terrorist attacks essays

terrorist attacks essays Recently the U.S. has been under attack by foreign terrorists. The Terrorists sieged four American planes by force with the use of box cutters and knifes. After taking over the airplanes they dive-bombed the Pentagon and the U.S. trade center. The U.S. has been unsure what actions to take upon the leader, who they believe to be in charge of the whole plan to attack the U.S. It is hard to make a decision because the U.S. doesnt really know where to find this guy. So far they know he is in Pakistan. They believe he lives underground and in caves, which makes it hard to locate him. Now I am not an U.S. but I will give my opinion and my views. I am happy to see the way that the U.S. is handling this tragedy. Many people are volunteering to help find survivors. Many of the volunteers are citizens of the race that is believed to be attacking us. I also happy that citizens that are not that race arent beating on those people and starting riots. The people on the hijacked planes are pitiful because if there is at least ten passengers on them planes those terrorists shouldnt have taken over those aircraft. It was just to many people on that and to few with knifes to take over those planes. Also why didnt the U.S. react to four planes heading to the West Coast that suddenly turned around? I believe it should have been noticed and taken care of. Now it is time to take action. This what the money that goes too military is used for. I believe we have an ample amount of weapons and resources to deal with this problem. Many people I have talked with feel the same way. It is time for the U.S. to take action. People of the U.S. dont enjoy being laughed at by little Palestinian kids. We should be able to find that murderer and deal with him. Everybody doesnt agree with my views but the majority seems to. ...

Barack Obama - Knox College Commencement Address

Barack Obama Commencement Address at Knox College delivered 4 June 2005, Galesburg, Illinois You know, it has been about six months now since you sent me to Washington as your United States Senator. I recognize that not all of you voted for me, so for those of you muttering under your breath I didn’t send you anywhere, thats ok too. Maybe we’ll hold What do you call it? a little Pumphandle after the ceremony. Change your mind for the next time. It has been a fascinating journey thus far. Each time I walk onto the Senate floor, Im reminded of the history, for good and for ill, that has been made there. But there have been a few surreal moments. For example, I remember the day before I was sworn in, myself and my staff, we decided to hold a press conference in our office. Now, keep in mind that I am ranked 99th in seniority. I was proud that I wasn’t ranked dead last until I found out that it’s just because Illinois is bigger than Colorado. So I’m 99th in seniority, and all the reporters are crammed into the tiny transition office that I have, which is right next to the janitor’s closet in the basement of the Dirksen Office Building. It’s my first day in the building, I have not taken a single vote, I have not introduced one bill, had not even sat down in my desk, and this very earnest reporter raises his hand and says: â€Å"Senator Obama, what is your place in history?† I did what you just did, which is laugh out loud. I said, place in history? I thought he was kidding. At that point, I wasn’t even sure the other Senators would save a place for me at the cool kids’ table. But as I was thinking about the words to share with this class, about what’s next, about what’s possible, and what opportunities lay ahead, I actually think it’s not a bad question for you, the class of 2005, to ask yourselves: What will be your place in history? In other eras, across distant lands, this question could be answered with relative ease and certainty. As a servant in Rome, you knew you’d spend your life forced to build somebody else’s Empire. As a peasant in 11th Century China, you knew that no matter how hard you worked, the local warlord might come and take everything you had and you also knew that famine might come knocking at the door. As a subject of King George, you knew that your freedom of worship and your freedom to speak and to build your own life would be ultimately limited by the throne. And then America happened. A place where destiny was not a destination, but a journey to be shared and shaped and remade by people who had the gall, the temerity to believe that, against all odds, they could form â€Å"a more perfect union† on this new frontier. And as people around the world began to hear the tale of the lowly colonists who overthrew an empire for the sake of an idea, they started to come. Across oceans and the ages, they settled in Boston and Charleston, Chicago and St. Louis, Kalamazoo and Galesburg, to try and build their own American Dream. This collective dream moved forward imperfectly it was scarred by our treatment of native peoples, betrayed by slavery, clouded by the subjugation of women, shaken by war and depression. And yet, brick by brick, rail by rail, calloused hand by calloused hand, people kept dreaming, and building, and working, and marching, and petitioning their government, until they made America a land where the question of our place in history is not answered for us. It’s answered by us. Have we failed at times? Absolutely. Will you occasionally fail when you embark on your own American journey? You surely will. But the test is not perfection. The true test of the American ideal is whether we’re able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life’s big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams. We have faced this choice before. At the end of the Civil War, when farmers and their families began moving into the cities to work in the big factories that were sprouting up all across America, we had to decide: Do we do nothing and allow captains of industry and robber barons to run roughshod over the economy and workers by competing to see who can pay the lowest wages at the worst working conditions? Or do we try to make the system work by setting up basic rules for the market, instituting the first public schools, busting up monopolies, letting workers organize into unions? We chose to act, and we rose together. When the irrational exuberance of the Roaring Twenties came crashing down with the stock market, we had to decide: do we follow the call of leaders who would do nothing, or the call of a leader who, perhaps because of his physical paralysis, refused to accept political paralysis? We chose to act regulating the market, putting people back to work, expanding bargaining rights to include health care and a secure retirement and together we rose. When World War II required the most massive home front mobilization in history and we needed every single American to lend a hand, we had to decide: Do we listen to skeptics who told us it wasn’t possible to produce that many tanks and planes? Or, did we build Roosevelt’s Arsenal for Democracy and grow our economy even further by providing our returning heroes with a chance to go to college and own their own home? Again, we chose to act, and again, we rose together. Today, at the beginning of this young century, we have to decide again. But this time, it is your turn to choose. Here in Galesburg, you know what this new challenge is. You’ve seen it. All of you, your first year in college saw what happened at 9/11. It’s already been noted, the degree to which your lives will be intertwined with the war on terrorism that currently is taking place. But what you’ve also seen, perhaps not as spectacularly, is the fact that when you drive by the old Maytag plant around lunchtime, no one walks out anymore. I saw it during the campaign when I met union guys who worked at the plant for 20, 30 years and now wonder what they’re gonna do at the age of 55 without a pension or health care; when I met the man who’s son needed a new liver but because he’d been laid off, didn’t know if he could afford to provide his child the care that he needed. It’s as if someone changed the rules in the middle of the game and no wonder no one bothered to tell these folks. And, in reality, the rules have changed. It started with technology and automation that rendered entire occupations obsolete. When was the last time anybody here stood in line for the bank teller instead of going to the ATM, or talked to a switchboard operator? Then it continued when companies like Maytag were able to pick up and move their factories to some under developed country where workers were a lot cheaper than they are in the United States. As Tom Friedman points out in his new book, The World Is Flat, over the last decade or so, these forces technology and globalization have combined like never before. So that while most of us have been paying attention to how much easier technology has made our own lives sending e-mails back and forth on our blackberries, surfing the Web on our cell phones, instant messaging with friends across the world a quiet revolution has been breaking down barriers and connecting the world’s economies. Now business not only has the ability to move jobs wherever there’s a factory, but wherever there’s an internet connection. Countries like India and China realized this. They understand that they no longer need to be just a source of cheap labor or cheap exports. They can compete with us on a global scale. The one resource they needed were skilled, educated workers. So they started schooling their kids earlier, longer, with a greater emphasis on math and science and technology, until their most talented students realized they don’t have to come to America to have a decent life they can stay right where they are. The result? China is graduating four times the number of engineers that the United States is graduating. Not only are those Maytag employees competing with Chinese and Indian and Indonesian and Mexican workers, you are too. Today, accounting firms are e-mailing your tax returns to workers in India who will figure them out and send them back to you as fast as any worker in Illinois or Indiana could. When you lose your luggage in Boston at an airport, tracking it down may involve a call to an agent in Bangalore, who will find it by making a phone call to Baltimore. Even the Associated Press has outsourced some of their jobs to writers all over the world who can send in a story at a click of a mouse. As Prime Minister Tony Blair has said, in this new economy, Talent is the 21st century wealth. If youve got the skills, youve got the education, and you have the opportunity to upgrade and improve both, you’ll be able to compete and win anywhere. If not, the fall will be further and harder than it ever was before. So what do we do about this? How does America find its way in this new, global economy? What will our place in history be? Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice. Once again, there are those who believe that there isn’t much we can do about this as a nation. That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government divvy it up by individual portions, in the form of tax breaks, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, their own education, and so on. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it Social Darwinism every man or woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say that those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child who was born into poverty pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we’re the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won’t be the chump who Donald Trump says: â€Å"You’re fired!† But there is a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it’s been government research and investment that made the railways possible and the internet possible. It’s been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools that allowed us all to prosper. Our economic dependence depended on individual initiative. It depended on a belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity. That’s what’s produced our unrivaled political stability. And so if we do nothing in the face of globalization, more people will continue to lose their health care. Fewer kids will be able to afford the diploma you’re about to receive. More companies like United Airlines won’t be able to provide pensions for their employees. And those Maytag workers will be joined in the unemployment line by any worker whose skills can be bought and sold on the global market. So today I’m here to tell you what most of you already know. This is not us the option that I just mentioned. Doing nothing. It’s not how our story ends not in this country. America is a land of big dreamers and big hopes. It is this hope that has sustained us through revolution and civil war, depression and world war, a struggle for civil and social rights and the brink of nuclear crisis. And it is because our dreamers dreamed that we have emerged from each challenge more united, more prosperous, and more admired than before. So let’s dream. Instead of doing nothing or simply defending 20th century solutions, let’s imagine together what we could do to give every American a fighting chance in the 21st century. What if we prepared every child in America with the education and skills they need to compete in the new economy? If we made sure that college was affordable for everyone who wanted to go? If we walked up to those Maytag workers and we said â€Å"Your old job is not coming back, but a new job will be there because we’re going to seriously retrain you and there’s life-long education that’s waiting for you the sorts of opportunities that Knox has created with the Strong Futures scholarship program. What if no matter where you worked or how many times you switched jobs, you had health care and a pension that stayed with you always, so you all had the flexibility to move to a better job or start a new business? What if instead of cutting budgets for research and development and science, we fueled the genius and the innovation that will lead to the new jobs and new industries of the future? Right now, all across America, there are amazing discoveries being made. If we supported these discoveries on a national level, if we committed ourselves to investing in these possibilities, just imagine what it could do for a town like Galesburg. Ten or twenty years down the road, that old Maytag plant could re-open its doors as an Ethanol refinery that turned corn into fuel. Down the street, a biotechnology research lab could open up on the cusp of discovering a cure for cancer. And across the way, a new auto company could be busy churning out electric cars. The new jobs created would be filled by American workers trained with new skills and a world-class education. All of that is possible but none of it will come easy. Every one of us is going to have to work more, read more, train more, think more. We will have to slough off some bad habits like driving gas guzzlers that weaken our economy and feed our enemies abroad. Our children will have to turn off the TV set once in a while and put away the video games and start hitting the books. We’ll have to reform institutions, like our public schools, that were designed for an earlier time. Republicans will have to recognize our collective responsibilities, even as Democrats recognize that we have to do more than just defend old programs. It won’t be easy, but it can be done. It can be our future. We have the talent and the resources and brainpower. But now we need the political will. We need a national commitment. And we need each of you. Now, no one can force you to meet these challenges. If you want, it will be pretty easy for you to leave here today and not give another thought to towns like Galesburg and the challenges they face. There is no community service requirement in the real world; no one is forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and go chasing after the big house, and the nice suits, and all the other things that our money culture says that you should want, that you should aspire to, that you can buy. But I hope you don’t walk away from the challenge. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. You need to take up the challenges that we face as a nation and make them your own. Not because you have a debt to those who helped you get here, although you do have that debt. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate than you, although I do think you do have that obligation. It’s primarily because you have an obligation to yourself. Because individual salvation has always depended on collective salvation. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential. And I know that all of you are wondering how you’ll do this, the challenges seem so big. They seem so difficult for one person to make a difference. But we know it can be done. Because where you’re sitting, in this very place, in this town, it’s happened before. Nearly two centuries ago, before civil rights, before voting rights, before Abraham Lincoln, before the Civil War, before all of that, America was stained by the sin of slavery. In the sweltering heat of southern plantations, men and women who looked like me could not escape the life of pain and servitude in which they were sold. And yet, year after year, as this moral cancer ate away at the American ideals of liberty and equality, the nation was silent. But its people didn’t stay silent for long. One by one, abolitionists emerged to tell their fellow Americans that this would not be our place in history that this was not the America that had captured the imagination of the world. This resistance that they met was fierce, and some paid with their lives. But they would not be deterred, and they soon spread out across the country to fight for their cause. One man from New York went west, all the way to the prairies of Illinois to start a colony. And here in Galesburg, freedom found a home. Here in Galesburg, the main depot for the Underground Railroad in Illinois, escaped slaves could roam freely on the streets and take shelter in people’s homes. And when their masters or the police would come for them, the people of this town would help them escape north, some literally carrying them in their arms to freedom. Think about the risks that involved. If they were caught abetting a fugitive, you could’ve been jailed or lynched. It would have been simple for these townspeople to turn the other way; to go live their lives in a private peace. And yet, they didn’t do that. Why? Because they knew that we were all Americans; that we were all brothers and sisters; the same reason that a century later, young men and women your age would take Freedom Rides down south, to work for the Civil Rights movement. The same reason that black women would walk instead of ride a bus after a long day of doing somebody else’s laundry and cleaning somebody else’s kitchen. Because they were marching for freedom. Today, on this day of possibility, we stand in the shadow of a lanky, raw-boned man with little formal education who once took the stage at Old Main and told the nation that if anyone did not believe the American principles of freedom and equality, that those principles were timeless and all-inclusive, they should go rip that page out of the Declaration of Independence. My hope for all of you is that as you leave here today, you decide to keep these principles alive in your own life and in the life of this country. You will be tested. You won’t always succeed. But know that you have it within your power to try. That generations who have come before you faced these same fears and uncertainties in their own time. And that through our collective labor, and through God’s providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other’s burdens, America will continue on its precious journey towards that distant horizon, and a better day. Thank you so much class of 2005, and congratulations on your graduation. Thank you. Good morning President Taylor, Board of Trustees, faculty, parents, family, friends, the community of Galesburg, the class of 1955 which I understand was out partying last night, and yet still showed up here on time and most of all, the Class of 2005. Congratulations on your graduation, and thank you thank you for the honor of allowing me to be a part of it. Thank you also, Mr. President, for this honorary degree. It was only a couple of years ago that I stopped paying my student loans in law school. Had I known it was this easy, I would have ran [sic] for the United States Senate earlier.

Reinterpreting a Tourism Experience Dissertation

Reinterpreting a Tourism Experience - Dissertation Example The Florida coastal leads the path and assists the guest in identifying the unique creatures on the island and the sandbars. The dolphin discovery boat tours are the most adventurous tour since this is the place where fresh water and salt mingle. There are more than 4000 species of animals and plants which includes a list of 35 species that are considered as endangered or threatened. Birds which include pelicans, herons, spoonbills, osprey and bald eagles are commonly found here. Numerous species of fish abide in this island. Each outing offers new adventure to its guest. The Dolphin Discovery Centre assists the visitors in exploring the fascinating behavior of the wild dolphins (Edensor 59-81).  The fascination of dolphins attracts the guest, the dolphins interacting with the humans and boats, media portrayal and performances in Marine Park such as flipper are responsible for increasing the popularity of the concerned destination. The marine environment offers many opportunities f or visiting the wildlife and tourist in natural setting. The spot increases the motivation and the expectation of the tourists. The activities organized by the camp ranges from the small scale beach combining to large scale luxury cruises. The tours are dedicated to one particular species or depend upon the opportunistic sighting of a range of wild life. The most significant form of wildlife tourism is marine mammal tourism. It is associated with increasing the desire of the human to interact with the mammals.

Business Law Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Law - Term Paper Example Yes, the surveys of the Coca Cola consumer experts can be admitted to court. According to the Federal Rule of Evidence Rule 702, expert testimonies that will assist the trier of fact based on sufficient facts or data are admissible to court. The survey must be a product of reliable principles and methods applied reliably to the facts of the case. Statement of Facts This office is considering whether to prosecute the Pepsi company for false advertising. Coca Cola company discovered that months ago, Pepsi company distributed a mailer directly to consumers as part of their campaign. The mailer focused on Coca Cola causing obesity and compared it to their own product. The mailer stated how Coca Cola products can make the consumers fat due to excessive sugar content. The mailer was distributed across the country to more than 1 million consumers between January 2011 to March 2011. ... Discussion It is very clear that Pepsi committed false advertising by distributing mailer that claimed Coca Cola’s products can cause obesity. In order to prosecute Pepsi for violating the Lanham Act, the company should be able to prove that the defendant made a false or misleading description in a commercial advertisement. This advertisement actually deceives and should likely influence the purchasing decision which injures the plaintiff as a result. Scotts Co. v. United Industries, 315 F.3d 264, 272 (4th Cir.2002). The challenge in this case is to prove that the advertisement or the mailer is intended to mislead or confuse the consumers upon a claim of implied falsehood. In short, a court may find the mailer statements literally false but absent a literal falsehood, statements can only be said impliedly misleading if presented with evidence of actual consumer deception. PBM Products LLC PBM LLC v. Mead Johnson Company, No. 10–1421 (4th Cir. 2011). In your case, since Pepsi did not literally and expressly stated that Coca Cola is harmful and can cause obesity, the company needs to supply evidence that the misleading statements made through the mailer confused and deceived the consumers. The court must determine if claims are made unambiguous and false. There are times that a literally false message may either be explicit or conveyed by necessary implication only. If advertisement is considered in its entirety, the consumers will know that the claim is clear and unambiguous. In the case of the mailer statements made by Pepsi, there is no express statement that Coca Cola is harmful and can cause obesity. But the relationship of the statements made shows

Love What are your thoughts on the Futurist Manifesto - how do you see Personal Statement

Love What are your thoughts on the Futurist Manifesto - how do you see it in the artwork they produced - Personal Statement Example Marinetti started the manifesto by describing the new versus the old. He (6) personifies various places and machines in the new age period and compares them with the old ones. In one of his comments in the book,he states that the â€Å"the old ways of thinking are gone,defeated at last†. He (12) gave an example of condemning all museums and academies and comparing them with cemeteries that are not worth focusing on. Indeed Marinettis manifesto was very much anarchistic. Moreover,he encouraged dangerous methods to achieve beauty as he believed that there was no struggle without beauty. In addition,he This shows how Marinettis words were, indeed very forceful. Marinetti along with other artists(22) around him wrote about literature, music, dance, performance, paintings and architecture. All that reiterated a cognate of ideas which reverberated through the multitudes of all forms of art expression in the 20th century(26). His projection of words in his book is like a machine gun in action of firing bullets. I can clarify his writing technique as both visual and sonic. The techniques blur the borderline dimension in which a synesthesia is evoked,making a more pro-founding impact on the Italian people. The separation of the the futurism movement from the previous art movement is the focus on outward understanding. That is what Marinetti movement was all about. Therefore, people who view his work should understand the benefit of external factors in life like struggle and revolution without forgetting the internal factors

McDonald’s Environmental Issues

McDonald’s Environmental Issues Introduction There is evidence of corporate sustainability, which is a balance of economic, social, and environment as a necessity for business (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002). Additionally, companies caring about their environmental issue will not only benefit the environment but also the company itself. Consumers show preferences for green products and are willing to pay a premium price thus improve revenues (Peattie, 2001). While dealing with environmental impacts, corporates may find ways to reduce their costs and waste. Reputation could be earned at the same time (Bansal and Roth, 2000). As one of the worlds largest fast food chains, McDonald’s is criticized by environmentalists with many problems. It is vital for McDonald’s to identify its key issues and provide solutions. In this essay, McDonald’s impact on global warming and packaging waste as well as it responses will be discussed. Then, recommendations are drawn. McDonald’s environmental issues The main issue of McDonald’s negative impact on the environment is global warming resulting from greenhouse gas emissions from cows as well as damaging the rainforest for raising beef cattle and grains. For one thing, methane emitted from cattle is a major contributor of global warming. McDonald’s, as one of the world’s largest buyer of beef, is using 350000 cattle a year. With so many cows farting all day, they could produce a considerable amount of greenhouse gas. In the UK for example, 4% of the carbon emissions are the gas emitted by livestock (Day, 2010). For another, McDonald’s is causing the deforestation in the rain forest. McDonald’s often buys meats for its burgers from privatized farms. These privatized farms, however, are being blamed for not environmentally because the farmland they used to rear the cattle used to be a lush rainforest (Ecologist, 2010). In addition, trees in the rainforest are cut down for agricultural to grow grain for the livestock and poultry (Chew, 2001). According to Greenpeace, McDonald’s feed the chickens with the soybeans grown in the Amazon rainforest because those soybeans are cheaper (Astor, 2006). Therefore, McDonald’s is not only responsible for greenhouse gas emissions but destroying forests, which could help to address global warming. Global warming is an important issue for business as it could have negative impact on economies. McDonald’s should care about this because global warming would influence food supply and transportation, which are two main sectors for fast food industry. Regarding food, global warming may affect production of seafood and agricultural. The rising water temperature has damage the coral reef ecosystems, which are homes to many marine species. Loss of shelters is threatening the survival of coral reef fish. Crop production may also decline. For instance, in parts of Africa, growing season for crops is shortening due to the warmer and dryer weather (Grossman, 2013). Farmers may have to abandon their land that are too warm or too dry and invest in new areas. This causes problems of decreasing revenue as well as food productivity. Furthermore, transportations may face an increase in fuel cost because of climate-related policies. Since carbon dioxide emitted from burning oil contributes largely to global warming, governments are imposing taxes to fossil fuel and result in the price to rise (Grossman, 2013). Prices of biofuels are increasing as well due to the decline of crop production. For the society, global warming not only brings about economic impacts but social problems. People would have a greater chance of suffering from drought, floods, and other climate-related disasters (Stern, N., 2008). Thus, may lead to an increasing number of environmental refugees. The mass migrant is likely to trigger conflict with indigenous resident and even conflicts between countries (Hartmann, 2010). Packaging waste is another environmental problem McDonald’s should tackle with. Considering how much waste is created when getting a meal from McDonald’s: a wrapper for burger, a box for fries, a cup for drinks with a lid and a straw, napkins, and a bag for individual use. McDonald’s use tons of unnecessary packing everyday, which end up littering on the street and buried in landfills. Convenience and portability are the main reason for the packaging waste for fast food industry. As people now in busy modern lifestyle prefer easy and quick food, the amount of waste that fast food industry created therefore increased (Aarnio and Hamalainen, 2008). According to a survey in England, 29% of the litter on streets is the wrappers and cups from McDonald’s (Gray, 2009). McDonald’s should take action to reduce its packaging waste since waste generation could cause serious environmental pollution and put human health at rick. Within Europe, 50 million tons of packaging wastes are produce every year. To burn these huge amounts of waste may release some harmful chemicals into the air, which is harmful to people’s health. Landfilling, likewise, could lead to land pollution and kill underground animals that live there. Wastes may also flow to the ocean and become marine debris, harming marine life (Golub, 1996). Additionally, waste generation represents human’s â€Å"inefficient use of natural resources† (Scortar, 2013). 3. McDonald’s responses McDonald’s is alert of these issues and has announced several environmental initiatives to prove that it is trying to solve its environmental impacts. Concerning global warming, McDonald’s make efforts to reducing its impact on deforestation and carbon emission. Firstly McDonald’s promise not to buy soya grown in Amazon rainforest (Greenpeace, 2006). Deforestation for soya farming and cattle ranching in Amazon is one major driver for global warming. Studies have shown the relationship between soya production and deforestation rate in Amazon (Nepstad, Stickler and Almeida, 2006). McDonald’s approach to stop using soya from Amazon could reduce rainforest destruction and help mitigate global warming. To reduce carbon footprint, McDonald’s improves carbon efficiency by using energy-efficient equipment and low-energy lights in its restaurants (McDonald’s, 2013). According to Stern (2008), the mitigation in energy use is important as it has equal effect as agriculture and deforestation in contributing greenhouse gas emission. Moreover, McDonald’s had team up with E-CO2 project, a consultancy and energy auditing company, to measure cattle’s methane emission of its farms. E-CO2 project not only provide carbon assessment tool but also help farms to reduce emissions by using new technology on the farm (Day, 2010). Livestock account for 14.5% of human-caused global greenhouse gas emission. Hence it is critical to cut emission from livestock production. McDonald’s solution to this issue, which is changing farming techniques can be considered appropriate. According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the adoption of better techniques can cut as much as 30% of global warming gases (FAO, 2013). In 2014, the fast-food chain took another step to reduce carbon emission, announcing it would start purchase verified sustainable beef. Nevertheless, McDonald’s is criticized for not giving definition for sustainable and not providing what percentage will its meat come from those sources (Picchi, 2014). A more specific standard should be set up on selecting its meat suppliers. To deal with packaging waste issue, McDonald’s redesigned it’s packaging with sustainable materials and to be recyclable. In 2011, McDonald’s claimed that 82% of its packaging are made from renewable materials (Farmer, 2011). In the US restaurants, McDonald’s stop using polystyrene famed coffee cup and replace it with paper-based cups (Environment News Service, 2013). This approach could have positive effect on the marine environment. Foamed polystyrene is frequently used for fast food packaging. This foamed plastic, however, is non-sustainable and is not widely recycled. After littered, they may easily travel through gutters and end up in the ocean. It is the most common components of marine debris. When the polystyrene breaks down into small indigestible pellets, marine animals or birds may mistake them as food and eat them, which would lead to their death (Owens, Zhang, and Mihelcic, 2011). Although paper cups still have its own problems such as energy waste and the chemicals uses during the production, it is a recyclable recourse and will not exist in the environment for such long time as polystyrene does. Besides redesigning packaging, recycling programs are introduced. For example, 11 McDonald’s restaurants in the UK are recycling waste to turn them into electricity instead of sending them to landfills (Eccleston, 2008). Working with the Environmental Defense Fund help McDonald’s find ways to reuse and recycle packaging (Farmer, 2011). However, to reduce waste may be the may be a better solution than simply recycling. Despite that recycling reduces landfill use and conserves natural recourses, the process of recycling could generate other negative effects on the environment. Wastes needed to be sorted, collected and processed and this consumes a lot of energy. During the recycling, harmful chemicals may also release into the air (Berkin, Carrigan and Szmigin, 2007). Recycling may help ease the pollution of waste but mass consumption of unnecessary packaging is the key problem to packaging waste issue. McDonald’s should focus more on reducing the amount of waste i t produce. 4. Recommendations To make sure that it purchases meat from a sustainable resource, McDonald’s could create a code of conduct on how it selecting suppliers. The rules could be not buying beef that are raised on deforested land or acquire its suppliers to agree that they would improve and apply new methods of raising cattle and poultry which could be beneficial in reducing carbon emissions. Take IKEA for example, it set up an IKEA Way of Purchasing Home Furnishing Products (IWAY) which lists many requirements for its suppliers’ environmental behavior such as purchasing wood from forests that are managed in a sustainable way. Choosing suppliers following the IWAY enables IKEA to successfully obtain a sustainable supply chain (IKEA, 2011). By making a code of conduct, McDonald’s could have a clear standard on the requirements its suppliers should meet. Being stricter on choosing suppliers that contribute less to greenhouse gases and deforestation would help McDonald’s lowering its impact on global warming. McDonald’s should also invest in research and support its supplier to adopt other practices that are useful in cutting emission from livestock and pasture since the suppliers have limited financial resource in developing new techniques. Apart from using new technology, carbon sequestration in rangeland, change in cattle’s diet and agroforestry could have long-term benefits in reducing agriculture and livestock’s contribution to global warming. First of all, carbon sequestration in rangeland has great potential in mitigation of the impact of livestock production. This method can be done by planting deep-rooted pasture such as Brachiaria. It is estimated that Brachiaria can capture and store 29.5 t/ha more carbon than other pasture (Thornton and Herrero, 2009). Preventing overgrazing and adding nutrients from manure or fertilizer can also have positive effect on carbon storage (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2011). Diet improvement may further help to mitigate cows ’ methane emission. Reducing methane could be beneficial to the environment because methane is 23 times as powerful as CO2 at causing global warming (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2011). For instance, Beauchemin and McGinn (2005) suggest that a corn-based diet would decrease cattle’s greenhouse gas emission. In addition, adaptation of agroforestry could provide positive to the environment. The increasing of trees enables greater carbon sequestration. Agroforestry can also produce more digestible and nutritive crop and forage for cattle, which decrease methane production digestion (Thornton and Herrero, 2009). If McDonald’s could assist its suppliers in implementing new methods such as carbon sequestration, changing cow’s diet and turning into agroforestry system, it is likely to reduce carbon emissions more efficiently. In order to reduce packaging waste, using reusable containers and giving incentive to customer to provide their own cups may be two options for McDonald’s. McDonald’s can replace some of its packaging such as salad containers and coffee cups with reusable ones because recycling packaging including glass and paper are proved to be less environmental than reusable packaging (Van Dam, 1996). KFC has started using eco-friendly container in its US restaurants since 2010 and plans to replace paper boxes with reusable plastic plates (Environmental Leader, 2010). McDonald’s could also offer discounts to encourage customers to provide their own beverage bottle or coffee cups. For instance, consumers buying coffee in Starbucks will have a ten-cent discount if they bring their own cup. Moreover, Aydinliyim and Pangburn (2012) indicate that such campaign could help companies to increase profit. With the introduction of reusable containers and promotion, McDonald’s is possible to earn more while reducing waste at the same time. 5. Conclusion McDonald’s has been criticized for having bad influences on the environment. To provide meat for its food, McDonald’s indirectly causing deforestation in rainforest and greenhouse gas emission. In addition, McDonald’s use too much unnecessary packaging and many of them are non-recyclable and non-renewable. Thus, it can be concluded that the main environmental issues for McDonald’s are global warming and packaging waste generation. McDonald’s itself is aware of these issues and has made several strategies to solve the problem. By stop purchasing soybean in Amazon, improving carbon efficiency and using new farming techniques, McDonald’s could successfully reduce its impact on global warming. However, McDonald’s still cannot guarantee that its meat all come from sustainable recourse. With regard to packaging waste, McDonald’s redesign packaging with sustainable materials and start recycling programs while neglecting the importance of reducing waste generation. To better tackle with these issues, it is recommended that McDonald’s draw up a code of conduct for its supplier selection to work with farms and ranches that is not harming the forest. Furthermore, McDonald’s should monitor and support supplier to reduce impacts on carbon and methane emission. Practices including carbon sequestration, changing cattle’s diet and agroforestry may be useful. It is also important for McDonald’s to use reusable container and promote customers to bring their own containers by offering them discount to reduce packaging consumption. By doing so, McDonald’s could lower its negative effects on global warming and packaging waste.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) :: Botany

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) Breakthrough improvements in the major grain crops have increased world food production dramatically during the last twenty seven years. The advancements in grain production, however, have not brought significant benefits to areas where root crops are the major staples. Therefore, more emphasis should be directed toward such root crops as taro, which is a staple food in many developing nations of Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott), a member of the Araceae family, is an ancient crop grown throughout the humid tropics for its edible corms and leaves, as well as for its traditional uses. In the Pacific, the crop attained supreme importance in the diets of the inhabitants. Quantitatively it has become, and still remains, as the most important crop. Today the plant is widely used throughout the world, in Africa, Asia, the West Indies, and South America. Taro is of great importance in many places such as the Caribbean, Hawaii, the Solomons, American Samoa, West Samoa, the Philippines, Fiji, Sri Lanka, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, New Hebrides, Tonga, Niue, Papua, New Guinea, Egypt, and others. In these areas many people depend heavily upon taro as a staple food. More recently, taro was introduced by the U. S. Department of Agriculture to the southern United States as a supplement to potatoes. Taro constituted the staff of life for the Hawaiians when Captain Cook arrived in the islands in 1778. At that time an estimated three hundred thousand people in the islands lived chiefly on poi (a fermented or unfermented taro paste), sweet potato, fish, seaweed, and a few green vegetables and fruits. They used no grain or animal milk in their diet, and animal proteins were a rarity. Yet the good physique and excellent teeth of the Polynesian people testified to an adequate diet. Taro has played a similar role in the diet of the Melanesians and Micronesians, who ate boiled or baked corms and the leaves of taro. Young taro leaves are used as a main vegetable throughout Melanesia and Polynesia. They are boiled or covered with coconut cream, wrapped in banana or breadfruit leaves and cooked on hot stone. Thus, taro is one of the few major staple foods where both the leaf and the underground parts are equally important in the human diet. Within the last sixty years, investigators have confirmed the superiority of taro over other starchy staples.