The 11th Hour

The 11th Hour

is a 2007 feature film documentary, created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, on the state of the natural environment. So far I realized that the overall meaning was human society and nature goes hand in hand. If there is no balance between the two, life would be gone. In life’s history, usually nature tends to keep living and all other animals die so we have no chance in surviving if it comes down to which one goes and stays. In the film I learned that the biosphere is in trouble. The biosphere is what regulates earth. Without the earth we’re nothing so we have to take care of it. In the film it talks about how generations in the future will be in trouble, we’re misleading them. According to the film were basically committing suicide. Earths life support system is damaged. We’re facing the collapse of our system and society. We are blessed with the ability to build and communicate; without these two things we would have nothing. We wouldn’t be any different from any other animal. Society has forgotten what it means to be part of nature. We now believe we are the more superior animal and are impenetrable to nature. What we don’t realize is that nature fights back when it has had too much. The film give examples of this, Katrina, India’s flood, the tsunamis etc. The film lets viewers know that the worst is yet to come, we haven’t seen anything yet. Depending on climate change and the oceans conveyer belt play a role in the future, it is probable that ocean life will collapse. Exactly 95% of this population will be affected. The film, in other words, states that money is the root of all evil. We constantly work to get money to shop and keep the “lights on”. All these things, the TVs the multiple rooms, the AC, vehicles etc have numb our senses in relating to nature. We are so distant from nature that we don’t realize how bad it’s being affected.

"The Revenge of Gaia"

The earth has the power to kill! "The Revenge of Gaia" Why the Earth is Fighting Back and How We Can Still Save Humanity, by James LoveLock, Foreword by sir Crispin Tickell, talks about many things. One of which talks about how the earth has the power to kill. He gives the example of hurricane katrina that occurred in New Orleans. As described by lovelock, this is nothing to what will and can happen to us as an act of the world fighting back. In other words, lovelock describes living on this world as the method of what you give is what you receive. For example if we continuously give off green house gasses, we will see the power of the world when it can't hold anymore and fights back. lovelock describes the earth as being a living organism that currently has a fever and its declining health must be our main concern, for our lives depend on it. He states that in order to continue living on this earth, the best way to go is renewable energy and thinking green. As described by lovelock, the earth has the power to heal itself, just like the the human body does, but the earth is failing to do so. We have realized this too late. The term Gaia refers to the biosphere. Its " the Geographical region where life exists..Gaia is a thin spherical shell of matter that surrounds the incandescent interior; it begins where the crustal rocks meet the magma of the earth's hot interior, about 100 miles below the surface, and proceeds another 100 miles outwards through the ocean and air to the even hotter atmosphere at the edge of space."(page 19 chapter 2). Lovelock calls Gaia "a physiological system because it appears to have the unconscious goal of regulating the climate and the chemistry at a comfortable state for life."(page 20 chapter 2).

A Hole In The World

The popular magazine ,"The Nation" A Hole In The World, talks about "deep water horizon" also know as the "oil spill" crisis that's happening in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill crisis is a huge man made disaster. It was motivated by "Peak oil" and mans craving for oil. Now 5000 barrels of oils is being spilt in to water that's heavily populated with many different species. In the reading it mentions how this off shore drilling is effecting fishes, birds, grass, even human life. It talks about how Tony Hayward, Obama's interior secretary intends to "make it right", meaning he's planing to "leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before". The counter argument to this made in this article is there not even sure that possible, at least not any time soon. The quote "you act like you know, but you don't know" was said by a woman talking to BP and board. This quote is directed to make Bp think twice about what they are promising. The quote was said to show how they really don't know how dramatically this oil spill is effecting the world, yet they make believe they do.

"The Parties Over"

In last nights reading, "The Parties Over (oil,war and the fate of
industrial societies)", by Richard Heinberg, he wants to make clear
that humans understand that they are related to nature in many ways. He made sure that by the end of this chapter the vocabulary word energy, the ability to do
work or the capacity to move or change matter, is clear to you. One
thing that Heinberg does that's unique from other writers I've read so
far is he describes the science behind the word energy,nature,human socitey etc. He uses terms like first and second law of thermodynamics. (Heinberg, 11). He
describes the two possible systems,open and closed, (Heinberg, 11) in
order to prove that humans are related to nature. In this chapter he
took the time to really dig in to human history and relate it to how we
got in to the collapse we are in today.

The Limits of Power

In “The Crisis of Profligacy” from “The Limits of power” by Andrew J. Bacevich answers the major question, what is power? Throughout the reading he brings up historic facts about the home of the free, America. He discusses the rights of Americans and what were able to do with our rights. He simply describes the American model as “shop till you drop “. He says most Americans have too much at the palm of their hands that they no longer have anything to satisfy them. According to him it wasn’t always like this, America has had its down time. Before World War II we had segregation and discrimination. Freedom for specific groups wasn’t an option. America wasn’t always a “utopia”, the home of the free and brave. It wasn’t always the “utopia” which includes the right to vote for African Americans and women. In fact before it got to where it is today, this “utopia”, it had to undergo struggles and fight for rights. Bacevich wanted to clarify that freedom is worth fighting for and is a right to be free. Andrew describes America as having to go through a phase of stages they were: “Freedom Decade” (civil rights moment), international relationships (gaining oil), and the “Empire of Production” period, (massive production). It is apparent that it took precious time for this country to develop itself.

Collapse

The movie collapse, a bluemark film directed by Chris Smith, is a movie that interviews Michael C. Ruppert which talks about the importance of collapse. The movie brings up important key concepts and explains why we have to stop such a disaster from happening. One important issue which interviewer Michael Ruppert states is that we have a problem that we are able to correct, the limitation of oil, Collapse. Ruppert expresses that everything we use today is made of oil. This means tooth brushes, tooth paste, tires, everything. Nothing could replace oil. He stresses that we are at our “peak oil” meaning we have already used up half our oil resources thus we are at our peak and the only way left to go is down. Ruppert comments that the American government has no intention of leaving Iraq. Ruppert states that ethanol fuel is a joke it takes more energy to gain it then they get from it. Hydrogen and electricity are all things oil has to do with. Huge machines are powered by oil which helps obtain oil. If oil was to run out, the Earth’s population will suffer greatly, large famine, riots, suffering will be faced. This will lead to the demand of products going really high and prices to sky rocket fear sly. This causes what Ruppert describes to be a “bumpy plateau”. The demand of products increases and decreases based on the intake of oil.

According Elizabeth Kubler Ross, there are 5 stages of grief. The first stage is Denial; the world has already passed that stage. The world was denying that peak oil will ever happen. The second stage is anger. Many parts of the world have already passed this stage; where food riots, hunger strikes, some governments are even over thrown. This also means whatever they were told by the government regarding things being ok is largely ignored. The next is the bargaining stage where the government has to step in and say they will truly put an end to the pain. Depression, the next stage, will then fall into place where they realize what is truly going on and how many people suffered in the madness. The last stage is acceptance. This is when we know things are bad now they have to fix it and move on and try not to repeat the same mistake.

Class Number One "overshoot"

The meaning of overshoot is to over do something beyond its limits without meaning to. In the chapter "overshoot" from the "Limits of Growth" by Andrew J. Bacevich, overshoot is a system. There are three main reasons for overshoot. The first there is a growth, acceleration or rapid change. The second reason is there is a limit or barrier that if you were to go beyond things won’t work out right. The third reason is delay or mistake which helps keep the system regulated. An example of overshoot is passing a stop sign when the road is icy causing there to be less friction between the road and the car tire. This small example goes with a rapid change (1st reason) or delay which comes with slow reflexes. The road was icy therefore he/she should have taken extra caution while driving. This simple action would have or could have prevented an overshoot. Although global warming is on a much greater scale, we could still take small precautions that will help prevent large amount of pollution and over population. In the reading it states that we could limit our use of water. We tend to abuse what we have without realizing that the small things matter and could stop the big disasters from happening. Overshoot could be corrected if caught before it gets out of hand. Today we are facing overshoot at a much greater scale. This overshoot we are facing is called peak oil the world is mid way through its oil supply.

The reading mentions overgrowth in a population and its consequence, they include peak oil and the collapse. Today we are going through an overshoot. The reason why we aren't correcting this overshoot is because there is no immediate pressure to change. In reality there is huge pressure to change. These pressures are: peak oil out of control, pollution which mankind has never encountered and global warming. If we do not put an end to this overshoot, we will face these disasters.