Precis for two articles or write a good topic you think Essay - 2

Precis for two articles or write a good topic you think - Essay Example Even though population size is larger in developing countries and has higher growth rate, the greater threat is still developed countries. Developing countries however contribute to the threat of higher consumption through emigration to developed countries or through efforts for improving living standards and per capita consumption such as in China. China is a fast growing economy. While its current per capita consumption is 11 times lower than the one for developed countries, its large population means that continued increase in its per capita consumption would be a great threat to sustainability. Increase in its per capita consumption to 32 would increase global oil consumption by more than 100 percent and global metal consumption by almost 100 percent (Diamond 1, 2). If India could also join China to the 32-consumption level then the global consumption rate would increase by 300 percent while improvement of consumption in all developing countries would increase global consumption by about 1100 percent. Even though Americans suggest that improved governance and better policies could improve lifestyles in developing countries, these may not be valid solutions because economies may not be able to sustain increased consumption levels. Americans are also critical of countries with increasing consumption rates yet these rates are well below that in America. While developing countries may seek to improve their consumption rates towards equality, resource scarcity is a limitation and developed countries may not be willing to reduce their rates. Some of the factors to high consumption rates are however wasteful and minimizing them can ensure a balance with a level of sustainability. Political goodwill appears the necessary tool to this success (Diamond 2 , 3). Malakoff David authored the article, ‘Be fruitful and multiply?’ that the Conservation Magazine published in December 2009. The author identifies conflicting opinions on global

Sociology of Law: Theories and Concepts

Sociology of Law: Theories and Concepts Introduction The three classical thinkers of Sociology, Marx, Weber and Durkheim have one thing in common regarding the Sociology of Law; their theories were part and parcel of a more fundamental sociological perspective and theory of society. Marx will be the odd one among the three because, the work of Marx is on theoretical ground not evidently connected to the aspirations of sociology, but historically Marxs writings have informed a considerable body of sociological writings until this day. Marx made a contribution to social science by suggesting the instrumentalist theory of law in contributing to and justifying social inequality. Durkheims work orients around the key dimensions of social issues as involving both factual and normative dimensions of society. Whereas Weber is considered as the founding father par excellence of the modern sociology of law. When Weber observed that social life in the modern era had become more and more rationalized in a purposive-rational sense, he no only conte mplated the central role of economy, stat, and bureaucracy, but along with it also discussed the role of law as the basis of modern political authority. Weber specifically outlined the characteristics of a formally rationalized legal system that is primarily guided by the application of procedure. Sociology of Law The sociology of law is often described as a sub-discipline of sociology or an interdisciplinary approach within legal studies. While some socio-legal scholars see the sociology of law as necessarily belonging to the discipline of sociology, others see it as a field of research caught up in the disciplinary tensions and competitions between the two established disciplines of law and sociology. Yet, others regard it neither as a sub-discipline of sociology nor as a branch of legal studies and, instead, present it as a field of research on its own right within a broader social science tradition. For example, Roger Cotterrell describes the sociology of law without reference to mainstream sociology as the systematic, theoretically grounded, empirical study of law as a set of social practices or as an aspect or field of social experience. Irrespective of whether the sociology of law is defined as a sub-discipline of sociology, an approach within legal studies, or a field of research in its own right, it remains intellectually dependent mainly on mainstream sociology, and to lesser extent on other social sciences such as social anthropology, political science, social policy, criminology and psychology, i.e. it draws on social theories and employs social scientific methods to study law, legal institutions and legal behaviour. More specifically, the sociology of law consists of various sociological approaches to the study of law in society, which empirically examines and theorizes the interaction between law and legal institutions, on the one hand, and other (non-legal) social institutions and social factors, on the other. Areas of socio-legal inquiry include the social development of legal institutions, forms of social control, legal regulation, the interaction between legal cultures, the social construction of legal issues, legal profession, and the relation between law and social change. The sociology of law also benefits from and occasionally draws on research conducted within other fields such as comparative law, critical legal studies, jurisprudence, legal theory, law and economics and law and literature. The Classical Thinkers The roots of the sociology of law can be traced back to the works of sociologists and jurists of the turn of the previous century. The relationship between law and society was sociologically explored in the seminal works of both Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. The works of Karl Marx was not immediately influential in the development of the sociology of law as no direct historical path led from his thought to subsequent sociological schools of thought. Marxs work was later appropriated by critical sociologists who sought to break with the consensual thinking that they felt characterized much of mainstream sociology in the years after World War II. The writings on law by these classical sociologists are foundational to the entire sociology of law today. A number of other scholars, mainly jurists, also employed social scientific theories and methods in an attempt to develop sociological theories of law. Notably among these were Leon Petrazycki, Eugen Ehrlich and Georges Gurvitch. Marxs theory is not to be understood merely as a theory of the economy, for his analysis of capitalism is meant to provide the basis for an analysis of society. The economic organization of society is its material core from which all other social developments in matters of politics, culture, and law can be explained. This is summarized in Marxs famous dictum that the infrastructure of a society determines it superstructure. Thus, the division between the economic classes of owners and non-owners appears at the societal level as a class antagonism between the relatively small but powerful bourgeoisie and the relatively large but powerless proletariat. The bourgeoisie can articulate its economic power also at the political, cultural, and legal level because of its control over all important institutions of society, such as government, the legal system, art science, and education. The economic, according to Marx, only the destruction of capitalism in favor of a communist mode of product ion, whereby the workers collectively own and control the means of production, world ensure a successful revolution of society in to a more just social order. Marx did not develop a comprehensive perspective on law and his ideas on law are scattered throughout his writings. Marxs theory of the state provides the most useful entry into his perspective on law. Congruent with his materialist perspective, Marx asserts that the economic conditions of society determine what type of state will develop, which in a capitalist society implies that the state will be controlled by the bourgeoisie as an instrument to secure economic rights and to moderate class conflict. For him the capitalist state represents and secures the power of the dominant economic class which now also becomes the politically dominant class. Interestingly, Marx argues that the democratic republic, rather than being a more egalitarian form of the capitalistic state, for it totally disregards the property distinction that have arisen under capitalism. Marxs notion on law is instrumentalist, similar to that of his notion of state. He views the legal system in function of its role as an instrument of control serving bourgeois interests. Rather than abiding by a principle of the rule of law that holds that it is just for the law to be applied equally and fairly to all, Marx maintains that capitalist law actually enhances the conditions of inequality that mark capitalist society. Marx contends that the capitalist legal system contributes to inequality because capitalist law establishes and applies individualized rights of freedom, which benefit those who own while disfavoring those who are without property. The formal equality that is granted in law by treating the various parties that are in contract with one another or with the state as equal contributes to sustain and develop the economic inequalities that exist among legal subjects. Legal doctrine justifies the practices of capitalist law on the basis of a notion of justice claime d to be universally valid but which in actuality serves the interests of only the dominant economic class. The ideology of capitalist law is ultimately accepted widely even among those members of society who are economically disadvantaged and thus additionally subject to the inequalities brought about by the legal system. For Max Weber, a so-called legal rational form as a type of domination within society, is not attributable to people but to abstract norms. He understood the body of coherent and calculable law in terms of a rational-legal authority. Such coherent and calculable law formed a precondition for modern political developments and the modern bureaucratic state and developed in parallel with the growth of capitalism. Central to the development of modern law is the formal rationalisation of law on the basis of general procedures that are applied equally and fairly to all. Weber specifically outlined the characteristics of a formally rationalized legal system that is primarily guided by the application of procedures. His analysis of law is an intrinsic part of his sociology, in terms of both its perspective of the study of society and its theoretical propositions on the conditions of modern society. Modern rationalised law is also codified and impersonal in its application to specific cases. In general, Webers standpoint can be described as an external approach to law that studies the empirical characteristics of law, as opposed to the internal perspective of the legal sciences and the moral approach of the philosophy of law. Weber developed his perspective on law as part of a more general sociology. In the systematic nature and comprehensive scope of its contribution, Webers analysis is rivaled only by that of Emile Durkheim, whose sociology of law was likewise part and parcel of a more fundamental sociological perspective and theory of society. Emile Durkheim wrote in The Division of Labour in Society, that as society becomes more complex, the body of civil law concerned primarily with restitution and compensation grows at the expense of criminal laws and penal sanctions. Over time, law has undergone a transformation from repressive law to restitutive law. Restitutive law operates in societies in which there is a high degree of individual variation and emphasis on personal rights and responsibilities. For Durkheim, law is an indicator of the mode of integration of a society, which can be mechanical, among identical parts, or organic, among differentiated parts such as in industrialized societies. Durkheim also argued that a sociology of law should be developed alongside, and in close connection with, a sociology of morals, studying the development of value systems reflected in law. At sociologys heart is a concern for morality. For Durkheim, society cannot exist without moral bonds, whether these are bonds of shared belief or of mutual commitment reflecting the interdependence of individuals or social groups. Moral ideas are neither innate in the individual nor to be deduced from abstract first principles. They are inspired by the empirical conditions of social lie in particular times and places. To understand those conditions and the forces that shape social development is rationally to appreciate moralitys demands. Morality provides the normative framework of stable social relationships. In modern society these relationships are primarily domestic, economic and occupational and political relationship of citizenship. Morality expresses the requirements of living together in particular environments; the domain of the moral begins where the domain of the social begins (Durkheim, 1961:60). For Durkheim, Moral ideas are the soul (lame) of the law(1909:150). Law ex presses what is fundamental in any societys morality. So the study of law like that of morality is central to sociology. Conclusion Among the three classic thinkers Marx did not focus on law to any degree of intellectual satisfaction, while the sociological contributions of Weber and Durkheim are not only influential but foundational to the sociology of law.

The Importance of the Ozone :: essays research papers fc

The Importance of the Ozone â€Å"Like an infection that grows more and more virulent, the continent-size hole in Earth’s ozone layer keeps getting bigger and bigger†(Beyond Discovery). The ozone is a protective layer that occurs naturally in the stratosphere, 6 to 28 miles in altitude. Each year, since the late 1970’s, much of the ozone layer above Antarctica has disappeared, creating what is popularly known as the â€Å"ozone hole.† This hole now measures about 9 million square miles, nearly the size of North America. Less dramatic, but still significant, depletion of ozone levels has been recorded around the globe. With less ozone in the atmosphere, more ultraviolet radiation strikes Earth, causing more skin cancer, eye damage, and possible harm to crops.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The main causes of ozone depletion are chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), such as coolants, aerosols, and fire extinguishers. When CFC’s are released, they rise into the ozone layer. The UV (ultraviolet) radiation then releases chlorine from the CFC’s. Chlorine is a chemical that disintegrates the ozone. Other everyday items that contribute Cottrell 2 to the devastation of the ozone include household refrigerants and exhaust fumes emitted from automobiles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Without the ozone layer the health of every single living being on planet Earth would be jeopardized. Ozone depletion leads to an increased exposure to ultraviolet light, which can cause many health problems. Exposure to ultraviolet light greatly increases the risks of skin cancer and cataract development. Skin cancers are very treatable in their early stages but very deadly in the advanced stages. Cataracts are growths in the eyes that cloud vision and can lead to blindness. Increased UV exposure also causes decreased growth of phytoplankton. This is the light-sensitive organism that not only forms the base of the ocean’s food web, but also is responsible for removing much of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Last, a thinning ozone layer would produce lower crop yields. Some crops, such as rice, are sensitive to ultraviolet light. Increased UV exposure could make these crops less productive or even kill them. Much of the world relies on rice as a pri mary source of food.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The people who need it most are destroying the ozone layer. This problem can be traced back to the overwhelming increase in the world’s population. With more people on the planet, there will be use of more automobiles, CFC’s, and refrigerants. In turn, an increase in these products will yield an increase in air pollution.

Journal on “Hands” by Sherwood Anderson Essay

The short story, Hands, which was written by Sherwood Anderson, basically revolves around Wing Biddlebaum, who is the main character of the story, and his struggles to cure his seemingly â€Å"uncontrollable hands. † In the story, Wing is portrayed as a middle-aged and nearly bald man who lives alone in his home. His only friend is George Willard, a young reporter for local paper, whom he values a lot. Other than Wing’s ordeal with his â€Å"disease,† the story also highlights his friendship with George. Basically, Wing first discovered his â€Å"disease† when he was still a teacher in Pennsylvania. As a teacher, Wing was very close to his students and often touched their hair and shoulders as a form of affection. However, one of the students, a boy, misinterpreted his actions as sexual in nature, causing his parents to confront him and throw him out of town. This experience basically caused Wing to live in isolation as he believed he was sick and he needed to avoid close contact with people to be cured. However, Wing’s â€Å"uncontrollable hands† again continued to haunt him despite his isolation him and almost jeopardized his friendship with George. In another flashback, while Wing is giving advice to George, he suddenly finds himself caressing the boy’s shoulders with his hands the just like the way he touched his students shoulders. Although George doesn’t notice what he was doing to him, Wing was bewildered upon realizing what his hands were doing to the boy and so he quickly placed them into his pockets. It was here that he realized that he was not yet cured of his â€Å"disease. † Generally, although the story did not specifically say that Wing has a â€Å"disease,† almost every event concerning his hands showed that he had one. However, it would be more accurate to say that his â€Å"uncontrollable hands† were psychological in nature. Basically, when Wing uses his hands to do things such as picking strawberries at an extraordinary speed and caressing the shoulder’s of his students, he does so almost subconsciously, which further supports the fact that he had a mental problem.

A Long Way Gone: Ishmael

Ishmael Beah was 12 years old when the opposing army, The Rebels, attacked his small town, Sierra Loene. Ishmael fled leaving everything important to him behind. His family, home, and possessions were all gone. With only his brother and nine friends, he ran away. For two years they stayed away from the rebels walking from town to town looking for their lost families. Ishmael lost 8 of his friends and eventually his brother along the way. With only Alhaji left they were found by the army and made to fight or be killed. They used their rap and hip-hop skills to remain popular between missions. To these two gentle-hearted boys killing became a way of life. At the age of sixteen Ishmael and Alhaji were chosen to be removed from the fighting by UNICEF. Upon arriving at the rehabilitation center two boys were killed with hidden knives and guns because they were rebels. The others didn’t care that they too, were forced to fight. This didn’t come as a surprise to the workers; the kids had been doing it for most of their lives. Ishmael entered therapy with kind young women named, Esther. After many months of vigorous therapy Ishmael opened up and finally accepted his new life. With the help of Esther and many other individuals, Ishmael found an uncle of whom his father rarely spoke about and went to live with him and his family. He was enjoying meeting his long lost relatives when he was invited to go to a conference in San Francisco for kids who survived terrifying things and wanted to educate others about it. He was chosen out of millions of kids to speak about child soldiers. He immediately agreed at sent his forms away to the conference officials telling them he was coming. He had problems getting a passport but that was quickly taken care of by the workers from his old rehabilitation center in an effort to help him. He attended the conference and met a kind, rich, woman who helped him and a few friends he met adjust to the city and the constant action that they weren’t used to. When he got back from San Francisco he was shocked to realize that the rebels had taken over the city. Terrified that he would be recognized and killed or that he would have to fight once again Ishmael looked for a way out of the city. He found one and risked being one of the many shot just for being on the street. Ishmael contacted the woman he had met at the conference and she agreed to let him live with her until he could find a way to make money. Ishmael was one of the lucky people who got out of the war, some kids weren’t as fortunate. A Long Way Gone is a true story about a real boy. It’s horrifying that kids as young as nine are being forced into a war they want no part of in order to survive.