Should countries drill for oil in protected areas to reduce gas prices

Should countries drill for oil in protected areas to reduce gas prices There is a great debate going on all around the world today about whether or not countries should drill for oil in protected areas in order to reduce the price of gas. While the debate gets very heated, the reality is that there should be no debate at all. Protected areas are protected for a reason and no oil drilling should be allowed in those areas under any circumstances. The Meaning and Purpose of Protected Areas Protected wildlife or natural areas have been designated all around the world to preserve the natural eco-system of the world and to prevent human expansion that could destroy the ecology of the planet. Many of these natural areas were carefully selected, as well, based on the specific flora and fauna that inhabit them. The Redwood National and State Forest in the state of California in the United States, for example, was protected as of 1968 when the park was formed. This is the last vestige of the amazing old-growth redwood tree and is protected to prevent those trees from being wiped off of the face of the earth. Pollution and Disruption Similar areas around the world are designed to protect endangered animal and plant species and to provide everyday people with a learning opportunity when they go to visit. If oil drilling is allowed in any of these protected areas, the entire purpose of the designation as a protected area will be lost. Oil drilling means clearing entire areas of the natural wildlife. It means more human and vehicle traffic. And it means a great deal of noise. All of this could cause animals to become disoriented and flee, putting the eco-system out of balance and causing irreparable damage. Expansive Ecological Impact The other issue with oil drilling is that it is not isolated to the locations of the oil drills and rigs. The oil must be transported from the region. This is often accomplished either by trucking it out or by building an oil pipeline. Trucking it out means building wide roads through the protected areas and lands. This, again, will cause damage to the ecosystem and lead to the deaths of many old-growth trees, plants, and animals. The trucks themselves produce a great deal of noise and air pollution as well which will, again, cause serious damage to the delicate natural balance of the region. Water Contamination Drilling for oil also comes with a great deal of inherent risk to the area in which the drilling is taking place. Water contamination by way of the pollutants and by-products of oil drilling is practically a given any time oil is drilled in a region. While a company  may  make efforts to contain the waste water created through running oil drilling machinery and processing crude oil, this does not prevent that water from soaking into the soil and getting into ground water supplies. There is also no guarantee that companies will even try to prevent that wastewater from contaminating nearby lakes, rivers, and streams, making them unsuitable for drinking or sustaining fish and other life. Oil Spill Risks And, of course, there is the risk that the oil drilling and transportation process through protected areas will cause oil spills in the region. In fact, the reality of the drilling process is that oil spills are basically inevitable. Experts estimate that around 70 oil spills occur every day in the United States alone. While these spills are usually small and can be contained, they still have an impact. Big spills too are inevitable and do happen more frequently than most people know. Large spills can wipe out the wildlife and eco-system for miles upon miles and can take years or centuries to recover from. Even then, much of the wildlife that once inhabited the area has been destroyed and cannot come back, especially if the species is endangered or can only inhabit that region. With all of these factors in mind, it is easy to see why there should be no drilling for oil in protected areas to reduce gas prices. There are alternative options to increased oil drilling and the destruction of protected natural areas including finding and developing alternative and renewable energy sources. Under no circumstances should countries be allowed to drill for oil in any protected area.

Information Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Information Security - Essay Example Thus, it becomes must for an organization to safeguard and make certain about the security of all the stored data. The intention of the policy in relation to information security is to defend the privacy, dependability and ease of admission of the systems as well as the information’s (CMS, 2006). The organization OUMC Edmond checks with the security policies regarding the information security as how developed and effective they are by reviewing them occasionally and also by updating them. The organization also monitors that whether the employees are abiding by the policies or not. They keep a check that whether any unlawful access is being taking place or not. This is how the organization makes sure about the development and effectiveness of its policies regarding the safety of the data. There are numerous policies that can be implemented by organizations to make certain of the privacy, accessibility and dependability of the data. OUMC Edmond sets its security policies in order to protect the information. The organization applies specific security policies such as data ownership, security and classification, usage of password, cryptography, data content, physical security, and mail ownership in electronic form, measures to manage and prevent virus, accountability regarding the end user as well as acceptable use, security awareness, backup and even preservation of the records among others. The above mentioned policies can be observed as the measures to prevent unlawful access to the information. The organization implements data content, data ownership, data classification and data security to deal with the stated issues. These are the security policies that are applied by OUMC Edmond so as to make sure of the confidentiality, accessibility and dependability of the da ta (Weise & Martin, 2001). An organization can protect itself from the loss of its data with the help of the Data Protection Act. In order to abide by this act, an

A Study of the Factors that Influcence Customer Decision-making in Essay

A Study of the Factors that Influcence Customer Decision-making in Choosing Local Thai Hotel - Essay Example The work, of which this is a record, has been carried out by myself unless otherwise stated and where the work is mine, it reflects personal views and values. All quotations have been distinguished by quotation marks and all sources of information have been acknowledged by means of references including those of the internet. Lodging has long been a necessity practice and maintained by people around the world whenever they visit new places. The basic idea of lodging is to provide comfort through the means of providing space for people would recuperate after long hours of journey. Basic provision includes single space bed, a bathroom and small furniture such as chairs and tables. However, as time passes and competition growing between owners who operate lodging houses or hotels in these days, there have been rapid changes that could now be seen in present day hotels. According to American Hotel & Lodging Association (2002), in order to provide better services and to increase the profits of these hotels, modern facilities have been included. These include climate control materials such as air conditioning and heater. Fancy materials have also been included such as television, internet connectivity, and expensive necessities such as soaps, shampoos and perfumes. In bigger hotels that aim for international r ecognition and greater number of customers, they have provided additional facilities such as seminar rooms, restaurant, swimming pools and gyms. All of these are to win the favor of the customer in choosing their hotel over the others. According to Anthony, Anthony and Ghosh (2004), in the modern hotel industry, such functions or additional facilities have played an important role for customers or tourists in choosing their hotels. Knowing the attributes that determine accommodation choice, features which consumers perceive as important or vital, and characteristics that influences higher rates of retention allows hotel

Tests of Intelligence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Tests of Intelligence - Assignment Example ildren between the age group 6 to 16, meant to generate scores of IQ based on a comprehensive test model that includes ten core subtests and five supplemental tests. All these tests are verbal, and each of them carries equal weightage. The main testing spheres include verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, processing speed, and working memory. Application of WSIC in the sphere of IQ testing has been more successful than in clinical testing for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other learning disabilities in children. This test was founded by Alfred Binet, and has undergone many modifications, the present one being 5th edition. This intelligence test is modeled to test using both verbal and nonverbal methods, aimed to assess reasoning, knowledge, analytical reasoning, visual-spatial processing and memory. The SB-5 is proven to be better in terms of assessing individuals and is more reliable (Becker, 2003). Based on a study conducted by Watkins et al. (1998), it was inferred that the WSIC test cannot distinguish between children with learning disabilities and those without disabilities. Further, the test could not predict academic achievement among children with learning disabilities. In this regard, the SB-5 is more suitable as it distinguishes children with different levels of intelligences and learning abilities. Research indicated weak reliability scores for WSIC, with low internal consistency reliability criterion; inconsistent results across time were also observed, thus complicating individual decisions and assessments. Owing to the deviation of subtest measurements from normative methods, ipsative methods based on transformation to person-relative metrics have been opted. However, these are not empirical, and are intuitive; because of this, the results so obtained are psychometrically incongruent. Instability of subtests measurements makes the test less reliable. Statistical differences of group mean scores will not help in

Realist and Neo-Realist International Relations Essay

Realist and Neo-Realist International Relations - Essay Example The state, for Realism, is a power-maximizer in a self-help environment where no one can be trusted and violence is endemic. Non-Realist IR theory is invariably also anti-Realist. It never ignores Realism, but always incorporates a critique of that paradigm to position itself intellectually. This is because Realism is about the state. Since we cannot evade the state, which is everywhere and all around us and the centre-piece of our political cosmology, neither can IR theory evade Realism. Empirical "tests" may show that certain events in the world are (not in) consistent with the hard core of a realist research program. But that does not provide support in any strong sense of that term for choosing realism over some competing paradigm. Many events that are explained by one realist theory are also inconsistent with at least one other no less authentic realist theory. For instance, if balancing and bandwagoning exhaust the possible aligning bahaviours of states, as Waltz (1979) suggests they do, and if good realist theories predict each, as they do, then any piece of evidence simultaneously confirm and contradicts "realism". Labs provide an extreme example of the perspective when he presents offensive (rather than defensive) realism as "the best realist theory available to go forward and do battle with competing approaches to international relations" (1997, p. 48). Neither, however, will get realist very far in such a battle. Sovereignty is the primary concept of realism. It is taken as given that states enjoy unchallenged jurisdiction within their own boundaries. Realists make little attempt to theorize the impact a state's relationship with its civil society has upon its relations with other states. Waltz expresses this simplistic view when he writes that 'students of international politics will do well to concentrate on separate theories of internal and external politics until someone figures out a way to unite them (Rosenberg 1994, p. 5). Waltz is able to argue this because of his view of how the states sys operates. Waltz (1979) rejects explanations of international conflict which stress flaws in human nature. Rather it is the structure of the international system that creates tension between states: in the absence of a higher authority, states compete with each other to ensure their security. This may trigger an arms race, perhaps leading to full-scale war. This structure will determine a state's fo reign policy, regardless of its internal political arrangements or the nature of the dominant belief system within civil society. The strength of realism is that it highlights the irrationalities that underpin the login of a world divided into states. The conflicts between states, which are well documented by history, and which often transcend apparent commonalities of 'race' or ideology, present compelling evidence in support of the realist argument. It is increasingly clear, however, the realism's assumptions are inadequate to the task of explaining the nature of contemporary world politics. The problems of mainstream international relations theory lie mainly in its understanding of state sovereignty and security. Realists and non-realists are tuned to account for different dimensions of international relations. As realist theories are especially well-suited to explain certain

The benefits and drawbacks of digitalisation in educational sector Essay

The benefits and drawbacks of digitalisation in educational sector - Essay Example Some of these changes are positive whereas others are negative. This paper analyses the literature available through secondary research to know more about the benefits and drawbacks of information communication technology or digitalization in educational sector. Benefits of Digitalisation in Educational Sector Computer based technologies are normally used at the current educational sector which help the students and teachers to communicate and share information digitally. Word processing software like Microsoft Word and spread sheets like Microsoft Excel helps students immensely in creating instant documents and solving problems. Spelling checkers, dictionaries and readymade computer programs are available nowadays for corrections and calculations. Presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint helps both teachers and students to express their views in a clear manner so that the mutual communication between the teacher and the students could be improved. Databases like Oracle, MS Ac cess etc help teachers to maintain digital records of students in a structured manner. In short, most of the curriculum functions are heavily dependent on the information communication technology at present. Internal and external networks like Local Area network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) are used specifically by schools and colleges to communicate each other. Interactive digital television (iDTV), as a relatively easy way to use technology, brings many challenges and opportunities into the field of education, i.e. formation and utilization of learning via TV, called t-learning. T-learning has many characteristics (i.e. technological or pedagogical aspects) that differentiate this type of education from other well elaborated... There are many drawbacks also associated with the digitalization of educational sector. Digitalization is an expensive act for educational sector. This paper outlines the problem of global digitalisation. This research is necessary to know more about the merits and demerits of digitalization in educational sector.The digital technology incorporated in educational sector should be user friendly. Otherwise teachers and students may stay away from it. Younger generation adapts more easily with the digitalization process in educational sector than the older generation. The world is getting digitalized more and more as time goes on. The introductions of computers, televisions, mobile phones and internet have created a digital culture which affects every segment of human life at present. The difference in culture between the current world and the world couple of decades before can be identified easily. It should be noted that the communication technologies a couple decades before was depen dent on analogue technology whereas it is heavily dependent on digital technologies at present.Creation of media rich environment in schools and homes is another advantage of digitalization of educational sector. Media plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of education. Students get substantial knowledge from media while they watch educational programs. Internet, email, televisions, tablets and mobile phones help students immensely in acquiring proper knowledge in their educational topics.

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 14

Reflection - Essay Example Sharing ideas in an honest way in the workplace provide opportunity for employees to give information that helps in better working environment. Working as a leader with my friends in organizing a function, I lied about better rewards after doing the task. The truth came out later and I lost trust of those I had worked with in organizing the function. Using honesty in workplace is important in achieving optimum working environment. In as much as we like to show our achievements and sometimes commanding, being a humble leader is very important in relating to other. Humility will ensure other people in junior ranks do not feel intimidated be the leader’s presence. A humble leader will provide opportunity for other junior members to approach him/her easily and freely discuss any arising problems. Provision of such opportunity will ensure decisions made with best interest for all. Humility forms vital part in relations of workers or members in an organization. Leaders or employees who are arrogant have hard time in relating to fellow employees or juniors. This limits discussions and sharing of ideas to make workplace better. Being a humble leader helps in gaining respect but not fear from juniors. Humble leaders also accept mistakes if they have committed one and do not blame others. This involves choosing what is right to even if it does not favor those close to the leader. Fairness shows the quality of a leader who can deal with those who like them and those who do not like them. In fairness, the leader follows the rules and set example to any person looking up to him/her. This strength sets example and shows how to follow organization rules to benefit everyone. This character strength is very important in making decisions that affect people around. It involves giving every person equal chances in development in the work area that in turn motivate employees to work hard. Unfair treatment of