Ignorance is Bliss

By Brian Khaneyan

As a child I was afraid of the dark. It’s not unusual to be afraid of the dark, but it is somewhat irrational. Fear of the dark comes from fear of the unknown. I may have known that there weren’t any actual monsters that were going to grab me in the darkness at night, but the simple fact that I couldn’t see and verify it for myself outweighed my rationality. But why was I not afraid before I turned the lights off? Why didn’t the fact that someone or something could be hiding, waiting for me to turn the lights off bother me until I actually turned the lights off? The fact of the matter is that it is human nature to simply not care about anything but the present. If something is unable to harm me right now, I could care less. When discussing the effects of our current nuclear situation, this is an incredibly fatal flaw.

The first work reviewed this week is Atom bomb - A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 by Isao Hashimoto. Isao Hashimoto is a Japanese artist. When analyzing an animation such as this, it’s important to take into account who created it. An interview with Wired’s Duncan Geere, Hashimoto stated that he created the project to show “the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It’s clear how he has done this in several ways. First the entire animation is very antique looking. It looks like a system screen from “War Games.” This initially makes it somewhat intimidating. The audio as each month ticks by is also very intimidating, it is similar to a bomb ticking sound. Next, when the years switch it is an even deeper tone, but still as ominous.  The next thing that stuck out to me were when a lot of explosions occurred. The sound gets so loud that it clips off, creating an even more jarring sound. The data shown in this video is scary. Nuclear explosions and testing is something that we, as a society need to be incredibly careful about. Videos like this that are designed to be unsettling are a good way to inform the public of a problem that we have been neglecting.

The next work is the film “Into Eternity.” This film has very interesting cinematography. The narrator addresses the audience in a shot only lit by a single match. He speaks very slowly, and in a very ethereal voice. He is telling us a spooky story by the campfire. This tone continues throughout the film. Techniques were used throughout the film that gave it a very dark overtone. Black and white images were used, and even crude drawings and “spooky” art were used throughout the film to give it a very ominous feel. Lastly, the color tone of the movie was incredibly dark. Color correction is a technique film makers can use to give a film a certain feel. For instance, The Dark Knight and Man of Steel were both very bleak and dark looking films. This was used to give the movies a grittier feel, and the difference between the natural color and the recolor in Man of Steel can be seen here. A similar effect was used in this film. The grittier feel and darker colors add to the “spookiness” of “Into Eternity.” Overall I think the film had the desired effect. It left me more curious and cautious of our nuclear situation.

“Full Body Burden” by Kristen Iversen uses different techniques to inform the reader of the dangers of nuclear technology. One of the main themes in this nonfiction narrative is the coincidence of the nuclear Rocky Flats, and the deterioration of Kristen’s family. As the contaminations and problems that arise from Rocky Flats get worse, Kristen’s family seems to grow further apart. Furthermore, the entire town seems to simply not acknowledge that the nuclear plant is having an impact on their town. Everybody knows that it is harmful, but nobody does anything about it for the first half of the book. This is the same human characteristic mentioned earlier. It simply didn’t affect anyone in a major way… up until it did. So why was everyone so secretive about Rocky Flats? Once again, it’s important to note who created the piece, and how the piece was created. Iversen published the book in 2012. The story took place from when she was a child up until she was a young adult. Iversen wrote the book after she had time to reflect on the situation and gather her thoughts as an educated adult. Perhaps the true story isn’t exactly as it was written, and perhaps Iversen remembers the secrecy and is amplifying it in her re-telling of the story. She is using the fact that nobody did anything back then to parallel to current day. Her effort in conveying this fact suggests to the reader that this could already be happening in their lives, and that they need to re-evaluate their situation and take action.

 The last work is “Blind,” a short film. The film uses jump cuts and distorted audio clips to give it a surreal feeling at the beginning. It shocks the viewer with scary looking gas masks that are used to shield people from the contaminated air. It’s a complete change of society, everyone must wear the masks. This shows the effect that nuclear technology could have on our world, it can change our everyday tasks. The film then pulls on the heartstrings with flashbacks of a happier time. It essentially asks, “what if we could forget about this bleak reality, and go back to when everything was perfect?” The purpose of this flashback is to show the viewer that we live in that world now, and that the future holds great potential, and that potential is in our hands.

All the works I reviewed use fear as a technique to persuade the audience to take a stand against nuclear energy and technology. Speaking personally, I don’t think this is a great way to convey information to people for most stories. Simply scaring the masses into believing something doesn’t work. But another thing that doesn’t work is our current system of information. John Rosenthal from the Huffington Post wrote an article on the 25^th anniversary of Chernobyl. In this article, the same fear tactic is seemingly used: “Radiation is invisible and knows no boundaries. It's commonly accepted in scientific circles that there is no safe level of radiation and all radiation, including low doses, is cumulative and can cause cancer.” But this isn’t a fear tactic, this is the simple truth. The faster the general public understands this message, the quicker we will be able to solve this problem. If these films are able to convince people that they should be afraid, and even fear for their life, and actually cause change, then I completely support the style in which they are filmed, even though I normally would not. The last paragraph of the article sums up our dire situation well: “Meanwhile, as we blindly accept the lies and misinformation about nuclear power, we're force-fed the nuclear industry's invisible and deadly radiation without even knowing it or being able to prove where our cancer, potentially years down the road, came from.”

How far must we go?

By Brian Khaneyan

When I was a young child I never understood why things didn’t have a simple solution. The problems presented in school as the major problems of the world seemed like incredibly easy problems to fix. World Hunger was a great example of this. People in our school were able to receive free daily lunches if they weren’t able to afford it. To me, this meant that everyone was entitled to food. So why must people suffer and starve? Why couldn’t we just extend the policies that we had to other countries that had to live without food. Another issue that was huge was poverty. However I had a simple solution. I remember hearing that there were more than a billion people on the earth. If everyone on the earth was forced to contribute a dollar then we would have a billion dollars. I wouldn’t mind paying up to 5 dollars a year, surely all that money could go to the poor and help them out. Later in life I realized that things weren’t that simple. Solutions that seem simple and easy often do not work due to an incredible number of reasons. The number one reason that none of these ideas would work is money. Organizing a company that would collect money from every single person in the world would be difficult, and it would take money. That’s completely ignoring the fact that not everyone, even in first world countries, would donate the money needed to help other people. Some people are too greedy, or simply have their own reasons for not wanting to donate money. My solution for food works exactly the same way. Companies work on a basis of making money. Many food companies especially do this, trying to maximize profits through various avenues. Take Nestlé for example. Firstly, they own a heap of the world’s water, and are trying to obtain more. They bottle this water and sell it at 280,000% margins, yes, 280,000%. Nestlé’s CEO also believes that water is not a human right, and should be privatized. The most insidious act that this food company has done was in the 1970’s. Nestlé promoted the use of bottled baby formula in third world countries, stating that it held great benefits over breast milk. They handed out free samples in hopes to get mothers and children used to this much easier method of feeding. However they failed to properly inform these third world mothers that over-diluting the formula would stop the absorption of the nutrition needed to sustain the baby’s life. Thousands of babies died due to this advertising, and Nestlé made multiple attempts to clear its name. This is just one example of how, when given the chance, some companies will exploit their customers and ethics in order to make money. 

Tim DeChristopher didn’t like this type of exploitation. “Bidder 70” highlights the story of how he stopped this exploitation. One of the main threads of the movie is the moral dilemma between choosing what is best for him, and choosing what he thinks is best for the earth. These scenes are highlighted by visuals of nature. He takes a walk through a path while discussing this dilemma with his attorney. This use of visual perhaps indicates to the viewer that Tim sees this dilemma as being greater than himself. They don’t use shots of him inside his house next to the things that belong to him. They show shots of him in open land that belongs to everyone. While the courthouse scenes shows major amounts of emotion, it also serves to show the unity of people. The camera was positioned among the crowd, looking up at Tim. This puts him in a greater position than the viewer, signifying that what he did was truly honorable and courageous. The camera being positioned among the crowd ultimately suggests to the viewer that they should be as grateful as the other people in the crowd, as everyone in the crowd was incredibly proud of him. The viewer should be proud as well, because what he did was a sacrifice for all of us. 

“The East” is an incredibly interesting film highlighting the actions of a rogue environmental extremist group. Once again a moral dilemma is brought up, and is ultimately seen through one of the main characters, Izzy. Izzy’s contempt she held for her father was the same contempt that the entire group held for the companies. It is only when it truly affected her that she was able to see the error in the group’s ways. The moment when her father enters the toxic water is exactly the moment in which the film shows the viewer that everyone is human. No matter what one does, one cannot get away from the fact that even the harshest actions do not deserve the harshest consequences. This message was further solidified once the main character, Sarah, had to make her final decision. Her decision to not have the people on that list essentially killed was one that the viewer may or may not agree with. However the film essentially told the viewer that this was the correct decision through scenes showing progress via newspaper headlines. This is what one should be wary of when watching a film. A person may have gone into this film with their own ideas on how environmental justice should be handled, however a fictional telling and representation of extremist actions showed that those actions weren’t effective. The film is not based on a true story. It pulls almost nothing from reality. In reality the actions taken by The East group may have a positive impact on our environment and our society. The film is portraying the writer, Zal Batmanglij’s, opinion, and this is something that should be noted when watching a movie that can have a great effect on people such as this one. 

One aspect of environmental groups found in chapter 10 of Julia Corbett’s “Communicating Nature” is member communication.  Small groups like that in “The East” rely heavily on member communication. Actions such as the group dinners that The East have are key steps in solidifying the group and making sure that they all have each other’s best interests in mind: “activities and social gatherings for its members… promote group solidarity.” This is something that is incredibly important for all groups to take note of, as it can build an effective group. 

The Year of The Flood is an incredibly interesting novel by Margaret Atwood. One section that illustrates the beauty of the novel is: 

But she went to tell the bees. She felt like an idiot doing it, but she’d promised. She remembered that it wasn’t enough just to think at them: you had to say the words out loud. Bees were the messengers between this world and the other worlds, Pilar had said. Between the living and the dead. They were flying around as usual, coming and going, bringing their leg-loads of pollen, waggling in their figure-eight semaphoric dances. From inside the hives came the humming of wings as they fanned the air, cooling it, ventilating the cells and passageways. One bee is all the bees, Pilar used to say, so what’s good for the hive is good for the bee. Several bees flew around her head, golden in their fur. Three lit on her face, tasting her. “Bees,” she said. “I bring news. You must tell your Queen.” Were they listening? Perhaps. They were nibbling gently at the edges of her dried tears. For the salt, a scientist would say. “Pilar is dead,” she said. “She sends you her greetings, and her thanks for your friendship over many years. When the time comes for you to follow her to where she has gone, she will meet you there.” These were the words Pilar had taught her. She felt like such a dolt, saying them out loud. “Until then, I am your new Eve Six.”

Throughout this entire section Atwood identifies the bees as an incredibly magical creature. They are the only creature that can communicate between the two, vastly different worlds that the gardeners and the general public live. Pilar is able to see this. She along with Adam One and the other gardeners are able to understand this bond with nature. This is shown through their conversations with the bees. They speak, they understand each other, and they understand that they are both incredibly important to each’s existence and survival. This majestic characterization of the bees is shown throughout the novel with Pilar dancing with the bees. However these bees are dying out, by the pesticides used by the Corpse-Corps. This is one of the metaphors used for how corporations are killing our world. The Corpse-Corps is an analogy for corporations today, and the whole situation is a great exaggeration of our society today.

The extremes shown in all of the sources, the world in “The Year of The Flood,” Tim DeChristopher’s decision, and The East group are all examples of why the simple action that I thought we should take when I was a child are not going to be enough. Atwood’s book gives us an idea of what is possible. There may be a world in which we are living in a completely corporate-owned society, and all of our freedom is basically taken away. The actions taken by both Tim and The East are methods to prevent such a thing, but ultimately these are actions and sacrifices that most people aren’t willing to take. There is no simple answer to this moral question, however it can be seen through the actions of corporations such as Nestlé that something needs to be done in order to separate the line between corporations and our earth. 

Cell Phones: the Problem, Not the Solution

By Brian Khaneyan

Cell phones have become an object that every person is required to have. In late 2014, the amount of cell phones in existence surpassed the number of people in the world. It’s no secret that the general population who buy consumer electronics upgrade them frequently, but cellphones have an incredibly short life cycle comparatively. Americans replace their cellphone every 22 months. However the consequences of such an action are rarely considered. Julia Corbett states in chapter three of Communicating Nature that there are four main factors that influence behavior: attitudinal factors, personal factors, contextual factors, and habit and routine. Some environmental issues such as GMO’s or animal rights or fracking can cause behavioral change because they usually do not change habit and routine and are in line with a person’s attitudinal factors – “we should have clean drinking water and animals should not suffer.” However, the same cannot be said for buying a cell phone. The device is integral to our being, which is why it is incredibly difficult to change. 

The first step in understanding why cell phone waste and consumption is incredibly dangerous is understanding that cell phone manufacturers do not create, they design. Apple is an easy example to take since they are the largest cell phone company in the world, and the demand for their phones creates even more issues which will be discussed. A phone is made from an incredible number of parts. There is the glass for the screen, the digitizer underneath it, the aluminum case, the gold for contact points, the chip boards, the solder to connect the components that are made of even more various resources, and a slew of chemicals needed to ensure the bonding and proper function of all of these parts. Apple does not create any of these parts, they do not resource the tin needed for the solder, they don’t mine the silicon needed for the chips. They get these resources from other companies which can sell to multiple phone manufacturers. However Apple is their main source of income, and Apple will sign contracts with these companies to ensure that they can get enough materials needed for their upcoming phone launch. The same is done for the production of the phone. The assembly, specifically for Apple, takes place in the FoxConn factory. It is in the best interest of these companies to gather as much material possible no matter what it takes, and this many times involves violating worker’s rights and safety practices. 

The first source is a controversial documentary from the BBC that aired on TV, Panorama: Apple’s Broken Promises. The documentary takes a look at the entire spectrum of issues by inserting an undercover employee who broke through apple’s rigorous security checks in order to document what was really going on. Among the highlights were employees commonly passing out due to lack of sleep, constant threats from line managers including slave-like chanting as part of employee’s duties, and the confiscation of identification once they entered the factory. This piece and its contents were incredibly shocking. These workers had to work in incredibly dangerous and unjust circumstances in order to support themselves. Apple responded saying that they were “deeply offended” by the piece, stating that they are working to improve the working conditions. The result of this is that finding the piece online is incredibly difficult. There is currently no legal way to watch this if you are in the US, and all YouTube links have been taken down. The major US online news networks like The Huffington Post have not covered the piece either, while their United Kingdom equivalents like The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Independent have.  It is typical for a company to do this kind of censorship throughThe major news networks including NBC, ABC, and CBS have not reported on these findings. However, Apple invited ABC News into their factory, and their findings were much more tame than the BBC’s. This occurred two years after the FoxConn Suicides, which were greatly highlighted in the media. 

As shown through the previous source, companies can greatly influence media and internet through their influence. However they can also have a great amount of influence through direct advertising. This print ad employs some of the tactics spoken about in chapter six of Communicating Nature. The ad states “There are some ideas we want every company to copy.” This is set on top of a field filled with solar panels. This serves a couple of purposes. It uses propaganda devices to insinuate that they are a cleaner company and a more innovative company than anyone else. They use name calling to label their competitor’s product as not-green. The ad evokes a certain feeling of beauty. There’s a sun setting over a green field and among this are perfectly lined up solar panels. The advertisement does an incredibly good job of making the reader feel like Apple is actually doing something to help the environment while suggesting that other companies do not. More of this can be seen at Apple’s own environmental page. Once again the clean design, statistics, and even sheer amount of information on the page. The page is truly inundated with statistics. “30%: amount of recycled post-consumer recycled plastic in Mac Pro speakers.” This is the part they are talking about. As shown, the part is incredibly small and clearly does not represent a relevant amount of the raw material needed to make this product. Stating numbers like 30% saved advertising hyperbole that Julia Corbett once again speaks of in chapter six.

The effect of this aggressive advertising campaign is that people listen, and it gets their point across. However, the companies do not control what is done after you buy the smartphone. Jessica Dolcourt’s article “Your Smartphone’s Secret Afterlife” on CNet goes in detail about the issues with smartphone waste. The main theme in this article is that is that the dangerous chemicals used in the making of cell phones could come back and affect your drinking water and harm you. Titles like “cell phones could kill you” are used throughout the article. This not only makes it clear that cell phone waste is hazardous, but it gives the reader an incentive to actually do something about it. Appropriately enough, after an entire section on the immense dangers of the chemicals used in cell phone manufacturing, the author presents the facts on recycling, and shows the reader how recycling can prevent the dangerous situations explained in the previous paragraphs. The article is also incredibly informative, using statistics throughout to bolster its main points. The article also doesn’t fully fixate itself on Apple and recognizes that all companies need to be friendly to the environment. 

Social media is incredibly important in influencing someone’s thought process and decisions. One of the newest and most popular platforms is Reddit.com. This is a web-forum and news aggregator that sorts stories based on voting. A user can down-vote a story if it is not interesting to them, and up-vote it if it is. FairPhone is a startup company which was started to create a 100% ethical phone in all fields: mining, design, manufacturing, life cycle, and social entrepreneurship. The company has created their first phone and is now working on others. Similarly, the OnePlus One phone was created by a startup company and is aimed at bringing the lowest priced phone with the best features around. These two phones are easy to compare due to their startup nature and community funded origins. The top post on Reddit for the OnePlus One has 2,811 up-votes, and the top post for the FairPhone has 2,456 upvotes. However the FairPhone has 1000 less comments than the OnePlus. This shows that people are generally less interested in a phone that aims to be good for the environment, they want something that will benefit them the most, another idea brought up in Communicating Nature. Some of the comments for the FairPhone were “A good idea, but it’s a bit too soon to attempt.” “Great Concept, but no 4g is a dealbreaker.”Anothercommenter stated:

What I want to see is all the morons demanding ethically manufactured devices to put up and buy the things over the much better and with better value devices from HTC or Samsung that were allegedly manufactured on the blood, sweat, and tears of children.

The only reason these devices are made ethically is because there's a market for it, there's a bunch of idiots wanting to buy it to make themselves feel better for using it.

This is not the way most of the community thinks, as shown by its score of -6 points. The score shows us that people don’t think that they are morons for wanting to buy such a phone and they truly want to make a difference if given the chance. 

Print newspapers are also an incredibly important source of news. While the demographics for print media don’t particularly line up with those of smartphones, it is still important to see how this issue is portrayed in print. David Barboza of The New York Times wrote a piece, “Another Death at Electronics Supplier in China.” Like most print articles tend to be, the article is very informative and unbiased. The only bias present in pieces like these is based on what the reporter chooses to include. For this piece, the reporter brings up facts about the suicide rates at Foxconn. He also chooses to include quotes from workers rather than statements made from the company itself. Many articles, like the ABC segment shown earlier, won’t include worker statements. The second to last paragraph details why Sun Danyong committed suicide, reporting that he was beaten and humiliated by personnel for misplacing an iPhone prototype. This is clearly a sorrowful event, but the last paragraph and quote serves to tie the piece all together, “we are extremely tired, with tremendous pressure.” The inclusion of these last two paragraphs evokes empathy and forces the reader to think about the atrocities being committed at factories like Foxconn. 

The last source being reviewed is from a YouTube channel called SourceFed. The channel is aimed at short news content portrayed in an interesting way. The video “iPhone Factory Riot” explains the Foxconn riots. They use jump-cuts to keep the viewer interested throughout the piece while including images over their background commentary. Pictures of the riot event are also used in the video. The company is portrayed in a negative light, with a host stating that: “The whole place is a little weird… The employees are rising up against guards mutiny style- something smells fishy at Foxconn.” At the end of the video, they ask the viewers if they’d stop buying Apple products due to how they treat their workers. Thejerrymobile responded: 

It is however to note that companies of this ponderous scale usually have a finger in every possible (am I really using this metaphor) pie. They make small and medium scale components that are sold to other manufacturers, which eventually end up in every electronic thing you could possibly buy. Thus a better strategy (if you are concerned with doing something) is to use those devices to influence positive change

It turns out that he is completely right. All the articles reviewed are incredibly informative and focus on the injustices that companies like Foxconn commit. However none of them offer a solution. The FairPhone is somewhat of a solution, but in the end there are simply not going to be enough people who buy a more expensive and lesser advertised phone. The only way to truly inspire change in an industry like this is not to vote with your wallet, but to yell with your mouth – or keyboard. The riots and suicides in FoxConn have caused petitions to pop up that have garnered many signatures at Change.org and SumOfUs.org. These petitions can incite change. If enough people speak, then the companies will listen. This SumOfUs.org page on creating an ethical iPhone sums it up quite neatly: “Can Apple do this? Absolutely.They’re sitting on $100 billion in cash.Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.” This is why we need to make our voice heard. If there are enough complaints as to the non-ethical nature of their products, companies will listen and will make change happen. 

Defending the Defenseless

By Brian Khaneyan

When I was in fourth grade I was assigned math problems to complete with my calculator. I was young, and learning how to use the calculator. The technology was incredibly cool to me. It would make things much easier in my life. I was going about my calculator problems, and I finished the assignment and turned it in. My teacher told me that I had gotten a problem wrong. I was unsure of how this could be, so I tried the problem again. The calculator gave me the same, supposedly incorrect answer. My teacher told me to go back and do it again. I kept on doing it, I double-checked and triple checked the calculator. Still, the answer was wrong.

I got frustrated, and told my teacher that there was something wrong with the calculator, it keeps on giving me the wrong answer. She told me that the calculator will never make a mistake. It will always do as it’s told, the calculator can never be wrong. They are completely helpless to the situation, the calculator will always do what it is instructed to do. I realized that I’d actually been inputting the wrong equation every time. This was the first time I really understood what the difference between living and non-living really was. More than that though, it allowed me to understand that some things are simply a result of their environment. Much like the calculator, animals can’t help but act the way they are programmed to act. A horse will move faster when whipped. Humans have taken advantage of this, and we are essentially using animals as tools, much like the calculator. However, the difference between the animals and the machine is that the animals are living. They have feeling and many of the emotions we have, but they simply cannot express this.

The reason that our taking advantage of the animals is so deplorable is due to the majesty and timelessness of animals. They have existed before us, and will exist after us. We are a just a blip on their timelines, they have been here forever – yet we are already destroying their environments. The major theme of all the sources for this week each fixate on the majesty and importance of animals, and show examples of  how humans are shamefully destroying their world.

“Deify The Wolf.” The title of Linda Hogan’s essay in-and-of-itself states that the wolf is incredibly important. It is much more important than humans, we should bow down to this wolf. We should be subservient to the wolf – but we are not. Hogan writes, “The North Country is a place desolate and ransacked by those who have tried to survive here. The land cries out the thefts that have taken place.” This statement is personifying the land. Humans have taken something from it. This entire essay obsesses over portraying both the land and animals as something that is higher than humans. Yet nobody understands this. They keep trying to overrun the land and take advantage of the animals. One of the most interesting points Hogan makes is towards the end: “One man photographs the other holding the dead wolf on its legs, as if it is still alive. This picture is something for the man to keep… He, like the others, wants to touch a lost piece of the wild earth.” Even when the intentions are good, the outcome is the same. The dichotomy between the dead wolf and the human fulfilling his needs serves to show how destructive humans really are. It is almost as if he killed the wolf just so he would be safe so he could take the picture. These two things clearly cannot compare, and highlight the trampled majesty of the wolf.

“Am I Blue?” by Alice Walker focuses on a slightly different issue in the same context. This essay continuously personifies the horse, with Walker stating: “It was a look so piercing, so full of grief, a look so human…” However this simply isn’t powerful enough. Telling the reader that the horse seemed human doesn’t do much, being human isn’t relatable, everyone’s human. So Walker writes, “There was a different look in his eyes. A look of independence, of self-possession, of inalienable horseness.” These qualities are something that everyone can relate to. Everyone has some level of independence, or self-possession. Walker uses this so that the reader can truly feel for the horse, and the crimes being committed against it. Lastly the use of the term horseness helps anchor the reader back to reality and affirm the horse’s vulnerable state. Of course the horse has human emotions, but it is still a horse after all, and that horse has no way to express these emotions or desires.

“Meeting Wolf” by Mary Oliver also fixates on the timelessness and majesty of the animal, in this case the wolf. Here are a few terms used in the poem: “golden eyes, speechless but faithful trees.” These phrases once again serve to personify and show the majesty of both the animals and the land. Once again the trees are speechless and there are “no words” inside the wolf’s mouth. They cannot do anything about the situation. Oliver then states: “I have given him intrusion, he has given me a glimpse into a better but now broken world. Not his doing, but ours.” She is intruding on the wolf. Similar to the title “Deify the Wolf,” the author is putting the wolf in a higher position than human. This interruption is also a metaphor for not only this wolf, but all of animals. Humans have intruded on their land, and made it a worse place to live.

“The Cove,” directed by Louie Psihoyos further expresses this exploitation of animals. The film uses underwater cameras interwoven with scenes with the actors and experts. It was shot in a very dramatic style, highlighting the vast injustice that has been performed to the dolphins. This includes a scene in which they show the clips of dolphin hunting to the Japanese people. This adds to the shock value of the movie, which strives to highlight the depth of our exploitation on these innocent animals.

Similar to dolphin hunting, fur harvesting is also an incredible injustice. An article published in The Huffington Post, “Fur is Simply Bad Design”, by Joshua Katcher highlights this. This article uses the same techniques as The Cove. It uses pictures backed up by facts for shock-value. Of note is a picture of a rabbit that is horribly injured and deranged-looking. These photos are backed up by facts to inform the reader of this injustice, and to inspire change.

The last source I reviewed this week is the film “How I Became an Elephant.” One of the most poignant scenes in this movie was the image of a little girl wearing an elephant hat watching the elephant perform: The elephants on the outside look like they are happy. They are programmed this way. They are forced to show behavior that makes the viewer think that the elephant is having a great time. There is a sense of pure innocence that is evoked through this image. The child has no idea what the elephant actually goes through, she is just happily watching it perform – it looks like it’s happy, it looks like it’s having fun. This is a metaphor for the great amount of inaction and uninformed attitude that we, as a society have about animal rights. Humans are literally murdering these animals one by one, but no one seems to care. The elephant is just as vulnerable as that little girl. The child cannot protect herself, it is the role of her parents, teachers, and other people who care about her well-being to protect her and guide her through her early years so that she can make decisions on her own. Who is doing this for the elephants? No one.

Unfortunately animals are only a result of their environment. One of the big ways that affects how we treat animals is shown in Table 7.2 in chapter 7 of Julia Corbett’s “Communicating Nature.” This table shows that dogs and horses have a likeability rating of ~1.7 while rats and cockroaches are above 6, on a 7 point-scale. Lower ratings mean that the animal is more likeable, so the dogs are favored greatly over the cockroaches. This further emphasizes the importance that we have on animals. Higher up in the list are animals that humans tend to like because they are nice to us, because they don’t bother us, and perhaps because we see something human inside of them. This has been the theme of each source, to humanize the animals. Even though the wolf scored around a 4, which is quite low, we must understand that each animal should be treated equally since they all are equally vulnerable and equally important.

Taking a Hold of Our Earth

By Brian Khaneyan

This week’s theme is garbage and consumption.  This is something that is not often thought about.  Most people go about their everyday lives and don’t even think about what happens to all the things they consume come from, or where it goes when they’re done with it. This is intrinsically a problem in and of itself. Not having any idea of where things come from means that one simply doesn’t care. That means that people can be absolutely blind about what they are doing to the environment. They are contributing to the problem directly since they are funding the industries that provide their energy, water, or food. These companies may be horrible for the environment, and the jobs they host may be extremely dangerous for their employees. Being ignorant and uneducated about something is an atrocious outlook to life. Throughout all the pieces shown, the recurring idea is that action should be taken. Whether it’s to educate oneself or to take action based on that education, one should always take action. This action is shown throughout each piece analyzed.

30 Days: Working in a Coal Mine is a documentary/investigative journalism show hosted by Morgan Spurlock, who is best known for his movie Super-Size Me. The style that Spurlock takes in both this show and most of his other works is to get into what he’s investigating. He doesn’t simply study others that are undergoing the events or subject of his story, he experiences it himself. This has many benefits. Firstly, the viewer can respect and trust him more, since he’s so involved and passionate about what he’s reporting about. For instance, in this episode, he has to undergo an 80-hour training course, teaching him the safety procedures and how to conduct himself at his new job. He truly puts the work in to be able to report on the issue the way an investigative journalist should.

There are endless health concerns that are involved with coal mining. While Spurlock is concerned about his own health, and goes to a doctor to see what the effects of this are. Once again, this serves two purposes. Firstly it’s to see how his own health will fare, but the viewer knows that this will only last 30 days for him, so it highlights the danger of coal mining as a career. One of the montages shown highlights the arduous work of the coal mine. The montage is beautifully done, and really illustrates the hardship of mining. A time lapse of Spurlock throughout the day is shown overlaid with audio from a miner: “shovel, shovel, shovel in the belt, take a breath, shovel, shovel in the belt…” This along with the indication of the time at the bottom, and more audio of Spurlock heaving and video of him shoveling highlight the incredibly rough work at the mine. This makes the viewer feel exhausted gives them a sense of the hardships of this job. The entire video is an exercise of words in action. Spurlock doesn’t simply report on coal mining, he mines the coal.

Story of Stuff, is a semi-viral, having over 3 million views, educational video. The video focuses on the system of our consumption and distribution from start to beginning. The video is done in an animated style, with a host in front of the animation. This means that it’s incredibly accessible to everyone, even kids. The distribution platform, the internet, makes this even more accessible. People are able to link this to their friends and family so they can watch for free. One criticism that can be made about this short film is that it should be shorter. An article on Wistia.com shows that the best audience capture percentage, or the percentage of people who are still viewing a video is around 35% for a 20+ minute video, while it is almost 60% for a five minute video. This means that almost two times the amount of people will stick around for the entire video which can be incredibly important for a video like this. The reason it is important for this video in particular is that this video inspires action. It outlines all the horrible things we are doing, and encourages the audience to go out and change their shopping patterns and thoughts on consumption. One example of this was when Annie Leonard brings up Brominated Flame Retardants. She highlights that these neurotoxins are used on things like pillows and are sold at big box stores. Clearly no one wants to sleep on neurotoxins as they’re incredibly dangerous, so action is needed. The video is filled with examples like these, talking points that encourage action and change in a person’s life and habits.

The next video, Synthetic Sea, employs a more palatable ten-minute length. The video uses multiple narrators along with images of the talking points.  The main point of the video can be summed in one phrase “so what we’ve got to do is change the way we produce and consume plastic...” This is the goal of the video, to inspire action. The video outlines the horrors and dangers of plastic, such as the dissection of a dead fish with plastics found inside, within the ocean, which in itself is enough to inform the viewer and urge them to take action against this pollution. However, it is incredibly difficult to do this. Julia Corbett outlines this in chapter 4 of Communicating Nature. “We are inundated with messages encouraging consumption; messages encouraging conservation or non-consumption are rare.” There is nothing telling us about the dangers of big box stores, or what they are doing to the environment. There is no advertisement on T.V. for the local organic market, these are things you cannot know about without taking action and finding them. Action is needed to live a sustainable lifestyle. Synthetic Sea directly shows this. By showing these countless horrors in the sea, it urges the viewer to take action!

This action can be seen through the documentary No Impact Man. The story follows Colin Beavan who is trying to live a completely sustainable lifestyle for one year throughout his everyday life. The film shows the difficulty of such a task, and focuses on the moral and physical aspects of this. The movie is shot in a documentary style that follows Collin throughout his daily life. The struggles shown such as not taking the elevator or not watching T.V. show the viewer that a sustainable life is an achievable goal, but it is still difficult. Big Beverage vs The Environment: The Battlefield  in Massachusets describes the prominence of bottled beverages, something that is incredibly dangerous for our environment. Phil Sego, the author of this article, portrays the beverage companies in a harsh light. He bolsters his hate on these companies with facts, “the beverage industry was one of the few that increased sales and profits during the economic downturn.” These statements are written in such a way that portrays the companies in a bad light, shunning their practices.

However, the idea that one person can make a difference through a simple change in your life sounds like a ludicrous idea on the surface. Colin Beavan said in the film: “The fact of the matter is that if only I change, it’s not going to make a difference.” This change doesn’t affect anything. He is one less person consuming one less plastic bottle a day, or a few watts of electricity less. That’s not going to change the world. However humans are social creatures. We see the actions of others, and that has a great effect on us. If someone sees another person doing a certain thing in a different way, it makes that person think about the action. Why is this being done? Is this something I should be doing? This is the exact point that Beavan makes later on in his quote: “So I believe the most radical political act there is, is to believe that if I change, other people will follow suit.” It is incredibly important to know that actions can make differences. Without action, we would perpetuate all the difficulties that we have today, and we would live in a quickly dwindling world.