Polar bears are the largest land carnivore in the world. All known as, they live on the ice, hunting seals and fishing between the ice shelf. But right now they are facing a serious pollution problem: Global Warming.

Global warming is one of the biggest global pollution problems. Since humans stepped into the industrial century, we burned such material as coal and oil to earn energy. But we released greenhouses gases into the air when we enjoy the industrial technology we used everyday. According to Iredale “the average temperature has increased by 2-3C degrees since 1950s” (Iredale 2005). And the temperature will keeping increasing in the next decade.
The greenhouse effect is an invisible pollution, most people today may not feel much more different except the weather is getting hotter, but it will cause big environment problem in the future. Polar bears may be the best example to remind people to stop global warming. According to the report of Iredale (2005), Scientists found that more and more bears swim much longer way than before for searching food because the ice shelf is melting away “As the ice recedes farther each summer and fall, greater numbers of bears swim the 100 or more miles of open water to reach land” (Kay 2006). This is even much longer than their extent of their ability. Many of them have got lost and drown in the sea. Scientists are afraid of that if the ice still melting, more and more bears will drown. “If a warming world melts nearly all the sea ice during summers, as computer models predict will happen by the end of the century, scientists warn that the polar bear is unlikely to survive as a species”(Kay 2006). If we don’t do anything now, in the end of century there will be no ice in the arctic.

If we view ice melting as a long period problem, the polar bears are facing another serious problem: chemical pollution. According to the report by Marren (2006), there is a toxic chemical named poly-brominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) which we widely used in the 1990s to make such material as sofas and carpets flameproof. It was designed to last much longer than others, but its environment effects are also much longer. When people throw their old sofas or carpets away, the PBDE molecules entered the oceans and atmosphere, and finally entered into the Arctic area carried by the rivers and winds. The PBDE made such damage in the food chain from plankton to predator. As the top of the food chain, polar bears accumulate the most of concentrated PBDE. According the report of CNN (2006), compared with 30 years ago, female polar bears are 30% thinner and males even as much as 50% thinner. This is a very dangerous signal, but the most terrible thing is that the chemical even changed their DNA. “The long term environmental effect of PBDE is unknown, but researchers suspect that it will damage the polar bears’ systems……. One female bear on Spitzbergen had both male and female organs” Marren (2006). Many countries like Canada has avoided using PBDE, but it is still using in the EU. As Norway’s environment minister said: “pollution by PBDE, is one of the greatest global environmental threats” Marren (2006).

Polar bears’ dangerous saturation not only tells us to protect a species from extinction but also remind us about a big environmental problem: Global Warming, which also can effect us in the future. If we don’t do anything about it, the next species which will be facing extinction is ourselves.

Greenhouse effect is one of the biggest issues of pollution, which is a global environmental problem. The essential and most important step is to release greenhouse gas and stop global warming. All the countries and governments should take it seriously as soon as possible because this is long-period effect pollution problem. “ In Hudson Bay…US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Canadian Wildlife Service to be published next year will show the population fell 22% from 1,194 to 935 last year” (Iredale 2005). Any move we make will take a long time to work out and polar bears are dying.

We have released a huge amount of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere; the current standards should be replaced by more serious standards and laws. The new laws and standards should be accepted by all the countries, we should create a strong global organization to watch every country to reduce greenhouse gas releasing. Many countries more focus on economic development not environment. A global agreement should be created and signed by every country, so that we can reduce our greenhouse releasing gradually. But actually many less developed countries (LDC) and governments won’t sign the agreement because it will slow their economy down. The more developed countries (MDC) should be the leader of environment protection to help LDC such as offer technology and money to reduce greenhouse gas releasing.
New energy is also an important part to reduce greenhouse gas releasing. The current fuel we used such as oil and coal, which contains the greenhouse gas carbon-dioxide. They release greenhouse gas when we use it. The scientist are trying to find clear energy such as solar energy, government should also more focus on develop new energy in the future.

Chemical pollution is a problem even worse than global warming. Which may not just kill the bears but effect their generations. According to the research of Marren (2006) There was a chemical material called PBDE, which can even affect the entire food chain as long as 30 years. Chemical pollutions are also much harder to take care. Unfortunately most countries concentrate on global warming not chemical pollution, but chemical pollutions are more effective and dangerous. We already found mutant polar bears in the Arctic; this is a very dangerous occurrence. Government should make clear research in the Arctic about chemical pollution and clear the areas that under pollution.
We are glad to see that more and more countries are paying attention to polar bears’ dangerous situation. According to Joling (2006) U.S government has listed polar bears as a threatened species, and an agreement was singed between U.S and Russia for protecting polar bears. This can remind either local government or community paying more attention on it. But either reduce greenhouse effect or chemical pollution that needs a long time to workout.

For saving polar bears, many organizations are making their move such as U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. They are tying to feed polar bears in the summer when the food is hard to be found, but that doesn’t work well. “The research…comes amid evidence of a decline in numbers of the 22,000 polar bears that live in about 20 sites across the Arctic circle” (Iredalr 2005). People are afraid that organizations can not collect enough money to feed all the polar bears. And to feed them is not a real solution to save them. Polar bears are wild animals not pets; they will lose their ability to hunt if we continually feed them. According to Kay (2006), dozens of polar bears joining human families as a family member.

In the small town of Canada named Churchill, which is called polar bear town. In the past 5 years, more and more polar bears are found inside of town searching for food. The town has to create a special department: polar bears police. The police throw the hungry bears into a special jail to avoid those hurt people who live in the town. But people are worrying about more polar bears will go into the town for searching food if ice still melting.
Most people in the world may not touch polar bears as often as people who live in Churchill. They may not realize our usual activities that we do everyday can affect polar bears far away in the world. We should make more programs such as TV programs to tell our community about polar bears and global warming. “As mountain and land glaciers and the Greenland Ice Sheet melt, sea levers will rise, threatening low-lying population around the world” (Kay 2006). We must give our community enough warming for global warming. We can enforce government pass the new laws and standards to reduce greenhouse gas releasing or sing-up a global agreement.

To reduce greenhouse effect is not only for saving polar bears but also for saving ourselves. The first step we should do is that reduce greenhouse gas releasing. This will be a long period process, so that we must start it as soon as possible. However feeding all the polar bears is very hard to achieve, but we must bring polar bears from hunger before we take care of global warming. The government, animal protective organizations and our community should work together to set up several food stations in the area that most polar bears searching food. Our community must learn that our earth is already in danger. When we protect our environment, we also protect ourselves.








Reference

Iredale, W. (2005, Dec 18.) Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts. Time Online.

Joling, D. (2005, Feb 8). Fish and Wildlife service: polar bears may be threatened. The Associated Press State & Local Wire. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis on May, 27 2006.

Kay, J. (2006, Jan 15). Polar Warming; A Warming World: The Difference A Degree Makes. The San Francisco Chronicle (CA). The Associated Press State & Local Wire. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis on May, 29 2006.

Marren, P. (2006 Jan 16). Walking on the ice. The Independent (London) The Associated Press State & Local Wire. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis on May, 25 2006.

Craft


Wal-Mart and China
China, the World’s factory; Wal-Mart, the World biggest market. It is very interesting when people put them together, especially for me, a student from China, I would like hearing the opinion form Americans and share mine to them.
“ My boss just moving his factory to China because he can make more money, but what am I going to do?’ A worker said that, he just got fired from the factory that he worked for nine years. Not only him, more and more factories are moving their factory to China for low-wage and low cost.

In 2005, Wal-Mart deal 12 billion dollars to China by buying their products, some economist think this is not good because American workers are losing their jobs.
“Wal-Mart has a very close relationship with China,” says Duke University Professor Gray Gereffi “China is the largest exporter to the U.S. economy in virtually all consumer goods categories. Wal-Mart is the leading retailer in the U.S. economy in virtually all consumer goods categories. Wal-Mart and China are a joint venture.”

And there is other problem that conservative politician and governor really worry about: China, a big country which under communist government control, which is getting stronger in economy and military, those people who worry about that China will challenge America’s power and break the balance in the World if China is strong enough.

Essay Exam: Free-Market and Wal-Mart’s development

Free-market is economic system in which the way people spend their money determines which products will be produced and what those products will cost.

Free Market is a mark of pure capitalism economic system; there is no government control in free market, everybody is allowed to buy or sell anything. The United States can be called mixed capitalism, which means American system is under government control, such as pollution control, businesses permission control, anti-monopoly control and price control… I always think that all those controls are requested for our society and economic system, we can think about that if there is no weapon control, no environment control or no drug control, how the society could be?

Many Americans are kind afraid Wal-Mart that about its power. For example, Wal-Mart supposes to set up a new super center in Carbondale-Murphysboro, but most people against it because it will break the economic system of Carbondale. Wal-Mart argue with them and said In the free-market Wal-Mart obviously can move into Carbondale because Wal-Mart can buy a land and build their super center anywhere they want. I strongly disagree about Wal-Mart’ opinion. In my opinion, first, it is not possible to have a totally free-market in a country because a few big companies will control the whole society with their power and money, which is not good for community. So that’s why government set such rules and laws to control the economy. Second, Wal-Mart’s behavior or development should under the government and society control to make sure it’s not extremely powerful that become harmful for the community. Lets take a view about Wal-Mart’s new development: Carbondale is a small town, there are many small retailers over there, but if Wal-Mart move into Carbondale, those small retailers will obviously die because they can’t challenge Wal-Mart ‘s power. And the culture of the town will also be destroyed because the town will probably become a big shopping mall not quite small town anymore.

Anyway, I think Wal-Mart should respect the people ‘s opinion before its development not only use power or money to set new super center up.

Essay exam: Inlation, Disinflation and Recession.

Junchao Chen
EAP2
Jan 31 2006

Inflation always happens when a product has a very high demand with a very low supply, the price of product will rise to extremely high throughout the economy. For example, during the war period, food, steel and oil are much more expensive than other period. Also, when more money chasing the same quantity of product, such as price of houses in California, when more and more people decide to put money in real estate, the price of house rise 200 percent in the past 5 years

Inflation is bad for economy, so government must control it, this kind control is called “disinflation” it’s really difficult to slow the economy down from a high inflation situation, and it also hurts the economy. California government is trying to slow the real estate down because the price is too high for citizens, the government rise the interest of home loan to turn the whole real estate market down, but for the people who own 2 or more houses, it’s a terrible thing because they have to pay more payments on home loan and their real estate is actually devaluating. However government can predict the businesses cycle, but the inflation is unpredictable, it is also affected by social shocks such as war, calamity or government policy from other country.

Recession is opposite of inflation, during the recession period, the whole economy includes is falling, including income, price of production and employment. During this period, government usually turn the saving interest and other loan interest down and encourage custom to spend their money that to excite the economy.

Is Wal-Mart good for American?

Junchao Chen
EAP 2
Jan 25 2006

Is Wal-Mart good for American?
(Chapter: catch the china bug)
Summary
In this article, the author showed his opinion for a question that most people argue with: “is Wal-Mart good for American?” In his opinion, Wal-Mart shouldn’t deal with China. The most thing that the author against is Wal-Mart send a lot of money and push job to a communist country by buying product.

Response

‘Is Wal-Mart good for America?’ for most customers, the answer is absolutely yes. Low prices, one-stop-shopping, clean stores, everything seems to be perfect for America customer, but why American argue this question? What makes you come to Wal-Mart? The answer is EDLP (Everyday Low Price). How can Wal-Mart do that? We will figure this out in this article.

Last year, The US trade deficit with China for $120 billion, at least $12 billion is from Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world. In china, there are hundreds of factories; millions of workers are making product for Wal-Mart and other American companies, those workers can accept a low wage what is impossible for American workers. This makes many Americans complaint: “Wal-Mart is shipping our job to china by buying product from China” Someone even said: w e are paying money to a communist country”, “we are deal with Devil”, some people afraid that China will get much money from trade with American company and use the money to increase military power and make world in danger

In fact the world economy system is changing right now, the economy system is not limited in the country any more, countries deal and trade with other country, Customers should have chance to choose what they really want. We can take a global watch about the problem that many people worry about: will China use money to increase military power and let the world in danger? Generally, after The Cold War, there is no any country can start a war to other country even which only has normal military power. However, China has a communist government but part of capitalism economic system, and China government is trying to change.

Refrence
Sam Hornblower(2004.Nov.23) Is Wal-Mart goof for American? Chapter: catch the china bug.

Some Cities Resisting Wal-Mart Expansion



Junchao Chen
EAP2
19/01/2006
Some Cities Resisting Wal-Mart Expansion

Summary:
It is a report about people who argue with Wal-Mart’s development. Most people would welcome Wal-Mart’s building super center in their town, but some people have very different opinion.

Response:
The first reason that people are against Wal-Mart is that Wal-Mart will destroy the culture and history and make their town to a shopping hub.
I think these are very practical problem for the people who live in a small town; these people enjoy a quiet, simple life, but Wal-Mart will bring a big super center and a loud environment to them with a huge amount of customers. People will come to the town form any other place for shopping in Wal-Mart not for the town.
There is also a problem why Wal-Mart enters big city; Wal-Mart usually build a huge building. It bumps up a lot of populated urban areas. Citizens would like to build a new hospital or houses not a huge supermarket.
Wal-Mart is trying to figure this problem out, including trying to use a multilevel building, or being more a small market, but these are not convenient for customers, and it’s also very hard for more small markets because they don’t have enough managers.

Wal-Mart is also a big challenge for small business like local store and small market; those small merchants can’t challenge Wal-Mart’s low price and abundant goods, and finally close their business down. This is also why people in small town feels that Wal-Mart break their quiet life.

Conclusion
Although there are lots of arguments about Wal-Mart’s development, but most people like Wal-Mart because it makes their life easy and happy; I think Wal-Mart will still grow up in the world.