Lifestyle and Sustainability Essay Example for Free

Lifestyle and Sustainability Essay Lifestyle and Sustainability are two different concepts combined together to describe how people should live nowadays. With the matters like the advancement of modern technology, environmental degradation, and pollution, we now consider the best ways to live our lives without jeopardizing our environment and the future generations. Now, we’re concerned not only about living in comfort and ease, but also about the sustainability of the world we live in, of our environment and our resources. Lifestyle is defined as a way of life, the manner by which a person lives. It involves various behaviors and practices regarding one’s social relations, consumption, entertainment, and fashion. These behaviors and practices are composed of various habits, conventional modes of action, and reasoned actions. Simply put, lifestyle is one’s style of living: it is very personal and depends on the person who lives it. In relation to lifestyle, we come across the concept of sustainability, which literally means to sustain or the ability to maintain certain processes or state. Nowadays, sustainability is often connected to how we human beings live. Concerns about the environment, pollution, and shortage of resources have driven us to apply sustainability in every aspect of our lives (Sustainability Reporting Program, 2004). We think of sustainable ways to build our homes, use our natural resources, dress up, and grow our food. Somehow, we have connected sustainability with how we live, and it is now considered as a lifestyle. One important aspect of a sustainable lifestyle is food consumption, and in relation to that, we come across the concern of sustainable means of growing our foods. An important issue is brought up when we talk about sustainable means of growing food, and that is the use of pesticides. We are all familiar about pesticides, because it is the conventional means of eradicating the pests in our homes, properties, plants and crops. However, the use of certain pesticides is deemed as un-sustainable because of the health risks they carry with them (EurActiv, 2008). It can also affect other organisms in the environment aside from the pests that they kill. To better understand pesticides, we need to know more about them, including the history, benefits, types, and other aspects as well. Pesticides have been used several thousand years ago, being utilized by humans to protect their crops and plants from pests (Medline Plus, 2009). One of the first known pesticides used was sulfur dusting in Sumeria. In later centuries, mad used toxic chemicals like arsenic, mercury and lead to kill pests. Natural pesticides were also used, like nicotine sulfate extracts from tobacco leaves, pyrethrum from chrysanthemums, and rotenone from the roots of tropical vegetables. These pesticides benefited man in several ways. The first, and possibly the most common reason for pesticide use are for the protection of crops. Pesticides contain potent chemical ingredients which kill or deter insects and other pests that consume and destroy man’s crops. Another application of pesticides is disease control, regulating or controlling the organisms which are considered harmful to health. A good example is the use of pesticides to kill mosquitoes which are known carriers of deadly diseases like dengue fever, west Nile virus, and malaria. Insecticides are also used in killing parasites like fleas and ticks in bigger animals like horses and cattle. It is also used to kill termites that can cause structural damage to our homes and dwellings. Overall, pesticides are used in variety of ways, all for the benefit of humans. We can classify pesticides into two major types, chemical or synthetically prepared pesticide, and biological or biochemical pesticide. We are more familiar with chemical pesticides because they’re the conventional pesticides. These are made from various chemical components, like the ones mentioned earlier. This type of pesticide is easier to produce because of the abundance of their chemical components, and is more potent and is more effective when it comes to killing the pests. The downside of this type however, is that it has harmful implications to the environment and to human health. The other type of pesticide is the biological or biochemical pesticide. This type is produced from plant extracts which can deter or kill insects. The biological pesticides use the natural enemies of certain plant pests. Other insects and spiders are used because they prey on these pests, regulating their population naturally. References: EurActiv. (2008). Pesticides: Tough negotiations ahead as MEPs back bans Retrieved April 14, 2009, from http://www. euractiv. com/en/sustainability/pesticides-tough-negotiations-ahead-meps-back-bans/article-176936 Medline Plus. (2009). Pesticides Retrieved April 4, 2009, from http://www. nlm. nih. gov/medlineplus/pesticides. html Sustainability Reporting Program. (2004). Pollutants, Sustainability, Health, and Environment. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from http://www. sustreport. org/issues/health_env_pollut. html

Gay and Lesbian Issues - The Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals Essays

Gay and Lesbian Issues - The Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity ever committed. Millions upon millions of people were ruthlessly tortured and executed during the infamous reign of the Third Reich. The events and conditions surrounding Adolf Hitler’s rise to power have been extensively studied by historians, sociologists, political scientists, and psychologists in the hopes of preventing this state of merciless dictatorship from ever recurring. Due to the immensity of the Nazi campaign against those of the Jewish faith, that ethnic group is most often mentioned in association with the concentration camps and exterminations of the Third Reich. However, there were many other groups who were persecuted alongside the Jews. These groups include political dissidents, criminals, gypsies, the handicapped, Jehovah’s Witnesses, emigrants, and homosexuals (Heger 32). The plight of homosexuals is, perhaps, the most overlooked aspect of the Holocaust. Of all the concentration camps, Sachsenhaussen, just nort h of Berlin, was the most important in the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals. The conditions under which all prisoners here were forced to live were absolutely inhuman, but for homosexuals it was far worse. As the one group that was despised by both the Nazis and those who were imprisoned within concentration camps, gays were persecuted with the greatest enthusiasm, and because of the taboos surrounding their lifestyle, their tragedy was left unnoticed for nearly three decades. The persecution of homosexuals at Sachsenhaussen was a natural outgrowth of the Nazi idea of the â€Å"master race† and was made possible by manipulation of German law. Homosexuals, according to Nazi propaganda, ... ...he testimonies of gay survivors from Sachsenhaussen are to teach us anything, it is that they, like the Jews and every other group exterminated by the Nazis, were victims. Their tragedy has been compounded by society’s rejection of their plight. In order to truly abolish the dangerous views of Nazism, we must first learn to accept all people as human beings, no matter what their national origin, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation may be. This must be our goal if we are to prevent the atrocities of Sachsenhaussen from ever happening again. References Feig, Konnilyn G. Hitler’s Death Camps. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1979. Heger, Heinz. The Men With the Pink Triangle. London: Gay Men’s Press, 1972. Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle. New York: Henry Holt, 1986. Rector, Frank. The Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals. New York: Stein and Day, 1981.

Response to “Two Ways of Seeing a River” Essay

In â€Å"Two Ways of Seeing a River,† author Mark Twain uses a blocked structured comparative analysis of the river to describe how he feels about the river, or â€Å"sees† it now that he has â€Å"learned† it and there is less beautiful mystery associated with it. Twain develops each paragraph to using metaphor, â€Å"A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood† (par. 1), simile, â€Å" a long , ruffled trail that shone like silver† (par. 1) , and personification, â€Å"There were graceful curves† (par. 1) to describe vividly how he sees the river before and after his mastering of the water. After Twain masters the river, he follows his previously established pattern in paragraph one to develop in order the contrasts of the river now that it is no longer a mystery. He describes the same river with more somber, less colorful language, â€Å"This sun means we that we are going to have wind tomorrow† (par. 2). What Twain is really comparing is his romantic, uneducated view of the river to his more rational, understood knowledge on how to navigate and survive on the water. Work Cited Twain, Mark. â€Å"Two Ways of Seeing a River†

Effects Of Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

The German dictator of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, once self-confessed, â€Å"if you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.† Hitler used propaganda as a method to dehumanize Jews in the eyes of others. Dehumanization affected the entire nation: families were split apart. Also, Jews were forced to go into concentration camps or ghettos. Dehumanization affected the entire nation: families split apart and sent to ghetto camps. Many citizens ended up accepting the word of the Nazis, which caused a war to advance. Many citizens disagreed with the Nazi’s perception on Jews which caused a war to advance. But enduring the brunt of Nazis, who wanted to diminish the presence of Jews, was frequent throughout Elie†¦show more content†¦His attitude went reversed from being confident, as a religious and prestigious person within the Jewish community, to being scared with the inmates giving poor treatment to him. Wiesel was separated split from his mother and sister along with given the bare minimum to eat and drink. Therefore, it was not surprising when he felt scared and uncomfortable with his surroundings as he was not used to it. Furthermore, during the time when his father was slapped by a Gypsy inmate, Wiesel stood petrified with fear instead of retaliating back against his father’s adversary. He explored the rationale behind his lack of action through the text stating, â€Å"my father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent† (39). Even though the Gypsy inmate slapped Wiesel’s father, Wiesel did not stand up for this father considering how scared he was of the authority in Auschwitz, a concentration camp. This incident reflected on his change in character since the authority at Auschwitz dehumanized his father in front of everyone, and he did not do anything to defend his father. Earlier, the Jewish people were allowed to sit down at t he second barrack of the Auschwitz camp. Wiesel’s father got up to ask to use the bathroom since he had a colic attack; however, the gypsy inmate in charge did not answer his question and slapped him. Because of Wiesel’s hisShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Dehumanization In Night Before The War By Elie Wiesel904 Words   |  4 PagesDehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed† (Paulo Freire). No is born violent or racist. It is only when something unjust happens, that a person feels the need to dehumanize the oppressed or themselves, even. Elie Wiesel is a perfect example of someone who experiences this dehumanization, and bears the effects of it. 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