assignment

First part just answer the question

I need it by tomorrow

Please make sure to read carefully

A=Read carefully David Christian’s article on the Industrial Revolution of c. 1750-1900 and how it marked another threshold in human history. Then answer the following questions.

1. Look at Table 13.1 on p. 407, giving details of industrial output between 1750 and 1980. In your opinion, what was the most significant or outstanding development or change in the century between 1800 and 1900? Then, what do you think was the most outstanding change that occurred between 1900 and 1980?

2. Then, look at Table 13.3 on p. 412, which gives changes in National Product (i.e. the value of all goods and services produced) and in National Product per Head (i.e. the average value of goods and services produced — and consumed — by each individual) for Britain between 1700 and 1831. Between 1700 and 1760, the average growth rate for National Product was 0.69% per year; at that rate, the economy would double in size within 100 years. In the same period, the average growth rate in National Product per Head was 0.31% per year, implying a doubling of output person within 223 years. In your view, what does this suggest about the nature of industrial productivity in the early 1700s.

Then compare the figures for 1700-1760 with those for 1801-1831, by which time the Industrial Revolution has had its initial impact. In your view, what has changed? On the basis of Christian’s article, what factors might account for this change?

3. Finally, the Industrial Revolution was possible only because of the intensive exploitation of a non-renewable source of energy i.e. coal. In your opinion, on the basis of this fact should we view the Industrial Revolution of 1750-1900 as a major threshold in human history?

Rewrite this paragraph using your own words

1. Look at Table 13.1 on p. 407, giving details of industrial output between 1750 and 1980. In your opinion, what was the most significant or outstanding development or change in the century between 1800 and 1900? Then, what do you think was the most outstanding change that occurred between 1900 and 1980?

 

The most outstanding development or change between 1800 and 1900 is the agrarian sector being transformed as a profit making displaced subsistence as the primary goal of agriculture production. Wide spread innovation during this century raised agricultural productivity. Though the actual technology changes were not as startling as those in the industry, their impact was much greater. Agricultural productivity rose as rapidly and technological advancements, sometime more rapidly. In the early eighteenth century 37 percent of national income came from agriculture. The most outstanding change that occurred during 1900 and 1980 is the impact of science on innovation and the spread of the industrial revolution out of England and to Western Europe and North America. The nineteen hundreds also was the first time you would see large differences in wealth across the world.  

 

 2. In your view, what does this suggest about the nature of industrial productivity in the early 1700s. Then compare the figures for 1700-1760 with those for 1801-1831, by which time the Industrial Revolution has had its initial impact. In your view, what has changed? On the basis of Christian’s article, what factors might account for this change? The industrial productivity was low in the early years of the 1700s. Most of the population was living in rural towns. Until the 1720’s England’s population growth was steady due to harvest failures and disease such as influenza and smallpox. The main changes that occurred in the early 1800’s when the Industrial Revolution had its initial impact were three interlinked aspects including economic, political and cultural. Christian’s article focussed on England whose social structures already conformed closely to the model of a capitalist society to a rapidly growing class of wage earners.  Productivity first came in agriculture followed industrial breakthroughs due to the invention of steam power in large factories. Growing wealth and the need to manage market economies, and the protection of wealth brought on new challenges for governments.  

 

 3. Finally, the Industrial Revolution was possible only because of the intensive exploitation of a non-renewable source of energy i.e. coal. In your opinion, on the basis of this fact should we view the Industrial Revolution of 1750-1900 as a major threshold in human history, or as a short-term exception to the Malthusian Cycle (as we’ve discussed it in class)?  The Industrial Revolution was possible only because intensive exploitation of a non-renewable source of energy i.e. coal. This lead to a large increase in agricultural productivity which allowed more people to be fed by fewer farmers. This proved as an exception to the Malthusian Cycle but only on a short-term basis. Eventually the intensive exploitation of non-renewable resources will have to be replaced with new technologies when our supply runs out. With a rapidly growing population there may not be enough food to feed everyone.  

B-The Hundred-Year Lie, Randall Fitzgerald identifies 5 ‘Myths That We Cherish’ about our daily exposure to toxins and other harmful environmental risks. Of these five, which THREE do you consider most alarming, and why?

Rewrite this paragraph using your own words

1)TOXICITY IS SOMEONE ELSES PROBLEM 

The data found in five major blood and urine testing surveys found that every resident living in industrialized nations now carries within his or her body an average of seven hundred synthetic chemicals from our food water and air. The actual number of chemicals in our bodies is probably even higher than that because some are embedded deep in organs and tissue and can’t be found in testing. In 2001 scientists at the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed 2,400 people searching for specifically 148 toxic compounds in blood and urine. Every single persons test results showed dozens of these toxins contained in their bodies. Children were discovered to be carrying larger doses of toxins then adults. Environment ministers from thirteen European Union countries had their blood tested at a health conference in 2004 and every individual was horrified to discover they all had been contaminated by synthetic chemicals from pesticides, plastics and fragrances. 

 

The results of these tests are alarming to me but the more alarming part of this section is the American Chemistry Council, representing the US chemical manufacturing industry, response to these surveys.  The council issues a press release stating “the mere detection of a chemical does not necessarily indicate a risk to health”. The council did not consider the results of these surveys to be a concern! It shows that when humans don’t like the evidence it is shown we classify things as normal. So now it is considered to be normal and not a cause for concern that we are carrying inside of us dozens of toxic synthetic chemicals that have never been found in humans before the twentieth century. 

 

2)THE GOVERNEMNT KNOWS WHAT IS SAFE 

There is a generally accepted figure of how many synthetic toxic chemicals have been unleashed on this planet. One hundred thousand chemicals are found in humans bodies worldwide and more than one thousand new chemicals enter the marketplace each year. The United States Environmental Protection Agency keeps a list of approximately 85 thousand chemicals in a registry and only a small fraction of these have ever been tested individually on their impact on the health of human beings. The most alarming portion of this section to me was that when it comes to chemicals added to cosmetic and personal care products that I purchase and use every day, the FDA knows as much about their safety as I do. Under FDA regulations neither cosmetic products nor the ingredients in these products are reviewed or approved by the FDA before they are sold to consumers! On average every consumer uses 9 personal care products a day containing 126 separate ingredients, and at least one third of those ingredients are harmful to humans and can cause cancer or other serious health problems. 

3)THERE IS TRUTH IN LABELING 

From a manufacturers point of perspective the trade secrets help to protect patented products ingredients from competitors. But the truth is any sophisticated and wealthy enough competitors can conduct research through reverse engineering in their labs and figure out the ingredients in almost every product offered in the marketplace. So the effects of trade secrets fall the hardest on the consumers who are denied the opportunity to completely asses the chemical risks and safety issues concerning the products they are purchasing. Even if all ingredients are listed on the products they are purchasing how are they supposed to tell what is potentially harmful to them. The only “truth” about labeling is that there is widespread secrecy and that as alarming to me as a consumer suffering the most from this. 

 C- 1. In ONE sentence, summarize what you understand Kunstler’s thesis (i.e. main argument) is in this chapter. Please use you own words rather than copy Kunstler’s.

2. Identify TWO examples or illustrations that Kunstler uses to support his argument that you found particularly persuasive, saying why.

3. Identify ONE example or illustration that you felt to be weak or unconvincing.

4. Overall, what did you find to be (a) a strength and (b) a weakness of this chapter?

Good luck!

Rewrite this paragraph using your own words

1. In ONE sentence, summarize what you understand Kunstler’s thesis (i.e. main argument) is in this chapter. Please use you own words rather than copy Kunstler’s.

Kunstler’s main argument in this chapter is that the way that suburbs and city infrastructure have developed since 1945 promotes a strictly automobile based culture where those that cannot afford, or simply cannot have a car (such as children) are living in an unsafe environment where traveling as a pedestrian is not safe and inconvenient.

2. Identify TWO examples or illustrations that Kunstler uses to support his argument that you found particularly persuasive, saying why.

One of the things Kunstler writes is that “a suburbanite could stand on her front lawn for three hours on a weekday afternoon and never have a chance for conversation”. I had never considered this before, but given than I live on a dead end in a suburb this really hit home for me. There is virtually no traffic coming through the suburb because it doesn’t lead anywhere that anyone needs to be.

Another thing that strikes me as something I had never considered but seems to be true is that as a society we are often given the illusion of a public sector when really we are just being allowed to use private space. Malls, for instance, are places that I, before reading this chapter, considered a public space. I had never realized that really there was no right of assembly or free speech in a mall because consumers are just occupying a space someone else owns.

3. Identify ONE example or illustration that you felt to be weak or unconvincing.

One of the things I found unconvincing about Kunstler’s argument was that suburban streets often lack sidewalks. I have found that suburban areas more often than not do have sidewalks and where they mostly lack them are on regional and industrial roads that most pedestrians would not be traveling anyway.

4. Overall, what did you find to be (a) a strength and (b) a weakness of this chapter?

A great strength of this chapter is how it illustrates the class division between those who have access to a vehicle and those who do not. Those of us fortunate enough to be able to have access to a vehicle on a daily basis definitely take for granted our ability to get to one place or another as we please.

A weakness of the chapter is that the point seems overemphasized. To say that there are no sidewalks in suburbs, and that there are no public spaces where one can go and just be there is an exaggeration. Kunstler definitely used these kinds of illustrations to hammer home his point, but given that I know differently the claims fell short of capturing my attention.

Second part just writes paragraph each one

Due date until March 29, 2013

Before you start to write the paragraph, you have to choose one topic from these lists:

1. How has a focus on the environment fundamentally reshaped the ways in which we study the human past?

2. What is ‘environmental determinism’ and what are its strengths and weaknesses as an approach towards the study of humanity’s evolution?

3. What role did the environment play in shaping the essential features of the human species over the past 2 million years?

4. What environmental factors help explain (a) the movement of humans (i.e. Homo sapiens) out of Africa c. 50,000-100,000 years ago and/or (b) the pattern of human migration across the world over the next 40,000 years or so?

5. Why did the Neanderthals become extinct?

6. What are the strengths and weaknesses of foraging (i.e. hunting and gathering) as a means of exploiting the environment?

7. Did humans kill off megafauna (i.e. large mammals and birds) when they arrived in new lands (e.g. North America, Australia) and if so why?

8. What environmental factors shaped the domestication of (a) the dog and/or (b) the cow and/or (c) the llama?

9. Compare and contrast the relative environmental benefits of a nomadic or foraging lifestyle with a settled and agricultural lifestyle.

10. What was the environmental impact of the so-called ‘Agricultural Revolution’?

11. What are the key environmental features of ‘civilization’?

12. Discuss the main environmental features of any of the following civilizations: (a) Sumerian, (b) Egyptian, (c) ancient Chinese, (d) Roman.

13. What role did (a) soil erosion and/or (b) deforestation play in the downfall of any one of the ancient civilizations studied in this course?

14. Compare and contrast the view of nature held by Ancient Roman, Ancient Greek and Early Christian civilization.

15. What is the ‘Malthusian Cycle’ and how does it explain the rise and fall of civilizations?

16. Are all civilizations doomed to fail due to ecological over-expansion?

17. What key environmental advances were made during the Middle Ages between c. 500 and 1500 AD?

18. Was the Black Death of the mid-1300s an environmental crisis?

19. What environmental factors underpinned the so-called ‘European Outthrust’ of the 1400s that culminated in Columbus’ voyage to America?

20. What was the ecological impact of the Columbian Exchange on (a) native Americans and (b) Europeans between 1500 and 1700?

21. What was the ecological impact of the Columbian Exchange on Africa between 1500 and 1700?

22. What was the ecological impact of the Columbian Exchange on Asia between 1500 and 1700?

23. How and why did the Columbian Exchange end the environmental isolation of Afro-Eurasia, the Americas, the Pacific and Australasia?

24. What were the environmental origins of the Industrial Revolution of c. 1750-1850?

25. What was the environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution?

26. In marking a shift in reliance on renewable energy sources (e.g. human, animal, wind, water, etc.) to non-renewable energy sources (i.e. fossil fuels), the Industrial Revolution marks the greatest single transition in human history: discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this proposition.

27. The Industrial Revolution ensured that the future fate of the majority of mankind would to become wage-earning labourers rather than independent, self-sufficient peasant farmers. From an environmental point of view, was this a positive or negative development?

28. What environmental impact did the rise of industrial cities have in the 19th and 20th centuries?

29. The roots of global warming lie in developments that took place during the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago: discuss.

30. The world’s population reached 1 billion for the first time c. 1820; it reached 2 billion in 1930; by 2000 it had reached 6 billion. What are (a) the environmental causes and/or (b) the environmental impacts of this unprecedented scale of population growth in the 20th century?

31. The majority of the world’s population live in developing or underdeveloped nations in conditions that resemble pre-industrial or even medieval lifeways: what environmental factors explaining this enduring and even increasing scale of inequality between various regions of the world?

32. What are the distinctive environmental features of the modern city in the 20th century?

33. The 20th century saw two fundamental demographic developments: (1) the decline of the peasant and the rise of the urban labourer and (b) the global rise of the urban poor and city slums. With this in mind, to what extent do cities represent (a) a sign of progress or (b) a sign of decline in terms of environmental sustainability?

34. Why do vast numbers of the underdeveloped world continue to die of diseases that have long been eradicated or contained in the developed world?

35. In the developed world, leading causes of death include automobile accidents, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity-related illnesses. What are the environmental factors that make life in the affluent developed nations so dangerous?

36. By raising productivity (i.e. production per person) and exploiting overseas resources and markets, modern industrial nations have broken that Malthusian Cycle that doomed all previous civilizations. Do you agree or disagree with this statement regarding the long-term environmental sustainability of the world today?

37. Human activities have always resulted in pollution: in what ways did the 20th century mark a revolution in the level and nature of human pollution of the planet?

38. The USA represents 5% of the world’s population and consumes 25% of the world’s energy: this fact alone ensures that world is headed towards a crisis that can be delayed but not, ultimately, avoided. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

39. What is the ‘Gaia Hypothesis’ (as proposed by James Lovelock) and what are its implications for human survival?

40. As a species, humans have (so far) had a mid-range longevity of c. 200,000 years or so. Yet in that short time, we have transformed the Earth and its biosphere more than any other species in the history of the planet. In the event of our extinction, what lasting environmental impact will we leave on the planet?

When you pick one topic, you have to pick and make sure to separate each 100 words. And write it’s in text reference for me to know which one belongs to what.

1. 3 books and write a 100 words from each one (300 words total)

2. 3 published articles (Google scholar) and write from each article 100 words. (300 words total)

3. 3 websites and write 100 words for each website (300 words total)

4. 1 visual medium and write 100 words only.

So in total you have now to write a 1000 words and this should be reflected in the references so you will have 10 references.