Global Warming Videos

The two videos we watched seemed to be quite different. The Doomsday Called Off videos do not think that global warming is caused by humans, unlike Al Gore. They say that cities are getting warmer, but not because of greenhouse gases. The cities are getting warmer because of the surroundings. The more buildings around, the more heat kept in the cities. Also, the scientists in the Doomsday videos believe that sea level has gone down, and they present this by showing a tree on the beach that could not possibly still be standing if the sea level was rising. Gore believes that sea levels are rising and one day Manhattan, Florida, and other states and countries will be under water. Gore is not a scientist, how could he possibly know that sea levels are going up? He probably is working with scientists, but the scientists in the Doomsday videos seemed a lot more credible than Gore. The scientists in the Doomsday video also say that Antarctica cannot possibly be melting, unlike Gore who says it is. The scientists say the air is way too cold; if the climate got warmer it would make Antarctica grow because it would just melt and immediately freeze due to the air being so cold.

In my opinion, Al Gore does not seem too credible when he was speaking with Charlie Rose. Gore said that there is no debate from scientists about global warming because it is happening, but that's not the case considering the scientists in the Doomsday video say it's not happening as fast as people think. Gore talked about all of these people he talked to, but they were all "off the record." That seems a little fishy to me. In my opinion, Gore's interview did not impress me too much, and I thought the Doomsday video was very impressive.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 basically focused on cell phones and e-waste, hence the title of the chapter! Slade talked about how cell phones contribute the most e-waste in the world. Slade noted that in 2001 the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition estimated that the amount of electronic consumer waste entering America's landfills that year would be between 5 to 7 million tons. Slade states that the lack of durability of electronic products grows from a combination of psychological and technological obsolescence. Slade doesn't really talk much about e-waste in the beginning of the chapter because much of his focus is on cell phones and the use of them. Slade presents Colin Campbell, a sociologist of consumerism. Campbell talks about neophilia, which is the love of new things. He presents three varieties of neophiliacs. The first kinda acquires new products and discards older ones in order to sustain a pristine self-image. The second type are people who crave the newest product lines and the very latest technology. The third category are people who are hypersensitive to the latest styles, which creates new wants. These neophiliacs describe much of Americans today. Slade also mentions that cellular phones are taking over landline telephones today, which is very true. Many people like the fact that they can take their phones with them wherever they go and can use them whenever they need to. Landlines cannot be used outside of the home. The last few pages of the chapter talk about what can be done to reduce e-waste. Most countries have the Basel Convention which constricts the flow of toxic e-waste to Asia, but America does not have that yet. It states that America brides the custom agents so that the e-waste can get through customs. Americans need to be informed more about e-waste and its effects in order for anything to change.

I know Slade was trying to get his readers to understand why there is so much e-waste, but I don't think he talked about e-waste enough. He presented e-waste in the last couple pages of the book and that was about it. He should have talked a lot more about e-waste, and presented us with a solution to the problem we have.

Chapters 7 & 8 summary

Chapter 7 starts off talking about personal computer emulation and miniaturization. IBM sales soared and made the competition obsolete. The IBM was faster and they started producing them smaller because the previous computers were extremely large. The PDP-8 minicomputer was the first to have integrated circuits ever used in computers. DEC was the producer of the PDP-8 and it was very successful. After the emulation and miniaturization section, the book gets into talking about the death of the slide rule. In 1935 John Atanasoff began to contemplate a digital computer. Basically the computer took over the slide rule by doing calculations faster and more accurately. Ted Hoff suggested the central processing unit be put on a single chip. After the computer came the hand held calculater which was quite popular in the 70s. At the end of the chapter was video games and the pin ball machine. The video games slowly made the pin ball machine obsolete because they were more action packed and fun to play. Pin ball was very popular when it first came out but video games made it fizzle out. Atari and Nintendo were the new crazes of the video game world.

Chapter 8 talked about the cold war and how the USSR basically stole all of the technology ideas from the USA. The tactic was espionage. One of their satellilites failed because it was equipped with stolen American computer chips. The Soviets were using stolen information and technology from countries in order to survive because they did not have the technology to survive on their own. This chapter was all about how the Soviet Union had stolen technology and information.

Reaction to Dr. Murphy's Presentation

Dr. Murphy's presentation was very informative, and I thought it was a lot better than Dr. Reed's presentation. His presentation was about e-waste and it was tied to obsolescence. We throw so many electronic components away which leads to e-waste. This waste seeps into the soil and makes the soil polluted, which is harmful to humans. If there weren't obsolescence then people would not have as much electronic waste. 

This presentation also tied to oil with the energy that is wasted everyday. Oil is in everything and the electricity we use uses oil to power. 

Dr. Murphy talked about Japan a lot in his presentation and how Japan is trying to manage waste better. He told us that since 2001, TV and appliances must be disassembled and processed. Japanese must recycle their bottles and cans. They no longer allow direct landfills, the trash is either reprocessed or incinerated. They also convert waste to energy. Japan is trying to create a better environment and be self-sustaining on waste.

Dr. Murphy also talked about many laws and policies that Japan has to reduce disposal of toxic waste. One of these laws was Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources Law. There are many other that he mentioned but I cannot remember what every one of them were. 

With all of the waste disposal that we are creating we face major pollution in the soil, which in turn is in our food that is grown in that soil. The toxic waste that is in the air is harmful to our health and that could lead to major health problems in that future. Another problem that everyone is talking about now is global warming. Some of the metals released in the soil and react with water. When it rains it can cause the metals to explode or catch on fire which releases more toxins in the atmosphere.

Dr. Murphy's presentation was a lot better than Dr. Reed's, and I thought it was very informative, but he talked a lot about Japan and I would have rather have heard what is going on here in America.