Trouble in Paradise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Trouble in Paradise - Essay Example This is one of Lubitsch’s best and the most favorite film and had chosen the main character because he liked to ‘rehabilitate obscure European plays’. It was a great box office success and had won critical appreciations from the critics. The popular genre of screwball comedy of the 1930s in Hollywood was given a new dimension by Lubitsch in this film. While the normal screwball films were racy slapstick romantic comedies that just hinted subtly at sex and united the lovers only at the end, ‘Trouble in Paradise’ reveled in sexual innuendoes and larceny. The two main characters of the film were lovers as well as partners in crime whose dedication for their work was equaled only by their passion for each other. Throughout the film, with suggestive dialogues delivered with orchestrated grace and finesse, Lubitsch has not only expanded the idea of thievery into a glamorized activity, he has also shown that sexual exploits can also become intrinsic part of the overall plot. All the works of Lubitsch have his special signature ‘Lubitsch touch’ that never fails to keep his audience very firmly to the ground realities. This film too has its share. In fact, at the start of the film itself, the romantic gondola of Venice is shown as a carrier of garbage! Indeed, the juxtaposition of the extreme is the highlight of Lubitsch films which he carries with aplomb. The film is representative of the artifice that a man is forced to portray in order to accomplish his nefarious intentions. Posing as aristocratic Baron, made it easier for Gaston to fool his intended victim, Madame Mariette Colet and steal her riches. He was an honest thief because he had accepted the fact unlike ‘Giron’, accountant of Colet, who had been ripping his boss for years and yet always pretended to be her well wisher. He even wanted to report Gaston to the police for the same crime that he had been committing for years! The film

Globalisation is a force for good. Discuss Essay

Globalisation is a force for good. Discuss - Essay Example Considering all the advantages of globalisation, the argument that this concept is a force for good cause remains true. This paper is meant to examine the positive effects of globalisation that resulted in the transformation of major areas like education, technology and business as a relationship with the relevance of international cooperation instilled by globalisation. Make a quick overview of the development around the world that has taken place in the recent two decades and it will be clear how great the aspect of ‘globalisation’ is. It is obvious that the politically segmented world map is now filled with a number of cities and economic hubs where labour and capital are brilliantly invested and operated in a variety of enterprises. This rapid growth in urbanisation and development in the human resource quality meant for economic growth of many countries became a reality through the integration of ideas and efforts from different parts of the world. As such, the commonness in opinion and the willingness to share material and abstract things meant for progress of human communities across political borders can be considered as the basis of globalisation. The interchange and exchange of information and material meant for mutually beneficial prospects between two or more countries constitute globalisation. According to a suggestion, â⠂¬Å"Globalisation is the term used to describe the process of removal of restrictions on foreign trade, investment, innovation in communications and transport systems† (Paul, 2008, p.55). The clear observation of this process will open a chamber of international participation in almost all the walk of economic enterprises. Under the franchisee of globalisation concept, the countries participating in joint economic ventures are supposed to be transparent and liberal among them in order to make the process of

The Role of Conflict Essay Example for Free

The Role of Conflict Essay In the establishment of leader-follower relationships, harmony is required in order to achieve the best possible results within an organization. But in the real world, perfect harmony is not likely to happen. Leaders and followers have varying degrees of intellect, perception, and principles – and these are the very things that contribute to conflicts in an organization. While conflict can easily be assumed to have a negative effect on a leader-follower relationship, it plays a special role within the community – a role that is as equally important as harmony. The main function of conflicts is to bring out the best in every plan, policy, and method that is implemented by the leader or the group as a whole. Conflicts cause members to voice out their views and opinions to their leaders or other members with the aim of correcting what they think or feel are not right about it. Consequently, this ensures that every step that the group makes passes the strict scrutiny and evaluation of its own members and leaders (Cuban 29). Conflicts challenge the actions of leaders or other group members. People who stimulate conflicts are not necessarily bad for the organization. In fact, conflict indicates that the group is composed of people who are morally involved and committed to all the pursuits that their organization are willing to take. The actual people who seemingly create conflict are there to ensure that all steps taken by the group conforms well within social norms and ideology of the organization they belong to. They are there to protect the interests of the group and make certain that everything is done for its greater glory. They are actually more involved, although in a negative way, than those members who choose not to air out their views, no matter how right they think they are. In essence, conflicts makers benefit the organization more than the member or the leader who is indifferent to what transpires around them (Harolds Wood 203). Conflicts also bring about the best in a leader. Conflicts, whether it is aimed to make the organization good or worse, is an issue that a leader needs to deal with. A capable leader can be evaluated in terms of performance and skills by to his ability to handle conflicts. His ability to remain as a leader can be assessed through the techniques he or she uses to address the problem and the actual solutions he was able to implement (Korabik, et al 409). Works Cited Cuban, Larry. â€Å"Conflict and Leadership in the Superintendency.† Phi Delta Kappan 67.1 (1985): 28-30. Harolds, J Wood, BP. â€Å"Conflict Management and Resolution† J Am Coll Radiol 3.3 (2006): 200-2006. Korabik, Karen, Baril, Galen L, Watson Carol. â€Å"Managers Conflict Management Style And Leadership Effectiveness: The Moderating Effects Of Gender† Sex Roles 29.5-6 (1993):405-420.

Gulf War Was A Perfect Television War Media Essay

Gulf War Was A Perfect Television War Media Essay The media representation of wars has significantly changed over last years. Previously being just an instrument of coverage and propaganda, now media are considered a competent weapon. The war of real objects is partially being replaced by the war of pictures and sounds, information war (Virilio, 2002). On the one hand, information technologies can be regarded as humane weapon, because they lead to the fewer amounts of victims. On the other hand, they directly influence the mental structures, can fulfill the conscious with false images or distort the perceptions, spread moral panics or create virtual enemies and thus are an intelligent weapon of mass distruction. One of the famous works about the usage of information technologies in the war belongs to French sociologist Jean Baudrillard, and his concept of the Gulf War 1991 as the first television war will be assessed in the essay in correlation with his theories of hyper reality and simulacrum. Those concepts are applied to the media representation of the conflict in South Ossetia. The usefulness of the concept of television war for understanding modern conflicts is proved in conclusion. Hyper reality, simulacrum and information wars Philosophical approach of Baudrillards works is concentrated around two main notions -hyper reality and simulacrum. Both terms are related to the reality of the consumer society. According to Baurillard, we all live in the world, dominated by organized perceptions, while people loose an ability to perceive the real surrounding. Instead they face artificial or adapted environments: assembled chronicles of military operations, coverage of suicidal terrorist acts. Baudrillard (1996) claims that the reality is not only possible to represent, the reality should always be ready for representation and thus it becomes a hyper reality, existing only in simulation. It consists of media and cultural images that simulate the real world. Some of this images are representations of real objects, but aggressive information technologies, television and particularly advertisement create special images, deceiving representations of non-existing objects, which Baudrillard (1998), following Plato, calls simulacra. In postmodern culture, dominated by TV and Internet, the notions of true and false representations are destroyed, as people have access only to simulations of reality, which is no more real than the simulacra representing it. Moreover, we start to believe the maps of reality as more real than own experience and take the hyper reality as the actual environment (Mann, n.d.). Consequently, simulacra, which lost any connection to real things, dont have original or prototype, and can parallel some objects, change the notion of counterfeits or false. So a correlation appears that hyper reality becomes the battlefield and the simulacra the intellectual weapons in conflicts of all levels, from the business competition to wars between countries, which gradually turn into information wars. The most widespread technique of symbolic images usage in information war is propaganda, but now in the form of marketing or PR campaigns. Such campaigns provide the basis for military operations and are a perfect tool to make conform to one side or type of thinking. Thus they are the most integrated and hidden, but also the most pervasive parts of the new wars. The censorship is widespread, because the military-media campaigns require a gap between the event and the audience, and censorship breaks the flow of information, while propaganda specialists feed media with false information (Snow, 2003). In these terms coverage of military operations is now able to influence their process as it was, for example, in the movie Wag the dog, where imaginary war actions of American troops in Albania, staged to shift public interest from the reputation crisis of the president, led to real military response. So, the role of media in the modern wars is not limited to news coverage or propaganda, the media now should be regarded more likely as the fourth front of war. The reasons for it could be different. According to sociologist Paul Virilio (2002), the escalation of cybernetic wars of persuasion and propaganda is the result of graduate changes in weapons. The first, prehistorical, wars were tactical and used weapons of obstruction (ramparts, fortresses). The epoch of political wars made them strategic and reliable on weapons of destruction (bows, missiles). The new period of transpolitical wars is characterized as logistical and uses weapons of communication (telephone, radar, satellites, information carriers), which emerged due to global information networks and tele-surveillance. The turning point of modern epoch is the integration of media and industrial army, where the capability to war without war manifests a parallel information market of propaganda, illusion, dissimulation (Viril io, 2002: 17). The image prevails over the real space and substitutes it, changes the landscape from physical to audiovisual by technological accelerants satellites, internet and high-quality video on TV. The level of media influence is dependent on the communication forms, in which it is carried, because it is possible to frame the report, provided with knowledge of certain mediums advantages (Cottle, 2003). Television with live broadcast and reliance on spectacular images, simulacra, is in these terms the best communication weapon. It makes inefficient the object, but concentrates on its representation; it is not a reality, but a construction of it (Webster, 2002). TV news is often watched with the belief that it indicates, the reality, but in fact it is a version of events, shaped by journalists values and morality. The whole reality begins and ends on television screens, and any critical attitude emerges not an original version of event, but creates other symbolic representation in live images (Webster, 2002). According to Virilio (2002), the live image attracts not critiques, but emotion, apprehension. Thus it involves the spectator to the situation, makes him dependent on televi sual interface, even if the problem doesnt concern him directly. All these advantages were used strategically for the first time in the Gulf War, which Baudrillard (1995) called both a non-existing and a first television war. Gulf War 1991: the first television war Three essays of Baudrillard, referred to events in Iraq during January and February 1991, were published originally in the Liberation and the Guardian and lately collected in one book The Gulf War did not take place. Before the actual war, during the strengthening of American military and propaganda, he claimed that the Gulf War will not take place in reality. During the military actions his catchy slogan was that the Gulf War is not taking place and right after the operation he said that the Gulf War hadnt taken place, because the Western public perceived it just as a series of hyperreal TV images. For Baudrillard, media and especially television do not provide the opportunities for effective communication. Television is the technology of non-communication because it limits the interaction needed for symbolic exchange by giving the large amounts of signs impossible to critically analyze and react (Groening, 2007). A war demands a struggle between counterparts, exchange, communicatio n and interaction (Webster, 2002), while Baudrillard (1995) argued that the USA overloaded the symbolic communication space in this war and moreover, the goals of George Bush and Saddam Hussein were so different that they couldnt even be considered as counterparts. Hussein, a former US ally, was not regarded as the real enemy, and the outcome of the war was predictable both for participants and for audience of war (Mann, n.d.). Researchers express the controversial idea that bombing was the most precise in history and civilian casualties thus were minimized (Kellner, 2008). Consequently, the war can be regarded as hyperreal and overloaded by media provocations. The Gulf War was understood by Paul Virilio (2002) also as a turning point in history. He called it the first information war of images, media-staged event or the first electronic war in the form of televised series, broadcast live by satellite. The difference is that Virilio accepted the idea that the war really had taken place, but it moved to the fourth front of communication weapons and instant information. He warned about the doubling of the front, a communication between place of action the Middle East and place of its immediate reception the whole world, which extends widely over the Iraqi-Saudi border. Turning the battlefield into a theatre with the symbolic counterparts- Hussein and CNN emerges the risk of turning TV audience into fans on the stadium, counting casualties like goals of the favorite team. In comparison with Baudrillard, Virilio considers TV as establishing interactivity between those making war and those watching it. But he has the same idea about the role of common people in war impotent tele-spectators, victims of intelligent weapons and the people who serve them (Virilio, 2002: 47). It is obvious that Baudrillard didnt intend to act like a devils advocate and decline the existence of the Gulf War. He agrees that a massive bombing of military and civil objects took place in Iraq in 1991. And lately he (2002) told readers that official casualties in Iraq were estimated in order of 100Â  000, not counting the losses due to consequent hunger and diseases. But the question is why so few US soldiers died in this war, that it was named a war of zero casualties on the side of allies (Virilio, 2002: 97). After analyzing Baudrillards work, it becomes clear, that despite a catchy slogan in title, in fact the author compares real events with their interpretation, and the central conclusion is that the consequence of real events could hardly be named a war, while a consequence of those events representations was perceived as a real war. This effect was a main reason why he called a Gulf War the first and the perfect television war. US-led coalition relied highly on the television. On the first night of military operation, in Kourou, Ariane rocket launched two broadcasting satellites (Virilio, 2002), and it was a sign of parallel intervention of real forces and television. The leaders decisions were significantly based on intelligence reports, coming not from eye-witnesses, but from news and images. Bush recruited CNN and its owner Ted Turner to transit messages to Iraqi people and thus held diplomacy through interposed images (Virilio, 2002). Coalition forces were ordered not to get engaged in the direct battles with Iraqi army, but to use the means of virtual war in response to Iraqi attempts to turn the conflict into traditional. After interviewing soldiers, who were on the battlefield, Baudrillard (1995) claimed that the Western TV channels, especially CNN, offered audience highly edited reports from Iraq under the shape of live feeds. ABC News through life coverage of the Gulf War convinced the nation that Star Wars works (Bass, 2002). But Hussein used media even more cynically, creating a consequence of the images of hostages and the crying children. Attractive simulacra with no meaning behind were promoted by media of both sides: the CNN journalists with the gas masks in the Jerusalem, drugged and beaten prisoners on Iraqi TV, sea-bird covered in oil and pointing eyes into the Gulf sky (Baudrillard, 1995) and the quintessential symbol the Stealth F117, undetectable bomber, that nobody have seen, but everyone knew. The first object, destructed by F117, was also symbolic the building of Hussein forces communication centre (Virilio, 2002). The effect could be correlated with the essence of the conflicts media coverage: it is possible to see it only in time it happens, there is no time to prepare for it and no sense to watch it afterwards. As the victims of F117 see it just in the moment of action, viewers see the live broadcasts at the same time with the military journalists. The last reasons for perceiving the Gulf War as a television war are its results. Baudrillard and Virilio agreed that nobody fully lost or won in the conflict. Defeated in fact, Hussein remained in power and moreover won the information war. In spite of abilities given by Pentagon, CNN lost that television war, because American government issued a document, restricting the real time of operations from the TV present time (Virilio, 2002). Trying to prevent the American audience from communication weapons of Iraq, US officially imposed censorship and turned the public to the search for new information sources. To conclude, Iraq in 1991 was a place not of real war, but of massive violence and a remote enough zone for creating simulacra and holding a perfect television war. The TV Gulf War could have seemed a perfect simulacrum, a hyperreal situation. It is possible to partially agree with Baudrillards and Virilios argumentation, as it may be really the first example in the war history, when the TV technologies were used as a competent weapon and the whole war was spectacled on TV. But from the humane point of view, the statement the Gulf War did not take place undermines the seriousness of the Iraqi civilians massacre, the consequences for the political situation in Iraq and such consequence as the spread of international terrorism, which now is often perceived as the same symbolic non-event (Baudrillard, 2002): it catches the eye on TV screen when happening somewhere, but is not fully understood as possible to happen with the viewer. Nevertheless, Baudrillards theory is useful for understa nding representations of other modern wars, for example, the recent conflict between Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia. South Ossetia 2008 media war Conflict in South Ossetia will remain in the history of the post-Soviet area as a first war, which media helped to spread from the inter-country to cross-continental level. Known as Georgian-Ossetian war, the conflict in August 2008 turned into confrontation between Georgia and USA on one side and Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other. On the 8 August Georgia started a bombing of its separatist region South Ossetia. The next day Russia deployed troops in Ossetia and started military operation against Georgia. The USA government expressed eagerness to intervene, but on the 16 August the ceasefire was signed. The actual political result is recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia by several countries, leading by Russia, and high tensions in the region. The number of casualties is still discussed and differs from 160 to 2000 on Ossetian side and from 60 to 400 on Georgian. Baudrillards concept of hyperreal television war is the perfect way of understanding this simulacra-rich conflict. The date of its beginning was a sign itself it was the day of opening the Olympic Games in Beijing, when by ancient traditions all the conflicts should be postponed. The violation of symbolic tradition instantly attracted the attention of worlds media. Artillery system Grad, used by Georgian forces as well as totally destructed building of hospital in Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, became symbols of civilian massacre. The anecdotic situation, when American audience mixed the Georgia as the Caucasus country and the US state, and started panics, was spread by media. Russian media discussed the interview with the 12-year-old ossetian girl on the Fox News, where she accuses Georgia, while being roughly interrupted by the journalist (Kukolevsky, 2008). And even unaware people remember Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, nervously chewing his necktie during the live TV inte rview. All those images were born by the war, which Georgian minister Temur Yakobashvili called a war for international public opinion (Collin, 2008). The media became a crucial battlefield in the conflict between Tbilisi and Moscow. The Georgian side claimed that it tried to reconquer its territory while Russian troops illegally invaded into it. Russians responded that Georgian government organized genocide, while Russian mission was to enforce peace. Both sides accused each other of spending millions of dollars on propaganda. Both sides even employed European PR agencies to promote their viewpoint. Georgia, backed by Western allies, from the beginning dominated in the information war. Started with cyberattacks and blocking of Russian TV, it used the help of USA and Great Britain, who didnt engage into real conflict, but actively engaged in the information one. All the leading global media CNN, Fox News, BBC, Sky News, Reuters, Associated Press were pro-Georgian. For example, Sky News showed a video report about the bombings of Tskhinvali by Georgian troops with a title Russia bombs the Georgian region South Ossetia (InoSmi, 2008; CNN, 2008). Georgia used a main advantage of Baudrillards television war that the world revealed the war from TV news. European audience, unaware of remote Caucasus regions, didnt know that some American and European correspondents presented the videos from Ossetian Tskinvali as the videos from Georgia (Vesti, 2009). Even Russian Foreign minister Sergej Lavrov agreed, that Russia lost that information war, but presented it as evidence, that Russia i s not an aggressor, otherwise it would have prepared a successful strategy (RIA Novosti, 2008). Nevertheless, I consider the results of Russian-Georgian information war as controversial as the results of real week-long conflict. The aim of attracting Western support wasnt achieved by any side. For example, German press claimed the conflict broadened the tensions between Russia and the West (Mannteufel, 2008), while some of British media found evidence of Georgia being an aggressor, guilty in war crimes (Milne, 2008). Some analysts consider Georgian media campaign as more effective because, for example, English-speaking ministers were always available for interview (Collin, 2008), but the media coverage was often favorable to Russia. The Russian strategy in this war could have been more effective, if used the overviewed simulacra images actively, because they all were really catchy and could influence the target audiences. Also Russia could have provided the world media with evidence of Georgian genocide by opening an access to a war zone for journalists. Moreover, it could be useful to prepare a strategic crisis communication plans for the possible conflicts of this kind. But anyway, the negative image of Russia, popular among Western media, could undermine by now any communication efforts. To change the situation, Russia should become a part of global media system, which is impossible because of American domination. The main idea of case study is that in August 2008 South Ossetia became a centre not of a real war, which ended in one week, but of an information war, which lasts till now. On this battlefield a little Georgia, backed by Western transnational media, can beat the huge Russia and create herself an image of a victim of Russian military machine (Zinenko, 2008). Thus it proves the thesis of Baudrillard and Virilio, that the wars of new generation are being won or lost in the space of media and information technologies. Conclusion The theoretical concepts of information and especially television wars by Baudrillard and Virilio, engaged in the essay with the real wars in Iraq 1991 and South Ossetia 2008, emerge the question of what Kellner (2005) calls a centrality of media politics in advanced foreign policy. Of course, the idea of hyperreal television war is an ideal model, and by now there was no conflict that has been totally televisual. Critiques of Baudrillard draw an attention to his hyper-postmodern approach (Hegarty, 2004) or lack of meaningful political engagement (Economic expert, n.d.). Nevertheless, the fact remains in both analyzed war cases and in numerous other conflicts of the last decades the media opened the fourth front, created a hyperreal space of mutual information attacks and marketing-style campaigns, used the simulacra-like images to influence the audience and to attract it to one side. Moreover, media become a means of searching allies or oppositely turn back to life the old confrontations, like in case of South Ossetia they emerged a new spiral of Cold War between Russia and the USA (RIA Novosti, 2008). Consequently, the governments of new generation should consider media campaigns as a part of any successful military operations, and the people, who dont want to be manipulated be spectacular images, should try to be less ignorant and more human-oriented.

Romeo and Juliet: Joseph A. Bryant’s Considerations :: Romeo and Juliet Essays

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has always been a very popular play. Joseph A. Bryant states this in his introduction, but there was never really contention. Most likely written in 1595, we learn from Bryant that this is thought to be one of Shakespeare’s more mature works that shows the pinnacle of his creativity (xxviii-xxx). Because of this creativity, audiences love Romeo and Juliet. However, Bryant also tells us that "[a]mong professional scholars the play has sparked less enthusiasm" (xxiii). For even though the play possesses an "ingenuity of the language" and has a particular "brilliance of the characterizations" (xxiii) , Bryant informs us that critics are upset by the importance Shakespeare places on pathos, and therefore feel that the play lacks real ethics. Bryant also concerns his introduction on the aesthetics of Romeo and Juliet with special consideration on the structure, the language, and the characters of the play, as well as how good of an exa mple of a tragedy the play is. Many readers may feel that Romeo and Juliet relies too much on pathos; that it’s just a tear-jerking love story. However, Bryant’s answer to those who think that the play lacks real ethics is that they are looking at it from a modern standpoint. The play really needs to be looked at from the point of view of the Elizabethan audience of 1595. Bryant tells us that "[t]hey knew by training what to think of impetuous young lovers who deceived their parents and sought advice from friars" (xxiv). Elizabethan audiences also knew that suicide was a sin (xxiv). This was common sense knowledge, and if looked at through the conventions of society at this time then, as Bryant states, the play "must have had automatically an abundance of ethical import" (xxiv). Bryant also commends Shakespeare for not attacking these commonly held ethical conventions, even though today’s readers can clearly see that Shakespeare thought nothing wrong with the relationship and did not even hold Romeo and Juliet entirely responsible for the consequences (xxiv). But some modern readers, Bryant tells us, are also uncomfortable with the numerous references to fate and destiny, and assume "that Shakespeare meant the play to be deterministic" (xxiv). Bryant tells us that Shakespeare does promise "in the Prologue to show the ‘misadventured piteous overthrows’ of a ‘pair of star-crossed lovers’" and then lets his characters continue to refer to destiny for the rest of the play (xxv).

Disaster in Elizabeth Bishop’s One Art Essay -- One Art

Disaster in Elizabeth Bishop’s One Art Art is not life. More, it is a deception, mirroring experience and emotion, but never truly becoming that which it reflects. Art is attractive in that it is a controlled balance between rigid structure, which is too mundane for its purposes, and chaotic discord, which is too feral. Poetry is art. Loss is not. In her villanelle â€Å"One Art,† Elizabeth Bishop proves this to be so. The poem itself is an emotive crescendo, and while its speaker struggles to hold the pain of loss within the confines of art, its readers note the incongruity of such an effort. One word prompts them, and fuels Bishop’s crescendo with a momentum, a tone, and a coda; â€Å"disaster† impels the poem â€Å"One Art.† Fittingly, the crescendo begins softly. The poem’s opening stanza assumes a fairly impassive tone, which transpires from the speaker’s feigned indifference toward the prospect of losing. Though the immediate clash between Bishop’s title and its implication briefly upsets the mind from a logical standpoint, the speaker’s hasty assurance that loss is â€Å"no disaster† seem...

Environment pollution argument Essay

Perhaps no invention affected American everyday life in the 20th century more than the automobile (UsHistory.org, 2008). Technology for the automobiles existed in the 19th century, but it took until the 20th century for Henry Ford to make automobiles accessible to the American public. The automobile drastically changed the lives of Americans for the better, not only did it improve transportation, it also created an economic boost for them. The demand for rubber skyrocketed and road construction created thousands of jobs. State and local governments began funding highway designs and the federal government became involved with the Federal Highway Act of 1921 (UsHistory.org, 2008). This act required each state to designate a system of state highways not to exceed seven percent of the total highway mileage in each state. Gas stations began to appear and mechanics could earn a living by fixing the inescapable problems with automobiles. Obviously two well established industries, oil and st eel, received a serious boost by the demand of automobiles. People could travel longer distances causing the need for motels, fast food places, and diners. In the beginning, automobiles made life better for humans, but with the growing number, environmental issues began to appear. In this unperfected world, the combustion process caused by automobile engines emits several types of pollutants. The exhaust from automobiles is generated by the chemical and mechanical process that occurs in order for a vehicle to work, this exhaust is what pollutes the air. Exhaust pollutants include hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Smog is a word formed by smoke and fog. The leading cause of smog comes from the releasing of pollutants in the air from gasoline and diesel-run vehicles, industrial plants and activities, and heating due to human activities. Burning gasoline in automobiles releases carbon dioxide, which is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in  the United States (Conserve Energy Future, 2013). Increased heat in the atmosphere causes ecosystems and weather patterns to change, such as the rise of sea levels and affects rainfall patterns. Humans can experience short term and long term affects due to exposure of air pollution. Short term effects, usually are temporary, can range from nausea to bronchitis. While long term effects can in clude heart disease and lung cancer leading to death. In 1952, over 3,000 people died in what became known as London’s â€Å"Killer Fog.† The smog was so thick that buses could not run without guides walking ahead of them carrying lanterns (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). Events like this alerted humans of the threats air pollution poses to human health. In 1963 several federal and state laws were passed including the original Clean Air Act, this produced funding to study the effects and help clean up air pollution. In 1970 Congress passed a stronger Clean Air Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency, known as the EPA. Again in 1990 Congress expanded the Clean Air Act, which gave the EPA more authority to implement regulations lowering pollutant emissions. Worldwide, many countries have taken steps to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming. The Kyoto Protocol, first adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, is an agreement between 183 countries that they will work to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. The United States has not signed that treaty (National Geographic Education, 1996) . Along with human health, automobiles pose a threat to the environment in ways of global warming, water pollution, and acid rain. Global warming is affected by the greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, which are emitted through automobile exhaust. Vehicles require fluids like motor oil, antifreeze, gasoline, and refrigerants. These fluids are easily leaked from a vehicle or can be disposed of improperly and can end up in aquatic ecosystems. When rain occurs it washes everything on the ground, including leaked car fluids, into sewage drains that lead into our oceans and other aquatic ecosystems. Automobile fluids are toxic to animals affecting their immune and respiratory systems. Acid rain changes the PH balance of waterways and can harm the organisms that rely on them. The nitrogen and sulfer oxides that are released from automobiles are major contributors to acid rain. Electrical motors date back to the 1800’s, with steam and combustion engines being attempted by the 1900’s, and it was undecided which engine would power  the automobile. At first the electrical motor was the most popular, but the battery life was short and would not allow travel over long distances. As mentioned earlier, Henry Ford introduced a combustion engine that rejected the idea of an electrical motor. In the late 1 960’s automobile manufacturers noticed concerns of the growing oil crisis and emissions of gasoline powered vehicles causing them to add electric cars into their line ups. By the 1990’s consumers were converting to electric powered automobiles because awareness of dependency on foreign oil and environmental issues were becoming more knowledgeable. Automobile manufacturers were making electric cars a larger part of their line ups. Modern day consumers have a choice between electric cars and hybrid cars as an alternative choice to gasoline powered engines. Recent electric cars are comparable to gasoline powered engines in terms of speed and travel distance due to recharging stations along the way. Electric cars are nonpolluting, however still have an environmental cost because the recharging of their batteries is done by burning fossil fuels. According to the Electrical Vehicle Association of Canada, even batteries recharged by coal-powered electric generators cut carbon emission roughly in half (Lampton, 1998) Hybrid cars are appealing to consumers who feel limited by electric cars. These cars have a traditional engine and a bank of rechargeable batteries that charge while the car is running. Limited demands of power, like driving around town, uses the charged batteries while high demand of power, like freeway driving, uses the gasoline engine. Although hybrid cars are low polluting, they still have some environmental issues of emissions as gasoline powered engines. The future for humans depends on what they are doing and consuming today. Fossil fuels are eventually going to be depleted and the sooner the dependency is lifted, the longer humans can make them last. Global warming is going to occur, but causing the release of carbon dioxide into the air through the burning of gasoline is only going to make it happen faster. Human health issues regarding air pollution are going to continue to get worse, death is already happening and those numbers are going to continue to rise. Humans depend on automobiles as their primary mode of transportation, but carpooling or public transportation would lessen their carbon footprint. If everyone just did one thing a day to help the envi ronment, maybe they could help sustainability of the Earth. References Conserve Energy Future. (2013). What is Smog. Retrieved from http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/SmogPollution.php Lampton, C. (1998-2013). How Electric Car Batteries Work. Retrieved from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/vehicles/electric-car-battery3.htm National Geographic Education. (1996-2013). Air Pollution. Retrieved from http://education.national geographic.com/education/encylopedia/air-pollution/?ar_a=1 United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2012, March 6). Understanding the Clean Air Act. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/airquality/peg_caa/understand.html UsHistory.org. (2008-2013). The Age of the Automobile. Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/us/46a.asp