During the past century the water temperatures in the ocean have risen by 1-2.5 degrees. Although this doesn’t seem a lot of difference, many problems can start to occur in this small difference. The increase in temperature, is slowly melting the polar caps; resulting in the rise of the sea levels, and having a inverse affect on the environment in many areas.

Also during the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in natural disasters, occurring on this planet; hurricanes, cyclones, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes: you name it, this is no coincidence and is something the leading powers of the world should get worried about.

Evidence of Global Warming:

Water on Earth has a high heat capacity, meaning that a lot of energy is required to change the temperature of water. Meaning that water’s temperature doesn’t change that easily. The slight rise in the temperature of oceans, shows the colossal impact of the global warming, on Earth there are some 1.35 trillion-billion litres of water and man kind has managed to change the temperature of this great body of water. This shows that there has been a great negative impact of global warming and that it does exist.

Now, WHAT IS THE CARBON TAX?

The Australian government’s policy on climate change is pricing carbon. Many commentators and politicians have refereed to this as the ‘Carbon Tax’. The idea is that polluters will have to pay per tonne of carbon they release into the atmosphere. The cost will initially be set at $23, and increase gradually until 2015, when we will shift to a trading scheme that will let the market set the cost. This idea is widely thought of the most inexpensive and effective in handling the ‘global warming’ crisis.

How will the Carbon Tax AFFECT ME?

The carbon tax, is designed to impose a tax on large polluters, this will eventually lead to the increase in price of certain goods and services; which the consumer will have to pay more to maintain their needs. The treasury estimates that an average family will pay $9.90 more per week, in the first year of schemes introduction.

However, there have been measures taken to reduce the sudden impact of the introduction of the tax. Firstly, the tax-free threshold will be more than tripled from $6,000 to $18,200, exempting 1 million people from the need to pay income tax or file a tax return. People earning less than $80,000 per year will also receive a tax cut, which for most will equal approximately $300 per year. Secondly, generous assistance will also be provided to households through welfare payments.

Although the introduction to the new legislation may be daunting to some citizens, even though Julia Gillard promised “there would be no Carbon Tax under my party”. The long run of this scheme may provide many benefits to this world that we all share.

Julia Gillard giving her speech.

The second one is about air pollution. We believe that with the opening of the industry here, it will make more air pollution from the factory. It contains lots of dangerous gas material such as Carbon monoxide. If our air is polluted, we will be unhealthy since it emerges many diseases, such as TBC and lungs cancer.

The last reason is that the Industry will just make energy wasting. Not only because they will use a lot of fuel, but also they will waste the nature of the sea, mangrove, coral and the entire creature inside. As a human, we also care about the nature, so we strongly want to keep the mangrove and the sea by disagreeing the opening of the Industry. Cutting the mangrove makes erosion, and will result in a huge flood. It will harm our life. Therefore, we have to conserve the ecosystem.

In conclusion, we will never deal with the government about privatization. We do not accept their offer of giving the new job. We are happy to live as a fisherman. It is happiness for us to have a very wonderful life simply by catching the fish, selling them, and get the money. We are looking forward to getting the Government action to ban the privatization.

The problem doesn’t just stop with children not being toilet trained.  School staff say that even the most basic life skills are lacking in many school age children.  Some are unable to change their clothes for gym classes or indeed take off and put on coats unaided.

A lot of teachers say that parents these days don’t train their children because they’d rather pass the buck and feel it is an “education” issue and so should be dealt with by teachers.  Other teachers feel that parents are too busy with their own lives to spend the necessary time teaching their children these basic skills.

A poll has recently taken place in the UK by Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers whereby 850 primary school teachers were targeted.  Of those 850 teachers, around 66% of them said there had been an increase in the number of pupils wetting or soiling themselves throughout school hours, and an incredible 71% working with kindergarten children (aged 3-5) had noticed an increase.  In fact, some schools even felt the need to set up parenting workshops to teach mums and dads how to toilet train their kids!

Of the teachers that were taking part in the poll, one said that there were three incontinent children in his/her classroom and it was necessary for nappies to be changed sometimes up to nine times a day.  Another said that with disposable nappies becoming more absorbent children don’t feel uncomfortable so they don’t feel any need to hold back when nature calls!  Others commented that, in general, children were becoming less independent and needed help with the most basic tasks.

Back in the 1960s when I was born, it was recommended that children should be potty trained as soon as they could sit up relatively unsupported.  Parents across the UK were encouraged by GPs and midwives to place a potty on a towel on their laps and then the child should be placed on the potty facing the adult.  Each time the child managed to go to the toilet then he or she should be rewarded with smiles, cuddles, kisses and kind words!  Once the child was strong enough to support him/herself safely then the potty should be moved onto the floor but still the child should receive encouragement.  Eventually the child should learn that it’s good to use a potty.

Once the child reached an age where it could communicate, it was slowly introduced to communicating in simple language that it needed to go to the toilet.  My mother assures me that both my sister and I were fully potty trained and out of nappies before we were 18 months old.  We obviously had the odd accident but, on the whole, we were pretty clean.

Of course, back in the 1960s, most mothers wanted to wean their kids off the nappy trail because they were the terry towelling type which had to be soaked in a bleachy solution in laundry buckets which were fitted with lids so that the smell of the dirty nappies and/or the bleach was restricted, and then the nappies were washed properly and dried almost on a daily basis.  Changing them wasn’t terribly easy either – holding onto a baby’s constantly moving body whilst  juggling nappy and safety pins and, at the same time, ensuring the nappy wasn’t too loose or too tight!

My mother always maintained though that she got into a daily routine when it came to nappy washing and she took pride in seeing a long line of sparklingly white nappies hanging on her linen line!

Today of course, there’s no washing necessary and no difficulty with folding the nappies and safety pinning them.  Modern disposable nappies can be velcroed around the baby or, as the child becomes older, these nappies are replaced with elasticated water proof underpants, so there’s no real incentive for parents to train their kids in toilet habits.

However, the government here has recognised that the disposable nappy is a major problem on our waste disposal sites.  Unfortunately, we’re not only over populating our planet but we’re destroying it by polluting the land with nappies.

This lackadaisical attitude to parenting it seems is spreading into other areas of social/life skills.  Hence the inability for some children to dress themselves properly, speak or write clearly or respect their environment or other humans. 

My smallish village is a prime example.  Parents, as soon as they’re able, seem to want to foist their kids onto grandparents or shove them into nursery school and then, when the children are at home, they send them outside to “play with their friends”, paying little heed to where the children are.  So often my partner and I and our various childless neighbours (both young and old) have seen “packs” of small children running around unattended.  They have no road sense (thankfully our roads here are extremely quiet traffic-wise), and because there are no parents around to tell them when they’re overstepping what’s socially acceptable, they’re throwing rubbish into the street, chasing cats, bullying the smaller kids on the block, kicking balls into people’s cars and windows and running amok in front gardens.  I’ve even caught small children picking the flowers from under my front window!

I suspect many responsible parents out there are now yelling at me “why don’t you tell the children off” or “why don’t you tell the parents”?  I’ve learned my lesson – several  years ago I told a small gang of boys (aged around 7) to try and avoid my windows and flower beds when they were chucking their cycles down and playing football.  I wasn’t unkind or abrupt, but just asked them politely.  They sulkily picked up their bikes and football and, having hurled abuse at me, went off.  Within the hour I had an angry father knocking on my door asking me what right I had to tell “Josh” to buzz off.  The father wasn’t prepared to listen to my version of events, preferring to rely on the evidence put forward by a seven year old child. 

Now, some six or seven years later, the families of those boys are constantly being visited by our boys in blue (police!) as they’ve progressed their unsociable behaviour and are becoming involved in fights, under age drinking, bullying, vandalism (including setting light to a field of wheat belonging to our local farmer!) and generally any misdemeanour you can think of!

So, parents beware, without your guidance kids can easily go off the rails … and this guidance starts with the basics, such as potty training!

RAIN STORM

SNOW STORM – LINCOLNSHIRE

SNOW STORM

You will not believe what I am going to tell you about the weather. Talking about Global Warming and Pollution which supposes to have an effect on the weather but when we look back and at this list it makes you wonder. I found all these weather information in the newspaper and they are official weather reports.

1800 The largest hailstones ever recorded in Britain fell in Buckinghamshire. It measured a monstrous 90 mm (3.5 cm) in diameter.

1843 August 9, tornadoes, thunderstorms and hailstones 25 mm (1 in) in dia. smashed glass, flattened crops and settled in drifts of 1.5 meter (5 ft) deep.

1846 August – hailstones smashed 7000 panes of glass in the House of Parliament and destroyed the glass arcade in London’s Regent St.

1879 August 2nd and 3rd, hailstones the size of teacups fell in London.

1893 August 10th, a massive 31 mm (1.25 in) of rain was reported to have fallen in just five minutes in Preston – massive floods. The manhole covers were forced 1.8 m (6 ft) into the air.

Are you still sitting on your chair? Hold on there is more.

1906 August 2nd, tornado and thunderstorms killed 2 people in Guildford and hailstones 13 mm (5 in) and piled up 31 cm (1 ft) high, were recorded in north Bedfordshire.

1912 August – wettest month on record, widespread gales, temperatures around 12 c (54F)

London had only one day with 21, Birmingham and Manchester 19 c and Aberdeen had frost of – 3.8 c

It was also the month of the great Norfolk flood, 6 in in 12 hours. Norwich was cut off for two days. More then 40 bridges were destroyed; flood was 4.5 m (15 ft) deep. Rain fell non-stop for more than 30 hours.

Fens stayed under water for the followed winter.

Yarmouth had rain of 94 mm (3.7 in) in 24 hours.

The damage of the torrential rain on the cereal crops was catastrophic. Earlier in July the crops looked very promising but were ruined by heavy and continuous rainfall. On exposed ground the crop was beaten to the ground by widespread gales.

Part of the railway between Bourne and Seaford in Lincolnshire were submerged and water was flowing over with such a force that the ballast was washed away.

In Nottingham the water rose 18 in. Everywhere the corn crops and potatoes were destroyed.

1917 August was the second wettest of the last century. Canterbury had 53 hours if rainfall.

1931 August 8th, Boston, Lincolnshire, had 155 mm (6 in) in the morning with 100 mm (4 in) of it falling in just two hours.

1934 August 30, the overnight temperature in Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire dropped below freezing.

1935 August 23, Croydon Airport had 5.1 mm (2 in) of rain in just one minute.

1952 August – devastating flood in Lynmouth, North Devon after 21 hours of heavy rain stayed in people’s memory. Then after another downpour for much of the first two weeks, the rain began again about noon on August 15 and continued for most of the day over greater part of Devon with seven-hours of intense rain it was devastating. In 22 hours fell 225 mm (9 in) of rain on Exmore.

The flood came at night with a sudden surge of water and there was a loss of 34 lives and 93 buildings destroyed. 28 bridges swept away. The water even moved large rocks.

Apart from 1952 disastrous year there were no Atom bombs before that, pollution or Global warming. How can the scientist explain this terrible weather? It’ll be hard but have a try, boys.

SUMMARY:  The weather just does what it wants but I do agree that we had to cut down the waste and on pollution as much as possible and to a certain extent it has an impact

Bottom of Form

Transport is a sector that accounts for most greenhouse gases and causing climate change. motor vehicles that use fuel oil gas emissions that can pollute the air. To prevent pollution of the environment on our activities or travel mobility

1. If not much, biking or walking is transportation should we choose to use within their daily activities. Cycling and walking are not onlyreduce the amount of pollutants causing pollution but also helps us to better

2. If traveling medium to far distance, we can use mass public transportation, such as trans-Jakarta buses, trains, and so forth. Vlume consideration is reducing vehicle emissions and gas produced per day

3. Sharing vehicles. A company or school, or personal proposition should provide special transportation such as buses or school employee may transport employees and students who have a direct route. Not only that, we can personally share the use of our vehicles to invite friends in the same direction.

4. Imposed a three-in-one system clock. This is done to make efficient use of vehicles, at least no people inside a vehicle.

By considering doing the 4 things above, we have participated in the prevention and reduction of environmental pollution.

umans are highly adaptable and able to live in many different types of climate. However, some regions are better for your health than others. You cannot alter the overall climate but, if you are aware of the potential risks in your own environment, you can control existing health problems and reduce the risks to your health.

The air you breathe: Avoid living at high altitude if you suffer from a respiratory disorder such as emphysema. The lower oxygen content in the air will make your condition worse.

Air pollution from car exhaust fumes and industrial pollution, at any altitude, is not good for your health, especially if you suffer from bronchitis or asthma. people with breathing difficulties should also try to avoid situations where they will be exposed to tobacco smoke.

The water you drink:Some studies show that people who live in soft water areas have a slightly higher incidence of heart disease, and a higher death rate, than people in hard water areas. The differences are too small to warrant moving from a soft to a hard water area but artificially softening water is not recommended.

If you are concerned about the purity of your drinking water you can switch to bottled mineral water or start to filter your tap water. Both these methods can, however, cause health problems if they are used incorrectly; bottled water that has been opened should be stored in the refrigerator to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination and the tap-water filter must be changed regularly. Positive steps that will improve your water include replacing old lead-lined water tanks and pipes in your house and using fresh mains water whenever you boil the kettle.

The food you eat: Fertilisers, pesticides, additives, and preservatives, that are used in the production of our food, are claimed by some people to cause cancer, allergies, and occasionally, hyperactivity in children.

The risk from chemicals in food are, however, far less important than those of an unhealthy diet containing too much fat, and those of alcohol and tobacco. People who buy only organic foods should check them carefully to be sure that they are in good condition since they have not been treated with preservatives. Because spoiled food is a serious health risk, preservatives are added to foods to stop them from becoming mouldy.

Too much sunlight: Although many people worry about the harmful effects of radiation from nuclear power stations, the risks for most of the population are extremely small. In actual fact, there is a far greater threat to your health from the large doses of ultraviolet radiation that you absorb through lying in the sun for long periods of time. Therefore, if you sunbathe less, and avoid all unnecessary medical x-rays, you will help to keep your exposure to radiation within safe limits.

A little sunlight is needed every day to promote the production of vitamin D in the skin. However, too much exposure to then sun or to the ultraviolet rays of a sun lamp will prematurely age your skin. If you are very fair-skinned, it will also increase your chance of developing skin cancer. Children who suffer from recurrent sunburn are also more likely to develop skin cancer later in life.

Background radiation: People who work directly with sources of radiation have to take the most stringent safeguards to protect themselves. But there is probably nothing you can do to reduce the very small risk of developing cancer due to the low level of natural ionizing radiation that is present in the environment.

This background radiation comes from two main sources: cosmic rays from outer space and radon gas emanating mainly from uranium ores in the earth’s crust. The level of natural radiation usually falls well within defined safety limits. However, in some cases, particularly where there is mainly granite rock beneath the soil, a higher than average amount of radon gas maybe detected. If you live in a high-risk area, you can have the level of radon measured in your house. If there is a build-up of the gas, all you need to do to make your home environment safe again is to improve the ventilation.

Environmental allergies: Hay fever and also some asthmas and eczemas are caused by allergic reactions to substances in your environment. If you are sensitive to pollen you should monitor the pollen count and try to avoid going outdoors on high count days. Fitting indoor air filters and keeping your windows and doors shut will also help. A dust allergy can be eased by frequent vacuum cleaning and by using a spray every few months to eradicate house-dust mites from your bedding and soft furnishings.

Even though what he did was Illegal, many people have started to call him their Hero. What do you guys think? What he did was okay? To many it was bad in such a way that, what would have happened if there had been a security threat? What would have happened if one of the rider had an emergency at home? Keep in mind cellphone jammer also disrupts emergency services, making the use of it illegal under federal law. Answering these questions does surely make one think, what he did was bad. He did not have a “RIGHT” to cut off every-ones communication, no one has. But it was good too, what he did was fighting against “Noise Pollution”. Whispers can turn into a noise as well, if many whisper at the same time. Noise pollution can damage human’s physiological and psychological health. If you think that noise pollution cannot do anything, then I should remind you that it can cause, annoyance, high stress level, aggression, hypertension, sleep disturbances, hearing loss and many other harmful effects. 

Looking at it this way, he is surely a hero. What he did should really send a message to the lawmakers, to amend the law on the usage of cellphone, when in public. The usage of cellphone should be limited in public and it should  be only used when necessary. Cellphones should not be used to brag about your day, especially when you are not within your own premises. Caring for others teaches us to become a better human. All we know about the identity of that man is his name, “Eric”.  

In a move that will please both the environmentalists of the world and the graffiti artist community, authorities in manila are combining the two aspects of modern life in an effort to combat rising pollution from exhaust gases in Manila, capitol of the Philippines.

The artists concerned have been tasked with transforming the appearance of dingy concrete walls along the main highway of the city,countless vehicles daily streaming past and belching filthy exhaust fumes into the environment. The reason is actually two-fold and quite ingenious. 

These Epifanio de los Santos Avenue – EDSA – murals, now coming to colourful life through the talents of street artists are not only just artistic in nature, but serve as air purifying vessels because they are created with an innovative kind of paint.

This new paint was invented by Boysen, a local paint manufacturer, and has within it modified titanium dioxides designed to break toxic fumes down into much more benign compounds. Commonly used in regular paint, the molecules in this chemical compound have been micronized.

This is a process compressing them to a tenth of normal size because this increases their intrinsic ability, when activated by light, to break down toxic substances. Acts as a photo-catalyst, in sunlight or even artificial lighting, and test areas previously so painted reported at least an 18% reduction in levels of air pollutants present after application.

Manila authorities, partnering with Boysen, have now decided that more murals painted with this wonder substance, right along the heavily polluted EDSA, will give more impetus to the drive combating air pollution in the city, as 2.4Million vehicles use the route every day.

World Health Organization figures suggest that air pollution in Manila is four times recommended safe levels, making it one of the five most polluted cities on earth, an estimated 4% of disease-related deaths linked to air pollution in this mega-city.

10 graffiti artists, both local and foreign were asked to cover over 8,000 square meters of concrete with painted imagery along the parts of the EDSA where it narrows, known as choke points. These are now much more pleasant to pass by, with lovely flowers appearing amongst the distinctive green paint, artists involved in creating the highway masterpieces enthusiastic, to say the least.

It would undoubtedly be a very good thing if far more paintings like these appeared in cities around the world, where a huge need for such air-cleaning paintings, along with the benefits of the visual stimulation of positive and inspiring artwork exists. Even though this is hardly a permanent solution to the problem, it is still a huge step in the right direction.

Khath Ourng

Jones International University

The Gold Standard Online University

Course Title: Leading from Global Perspective

Course Number: BC-607

Professor: Dr. Miro Smriga

Introduction

Theme: The World IS Flat

The world is flat (Friedman, 2005). Technology and the internet, economy, politics, war, people immigrating, intelligent draining, and environmental concern has mobilized and integrated the world to be flattened known as the global village. Laptop and desktop and smart phone such as iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Android combined with the internet have eliminated distance and shorten time to allow people from the corner of the world to communicate face-to-face via Skype in no time.  Poor economy, politics, and war in certain areas have been the main issue for people immigrating. The economy of the country cannot support people living standard. The reasons can be the land fails to produce food for people’s consumption. The people are not fitted with the politics of the country. The leader might be so powerful dominating the nations.

The civil war or the war between nations might force the people to be homeless, cannot live within the country for many reasons: food, clothes, shelter, and life threatening. Uneven intelligent has forced employers to seek intellectual employees from other countries in two ways: bring the intelligent employees into the countries or outsource the intellectual works to where the employees live. Finally, the high concern for the global warming has motivated people to think and act globally. They mobilize and build a coalition with other nations to take care of their world. These elements are the sources of integrating the global village.   

Definition: What is globalization? Globalization is “the growing liberalization of international trade and investment, and the resulting increase in the integration of national economies” (Griswold, 2000). Multi-national corporations, where they sign the contract for fair trade, free marketing, tax-less trading of goods and services and so forth.

List of regional coalitions or organizations

NAFTA  – North American Free Trade Agreement (Canada, Mexico, and America) (Wikipedia & Ask.com, 2012)

ASEAN – Association of South-East Asian Nations (Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) (ASEAN Secretariat, 2009)

EU – European Unions (Netherlands, Germany, Frence, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom) (Wikipedia, Ask.com, 2012)

WTO – World Trade Organization (G-20: Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, South Africa, Thailand, and many others) (World Tade Organization, 2012)

Dialogue 6 – The Future of Trade Block Monetary

As for assignment 6.1, I was asked to extract information from the reading assignment and conduct the research from the Jones e-global library about NAFTA, ASEAN, and the EU. The main purposes are to answer the following questions:  

·         Will NAFTA, ASEAN, and the EU be enlarging?  Why?

·         How the relationship between China and ASEAN in the real of economy and politics? Will China join the ASEAN?  

·         Is the  globe  facing the “competing regional blocks”? Why or why not?

Based on the reading assignment combined with the research, I strongly believe that NAFTA, ASEAN, and the EU will be larger than the current size. These coalitions need to be growing if they are to survive the global economy and politics. Furthermore, they need to collaborate with environmental activists, Greenpeace, and the social activists or big Non-profit Organizations such as the United Nation, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), World Vision, World relief, and World Concern in order to gain consumers and stakeholders’ supports. Matter fact, they need to find a way to solve an internal conflicts as well as building good business relationship across coalitions: AFTA, ASEAN, the EU, and others. If possible, they can be joined into or with World Trade Organization. (Notice: WTO also has its own successes and failure stories (Griswold, 2000) . Therefore, the coalitions must be careful make a wise decisions before joining.) Overal, I believe that the three regional blocks should be enlarging, else they will not survive the world’s business arena (Griswold, 2000; Global Policy Forum, Burgi, & Golub, 2000).  

The main problem for them is that they are segregated and become competitive in every aspect of their business activities. They compete for membership quality, products and services’ sales quality and volume, prices in low cost, management enriching, cultural diversity, languages implementing, and politics integrating. These can only be found within large and high-quality  coalitions. With these elements implemented, the coalition can compete in the market prosperingly tremendously. The data from the reading can witness this statement:

 ”… (EU) economy is equivalent to a GDP of more than $12.2 trillion in 2005

  The GDP of NAFTA was estimated at $15.1 trillion, and.

 ASEAN’s was estimated at $2.2 trillion”  (Dr. Smirga, 2012)

In general, perspective, China might join the ASEAN in order to stay competitive in the Asain market, especially, taking into the account of India as the main thread to China if not joined, and India will, then have a big play in ASEAN market. On the other hand, China has already reaped full benefit doing business with WTO, the United States, NAFTA, EU, Korea, and Japan. In this respect, China makes more sales with the current partners than joining the ASEAN. To my evaluation, I think China might join ASEAN based strongly seeking for her social and political supports more than pursuing for trade.

China is reaped for foreign investors for many years, but facing the draw back for the lack of providing the protection of the Intellectual Property. This can be a down fall that might affect China’s decision to do business with ASEAN. In this case, China seems to have high interest in joining the ASEAN. Nevertheless, recently, the United States has stepped in to help improving the Chinese security system. This can be a big reverse for China. With the securit system in place, China can offer the IP protection to foreign investors,  then more foreign investors will do business with China. As the result, China do not have to join with the ASEAN for the trading purpose. This is why I conclude that if China joining the SEAN, it will not be for the reason of trading (reading assignment 6.2).

Definitely, the globe will be facing strong competitive blocks. The main challenging they are facing is the nation-state (JIU, 2012). The original nation-state started between two strong nations: Great Britain and the United States. The two nations established capitalism and dominated the world politics, economy, ideology, and philosophy for two hundred years. Other nations adopted and built their own nation-state. The tention between the original nation-state was becoming so strong that they need to enlarge their members. This led to build up a new kind of coalition, the multi-national corporations (MNCs) (Global Policy Forum, Burgi, & Golub, 2000).  

Now, nations around the world emerged building up coalitions such as NAFTA, ASEAN, the EU, and many others known as the regional blocks. These new coalitions have mobilized and motivated the nation-state. The nation-state, thus, it embedded within the coalitions, it still yearning for the self-interest. They act with the idea as to thinking globally and doing locally. Their action taking is reflecting the quote. I believe President George Washington stated  something like this: We have no permanent friend and enemy, but just permanent interest.  

This issue arises within the Eu; the nation-state is asking the coalition for the fair trade. What is my part of the bargain? The Eu faced the question of the welfare of the people, the fair trade  political playing among its members’ states, and environmental concerning, especially, in central and eastern European countries (Young,  Richards, Fischer, Halada, Kull, Kuznia, Tartes, Uzunoj, & Watt, 2007).

The NAFTA stand for North American Free Trade; started on January 1, 1994 with three countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It is the largest free trade area in the world. NAFTA established with a purpose to liberalize trade and investment activity in North America. Reduce transaction cost and tariff among its members. NAFTA since its inception, successfully prospered. In 2004, International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that the three countries produced over $12 trillion goods and services,  with the population more than 425 million people constituted a major economic block in the world economy (International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2008).This is the bridge side of NAFTA. Nevertheless, the regional block has its challenges.

When NAFTA went public in 1991, many groups started from farmers to human rights organizations gathering to fight against NAFTA (International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2008).  Mexico thus seems to have poor relationship with Canada, but the two countries have large-volume  trading. Nevertheless, the US to the Mexican sounds threatened. The two countries fought over the water issue involving a farmer across the border (Thompson, 2008). In general, according to the reading theme part one provided, Mexican does not have a good image of the American people.

Conclusion

In answering the three questions above, I conclude as follow: The three coalitions: NAFTA, ASEAN, and the EU will definitely increase their memberships. Furthermore, they will work hard to make low cost products  and services with high-quality  selling in large volumes to their consumers around the world.  To survive the challenging from outside sources, they will improve their internal operation whether management, product line, or customer services. In order to accomplish this improvement goal, they need to implement culture, language, and investment diversities. Furthermore, they need to collaborate well with the Non-profit organization: environmental and social activists. Finally, they need to build the good business relationships across the three regional blocks in reducing competitive high risk in the globalize economy. I hope my analysis can be a good asset to my audiences.

References

ASEAN Secrectariat. (2009). Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Retrieved from http://www.aseansec.org/74.htm.

Friedman, L. (2005). The World Is Flat. Retrieved from http://product.half.ebay.com/_W0QQtgZinfoQ2drefreshQQprZ43435374.

Griswold, D. (2000). The Blessing and Challenges of Globalization. Retrieved from http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10891.

Global Policy Forum, Burgi, N. & Golub, S. P. (2000). Has Globalization Really Made? Retrieved from http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/172/29960.html.

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. (2008). North American Free Trade Agreement. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/

North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement.aspx.

Jones International University, Smriga, M. (2012). Leading from Global Perspective. Retrieved from http://courses.jonesinternational.edu/display.jkg?courseSectionId=27293&uid=

17432&tpl=frameset.

Thompson, R., B. (2008). New Attacks and Counterattacks in US-Mexico Water War. Retrieved from http://mexidata.info/id1720.html.

Wikipedia & Ask.com. (2012). Member State of the European Unions. Retrieved from http://wiki.ask.com/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement.

Wikipedia  & Ask.com. (2012). North America Free Trade Agreement. Retrieved from http://wiki.ask.com/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement.

World Trade Organization. (2012). Membership, alliances, and bureaucracy. Retrieved from http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org3_e.htm.

Young, J., Richards, C., Fischer, A., Halada, L., Kull, T., Kuznia, A., Tartes, U., Uzunoj, Y & Watt, A. (2007). Conflicts between biodiversity conservations and human activities in the central and eastern European countries. Retrieved from http://140.234.1.9:8080/EPSessionID=

d3fc3c113d2b16bcd1dcd5a864125ade/EPHost=www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/EPPath/sites/entrez.

The transportation sector accounts for the largest share of energy consumption particularly the bio fuels and hydrocarbons including natural gas which are extracted from the land and deep sea exploration. Transportation of extracted fuels is also an important issue as well as extraction of hydrocarbons from their respective sources.

The share of petroleum use in the United States has risen from 52 percent in 1970 to 66 percent in 1995 and it is expected to increase to 70 percent by 2011. The International Energy association predicts that 59 percent of the 41-million barrels per day increase in worldwide oil demand expected from 1995 to 2020 will come from petroleum products.

Energy policy is derived from security, economic and environmental goals and it is difficult to chart an energy policy path that is coherent and on consensus can be achieved. It is dependent on the ability of the market, prices, demand and availability. Particular emphasis is required to be placed on infrastructure and volatility issues that are related to the governmental and their solutions. Actions required by the government include:

1.      Focus on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.

2.      Energy and environmental policy that includes specific attention to carbon dioxide and incentives for reducing emissions.

3.      Environmental impacts due to extraction from newer sources and displacement of forest land and ecologically sensitive areas.

4.      Handling and avoiding of repetition of major environmental disasters like the Exxon and BP oil spill.

5.      Legislations to demarcate boundaries between federal and state jurisdictions over environmental matters.

6.      Use of alternative sources of energy which have a mild impact on the environment like solar power and wind power.

7.      Environmentally friendly standards within the electric power sector.

8.      Improving efficiency of power plants dependent on bio fuels and production of energy efficient vehicles.

9.      Support for research based activities on energy use.

10.  Providing incentives for fuel efficiency and subsidies where there is substantial saving of energy and technological advancements.

11.  Rebates in taxes and duties for manufacture and use of energy efficient products.

The purpose of such activities will establish a consistent and efficient reliability regime applicable to everyone and efficiency has a critical role in balancing supply and demand and reducing energy demands. Increased federal support of research and development related to energy and environmental technologies on both the demand and supply sides in order will help to sustain a stable economic environment for energy, to accommodate economic growth and to meet environmental objectives. The use of technology is critical to energy development in the past and will continue to be so in the future.

Between 1973 and 1986, the U.S. economy’s  energy intensity (energy consumption per dollar of GDP) declined by 35 percent; since then, the rate  of decline slowed dramatically, amounting to only about 15 percent over the period. That slowdown raises total national energy costs by about $100 billion per year.

Technologies are in hand to once again accelerate energy efficiency and associated environmental gains significantly. To realize this in a timely way requires that integrated fiscal, regulatory and technology policies be implemented by the administration and Congress.

Efficiency has increased in the  transportation  sector where average miles per gallon (mpg) for standard automobiles has increased from 15.1 in 1983 to about 21.5 in 1999, However, the potential to do much more is an attainable option. The average fuel economy of light trucks on the road is only 17.4 to 18mpg.

Ford and General Motors have vowed to improve fuel economy on certain SUVs by 25 percent by 2005, but across-the-board implementation of higher mileage standards for light trucks could substantially lower oil use in the United States. SUVs account for 25 percent of the category of light trucks, up from 13.2 percent of all light trucks in 1992, yielding an average annual growth rate of 14 percent.

The share of natural gas rose from 18.2 percent in 1973 to 24 percent in 1999. Nuclear power is an indigenous source of energy, unique in having the capacity to provide enough energy to last hundreds of years without emitting greenhouse gasses Nuclear energy represents 22.9 percent of total U.S. electricity generation and is expected to fall as older plants are retired and as new construction is thwarted by social concerns and by regulatory issues as well as waste disposal obstacles.

Also in the 1970s and early 1980s, companies began investing in renewable technologies, but as oil prices began to fall in the mid-1980s and some investors in renewable projects failed to turn a profit, this trend also slowed. Renewable energy sources, including biomass, solar, wind and hydro, now represent less than 10 percent of total U.S. energy use. Technological advances that have led to cost reductions in some fuels such as solar and wind represents an area for expanded attention. But hydro is the dominant renewable resources and has minimal expansion potential in the United States. 

Environmental factors have also led to a decrease in the share of coal in the U.S. energy mix from 30 percent in 1973 to 23 percent currently, despite the fact that the United States has among the largest coal deposits in the world. Still, more than 50 percent of all electricity generated in the United States is fueled by coal. Internationally, coal use is expected to double in the next fifteen years. Despite governmental and industry efforts to foster clean coal technologies, coal’s high carbon base has made it a subject of attack by environmental concerns.

Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore oil drilling rig. Built in 2001 in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the rig was commissioned by R&B Falcon, which later became part of Transocean, registered in Majuro,

Marshall Islands, and leased to BP plc until 2013.

In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of 35,050 ft in the Tiber field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 250 miles southeast of Houston in 4,132 feet of water.

On April 20, 2010, when drilling at the Macondo Prospect, an explosion on the rig caused by a blowout killed eleven crewmen and ignited a fireball whose flames were visible from 35 miles. The resulting fire could not be extinguished and, on April 22, 2010, Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the sea floor and causing the largest offshore oil spill in United States history.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill) in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. Some estimates have already placed it as among the largest oil spills in history with hundreds of millions of gallons spilled to date. The gusher was estimated to be flowing at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

For comparison, this is equal to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, every one to two weeks. The resulting oil slick covers at least 2,500 square miles. Scientists have also reported immense underwater plumes of oil not visible at the surface.

The Deepwater Horizon accident was a Project Failure of immense proportions. The resulting environmental disaster is widely affecting life below and above the sea throughout the region, seriously damaging coastal wetlands and wildlife, and has negatively affecting fishing, tourism and many other industries in those US states.

The lives of nearly all residents of the coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and several US states has been seriously affected. In addition, the inability of BP to stop the flow, communication blunders by BP management, negative media accounts and continuing coverage resulted in serious negative consequences for BP, subcontractors on the project and the oil exploration industry as a whole. The US federal government was also been criticized for slow and weak response to the disaster.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when

Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human caused environmental disasters. The Valdez spill was the largest ever in U.S. waters until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume released.

However, Prince William Sound’s remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, and boat made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil originally extracted at the Prudhoe Bay oil field eventually covered 1,300 miles of coastline and 11,000 square miles of ocean.

The public remained supportive of Exxon, the oil industry and trans-shipments of oil and gas. In response to the spill, the United States Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). The legislation included a clause that prohibits any vessel that, after March 22, 1989, has caused an oil spill of more than 1 million US gallons (3,800 m3) in any marine area, from operating in Prince William Sound. The BP disaster is bigger and more serious than the Valdez accident; public reaction is also dramatically greater.

Risk management plans were inadequate, BP was not prepared for the accident, project management mistakes were made during drilling and communication mistakes were made by BP executives following the accident.

Environmental Protection is becoming more important and the American public has been deeply divided in recent years regarding climate change and the environment, the Deepwater

Horizon oil spill and its environmental impact on the Gulf of Mexico have singly changed attitudes.

In the Exxon Valdes tanker spill of 1989, Congress responded with the 1990 Oil. Pollution Act, assigning the liability for cleanup costs, to companies responsible for major spills and also required thicker oil tanker hulls. And while the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in a far greater body of water, it’s also much closer to densely populated areas.

That’s why this spill is sure to prompt new safety, oversight and liability regulations for offshore oil drilling and has already undercut Obama’s proposal for expanding that industry. Our reliance on old, fossil-fuel based technologies is devastating for the planet, for society, and for business. This spill is in many ways an expected result of the path we have chosen.

Given the declining stocks of easy access oil, our addiction is forcing us to dig up extremely remote oil something very hard to do that comes with enormous complexity and myriad risks of catastrophic failure.

The assumption that we will continue to dig up more carbon-emitting fossil fuels may be called into question in a serious way by the Gulf oil spill. Governments may very well ask for companies to invest far more in safety. It’s a reasonable outcome that regulators demand that companies invest not only in the technologies to dig oil up, but also in cutting edge ways to greatly reduce the risk of it going all over the place.

References

Rushefsky, Mark E. (2002). Public Policy in the United States at the Dawn of the Twenty first Century. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.IBN 978-0765616630

Instrument Mixes for Environmental Policy” (Paris: OECD Publications, 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill

http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/learning/exxon.htm

http://blogs.hbr.org/winston/2010/06/the-bp-oil-spill-top-5-lessons.html

PM World Today – July 2010 (Vol XII, Issue VII Mimi, H. 2010, June 16. Apologetic BP pledges $20B. USA Today, Retrieved June 21, 2010 from http://www.usatoday.com/).

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/politics/The-Spill-Seekers.html

http://byliner.com/rowan-jacobsen/stories/the-spill-seekers

The Spill Seekers, by Rowan Jacobsen