playing a major role in the analysis of determination of life style such as sociodemographic factors behaviours, and lifestyle. (Healthstats.nsw.gov.au, 2019).

Socioeconomic characteristics

Australian studies have revealed that there is a great variation in the health status that could show the variation in health status as explained by socioeconomic factors. There are high incidences of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and low birth weight, accompanied by cancer of different body organs. Evidence has revealed that rurality contributes to the health indicators in a number of ways taking into account that socioeconomic factors are not consistent. Studies have reflected that there is a little or average variation in the health status for a particular disease and control of variable in terms of that disease. Other studies have found that socioeconomic deprivation is more strongly associated with economic paradigms other than the conditions after the control of variables. (Phillips, 2009, pp.2-9).

Race and Ethnicity

Torres Straits Islanders, Canadian Aboriginal people and many Alaskan Native populations are catering to the burden of diseases as compared to the non-indigenous people. In Australian indigenous people, death rate is three times higher as compared to other people, parallel to life expectancy that is considerably short. There is a great ratio of cervical cancer death in Australia, taking into account the indigenous component of population. Side by side, there is a high rate of notification regarding chlamydia, syphilis and salmonella in many regions. Indigenous Australian are at a great threat to get coronary heart disease , research reflecting double rate of such records as compared to non-indigenous populations. The poor health differentials reflect a higher proportion of indigenous people in certain areas. The socioeconomic disadvantages faced by people makes them a great threat to a high level of environmental and behavioural risks, as compounded by significant problems that are associated with long distance to services and inability to afford, accompanied by lack of transport and culturally appropriate services. (Healthstats.nsw.gov.au, 2019).

Policy responses

The understanding of health determinants plays a major role in determining the stance of government efforts in order to cater to the issues. Rural health policies are developed in the countries that are predicted on a belief that the status of health is worse in rural areas as compared to urban areas, asserting a perception that rurality is to some extent responsible for worst healthcare outcomes. The policy status and outcomes infer a wide range of interrelated household, health system, community and other policy related determinants that are operating at a variety and number of scales. There are both micro and macro services that are acting out in order to address this issue. The government treated determinants are operating at a number of scales in order to stabilise the stance of poverty and address health needs. It is important to note that policies have a focus asserting solely on the area-based explanations and responses to the health problems that run the risk of diverting attention from the structural and social processes to the misdirecting policy formulation and remedial efforts. It refers to the fact that concentrating on distance and the issues rural population is facing regarding access to health care centres without reflecting poverty, inequalities of resources, discrimination and inequality of allocation of resources must result in sub-operational interventions. Policies have responded in accordance with the expected outcomes, taking into account the concurrent actions to improve employment opportunities, provision of education and physical infrastructure.

It is also equally assertive that none of the policy response is truly effective if it is failed in addressing the factors that contribute to socioeconomic disadvantages and marginalization of Indigenous people. It is despairing to note that certain interventions are incorporated to improve the health status but is it not an always case that the interventions are directed and ultimately achieved the required objectives. In a nutshell, health policies can only be considered responsive if there is a stance of specifically designed programs, having the potential to influence rural health literacy and health-seeking behaviour ensuring availability of required services. (Healthstats.nsw.gov.au, 2019).

Spatial Differences

Spatial differences are presented at different levels reflecting certain boundaries such as political boundaries i.e. local government and local council, services and funding boundaries such as health districts and the administrative boundaries such as ABS boundaries. In accordance with the spatial inequality it is asserted that inadequate health services are more potent in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. The major population is localized in Eastern Australia located in far north Queensland and in the Central New South Wales. The same stance of remoteness is observed in the central and western states of Australia with a major section of people remote in terms of health, belonging to Northern Territory and Western Australia. The areas with the densest population are locked with few major cities as well. More than 140,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people are living in the areas covered with ISPHCS locations. (Torrens University, 2019).

Drivers and impacts

There are certain facts that act as drivers of spatial differences in the distribution of healthcare facilities in rural areas.

Rural-Urban imbalance of population

Population is one of the greatest factors that play a major role in the equal or acceptable distribution of resources. It is significant to note that in term of Australian health, urban side has always been highlighted taking into account the dire need of resources that can fulfil health needs. It is significant to note that urban population formulates the major section of Australian population and it paves the way for the analysis of the services, asserting urban population as more needy. Although apparent efforts are made to cater to health needs still there is less attention towards coherence to such facilities. Rural-urban imbalance has been taken as one of the impacts as well because when no attention is given as a result of imbalance, there is a greater approach towards the provision of resources in the areas where there is already present services. (Aihw.gov.au, 2019).

Imbalance of resources

Imbalance of resources is also termed as one of the greatest drivers of spatial differences. It is asserted that there are a greater number of resources in urban areas so efforts are imparted to improve such localities. It is significant to note that it includes both natural and artificial resources. In rural areas, there is lack of resources such as roads, pathways and educated population so there is a dire need of efforts that could address the approaching and increasing needs of people. It also highlights that some of the areas are a victim to remote health facilities because there is lack of attention to impart novelty of actions in terms of innovation health centres because of other devastating factors that highlight and hamper the stance of equality. Lack of educated people, lack of medical baseline automatically paves the way for ignorance where people are treated with massive negligence. In accordance with Aboriginal people, it is highlighted that migrated people prefer to stay at areas where there is less population and demographics become a major tool to create disparities. (Torrens University, 2019).

Natural amenities

It is important to note that natural amenities play an equally important role in the analysis of spatial differences in terms of health needs. It is significant to note that most of the urban areas face natural disasters now and then. Such disasters not only hamper the stance of attention that is given to that area, in fact, there is a massive destruction. Considering Queensland, it is quite evident that there is a large amount of natural disasters that affect the efforts made by government. It is more important to note that such disasters not only deteriorate the overall occurring in the country but there is a great deal of negligence in terms of catering to the cause of natural resources. In a simplified form natural disasters not only ensure the rate of destruction but there is greater heed towards the facts and figures that are increasing in terms of death rate and mortality rate. (Torrens University, 2019).

Lack of adherence

One of the major drivers of spatial differences is the lack of adherence, whenever attempts are made to incorporate the features of mitigation of spatial differences. It is significant to note that lack of adherence refers to a number of other factors that can play a crucial role in the determination of basic needs. It is asserted that lack of adherence refers to the framework of competences that are imparted by certain authorities and lawmaking bodies because not all the incorporated policies reach their aims. Although apparently, there seems to be a crucial stance of bringing the paradigms of public and political interest in synchronization, still there is a gap in the long run. Not all the policies that are formulated abide by the stance of achievement. Taking into account the current scenario of rural areas, there is a major gap in the assumptions and the actual implication. Several policies are enforced but there is hardly any stance of applicability because there is a sheer loss of resources and efforts that can fulfil the required goals. (Smith, et, al. 2008 pp.56-66).

Socioeconomic groups

One of the drivers of spatial differences in the socioeconomic groups, highlighting reforms are always brought in the localities with greater economic and high-class strata. There is less heed towards the analysis of the features that can incorporate equality and equity. Usually, major cities are localized by the people with high class who have an approach to all the necessities of life, any action from their side can bring about required results. (Smith, et, al. 2008 pp.56-66).

Future Interventions

There are several strategies and interventions that can deal with the stance of remote rural health such as, Australian Government Indigenous Australian Health Programme, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance framework. These are certain policies that are trying to comprehend to deal with the subject issue. It is important to note that there are several other strategies that can be used to address present gaps such as NGOs and Public Agencies. (Torrens University, 2019).

Discussion on Indicators

The analysis of spatial differences has been incorporated by the implication of National Key Performance Indicator (nKPI). This data has brought into insight that there are 40 areas where 0 of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people live within a locality that is at a distance of 1 hour to the nearest healthcare area. 11 of the 40 areas have population of more than 600 people. An examination of Grade Point average has inferred that there are 17 primary healthcare services that were not the part of nKPI data collections such as states funded services and other new policy oriented services. It is asserted that 226 of 323 ISPHCS locations are operated by the incorporation of OSR services that are offering all types of health services. The data inferred that Queensland is one of the major areas with the greatest number of service gaps with remote health services in 19 out of 40 areas. Western Australia has remote health in the rural areas of Southern Australia, with 12 areas with service gaps. New South Wales has 5 areas with services gap. Other indicators are population, economic and social characteristics, mortality, morality, and lifestyle and health expectancy. A comparison of indigenous mortality has brought into insight that there is a more stance of migration of people from remote centres to the larger centres in order to cater to the necessities and bring an upheaval in living standards.

In local areas, the mortality rate is much higher, taking into account the interference of socioeconomic factors such as ethnicity, barriers in economic threshold and poor availability of service along with a greater risk of personal risk and hazardous environment. It is significant to note that there is a greater threat towards diseases such as cancer, certain injuries dental health and a greater ratio of mental health in accordance with the fact that mental distortion paves the way for disability. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). Moreover, lack of resources is one of the greater precursors of future disease patterns under the influence of drought, extreme temperature and bushfire. It is also important to note that contact with other disease organisms can also become a potential threat, leading to the analysis of economic rate a tool for the balanced state. (Aihw.gov.au, 2019).

Work Cited

Aihw.gov.au. (2019). online Available at HYPERLINK https//www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/a34c79a2-be4f-402a-b7c6-cf758974f8ff/18900.pdf.aspxinlinetrue https//www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/a34c79a2-be4f-402a-b7c6-cf758974f8ff/18900.pdf.aspxinlinetrue

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2016).Australias health 2016, Chapter 6 Preventing and treating ill health - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. online Available at https//www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016/contents/chapter-6-preventing-and-treating-ill-health

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2016).Australias health 2016, Chapter 6 Preventing and treating ill health - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. online Available at https//www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2016).Australias health 2016in brief, Australias health as 100 people - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. online Available at https//www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016-in-brief/contents/australias-health-as-100-people

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018).Annual report 201718, Appendix 2 Products, journal articles and presentations - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. online Available at https//www.aihw.gov.au/reports/corporate-publications/aihw-annual-report-2017-18/contents/appendix-2-products-journal-articles-and-presentations

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018).Australias health 2018 in brief, About - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. online Available at https//www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2018-in-brief/contents.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018).The incidence of insulin-treated diabetes in Australia, Statistical notes - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. online Available at HYPERLINK https//www.aihw.gov.au/reports/diabetes/incidence-insulin-treated-diabetes-australia-2016/statistical-notes https//www.aihw.gov.au/reports/diabetes/incidence-insulin-treated-diabetes-australia-2016/statistical-notes

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018).The incidence of remote areas in Australia, Statistical notes - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. online Available at https//www.aihw.gov.au/reports/diabetes/incidence-insulin-treated-diabetes-australia-2016/statistical-notes

Healthstats.nsw.gov.au. (2019).HealthStats NSW Low birth weight by remoteness from service centres, trends. online Available at HYPERLINK http//www.healthstats.nsw.gov.au/Indicator/mab_lbw/mab_lbw_aria_trend http//www.healthstats.nsw.gov.au/Indicator/mab_lbw/mab_lbw_aria_trend

Healthstats.nsw.gov.au. (2019).HealthStats NSW Place of birth by remoteness from service centres, trends. online Available at http//www.healthstats.nsw.gov.au/Indicator/mab_placebth_cat/mab_placebth_cat_aria_trend

Phillips, A., 2009. Health status differentials across rural and remote Australia.Australian Journal of Rural Health,17(1), pp.2-9.

Smith, K.B., Humphreys, J.S. and Wilson, M.G., 2008. Addressing the health disadvantage of rural populations how does epidemiological evidence inform rural health policies and research.Australian Journal of Rural Health,16(2), pp.56-66.

Torrens University. (2019). online Available at http//phidu.torrens.edu.au/notes-on-the-data/atsi-notes/aboriginal-pop-5yr-age-male-urp

Torrens University. (2019). online Available at http//phidu.torrens.edu.au/notes-on-the-data/demographic-social/aboriginal-pop-5yr-broadage

Torrens University. (2019). online Available at http//phidu.torrens.edu.au/help-and-information/about-our-data/geographical-structures/pha-list

Torrens University. (2019).Topics, Indicators and Notes on the Data. online Available at http//phidu.torrens.edu.au/social-health-atlases/indicators-and-notes-on-the-data/26-social-health-atlases-of-australia-contents/demographic-social/218-aboriginal-total-urp

Health in rural and remote areas PAGE 11

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Hurricane Katrina

Adam

Instructor Name

Course Number

Date

Hurricane Katrina

A tropical depression appeared over the Bahamas called Hurricane Katrina, on August, 25, 2005. Meteorologists issued a warning regarding the hurricane that was going to hit the Gulf Coast. The evacuations across the region were ongoing by August 28.

The officials were concerned the surge may cause short-term flooding due to overtopping of the levees. No one anticipated that the levees might face a breakdown below the premeditated height. The city’s deprived and most defenseless people faced a greater threat of flooding. It rained heavily for hours before the surge hit New Orleans in the morning. The unstable levees and canals were overwhelmed by the hurricane. It swept all the levees as the water leaked through the soil beneath. To date, Hurricane Katrina is the most expensive hurricane which costs the U.S a total of $45.1 billion.

Strength by The Saffir-Simpson Scale

According to the Saffir-Simpson Scale, Katrina is categorized as Category 3 storm. The wind speed recorded was around 125 mph (Lavie et al.). The winds sustained at as high as 125mph, and thus, it was categorized as Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. As NOAA reported, the Hurricane Katrina surge was ranged between twenty to thirty feet.

Damages and Losses

The hurricane resulted in extreme flooding damage to cities from New Orleans to Mississippi, which is along the Gulf Coast. New Orleans flooded heavily due to a huge number of unpredicted failures of levees around the city. A sports Arena, Louisiana Superdome was utilized to shelter an estimate of twenty-five thousand evacuees. Roof damage due to wind and water led authorities to evacuate Superdome.

 A total of 1,833 fatalities were caused, were 1,577 death casualties in Louisiana were the highest. In Louisiana, about half of the people who died were aged over 74. In New Orleans, the population declined by fifty percent when compared with population of 484,674 in April 2000 to population of 230,172 in July 2006. Over a million people were displaced in the Gulf Region. The relief shelters accommodated 273,000 people at maximum. Afterward, roughly 114,000 families settled in trailers provided by FEMA.

Katrina caused total damage of $161 billion. 134,000 units which constitute seventy percent of New Orleans' were damaged in the storm. FEMA funded an amount of $15 billion for public projects like repair and reconstruction of the school, buildings, and roads in the Gulf State. An additional $6.7 billion were granted to help with households. Out of $120.5 billion, $75 billion were funded towards emergency operations by federal aid. According to Insurance companies, they have compensated almost $41.1 billion after 1.7 million claims for damage to homes, transportation means, and commerce were made in the six states. According to the statistics, 63 percent of the total losses occurred in Louisiana while Mississippi faced thirty-four percent of them. In June 2006, a reported was released by the Government Accountability Office which showed that as low as one billion dollars fraudulent compensations were made by FEMA.

Prevention Measures

After ten years have passed and billions of dollars have been spent, the restructured and rebuilt New Orleans has the potential to withstand hurricanes it has experienced before. However, increased global warming is shifting the goals of storm protection continuously, which makes it difficult to assume that the city is safe (Walsh). 

Usually, the development of a city or region is planned to focus on the growth and needs of the population and no restraints. The planning at the local level is even more inadequate. Only a small number of cities have incorporated the disaster management system and strategies for climatic adaption into their planning for city growth, most of the emergency management organization and centers base their strategies on only readiness and response instead of mitigation and flexible building. However, these are just the initial steps for preventing the losses that happened due to Katrina. A lot more planning and implementation of strategies are required. 

The invention of science can play a great role in preventing the losses, the U.S. has faced due to Katrina. NOAA’s weather predictive models, information about earthquakes from USGS and other climate-related data from US Global Change Research Program are being considered for the state as well as local development planning. This will build secure structures like buildings and transport systems. San Francisco is the first to recruit a chief resilience officer and the local communities are taking significant steps to strive for better disaster management and loss prevention. 

The U.S. ranks top among the countries of the world that are wealthiest, well-developed and prepared for difficult times. However, this hurricane showed that if the disaster is large scale, even countries like the U.S. have to face extreme conditions.

Works Cited

Lavie, Carl J., et al. “Hurricane Katrina: The Infarcts B/beyond the Storm.” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, vol. 3, no. 3, Oct. 2009, pp. 131–35. Cambridge Core, DOI:10.1097/DMP.0b013e3181bab1d4.

Sherman, Arloc, and Isaac Shapiro. Essential facts about the victims of hurricane Katrina. p. 3.

Walsh, Bryan. “How to Prevent the Next Hurricane Katrina.” Time, 27 Aug. 2015, https://time.com/4012856/how-to-prevent-the-next-hurricane-katrina/.

Impuataion Of Hydro Logical Data Using R Language

Imputation of hydro logical data using R language

Student’s Name

Institution

Course Code

Date

Methodology

Multiple imputations are normally used to solve the problem of incomplete data. Recently, two approaches were identified as the best alternative techniques which can be used to solve the problem of incomplete dataset CITATION Car17 \p 573 \l 1033 (Carvalho, Almeida, Assad, & Nakai, 2017, p. 573). These methods are joints modeling and multiple imputations by chained equation. However, in this study, MICE and linear regression were used to complete the study. The MIC algorithm was implemented as S-Function. Therefore, for each incomplete variable the user has an option of choosing a set of predictors which can be used for the purpose of imputation. However, to complete the study, software, packages and data were applied uniquely to obtain, install and analyze the data for the study to be completed successfully.

Software

In order to complete the study various techniques were used to collect and analyze the data. Several software or applications were installed in a desktop computer and used for gathering and analyzing the data as well. First, the software (R statistic 3.6) for managing the rainfall data and conduct imputation were downloaded and installed in the desktop computer. The software R statistic 3.6 ( https://www.r-project.org/) were used because of its effectiveness and detailed result it provides. To use the software specific commands were issued as illustrated below. And to develop the script and manage the data directories, R Studio 1.2 (https://www.rstudio.com/) was used as an application. This ensured that the data is obtained and analyzed as required. It is important to point that; I started by installing packages which are helpful for the management and imputation of data. The tidyverse package was installed. The tidyverse package is a tool used for restructuring and manipulating datasets. Tidyverse was used to introduce the missing data. Then I installed the MICE (Gelman and Hill, 2011) package, which allowed for the construction of missing data plots, and the MICE (van Buuren and Groothuis-Oudshoorn, 2011) package, which allowed for missing data imputation

install. Packages("tidyverse")install. Packages("mi")install. Packages("mice")

These packages were loaded into the current session by using the library command

library("tidyverse")library("mi")library("mice")

Data

The data used for the computation of the rain were obtained by downloading using the below codes from the two rainfall stations and then turning the station numbers into vectors.

SE=read.csv("Climates[2702].txt" ,sep=" ")Fitz=read.csv("ClimStaFitz[2701].txt" ,sep=" ")STN=c(SE$StationNo,Fitz$StationNo)

I set the working directory to my current folder so I could download the data files, using the below code

setwd("E:/Research Implementation")

To download the data, I created a loop. The loop went through each station list, and then inserted it into the longpaddock website URL to download that station’s data. This downloaded one data file for each station in the list from 1960-2019.

for(i in 1:length(STN)){ stnno <- STN[i] FileOut <- paste('data/Patched_',stnno,'.txt',sep='') #give the download a file name - here the only thing changing is the station number to set URL <- paste('https://legacy.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/PatchedPointDataset.php?format=Standard&station=',stnno,'&start=19600101&finish=20181231&username=CQUNPEDDOJU&password=CQU3M530',sep='') ##where you're downloading the file from' download. File(URL, FileOut, method='auto') #R command to download the file#}

Once the download was completed, I set up a data frame ‘dist’ in which I was going to save accuracy data for the two imputation methods I used. This data frame was to be saved as an excel file later.

dist=data.frame(STN=numeric(), PMM=numeric(), LM=numeric(), MEAN=numeric(), MI=numeric() )

Imputation

In order to obtained and conduct appropriate analysis, the imputation was done using different techniques.

for(i in 1:length(STN)){ stnno <- STN[i] filen <- paste('data/Patched_',stnno,'.txt',sep='') #give the download a file name - here the only thing changing is the station number to set FileOut<-filen # reading data from Patch file XL <- as.integer(grep("(yyyymmdd)", readLines(FileOut))) #lines to skip before the actual data ColNames <- read.table(FileOut,header=FALSE,nrows=1,skip=(XL-2),colClasses = "character") #read column names Units <- read.table(FileOut,header=FALSE,nrows=1,skip=(XL-1),colClasses = "character") #read units Data <- data.frame(read.table(FileOut,header=FALSE,skip=XL)) #read data colnames(Data) <- ColNames Data$DateUse <- paste(substr(Data$Date,1,4),substr(Data$Date,5,6),substr(Data$Date,7,8),sep='-') #this is how R sees dates Data <- Data[Data$DateUse>='1961-01-01' & Data$DateUse<='2018-12-31',] # aggregating rainfall data Mon <- strftime(Data$DateUse, "%m") Year <- strftime(Data$DateUse, "%Y") Rain <- Data$Rain #selected the variable of interest here - check colnames(Data) RainData <- data.frame(Mon, Year, Rain) #select the variable you would like to process RainMonthTotal <- aggregate(Rain ~ Mon + Year, RainData, FUN = sum) #monthly totala RainYearTotal <- aggregate(Rain ~ Year, RainData, FUN = sum) #Yearly totala RainYearMax <- aggregate(Rain ~ Year, RainData, FUN = max) #Yearly daily Max RainDayMean <- aggregate(Rain ~ Day, Data, FUN = mean) #mean of the days of the year # specify which variables should have missing data and % of missing data c_names = c("Rain") prc_missing = 0.20 # RainMonthTotal$Mon <- as.numeric(as.character(RainMonthTotal$Mon)) RainMonthTotal$Year <- as.numeric(as.character(RainMonthTotal$Year)) RainMonthTotalMiss <- data.frame(id=1:nrow(RainMonthTotal),RainMonthTotal) mdf <- missing_data.frame(RainMonthTotalMiss) pdf(paste("output/",STN[i],"_NOMISS.pdf",sep="")) image(mdf) dev.off() # RainMonthTotalMiss <- RainMonthTotalMiss %>% gather(var, value, -id) %>% # reshape data mutate(r = runif(nrow(.)), # simulate a random number from 0 to 1 for each row value = ifelse(var %in% c_names & r <= prc_missing, NA, value)) %>% # if it's one of the variables you specified and the random number is less than your threshold update to NA select(-r) %>% # remove random number spread(var, value) # reshape back to original format # RainMonthTotalMiss <- RainMonthTotalMiss[,c('id','Mon','Year','Rain')] #viewing missing pattern mdf <- missing_data.frame(RainMonthTotalMiss) pdf(paste("output/",STN[i],"_MISS.pdf",sep="")) image(mdf) dev.off() #Impute missing set.seed(10) init=mice(RainMonthTotalMiss,maxit = 5) meth=init$method predM=init$predictorMatrix cln=RainMonthTotalMiss predM[, c("id")]=0 meth[c("Rain")]="pmm" #predictive mean matching imputed=mice(RainMonthTotalMiss, method=meth,predictorMatrix = predM,m=5) imputed=complete(imputed) RainMonthTotalMiss$RainImputed=imputed$Rain RainMonthTotalMiss$RainOriginal=RainMonthTotal$Rain #regression imputation lm.imp.1=lm(Rain~Mon +Year,data=RainMonthTotalMiss) pred.1=predict(lm.imp.1,RainMonthTotalMiss) RainMonthTotalMiss$lmP=impute(RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain,pred.1) # mean imputation meanrain = mean(RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain,na.rm=TRUE) for (e in 1:nrow(RainMonthTotalMiss)){ if(is.na(RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain[e])){ RainMonthTotalMiss$RainMeanImputed[e]=meanrain } else{ RainMonthTotalMiss$RainMeanImputed[e]=RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain[e] } } # mi packagae imputations <-mi(mdf, n.iter = 2, n.chains = 1, max.minutes = 20) impdf <-mi::complete(imputations, m = 1) RainMonthTotalMiss$RainMiImputed = impdf$Rain RainMissPMM=cln RainMissLM=cln RainMissMEAN=cln RainMissMI=cln RainMissPMM$Imputed=RainMonthTotalMiss$RainImputed RainMissLM$Imputed=RainMonthTotalMiss$lmP RainMissMEAN$Imputed=RainMonthTotalMiss$RainMeanImputed RainMissMI$Imputed=RainMonthTotalMiss$RainMiImputed #calc average differences dat=subset(RainMonthTotalMiss,is.na(RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain)) dat$abspmm=abs(dat$RainImputed-dat$RainOriginal) dat$abslm=abs(dat$RainOriginal-dat$lmP) dat$absmean=abs(dat$RainMeanImputed-dat$RainOriginal) dat$absmi=abs(dat$RainOriginal-dat$RainMiImputed) vec=c(STN[i],mean(dat$abspmm),mean(dat$abslm),mean(dat$absmean),mean(dat$absmi)) dist[nrow(dist)+1,]=vec write.csv(RainMissPMM,paste("output/",STN[i],"_PMM.csv")) write.csv(RainMissLM,paste("output/",STN[i],"_LM.csv")) write.csv(RainMissMI,paste("output/",STN[i],"_MI.csv")) write.csv(RainMissMEAN,paste("output/",STN[i],"_MEAN.csv")) write.csv(RainMonthTotalMiss,paste("output/",STN[i],"_ALL.csv"))}

Predictive mean matching (PMM)

The first method used to conduct imputation was called predictive mean matching. The predictive mean matching is the use of different variables to account for the distribution of the original variables in order to generate the values which can match the skewed variables. The predictive mean matching test was conducted using MICE package with the listed codes below. It is also important to point that the last two lines of the codes are regarded as the imputed values into the new columns of the main dataset which are used for the comparison of the datasets.

#Impute missing set.seed(10) init=mice(RainMonthTotalMiss,maxit = 5) meth=init$method predM=init$predictorMatrix cln=RainMonthTotalMiss predM[, c("id")]=0 meth[c("Rain")]="pmm" #predictive mean matching imputed=mice(RainMonthTotalMiss, method=meth,predictorMatrix = predM,m=5) imputed=complete(imputed) RainMonthTotalMiss$RainImputed=imputed$Rain RainMonthTotalMiss$RainOriginal=RainMonthTotal$Rain

This technique was helpful in obtaining the rain imputation data which were then analyzed to understand the trend of the data performance.

Linear regression

The linear regression techniques were used to determine the relationship between interested variables. According to Khalifeloo, Mohammad, & Heydari (2015) linear regression analysis is one of the widely used statistical methods in different science to determine the relationship between two or more variables. As stated by Cisty & Celar (2015) the dependent variables are known as response and the independent variables are regarded as explanatory variables. However, the linear regression techniques assume that there is a linear relationship which exists between dependent variable and predictor. In order to determine the linear regression, I first define the regression model of the datasets which mostly regarded as dependent variable Y and independent variable X. However, in the case of this study, the variables were identified as Day, Month and Year. These were used to create workable data for the study. It was also used the inbuilt R code and therefore, there no need for a package to be used. The data used for the inbuilt is therefore, illustrated below:

#impute fimpute<-function(a,a.impute){ ifelse(is.na(a),a.impute,a)} lm.imp.1=lm(Rain~Mon +Year,data=RainMonthTotalMiss) pred.1=predict(lm.imp.1,RainMonthTotalMiss) RainMonthTotalMiss$lmP=impute(RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain,pred.1) RainMissPMM=cln RainMissLM=cln RainMissPMM$Imputed=RainMonthTotalMiss$RainImputed RainMissLM$Imputed=RainMonthTotalMiss$lmP

The third method replaced missing values with the mean of the rainfall dataset for that station

meanrain = mean(RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain,na.rm=TRUE) for (i in 1:nrow(RainMonthTotalMiss)){ if(is.na(RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain[i])){ RainMonthTotalMiss$RainMeanImputed[i]=meanrain } else{ RainMonthTotalMiss$RainMeanImputed[i]=RainMonthTotalMiss$Rain[i] } }

Mean imputation

The predictive mean was conducted using SPSS to get the accurate answers. As illustrated in the diagram 1 below. The man for Rain Imputed was obtained to be 79.05 and standard deviation to be 109.036. The mean for rain original was also obtained to be 80.76 and standard deviation to 108.399. However, the mean for rain mean imputed was obtained to be 80.282 and standard deviation was 99.0665.

Descriptive Statistics

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

RainImputed

696

.000000000000000

685.300000000000000

79.052298850574870

109.036393213767800

RainOriginal

696

.000000000000000

685.300000000000000

80.762356321839020

108.399323803511210

lmP

696

.000000000000000

685.300000000000000

79.870724337925680

99.625685829049870

RainMeanImputed

696

.000000000000000

685.300000000000000

80.282459312839100

99.066543001347810

RainMiImputed

696

-176.056583746439000

685.300000000000000

73.109241653545140

110.075488450424870

Valid N (listwise)

696

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY Carvalho, J. R., Almeida, J. E., Assad, D. E., & Nakai, M. A. 2017. Model for Multiple Imputation to Estimate Daily Rainfall Data and Filling of Faults. Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia , 575-583.

Cisty, M., & Celar, L. 2015. Using R in Water Resources Education. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research , 2 (3), 2-38.

Gelman, A. and Hill, J. 2011. “Opening Windows to the Black Box.” Journal of Statistical Software, 40.

Khalifeloo, M. H., Mohammad, M., & Heydari, M. 2015. Multiple Imputation For Hydrological Missing Data By Using A Regression Method (Klang River Basin). International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology , 2-38.

van Buuren, S. and Groothuis-Oudshoorn, K. 2011. mice: Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations in R. Journal of Statistical Software, 45(3), 1-67. URL https://www.jstatsoft.org/v45/i03/.

Wickham, H. 2017. tidyverse: Easily Install and Load the ‘Tidyverse’. R package version 1.2.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=tidyverse

Introduction And Summery

Introduction And Summery

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Introduction And Summery

A)Why the Book Should Be Read

One of the reasons that the book must be read is that it gives an insight about how the online world is supposed to be operated. With the advent of the social media, online communities and hosts of the other things, the perception is there among people is that internet is one of the main sources of the information. This book goes a long way towards making sure that how the internet and the information that is available has to be taken with the pinch of salt. Another factor that has to be taken into account is that how this book goes to show that the other mediums of the marketing are always going to be much more useful when it comes to the provision of the information as compared to the internet due to the fact that not all the information that is available on the internet is useful and the selection and the filtering of the information has to be done by the user. Thus, book goes a long way towards dispelling this notion that internet and the marketing campaigns that are focussed on the social media are not likely to turn out well. Thus, this book is quite important in terms of the way the whole narrative is supposed to take shape. The internet has given us many outlets for our opinions as sites offer channels to post and share comments. Today everyone has a voice, and we can let people know what we think immediately, nearly anywhere in the world – an amazing development.

B) Why Book is Appropriate for the Course

For the students that are studying marketing, it is very imperative that they understand the how the core concepts of the marketing are supposed to be working. The problem is that the student these days are so caught up with the social media marketing tools that they do not take into account the fact that there are some other mediums of the marketing that can fit the bill. At the same time, the other factor that has to be taken into account is that the book goes to show that how the information that is displayed on the internet has to be taken with caution. The only way students are going to be able to comprehend this information in a better manner is that they understand what some of the pitfalls of the way internet marketing and other promotional tactics are that are done using the internet are supposed to be carried out. So, this book goes a long way towards clarifying the concept of how internet is supposed to work out.

C)and, what argument you plan to make about the subject matter of the book in the context of the class.

The argument that is needed to be made here is that how the internet as a tool is being exaggerated in the sense that it does not provide enough insight with regards to how the different marketing tools. The problem with the internet these days is that it is such an open platform that anyone can come up and write on the internet. What it means that even no one has an interest or stake in something that is related to the marketing has to be something that is needed to be taken into account. The other aspect that is very important to take into account is that how the internet has the capability to distort the whole thing that is needed to be taken into account. The course can also go a long way towards totally disregarding this notion of how effective the internet as a marketing tool is.

Many Chinas

Many Chinas

[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Author Note

[Include any grant/funding information and a complete correspondence address.]

Many Chinas

China is one of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural national states with a huge geographic, linguistic and cultural heterogeneity in its population. Though it is thought that China is a monolithic country and not one with multiple ethnicities. Many people believe that China is one nation having a one majority population which is Han, with some insignificant minorities at the border areas. Generally, the discussion related to the cultural uniformity of China is often taken for granted and China is regarded as a homogenous state. This essay disagrees with this concept about the Chinese population. I argue that China not only has a diverse cultural ethnicity but it also has significant cultural differences within the majority population of China which is known as the people of Han. Through the era of the Cold War, cultural and ethnic diversity is continuously increasing in China with a rising diverse view politically ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"gEpRXPBi","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Florent, 2004)","plainCitation":"(Florent, 2004)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":304,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/TTTHH5DN"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/TTTHH5DN"],"itemData":{"id":304,"type":"article-journal","title":"Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China: The Search for National Identity under Reform by Guo Yingjie","container-title":"The China Quarterly","page":"819-821","source":"ResearchGate","DOI":"10.2307/20192388","title-short":"Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China","journalAbbreviation":"The China Quarterly","author":[{"family":"Florent","given":"Villard"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2004",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Florent, 2004). To understand China in the 21st century, the cultural nationalism within the majority and minority groups should be discussed effectively. The nationalism of China is referred to as a monolithic national identity rather than considering nationalism in a huge range and as several cultures nationalism. In this essay, I have regarded cultural nationalism as the cultural aspect which is used in representing people's identity, aspiration, and history for defining the nation. The process of cultural nationalism is the one through which cultural aspects are used for acquiring nationalist objectives either through the state or through its people. China is one of the diverse nations bigger than the United States ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"hYVEcsU4","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}How diverse is China in terms of culture and language? - Quora,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“How diverse is China in terms of culture and language? - Quora,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":306,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/HX2WCZ2W"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/HX2WCZ2W"],"itemData":{"id":306,"type":"webpage","title":"How diverse is China in terms of culture and language? - Quora","URL":"https://www.quora.com/How-diverse-is-China-in-terms-of-culture-and-language","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,21]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“How diverse is China in terms of culture and language? - Quora,” n.d.). The Chinese government officially recognized almost fifty-six ethnicities and each ethnic group speaks their own language. China's physical geography is also huge; it includes plateaus, deserts, low plains and rain forests. China does not have any dominant or official religion. Most of the Chinese citizens do not practice religion. Some of the common religions in China are Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Taoism. Generally, the major area of China is based on the Han ethnicity and the minority groups live in frontier zones. China has a total minority population of almost ninety-one million people, who reside in every province and region. They speak a huge range of languages, four of the largest language families include Turkic-Altaic, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European, and Austro-Asiatic. These are the most important groups for China in terms of international and domestic relations. These nationalities' importance increased significantly, same as that of the population on the borders on both sides. Han, recognized as the majority nationality, is based on ethnically and diverse populations which consist of eight not mutually understandable language groups which include Yue, Wu, Gan, Hakka, Xiang, Mandarin, Northern Min, and Southern Min. Cultural diversity exists even in these Chinese subgroups.

Regardless of the growing awareness of enormous ethnic and cultural diversity in China, there are still some conflicts related to minority groups. Most of the studies related to China are primarily based on state issues related to religion, politics, family, and economics with minor attention given to the issues related to cultural diversity impact. When ethnic diversity is discussed, it is mostly based on the official minorities’ studies which are marginalized generally to the sociopolitical and geographical borderlands society of China. The total estimated official minorities are almost 91 million while the groups Tibetans, Uyghur and Mongols form 9% of the total population of China. No one ever gives attention to ethnicities outside these groups. In this essay, I will discuss types of cultural nationalism and ethnic identity of China ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"uinaABrJ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Florent, 2004)","plainCitation":"(Florent, 2004)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":304,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/TTTHH5DN"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/TTTHH5DN"],"itemData":{"id":304,"type":"article-journal","title":"Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China: The Search for National Identity under Reform by Guo Yingjie","container-title":"The China Quarterly","page":"819-821","source":"ResearchGate","DOI":"10.2307/20192388","title-short":"Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China","journalAbbreviation":"The China Quarterly","author":[{"family":"Florent","given":"Villard"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2004",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Florent, 2004). I will also discuss a few reasons that have been neglected previously which is the reason why we are unable to identify other ethnic groups in the 21st century.

Soon after the formation of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing state planners sent some of the researches to the country border region for the identification and recognition of various cultural groups ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"9lOaUNFC","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Gladney, 2004)","plainCitation":"(Gladney, 2004)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":320,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/KHHUPK9G"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/KHHUPK9G"],"itemData":{"id":320,"type":"book","title":"Dislocating China: Reflections on Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects","publisher":"C. Hurst & Co. Publishers","number-of-pages":"444","source":"Google Books","abstract":"This book seeks to challenge the way in which China and Chinese-ness is generally understood, privileged on a central tradition, a core culture, that tends to marginalise or peripheralise anything or anyone who does not fit that essential core. The Hui Muslim Chinese discussed in this volume demonstrate that one can be an integral part of Chinese society and yet challenge many of ourassumptions about that society itself. For that reason they and other so-called minority ethnics have generally been ignored by Western scholarship.","ISBN":"978-1-85065-324-0","note":"Google-Books-ID: ddddmhXofKoC","title-short":"Dislocating China","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Gladney","given":"Dru C."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2004"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Gladney, 2004). Out of the 400 separate Chinese cultural identities, only 41 nationalities are mentioned in the first census which happened in 1953 and it is increased to 53 nationalities in 1964 and then to 56 nationalities in the census of 1982 and 1990. Almost 350 groups that applied for nationality identification remained unrecognized in China. It is revealed in the census of 1990 that there were over 749,000 individuals who remained awaiting and unidentified. It means that these groups are ethnically different but are not officially categorized in nationality through the state. Most of the groups that remained unrecognized either belonged to Han's majority and some are linked with the other minorities that have few similarities. From the 1934 to 1935 Long March, the leaders of Chinese communists familiarized with the vibrant ethnicity of China. This march led them towards the most concentrated China minority area. Nowadays, no one is focused on the concept based on the self-determination of the minority. Han comprises the majority population and is the major revolutionary force of China. The reason that several minority groups remain unauthorized is that the identification of particular groups in China is categorized as the single Han majority group. It played a basic role in developing a unified nation of China. Chinese are internally ethnic people but are unified when the foreign nation interferes. The minorities who were more backward in the past, have now become civilized and advanced. Also, the minorities who reside in the border areas of China are segregated in the different areas of the country. However, only 9% of the minority population reside in such areas that are rich in mineral resources and they cover 60% of the area of the country. Most of the minority population still lives in the border areas. Now, there is a significant increase in the minority population control which is described as ethnicity in modern China. Through analysis, it is also found that the population of Han increased by 10% from 1982 to 1990, while the population of minorities enhanced by 35%. Though the overall Muslim population increased by 30-40%, the restriction of the one-child policy in China excludes several minority groups. Through research, I also found that several Chinese reforms that are associated with privatized agriculture, political freedom and market economy are first allowed in the minority areas ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ogSFPr1N","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Wu, 1991)","plainCitation":"(Wu, 1991)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":322,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/DQEZQBZ7"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/vDOrLj7p/items/DQEZQBZ7"],"itemData":{"id":322,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese Identities","container-title":"Daedalus","page":"159-179","volume":"120","issue":"2","source":"JSTOR","archive":"JSTOR","ISSN":"0011-5266","author":[{"family":"Wu","given":"David Yen-ho"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1991"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Wu, 1991). However, in China, minorities are not represented as barbarians. They are represented as cultural and colorful in the public media. Since 1949, various earliest differences among local nationalities and cultures in China disappeared and weakened. Such occurrence is considered a result of various factors. The Mandarin language prevails in media and school. The uniform social, as well as political ideology, is spread through Youth League and Women Federations. The state has taken control of media and there has been uniformity among social organizations from 1950 to 1980. In addition, there is suppression in the local practices of the religion as well as secularized development. This uniformity blurred the difference between the majority and minority groups. Most of the Han families through several regions are now settled in the main developing cities of the country and the minority groups are relocated near the Han settlement. This relocation also played a significant role. Despite the trends of uniformity, there also exist few intensification signs of sentiments and ethnic awareness within minorities. The 1990 census reported that a huge number of communities and individuals claimed the status of minorities. Few groups are raised dramatically after the 1982 census in which most of them include Xibe, Gelao, Manchu and She. By this, the demand for school texts as well as the other publication is increased in the minority groups. State, in some of the ways, encouraged various ethnic expressions. In most of the graphics and paintings, minority themes are encouraged strongly. The television and media also encouraged minorities’ performances and shows. This attention is making the unity of the Han group stronger.

The concept of understanding Chinese, as well as non-Chinese, is extremely complicated. The single word of English language Chinese misses several meanings. Chinese language, both spoken and verbal, has various terminologies which are used to reflect cultural, ethnic as well as national factors. Such terms evolved over time while some have been initiated currently and some began before Christianity. These single terms alone could not explain the critical Chinese identity situation. The current concept of China should be understood under the context of the recent political history of China.

Han is the official identification of minority diversity as well as regarded as leftovers by earlier historians. Similarly, the scholars and state also regard minority groups as the representation of Chinese society's earliest stages. Furthermore, the Han regard themselves as the carriers of rational thinking, modern technology, and science. They also say that they protected the rights of minorities. In short, China has given significant rights to the minority population.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Florent, V. (2004). Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China: The Search for National Identity under Reform by GuoYingjie. The China Quarterly, 819–821. https://doi.org/10.2307/20192388

Gladney, D. C. (2004). Dislocating China: Reflections on Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers.

How diverse is China in terms of culture and language? - Quora. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2019, from https://www.quora.com/How-diverse-is-China-in-terms-of-culture-and-language

Wu, D. Y. (1991). The Construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese Identities. Daedalus, 120(2), 159–179. Retrieved from JSTOR.

Mapping In The 21s Century



Mapping in the 21st Century

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Mapping in the 21st Century

Introduction

With the advancement in technology, almost every field is blooming and making use of its latest perks. By using the updated and modern strategies of the latest technology, various fields have made progress by leaps and bounds. Technology is being used in almost every field and hence it has become an important necessity of recent times; no field can go ahead or even survive without it. Many instances can be seen in the practical, business or academic world where the latest technology has aided significantly in taking the company or the organization to heights. One of the latest examples where a field or subject has been greatly benefitted by the advancement in technology is Geography. Talking specifically, the developments in the area of map-making and designing have proven significantly beneficial in improving the understanding of the concepts related to Geography and solving many issues in the subject. These latest techniques in mapping play a vital role in designing and modifying multiple governance strategies and have become an essential part of organizing large data set. These maps or mapping techniques are in fact the best way to produce and understand the complex data sets in the modern computer systems.

Discussion

The field of geography has always been incomplete without the usage of maps. Maps are to geography like oxygen is to the human body. Maps have always played a significant role in explaining various factors related to geography like the specific location, type of land or the distance or total area of that specific location. The process of creating and crafting maps, to for the purpose of communicating geographic, topographic and spatial information effectively, is known as Cartography. It can simply be referred to as “the art of map-making”. Cartography is both an art and a science. As explained earlier, Geography and cartography are very closely related fields, each dependent on the other to clearly define the location and position of a place on the surface of Earth. These maps may be of different types and sizes.

The area of geography, especially the geospatial domain, is witnessing and handling much more data as compared to any era in the past. This tough task is being performed by highly sensitive sensors that are used to measure, process and store the data in highly functional databases. These databases are further linked to other databases forming highly integrated spatial data infrastructures that run on set strict standards and accepted rules. These expertly modified and highly integrated maps are used in the data modeling, data acquisitions, data validation, and dissemination of information across various mediums. These may include, cloud computing, service-oriented architectures, augmented reality and location-based services.

The inculcation and use of the maps, especially modern techniques of mapping make it extremely easy and comfortable in sorting the hug sets of data. These techniques untangle the complex data sets and retrieve the relevant and useful data so that it can be used in an efficient manner. It helps a lot while facing a particular scenario in which it becomes a hectic job to mine and retrieve data related to that scenario.

Moreover, geography is making and applying more and more of a technology-driven approach while creating and designing maps. The development of various applications has become incredibly easy due to the presence of latest technology in mapping as the new technology is readily available and quick. These latest mapping techniques are much more convenient and user-friendly and give much more efficient results.

It would not be wrong if it is said that without maps, a user or professional is “spatially blind”. In geography, it is extremely important to know about spatial relations and the location of objects in order to have a deeper understanding of space and texture of the space. Modern techniques in mapping can allow and enable the maps to acquire data from geodata applications such as sensor networks, remote sensing, or laser scanning. In-depth analysis and understanding of structures and patterns can be achieved by the application of the strategies of smart modeling.

The future of Cartography, in light of these latest mapping technologies is very bright. It is expected that due to the blessings of these technologies, the geospatial data will be always available to anyone, anywhere. Moreover, this will help significantly in providing the tailored data which would serve the exact purpose and fulfill the4 exact needs and demands of each individual. As these Cartographic techniques are extremely attractive, there are bright chances that they will bring a hike in the users of maps. These are also expected to bring revolution in the areas of disaster management and handling crisis situations.

Conclusion

Hence, it can be seen that map-making and designing or Cartography and Geography, go side by side. Both the disciplines are hugely dependent on each other to explain the specific location, texture, and distance of any place. The latest technology has also touched various aspects of Cartography and made the field much easier to comprehend for the professionals and the general public. The latest techniques in Cartography have facilitated the management of spatial data in terms of acquisition, processing, storage, and dissemination. These mapping techniques make the spatial data readily available and all set for immediate use. They also assist the professional in the development of various applications related to geography and acquire and use the data in a much useful and efficient manner.

End Notes

Dent, Borden D., Jeffrey S. Torguson, and Thomas W. Hodler. Cartography: Thematic map design. Vol. 5. Boston: WCB/McGraw-Hill, 1999.

Jones, Chris B. Geographical information systems and computer cartography. Routledge, 2014.

MacEachren, Alan M., and DR Fraser Taylor, eds. Visualization in modern cartography. Vol. 2. Elsevier, 2013.

MOANA

Niloufar Beheshti

Instructor Name

Geography

9 November 2019

Moana: The underlying different aspects

Moana is a movie released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2016. The movie tells the story of a strong-willed Polynesian Princess called Moana. She unites with another character, the demi-god Maui to restore balance to nature to the environment by the use of a mystic relic lost for a thousand years. This movie has managed to capture the imagination of kids around the world and at the same time also succeeded to give adults some time to think about some important issues that are seldom discussed. The movie is set in the surroundings of the island of Hawaii, which has currently been under a long discussion regarding the preservation of the Polynesian culture as well as issues related to environment and global warming. In this paper, we will try to shed some light on the different messages that the movie conveys through the use of its content.

Cultural Literature Review

There is a rather different cultural depiction that we are often used to seeing or hearing when it comes to the discussion regarding the Polynesians. There are countless books like the White Man’s Burden that depict the natives of the Americas and Africa as savages and brutes. This movie shows that there is more to the Polynesians that meets the eye. The writers and the starting lineup of the movie are linked to the Polynesian culture in one way or another. True there are several literary works related to the culture of these natives yet this attempt is quite convincing as this managed to introduce the common folk to the culture of Hawaii and its surroundings. This movie also plays its part in introducing the Polynesian youth that is currently under the influence of the norms and values that are quite different than their own. In short, this movie captivates the audience of all age groups while staying true to its cultural underpinnings, introducing a large section of the world to the Polynesian culture in an exciting and friendly manner.

Environmental Literature Review

There is no doubt about the urgency and importance of the issue of Global warming that is affecting the world. The general temperature level of the world is rising to unprecedented levels as never before witnessed or seen by the world. That is the main issue that the movie Moana is centered around. The young princess is concerned as she sees her home disintegrate around her while certain norms are imposed around her that she has no understanding about. The princess leaves her home, bears the cruelty of the open sea to restore balance to the environment. There is nothing new about that as we often observe the childish works of Dr. Seuss, who is seldom given credit for conveying such an urgent message in the most childish of manners. The Polynesian culture, as depicted by many works of literature, can be greatly observed to be based around the laws of nature, in which they always tried to buy in harmony with nature. There are the mysterious ways of the "savages" that the colonizers failed to understand, as the latter was fueled with the influence of Capitalism CITATION JHa06 \l 3081 (J.Hausladen). This is often seen as we observe the world around us. We are told repeatedly through mass media that we need things that are of no use to us, except the few that need them. The Polynesian way of life goes against our ways and ideas, yet during these times when the intensity of natural disasters is increasing day-by-day, we often talk about living in the "organic" way without giving much credit to the fact that this was the way all along. This movie proves that moving out of our comfort zone will curtail the crisis. Hence, the message conveyed is clear. Technology will not find a cure for its damages. We must place our trust in nature if we are to somehow survive and eliminate this dire problem.

Hawaii: A General Overview

Hawaii is one of the states of the United States of America. Contrary as many think, it is a collection of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The “Aloha state” as is its official nickname, is composed of eight islands, centered on the “Big Island” called Hawaii Island. Hawaii is often known as Paradise of the Pacific due to its beautiful beaches, amazing natural scenery, oceanic surroundings and warm tropical climate CITATION Jos96 \l 3081 (Morgan). This is the reason that it is the most popular destination for surfers, marine scientists, and tourists, the latter being from all parts of the world. The island gained a lot of prominence after the famous bombing of Pearl Harbor, after which it has been the central base of operations during the many battles between Imperial Japan and the US. Currently, the state ranks fourth in terms of its contribution to the National GDP, which indicates a high standard of living as compared to many states in the US. It is also of central importance to people traveling by both sea and land, due to its location.

Different Shades of Moana

There is a lot more shown in Moana that meets the eye. Such is not uncommon in these times, as the commercial aspect of these movies is often kept in mind. Therefore, these movies are designed to capture the hearts of the kids as well as the minds of the adults. Hidden messages regarding these movies are often discussed on platforms like YouTube, which the depth of thought behind these works. We will be viewing this movie through a variety of lenses and try to make out as much as possible about the hidden meanings in the movie.

Polynesian Cultural Symbolism

Several cultural symbols are present in the movie. The most important of them is that of the Polynesian Mother Nature called Te-Fiti CITATION Ell17 \l 3081 (Caldwell). It symbolizes the ecosystem that the people are ruining, and how soon it would abandon us we do not change our way of life. The journey of Moana through perils to reach her also conveys a message. We need to move out of our comfort zone if we are to save the planet from this paramount disaster. This leads us to another symbol that is the Boat. The Boat represents the fact that the way to avert this crisis is not clear. Moana is not educated in the art of "Way-finding", a convenient name for sailing according to the situation at hand. Yet, we see that she is committed to the task, enlisting the help of the Demi-god Maui to fulfill her responsibility to her clan. Her fear of the unknown does not stop her to go on this adventure to save the whole archipelago. This act also emphasizes that she take this threat of environmental degradation very seriously, unlike the current rulers of all the major powers of the world.

The Boat is only half of this important symbol, as it is meaningless without the discussion of the reef. The reef represents the boundary to the unknown. It is the symbol of curiosity that often grips us as we look into the unknown, which is intriguing and fearful at the same time. This also symbolizes another fact that some boundaries are meant to be broken, especially if they are keeping us from achieving an important breakthrough. Moana broke the rules but it was all worth it because she managed to achieve the greater good.

Moana as a Feminist Role Model

The theme of woman empowerment can be seen in the film. The first light towards the arrival of this conclusion is the starring of a female protagonist CITATION Mad17 \l 3081 (Madeline Streiff). But this is new, even for Disney, as often the princess is shown in a weak role, waiting for someone to rescue her from some calamity. Moana thinks of resolving all the issues herself, taking the command of the issue at hand herself, without even the consent of her father, who is the chief of the tribe. With the death of her grandmother, who motivated her to sail beyond the reef, Moana decides to take the matter of saving her village into her own hands. It also brings us to another important factor. Unlike all the previous Disney flicks, the prince is also missing in the movie, while the Demi-god Maui is depicted as a sidekick more than an equal partner, as he is somehow depending on Moana for almost everything, from bringing him the boat to the training that Moana provides to him when he loses the control over his powers. But the ultimate show of feminist power is the returning of the Heart of Ti-Fiti, which is itself the representation of the one true heart, as is the Female goddess Ti-Fiti herself. To sum it up, the action of Moana in the movie uplifts all the female viewers by giving a strong message of female equality. Unlike the previous movies, a strong message is conveyed that the females can be in charge of the situation and make their own decision to save people that they hold dear.

The Environmental side of Moana

The most apparent part of the movie is, of course, its environmental underpinnings. There is a vicious debate going on about the current Global Warming crisis that the world is facing these days. Hawaii is also taking the toll of environmental degradation that is resulting in a steady rise in the sea levels that is slowly sinking its islands CITATION Cha10 \l 3081 (Charles Fletcher). But no one is thinking individually to do something about it. This is also depicted in the movie. The people of Moana’s tribe are either too ignorant or too scared of the issue that is about to change their lives. Then replant the groves and rotate the fishing grounds but they refuse to expand or look beyond their borders for the solution to their problems. In the end, it all comes to the courage of the individuals. We cannot simply put the weight of the fight on the government and spend all our lives with the heads in the sand. Even as Moana charges headlong into the fight to defeat Ta'ka, the evil demon, he finds it the hard way that she cannot do it alone. True, she manages to solve the issue that may destroy the whole environment in the end, but she does it with the help of another being called Maui, depicted as semi-natural force himself. In short, the whole movie shows that we can only avert this crisis by enlisting the love of nature, but collectively, not individually.

Conclusion

In short, we can say that Moana is a movie for everyone. It manages to touch the hearts of many through its animation but also managed to convey several messages regarding the role of females and the pressing issue of global warming in a convincing manner. It also gave an important message that in the end, teamwork will help us to save the world. We can resolve our collective issues neither by ignoring them nor by charging headlong into the storm.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Caldwell, Ellen C. "The Polynesian Origin Myths behind Disney's Moana." Jstor (2017).

Charles Fletcher, Robynne Boyd, William J. Neal, Virginia Tice. Living on the Shores of Hawaii: Natural Hazards, the Environment, and Our Communities. University of Hawaii Press, 2010.

J.Hausladen, Gary. Western Places, American Myths: How We Think About The West (Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History And Humanities). University of Nevada Press, 2006.

Madeline Streiff, Lauren Dundes. "From ShapeShifter to Lave Monster: Gender Stereotypes in Disney's Moana." ResearchGate (2017).

Morgan, Joseph R. Hawaii: A Unique Geography. Bess Pr. Inc., 1996.

Module One: Europe As A Place, A Space, And A Cultural Realm

Module One: Europe as a Place, a Space, and a Cultural Realm

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Module One: Europe as a Place, a Space, and a Cultural Realm

Europe is surrounded by waters which make it a peninsula and sometimes it is said to be a peninsula of peninsulas. Surrounded by the Arctic, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, Caspian, and the black seas, precipitation in Europe is always high. Overall, Europe has a mild climate. The landforms of the European continent, including mountain ranges, for example, the Pyrenees and the Alps results in the change of climates of certain areas. Europe lies largely in moderate climate regions. Other regions with the same latitude as that of Europe usually are colder in contrast; this is because of The Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream makes European weather warmer and rainier than it is supposed to be, this is why it is called the "Europe's central heating." The Gulf Stream warms up the prevalent westerly airstreams and carries warm water to Europe's coast. The European climate ranges from polar to subtropical as well. In the south of Europe, the Mediterranean climate is usually warm and dry. The western parts including in Northwest, because of North Atlantic Drift is generally humid and mild. In eastern and central Europe the climate is also humid but with cool summers. Atlantic Ocean's westerly winds influence almost the majority of the European continent. The climate of Europe based on geography can be divided into few categories.

The Mediterranean

Countries of the European continent adjoining the Adriatic Sea have a warm and sunny Mediterranean climate, for example, France, Portugal, Italy, southern Spain, the South Slavic and Greece. Hot summers, Mild to warm winters, regular sunshine, especially in the summertime and a satisfying spring and autumn is always greatly desirable weather, and that is why the countries as mentioned above make a leading holiday destination in Europe.

Eastern and Central Europe

Somewhat like Western Europe, the summers in Eastern and central Europe are usually mild. Winters, on the other hand, are considerably colder. Snowfall is also very common in Eastern and central Europe. Overall, the climate of most of Central and Eastern Europe is considered as humid continental with cool summers. This part of Europe comprises of southern Scandinavia.

Northern Europe

In Northern Europe, the winters are very long, harsh, severely cold with recurrent snowstorms. Summers, on the other hand, are very short and cold. One of the spectacles of Northern Europe is the endless daylight, with the sun suspended in the horizon throughout the night in locations such as Norway. This part of the continent includes in countries namely Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia, and the climate is known as subarctic climate.

Western Europe

Western Europe climate is classified as the marine west coast. Most of France, northern Spain, the Low Countries, the British Islands and half of westernmost Germany comes under marina west coast climate. Features of this type of climate are that both the summers and winters are mild. There is no extreme cold or hot weather in this region. However, western European weather is quite humid, and rainfall is very frequent, with considerable cloudiness most of the times.

Spain

Spain is classified under a semi-arid steppe climate. The weather patterns or the climate in Spain is usually comparable to the Mediterranean climate zone.

Mountains

This region of the European continent that includes mainly the mountains of Norway is one of the coldest climate zones in the world; full of glaciers, and the grounds covered with snow throughout the year. This climatic condition of Europe is classified as tundra climate and is almost consistent throughout Europe in high altitudes such as the Alps, Carpathians, Balkans, Pyrenees and the mountains of Norway.

End Notes

Lionello, Piero, Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli, Roberta Boscolo, Pinhas Alpert, Vincenz Artale, L. Li, Jürg Luterbacher et al. "The Mediterranean climate: an overview of the main characteristics and issues." (2006): 1-26.

Lamb, Hubert H. Climate, history and the modern world. Routledge, 2002.

Palter, Jaime B. "The role of the Gulf Stream in European climate." Annual review of marine science 7 (2015): 113-137.

Moon's Impact On Earth

Moon’s Impact on earth

Name of The Writer

Course Code: Course Name

Date

The most dominant theory that is being supported throughout the scientific community is that a moon was formed when an object was smashed into the early earth. Similar to all the other planets earth was also formed as a result from the combination of leftover clouds of dust and gas that were revolving the sun at that time. The solar system in its initial stages was a vicious place. At that time many bodies that were present that were unable to make it to the full planetary system. One of such bodies which was named Theia, collided onto the surface of earth which resulted in the scattering of vaporized particles of the planet’s crust into the space. These ejected particles were bounded together by gravitational forces and formed a body known as moon. The moon hosted by earth is the largest in size in comparison of its planet. This theory is still not valid as it is understood that most of the moon’s crust should be made up of the material of Theia, however the Apollo moon mission suggested different results from it. One other theory is that the moon was a separate body that was formed elsewhere and somehow it was pushed into the orbit of the earth. There is one more theory of fission which suggests that at the beginning of its origin the earth was moving very fast and it threw material out that started revolving around the earth.

Physical Characteristics

There are different methods of studying the surface and size of moon which mainly include, telescopically, photographically and spacecrafts. The diameter of the moon is about 2,160 mi which is about 25% that of earth’s diameter. However, the 3/5 density of moon as compared to earth suggests that moon has almost 1/81 times mass that of earth ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"wrjbVDGN","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Whitehouse)","plainCitation":"(Whitehouse)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":135,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/TMKGSD3R"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/TMKGSD3R"],"itemData":{"id":135,"type":"book","title":"The moon: a biography","publisher":"Weidenfeld & Nicolson","ISBN":"1-4746-0108-1","author":[{"family":"Whitehouse","given":"David"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Whitehouse). The gravitational force of the moon is 1/6 times less as that of an earth. The atmosphere of moon doesn’t have any oxygen and hence doesn’t support any life on its surface. The temperature extremes can range between 125C to -245C at the noon time on the equator and night in the polar region. The terrain of the moon can range from rough and rocky to strewn land. The height of mountains on the surface of moon can range up to 25,000 ft. Such heights are generally comparable to that of heights of Mountains on Earth but are less steep in comparison. The crust of the moon is generally 45 miles thick, which makes the moon a very rigid solid. The internal surface temperature varies from 830C at the core to around 170C near the surface of the moon.

Phases of the Moon:

The moon goes through different phases while completing its whole cycle, i.e. from one lunar month to another. Just like we see different telescopic pictures of earth from the space, half of the moon is lit by the sun while the other half is in darkness. We can only see moon because sunlight is reflected back to us from the surface of the moon. During a month the moon complete one revolution around the earth. From observing our solar system, we can conclude that we see only half of the moon that is facing the sun. However, we don’t always see all the lit sides of moon and as the moon rotates, we tend to see the lit side change little by little. These changes when complete a cycle represents a lunar month and are generally known as the phases of the moon.

At the start of the new moon we see the moon that is lined up between the earth and the sun and we don’t see any moon because the brightness of the sun is way more than that of a dim light of the moon. After that when each night the moon starts moving away from the sun, we tend to see moon bit by bit each night. This illumination of the moon continues until it completes its shape and then come back to its original shape.

Interactions between Moon, earth and Sun

The interactions between Moon, earth and sun impacts our daily lives greatly. To a general observer the sun appears to show its motion from east to west. The moon and stars also seem to appear in the east and sets in the west. However, all of this is related to the relative motion of Moon, earth and the sun. The rotation of earth indicates that there will be a cycle of daylight and darkness almost a length of the whole day. The sunset and sunrise differ in many locations due to this relative motion between the moon and earth as compared to that of the sun. The changing of weather seasons is also down to this phenomenon. The tilt of the earth around axis meant that one hemisphere is facing the sun more than the other and it results in the changing of seasons.

One other phenomenon that occurs due to the relative motion between sun, earth and moon is lunar and solar eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when a moon comes directly between the earth and sun, resulting in casting a shadow on the earth by blocking the passage of light from sun. Solar eclipses are generally not that long because of the limited shadow that a moon can cast. On the other hand, a lunar eclipse occurs when earth comes between the moon and sun, this blocks the view of a sun’s reflecting light on the moon.

Effects on Earth

The main effect of moon on earth is its impact on the tides wavelength and frequency of occurrence. Tides are usually caused by the gravitational attraction of moon and sun. The moon’s gravity tends to pull the water tides upward towards itself causing it to rise upward in the direction of the pulling force of moon. A high tide is produced when the moons gravitational pull is weak. A region of disconnect also occur, these places occurs directly between the high and low tidal waves ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"MDoQTBam","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Young)","plainCitation":"(Young)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":136,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/MTPCJ8WU"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/MTPCJ8WU"],"itemData":{"id":136,"type":"article-journal","title":"Between the Moon and Earth","container-title":"American Book Review","page":"38-39","volume":"39","issue":"2","author":[{"family":"Young","given":"Michael T."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Young). The pull of sun also impacts the earth and tends to cause its own tidal waves. The distance of the sun makes its tidal waves much smaller and weaker. However, when both sun and moon are in line their gravitational pull combines and results in larger tidal waves. During spring times, there are high chances of large tidal waves.

Moon part in Religion

In historic views and different current religions as well, moon is considered as rhythmic life and capable of governing an important change ion human life. Special importance is given to the days where moon disappears i.e. the three days of darkness and lunar eclipses. In old mythology it is generally believed that some monsters have slayed the moon and then revived it through magical powers ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"vW79b66a","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tsepkalo)","plainCitation":"(Tsepkalo)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":137,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/66B6S4VK"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/66B6S4VK"],"itemData":{"id":137,"type":"article-journal","title":"Lunar Imagery and Traditional Mythology in I. Kalynets' Poetry","container-title":"Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities","page":"232-241","volume":"8","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Tsepkalo","given":"Tetiana Oleksandrivna"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tsepkalo). In historic hunting societies and cultures moon was understood to be a male which is dangerous for women at that time. In current day religions moons still play a part in determining the months cycle of Islamic calendar and in Christian religion it is used to determine the exact date of Easter. Easter usually falls on the first Sunday after full moon after March 21. If a full moon is on Sunday, Easter is then scheduled to be celebrated on the next Sunday.

The Phrase The cow jumped over the moon, is rhyme and the source of the famous expression “over the moon” in English language which means delighted, thrilled and happy. The rhyme may as well have a history of more than 1000 years and in the medieval years, there was a famous image of a cat playing a fiddle. Some historians have also connected it with Hathor worship methodologies and different groups of intellectual settings.

Work Cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Tsepkalo, Tetiana Oleksandrivna. “Lunar Imagery and Traditional Mythology in I. Kalynets’ Poetry.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 8, no. 3, 2016, pp. 232–41.

Whitehouse, David. The Moon: A Biography. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016.

Young, Michael T. “Between the Moon and Earth.” American Book Review, vol. 39, no. 2, 2018, pp. 38–39.

MPW-111430

Niloufar Beheshti

Instructor Name

Geography

9 November 2019

Moana: The underlying different aspects

Moana is a movie released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2016. The movie tells the story of a strong-willed Polynesian Princess called Moana. She unites with another character, the demi-god Maui to restore balance to nature to the environment by the use of a mystic relic lost for a thousand years. This movie has managed to capture the imagination of kids around the world and at the same time also succeeded to give adults some time to think about some important issues that are seldom discussed. The movie is set in the surroundings of the island of Hawaii, which has currently been under a long discussion regarding the preservation of the Polynesian culture as well as issues related to environment and global warming. In this paper, we will try to shed some light on the different messages that the movie conveys through the use of its content.

Cultural Literature Review

There is a rather different cultural depiction that we are often used to seeing or hearing when it comes to the discussion regarding the Polynesians. There are countless books like the White Man’s Burden that depict the natives of the Americas and Africa as savages and brutes. This movie shows that there is more to the Polynesians that meets the eye. The writers and the starting lineup of the movie are linked to the Polynesian culture in one way or another. True there are several literary works related to the culture of these natives yet this attempt is quite convincing as this managed to introduce the common folk to the culture of Hawaii and its surroundings. This movie also plays its part in introducing the Polynesian youth that is currently under the influence of the norms and values that are quite different than their own. In short, this movie captivates the audience of all age groups while staying true to its cultural underpinnings, introducing a large section of the world to the Polynesian culture in an exciting and friendly manner.

Environmental Literature Review

There is no doubt about the urgency and importance of the issue of Global warming that is affecting the world. The general temperature level of the world is rising to unprecedented levels as never before witnessed or seen by the world. That is the main issue that the movie Moana is centered around. The young princess is concerned as she sees her home disintegrate around her while certain norms are imposed around her that she has no understanding about. The princess leaves her home, bears the cruelty of the open sea to restore balance to the environment. There is nothing new about that as we often observe the childish works of Dr. Seuss, who is seldom given credit for conveying such an urgent message in the most childish of manners. The Polynesian culture, as depicted by many works of literature, can be greatly observed to be based around the laws of nature, in which they always tried to buy in harmony with nature. There are the mysterious ways of the "savages" that the colonizers failed to understand, as the latter was fueled with the influence of CapitalismCITATION JHa06 \l 3081 (Scranton). This is often seen as we observe the world around us. We are told repeatedly through mass media that we need things that are of no use to us, except the few that need them. The Polynesian way of life goes against our ways and ideas, yet during these times when the intensity of natural disasters is increasing day-by-day, we often talk about living in the "organic" way without giving much credit to the fact that this was the way all along. This movie proves that moving out of our comfort zone will curtail the crisis. Hence, the message conveyed is clear. Technology will not find a cure for its damages. We must place our trust in nature if we are to somehow survive and eliminate this dire problem.

Hawaii: A General Overview

Hawaii is one of the states of the United States of America. Contrary as many people think, it is a collection of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The “Aloha state” as is its official nickname, is composed of eight islands, centered on the “Big Island” called Hawaii Island. Hawaii is often known as Paradise of the Pacific due to its beautiful beaches, amazing natural scenery, oceanic surroundings and warm tropical climate CITATION Jos96 \l 3081 (Morgan). This is the reason that it is the most popular destination for surfers, marine scientists, and tourists, the latter being from all parts of the world. The island gained a lot of prominence after the famous bombing of Pearl Harbor, after which it has been the central base of operations during the many battles between Imperial Japan and the US. Currently, the state ranks fourth in terms of its contribution to the National GDP, which indicates a high standard of living as compared to many states in the US. It is also of central importance to people traveling by both sea and land, due to its location.

There is a reason why the basic setting of this animated movie is placed in Hawaii. The writer wants to give an impression that all the world is like the Paradise of the Pacific, beautiful and captivating. Seeing the deformation of this paradise sends a quite message that soon the beauty of this world will be no more, and we will be forced to squander for food. Even as Moana gives the orders for the rotation of the fishing grounds and the coconut groves, she comes to the conclusion that this will do nothing unless she tries to go beyond the call of our daily duties (the world beyond is represented by the reef) to save her village. The writer in this particular instance is trying to convey through the combination of Hawaii and Moana that saving the environment is our first and foremost calling, and that we exist because the environment exists. In short, use if Hawaii as placement for this movie is solely to give religion-like underpinnings to the environmental issue, as history has proved several times that the majority only follows when it comes to religious beliefs. This use of religion emphasizes the urgency of the issue as well as the hope of the writer that his message about the environment is taken seriously.

Different Shades of Moana

There is a lot more shown in Moana that meets the eye. Such is not uncommon in these times, as the commercial aspect of these movies is often kept in mind. Therefore, these movies are designed to capture the hearts of the kids as well as the minds of the adults. These messages are not particularly hard to spot. Take the example of the character of Moana herself. She can be seen full of life like a child, yet the next second you see her commanding the village, crushing her desire to go beyond the reef and see the world. This also symbolizes the mixed feelings that we experience while facing the unknown. Moana wants to see what’s beyond the reef and yet she does not wish to part ways with her loved ones, as she, like all of us, is unsure how her adventure will turn out to be. So, to understand what the movie wants to communicate, we need to view the entire cast with reference to this female protagonist, which is explained in the subsequent paragraphs via a series of different lenses.

Polynesian Cultural Symbolism

Several cultural symbols are present in the movie. The most important of them is that of the Polynesian Mother Nature called Te-Fiti CITATION Ell17 \l 3081 (Caldwell). It symbolizes the ecosystem that the people are ruining, and how soon it would abandon us we do not change our way of life. The journey of Moana through perils to reach her also conveys a message. We need to move out of our comfort zone if we are to save the planet from this paramount disaster. This leads us to another symbol that is the Boat. The Boat represents the fact that the way to avert this crisis is not clear. Moana is not educated in the art of "Way-finding", a convenient name for sailing according to the situation at hand CITATION Nau18 \l 1033 (Nauta). Yet, we see that she is committed to the task, enlisting the help of the Demi-god Maui to fulfill her responsibility to her clan. Her fear of the unknown does not stop her to go on this adventure to save the whole archipelago. This act also emphasizes that she takes this threat of environmental degradation very seriously, unlike the current rulers of all the major powers of the world.

The Boat is only half of this important symbol, as it is meaningless without the discussion of the reef. The reef represents the boundary to the unknown. It is the symbol of curiosity that often grips us as we look into the unknown, which is intriguing and fearful at the same time. This also symbolizes another fact that some boundaries are meant to be broken, especially if they are keeping us from achieving an important breakthrough. Moana broke the rules but it was all worth it because she managed to achieve the greater good. But the boat is only the half of the symbol as it is linked to the symbolic ocean. The ocean plays the part of the medium that tries to balance the destruction of Ta’ka, as it searches the islands for a suitable candidate to find and return the fabled heart of Te-fiti to return things to normal as they were before.

But the most important Polynesian character in this movie is Ta’ka. This colorless character may not feel appealing, it carries a strong message grounded in the Polynesian Mythology. Ta’ka as the harbinger of destruction is actually the world taking its revenge against us, the humans that have caused damage to our environment. This also align with a concept that different movies (Kingsman: The Secret Service) are also trying to convey. The movie gives the narrative that we are burning candles at the both ends as we desperately try to control the nature. The act of Maui stealing the heart of Te-fiti symbolizes precisely this, how we do not let nature take its course, and instead we use our machines to try to bend nature to our will. This perspective of the Polynesian Mythology is later proved true as Ta’ka turns out to be the corrupted and angry form of the deity Te-fiti, which is raining down natural calamities, not unlike the severe hurricanes, earthquakes and the tornados that we are facing due to our own mistakes.

Moana as a Feminist Role Model

The theme of woman empowerment can be seen in the film. The first light towards the arrival of this conclusion is the starring of a female protagonist CITATION Mad17 \l 3081 (Madeline Streiff). But this is new, even for Disney, as often the princess is shown in a weak role, waiting for someone to rescue her from some calamity. Moana thinks of resolving all the issues herself, taking the command of the issue at hand herself, without even the consent of her father, who is the chief of the tribe. With the death of her grandmother, who motivated her to sail beyond the reef, Moana decides to take the matter of saving her village into her own hands. It also brings us to another important factor. Unlike all the previous Disney flicks, the prince is also missing in the movie, while the Demi-god Maui is depicted as a sidekick more than an equal partner, as he is somehow depending on Moana for almost everything, from bringing him the boat to the training that Moana provides to him when he loses the control over his powers. But the ultimate show of feminist power is the returning of the Heart of Ti-Fiti, which is itself the representation of the one true heart, as is the Female goddess Ti-Fiti herself. To sum it up, the action of Moana in the movie uplifts all the female viewers by giving a strong message of female equality. Unlike the previous movies, a strong message is conveyed that the females can be in charge of the situation when it comes to act according to the situation making their own decision to save people that they hold dear.

The Environmental side of Moana

The most apparent part of the movie is, of course, its environmental underpinnings. There is a vicious debate going on about the current Global Warming crisis that the world is facing these days. Hawaii is also taking the toll of environmental degradation that is resulting in a steady rise in the sea levels that is slowly sinking its islands CITATION Cha10 \l 3081 (Charles Fletcher). But no one is thinking individually to do something about it. This is also depicted in the movie. The people of Moana’s tribe are either too ignorant or too scared of the issue that is about to change their lives. Then replant the groves and rotate the fishing grounds but they refuse to expand or look beyond their borders for the solution to their problems. In the end, it all comes to the courage of the individuals. We cannot simply put the weight of the fight on the government and spend all our lives with the heads in the sand. Even as Moana charges headlong into the fight to defeat Ta'ka, the evil demon, he finds it the hard way that she cannot do it alone. True, she manages to solve the issue that may destroy the whole environment in the end, but she does it with the help of another being called Maui, depicted as semi-natural force himself. In short, the whole movie shows that we can only avert this crisis by enlisting the love of nature, but collectively, not individually.

Conclusion

In short, we can say that Moana is a movie for everyone. It manages to touch the hearts of many through its animation but also managed to convey several messages. First, there is the message that female empowerment is the calling of the day. The last scene that portrays Moana as the Chief Way finder shows that women can lead from the front. It is a serious message to a nation that is yet to elect a Woman President. Second, there is the serious message that the value of the nature understood by the natives has been completely ignored over the course of time. We have damaged our environment to a dangerous proportion. Moana recognizes the need to act despite the fact that she is not taken seriously by any of her fellow tribesmen. Last and the most important conclusion drawn from this movie is that the time to act individually is passed. Just as Moana enlists Maui to help her achieve her aims, we need each other to contain this serious threat of Global Warming. The world requires mass mobilization to counter this collective threat to all humanity. United States is one of the highest greenhouse gas emitters of the world and we cannot succeed in containing global warming if we do not work together, both on collective and individual levels. In short, Moana is a movie that carries a strong message for the adults while being amusing for the youth to watch.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Caldwell, Ellen C. "The Polynesian Origin Myths behind Disney's Moana." Jstor (2017).

Charles Fletcher, Robynne Boyd, William J. Neal, Virginia Tice. Living on the Shores of Hawaii: Natural Hazards, the Environment, and Our Communities. University of Hawaii Press, 2010.

Madeline Streiff, Lauren Dundes. "From ShapeShifter to Lave Monster: Gender Stereotypes in Disney's Moana." ResearchGate (2017).

Morgan, Joseph R. Hawaii: A Unique Geography. Bess Pr. Inc., 1996.

Nauta, Melanie. "Walt Disney’s Moana, “We are Polynesia”: A CDA of Disney’s representation of the Polynesian culture inside Moana." 27 June 2018. Diva Portal. Masters Thesis. 31 October 2019.

Scranton, L. Decoding Maori Cosmology: The Ancient Origins of New Zealand's Indigenous Culture. Simon and Schuster, 2018. Print.

National Public Land/Urban

National Public Land/Urban

La Tonya Lee-Johnson

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Author Note

National Public Land/Urban

Mapping the cultural landscape of a location provides the land and its dwellers with a sense of identity and connection to it. It traces visible imprints of both past and current human activity on the land, how people interacted with it over time, and how their activities and events shaped the environment. Alongside the cultural landscape, observing the physical landscape help identify the geographic and geological features that are characteristic of the land. Together, these observations provide people with the physical, social, economic, and cultural significance of the area and its inhabitants, and establish their link with its physical features. In this paper, the physical and cultural landscape of the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona will be observed to identify the physical, historical, and cultural aspects of this site.

The Grand Canyon is considered to be one of the greatest geological spectacles on earth. The gorge's depth and vastness are attributed to nearly 6 million years of erosion and geologic activity on the upraised earth's crust by the Colorado River. The depth extends to nearly a mile while its width varies between 0.3 miles to 18.5 miles, that spreads across a length of nearly 280 miles CITATION Bor14 \l 1033 (Borneman, 2014). The exposed horizontal strata of the canyon are considered to retrace over 2 billion years of geological history CITATION UNE19 \l 1033 (UNESCO, 2019). Although the Colorado River drainage area frequently experienced precipitation, owing to its higher elevation, the Grand Canyon area remained semi-arid. The area frequently experienced mass-wasting events and landslides, which lead to stream capture and erosion, which contributed to the vast width and depth of the canyons that are seen today. Nearly 3.6 million years of floods created and shaped the layers of the gorge, while the depth and height of its strata are thought to have resulted from the uplift of the Colorado Plateaus by up to 10,000 feet over a period of 65 million years CITATION Kai18 \l 1033 (Kaiser, 2018). Several theories about the creation, age, and evolution of the canyon have been developed by observing the walls and layers of rock, which also speak of prehistoric human settlements and adaptation to the land. The formation of the canyon walls and assemblage of fossils can be traced to the Paleozoic and Precambrian era, while the animal remains and cave shelter fossils are thought to be from the Pleistocene era CITATION Bor14 \l 1033 (Borneman, 2014).

Archaeological research conducted within the Grand Canyon National Park suggests that human settlement in the area properly began during the Archaic Period, between 8500-1700 BC. Many clans of Native Americans trace their ancestors from this area, such as the Hualapai, the Paiutes, the Navajo, the Zuni, and the Havasupai people. The land was agriculturally suitable with its plentiful water resources and animal life that allowed for hunting and farming, enabling indigenous communities to survive here for centuries CITATION Kai18 \l 1033 (Kaiser, 2018). The oral traditions and tribal origin stories related by the Native American people speak of the canyon's cultural significance to them. In particular, the Hopi, Hualapai, and the Zuni clans trace their ancestral origin to the Grand Canyon. The Zuni people locate their point of origin to Bright Angel Creek, while the Hopi clans believe their people to have emerged near the junction of the Little Colorado River in the canyon. The Navajo and Havasupai people also attribute their ancestral knowledge of cultivation to the same site, and nearly all of them ascribe certain sacred, religious, and culturally significant traditions to the land CITATION Kai18 \l 1033 (Kaiser, 2018).

Like other parts of North America, the traditional lifeways of native populations were adversely affected by European contact through subjugation, disease, and displacement. As Arizona was formally declared American territory in 1863, the federally-funded expeditions and exploration of the land were, in particular, damaging for the native populations. As images and reports of the canyon's unique landscape captured the colonists' attention, it opened the way for tourism and mining operations in the region in addition to conservation efforts to preserve the site. In 1893, the Grand Canyon had declared a Forest Reserve and subsequently declared a National Monument in 1908. As the Grand Canyon was federalized, it accentuated tensions between the federal government and indigenous populations of the land over conservation and land ownership. Consequently, many native populations were removed from their traditional and ancestral landsCITATION Mic00 \l 1033 \m Kai18 (Anderson, 2000; Kaiser, 2018). In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson passed the bill to declared the Grand Canyon a National Park. By that time, most of the native tribes had been displaced from the region.

Today, the Grand Canyon National Park is valued for its vast size, extensive tributary canyons, its unending depth, and layers of colorful rocks that date back to the Precambrian era. The park has two main public areas; the South and the North Rim. The South Rim is nearly 7000 ft above sea level and is the most accessible area of the park, drawing the most visitors that flock from all over the world to admire the view. The North Rim of the National Park is nearly 1000 ft higher than the South Rim and is located on the Walhalla Plateau and the Kaibab Plateau. It is considerably harder to access owing to its height and the harsh winter weather that often leads to road closures. The distance between the North Rim and the South is nearly 220 miles across by road. However, trekking through the Kaibab Trails shortens this distance to 21 miles CITATION NPF18 \l 1033 (NPF, 2018). Visitors usually enter the North Rim from the Bright Angel point, but access is blocked during the peak winter season. On the other hand, the South Rim of the park receives nearly 90% of public visitation owing to the ease of accessibility. The Arizona State Route 64 takes visitors directly towards the South Rim, allowing them to enter the National Park at its Southern Entrance near Tusayan, AZ. Traveling across the South Rim, it is possible to cover at least 30 miles of the Park Area CITATION NPS19 \l 1033 (NPS, 2019). Some adjacent areas of the Canyon besides the North and South Rims are also open for public recreation and visits, but the remaining portion of the park is particularly rugged and remote and is usually accessed by pack trail.

The entire Grand Canyon National Park area is a semi-arid desert, yet, the higher elevation frequently leads to snowfall even sometimes in the summers. Distinct vegetation and habitats are located at various elevations across its gradient. Sandy beaches and riparian vegetation can be observed near the Colorado River, while a wide variety of desert scrub species and cacti exist just above the corridor of the river. In between the 6200-8200ft area, the land has abundant ponderosa pine vegetation, while a spruce-fir forest lies at the top of the Park near the North Rim at 8200ft CITATION NPF18 \l 1033 (NPF, 2018). The climate drastically changes below the Rims in the inner part of the canyon. The bottom, along the Colorado River, is nearly one mile lower and temperatures here can reach up to 120 degrees F. The fall and spring seasons see unpredictable weather patterns and a single visit to various areas inside the park can expose one to a variety of climates. The Colorado Plateau and the gorge itself is home to unique species of animals such as the gray fox, Kaibab squirrel, condor birds, and bighorn sheep. Besides that, the National Park has nearly 250 species of birds, 70 mammal species, and 25 types of reptiles CITATION Bor14 \l 1033 (Borneman, 2014).

To conclude, the Grand Canyon National Park is one of the most remarkable and identifiable landscapes in North America. It has become one of the most easily recognizable symbol of nature in the U.S. owing to its physical and geological features. However, besides being an awe-inspiring sight, the cultural landscape of the National Park provides historical and cultural context to its geographic features. The land has been feared, traveled through, and marveled at by people for thousands of years, while it has also been exploited for profit and witnessed oppression and forcible displacement of its people. Various Native American tribes continue to trace their origins in the land and still ascribe to the various mythologies and cultural traditions associated with it. As a result, this unique National Park has influenced American art, science, popular culture, tourism, and environmental values to a significant degree and serves as an important window into American history.

centertop

Figure 1 – Grand Canyon Maps (NP Maps, 2019)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderson, M. F. (2000). Becoming a National Park 1882-1919. In Polishing the jewel: An administrative history of Grand Canyon National Park (pp. 2-10). Strawberry, AZ: Grand Canyon Association. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/historyculture/upload/chapter1.pdf

Borneman, E. (2014). The Grand Canyon. Retrieved July 17, 2019, from Geo lounge: https://www.geolounge.com/grand-canyon/

Kaiser, J. (2018). Grand Canyon: the complete guide (7th ed.). Arizona: Destination Press.

NP Maps. (2019). Grand Canyon Maps. Retrieved July 17, 2019, from National Park Maps: http://npmaps.com/grand-canyon/

NPF. (2018). A Sight Beyond Words: Grand Canyon National Park. Retrieved July 17, 2019, from National Park Foundation: https://www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/grand-canyon-national-park

NPS. (2019, June 17). North Rim. Retrieved July 17, 2019, from National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/north-rim.htm

UNESCO. (2019). Grand Canyon National Park. Retrieved July 17, 2019, from UNESCO World Heritage Centre: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/75

Plate Tectonics Theory

Plate Tectonics Theory

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Plate Tectonics Theory

The mountain range that has been selected for this paper is the Himalayan range. This mountain range is located in Asia. This mountain range is host to some of the biggest mountains in the world. Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, is also found in the same range. About 50 mountains that are found in the Himalayan range are beyond 23,600 ft.

We have studied that millions and millions of years ago all the continents that we see today constituted a single piece of land called Pangea. Following the next several million years, that one big piece of land broke up into continents. The previous Pangea’ edges turned inwards and are now known as continental tectonic plates.

It was some 70 million years, Indo-Australian tectonic plate moved towards the Eurasian plate. Each year, the Indo-Australian plate moved 15cm towards the Eurasian plate. Tethys Ocean was found between these plates which shrank due to this movement.

Until this day, Indian plate slides toward Tibetan Plateau at a rate of 67mm each year. As a result, Tibetan Plateau moves upward. And the height of Mount Everest increases with each passing year.

Policy Brief

interoffice memorandum

to:

Recipient Name

from:

Your Name

subject:

Policy brief regarding environmental issues

date:

Enter Date

CC:

cc Name

Krasnoyarsk is the largest industrial, transport and cultural center of Eastern Siberia, the capital of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, located in the center of Russia, on the banks of the great Yenisei River. Founded in 1628. The distance from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow is 3955 km.

On the left bank of the river. Yenisei Krasnoyarsk stretched for 25 km, on the right - for 35 km. The total area of ​​the city is 379.5 km2. Population - 1017.226 thousand people. Sights of Krasnoyarsk are Paraskeva Pyatnitsa chapel, railway station, numerous architectural ensembles, historical gates, clock tower, Krasnoyarsk bridges, fountains, monuments. The city has dozens of fountains, more than 170 cultural heritage sites of regional and national importance, the total number of public gardens, parks, boulevards and squares is 121. Given the urban forests, in terms of per inhabitant, the number of green spaces is 86.4 m². (Koptseva, Natalia2107)

Krasnoyarsk is the forge of Olympic champions. Krasnoyarsk is distinguished by unique landscapes, mountain landscapes, the mighty Siberian forest, the Stolby reserve, the park of flora and fauna Roev Ruchey, an arboretum and sports complexes on Tatyshev Island, a botanical garden. In the park of flora and fauna "Swarm Creek" contains more than 6888 animals, represented by 728 species, of which 325 species are listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

The Yenisei River is the deepest river in Russia and one of the greatest rivers in the world. Its length is 4,100 km (second only to Lena and Amur). The prevailing width is 500-600 m and the depth are up to 6 m. The volume of the flow is p. The Yenisei at the mouth is 600 km³ / year (the flow volume of the Volga River is 238 km³ / year). The average annual water temperature is 5.2 ° C. The flow velocity is 4-5 m / s. On the river. There are 3 hydroelectric power stations in Yenisei, including Krasnoyarsk, Main and Sayano-Shushenskaya.

About 50 species of fish live in the Yenisei. The most valuable species of fish are Siberian sturgeon, sterlet, nelma, taimen, lenok, whitefish, chir, muksun. After the construction of the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station, bream, omul and carp acclimatized. Krasnoyarsk is located in a zone of sharply central weather with extended cold winters and brief hot summers. Large heating boilers to create the conditions for the dispersion of harmful substances in the atmospheric air are equipped with high emission sources and efficient gas cleaning facilities (electrostatic precipitators, etc.).

Culture of communication with nature

Every citizen has the right to a favorable environment, to its protection from the negative impact caused by economic and other activities, natural and man-made emergency situations, to reliable information about the state of the environment and to compensation for environmental damage”. (Belokrylova2018)

Decisions on the placement of objects whose economic activity may reason damage to the environment are made taking into account the opinion of the population.

Citizens are obliged to take care of nature and natural wealth.

A natural object is a natural ecological system, a natural landscape and its constituent elements that have retained their natural properties.

Natural-anthropogenic object - a natural object, changed as a result of economic and other activities, and (or) an object created by man, possessing the properties of a natural object and having a recreational and protective value.

An anthropogenic object is an object created by man for his social needs and not possessing the properties of natural objects.

Construction, reconstruction of buildings, structures, structures and other substances should be carried out on permitted plans in acquiescence with the rations of technical guidelines in the field of environmental protection. Construction and reconstruction of buildings, assemblies, structures and other objects before the approval of projects and land allocation in kind, as well as changing projects to the detriment of environmental protection requirements, is prohibited. (Vera 2011)

In relation to the strategic financial and other actions that may have a direct or indirect effect on the atmosphere, an environmental impact assessment is carried out nevertheless of the administrative and legal procedures of ownership of business and other entities. (Ignatyeva2013) In case of violation of the requirements in the field of environmental protection, the full termination of the placement, strategy, creation, rebuilding, commissioning, operation, conservation and liquidation of buildings, structures and facilities and other objects is carried out on the basis of a court decision or arbitration court.

Water protection zones in accordance with the Water Code of the Russian Federation are areas adjacent to the shoreline of water bodies with a special mode of economic activity, to prevent contamination, blockage and exhaustion of water builds. The width of water protection zones for rivers or streams with a length of up to 10 km is set at 50 m, from 10 - 50 km - 100 m, from 50 km and more - 200 m. (Ignatyeva2013)

Fish protection zones are terrains together to the water area of ​​a fishery water body, where restrictions are imposed in order to protect spawning grounds and habitats of valuable fish species. Fish protection zones of rivers are designated by special signs, their width coincides with the width of water protection zones. The width of the fish protection zone of the Krasnoyarsk reservoir p. Yenisei is 200 meters. Fisheries and water protection zones for rivers, streams or their parts placed in closed collectors are not established.

The coastline is a strip of public land along the shoreline of a water body. Every citizen has the right (without the use of motor vehicles) to use the coastal strip for movement and stay at a water body of general use, including for fishing and mooring of craft. The width of the shoreline of water bodies is 20 m, with the exception of canals, small rivers and streams up to 10 km in length, whose shoreline width is 5 m. (Koptseva, Natalia2017)

Privatization of land within the coastal line should be prohibited.

Owners, owners and users of land plots adjacent to surface water bodies may use water bodies for their needs to the extent that this does not violate the rights and legitimate interests of others, must comply with the restrictions established for water protection zones. The green fund of the city is a combination of green areas, including covered with trees, shrubs and grassy vegetation of the territories within the city borders.

In accordance with the Forest Code of the Russian Federation, urban forests are classified as protective forests and are to be used and developed in order to preserve environment-forming, water protection, sanitary and hygienic, recreational and other useful functions.

The rules for the use of forests for recreational activities provide for the availability of title documents for forest areas. For municipal and state institutions - permanent (unlimited) use, to other persons - for rent. The use of forests for recreational activities should not impede the right of citizens to come to the forests.

When carrying out recreational activities in forests, damage to forest stands, vegetation and soil outside the provided forest area, cluttering of the area of ​​the provided forest area and adjacent territories with garbage, other types of waste, passage of vehicles and other mechanisms along arbitrary, unidentified routes are not allowed. It should be remembered that in areas occupied by greenery, it is forbidden to make fires, litter, organize landfills, and in the city - use open fire in places not established for these purposes.

References

Belokrylova, Ekaterina A. "Environmental Law and Policy in the Russian Federation: An Overview." Handbook of Environmental Materials Management (2018): 1-21. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-319-58538-3_103-

Ignatyeva, Inna A. "Environmental Assessment in Russian Law: Can It Promote Sustainable Development in the Russian Arctic?" The Yearbook of Polar Law Online 5, no. 1 (2013): 321-336. https://brill.com/view/journals/yplo/5/1/article-p321_13.xml

Koptseva, Natalia P., and Natalia N. Seredkina. "The History of Studying Climate Change in the Krasnoyarsk Territory." (2017). http://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/34777

Vera Ovcharenko. “National Report Concerning the Baltic Green Belt (the coastal zone),RUSSIA(2011): https://www.ccb.se/documents/Nationalreport_RUSSIA.pdf

Project 2

Vivian

Instructor Name

Course Number

11 April 2019

Project 2: Fracking

The oil and gas industry saw decades of expansion, partly due to innovative advances in drilling technology and in transporting, extracting and delivering its products. Among these innovative techniques, hydraulic fracturing or fracking rose to much prominence. The process involves using large amounts of sand and water, combining them with chemicals at high pressure to produce rock formations that can then fracture the material that surrounds oil and gas reserves, allowing it to be extracted even when wells have conventionally dried up. However, the process has been a subject of controversy owing to the adverse impacts the extraction process has on the soil and water of the region, the atmosphere and the environment.

The process of hydraulic fracturing is a fairly uncomplicated process for drilling and extracting natural gas, however, there are serious risks involved. The process involves identifying rocks likely to enclose natural gas that was trapped millions of years ago within silt and sand that later transformed into rocks. Yet, even as the fracking process extracts useful hydrocarbons from these rocks, the process has a subject of substantial controversy to the extent that nearly two-thirds of media reports associated with fracking portray it in a negative light CITATION Gro12 \l 1033 (Groat and Grimshaw). The controversy mostly relates to air pollution, drinking water contamination, and lack of regulation in the selection of wells.

One of the most commonly cited and obvious benefit of fracking is energy security, however, in the long term, it has the potential to impede energy security. Currently, there is a scientific consensus over the fact that fossil fuels adversely impact the planet’s environment and ecologic future. Thus, something that has been developed as a low-cost technology to drive energy independence may end up creating an environmental and economic turmoil. It is no surprise to see countries that pursue fracking often miss their targets to reduce carbon emissions since the main chemical extracted from the process is methane. Methane is significantly stronger than carbon dioxide in terms of its greenhouse ability, while about 4% of the extracted gas escapes into the atmosphere. Consequently, the release of methane significantly impacts the air quality of the regions that surround fracking sites CITATION Rob15 \l 1033 (Howarth). The problem worsens as there is little regulation to restrict the selection of fracking sites, while emissions from these sites substantially contribute to climate change that, in turn, is leading to rising sea levels, mass migrations, impact agriculture and lead to unpredictable weather patterns CITATION Mag15 \l 1033 (Magill). Thus, any short-term benefit fracking could bring in terms of energy security could eventually lead to global instability in the long term from the effects of climate change. Moreover, the leakage of methane gas has been found to be responsible in various cases of explosions. In one instance, an entire house exploded as a result of methane gas mixing with the water supply of the residential area after leaking from the nearby fracking site. The underground pathways created by the process forged a passageway for the gas to mix with the water supply (Lustgarten).

Much of the risks that follow fracking do not manifest themselves during the extraction process or occur from the presence of gaseous rocks that are fracked. A number of problems occur because of a lack of consistency in the nature of chemicals extracted from the process, which makes evaluating their overall impact even more difficult especially when drilling companies are allowed not to disclose the chemical make-up of the extracted gas. There have been PR campaigns by companies that provide assurances that the chemicals used or extracted from the fracking process are non-toxic mostly, while only a minute quantity of hazardous chemicals are only used; however, these minute quantities can often reach millions of gallons (Lustgarten). Thus, even when the overall proportion of such chemicals is considerably less, the overall quantity is large enough to cause tens of thousands of gallons of hazardous chemicals pumped into deep formations. According to the EPA, prolonged exposure to these chemicals can lead to significant organ damage, including kidney, lungs, brain, and blood diseases, while the adverse effects of a number of chemicals used in the process still remain unknownCITATION EPA17 \l 1033 (EPA). Even minute amounts of contact with drinking water can significantly contaminate it and contribute to these damaging effects.

The most significant environmental impact of fracking is groundwater contamination which can occur as a result of chemicals used in the fracking process leaking into the nearby or adjacent water tables and thus reach drinking wells. In the U.S., fracking is suspected to be a factor in drinking water contamination in the states of Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, West Virginia, and Arkansas, wherein residents have often reported changes in water quantity as well as quality after fracking operations began CITATION Lus08 \l 1033 (Lustgarten). Contamination can not only occur from the drilling process but also from surface-chemical spills that cause hazardous chemicals to escape into the water table. There have been numerous reports of benzene and other chemicals found in springs, streams and water wells which may have been caused by leaky tanks, accidental spills, or waste pits. According to Lustgarten, nearly 1500 instances of chemical spills have been reported during fracking operations between 2003 and 2008, out of which 48 of those instances could be responsible for water contamination. In other instances, the extracted methane gas from the fracking process, which is usually forced upwards from several thousand feet below due to the pressure created by hydraulic fracking, would travel from a series of cracks to reach the groundwater reservoirs and eventually the local area’s tap water CITATION Lus08 \l 1033 (Lustgarten). The methane from the tap water is enough to cause an entire house to ignite.

However, there are a number of other considerations to be made when devising a stance over the controversial process. Since fracking has been introduced, it brought about a dramatic change in fossil fuel prices. In 2013, the reduction in price is estimated to be nearly 47% lower than what the price was projected to be without fracking. The resulting savings are nearly $13 billion between 2007-2013 which continue to increase as fracked oil production increases CITATION Fre15 \l 1033 (Dews). The usual criticism is dismissed by some researchers who report no evidence of groundwater contamination being linked to fracking. The main problems associated with the fracking process are common to conventional oil and gas drilling, and contamination can be attributed to the mishandling of wastewater or above-ground spills possible due to shale gas drilling instead of frackingCITATION ABA13 \l 1033 (ABA). Although some of these justifications can seem very convenient, because they are widely purported by fracking companies, yet a closer look at the claims is still warranted.

Technological advances in fracking techniques and the drilling process has made the extraction process of natural gas easier from sites previously thought to have been inaccessible. It is thus argued that the advances in fracking technology allow extractions from areas that have impermeable rock spanning thousands of feet between any aquifers and fossil fuel pay zones, thus there is no significant chance of fracking chemicals or gas to migrate to the aquifers from the fracking location. There have been competing studies in this regard which conclude different results, however, some recent studies along with reports from a U.S government task force reveals that if the fracking fluid is properly injected, then the possibility of it reaching drinking water is remote CITATION Tho18 \l 1033 (Darrah).

In addition, the extraction of natural gas has several economic benefits. The ability to extract gas from a well or source has created a gold rush effect for oil companies since gas can now be extracted from several thousand feet below and has provided local drilling companies space to work independently from large foreign oil corporations. In turn, this has reduced oil dependence from countries such as Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, it has led to domestic economic stimulation creating thousands of jobs on a regular basis, providing annual incomes of more than $40,000 CITATION Fre15 \l 1033 (Dews). Since many fracking locations are within remote or rural areas, the local population welcomes the economic stimulation which comes with the process. There is still a potential to create thousands of jobs if full-scale drilling commences in major states such as New York and Pennsylvania. Additionally, as the domestic oil and shale gas production increases, the overall fuel prices have been significantly reduced and provided fuel security to the U.S. for more than a century in the future CITATION Fre15 \l 1033 (Dews). In turn, electricity could be produced at half the rate of emission which can then replace hydrocarbon fuels for transport and other uses.

An overall analysis of the arguments reveals that a concern for environmental impact is admitted by both opponents and proponents to varying degrees. A notable condition admitted by proponents is that the fluid must be ‘properly injected’ in order to avoid the risk of contamination. However, fracking fluids still require to be transported and disposed of besides injection and leakage at any point in the operations, even if the injecting process is adequate, could cause adverse environmental impacts to the people living in the surrounding region of the site. Whether the contamination or pollutants could be attributed to the fracturing process itself or other associated steps, fracking itself would be blamed in case of contamination. Furthermore, in 2013, nearly 15 million residents were known to live within a mile of a fracking site, a figure that may have increased over the years CITATION Val13 \l 1033 (Valentine). Thus, the proximity of an otherwise risky production process to different communities makes it imperative to address even the slightest concerns instead of rejecting them as usual consequences of hydrocarbon production. A number of indirect causes, such as leakage or improper waste management, may cause hazardous chemicals to release into the air or into the water table wherein even minute quantities can cause significant damage. If incidents continue to be reported, then this can lead to heavy regulation and thus impede any positive effects that fracking could provide in terms of energy security.

To conclude, the process of fracking admittedly has a number of benefits, yet, its potential to impact climate change and introduce hazardous chemicals into the air and water of adjacent regions cannot be ignored. Moreover, the cheap availability of hydrocarbon-based fuels as a result of fracking could delay the switch to renewable energy by several decades. The increased uncertainty and political volatility that comes as a long-term consequence of fracking could also impact energy security. Upon weighing and examining all the different factors, it can be admitted that fracking could very well be a false economy, wherein the direct and indirect risks associated with the process can override the benefits. The safety and health of the people overrides short-term benefits to their economy. The risks of hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals that may leak in any part of the operations, and thereby contaminate the air and groundwater surrounding the fracking site are valid concerns that require to be addressed before the technology is further proliferated. Moreover, because its certain benefits have merit as well as carry the potential to particular energy issues facing the world today, more research needs to be diverted in making the drilling process safer, without the use of hazardous chemicals, in order to prevent contaminations, explosions, and leakages. The stability of the U.S. economy must not be built over the safety and wellbeing of its people.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY ABA. "Flooding and Fracking: A Review of Extreme Weather Impacts on Drilling Activities." 11 March 213. American Bar. 11 April 2019. <https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/publications/natural_resources_environment/2012_13/fall_2012/flooding_and_fracking_review_extreme_weather_impacts_drilling_activities/>.

Darrah, Thomas. "Time to Settle the Fracking Controversy." Groundwater 56.2 (2018): 161-162.

Dews, Fred. "The economic benefits of fracking." 23 March 2015. Brookings Institute. 11 April 2019. <https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2015/03/23/the-economic-benefits-of-fracking/>.

EPA. "Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle on Drinking Water Resources in the United States." 15 November 2017. EPA's Study of Hydraulic Fracturing. 11 April 2019. <https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/hfstudy/recordisplay.cfm?deid=332990>.

Groat, Charles G., and Thomas W. Grimshaw. Fact-Based Regulation for Environmental Protection in Shale Gas Development. Summary of Findings. Austin, TX: The Energy Institute, 2012. <http://www.gaselectricpartnership.com/Gei_shale_gas_reg_summary1202.pdf>.

Howarth, Robert W. "Methane emissions and climatic warming." Energy and Emission Control Technologies 3 (2015): 45-54. <https://www.eeb.cornell.edu/howarth/publications/f_EECT-61539-perspectives-on-air-emissions-of-methane-and-climatic-warmin_100815_27470.pdf>.

Lustgarten, Abrahm. "Drill for Natural Gas, Pollute Water." 17 November 2008. Scientific American. 11 April 2019. <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/drill-for-natural-gas-pollute-water/>.

Magill, Bobby. "New York Fracking Report Underscores Quake, Climate Risks." 15 May 2015. Scientific American. 11 April 2019. <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-york-fracking-report-underscores-quake-climate-risks/>.

Valentine, Katie. "More Than 15 Million Americans Now Live Within One Mile Of A Fracking Well." 26 October 2013. Think Progress. 11 April 2019. <https://thinkprogress.org/more-than-15-million-americans-now-live-within-one-mile-of-a-fracking-well-aaf7bf3849ae/>.

Proposal

Your Name

Instructor Name

Course Number

Date

Proposal

Disney has created a number of movies that have been declared as super hits. These classics are present in different categories. Some of them are action movies, some are romantic tragedies and some are plain drama movies, but their strong characterization and storyline makes them unique and stand out among the other movies of the same category (Stringer). One of such amazing works of media by Disney is Moana. Moana is a 3D computer-animated musical adventure film, produced and released by Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2016.

Moana is a movie about a young girl who travels and explores different areas of the land. This process gives her a lot of knowledge and self-realization. The basic theme of the movie is also the same, identity and self-realization (Nurjanah). The film focuses on the aspect of self-discovery and encourages young kids to come out of their comfort zone and focus on discovering their own selves. Then the 3D animated movie also lays stress on the fact that the young kids should first focus on discovering their inner strengths and then stroll out in the outer world to discover it and find out various facts about the world (Nurfarwati).

The main point that the producers and the filmmakers have tried to convey in the movie is the gender power. The most important thing that has been focused is that a person is free to discover the world irrespective of their gender and age. Females are capable of doing anything and they are no lesser than anyone (Husna). Moreover, another very prominent theme that has been focused in this movie is the cultural barriers. The movie conveys the message that a person should break out of their conventional cultural barriers and explore the world, as it is full of surprises and wonders (Setiawan).

Outline:

Introduction

Introduction of Disney Movies

Concept of Gender Biases

Concept of Cultural barriers

Introduction of Moana

Discussion

Summary of Moana

How Moana Defies Gender Biases

How Moana defies Cultural Barriers

How Moana has played a positive role in encouraging the young generation.

How Moana encourages to explore one’s own characteristics.

How Moana encourages to explore the world.

Conclusion

Works Cited

Husna, Galuh Eka. GENDER STEREOTYPE AND PERFORMATIVITY IN MOANA MOVIE. Diss. UNIMED, 2017.

Nurfarwati, Dini, Siti Nur Anisa, and Rasi Yugafiati. "THE ANALYSIS OF FLOUTING OF CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS ON THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN “MOANA” MOVIE." PROJECT (Professional Journal of English Education) 1.5 (2018).

Nurjanah, Nurjanah. A Deixis analysis of Moana movie script. Diss. UIN Walisongo Semarang, 2018.

Setiawan, Indra. 1 TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES ANALYSIS OF MOANA’S UTTERANCES IN “MOANA” MOVIE SUBTITLE. Diss. UNIVERSITAS DIAN NUSWANTORO, 2017.

Stringer, Julian. Movie blockbusters. Routledge, 2013.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico legislation problem

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Puerto Rica is located in the northeast Carrabin Sea and is an incorporated territory of the United States of America. It is governed by the US government with full jurisdiction. Its citizens are born as natural citizens of America but cannot vote in the election for president or senate members. The reason for it dates back to 1989 when a Spanish ambassador Enrique Dupuy de Lome wrote a letter to the Spanish foreign minister about the incompetence of US president. This letter was intercepted by Cuban rebels who were fighting the Spanish for almost three years. At the same time, an American battleship was anchored in Havana to protect US nationals in the ongoing war of independence. This battleship was destroyed by an explosion, and the blame was put on the Spanish. The US had inspirations to become a world power, and to do so, they needed strategic locations, and one such location was Puerto Rico. The US ordered the Spanish to leave Cuba, and their response Spain refused and cut all ties with America by deporting their diplomats from Madrid. The two nations got their self into war, but just in three months Spain sued for peace, and the war formally ended with the treaty of Paris. Cuba became independent while Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States. Later in a court hearing, this was stated that these states would be belonging to America but not a part of it.

Puerto Rica is a State large enough to be represented as an independent country. The people of Puerto Rica should be given a choice to decide whether they want to become part of America or be an independent state. They should be given the right to choose their political leader and political system for themselves. In my opinion, they should become a state of the United States as they have waited long enough and now it's the time to give them the right be a part of the largest economy in the world and gain some economic and social benefits from it.

Reading Response

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Reading Response: Geography

There are many crops that have originated from drylands. These crops include olives, rye, barley, saffron and cotton along with their wild relatives. As a matter of fact, one third of the plants that are cultivated have originated from drylands. These crops are important for humans because they are used in daily food such as bread, soups, etc. Cotton is also used for a number of purposes such as clothing, medicinal purposes, household items, etc. Its seeds are crushed to make oil.

Deforestation is not sustainable in the long run as it is the main reason for extinction of many species due to which the ecosystem gets disturbed. Secondly, forests help to maintain the climate of the Earth. When trees are cut down, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is not absorbed which causes global warming as it traps the heat in the lower level of atmosphere.

Grazing can be used for land restoration naturally. For this reason, farmers are using planned grazing as it can be used for the growth stimulation of plants. Reforestation is also used for this purpose as growing more trees automatically improves the issues regarding soil such as soil erosion. Reducing soil erosion improves land restoration.

Forming institutions for monitoring and assessment of issues regarding land restoration is easier to overcome because if the government is willing, it can easily develop such institutions that can conduct monitoring at all levels. Therefore, political unwillingness is the most difficult to overcome because changing the mindset of the government is not possible when it only considers monetary factors.

Revolution

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Title: Political Revolution

A political revolution is a sudden change in the whole political atmosphere of the state leading to the change in the form of government or the replacement of the entire government. Throughout history, there have been many revolutions that have made drastic impacts on the entire state and on other countries as well.

Some of the notable political revolutions include

Russian revolution of 1917: The Russian revolution took place because of the economic, social, and political conditions of the state. The economy was deteriorating, the upper class were oppressing the lower class and the political scene was unstable which lead to the people being completely dissatisfied with their treatment ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"VjmbGNaR","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Wade)","plainCitation":"(Wade)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":116,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WKtM8IGm/items/JGSFCH6V"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WKtM8IGm/items/JGSFCH6V"],"itemData":{"id":116,"type":"book","title":"The Russian Revolution, 1917","publisher":"Cambridge University Press","volume":"53","ISBN":"1-107-13032-8","author":[{"family":"Wade","given":"Rex A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Wade).

American revolution that happened between the years 1765 and 1783. This revolution had many reasons one of which included the application of many taxes for the people that it became difficult for them to handle ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"3ZRitE7c","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Bonwick)","plainCitation":"(Bonwick)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":114,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WKtM8IGm/items/MJVS5H2P"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WKtM8IGm/items/MJVS5H2P"],"itemData":{"id":114,"type":"book","title":"English Radicals and the American Revolution","publisher":"UNC Press Books","number-of-pages":"385","source":"Google Books","abstract":"Bonwick brings together related elements that have been treated separately on previous occasions--English radicals as personalities, their relations with one another, their connections with Americans; the imperial controversy between England and the colonies; the movement for parliamentary reform in England; and the campaign for civil rights for Dissenters. The study brings fresh meaning to English radicalism and ideas about liberty during the revolutionary era.Originally published 1977.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.","ISBN":"978-1-4696-1044-3","note":"Google-Books-ID: yLY4DwAAQBAJ","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Bonwick","given":"Colin"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017",10,10]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Bonwick).

The French revolution spanning over 10 years from 1789-1799. France’s involvement in the American revolution lead the country to bankruptcy. Prices of everyday necessities were rising high and the poor people were unable to afford basic neccessities ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"GbzSFxhs","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tocqueville)","plainCitation":"(Tocqueville)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":117,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WKtM8IGm/items/V3VPUUT5"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WKtM8IGm/items/V3VPUUT5"],"itemData":{"id":117,"type":"book","title":"The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789: The Cause of Revolution","publisher":"e-artnow","number-of-pages":"432","source":"Google Books","abstract":"The book I now publish is not a history of the French Revolution; that history has been written with too much success for me to attempt to write it again. This volume is a study on the Revolution. The French people made, in 1789, the greatest effort which was ever attempted by any nation to cut, so to speak, their destiny in halves, and to separate by an abyss that which they had heretofore been from that which they sought to become hereafter. For this purpose, they took all sorts of precautions to carry nothing of their past with them into their new condition; they submitted to every species of constraint in order to fashion themselves otherwise than their fathers were; they neglected nothing which could efface their identity.","ISBN":"978-80-268-9940-2","note":"Google-Books-ID: YNKSDwAAQBAJ","title-short":"The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Tocqueville","given":"Alexis","dropping-particle":"de"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019",1,2]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tocqueville).

Explained above are some of the major revolutions that took place in the history of the world. There are many others but the above have been picked to prove a point that all the revolutions have certain aspects common. These aspects include:

Economy: When the economic stability of the country is reduced, people are forced to pay a huge amount for little things. This might be an acceptable option for the rich but for the poor, it is not. Taxes are imposed and the cost of things go high while people have little to no income.

Social inequalities: When a certain class of people are considered superior while other classes are not, there is bound to be a conflict of major consequences. When people realize that they are not getting the same things that they deserve, riots take place which needs to be taken care of immediately.

Poor leadership: Of all the reasons for the start of a revolution, one of the major ones is that of having a poor leader. This can be such that either the leader is too weak where he is under the commands of others and is unable to provide people with the necessary facilities. Or it can be that the leader is a tyrant that does things as he pleases and gives little concern towards what is right for the people.

Knowledge: As people begin to suffer, they start to realize what is wrong with the society they are living in. This gives rise to intellectuals that know the ins and outs of the situation. Such people give rise to the political revolutions so that everything is fair in the state they are living in.

The above-mentioned reasons are some of the primary reasons that give rise to upheaval in a country. Some of the secondary reasons that arise due to these primary reasons are:

Famine: Fewer growth of crops, no food and little resources. These can be a factor of many things like poor economy, bad leadership and also natural reasons.

Ignition: Many times, there is one particular incident that takes place and gives rise to the political revolution. Like in the American Revolution, there were incidents of conflict among the British and the Americans which lead to the revolution. These also take place due to the bad leadership of the state in which proper management is not present.

Independence: Sometimes, when people spend most of their lives, living under the command of others for too long, they want their separate identity. This is an igniting factor towards a political revolution.

As can be seen, there are many aspects of each revolution that are in-common with each other . If all things are going according to plan and people are provided with their due rights and facilities, there wouldn’t be such incidents.

Works Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Bonwick, Colin. English Radicals and the American Revolution. UNC Press Books, 2017.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789: The Cause of Revolution. e-artnow, 2019.

Wade, Rex A. The Russian Revolution, 1917. Cambridge University Press, 2017.