Term 2:
Environmental Issues
Link for the original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5369284.stm
Review:
This article, from BBC, explores the use of biofuels from an entirely different perspective. Most of us regard biofuels as something which will keep our lives running smoothly even when all the petroleum fuels are deplenished. They are essentially regarded as the future saviours if mankind. But are they? The article reveals a lot of statistical data and many others facts which say otherwise. The article has beautifully stated that biofuels might be a “penny wise pound foolish” way of obtaining energy. Biofuels would need a lot of plantations which would result in the destruction of natural environment. This was a perspective which, according to me, very few people explored. In fact, I feel that the author’s main purpose in writing this article is to clear away some misunderstandings in the minds of the people about biofuel. The article also provides a detailed understanding of why and how biofuel can affect the environment. There is a fact that the amount of grain required to fuel a car for two weeks will feed an African village for a year. With this, the article has clearly mentioned how forests will reduce due to plantations of biofuels. The plantations will also require a large amount of fresh water, which can certainly not be afforded with such a decline in forests. Also, crops like maize require a lot of water which is found in very few places in the world. So, these places will be burdened with producing biofuel, which will again make transporting it quite a business. Thus, it can be realized that the article’s main focus it to point out the drawbacks of biofuel and its use on earth. There are also a lot of other drawbacks like the induction of biofuel into the private sector, which, as explained in the article, can have a lot of negative effects. And it is a bit difficult to contain an industry in the public sector, which often leads to illegal manipulation of that industry in the private sector. And this is largely unwanted as precious land is being absorbed for its production. The article gives many examples to illustrate the point. It shows enlightening illustrations like the Swiss biotech firm which is designing different new ways as well as examples of the current ways and how they will fail. However, the article also examines the issue from a positive point of view. For instance, it states that in the long term view, biofuels have a lot of advantage over conventional fuel, like disposal of forest wastes, etc. In this way, we can conclude that biofuel is not really an effective of energy, in fact almost nothing compared to petroleum fuels. Biofuel can be used only as a secondary and supportive, secondary source of energy, but there has to be some strong primary source of energy, which can save the world after the conventional fuels are extinguished.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Term 2:
Environmental Issues
Link for the original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5369284.stm
Review:
This article, from BBC, explores the use of biofuels from an entirely different perspective. Most of us regard biofuels as something which will keep our lives running smoothly even when all the petroleum fuels are deplenished. They are essentially regarded as the future saviours if mankind. But are they? The article reveals a lot of statistical data and many others facts which say otherwise. The article has beautifully stated that biofuels might be a “penny wise pound foolish” way of obtaining energy. Biofuels would need a lot of plantations which would result in the destruction of natural environment. This was a perspective which, according to me, very few people explored. In fact, I feel that the author’s main purpose in writing this article is to clear away some misunderstandings in the minds of the people about biofuel. The article also provides a detailed understanding of why and how biofuel can affect the environment. There is a fact that the amount of grain required to fuel a car for two weeks will feed an African village for a year. With this, the article has clearly mentioned how forests will reduce due to plantations of biofuels. The plantations will also require a large amount of fresh water, which can certainly not be afforded with such a decline in forests. Also, crops like maize require a lot of water which is found in very few places in the world. So, these places will be burdened with producing biofuel, which will again make transporting it quite a business. Thus, it can be realized that the article’s main focus it to point out the drawbacks of biofuel and its use on earth. There are also a lot of other drawbacks like the induction of biofuel into the private sector, which, as explained in the article, can have a lot of negative effects. And it is a bit difficult to contain an industry in the public sector, which often leads to illegal manipulation of that industry in the private sector. And this is largely unwanted as precious land is being absorbed for its production. The article gives many examples to illustrate the point. It shows enlightening illustrations like the Swiss biotech firm which is designing different new ways as well as examples of the current ways and how they will fail. However, the article also examines the issue from a positive point of view. For instance, it states that in the long term view, biofuels have a lot of advantage over conventional fuel, like disposal of forest wastes, etc. In this way, we can conclude that biofuel is not really an effective of energy, in fact almost nothing compared to petroleum fuels. Biofuel can be used only as a secondary and supportive, secondary source of energy, but there has to be some strong primary source of energy, which can save the world after the conventional fuels are extinguished.
Environmental Issues
Link for the original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5369284.stm
Review:
This article, from BBC, explores the use of biofuels from an entirely different perspective. Most of us regard biofuels as something which will keep our lives running smoothly even when all the petroleum fuels are deplenished. They are essentially regarded as the future saviours if mankind. But are they? The article reveals a lot of statistical data and many others facts which say otherwise. The article has beautifully stated that biofuels might be a “penny wise pound foolish” way of obtaining energy. Biofuels would need a lot of plantations which would result in the destruction of natural environment. This was a perspective which, according to me, very few people explored. In fact, I feel that the author’s main purpose in writing this article is to clear away some misunderstandings in the minds of the people about biofuel. The article also provides a detailed understanding of why and how biofuel can affect the environment. There is a fact that the amount of grain required to fuel a car for two weeks will feed an African village for a year. With this, the article has clearly mentioned how forests will reduce due to plantations of biofuels. The plantations will also require a large amount of fresh water, which can certainly not be afforded with such a decline in forests. Also, crops like maize require a lot of water which is found in very few places in the world. So, these places will be burdened with producing biofuel, which will again make transporting it quite a business. Thus, it can be realized that the article’s main focus it to point out the drawbacks of biofuel and its use on earth. There are also a lot of other drawbacks like the induction of biofuel into the private sector, which, as explained in the article, can have a lot of negative effects. And it is a bit difficult to contain an industry in the public sector, which often leads to illegal manipulation of that industry in the private sector. And this is largely unwanted as precious land is being absorbed for its production. The article gives many examples to illustrate the point. It shows enlightening illustrations like the Swiss biotech firm which is designing different new ways as well as examples of the current ways and how they will fail. However, the article also examines the issue from a positive point of view. For instance, it states that in the long term view, biofuels have a lot of advantage over conventional fuel, like disposal of forest wastes, etc. In this way, we can conclude that biofuel is not really an effective of energy, in fact almost nothing compared to petroleum fuels. Biofuel can be used only as a secondary and supportive, secondary source of energy, but there has to be some strong primary source of energy, which can save the world after the conventional fuels are extinguished.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Term 2:
Issues Regarding teenagers
Link for the original article:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthScience/Store_ads_spur_teens_to_smoke_Study/articleshow/2020125.cms
The chosen article is mainly a survey about the increase in smoking in teens. It gives information about a survey that was conducted in the United States. This survey mainly focused on the statistics about the teens, such as the percentage increase in smoking, estimated number of students, etc. and also briefly explains the reasons why this increase in smoking of cigarettes could have occurred. It is stated that the point-of-sale advertising is mainly responsible for the teenagers smoking a lot of cigarettes. This is especially in the case of tobacco and cigarettes.
This is a very serious issue among students in countries all over the world as smoking at this young age is indeed very bad for health. Usually, teenagers do not take smoking as a serious thing; rather, they take it very lightly as a matter of their everyday lives. And with the point-of-sale, it’s even more attractive as there are free gifts to be offered. This is really very distressing when seen from the perspective of the teenagers. And it is said, and also found to be true, that once a person gets addicted to smoking, it’s really hard to quit.
It was mentioned by the leader of the study, Sandy Slater, that most of the cigarettes were sold like hot cakes in shops where teens shop. This really shows how teens easily get influenced, sometimes negatively, by the things around them.
There are really quite a number of things that can be inferred from the article. The cigarettes are being sold in malls and other places where there are also other things sold. So we can see that the main motive of the teen sis not really cigarettes, but shopping in general. They see attractive packets of cigarettes, along with free gifts, discounts and point-of-sale offers, which tempt them to buy these cigarettes. And as I earlier stated, once addicted, it is very hard to quit smoking.
So it can be realized that rather than the cigarettes, it is those other so called “add ons” due to which the rise of purchase of cigarettes has gone up in teens.
From the point of view of the manufacturers and distributors, it is purely marketing. Recently, many new brands of cigarettes have come up and upset the monopoly of the established brands like Wills, etc. there has been a lot of competition and the manufacturers are offering many gifts and discounts in order to outrun the rivalry and boost their own product. Young students are the easiest to target because they have completely wrong ideas about many things, smoking and drinking being one of them. The article says that 90% of the 13.1 billion spent on marketing are on these marketing policies.
Thus, it is observed that there is a large and distressing increase in the cigarettes purchased, mainly due to marketing techniques. The only possible way out of this situation is to educate the teenagers about the ill-effects of smoking and the marketing policies of the manufacturers.
Link for the original article:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthScience/Store_ads_spur_teens_to_smoke_Study/articleshow/2020125.cms
The chosen article is mainly a survey about the increase in smoking in teens. It gives information about a survey that was conducted in the United States. This survey mainly focused on the statistics about the teens, such as the percentage increase in smoking, estimated number of students, etc. and also briefly explains the reasons why this increase in smoking of cigarettes could have occurred. It is stated that the point-of-sale advertising is mainly responsible for the teenagers smoking a lot of cigarettes. This is especially in the case of tobacco and cigarettes.
This is a very serious issue among students in countries all over the world as smoking at this young age is indeed very bad for health. Usually, teenagers do not take smoking as a serious thing; rather, they take it very lightly as a matter of their everyday lives. And with the point-of-sale, it’s even more attractive as there are free gifts to be offered. This is really very distressing when seen from the perspective of the teenagers. And it is said, and also found to be true, that once a person gets addicted to smoking, it’s really hard to quit.
It was mentioned by the leader of the study, Sandy Slater, that most of the cigarettes were sold like hot cakes in shops where teens shop. This really shows how teens easily get influenced, sometimes negatively, by the things around them.
There are really quite a number of things that can be inferred from the article. The cigarettes are being sold in malls and other places where there are also other things sold. So we can see that the main motive of the teen sis not really cigarettes, but shopping in general. They see attractive packets of cigarettes, along with free gifts, discounts and point-of-sale offers, which tempt them to buy these cigarettes. And as I earlier stated, once addicted, it is very hard to quit smoking.
So it can be realized that rather than the cigarettes, it is those other so called “add ons” due to which the rise of purchase of cigarettes has gone up in teens.
From the point of view of the manufacturers and distributors, it is purely marketing. Recently, many new brands of cigarettes have come up and upset the monopoly of the established brands like Wills, etc. there has been a lot of competition and the manufacturers are offering many gifts and discounts in order to outrun the rivalry and boost their own product. Young students are the easiest to target because they have completely wrong ideas about many things, smoking and drinking being one of them. The article says that 90% of the 13.1 billion spent on marketing are on these marketing policies.
Thus, it is observed that there is a large and distressing increase in the cigarettes purchased, mainly due to marketing techniques. The only possible way out of this situation is to educate the teenagers about the ill-effects of smoking and the marketing policies of the manufacturers.
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