Visualising Society Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Visualising Society - Assignment Example In 2008, BP had already announced a plan to spend up to $2 billion to expand existing pipelines and build new connections to Gulf Coast refiners, with projected delivery up to 250,000 barrels 2012 (Hoovers 2010). The company also gained additional properties in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20, 2010 a rig working less than 50 miles south of Louisiana exploded on the Deepwater Horizon rig off the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Initial word from the U.S. Coast Guard was that no oil spill had resulted from the combustion. Briefly after the statement, the U.S. government announced 1,000 barrels of thick oil per day were spilling into the ocean. The preliminary estimate was soon changed to 42,000 gallons or 5,000 barrels per day. BP initially rejected those estimates, but was confronted with environmental assessments that revealed a spill potentially worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. Events leading up to and subsequent to the spill are outlined in the following timeline (Elliot 2010): April 20: at approximately 10:00 PM (CET) a fire was reported on the Deepwater Horizon rig, owned by Transocean Ltd. which was leased by lessor energy giant BP. On April 21, Transocean, Ltd. stated that there was no mention of the spill, despite eleven workers killed on site. April 22: Coast Guard spokeswoman Katherine McNamara indicates disaster level spill. BPs chief executive, Tony Hayward, tells the public that Bp is responding with "everything in our power to contain this oil spill and resolve the situation as rapidly, safely and effectively as possible." The rig sinks. April 27: After underwater robots fail in an attempt to stop the flow of oil. The U.S. Coast Guard attempts to trap the oil in containment booms, and then set it on fire. BP indicates that it will commence drilling of a new relief well near the spill site, but completion of the process could take months. In a communication from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chair

Riparian Ecosystem in the Semi-arid Southwest US

Riparian Ecosystem in the Semi-arid Southwest US Yi Rong Ecosystem project Geographic location The absolute location of the riparian ecosystem in the semi-arid Southwest of the US is 38 ° 11†² 21†³ S 109 ° 53 †²07 †³ W while its relative location is Southwest of the Colorado River. Climate The riparian ecosystem in this region registers an annual temperature of approximately 55F with an annual temperature range of 40F to 55F. The region receives a bi-modal precipitation regime with the highest precipitation experienced during the winter as well as during the summer monsoon winds. The annual precipitation can be recorded at between 16cm to 54cm. One of the major factors affecting the temperature and precipitation in this ecosystem is the proximity to the Colorado River which increases precipitation (Trexler 58). The thin cloud cover also influence the temperature as well as precipitation as it dictates the amount of direct sunlight on the moisture on the ground. The elevation of the ground is also another important factor that may influence precipitation and temperature. The higher the elevation, an area will experience higher the temperatures and lower precipitation. However, if the elevation is low then temperatures are expected to be lower while precipitation will be higher (Trexler 63). Extreme weather events in the southwest riparian ecosystem are mainly heat waves, floods and droughts and this can be attributed to the global climate change. This is because the climate of this region can be classified under a cold, semi-arid climatic zone (Doyle and Drew 13). This is characterized by relatively long drought periods as well as irregular precipitation, growing seasons that range from warm to hot and extended periods of winter which is sustained by freezing temperatures. Landforms and the land forming processes The riparian ecosystem here sits on a crustal rock that is surrounded by deformed Rocky Mountains together with Basin and Range Provinces (Raynolds 23). The main structures in this region are flexures, salt tectonic features, monoclines, vertical faults and volcanic. The folds here are broader rather than the characteristic tight folds found in orogenic belts. The wide areas of flat lying sedimentary rocks are divided by sudden bends of strata that form along the monoclonal folds formed nearly more than 600 million years ago. Normal faults dissect the ground in this area where normal faults are formed by tensional forces in which case the foot wall moves upwards relative to the hanging wall. These faults are more prevalent here because of the movement of the crustal blocks occurring in the Precambrian basement and the differential movement can be attributed to the differences in the elevation in this particular riparian ecosystem (Raynolds 39). Precambrian rocks are visible around th e region and they consist of gneiss, schist and younger sedimentary rocks. About 1.7 billion years ago, a north-south continental compression resulted in wrench faults areas, one being the Colorado River Lineament. Water and wind are the two key forces that can be attributed to the erosion of the ecosystem over the years (Adler 32). The main reason why water is the greatest force of the two is that the sun bakes the soil thereby making it so hard that it becomes difficult to absorb water. Therefore, when it rains, rain water flows freely with immense force. The vegetation in the area also doesn’t have deep laid roots to hold the soil together and this only adds to the problem (Lauenroth and Burke 51). As the free flowing water goes down, it creates flash floods that have great power to move rock boulders as big as automobiles. Ice also another erosion factor that cannot be ignored in this area. As faults are created between rocks, water seeps between these cracks and when temperatures are low, it turns to ice thereby expanding the cracks. When these faults get wide enough, pieces of rocks on the edges fall away and hit other rocks along the way thereby causing massive erosion effects. Th e topography of the ecosystem has characteristic different elevation levels. The vegetation in this area is mainly open-woodlands. The plants found here include cottonwoods, alders, cattails, plums as well as tall grass (Ralston 74). The Colorado River also makes an important part of the topography of the ecosystem. Surrounding the ecosystems are canyons and volcanic rocks whose surfaces have been eroded over the years mainly by water. Drainage patterns and stream systems The flow of the stream determines the forces that erode sediment and transport and deposit the same. This is important as it influences the various dimensions of aquatic systems in the ecosystem (Raynolds 53). The variance of stream flow also plays a major role in the occurrence of suitable environment and species abundance. The structural controls offered by the environment in the ecosystem act to dictate the various aspects of the stream’s flow such as its velocity and direction. Drainage patterns of streams in the ecosystem take the form of parallel and dendritic drainage patterns that are the most common in riparian ecosystems. As for the stream capacity, given the geology of the ecosystems and the level of erosion, the stream capacity in the ecosystem is high as the sediments from eroded soil and rocks transported by the stream is also high which translates to high power (Hazel 47). However, stream discharge in the ecosystem is relatively low as the width of the stream is narrow and wouldn’t support high stream discharge while the stream velocity is also low due to the many artificial islands formed by rocks found in the stream. These act to reduce the velocity of the stream greatly. The hard soil surface under the stream makes it difficult for water absorption and therefore when it rains, flash floods form easily while recurrence depends on the rain intervals during the year. Biome The biome in the ecosystem is classified according to the latitude within which the ecosystem is located. As a result of this, the climatic conditions brought about by the ecosystem’s latitude play a major role in determining the biome found in this area. Therefore, the dominant plants found in this particular ecosystem are mainly cottonwoods and open-woodlands. The animal species are the mule deer and the elk (Van Cole 16). Ecosystem characteristics, productivity, and services The productivity of the ecosystem can be seen from the dams and reservoir built in order to reduce the amount of erosion taking place in the ecosystem (Yaffee 61). This has received positive results as erosion has reduced greatly. On productivity, the ecosystem acts as a park ecosystem and local tourists can go and enjoy the different flora and fauna the ecosystem has to offer. Habitat/s The Riparian habitats are defined by different plants that depend on an integral hydrological regime. It is a case whereby the groundwater is sustained and surface flows that are natural occur. Plant and animal communities An assemblage of animal and plant communities is what define Riparian ecosystems and the presence of these communities attribute directly or indirectly to stream induced or interrelated factors. A greater diversity of animals and plants are supported by the Riparian ecosystems than the upland habitats. Food web and food chains In relation to the food web and chains, it is clear that approximately 80 percent of sensitive vertebrate species depend on aquatic habitants in their life cycle. Example of an animal and its niche There are western screech-owls, which have a niche at the moist woodlands that are found along the lakes and streams. Example of a symbiotic relationships A significant symbiotic relationship is between the star-flowered Solomon’s-seal with the moist shady woodlands that are found along the streams. Human-Land relationships Deforestation and animal grazing are some of the human activities that are taking place in the ecosystem. Ecosystem status Currently, the ecosystem is in a threatened/endangered status as the acts of animal grazing and deforestation are rampant within the area. A practical conservation strategy that has been adopted is the Conservation Reserve Program, which has been redesigned with the purpose of providing priority to areas that are stream buffer zones. Works Cited Adler, Robert W. Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A Troubled Sense of Immensity. Washington: Island Press, 2007. Web. Bainbridge, David. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration: New Hope for Arid Lands. Washington: Island Press. 2012. Print. Doyle, Mary, and Cynthia A. Drew. Large-scale Ecosystem Restoration: Five Case Studies from the United States. Washington: Island Press, 2008. Web. Folliott, Peter and Leonard F. DeBano. Riparian Areas of the Southwestern United States: Hydrology, Ecology, and Management. Florida: CRC Press. 2003. Print. Hazel, Joseph E. Monitoring Fine-Grained Sediment in the Colorado River Ecosystem, Arizona: Control Network. S.l.: Bibliogov, 2013. Print. Kaiser, James. Grand Canyon: the Complete Guide. Ringgold, Ga.: Destination Press, 2011. Print. Lauenroth, William K, and Ingrid C. Burke. Ecology of the Short grass Steppe: A Long-Term Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Web. Ralston, Barbara E. A Vegetation Database for the Colorado River Ecosystem from Glen Canyon Dam to the Western Boundary of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Northern Arizona University, 2007. Print. Raynolds, Robert G. Roaming the Rocky Mountains and Environs: Geological Field Trips. Boulder, Colo: Geological Society of America, 2008. Print. Trexler, Joel. Monitoring Ecosystems. Washington: Island Press. 2003. Print. Van, Riper C, and Mark K. Sogge. The Colorado Plateau Iii: Integrating Research and Resources Management for Effective Conservation. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2008. Print. Van, Riper C, and Kenneth L. Cole. The Colorado Plateau: Cultural, Biological, and Physical Research. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004. Print. Yaffee, Steven L. Ecosystem Management in the United States: An Assessment of Current Experience. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1996. Print.

Mumia Abu Jamal Essay -- essays research papers

America, the land of the free, the land of the just. It is here, where paople from all over the world can come for refuge from tyranny. Here, people are not judged by their color, but by who they are. Too bad it isn't true, for what you are about to read will contradict everything that America is supposed to be. Mumia Abu Jamal, a former Philadelphia journalist, was put through an unfair and biased trial, then convicted of murdering a Philadelphia cop in 1982, and has been on death row since. And here is his story. "My name is Mumia Abu-Jamal ... I've been on death row since July of 1982 - in fact, I've been on several death rows in Pennsylvania, in the United States of America. Despite my penal status I'm a writer, a journalist, a columnist, and a professional revolutionary." -- Mumia Abu-Jamal (Wideman 107) Born 24 April 1954 Wesley Cook, Mumia Abu-Jamal, author, journalist and inmate of death row, is one of America's most powerful outspoken voices against injustice. Seen by the State as a dangerous revolutionary who must be silenced, he has been incarcerated for the last seventeen years. (West 2) Mumia Abu-Jamal was born in Philadelphia where he grew up. The name Mumia was given in High School, when he took an African name for his Swahili studies. The Arabic, Abu-Jamal, meaning Father of Jamal, came later. (West 5) Mumia's first introduction to politics was in his teens when he and a few friends attended a George Wallace presidential rally. They shouted slogans and raised their fists in a black power salute. To their relief they were thrown out, but their relief was short lived when they were set upon outside by a gang of white thugs. Rescue seemed at hand when the police were spotted, but their 'rescuers' joined in the assault, kicking and beating. Mumia was kicked in the face. (West 13) Mumia became a founding member of the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia and Minister of Information (fall 1968). Mumia filed reports from New York and other cities, but was mainly based in Philadelphia. For a time he worked in Oakland, California, on the staff of the party's newspaper. The Black Panthers were to give Mumia a good grounding in radical politics and it was where he cut his teeth as a journalist. When the Panthers began to tear themselves apart, Mumia left. (West 34) Mumia Abu-Jamal: "The prospe... ...p; West, Cornel. Death Blossoms : Reflections from a Prisoner of Consience. New York: Plough Pub House Publishing, 1997 "Mobilazation to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal." The Crime Scene. Website. Online. Internet. Available: www: http://www.freemumia.org/mumia_files/scene "Mobilazation to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal." The Trial. Website. Online. Internet. Available: www: http://www.freemumia.org/mumia_files/trial "Mobilazation to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal." The FOP and Their Lies. Online. Internet. Available: www: http://www.freemumia.org/mumia_files/fop "Mobilazation to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal." The Witnesses. Online. Internet. Available: www: http://www.freemumia.org/mumia_files/witnesses "Mobilazation to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal." Judge Sabo. Online. Internet. Available: www: http://www.freemumia.org/mumia_files/sabo "Mobilazation to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal." Support for Mumia. Online. Internet. Available: www: http://www.freemumia.org/mumia_files/support

Speech: Stop Bullying in the U.S.

Six months ago I read about a cheerful, vivacious, ten-year-old girl, Ashlynn Connor, an honor roll student and a cheerleader, who dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. However, one year ago, Ashlynn’s dreams came to an abrupt end. One year ago, Ashlynn’s sister found her dead, hanging from a scarf in her bedroom closet. One year ago, Ashlynn Conner committed suicide. This ten-year-old girl felt so desperate, so alone, so hopeless, that she took her own life. Ashlynn Conner killed herself because she was bullied.Her classmates called her ‘whore’, ‘slut’, and ‘fat ass’ every day. Every day she was rejected, humiliated, and harassed by her classmates. And sadly, no one stopped it. Her friends didn’t stop it, her teacher didn’t stop it, no one stopped it, so Ashlynn stopped it the only way she knew how. This is just one instance of a pervasive problem. Every year, ten million students in the United States are bullied; 2 mi llion are cyber bullied, 3. 5 million are physically bullied, and 4. 5 million are verbally bullied.Beyond the immediate effects of sadness and hurt, many victims hurt themselves, drop out of school, act violently, get involved with drugs, commit suicide, and develop depression. And this doesn’t just affect a few of us; it affects all of us. All of us have friends, or cousins, or nephews, or nieces, or brothers, or sisters, or kids who will one day attend, or who currently attend school. With the prevalence of bullying, there is a very high chance that someone you care about will encounter a bully, that someone you care about will be bullied, and that someone you care about will get hurt.Take a moment to imagine what it would be like. Imagine what it would be like for someone you loved to be laughed at, pushed around, to have her head shoved into a locker, to be ignored by her peers, to find a note in her desk with the word ‘loser’ written on it. Imagine how upse t you would be. It is our responsibility, as students and as human beings, to help these kids. When Ashlynn was bullied, nobody stood up for her. She went to her teachers for help; they told her to stop tattling.She went to her friends for help; they told her they were too scared to help. This is very common. Teachers often overlook bullying, ignore bullying, or respond to bullying ineffectively, while students, on the other hand, allow bullying to continue because they are afraid of becoming targets themselves, or because they think someone else will intervene, or because they don’t know any better. Teachers and students rarely intervene when it comes to bullying. According to national anti-bullying organizations, only 15 % of bullying incidents are intervened in. 5%. In school, 15% is an F, a failure. And that’s what this is; this is a failure. Teachers and fellow students are failing to stand up for the bullied. Our society is failing to stand up for the bullied. Te n million kids are bullied every year, and nobody is standing up for them. It is evident that we cannot leave things as they are. Millions of kids are being bullied, and nobody is stopping it. We must encourage teachers and students to step in and speak up.We must educate them about the costs of bullying, and teach them how to stop it. We must take action. Fortunately, two organizations, Champions Against Bullying and Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center are taking action. Each organization has a unique approach. Champions Against Bullying offers in person workshops for students and schoolteachers where they learn what bullying is, what its costs are, how to prevent it, and how to stop it when it does occur. Pacer’s takes a different approach.It provides online resources such as toolkits, action plans, and learning games that teachers use to educate their students. YOU can increase the influence of each of these organizations. You can tell your friends, tell you r family, and tell your local schoolteachers. You can donate or volunteer by going to championsagainstbullying. com or www. pacer. org/bullying. If we do this, we will strengthen the anti-bullying movement. If we do this, we can look forward to a future where people do not tolerate any form of bullying, and kids are accepted for who they are.Once it was acceptable to use the word homo, to use the word fag, to use the word retard, to use the word Jap, to have segregated schools, segregated housing, to smoke at work, to not wear seat belts. These things are no longer acceptable because people, people like us, decided they are unacceptable. And if we work hard enough, we can make bullying unacceptable too. Ashlynn dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. I think Ashlynn's had another dream, a dream of a future in which she wasn't bullied, a dream of a time when bullying was no longer tolerated.We can help Ashlynn’s other dream come true. We can make bullying unacceptable. I look forw ard to a future where  EVERYONE will be treated graciously. I look forward to a future where  kids like Ashlynn will not have to die in order to stop being bullied. I look forward to a future where  people will stand up for those put down. I want a future in which my children are not at risk of being bullied, a future in which your children are not at risk of being bullied. We can make Ashlynn's other dream come true. (pause) If we want to.

Animals in circus Essay

Is it normal for a bear to dance in a ball?, for an elephant to keep her weight in two legs?, or for a tiger jump through a ring of fire?, this is considered the worst feat that the animals have, actually we don’t realize it, circuses would quickly lose their appeal if more people knew about the cruel methods used to train the animals, instead, the circus makes us think that all of this methods are natural for them and they ‘’no suffer at all’’, at least this is what they said when they’re accused of mistreating this animals. Circus like Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus all of them are so hypocrites because they deny about what is evident, the abuse and the mistreating of the animals that they trap. According to PETA, thousand of these animals are used to perform silly, confusing tricks under the threat of physical punishment; are carted across the country in cramped and stuffy boxcars or semi-truck trailers; are kept chained or caged in barren, boring and filthy enclosures and are separated from their families, and all this suffer, all this pain, it’s for the sake of human ‘’entertainment’’, even many of these animals pay with their lives. The tricks that animals are forced to perform such as when bears balance on balls, apes ride motorcycles, and elephants stand on two legs are physically uncomfortable and behaviorally unnatural. The whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other tools used during circus acts are reminders that the animals are being forced to perform. These â€Å"performances† teach audiences nothing about how animals behave under normal circumstances, they are being removed from their habitat, they don’t deserve that. Wild animals are meant to live free, they have every right to live their lives in freedom in their homeland, they haven’t committed any crime that justifies their imprisonment for life, their mistreatment, and their humiliation during the shows. Some circuses have chosen not to use animals: Australians â€Å"the Flying Fruit,† the Canadian â€Å"Cirque du Soleil†, the French â€Å"Les Colporteurs† Americans â€Å"Minimusâ⠂¬ , â€Å"Nuage†, â€Å"Hiccup† and many others, using the talent of the jugglers, trapeze artists, clowns, comedians, mimes, contortionists. This is the way to go, the only civilian.