Climate Changes Due to Global Warming
By Nathalie Fiset
While the drastic effects of global warming has been discussed in many scientific circles, had their run on TV and even had major exposure through well-meaning (but sadly inaccurate) Hollywood films, it’s a concern that has a broad political, economic, social and geographical significance to countries all over the world. Quite literally, for all of us, there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to run and we can’t stop the climate from changing. It’s just way too big for us.
How to recognize global warming
Whether or not it’s brewing something good or something bad, Nature always tries to warn us through many signs. The slow process involved in global warming results in many different things and some of its signs include:
Melting of glaciers
Most of the mountain glaciers on our planet that have been monitored for the past 150 years are reportedly shrinking. The glaciers most affected by global warming those located in the lower latitudes and many of them are disappearing. If glaciers continue to shrink, it could affect water supply in areas that depend heavily upon mountain watersheds.
If the scenarios of global warming continue, most of the glaciers that still stand today will disappear by 2100.
Ocean warming
Sea level increase is attributed to warmer temperatures, which in turn result to the melting of ice glaciers. Over the last 100 years, sea level has increased from 10 cm to 25 cm. Projections over the next hundred years indicate that sea level will rise higher, from about 15 cm to 90 cm. Based on the higher figure, that’s about 3 feet.
Translated, this could mean that beaches lose about 50 feet of area for every foot of increase in sea level. Some islands may even disappear beneath sea water completely.
Heat waves
Heat waves and periods of weather that are unusually warm are also signs of global warming. These may come about with varying degrees of their severity and frequency, causing concerns in the economics and health on a global scale.
How global warming brings climate change and what it means to us
The earth’s climate has always been changing, although not at an abrupt rate. There had been periods of warming and cooling in the earth’s 4.65 billion-year history. Strange as it may sound to some, this is the reason why life became possible on this planet millions of years ago. Unfortunately, not all of the changes in climate brought about by global warming may be beneficial to many of us.
For one, global warming will raise the temperatures in some regions of the Northern Hemisphere, causing the melting of mountain glaciers. This means that areas that are currently experiencing light snow may no longer experience snowfall anymore. Snowlines found in mountains in temperate regions may also be higher and packs of snow will melt earlier than before.
Spring may be experienced earlier and temperatures during night time and in winter will rise. The world will experience a more humid atmosphere since sea water will have a higher rate of evaporation. With greater humidity, rainfall is expected to increase on average.
Storms will also occur with more frequency and intensity. Ironically, water in the soil will evaporate faster, causing dryness between rains. Regions that are already considered dry will experience more dryness. Some semi-arid regions in the African continent, for example, may suffer more while areas that depend on their region’s mountain snow packs for irrigation will not benefit from earlier melting between growing seasons.
With warmer weather, some hurricanes will be more severe and winds are expected to blow stronger. It is also possible that wind patterns may shift. Extremely cold periods may be experienced as well.
The phenomenon known as El Nino may occur in more frequency and severity. This is expected to affect different regions in many countries. All in all, scientists will have some difficulty in predicting weather patterns.
With changes in climate brought about by global warming, health concerns and risks may also increase. Heat stress and diseases may become common in places that did not have any problems with them before.
Global warming is an issue that requires immediate action. Even plants and animal species are adversely affected by it. While many of the changes that occur in our planet are totally out of our hands, we have been direct contributors to events that have had negative effects on our environment. This is why many leading social and scientific organizations have urged nations to cooperate in the move to counter this worldwide problem before it’s too late.
Tags: Climate Changes Due to Global Warming
February 27 2010 | Climate Changes Due to Global Warming | Comments Off
Caring for Your Porcelain Veneers
By Patricia Woloch
After you have had your porcelain veneers freshly applied by a qualified cosmetic dentist, your teeth look pristine and sculpted to perfection. Also, you know that your new porcelain veneers will resist stains. But as beautiful as your new teeth may look, even teeth with porcelain veneers need careful attention and maintenance.
How to Care for Your Porcelain Veneers
Short-Term Care:
Teeth may be a bit sensitive to temperature directly following the application of your porcelain veneers. You may want to avoid eating extremely hot or cold foods. This sensitivity should die down after about two weeks.
Long-Term Care:
· Following diet guidelines can also help sustain the natural appearance of your porcelain veneers. Although veneers can withstand most foods without problem, avoid biting into unusually hard foods that could stress and twist the veneers. When these foods are unavoidable, try chewing with your back teeth.
· Just like natural teeth, porcelain veneers require consistent flossing. Floss at least once per day, if possible after every meal, to maintain gum health and to keep your veneered teeth free of food and plaque.
· Brush after every meal with a soft toothbrush. If veneers happen to come loose or to twist, teeth may be vulnerable to decay. To prevent this, eat carefully and keep your teeth free of food particles.
· You should go for a check-up and professional cleaning every six months or so, just as you normally would. If your checkup dentist is different from your cosmetic dentist, inform him or her that you had porcelain veneers applied.
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February 24 2010 | Caring for Your Porcelain Veneers | Comments Off
Is There an Alternative to Capitalism?
By Dada Vedaprajinananda
During the 20th Century, Marxism and capitalism were the contending economic theories and the world was almost engulfed by a Third World War due to this struggle.
However, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the other communist bloc governments laid the way for the triumph of capitalism. But today half of the world’s population lives on two dollars a day or less, and the developed countries are in an economic recession that is reminiscent of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Once again people are asking, “Is there an alternative to capitalism?”
In 1959 P.R. Sarkar, an Indian philosopher, answered this question when he presented the Progressive Utilization Theory (known by the acronym, PROUT). PROUT is an economic theory that addresses the defects of both capitalism and Marxism and offers the promise of a new economic order in which the world’s resources will be distributed in an equitable and rational fashion.
We can understand PROUT by looking at six essential features of this new socio-economic system:
1. Spirituality:
Both capitalism and Marxism are materialist philosophies with a worldview that gives little (in the case of capitalism) or no importance to spirituality. PROUT on the other hand is founded on a spiritual outlook. According to Sarkar, the material world is but an expression of consciousness and humans are stewards rather than ultimate owners of any physical wealth. The goal of society is to provide a base from which humans can expand their full mental, physical and spiritual possibilities. This spiritual basis of PROUT has important implications for the management of physical resources, for the development of human resources and for the establishment of proper government.
When adopt the spiritual world view envisioned by Sarkar then our relationship with the environment will change. Similarly when we regard other human beings as manifestations of that one Consciousness then our relationships with each other will change. Finally, when such a spiritual world view permeates our whole society, we will get the kind of service-minded and self-less government that is currently lacking in the world today.
2. A “Floor and a Ceiling”:
Welfare economists have always emphasized that the minimum necessities of life should be provided for everyone in a properly structured society. Efforts to make a minimum wage or to provide various kinds of welfare systems to help impoverished people are all part of this concern.
P.R. Sarkar agreed with some aspects of welfare economics and stated that the minimum necessities of life should be guaranteed to all members of society. However, he recognized that if the society would just give people a check at the end of the month, with their required income, then this would only encourage laziness. According to Sarkar, the best arrangement is that society should provide people with the purchasing power to procure the minimum necessities of life in exchange for their labor in a job. Full employment providing everyone with the proper amount of purchasing power thus provides the “floor” of the economic system. No one should be allowed to “live in the basement.”
Where PROUT breaks new ground is in its attention to the “ceiling” of the economic system. The poverty of many is tied to the affluence and over-accumulation of a few, and if we really want to bring about a harmonious society we need to think about putting limits on the amount of physical wealth that a person can accumulate. In the first principle of PROUT it is stated that “no individual should be allowed to accumulate any physical wealth without the clear permission and approval of the collective body of society.”
This concept is sure to evoke howls of protest from the super-rich, the very rich and even middle class people who aspire to wealth. The classic argument of the wealthy people is that by their effort wealth is created and this wealth will trickle down to the rest of the society. The apologists of laissez faire capitalism have been very successful in convincing people that this is the truth, but the starving, sick and homeless people of the world have been waiting for a long time for the wealth to trickle down, and it doesn’t seem to be happening.
3. Economic Democracy:
In the past century a great deal was said about making the “world safe for democracy.” But the “democracy” that was talked about was political democracy. In many of the impoverished countries of the world, the same ones where people struggle with $2.00 per day, the people have the right to vote but they do not have any say in their economic life. Similarly, even in developed countries a person can vote to decide who will be the next president, but he or she usually has no vote in deciding economic matters that are very close to home, like keeping a job.
According to PROUT theory, society should be organized in a manner that will empower as many people as possible. One of the best ways to do this is reorganize the ownership and operation of economic enterprises. Under capitalism the primary business form is the corporation. The owners of the shares of a corporation have all the votes and decide how the enterprise will be run. Those who work in the enterprise have little or no say in the vital economic decisions that will affect their lives.
The PROUT system would establish the cooperative as the most important business form. Most enterprises, except the very large key industries and very small businesses, would be organized as cooperatives. Those who work in the enterprise will be the owners and will elect management and will vote in elections governing the running of the enterprise.
Tags: Is There an Alternative to Capitalism?
February 17 2010 | Is There an Alternative to Capitalism? | Comments Off
Your Worst Enemy To Successful Investing - The Media
By Ulli G. Niemann
How do you make your investment decisions and where do you get your information? If you’re like most of the people I know, you look to the experts.
That’s fine, however it’s important to be aware that for every expert, there’s an opinion and for every opinion there’s an expert. I have a friend who says that opinions are like noses: everyone has one but you wouldn’t live in anyone else’s nose!
Around the first of the year, along with the New Year’s resolutions, come the New Year predictions for what will be hot and what will not. As if that isn’t enough to produce a massive case of information indigestion, now we have the cable financial shows with pretty much the opinion of the hour.
What this is producing is a frenzy of buy and sell activity for stocks in general, and now for mutual funds as well. I don’t think this approach serves either the investors in particular or the funds in general.
The big problem with this for mutual fund investors is that all the experts are recommending different funds. It might be one thing if experts had a solid basis for their perspective. If they did, then you would think their recommendations would line up and they’d all be touting the same thing.
But they don’t and they aren’t. Oh sure, each one of them can make a good case for their pick. But so can the next “expert.” And usually both of them won’t be right (if either of them is). So, where’s the value in this for you? Beats me.
Another problem with this approach is that many experts recommend different funds at different times, and, in an effort to be in the hot fund, investors keep moving from fund to fund.
In the same breath, the experts are telling us to invest for the long term. Well, I can’t figure out how to do both: be in the latest hot fund, and hold what I’ve got for the long haul.
The downside of all of this for the funds is that sometimes a fund touted as the hot one to be in attracts so much investment attention (i.e., money) that it grows beyond its original intention. At that point, it loses its direction and the very thing that made it strong is sacrificed. And guess what happens to the performance?
So, in the midst of all the hawking and hype for this fund or that, what’s an investor to do to make intelligent choices?
For myself and my clients I use a trend tracking methodology, which identifies long-term trends in various markets. I research funds for stability and reliability as well as current performance. Then, when our trend indicator signals a Buy, we select our mutual funds based on momentum figures for various time periods to arrive at the most promising fund(s) to use for this cycle.
This gives us a head start and sometimes, weeks after we’ve bought a fund, I see it written up in financial papers as being one of the best performers.
Does this approach always put us in the number one fund? Maybe not. But we are almost always in funds that are doing very, very well. And do we get in at the bottom and out at the very top? Again, maybe not.
Tags: Your Worst Enemy To Successful Investing - The Media
February 16 2010 | Your Worst Enemy To Successful Investing - The Media | Comments Off
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