Intensive Farming and Agriculture

            I really wanted to take a look at something that affects not only me but most people on a daily basis. I can only speak for myself but most of the people around me rely on grocery stores for their food and at the stores we are on a tight budget so we don’t buy the organic goods. We have briefly talked about intensive farming and agriculture in class and it is what produces most of the food I eat. I wanted to take a little deeper look into what goes on in intensive farming and see where the food I am eating really comes and in some cases what it really is. Coming into this paper I have heard a little about genetically modified seeds and the horrible conditions that the animals are raised in for our meat products but now I would like to know more.

            Intensive agriculture is defined as “farming that uses a lot of machinery, labor, chemicals, etc. in order to grow as many crops or keep as many animals as possible on the amount of land available” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online). After reading this definition this sounds like what you would want to run a successful business. In business your goal is to maximize your output while keeping your costs as low as possible. But after saying that, I feel that as a business it is also their job to protect the environment around them. With the use of all of the chemicals and machinery this can’t be good for the environment. The even crazier thing to me is they use all of these harmful environmental things but they still need this environment to produce their goods. They need the water for the animals and plants, and they need the soil and grass to feed the animals and plant the vegetables in. So they would want to cut down on the machinery and chemicals to help keep the environment they have to reuse safe? That seems like an easy question for me to answer and that is yes but maybe that is where the genetic seeds come into play.

            Genetic modified seeds were created to be able to grow in any area. The biggest key about genetically modified seeds is “genetic modification of seeds primarily occurs to make plants resistant to herbicides and pesticides” (West Coast Seeds). Again this sounds like a great idea a seed that is resistant to pesticides and herbicides, but at what cost. After doing a little more research on theses seeds there are a lot of pros and cons for them. Some of the pros are that they grow much faster and are much more resilient to diseases. This is huge when farmers have to produce enough food to feed our very large nation. And this can come back to what Dr. Stuart was talking about in class on Monday the 17^th with overconsumption. We are an over consuming society and the farmers have to try and keep up with us. But the cons are pretty scary like the potential health effects they can cause humans “although GM foods are rigorously tested, there may be some subtle, long term effects that cannot be detected yet” (Bocco). This is scary to me because I don’t want to have a long term effect from eating my food. Now I’m wondering what I am really eating. I am just guessing here but I don’t think the risk is too high or someone would have come in and shut down the companies producing the genetically modified seeds.

            When it comes to animals intensive farming goes by another name, factory farming which is “a farm on which large numbers of livestock are raised indoors in conditions intended to maximize production at minimal cost” (Merriam-Webster). This sounds like a smart idea just like the seeds you want to maximize production by having the lowest cost of production. But after reading some other things about factory farming it is tough to believe that they are allowed to even do this. The animals are treated terribly and can’t do anything to defend themselves. “Animals on factory farms are regarded as commodities to be exploited for profit. They undergo painful mutilations and are bred to grow unnaturally fast and large for the purpose of maximizing meat, egg, and milk production for the food industry” (Farm Sanctuary).  This is tough to hear ad the pictures and videos online are even tougher to see. I don’t know if you have seen some of the conditions that these animals have to live with and honestly I hope not because it is gross and sad. Yes I am a meat eater and to I don’t think I could ever become a vegetarian but it is tough to see the food I am eating is raised that way. The companies running these farms want us to think the animals are out grazing in open fields and living easy lives until we consume them. That is not the case with these big companies, they are forcing animals to eat and get fat as fast as possible then ship them off to the slaughterhouses. This is terrible for the animals but the factory farming also has a huge impact on the environment and us.

            Having all of those animals in such a confined space leads to tons of pollution. All of those animals are going to the bathroom in the same place and I doubt they clean it out very often so it just sits there. If the animals are grazing in the pasture all of the feces won’t be in the same place so it will help to fertilize the ground and keep the grass growing. When the waste is cleared “Factory farms typically store animal waste in huge, open-air lagoons, often as big as several football fields, which are prone to leaks and spills” (Farm Sanctuary). That is a lot of feces in a pond that just sits there and stinks up the surrounding areas. People living near areas with factory farms have been getting sick from the smell, and I can only imagine if the lagoon would break and get into a local creek. There is no way I would be able to live anywhere near one of these farms. But that’s not even the worst thing that can happen to us as consumers of the meat from these farms. “Poor sanitation and waste management on factory farms and the poor management of animal waste can lead to the contamination of the food supply by the bacteria like E.coli and salmonella. Each year 76 million Americans become ill from food borne illness, and thousands die” (Farm Sanctuary). This is very alarming to me because 76 MILLION people a year get sick from food borne illnesses. That is way too many and the farms are making this number so high by not taking of the waste produced by the animals. I hear stories all of the time on the news about a recall for beef or other products because of E.coli or salmonella. Now I know the reason why, because the farmers are letting the waste contaminate their products. Another thing I read about was all the antibiotics given to the animals that can cause harm to us. The farmers force the animals to eat antibiotics to make them grow faster and produce more milk or eggs, and these can have a negative effect on us. “The six growth hormones commonly used by the U.S. dairy industry have been shown to significantly increase the risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancer in beef consumers. Producers are not required to list the use of hormones on product labels” (Farm Sanctuary). I don’t understand how they can be allowed to feed these animals all those hormones if they are not good for them and they aren’t good for us. And if they are allowed to do it why don’t they have to tell us on the package? Companies have to put some of the dumbest things on their packages to make sure they don’t have a lawsuit but these beef producers don’t have to put the hormones on their packages.

            When it comes down to it I really don’t see the big problem with the genetically modified seeds these corporations are using to mass produce. We need the food with the way that our society consumes and to me the benefits outweigh the negatives by far. Yes intensive farming has some negative effects like pollution that are tough to deal with. But the amount of food that can be produced and the amount of food we need produced then this may be the way to go. The one huge difference to me between intensive agriculture farming and intensive animal farming or factory farming is that they aren’t harming another living animal. Intensive agriculture doesn’t have as many negatives to me as factory farming does.

            Factory farming yes is productive but at what expense? Most of us, me included, knew that the commercials about all the animals grazing in the pasture and living easy lives were false. But I didn’t know how bad it really is for those animals. My grandparents used to live on a farm and their neighbor had around 500 heads of cattle. And they raised their cattle in the way it should be they graze from pasture to pasture and then when they get old they are sent to the slaughterhouse. I know I may be dreaming a bit here because yes it is the way the animals we eat should be raised but with how much we consume it just isn’t logical. Having said that the corporations should not be treating the animals as bad as they are keeping them in confined areas, force feeding them hormones, and abusing them that’s just not right.

            This has been one of the most eye opening research papers I have ever done in my life. I thought I knew a lot more about the food I am eating than I really do. After reading all of the things I have I have come to the decision that intensive farming may not be the best but in the world we live in today it is the only way to keep up with our consumption. I keep coming back to this idea of our consumption which is a huge issue and why the farming has to keep mass producing everything. I feel that we need to try and cut back especially in our consumption of meat products to help cut down on the unethical treatment of those animals. I know this is tough for us to do as a society because it is against what most of us are used to. I’m not an expert by any means but the reason intensive farming has come into existence was to keep up with our society and our thinking of always wanting more.

Environmental Ethics

            Coming into this class I never really thought about the environment in the way some of the stories and speakers do. But this has been a very eye opening class and I am glad I tried something different. After the readings and everything else that we have done in this class I feel like I am at the least more knowledgeable about the world I am living in, and I hope that this will translate to me starting to do more to protect our environment and maybe even share my knowledge with the people around me. I feel that getting knowledge of the environment around us is important to the future and protecting our surroundings. From all of the readings, speakers, and movies we have watched I took one key thing away and it is that people need to start caring more about the environment. This paper will explain the things from this course that had an effect on me and really helped to change the way I look at the environment.

            The first was one that really got me thinking was actually one of our first reads and that was “Natural School Reform” by Louv. This was an interesting article to me because it shows how much different our education system is compared to Finland. This is the story about how the schools in Finland allow their students to go outside and the teachers use the environment to teach their students. This was interesting to me because I really believe this is better than having your students sitting in a classroom for seven hours a day. The students would not only be a lot more engaged but they also will start to understand the environment they live in. Some of the schools here in the United States are starting to implement more of these types of things, and it really is helping. The tests show that students that work outside with their environment are actually smarter and test better than the students that have traditional education. I would like to think that if I had done something like this I would have loved it.

            The next reading that I really enjoyed this semester was “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Kingsolver. This article had a much different effect on me than the other articles mainly because my grandparents did a similar thing in their life. Although they didn’t move from Arizona they did move from Ohio down to a farm in Virginia. The main reason this affected me is because as a child I spent a lot of my summers on that farm and learned a lot about life on a farm. Like in the article the family wanted to become more self-sufficient by growing their own food and not relying on grocery stores as much. My grandparents had a big garden in their backyard and that is where we would get most of our food for dinner. They also had a few apple trees, grape vines, blackberry bushes, and a pear tree that we would gather for my grandma to make homemade desserts and jams from them. There is nothing better than homemade food that you grow, pick, and cook yourself, and it really so much better than the stuff you can buy at Kroger or Wal-Mart. Another thing we would do is bale and deliver hay for cattle and horse farms around the area. This article made me look back and realize how special and important those weeks I would spend on the farm and all the things I was able to learn. I learned first of all that the food you grow for yourself is absolutely delicious. The second is that it is a lot more cost effective because you grow the food, and because of this you don’t have to drive to the grocery store whenever you need something. I also realized that when you are in the country you do your best to help the people around you, and they will always try to help you in return.

            We had two great speakers come in and talk to us about the environment and how they are living their lives to be more sustainable. Although they both were great what Ben Stuart talked to us about had a much bigger impact on me. He explained to us how is house is ran on the waste of his neighbors and to me that is crazy. We are a consuming society and to think that one man’s waste can be used as another man’s fuel. This could become a vital part of our future if we would start to build more homes that are ran off others waste instead of just putting everything in a landfill. His guest lecture really got me thinking about the future and what are we going to do to protect the environment not only for us but for the future generations. I really think that Ben Start is on to something with using others trash to help run your home. He also has his own garden which allows him to grow most of his food and not have to go to the grocery store. Like I have said earlier in this paper growing your own food is much better than buying it from the grocery store. One thing that is important to point out about what Mr. Stuart talked to us about is that you have to have the knowledge to do what he does. I feel it is important for people to know what is going on around them in their environment. Going back to my earlier paragraph with the school reform I think the schools in Finland are doing the right thing by starting to teach their kids about the environment. We should start to implement a similar education system to start getting kids more involved in protecting the environment and maybe some of what Ben Stuart talked to us about can become better known. Not everyone needs to live like this but it would be very beneficial if more people would start to live that way.

            The movie “On Coal River” was pretty influential in changing my environmental ethic this semester. I really like the way the towns’ people stood up to the big coal company to try and protect not only themselves but also their children and the elementary school. First of all I think it is terrible that a coal company would think it is ok to start mining for coal right behind an elementary school. The pond with all of the runoff and waste was right above the school and in the movie they said that it had leaks and could probably break at any time. I understand for a big corporation it is all about making the most money, but sometimes you just have to step back and look at what you are doing. Especially if the business you are in has a huge environmental impact. They really should have looked at the location and said maybe we will build this on the other side of the mountain. It is one thing to put a valley full of trees in danger but when you put an elementary school in real danger that is scary. I am glad that they moved the school but this problem never should have come about in the first place. I really think it is important, and the people of this down did it, that if there is a major problem like the coal company there you need to bring it up to the city and to that company. And for the coal company they really need to look at what they are doing and think to themselves is this really the best idea?

            My last article that really helped mold my environmental ethic this semester and it goes along with the movie “On Coal River”, and that is “Dispatch from Toxic Town”. This is the story of Anniston, Alabama the picture perfect city that was ruined by a big time corporation. In “On Coal River” they were lucky to have the corporation move away from the school before anything serious can happen and hurt any kids. But in Anniston they weren’t so lucky. It all started when a fisherman caught a deformed fish and after that they launched a full scale investigation to see what was wrong with the water in the creek. It came back that the creek was full of PCBs and they were dumped in there by a big company called Monsanto. This is another example of a large corporation hurting the town they are in just to make a quick buck. In one of my earlier classes we watched a story about Cheshire, Ohio and a similar thing happened there just like Anniston. A large corporation polluted the environment and started to get people sick. One thing that happened in both cities is the townspeople stood up to the big businesses and filed lawsuits against them. In both of the cases the companies settled with the townspeople and a lot of the people got out. The problem with what these companies are doing is that they are taking away people’s homes and town. That is the hardest thing for me to get over in these stories, why would a corporation put peoples’ lives in danger and not really care. Like I said in my last paragraph I understand that companies are out to make money but it really needs to be their responsibility to keep the environment around them safe. This would be beneficial for everyone the people the companies and most important the environment that we all need to survive.

            Coming into this class I honestly never really thought about what my environmental ethic is. I never really thought about what I do and how it is affecting the environment around me, but after seeing taking this class I am a lot more aware of the problems out there and I am going to try and do my part to not have a huge environmental impact. I think it is really important for us and other people that have the knowledge spread the knowledge of what is going on in the world around us to everybody. This is the biggest thing I have taken away from this class that it is important for everyone to gain knowledge on the environment around us. The more we are informed the better our world will be and we shouldn’t have as many problems in the future. This will allow the citizens to be informed about what some of these big corporations are doing and how they are harming our water, trees, and other things around us. It also will let the corporations know that what they are doing and they can change their ways to better protect the environment and most importantly the people. I really like all of the articles and movies we watched and read this semester, they really have changed the way I am looking at the environment. Lastly I want to say thank you for picking the articles and assignments we have done this semester because compared to my other classes this is completely different and a really eye opening courses.

Our Interaction and Relationship with Our Environment, by Michael Yurkovich

The human race’s interaction with the environment may vary from person to person, but in general human’s tend to harvest and take from the environment at their own will for their own personal benefit. People take from the environment without giving back to the environment or taking precautions to preserve it, at least most of the population seems to work this way. Long story short; economy and personal benefit comes first in most peoples decisions, and while this may seem like the best decision short term, it may not be the best in the long run, and may not even be the best decision for other people. In some cases not only is the surrounding environment negatively impacted, but also other people may be affected as well. Each person has a different meaning for environmental ethics, and then a different set of ethics at that. I have my own meaning for ethics: principals or guidelines that guide a person to do what is right throughout life, or what is morally right. Since I have first enrolled in Ohio University in August of 2011, my environmental ethics have evolved and changed greatly over time. When it comes to environmental ethics, I believe that people should do what is right for the environment and for the people around them. People need to think about the risk, and what or who their decision is going to impact before they make it. In today’s world people take resources for granted, and will place their greed and personal economic benefit before the welfare of the environment and other people, and learning this has changed my view and actions towards the environment.

Before I attended Ohio University for my college education, I was hardly at all aware of environmental problems. Part of this was because where I attended school, the staff did not teach about environmental problems and how they impact our current lives and our future. My only exposure to anything related to environmental issues was when I heard rumors about global warming, and I just believed it to be an over exaggeration, or just a prediction. When I attended Ohio University, I began to take some environmental geography classes and that is where I started to learn not only was global warming a serious issue, but that there were many other issues as well. As a result of this, my environmental ethics began to change drastically very early on in college, and I myself became much more environmentally aware in my daily life.

On top of global warming being caused by burning fossil fuels and putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, I became aware of overpopulation, oil shortages, water shortages, and resource depletion as a whole due to the high population. The Earth’s human population is already estimated to be too high, and it continues to grow faster than ever before, which causes poverty levels to rise. The growing population also requires a higher demand of resources that are already being over harvested. As a result the amount of fresh water for drinking is being depleted and forces hundreds of millions of people to live with lack of access to clean water. The demand for fossil fuels also increases, which not only depletes the supply of oil and coal, but also increases the amount of carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere. Another important resource that is being depleted faster than they are being renewed is trees. An increased population requires more shelter and other supplies or necessities that require wood, and as a result deforestation increases. Deforestation eliminates a part of the environment that absorbs carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and causes the carbon dioxide absorbed to be released back into the atmosphere, and only increases the effects of global warming. As the environmental scientist put it in the show “Years of Living Dangerously,” “deforestation is a double wammy (for the effects of global warming).” Due to overpopulation, I truly believe that the human population actually needs large food corporations and agribusinesses. I feel that the food corporations and agribusinesses are needed to feed the population, despite how poorly they treat the animals. I believe it is ethically wrong for many food corporations to abuse and treat the animals the way they do, but they are however probably needed for the human population. On the other hand, I do find it hard to believe that food corporations cannot spend some extra money to ensure those animals are feed properly and have an adequate amount of space. Long story short, my environmental ethics in a few years went from being just about nothing to believing that the human population is facing many issues and needs to start working on fixing those issues, reducing the use of natural resources, and start thinking about how an action affects the environment and other people.

I believe that I was already very environmentally aware and had strong environmental ethics before this semester, and those ethics evolved even more and I became more environmentally aware on a smaller scale after a couple readings and documentaries. Michael Pollan’s essay “Why Bother?” got me thinking about that question and how important that question actually is for how people currently view and interact with the environment. This essay helped me look at how an individual can possibly make a difference as opposed to just looking at the big picture and seeing that the whole world needs to change. Start at the individual level and then hopefully it will spread to enough people that it will make a big difference. The reading “Dispatch from Toxic Town” and the documentary “On Coal River” made me more aware of how companies not only impact the environment, but also how they may affect other people as well. They showed me, that many companies will place their desire for a monetary profit before the wellbeing of other people. “Natural School Reform” by Richard Louv also presents proof that interaction with the environment during schooling not only can increase an individual’s view of the environment, but can also boost test scores and overall intelligence. All of these evolved my prior environmental ethics slightly, and helped me to look at the small details of a big picture and to see how those small details are contributing to the problems in the big picture.

In Michael Pollan’s essay “Why Bother?” he discusses that this question goes through many people’s minds when it comes to going green and trying to make a difference. People believe that if they make a sacrifice to make a difference, that it will not make any difference, because there are billions of other people in the world that are just counteracting the small difference, and therefore it is useless… why bother? Pollan discusses that sure many other people are still carrying out their normal routine which may negate any positive impacts done by an individual, but that one individual making an unnoticeable difference can influence others around them through their actions, which will eventually lead to more people contributing. Then that slowly evolves from one individual to a group of people making a small difference, and many of those small groups together can make a big difference. I totally agree with Pollan that one individual can influence others to try and make a difference and eventually that individual made a big difference through influence. I also believe that even if it is one person trying to make a difference, sure the impact may be unnoticeable, but it is still better than nothing at all. I feel that the “why bother?” question is a very important question that helps us understand human interaction with the environment. Also it is most likely the question that is preventing people from trying to make a difference. Imagine if the question did not exist and everyone attempted to make a difference (minimized fossil fuel use, conserved water as best as they can, etc). Many of our current environmental problems would most likely be less potent, or may not exist at all.

“Dispatch from Toxic Town” by Tara Hulen is a classic example of a large company placing their profits above the environment and other people’s lives. In this reading, Monsanto moves into an area next to a town called Anniston. Anniston is known as a model town and is a home to many people. Monsanto begins to pollute the nearby stream (actions like this is why so much freshwater is undrinkable) and environment with PCBs. People in the so called model town begin to get sick and have no idea what is causing it. Fish in the stream are also getting sick and deformed due to the pollution. People start to learn that the sicknesses are coming from the pollution in the surrounding environment, which is coming from Monsanto. People are then forced to leave Anniston, which at this point is known as a toxic town, and are forced to live elsewhere while Monsanto stays. This large corporation turned a model town into a toxic town, and not only destroyed the surrounding environment, but also the lives of the people. I believe this is definitely ethically wrong, that a company can ruin people’s lives or cause deaths and not care, and get away with it. The documentary “On Coal River” is another example this problem. A coal mining company moves into an area near a town of people, and blows the mountain top off of Coal River Mountain to start mining coal. The company’s actions pollute the air and the nearby river, and just like “Dispatch from Toxic Town” people start to get ill. The people then start to protest and press charges against the company for their actions, and the company continues to do what they are doing. The company is there to make money, and since it also improves the economy the company gets away with it. Although the children at schools near the area are also being affected, the company is still trying to make a quick buck and tells the people to pick up and leave if they do not like what is being done. Again, I think this is ethically wrong since not only does it have negative effects on the environment, but it also puts human lives at stake. Companies like these need to think about who and what their actions are going to impact before they make a decision.

In “Natural School Reform” Richard Louv compares the United States’ method of teaching and school curriculum to other nations around the world, especially Finland. He shows proof that Finland is superior to the United States in testing and overall intelligence. However, surprisingly Finnish schools work very differently from schools here in the United States, and actually allow there students to go outside more and interact with the environment much more than the United States. Here in the United States we put students into a classroom (sometimes with no windows) and keep them there to study and hardly ever let them go outside. Schools in the United States have very short recesses and some schools do not even have recess at all. Students in the United States get very little interaction with the environment, while Finnish schools give their students a lot of time outside and even teach lessons outside, giving the students a lot of interaction with their environment. So, students in the United States spend more time in the classroom and are scoring lower on tests compared to Finnish students. Richard Louv is showing a positive correlation between time interacting with the environment and overall intelligence. I found this very surprising when I read this, because I figured that here in the United States where we basically put kids into a classroom and just pound them with information and stress the importance of testing, that we would rank higher in intelligence. On the other hand, maybe it is because we put a lot of stress on our students and just push for learn, learn, learn, and nothing else, whereas in Finland they allow their students to relax and have fun at the same time as learning. I believe that the United States needs to start adopting the Finnish approach to schooling, since statistics show that it works, and because if students get more interaction with the environment, they will probably appreciate it more. This may also be the reason why many young kids do not like school, because it is boring when you do nothing but sit in a classroom all day and try to learn. I also believe that if our students get more interaction with the environment and become more informed about how our actions may impact it, then students will become more environmentally aware at a young age, which may result in overall better care for the environment when they live on their own.

My environmental ethics have evolved and changed greatly over the last three years. I already considered myself quite environmentally aware before this year and believe I have still become more environmentally conscious. My knowledge on how humans interact with the environment on a micro level has definitely grown, and it has helped me to be more environmentally friendly in my daily life with water, electricity, food waste, and so on. Pollan’s Essay “Why Bother?” really got me thinking about the question on an individual level and showed me how I can make a difference, whether small or big. “Dispatch from Toxic Town” and “On Coal River” have shown me how a large company can impact the lives of many people and how some people will place money before almost anything. Richard Louv’s “Natural School Reform” really shocked me when Louv showed that the United States who stresses hardly on academics actually ranked lower in intelligence than Finland which allows their students to have fun and interact with the environment while teaching. People in the world today need to start trying to make a difference like Pollan says in his essay, and people also need to start working on conserving resources, as well as ensuring certain actions will not harm the environment in extreme ways or other people. Basically, people need to try their best to fix current environmental issues so they do not get worse in the future, or so new problems do not develop.

Works Cited

Adams, J. Wood. “On Coal River Four Minute Trailer.” YouTube. 25 March 2009. Web. 13

April 2014.

Hulen, Tara. “Dispatch from Toxic Town.” Listening to Earth. Baruch College, City University

Of New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.73-77.

Louv, Richard. “Natural School Reform.” Last Child in the Woods : Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005. 201- 222.

Pollan, Michael. “Why Bother?” The Allyn-Bacon Guide to Writing: Concise Edition. 6^th ed. Ed. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Boston: Longman, 2012. 87-93.

“Years of Living Dangerously.” video. www.youtube.com. Showtime, April 6, 2014. Web. April

22, 2014.

Using Solar Energy as an Alternative, by Michael Yurkovich

Due to the negative impacts of coal and oil on the environment as well as shortages of supply, research has been going on for the last few decades trying to find a greener alternative. While there are many possible alternatives for energy, one of the most known and biggest competitors is solar energy, harnessing the sun’s energy to power homes and businesses. While research has been going on for the last few decades, there has been much debate on whether using solar panels to power your home or business is really worth it, and is it really more efficient than coal and oil. Solar energy is certainly more renewable and much greener than coal and oil, but how efficient is it compared to coal and oil? Especially for those that live in cold climates or heavily wooded areas. The way a solar panel works can give both advantages and disadvantages to a home, depending on both location and energy consumption. Although there are many pros to using solar energy, there are also many drawbacks which are preventing it from replacing coal and oil entirely. This essay will examine how a solar system works to power a home, and then look at the pros and cons of using solar energy to see how it stacks up against coal and oil as an energy source.

Solar panels for one create energy using the sun’s light, not the heat. So although it is partly true that solar panels are less effective in colder areas where the sun is not as present, there are still areas with typically colder climates that can still take advantage of solar energy. Solar panels are made of many photovoltaic cells. The way a photovoltaic cell works is divided into a few basic steps. When the sun’s light hits a cell it gets absorbed into a semiconductor. Silicon is the most common material used for semiconductors due to its crystalline structure (Toothman and Aldous 3). Silicon is a shiny material and usually reflects a lot of the light, which is why solar panels are coated in a special finish to fix this problem. When the light gets absorbed into the semiconductor, the energy knocks electrons loose in the silicon layer which causes the electrons to flow freely which creates a current. The cell has an electric field which, according to Toothman and Aldous, acts as a diode. The electric field has holes without any electrons that also move freely. The electric field moves the holes to what is called the “P” side of the spectrum, and forces the electrons to the “N” side of the spectrum which creates an imbalance between the two, and then when the electrons move back towards the holes on the “P” side, they create a current while the electric field creates voltage and both together creates power. The energy is then transferred to the circuitry of a household or building which is then put onto electrical grid, or if an “off-grid” system is used (the household runs strictly on the solar panels and has no electrical power lines from the nearest power plant), the energy is then sent to batteries for storage of unused energy which then can be used at night when the sun’s light cannot be harnessed (SolarWorld-usa).

During the process of absorbing light and converting into electricity, not all of it is converted. Much of the light energy is lost during the process. The photovoltaic cell can only absorb certain types of light within a certain energy range on the electromagnetic spectrum. The sun’s light has photons with a wide range of energy. When a photon with too little energy to knock an electron loose, will just travel right through the solar system like it is not even there (Toothman and Aldous 5). If a photon has too much energy, the photovoltaic cell can only absorb a certain amount of energy so the cell will absorb that required amount of energy and then the rest is lost. According to Toothman and Aldous, this total energy loss accounts for about 70% energy loss of all the light that strikes a photovoltaic system (5). Although this issue causes many to question the efficiency of solar energy usage, there is also still the question of whether that inefficiency really matters enough to make solar energy a bad option on a home or business building.

Advantages of Solar Energy

Solar Energy has many advantages over fossil fuels, and most sources will say that as technology improves and price of solar energy systems drops, the list of advantages will improve and the disadvantages will decrease. As Sanford C. Bernstein, owner of Bernstein Research mentions in his published results of a study on solar energy, “Solar and the Next Energy Revolution,” solar energy is down near $1/W from S7.50 in 2007, which makes it a competitor against fossil fuels on the world energy market (5). While the cost of solar energy is going down and becoming more efficient with technology, the cost of fossil fuels is going up since it is not as renewable. Greg Whitburn, a writer for Exploring Green Technology points out that in the past decade economic politics have doubled the price of fossil fuels due to shortages, whereas the price of solar energy has more than halved (Whitburn). It is predicted that the cost of fossil fuels will continue to go up in the upcoming years, and as technology improves, solar energy will continue to decrease in price and may eventually surpass fossil fuels in price. Bernstein remains optimistic about the price of solar energy systems and believes that solar energy usage will greatly increase in increments of 1.5% a year world wide by 2020 (5).

Above is a chart comparing the cost of solar energy to the average cost of regular electricity in 2009, and how the cost of solar energy will change in the future. Bernstein Research puts solar energy at a price of $1.23/W, natural gas at $1.10/W and coal at $0.44/W as of 2012 (8). Not only is the rapidly falling cost an advantage of solar energy, but there are many others as well.

Another great advantage that solar energy has over fossil fuels is that it is much more renewable. Solar energy will always be given off by the sun, forever, at least until the sun dies off in billions of years. Fossil fuels are hardly renewable since oil takes millions of years to form, and at the rate humans are using it up, it is estimated that the worlds current oil supply will only last forty more years. Solar energy will never run out and will be available every day the sun shines, which makes solar energy very abundant. Solar energy is certainly much more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels, since solar energy does not give off any carbon or other pollutants generated by fossil fuels, which also makes it much more sustainable. Using solar energy would greatly decrease an individual’s carbon footprint. Solar panels are also silent, they do not make any noise when producing electricity or heat for hot water, whereas generators operated by gas or coal make loud noises. Solar panels require very little maintenance and with improving technology, solar companies offer 25-30 year warranties and it is estimated that a solar panel will last 40 years before having to be replaced (Whitburn). To sum it all up; solar energy is more renewable, abundant, sustainable, greener, quieter, and requires less maintenance than fossil fuels.

There are two types of solar energy supplies. There is On-Grid, which means that the household with solar panels is still on the state electricity grid, using power lines from the nearest electric power plant, and is still using that electricity when the solar panels are not absorbing light. On-Grid solar systems usually still require the household to pay electricity bills, but far less per month than a house without any solar panels at all, and will still have a much smaller carbon footprint (Whitman). Then there is Off-Grid, which means a household is off of the state electricity grid and relies solely on the solar panels for electricity. There is no power lines connected to the house, and therefore absolutely no electricity bills. However, rechargeable batteries are needed and must be stored in the household somewhere, so electricity can be used at night. This is a great advantage for households that are out in rural areas and far away from power plants. Households in rural areas can be very expensive to install power lines, making off-grid energy production very beneficial and a good investment. Also one will not have to worry about power outages if they use the off-grid energy system.

Disadvantages

Although solar energy has many advantages over fossil fuels, there are also drawbacks, and these drawbacks are preventing many people from switching to solar systems for their homes and businesses. The biggest disadvantage of solar energy usage is current costs. Sure, one can get free electricity from solar panels once installed and can get free energy for as long as the solar panels last. However, solar panels are made out of some rare materials and are very expensive to produce, and must be bought up front. Many people do not like paying that much money up front. As Whitman puts it in his article; it is like paying for the next 30 years of energy up front in one day. The cost of solar energy makes it a competitor against fossil fuels on the market, but is still more expensive per kilowatt hour (KWh) in most areas. This varies a little bit since energy prices are not the same everywhere and solar panels obviously work better in sunnier climates, but fossil fuels still come out on top for price per KWh by a small margin, which is predicted to continue get smaller in the future. Looking at the national sunshine map of the U.S. you can see that some places (generally south) get more annual sun light then other places (like Alaska).

This difference in location will affect how effective solar panels are, and cause price to vary a little. Like Bernstein mentioned, fossil fuels will continue to rise in price, while solar energy will continue to fall. Cost is the biggest and most argued disadvantage for solar energy, but there are also other disadvantages.

Obviously, solar panels do not work at night when the sun is not shining. This requires households to stay connected to the power grid and use electricity from fossil fuels at night, or they have to get rechargeable solar batteries to stay off-grid. While the rechargeable batteries are a good alternative, the technology has not been perfected yet and the batteries are large, costly, and require much space to store (Whitman). Although creating energy off-grid can be very advantageous for houses in isolated rural areas, since it would be very expensive to run power lines to a household far from a power plant. Not only do solar panels not work at night, but they cannot produce as much electricity during winter months, especially in northern regions where the sun does not shine much, and snow can greatly impact the effectiveness of the solar panels. So the location of a household also impacts the effectiveness of solar energy. A household in Arizona would generate a lot of electricity year around, whereas a household in Wisconsin would not be able to generate much in the winter. Also houses with trees or tall buildings surrounding them may not be able to gain the full potential of their solar panels if trees or buildings are blocking the sun. Pollution also effects how well solar panels work, so houses or business buildings in highly polluted cities may not get the full potential from solar panels. One of the last disadvantages of solar panels is that they require a lot of space and many people do not like the aesthetics of solar panels on their roof or their lawn. Solar panels only have an efficiency rate of 20%-40%, so solar panels require a large surface area to produce a sufficient supply of electricity. This also requires people to buy more than one solar panel unit to power their home. Some solar panels have better efficiency than others, but are also more expensive, keeping the cost issue a disadvantage. However, as technology improves, solar panels are becoming more and more efficient.

So, are solar panels worth investing in and is solar energy going to become a main energy source in the future? As for whether solar panels will save you money, that is for you to decide, since electricity prices vary from place to place and prices are always changing. In my opinion, solar energy may be something to look into since fossil fuels continue to rise in price, especially oil. I agree with Bernstein that soon solar energy will surpass fossil fuels in terms of cost per KWh and at that point will definitely be a yes. Although solar energy is currently more expensive than fossil fuels, let’s not forget that a solar system lasts for about 40 years, and it is estimated that the world’s oil supply will be gone around that time. Also, solar energy does not give off any pollution and is completely quiet. Sure it may cost a bit more (for now), but I feel like I would not mind paying the little bit of extra money to almost completely eliminate my carbon footprint. I think I may look into solar energy in a few years when I am out of college and looking for a house, and hopefully that price gap between solar energy and fossil fuels will be even smaller, or non-existent. It is an individual’s own opinion on whether solar panels are currently worth investing in based on where they live, but in my opinion will be worth investing in, in a couple of years.

In conclusion solar energy has been one of the most sought after energy alternatives to fossil fuels and is currently one of the biggest competitors. Solar panels are a fairly new technology and are constantly being improved to harness more energy through photovoltaic cells. Solar energy has many advantages over fossil fuels currently. Solar energy has a rapidly falling price per KWh while fossil fuels are increasing, which makes solar energy a competitor in price currently, and soon will be cheaper than fossil fuels. On top of that solar energy is renewable, abundant, sustainable, environmentally friendly, quiet, requires low maintenance, is constantly improving in technology and efficiency, and an off-grid system can be very good for houses in rural areas. With many advantages, solar energy also has some disadvantages. These disadvantages include: current cost, solar panels require certain climates and locations, solar panels do not work at night, and they are inefficient at harnessing the sun’s light which causes them to require a lot of surface area. However, it is predicted that the list of disadvantages will get much smaller in the years to come, especially cost. Is solar energy going to become a widely used energy source and possibly replace much of the fossil fuel usage? Only time will tell if solar energy becomes a widely used energy source worldwide, but the statistics are looking good.

Works Cited

Aldous, Scott; Toothman, Jessika. “How Solar Cells Work.” Science.howstuffworks.com.

01 April 2000. Web. 12 March 2014.

Bernstein, Sanford C. Solar and the Next Energy Revolution: Beginning to see light. New York:

Bernstein Research, 2013. Print.

Whitburn, Greg. “Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar Energy”

www.exploringgreentechnology.com. Web. 12 March 2014.

“Adavantages of Solar Energy for Your Home.” www.solarworld-usa.com. SolarWorld.

Web. 12 March 2014.

A Place-Based Biography, by Michael Yurkivich

One place that I feel connected to and had a life changing experience is where I was trained to protect the United States from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Fort Sill the Fires Center of Excellence is located in Oklahoma and is one of the largest military training installations in the United States. Completing basic training at Fort Sill was the start of my military career, and is the reason I am where I am today. At Fort Sill, not only did I meet people from all over the country but also people from different countries around the world. Completing Basic Combat Training is the first step to a potentially long lasting military career, one of the ultimate tests to see how people from different places with different backgrounds will interact with one another when thrown together and also where most people learn new morals and learn to live by a certain Ethos.

Upon arriving at Fort Sill on April 4, 2011, I had hardly any idea what to expect. I had only heard stories from soldiers that I knew in my life, but the stories seemed to vary greatly, and did not exactly give me a good idea of what things were actually going to be like. Some said I was going to hate my life and have a very hard time, the food was going to be terrible, and I was going to be picked on a lot by the drill sergeants due to having a quiet and reserved personality with a high level of physical fitness. Some said I was going to have no problem at all; I was going to breeze through it, since I had the perfect personality for a soldier and that I was going to be liked due to having good domain knowledge and physical fitness, and possibly be given privileges like going to the Post Exchange on weekends. The only thing that I knew was going to be true, is that it was going to be extremely hot. I had no idea what the base or training center was going to look like, or who I was going to be around. This did not worry me too much since I wrestled for thirteen years of my life and had the same experience before every tournament and dual meet (what the gym would look like? how many people would be there? Who would I be wrestling?). I had a pretty good feeling that some of the people I talked to were over exaggerating the toughness of BCT (and I was right). Anyway, I and one of my friends that I enlisted with and happened to also attend Ohio University with step off of the bus that took us from the airport to the training center, and from there it began.

I was not afraid or scared of what had just started like many of the other people were, I was just anxious to what it was really going to be like and just saw it as something that I had to get through to continue on with life. The first thing we did was get issued some of our equipment, then we were assigned to a barracks where we were able to sleep for about 2 hours before having to get up for breakfast at 0430. We were in the ‘Reception Phase,’ which is the first couple days of arriving on base where everyone gets their equipment, vaccinations, blood drawn, dental records, hearing test, and so on. This is surprisingly, the worst part of BCT. It involves a lot of sitting in benches, staring at a wall, and absolutely no talking. I was in the reception phase for nine days (a little longer than normal), and would have rather have spent nine days in a federal prison (at least I can talk and do other things other than staring at a wall). After reception, we finally went to the actual Basic Training part.

From the start I basically kept to myself, did not really talk to anyone unless talked to, and did everything I was required to do. The first day of actual Basic Training is when the change actual started to occur. Most people call it the change from a civilian to a soldier. This change consists of several steps of teaching an individual some values to follow. In the Army they are called to seven Army values. They are: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. These are all taught at BCT. They teach you to be loyal not to the people appointed above you, but also the people that you work with. This is done throughout BCT when teamwork must be done to complete tasks, and also to listen to whoever happens to be appointed Platoon Guide (PG). At the beginning many people would not listen to the PG or go against their ideas due to disagreements, and this lack of loyalty and team work would often lead to consequences. Duty is doing what you are told and doing a sufficient job. If one person in the platoon does not do what they are told, or mess up by doing it wrong, then the whole platoon gets punished for it, and this only leads to more problems because, then many people in the platoon will start to dislike the person that got everyone into trouble. This enforces the people in a platoon to learn to do their duties and to help those that may need help (team work). Respect is taught in more than one way at BCT. One way is through the Drill Sergeants; they will yell at you a lot, but you have to respect them and accept that they are only doing it to make you better (or at least pretend to) and any disrespect can get you in even more trouble and possibly sent home. One must also respect the PG’s decisions whether they disagree with them or not or at least approach them in a respectful manner and address the situation. Selfless service is placing the wellbeing of others before your own, and to never be selfish and allow someone else to do something wrong when you could have prevented it. This goes with team work; help those who need it and don’t screw someone else over just to make your life a little bit easier. Honor is every value combined, and having honor in being a soldier. This is taught in every aspect of BCT. Integrity is doing what’s right, which is taught in just about every aspect of BCT, especially when it comes to accepting the consequences and taking the blame for your own wrong actions. Personal courage is overcoming your fears to get the job done. This is taught at many different parts of BCT, like rappelling down a seventy-five foot tower although one may be afraid of heights, going through multiple obstacle courses, and going through a gas chamber when you know that it is not going to be a good time. Learning all of these values is the process of becoming a soldier.

Basic Combat Training is the first time I was put together with a large group of people that I did not know and people from different parts of the world. I have never really been a talker and always tend to keep to myself unless approached, so I thought getting along with thirty five other people in my platoon who I did not know might be troublesome. Because of this, I still kept to myself, but eventually I got to know everyone. On top of people that lived in other states around the U.S. in my platoon there was a man from Nigeria, one from Mexico, and one from Puerto Rico. At BCT I got to interact with people of different backgrounds and from different parts of the world. Talking with some of them, I became more comfortable interacting with people outside of my social circle, and not just that but got to learn a lot about their lives and what life is like where they come from. My knowledge of other types of culture and lifestyles broadened. Everyone in the platoon had to work together in order to accomplish goals and tasks assigned to us. Some people were good at this and some not. There were definitely many fights in our barracks due to some people not getting along with each other. Shockingly, I got along with everyone just fine and was well respected by everyone else due to keeping myself, and not bothering anyone, talking anybody down, or refusing to do my job, and so on. I was just the guy that kept to himself, did what he was told, didn’t complain, and offered help to anyone who may need it. I feel like working and interacting with people at BCT gave me better skills for using team work with people I have never seen before.

Basic Training gives soldiers a new set of morals and a set of ethos to live by. These may vary from person to person, but I do believe that everyone that graduates BCT changes the way they live and compose their selves a little differently than they did before. I personally learned better ways to approach different situations whereas before, I may have ignored the situation or approached it in the wrong manner. I respect other people and their opinions more than I used to. I am still told that I am a quiet and reserved person, but I do find it easier to approach other individuals that are very different from myself. Most of all, I try my best to live by all of the Army Values which I believe made me a better person all around.

I graduated BCT as honor graduate on June 15, 2011 and from there went to Fort Leonardwood in Missouri for Advanced Infantry Training. I feel that I learned a lot and became a better person at Fort Sill, although many people will say I have not changed much at all. I would most definitely be a different person if I had never gone to Fort Sill for BCT, and would not be where I am today. For one, I would not be a soldier of the United States Army. Second, I would not be living life the same way I do now. I probably would not even be attending Ohio University and may have never even started writing this paper. I would not be living my life following the same values and set of morals that I do now. I never would have met the many friends that I have met through the Army. I would be in a very different situation and a different person from who I am today if I did not attend BCT at Fort Sill, and because of this I feel very connected to Fort Sill, and feel that it strongly impacted my life.