The World without Us by Alan Wiesman Essay Example for Free

The World without Us by Alan Wiesman Essay In Alan Wiesman’s book, The World Without Us, it is centered on the idea of what would happen to the world if only humankind were to disappear off the face of the earth. The purpose of this essay is to show how humankind are causing a modern world crisis, specifically focusing on plastic and how its ability to not decompose in the environment is having a negative effect on the wildlife as well as how humans are killing off many birds and bird species each year due to their careless human errors. Weisman through much research comes up with an estimated time of how long it will take the earth to recover from these human mishaps before the world can repair itself to how it was before humans controlled it. The Bialowieza Puszcza, puszcza being the Polish word for â€Å"forest primeval†, spreads between the borders of Poland and Belarus and stretches over half a million acres. In the 14th centaury, Wladyslaw jagiello, declared the forest a royal hunting reserve until many centuries later Russia dominated the Polish- Lithuanian union and proclaimed the Bialowieza as that of the tsars. The forest survived through World War 1 and in 1921 it was declared a Polish national park. Although this forest was supposedly protected there has been damage done to this primeval forest as forest ministries in Poland and Bulgaria have allowed management to cull and sell the mature hardwoods that would have become nutrients and a windshield for the forest. It is believed that before humans build their entire infrastructure and dominated the forest, the whole of Europe would have looked like the Bialowieza Puszcza. Andrezej Bobiec, a forestry student in Krakow, discovered the biodiversity in this forest was ten times more than any other forest. This forest is home to all nine species of the European woodpecker, which is not evident any other European forest, this forest is also home to the wisents, a specie which is nearly extinct, with only 600 in the world, most in this particular forest. This primeval forest is evidence of what Europe would look like without any human influence. It shows how human influence on other European forests have killed many species, driving them from their homes in order for humans to cut down the forest and use it for their own benefit without the consideration of the other species both animals and plants. It is estimated that Europe would need 500 years before a true forest would grow back and once again dominate most of Europe’s vegetation. Weisman uses the Bialowieza forest as an illustration of what part of the world, specifically Europe would look like without any human influence. This forest is seen as the lingering scent of Eden showing how it is seen as a primeval forest. Richard Thompson, studied at the University of Plymouth to become a marine biologist, in the 1980’s he would spend his time organizing the Liverpool contingent of Great Britain’s national beach cleanup whereby his 170 teammates would collect metric tons of rubbish along 85 miles of shoreline. Thompson started to realize over the accumulating years that the trash collected was becoming smaller amongst the usual bottles and tires. Thompson and another student would collect these and examine them under a microscope but they were usually to small to determined what source they came from. Once he had complete his Ph.D, Thompson started to compare this unknown matter to the database of known material using a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer, this device allowed for microbeams to be passed through a substance once this is completed the device compared its infrared spectrum to the database. Thompson found small material waste to be nurdles, these two-millimeter high plastic cylinders come in an array of colours and known to be â€Å"raw materials of plastic production† that are melted down to manufacture many plastics products. In the early 20th century, Alister Hardy the marine biologist of Plymouth, took many samples around the British Isles but only every second one was examined and the remaining samples were stored in a climate-controlled warehouse which decades later were discovered by Thompson who examined the samples. He found that during World War II plastic barely existed and was only evident in telephones and radio applications. In the 1960’s there was an increasing number of plastic particles and by the 1990’s, triple the amount of particles were present than three decades earlier. The evidence from these samples shows that the amount of â€Å"acrylic, polyester, and crumbs of synthetic polymers† in the water are increasing at a rapid rate and most of human kind are not even noticing. These small little plastic pieces mainly float and according to Hardy’s plankton recorder they are being caught about 10 meters below surface. Nurdles are now becoming smaller and smaller because of the friction from both the waves and rocks and therefore are being taken by global sea currents. The problem with these nurdles becoming smaller is that they are still not degrading and there is no sign of them ever being able to degrade. Plastic is very dangerous, once animals swallow it through mistaking it for edible food, the plastic causes a blockage in animals intestines and therefore causes constipation and later resulting in death. Animals also are strangled and caught up in fishing line, nets and polyethylene rings from six-pack drinks. Animals such as sea otters, gulls, sea turtles and fish are all prone to these fatal accidents. Ph.D student Mark Browne also discovered that in beauty products that contain exfoliants such as hand and body washes, body scrubs and face washers that do not contain 100% natural exfoliants are actually using polyethylene in a micro or bead form. These little plastic sizes can also be traces in paint and once they are disposed of and sent through the sewage system they will inevitably land up in the sea allowing for little sea creatures to swallow these bite size plastic portions which, does not have a positive effect. At the marine plastic summit, a senior research scientist at North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Dr. Anthony Andrady produced a long term prognosis compiling a 800 page tome on Plastic in the Environment. Andrady spoke of photodegrade when â€Å"ultraviolet solar radiation weakens plastics’s tensile strength by breaking its long, chain-like polymer molecules into shorter segments.† This means that because the strength of plastic lies in its length of polymer chains, the UV rays of the sun are causing these to break and therefore plastic starts to decompose. Problems that this theory face is that because most of the plastic waste is found in the ocean and water it takes the process of photodegrade much longer as well as its chemical nature will like wise be around for hundreds and thousands of years. Plastic is not having a positive effect on the environment mainly because it cannot decompose. In Weisman’s book he explains how nurdles, which are used to manufacture all plastic products, are being broken down in the sea but are not completely decomposing. This means that these little plastic pieces are being eaten and are causing blockage in sea creature’s intestines resulting in their death. It is not only nurdles but also fishing line, nets, toys and plastic bottles that are suffocating and trapping animals. Some human products mainly used for beauty are also harmful to animals in the environment as they contain small plastic exfoliants within the product that eventually find their way into the sea also causing harm for the sea creatures. Human’s need to find a better and safer way to get rid of their plastic waste so not to damage the environment. If humans were to disappear off the planet completely, plastic would probably still be evident in the world for hundreds of thousands of years before they may decompose due to photodegrade. Weisman also looks at the effects humans are having on the life of birds and how they are slowly causing them to become extinct. â€Å"Of more than 10 000 species that have coexisted with us†¦ about 300 have disappeared.† Of these 300, birds including the moas which were eliminated by the Polynesians within in two centuries of discovery, the dodo which in a hundred years was killed and eaten by the Dutch settles and sailors passing by, the great auk by hunters, the moa-nalo and the passenger pigeon in America. In the 20th century the passenger pigeon could have been classified as the â€Å"most abundant bird on Earth† but humans carelessly lead to their extinction. First humans cut off most of their food supply and destroyed their homes by cutting down most of the forests on the eastern plains of the USA. Because the forests were now being cut down, it made the birds easier prey as they were now spotted faster and more were being shot in a shorter period of time. Once humans realized what they were doing to the bird population, it only increased their need to kill the birds and by 1900 only a few were left surviving, mostly living in the Cincinnati zoo but due to the lack of care the last bird in 1914, leaving the passenger pigeon extinct. The passenger pigeon is a good example of how humans are carelessly allowing animals to become extinct through their own human actions, which can be controlled by law restrictions on hunting and killing. Radio-transmission towers are a huge treat to the different bird species because of their red blinking lights, which are used to warn aircrafts of their position. In Syracuse, Kansas in 1998, a snowstorm occurred at night and because of the fog the only visible thing to the Lapland longspurs was the red blinking lights from the radio-transmission tower which resulted in 10 000 birds lying dead, frozen on the ground. Not only are radio-transmission towers a problem but so are cell phone towers, which result in over half a billion of birds being killed each year. Birds that migrate and travel at night are most prone to the danger of these towers, birds from North America like the red-eyes vireos, Tennessee warbler and wood thrushes and those more rare like the red-cockaded woodpecker are at most risk. Another problem occurring for birds is the telephone and electricity lines. Most birds die from just simply colliding with these power lines resulting in a high amount of deaths each year. If a bird is perched on a power line it is safe as long as they do not circuit themselves with another line or the ground but birds such as hawks, eagles and herons have a problem as they can span across more than two lines. If a bird were to connect the circuit between 2 or more lines not only would their feather ignite but it is possible for their beaks and feet to melt as well. 60 to 80 million birds annually are reportedly killed from flying into windshields and windows. Muhlenberg College ornithologist, Daniel Klem, explains how birds do not recognize both clear glass and reflective pane windows as objects. Migrating bird are forever flying into high-rise buildings and breaking their necks. Klem worked out that over 1 billion birds in the United States alone are killed from flying into windows. Windows are another example or how humans are irresponsibly killing off many bird species. Although humans are quickly killing off birds with their hunting and man made equipment such as towers, power lines and windows there is evidence that birds do repopulate and do come back even after disasters. Ukraine was home to Chernobyl, nearly one of the biggest nuclear complexes on Earth. In 1986, there was a huge explosion due to a human error and landscapes were destroyed and the environment was left birdless. Yet in the following spring the birds returned showing that life does go on and that although there are disasters the environment does attempt to repair itself. Although it is said to believe that humans are killing off billions and billions of bird species all around the world there is one bird, the Attwater prairie chicken, which is questionably only alive due to human impact on the environment. Oil industry apparatus and the arrival of both petroleum and the Chinese tallow tree (a â€Å"cold weather specie coated it seeds with harvestable quantities of wax to guard against winter†) has help keep the Attwater prairie chickens habitat alive. Due to the annual burning in the Nature Conservancy, humans are maintaining the artificial wilderness that these birds need to keep alive and to repopulate in. In the first year of humans disappearing billions of birds would flourish as radio and connection warning lights would cease to blink, the high-tension wires would go cold and birds would once again return to nuclear reactor sites. Humans are having a very negative impact on bird species through out the world and if they are not careful it will result in many more extinctions. Humankind are quickly emerging themselves in a world crisis. Through their plastic waste and carelessness they are causing major problems for mostly the sea wildlife as these nurdles and small plastic particles are being digested and blocking sea creatures intestines resulting in a fatal problem. Plastic, because it is not biodegradable, will be left in the world hundreds of thousands of years after humans disappear. Although there are few species that depend on humans for their survival like the Attwater prairie chicken, humans are having more of a negative impact on birds. Because of their careless hunting and human inventions such as towers, telephone and power lines and windows, billions of birds are dying each year. If humans were to disappear completely it would only take birds one year to flourish and populate over a billion birds more than the previous year. The world varies on how long it takes to eliminate the problems humans are leaving it but over many centuries the world will finally mend itself to look as if humans never existed.

Damien rice analysis :: essays research papers

My Eyes Bringing Desire to Christina’s World: Dependency and Hope in the World of a Handicap   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I can’t take my eyes off of you.† is repeated many times in the song â€Å"The Blower’s daughter†, which means quite a bit. With the poem and to the painting, the song expresses the feeling in both of the eyes of a handicap person and in the eyes of another person who loves them. Handicapped people require all the attention in the world, and even when they aren’t being attended to, someone is thinking about them. In the painting, the artist depicts a young girl, who seems to be crawling toward a home on a hill quite the distance away. She seems to be quite thin and weak, which hints at the point there may be a physical problem with her. In the poem, the farmer and his family give birth to a handicapped child and while watching her sleep, can see the desire and peacefulness in her. â€Å"His thoughts while they are resting. She’s only imagining, stalks of yellow flowers flush and frilled and rippling, and a song of h ours. On this and all the world’s resources, she lingers, lit up like a votive.† which means that she is only thinking about the most peaceful things in the world, and no matter what happens while she is awake, those thoughts inside of her will not be changed. These examples express the thought of someone being different or struggling to live. With the picture of a weak girl crawling to a home-looking building and the constant attention both shown in the song and the poem, these three things all connect in a certain way. They connect in the way of love and caring. They connect in a way that shows the desire and the determination anyone can see in a handicapped person’s eyes. In the song by Damien Rice, it seems, that quite possibly someone has fallen in love with someone. It does not have to be what everyone thinks. Love is not just something between two people, this could also be something felt by a father to a daughter, or a mother to a son, in a completely non sexual and non physical way. The father, who is a farmer in the poem â€Å"Bringing Desire to The Fields†, seems to be in love with his handicapped daughter. He thinks about her constantly, even when he is about to sleep.

Bismarck’s Foreign policy was a Success Essay

The balance of power in Europe had been suddenly altered after the German victory over France in 1871. The resultant German Empire, with its large population great economic power, strong army and extensive resources, looked clear to be an important factor in international relations. However, even for Bismarck this looked set to be a challenge, due to the need not only to establish the Empire as a nation, but to also found an external security that would prove to be vital throughout his reign as Chancellor. Although was this set policy an overall success? Bismarck’s main objectives in the proposal of the instituted policies were to isolate France in Europe; maintain the balance of peace on the continent – particularly between Austria and Russia, who Bismarck feared would come to blows over the escalating problems in the Balkans – as well as maintaining his secured German territory; avoid fighting a war on two fronts and the Chancellor also desired, perhaps greedily, to have the control and power of two other powers in Europe as well as in Germany. The ideal for Bismarck was to establish a run of successful policies to achieve these goals and thus substantiate Germany as both the most powerful and influential of the Great Powers in Europe. The immediate problem in Bismarck’s international relations appeared to be the threat of the new French Republic. The government still viewed Bismarck’s German Empire with resentment after its defeat, and then the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, to Germany, which for the state not only meant the loss of valuable territory, but also represented the demise of French supremacy in Europe. However, France was in no real state to seek her revenge alone and knew, just as well as Bismarck, that an alliance was her only hope. Furthermore not only did Bismarck need to deal with this to ensure success in his foreign policy, but he felt that there was great diplomatic value in being able to count both Austria-Hungary and Russia as friends. Yet once again this was not without its difficulties, as the sensitive situation in the Balkans had led to rivalry between the states as to who would eventually gain power in the area after the demise of the Ottoman Empire. This in turn led to the declaration of a series of both lucrative and ineffective policies. In answer to his search for friendship with Austria and Russia to deal with both his desire for friendship with the two Great Powers and aid his plan for the isolation of France, Bismarck met with the state leaders and an agreement for the ‘Dreikaiserbund’ (Three Emperors League) was set in 1873. Although quite vague, the bill was a short-term success for Bismarck, as it allowed him to isolate France without causing suspicion and meant he could avoid making a choice between Austria and Russia. The powers had agreed that matters of common interest would be consulted, which was also of great interest to Bismarck as it meant a better understanding between the nations had been instituted causing Bismarck to believe that in the case of a war with France he would have the support of Austria and Russia. Further successes for Bismarck in terms of foreign policy were the Dual Alliance of 1879 and the Three Emperors Alliance of 1881. In response to Russia’s rejection of the Three Emperors League, Bismarck negotiated an alliance with Austria. Such a grouping strengthened both the nations power in the case of a war with Russia, although Austria agreed that in the case of a war with France she would remain neutral, thus resulting in the isolation of France but the reinforcement of German power. However, although the Chancellor decided it was best kept secret from Russia – though they did discover the details of the arrangement – he did not regard the alliance as a final choice between Austria and Russia. Therefore the alliance in fact meant more to Austria who had finally escaped the diplomatic isolation she had suffered since the Crimean War. On the other hand, after Russia’s discovery of the Dual Alliance, and the realisation of her isolation in Europe, she turned back to Germany and the result was a more specific revision of the past Dreikaiserbund. Once more this was successful for Bismarck in that it isolated France and prevented the situation of having to choose between Austria and Russia. The final of Bismarck’s foreign policies also secured successes for the Chancellor. The Triple Alliance of 1882 between Germany, Austria and Italy reassured Bismarck that unless a Franco-Russian alliance was formed then the prospect of war from either nation whilst standing alone could be easily contained. This alliance was, from Bismarck’s viewpoint, aimed directly towards the segregation of France, as he was aware that she could not, and so would not attack Germany single-handedly. However, yet again the Dreikaiserbund was destroyed in 1885 due to further problems in the Balkans, and it became clear that disputes in this area were unlikely to ever be fully resolved. This time Bismarck needed to desperately to avoid the prospect of a war on two fronts. This concluded in the Reinsurance Treaty of 1887, which tried to localize the problem by assuring Russia that Bismarck would not support Austria in a clash over the Balkans territory. By documenting that in the case of a war between two of the powers that the remaining power would remain neutral, Bismarck succeeded in both preventing a war on two fronts and obtaining the neutrality he desired. Lastly, Bismarck’s final foreign policy, the Second Mediterranean Agreement of 1887, was mainly successful for due to the fact that he merely sponsored the act and did not become involved in its negotiations. By encouraging the agreement Bismarck managed to restrain Russia from assuming a provocative position in the Balkans, thus preventing both the possibility of a war between Austria and Russia as well as Bismarck from perhaps having to choose between the two. However, these policies only ensured short-term successes for Germany and perhaps from the failures we can see that some of the long lasting effects of Bismarck’s policies were more serious. The first major failure in Bismarck’s foreign policy was in his handling of the ‘War in Sight Crisis’ of 1875 when the French recovery and rearmament provoked Germany into a diplomatic crisis, this then escalated out of control, with the Chancellor prohibiting any trade with France and the papers predicting war. Finally Bismarck himself raised the spectre of war, which resulted in condemnation from Britain and Russia, and the realisation for Bismarck that a war on two fronts remained a possibility and that the other powers were suspicious of him and would not tolerate a growth in German power. The incident also failed in that Germany was forced to reassure France war was not a possibility, thus not only failing to isolate France but causing Bismarck great diplomatic humiliation throughout the continent. This is furthermore evidence that the Three Emperors League failed Bismarck, as it did not give him the support from Russia he had believed would be obtained from such an agreement. Further humiliation for Bismarck came in 1878 in the form of the Congress of Berlin. Russia was forced to choose between a war with Britain or a revision of the proposed San Stefano Treaty concerning the Balkans. Although Germany remained neutral throughout the conference, this resulted in the Dreikaiserbund being dissolved, as Russia had hoped she could rely on Germany’s support, which was denied. Russia later blamed Bismarck for her diplomatic defeat and referred to the fiasco 1†³ a coalition of the European powers against Russia under the leadership of Prince Bismarck†. Yet this was not the Conferences only failure as Bismarck had also failed to maintain the peace within Europe, thus making an enemy of Russia, and in the long-term the problems in the Balkans remained unresolved. While successful in some ways for Bismarck’s foreign policy, the Three Emperors League was only short-term and failed to secure solutions to the enduring difficulties in the demising Ottoman Empire. This is also similar of the effects of the Triple Alliance, Reinsurance Treaty and Second Mediterranean Agreement, which though too had their success failed to obtain any long-term solutions. The Triple Alliance failed to prevent a war on two fronts from Russia and France, as Italy was not a strong military ally able to match the combined forces of France and Russia, thus leaving Germany in a vulnerable position. The Reinsurance Treaty was very similar in that it was only short-term as France and Russia did eventually join in the ‘Entente’. Bismarck further created himself problems, as the Second Mediterranean Agreement left him with no alliance to Russia, and so creating possible problems for the future. Finally by the end of Bismarck’s office in 1890 France still viewed Germany with contempt and searched for revenge, while the situation in the Balkans continued to flare as did the tension between Austria and Russia. This leads me to believe that although Bismarck’s foreign policy was successful in achieving his main objectives and solving problems in the short-term, all they did for the long-term was to simply delay the problems rather than resolving them. The Chancellor in fact made it difficult to maintain neutrality over the Balkans crisis in the long-term and it could even be said that too many alliances were made in an effort to obtain his goals, that it became too difficult to retain such a documented relationship with the other powers, and that perhaps Bismarck did not leave himself enough loose ends to play with the policies in the way he saw fit. Conclusively, it was probably an advantage for Bismarck that he left office in 1890, as it left Kaiser William II with the resulting problems to resolve and he was able to leave behind the tangle of long-term problems he had created. Bibliography: * The Unification of Germany 1815-90 – Andrina Stiles * Challenging History – European Powers 1815-1890 Plan Intro – Germany’s political and economic situation in Europe post unification – 1871 Paragraph 1 – Bismarck’s main objectives in foreign policy and immediate problems he faced in Europe i.e. French desired revenge desire to isolate France etc Paragraph 2 – Success in foreign policy e.g. prevented having to choose between Austria and Russia due to Dreikaiserbund Paragraph 3 – Failures in foreign policy e.g. Congress of Berlin caused breakdown of Dreikaiserbund Conclusion – Was Bismarck’s foreign policy a success? NO – only solved problems in the short-term and created further problems for the long-term 1 Challenging History – European Powers 1815-1890

The Creepy Old Lady By William Faulkner - 995 Words

The Creepy Old lady The old woman across the street is sleeping with her dead boyfriend. In the story â€Å"A Rose for Emily,† the author, William Faulkner, enlightens his readers about an old, burden of a woman named Emily. He goes back into time and list events in her life that led up to the shocking conclusion when the reader finds out she has been sleeping with her dead sweetheart. This main ending leaves all readers in shock and their stomachs a little weak. In my instance the story built up my curiosity with pieces to a puzzle that I tried to solve, and I was able to put them together at the end to visualize the shocking conclusion. My initial curios reaction to the short story â€Å"A rose for Emily† began right off the back when Faulkner states â€Å"when Miss Emily Grierson died† (121). This was Faulkner’s way of introducing the reader to the main character Emily. This would leave any reader questioning who exactly is this Emily girl, and how did she die. I realize Emily is the main character not too shortly after and expected to learn more about her in the story. Another episode in the story that sparked my initial curious reaction is when Faulkner explains to the reader that the townspeople thought of Emily as a â€Å"tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town† (121) The four descriptive words tradition, duty, care, and obligation, all triggered me to wonder why she was such a hassle to the townspeople. This is what Faulkner wanted the reader to pickShow MoreRelatedWilliam Faulkner s A Rose For Emily1682 Words   |  7 PagesLyons Professor Amy Green Writing about Literature COM1102 Oct. 06, 2015 William Faulkner s A Rose for Emily is a short story that has also been adapted into a short film; both have been largely debated. Faulkner’s lack of a normal chronology and situation-triggered memories generates a story that has many understandings among its readers, but surprises everyone at the end. 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