Gobalization Naomi Klein & Hans Rosling

Globalization
Naomi Klein & Hans Rosling

Kaitlin Walsh
Anthropology 101: Introduction to Geography

            With every trade, alliance, migration, immigration, and conversation between two or more countries, the world becomes more globally integrated. Globalization is, “the increasing interconnection of all parts of the world as the full range of social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental processes and patterns of change becomes international in scale and effect.”[1] In this essay I will analyze two different views of globalization from author Naomi Klein and scientist and Professor Hans Rosling.

            In a TED talk that took place in 2010, author Naomi Klein took the stage to discuss the recklessness of human activity on the environment. TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a company interested in spreading the word about important topics that range from a variety of different subjects. In this video Klein begins her discussion with the effect oil contamination has on the microscopic lifeforms in the ocean; specifically the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Klein mentions that, “even trace amounts of oil can be highly toxic to phytoplankton.”[2] She goes on to say that even though oil companies say 75% of the oil disappears, it is not gone. Those smaller lifeforms, like phytoplankton, absorb the contaminates and spread them up the food chain as they are consumed. This process is also known as bio-magnification. One of Klein’s main points is about how people are, “far too willing to gamble with things that are precious and irreplaceable.”[3] She claims that humans jump into war and gamble with the stock market without an exit strategy. She insists that it is better to error on the side of caution when it comes to climate change, than to put the fate of the world and future generations at risk. Klein discusses that people far too often ask questions like, “What is the latest possible moment…how much hotter can we let it get?”[4] Some of the possible reasons she attributes to these types of questions is greed, over confidence, and privilege; wanting to make a profit, thinking there will be a way out, and the overall dismissal of a problem. Tony Hayward even said, “The Gulf of Mexico is a big ocean, the amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”[5] The majority of the world assumes that our resources are limitless, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Klein goes on to say that as we use up our current resources we are pushed to, “drill into the deepest oceans, like the Artic, where clean-up could be impossible, large scale hydraulic fracking for gas, and massive strip mining operations for coal.”[6] Klein mentions that the Alberta tar sands are projected to be one of the largest suppliers of oil to the United States. Klein refers to the mutilation of the land as, “terrestrial gutting.”[7] Instead of using the renewable resources of the sun, wind, and waves on the surface of the earth, Klein asserts that humans are, “frantically trying to dig down to the dirtiest highest emitting stuff imaginable.”[8] She makes a powerful quote towards the end of the video; “This is how civilizations commit suicide, by slamming their foot on the accelerator on the exact moment when they should be putting on the breaks.”[9] The last few minutes of the video focus on geo-engineering and how the man’s best ideas of how to save earth from global warming, revolve around pumping more toxins into the atmosphere. With no clue about the repercussions of those actions, people are recklessly trying to make up ideas on how to save the world instead of focusing on managing the use of resources here on earth. The overall idea of the video was that we need to take a risk-as a world- to confront recklessness head on.

            Hans Rosling did a TED talk in 2009 discussing the idea of what a “developing country” is. Rosling asked his students what the difference was between a “developing country” and a “western country” was. The general consensus was that a developing country had a large family and a short life; a western country had a small family and a long life. Rosling used graphs called ‘bubble data charts’ that compared countries family size vs life expectancy.  In 1970 there was a huge disparity between some countries; as the slider bar moved towards present day the data changed drastically. In 2007 most countries were in top right (long life, small family) of the graph. Only a few countries were left behind (the Congo, Liberia, Afghanistan to name a few).[10] One of his major points was that many people, including scientist and historians, were unaware of the real progress many countries have made in the last 60 years. He then showed a graph that analyzed income and life expectancy per countries beginning in the 1800s. As the slider bar moved toward present day, many countries (some with a slow start) began to reach both high life expectancy and high GDP. One interesting fact to take from this graph is that while China took longer to gain economic growth, they began to soar in life expectancy through other avenues (education, family planning, etc.).[11] As he showed more graphs, his overall point was being made more clear: The world was converging. Many of the once deemed “developing worlds/countries” were making progress. Some countries had a long way to go, but Rosling says without serious help and attention those countries would never grow; “We have to really find a way of supporting those countries, we have to respect the middle income countries on what they’re doing, and we have to fact base the whole way we look at the world.”[12] Rosling’s HIV graph was very informative. Many times people mention that Africa is rampant with HIV, but as his graph explains, it is only a few countries in Africa that are suffering from the HIV epidemic; “poverty is not the issue, race is not the issue, it needs to be made a local issue, and dealt with as such.”[13] Overall his main point was to change the mindset on how people think about “developing countries” and what criteria dictates that thought process.

            Both Klein and Rosling create interesting perspectives on globalization. One author uses emotion to insight a reaction while the other uses science and data. Overall I think a mix of both arguments creates the most viable representation of globalization because globalization is about the integration of not just countries but those countries peoples. You need to be informed about the world and the obstacles it faces, especially if you want to do anything positive about it. Each of these representations brings something important to issue of globalization and should both be used as tools to help move it forward in a positive way.

Work Cited:

Getis, Arthur, San Diego State University, Judith Getis, Deceased, Mark Bjelland, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Victoria Getis. Introduction to Geography. 14th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math, 2013.

Klein, Naomi. “Addicted to Risk” TED. December, 2010. Accessed December 17, 2014.http://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_klein_addicted_to_risk?language=en.

Rosling, Hans. “Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset.” TED. June, 2009. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state?language=en#t-1042982.

[1] Arthur Getis, Introduction to Geography, 14th ed. (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math, 2013), G-5.

[2] Naomi Klein, “Addicted to Risk,” TED, December, 2010, accessed December 17, 2014, http://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_klein_addicted_to_risk?language=en, 1:00.

[3] Ibid., 3:30.

[4] Ibid, 6:26.

[5] Ibid., 11:15.

[6] Ibid., 11:15.

[7] Ibid., 15:50.

[8] Ibid., 16:30.

[9] Ibid., 17:00.

[10] Hans Rosling, “Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset,” TED, June, 2009, accessed December 17, 2014, http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state?language=en#t-1042982, 2:30.

[11] Ibid., 6:00.

[12] Ibid., 15:50.

[13] Ibid., 16:30.

The Devastation of Hurricane Katrina

  

The Devastation of Hurricane Katrina

  

Katie Walsh

Anthology 101: Introduction to Geography

On August 29, 2005 the United States experienced one of the most devastating storms in the history of the country; this storm was Hurricane Katrina. A hurricane is a large storm that forms when warm water in the ocean evaporates into the atmosphere and condenses into storm clouds creating a low pressure zone (with warm and moist air). As the warm air rises, a cycle begins as the high pressure area (cool and dry air) around the storm begins to flow in and replace the rising warm air. As the storm grows and more and more air converges in the sky, the winds begin to swirl; in the northern hemisphere, like Hurricane Katrina, the winds will spin in a counterclockwise rotation and in the southern hemisphere they will spin in a clockwise rotation and this is due to the Coriolis effect and Earth’s rotation on its axis. Warm ocean water fuels the hurricane and can cause it to grow exponentially. Conversely, when a hurricane reaches land it loses its fuel and can dissipate quickly; unfortunately devastating damage doesn’t take long to accumulate.

The Saffir-Simpson scale which categorizes hurricanes into five sections based on their intensity was created by Engineer Herbert Saffir and director of the National Hurricane Center Robert Simpson.[1] “Category one hurricanes have winds from between seventy-four and ninety-five miles an hour. These hurricanes do some damage to plants, trees, and mobile homes and usually feature a five foot storm surge. Category two hurricanes have winds from ninety-six to one hundred and ten miles per hour. They feature severe damage to plants, trees, and mobile homes and feature an eight foot storm surge. A category three hurricane has winds that range from one hundred and eleven to one hundred and thirty miles per hour. These hurricanes can do damage to buildings, blow trees down, destroy mobile homes and feature a twelve foot storm surge. Hurricanes that are considered category four have winds from one hundred thirty-one to one hundred fifty-five miles per hour. These hurricanes feature severe flooding to shoreline housing, severe damage to buildings and homes and feature a storm surge of eighteen feet. The last category for hurricanes is category five and the winds rush to over one hundred and fifty-fives miles per hour. The storm surge is over eighteen feet high and entire buildings can be blown over.”[2]

            In Hurricane Katrina’s case, she started off very slow, “sometimes moving as slow as six miles per hour”.[3] As Katrina breezed by the coast of Florida as a category one hurricane, she was only just beginning. She passed Florida with minimal damage and continued on a three day journey through the warm eighty-seven degree waters of the Gulf of Mexico – growing.[4] Quickly the hurricane turned into a category five storm with winds raging over one hundred and sixty miles an hour.[5] When it finally hit the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi it had been, “downgraded to a category four storm with winds at a steady one hundred and fifty-five miles per hour, but that was little consolation” to the people living within the point of landfall considering Katrina has a storm surge of over twenty feet high.[6]. After twelve hours Hurricane Katrina had descended into tropical storm territory with winds at sixty-five miles per hour, after sixteen hours, “she had dissipated and only destruction was left in her wake”.[7]

In the early hours of the aftermath it, “seemed as though New Orleans had escaped with no more damage than might have been expected, but the worst was yet to come.”[8] During the storm the levies protecting the city of New Orleans had been severely damaged and the waters of the Mississippi River were slowly flooding in. During the next two days, “about eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded with anywhere from one to three meters of water.”[9] Almost two thousand people were killed during Hurricane Katrina in over five states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia) and over one million people were without homes.[10] Entire towns were destroyed and families separated. The devastation of Louisiana and Mississippi still has a long way to go before it will ever be able to be back to normal.

            There are a lot of things that have been done to prevent the havoc of Hurricane Katrina from ever happening again. For example, one of the largest issues: the levies that were destroyed have been built with safe holds so that the same issue cannot occur again. There is also a lot that can be done in the area of emergency preparedness. If you live in an area where hurricanes can easily decimate you, there should be protocols you should have to endure in regards to housing and building regulations, appropriate amount of supplies in danger areas, and emergency evacuation procedures. Overall I think a lot of effort has been put into making sure an event of this magnitude will not cause the immense destruction it did last time.

            Hurricane Katrina may have been one of the worst storms in the history of the United States but the amount of kindness, generosity, and hospitality it brought out in the American people was unprecedented. It shows that no matter how large a storm or how much devastation occurs we will always ban together to help others in need.

Annotated Bibliography

CNN U.S. “Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts.” Last modified August 22, 2014. Accessed November 9, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/hurricane-katrina-statistics-fast-facts/.

This website featured a lot of statistics on Hurricane Katrina. There was information available for death tolls, insurance premiums, and impacts of the hurricane.

Getis, Arthur, Mark Bjelland, and Victoria Getis. Introduction to Geography. 14th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education, 2014.

I used our textbook to feature information in my paper regarding the levies in Hurricane Katrina and the Saffir-Simpson Scale. I also referenced information on how hurricanes are created.

“How Hurricane Katrina Formed” (video). September 5, 2005. Accessed November 9, 2014. http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/katrina-formation?source=relatedvideo.

This website featured an amazing example on how hurricanes are formed as well the exact information I needed to describe Hurricane Katrina’s path from Florida to Louisiana.

The Weather Channel. “Hurricanes and Tropical Storms.” Accessed November 9, 2014.http://www.weather.com/encyclopedia/charts/tropical/saffirscale.html.

This website featured information on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

---

[1] “Hurricanes and Tropical Storms,” The Weather Channel, accessed November 9, 2014,http://www.weather.com/encyclopedia/charts/tropical/saffirscale.html.

[2] Arthur Getis, Mark Bjelland, and Victoria Getis, Introduction to Geography, 14th ed. (New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education, 2014), 92.

[3] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed” (video), September 5, 2005, 3:00, accessed November 9, 2014, http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/katrina-formation?source=relatedvideo, 1.64.

[4] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed”,  1.82.

[5] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed”,  1.97.

[6] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed”,  2.47.

[7] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed”,  2.85.

[8] Getis, Bjelland, and Getis, 75.

[9] Getis, Bjelland, and Getis, 75.

[10] “Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts,” CNN U.S., last modified August 22, 2014, accessed November 9, 2014,http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/hurricane-katrina-statistics-fast-facts/.