Towards A Sustainable Community Essays - Environmentalism

Towards A Sustainable Community Not until the spread of the Industrial Revolution in the late nineteenth century, has man possessed the ability to adversely alter, on a global scale, the geologic and climatic cycles that have existed for millennia. Planet earth, which man calls home, is approximately 5 billion years old. The science of paleontology tells us that man is a relative new comer to the planet. Modern man did not arrive on the scene until approximately 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Developments in hunting, agriculture, literacy, and the sciences, have allowed man to thrive and inhabit nearly every corner of the planet. However, this success has not been good for the earth. The world's population has recently surpassed 6 billion and the developed countries community models and lifestyles are not sustainable. Due to rapid, unrestrained growth, housing, shopping, and entertainment construction has spread across the surface of the planet like an oil slick. We are depleting resources and altering ecosystems at an alarming rate. Only now are we beginning to comprehend the long-term effects of more than a century of environmental ignorance, neglect, and apathy. Historically, city and community planners lacked the vision and understanding that would lead to environmentally friendly and sustainable conditions, allowing us to live in harmony with nature. This, coupled with irresponsible consumerism and poor individual choices, has led us to a crossroad. It is now clear we cannot continue to build communities that are unsustainable and we must change our lifestyles. We have arrived at the threshold of the 21st century where nothing less than a global call to action is necessary. We can continue on our current path, which will ultimately lead to severe health problems, loss of valuable resources, extinctions, and a wholesale denial of contaminated areas, or we can take positive, radical steps to break with the past. Regarding unsustainable communities and lifestyles, the blame lies mainly with two specific phenomena, American's love affair with the automobile, and the American Dream of owning a home and land outside of the city. A car-dependent lifestyle introduces numerous problems and exacerbates the dilemma of exurb migration. With so many cars on the road, they become congested, leading to the need for new, longer, and wider roads that encroach on existing ecosystems and animal habitats. With roads and highways stretching farther and farther from the city, suburbanites can now live at greater distances from the cities requiring a need for increased fossil fuel production. This increased consumption and burning of fossil fuels increases air and water pollution and contributes to the greenhouse effect. It is estimated that out of the millions of underground storage tanks of gasoline and diesel fuel across the U.S., over 300,000 have failed, contaminating the surrounding ground water tables (Ne bel, Wright 490). In the case of the fuel additive, Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE), contaminated wells have to be shut down entirely. Many cities fail to meet air-quality standards even with improved pollution controls. Vehicles are responsible for an estimated 80% of the air pollution in metropolitan regions (Nebel, Wright 581). Vehicle traffic congestion increases year after year, accounting for billions of dollars worth of lost time and productivity. From 1945 to 1980, U.S. oil consumption nearly quadrupled while the population grew by just 60 percent (Nebel, Wright 581). According to the Washington Post, the world's oil reserves will be exhausted in approximately 40 to 50 years. The American Dream of owning a home and land is something almost all Americans aspire to. However, this lifestyle is also responsible for a unique set of associated problems that contribute to a wasteful and unwise depletion of energy sources. Single family homes or detached dwellings, cost much more to heat than apartments. The paved area around all homes reduces rainfall percolation back to ground water tables. The increased run off due to the paving over of existing soil, causes erosion, and carries away surface pollutants such as lawn and garden chemicals. The unplanned communities that extend out from the cities eat up existing rich farmland, requiring food to be transported in from greater distances. The only way we are going to be able to move away from unsustainable practices and behavior is through education, inclusion, planning, and regulation. By

Two Scavengers and Nothings Changed Essays

Two Scavengers and Nothings Changed Essays Two Scavengers and Nothings Changed Essay Two Scavengers and Nothings Changed Essay Essay Topic: Poetry Both Two Scavengers and Nothings Changed are protesting against issues of discrimination between different classes of society and different races. In Two Scavengers Ferlinghetti is protesting against the inequalities within a democracy, and how its not democratic but more ruled by class. In Nothings Changed we are shown Africa when the apartheid law was still in place and a protest about the way black people are treated there. The imagery used by both poets highlights there protests against the unfairness of society. Two Scavengers is set in San Francisco which is meant to be a democratic society however there is a small gulf in the high seas of this democracy. The use of this metaphor emphasizes how society is still ruled by class. Ferlinghetti says the gulf is small which indicates it should be easy to cross the over to a democratic society. However, paired with the high seas, it becomes hard to cross. It is dangerous to try and break out of the different classes and it is easier and almost safer to remain in the same kind of society. The use of the word democracy is sarcastic, there shouldnt be a gulf in a democracy, especially in a place like San Francisco that should keep everyone equal. Similarly there is an invisible divide in apartheid Africa, shown in Nothings Changed, where although No sign says it is they still know where they belong. Apartheid is over when the poem had been written, however, like in Two Scavengers there is still inequality between the two classes of people. The white people still believe that the black people dont belong there. It highlights the invisible divide between the two cultures. It is meant to be equal now however the black people realize that the white people dont want them and know where they belong. Afrika uses himself in first person to speak for the whole group using the word we. Hes speaking up for the black people and although they are angry at is they accept it. Even though its not a law anymore and there is no sign the divide between them is great. Furthermore Ferlinghetti uses a simile to compare one of the garbage men to a gargoyle Quasimodo. Quasimodo was an ugly character but had a very good heart. This shows that although today society is mostly ruled by appearances, inside some people there can be kindness and compassion. A gargoyle is used to scare away evil in churches. It shows that the man protects the city by keeping it clean. He may seem insignificant and Quasimodo like, but without him the cool couple wouldnt be living in a clean city. Likewise Afrika may be suggesting that the black people are like purple flowering, amiable weeds. Weeds always come back, and can only be removed by properly digging up the roots. This suggests that the black people have roots in Africa and refuse to be taken away. Since the weeds are amiable it suggests they are friendly. The juxtaposition of calling weeds amiable highlights that appearances can be deceiving and although the black people may be trodden on they will still come back stronger each time. In both poems, Ferlinghetti and Afrika use the materials plastic and linen to accentuate the difference between rich and poor. It again shows that although there should be no difference because of race and class it still exists. In Two Scavengers the garbage men are wearing red plastic blazers as opposed to the linen suit the man in the Mercedes is wearing. This links to Nothings Changed where the poorer working mans cafi has a plastic tables top, whereas in the white peoples cafi linen falls off the table. Plastic is a cheap material that is considered unattractive. However it is very hard to tear and break which shows that although society and race considers them to be poorer than everyone else, they are stronger than others. Linen is more associated with richer, well off people. It is malleable and can be shaped into almost anything. This suggests that the richer, higher people in society do what they can to fit in. They change themselves to fit what society demands. In both poems it shows that the richer people have a lot of linen, more than what they need. The man has a three-piece linen suit and in the cafi in Nothings changed excess linen falls from the table. This shows that although its not needed the well off people need to show that they can afford it, and that they are better off than other people. The poets both structure the poems in different ways to get through there protest against inequality in there society. Ferlinghetti has no punctuation throughout the poem except for the comma in the title. The comma could stress the separation between rich and poor and how different they are. The lack of punctuation could show that the cycle is never-ending, and even though the democracy is there it is not enforced and therefore will always dictate how society is. The poem is also laid out in a fragmented way suggesting the broken nature of society. The haphazard lines could also illustrate how fragile democracy is, and how easily it could collapse. With the last word of the poem being democracy it could also suggest that society is built on democracy yet along the way things have changed causing it to become easily collapsible. The lines also overlap but never touch which shows the social divide between both rich and poor. In Nothings Changed the title and the last line of the poem are the same. Throughout the poem Afrika is describing the way that although the apartheid law is no longer in place it still dictates the way society is run, showing that at the beginning of the poem nothings changed and then at the end still nothings changed. By using it as the title and the ending line of the poem it provides a visual image for the reader showing that things are still the same. Also in the middle of the poem there is the two line stanza, No sign says it is: but we know where we belong. It is almost separate from the rest of the poem which draws the readers attention to it. It could be that this is Afrikas main point of the poem so he deliberately draws our attention to it. Both poems show the injustice in the society they live in, and how although the divide was abolished it is still there, invisible but prominent. In Two Scavengers the only thing separating the cool couple from the garbage men is the jobs they do. Both the man in the Mercedes and the young garbageman wear sunglasses, are about the same age and have long, shoulder-length hair. They are both similar yet because of social class the garbage man is considered ugly. This makes us consider the fact that they arent interchangeable. One of them has money and the other doesnt and although that is only a little detail, in a society ruled by class is become a big one. In Nothings Changed the amiable weeds are being outgrown by the Port Jackson trees. They are both plants yet because the trees are better looking, and considered less troublesome they become better than the weeds, indicating the white people are better than the black people.