December 15, 2018
Dear Readers,
English being my second language, writing was never an easy task for me. Going into college, I knew the standard for writing would only rise. However, in the past few months, I have learned a lot, which improved my writing tremendously. Writing different types of paper such as narrative, profile and analysis made me realized, where I can use emotions and where I should remain neutral. I learned to consider tone, stance, and audience when presenting a topic. I learned the importance of proofreading, researching and outlining, which became essential to my drafting process.
Brainstorm was always the first step in the writing process, to do so, I found it best to lock myself in a quiet room and with a pen and paper. For all my papers, I started by picking a topic and listed all thing I could remember about the topic. Next, I made an outline for myself, in which I organize all the thoughts into a more manageable order. Outlining always helped plan the rest of the paper. I would also research about the topic to support my claims with evidence. After writing the paper, proofreading helps to clean up the paper. It is also essential for me to seek help from a peer or the writing center because there are many mistakes that I might not notice but others will.
Not a lot of research was required for my narrative paper, however, this paper encouraged vivid language in order to create an image in the reader’s mind. In class, we had the first peer editing session for the narrative paper, which revealed multiple problems in my writing. The first problem that was brought to my attention was about my diction and word choice. Before, I always thought that if I used a sophisticated word, it makes my writing more professional. In the first draft of my narrative, I wrote, “…success is only prominent when we have failed…” However, I realized that if the word does not support the context, then it only makes the piece weaker. I fixed the problem by replacing the word, “prominent” with, “achieved.” There were also instances where I did not specify some details, which likely hindered the readers understanding of the content. For example, I previously wrote, “By this time, I had learned enough of the language…” and changed it to, “Within 6 months, I had learned enough of the language…” By not stating the exact time the readers were unaware of how long it took for the event to occur.
I also wrote an analysis, for which I learned that not only was I required to describe the subject but also provide external background information on the subject. Prior to the completion of this paper, I visited the writing center. With help from an expert, it was revealed to me that I had a problem with comma usage. There would be sentences where I would use too many commas and sentences where I used too little. I even received a punctuation guide from my professor. In one instance I wrote, “…gamers believed that the game would indeed release, however plenty of gamers remained skeptical…” and changed it to, “…indeed release. However, plenty…” The problem was not only in punctuation but also sentences structure. I had several run-no sentences, which I needed to break down into smaller strands of details.
The final research paper was one of the longest paper I had ever written. The paper required a lot of research, in order to get external information that supports my claim. With outside sources, proper citation is crucial because otherwise the inclusion of such details, it would be considered plagiarism. There are many rules of citation and it varies between media in which the source was published (via web, book, etc.). I already knew that after a direct quote or paraphrase, in parenthesis, I need to write the authors last name and page number. However, one of the things, I observed, is that not all sources (especially web articles) have page number nor specified authors. It was pointed out by my professor that I can include the title of the article in quotation (if the author is not specified) and include paragraph number (if the page number is not specified). In the process of writing this paper, I realized the importance of the library sources. Knowing the credibility of the external sources is vital, because if the external information that is backing my claim is coming from an incredible source, therefore, that make my claim unreliable. With the library sources, it is easy to find reports written by scholars who are experts on the subject. For my research paper, I included an article by T. N. Jenkins, who is an expert on ecological economics. With the library search engine, it was easy to find the scholars credentials.
Writing was never my forte, but I know how important of a skill writing is to have. I am glad I decided to take the “English – Introduction to Composition” class this semester (Fall-2018), as a freshman. I gained several skills, at the beginning of my college journey, which I can utilize in the future. Excluding the papers for this class, I wrote five other papers, each with specific rules and guidelines. All that I have learned in English class, I have tried to incorporate in other classes, which greatly enhanced my overall GPA. Having good writing skills portrays me as a profession and makes me credible. My major is engineering, for which I have to write a lot of technical reports, tiny errors can disprove my work. I cannot deny, that even with all the improvements I made this semester, my writing is still nowhere near perfect. Therefore, I must continue practicing my writing, and continue utilizing all the skills I have learned.
Sincerely,
Md Sakil Khan
Literacy Narrative:
Md Sakil Khan
English 1100/A
Introduction to Composition
Prof. I. Bodre
September 29, 2018
Fear of Failure
“হ্যালো.” To most of you this word probably looks unfamiliar and foreign, in fact, this was the same case for me when I had seen an English word for the first time. At the age of eight, I was tasked with the most difficult mission in my life up to that point, learning a whole new language and adapting to a new culture, a mission that even a decade later I am still working on. Learning English has been one of the most difficult tasks that I have ever had to deal with, calculus being a close second. The challenge didn’t lie in learning the physical nouns and verbs but the enormous amount of emotions that I had to cope with during that time. Ranging from frustration and doubt, all the way up to fear. I feared failure. Ironically, the fear of failure is what was preventing my success, because no one likes to lose. A test we don’t want to fail or a game we don’t want to lose, we have all experienced the fear of failure, at one point in time or another. Language, however, is a little different than a one-time task, because it takes year to master. The following is a story about my experience.
I was born in Bangladesh, where Bangla was the only language spoken. So naturally, I grew up learning to speak, read and write Bangla. I didn’t think anything of it because it was the norm. The idea of multiple languages never occurred to me, that is until I moved to the United States. I didn’t know English and couldn’t speak a word, I didn’t even know how to say, “Hello,” which by the way, is what, “হ্যালো” means in Bangla. I wanted to express myself, but I felt suppressed and inadequate by my fear. I felt mute, as if my mind was saying the word, but my mouth wasn’t, this drowned me in depression.
I went to an elementary school in Syracuse, NY, where I was an ESL student. I was in second grade and just started to learn my ABC’s, while everyone else already knew them. Nevertheless, over the course of several months, I learned a lot, and made some serious progress but it wasn’t enough. I stuttered as I read, had missed-spelled every other word, as I wrote, and I barely ever spoke. How I desired to catch up with the other kids of my age. In third grade, my classroom had a shelf with several baskets filled with books. Each basket was labeled alphabetically, “A” being easy and progressively getting harder. The teacher would often test us to see if we are able to read the books fluently. While my friends were on reading levels K and M, I was stuck on E. It always made me furious when I failed those reading tests, I was frustrated and losing hope in myself. As a kid in Bangladesh I was arrogant, filled with curiosity and wit. However, in America I felt timid and weak. I started doubting myself more and more. Thoughts started clouding my mind. Asking myself, if I would ever be as good as the others in English?
Once, I was being teased by a group of kids during recess. “Say something idiot,” they screamed at me. I wanted to defend myself desperately but, how could I without speech? Part of me just wanted to blab whatever came to mind, and the other part held me back from doing so. I thought that if I uttered something wrong, the embarrassment of it would mean more punishment. The experience left me astonished. I realized, the conflict wasn’t man vs. man but man vs. self. I didn’t want to make any mistake in front of them, so I didn’t say anything. Failure was engraved in my head as a negative entity, that it would prevent me from succeeding.
We are born with no knowledge of the world, and that is the reason why the very first things we learn seem so natural and easy. When babies learn to walk, they fall over and over, despite this they get up and try again almost immediately. This is because babies do not think about failure, they have no notion of it. On the other hand, as we grow up, the idea that failure is a negative, gets imbedded in our mind. We start to realize this when we get that first F on a test or when we do something poorly and get laughed at. Of course, as adults failures is almost intolerable. However, true success is only achieved when we have failed multiple times along the way and learn from those mistakes. Often time, we care too much of what others in society thinks of us. We act a certain way and dress a certain way, all just to satisfy the norms of society. We become afraid of drawing attention to ourselves, afraid of our faults being brought out into the lime light in front of others. I too followed the norm as a kid, I tried hard to fit in. Of course, having a different skin color meant I had to try even harder.
However, in the second year of high school, a change came over me. It started one day, in a regular, boring history class, as I sat at one corner of the room gazing at the other, I noticed diversity. Not just diversity of race, but peoples likes and dislike. They were all different from mine and different from one another. I realized, the games I like to play and the music I like to listen to were not at all what my friends enjoyed. So, I questioned, what are the norms of society if everyone in it, is different? From then on, I simply stopped trying. I stopped trying to be someone I am not. What others thought of me didn’t bother me anymore. Looking back now this was the moment when I wasn’t afraid to fail anymore. I can risk speaking freely without having any consequences, it didn’t matter if I failed and stood embarrassed.
Today, I have a new perspective on failure, I welcome it. It’s hard, I admit it. However, I definitely like to embrace my mistakes, rather than hide or run away from it. By ditching my ego for a slight moment, I can learn wonders from my mistakes. Every conversation with my friends would help me boost my confidence, even as I make slipups, it makes me happy because I realize them, and I know I won’t make them again. Although I despise red ink on my paper, the comments and annotations I have received from my teachers and peers regarding my writing over the years, has significantly improved it. Of course, I am no literacy maestro so my journey of making mistakes in any aspect English has not yet ended. Every day I expect to learn something new to better my skills.
Analysis Paper:
Md Sakil Khan
English 1100/A
Introduction to Composition
Prof. I. Bodre
December 4, 2018
Bless Scandal
The entertainment industry comes in many shapes and forms, it started with theater arts and sports in ancient Greece, to what is present today, including music, movies, and video games. Video games are relatively new in the entertainment industry, and as they have grown in popularity in the 21st century we see more and more game releases. Over the years, people have always found ways to make a hefty profit off such popular trends, sometimes even swindling the general public to accumulate the extra money. In gaming, this means that as the public interest for games rises, there will be a bigger market for games. Which will lead to companies being formed solely to make money selling games, and of course there will be those that will try to make more money through unconventional business practice. “Bless Online” is a video game that stands as an example for such unorthodox and cash-grab business practice.
“Bless Online” is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) developed by a Korean gaming company called Neowiz Games. Neowiz announced in late 2013 that they were working on a new game, then known as Project Bless (Neowiz Games, para 1-2). The announcement accumulated a lot of attention in the MMO community, and people were very excited about the game, especially because of its developers. Neowiz is an experienced gaming company who has built a strong reputation in Korea, producing popular games such as “FIFA Online 2” and “CrossFire” (Neowiz Games, para 1-2). “Bless Online” was said to use Unreal Engine 3, which is a software for developing games, created by Epic Games (Neowiz Games, para 5-7). Furthermore, Epic Games, who were also game developers themselves (known for creating popular games such as “Fortnite”) would help Neowiz with the Bless Project. According to mmohut.com, a popular game reviewing website “[Bless is] created by a team of more than 150 world-renowned game developers and designers” (Para 2). This brought up many gamer’s hope, they thought that “Bless” would be an amazing, high quality, high budget game.
Fig 1. A screenshot of the official Bless Online game trailer which was posted by Steam on YouTube. The scene portrays a high-definition town square brimming with players (“Bless Online Official Trailer,” 27 Oct. 2017).
“Bless Online” follows the basic MMORPG formula, which is very much like social media. Usually, in these types of games, you as the player, create a character (which is the equivalent of creating a Facebook profile). After that, you would roam around the world doing activities ranging from fighting bad guys, crafting armor to even decorating your house. Being an online game, in “Bless” you can also meet other players from all across the world. “Bless Online” includes all these features from preceding popular MMORPGs (such as World of WarCraft) and also has some of its own selling points. With the help of the Unreal Engine 3, the game consisted of an amazing realistic graphics system that made the game world look vibrant and full of (digital) life, as seen in Fig 1. In a Q/A session conducted by mmorpg.com with Jacob Han, the chief producer of “Bless Online”, he states, the game will have “an immersive and realistic world, with a compelling story and in-game player-driven politics” (“Uncovering the Enigmatic,” questions 8). Jacob Han reveals some of the game’s new mechanics, which give players the ability to hold social status such as kings, farmers, thieves, etc.; players are also able to hold a jury to punish crimes committed in the game (“Uncovering the Enigmatic,” questions 3-5). In conclusion, the game is very much like real-life, which is always a positive and highly sought after by gamers.
Bless Online stood out from other games; it had a massive financial backing, an experienced team of developers, and some neat new game mechanics. However, the game was too ambitious; and Neowiz promised far more than what they delivered. The problems started with constant delays to the release date of the game. The game finally went into open beta in Korea, as evident by the “BO Open Beta Game Trailer” which released in 2016, three years after the initial Bless Project announcement. Open beta meant that the game was not yet complete, but all players were able to play a demo version. Despite the delay, the game quickly gained a large number of players in Asia. Amongst the Asian players, lots of western gamers also wanted to try out the game. In fact, they had to go through extra trouble to run the game; they use faked Chinese ID and VPN programs that avoid IP blocks (Sullivan).
As expected from a pre-released version of a game, the gamers noticed several issues, especially criticizing the game’s poor optimization (the games ability to run smoothly on a computer). A YouTube user named TheLazyPeon recorded a video which showed that when running the game, the screen would often stuttered resulting in the game to crash (“First Impressions,” time 32:47). Several weeks later, Neowiz stated that “Bless Online” accumulated a large following in the west, therefore, the game would have a global release (no IP blocks) with all the issues fixed (“Future Global Release”). Afterward, a steam page titled “Bless Online” opened with paid pre-registering options. Paid pre-registration, also known as “founder’s packs” (sometimes considered a nonrefundable donation) provided game developers money and in return, the players that purchase the founder’s packs will have early access to the game, when it releases. These packs cost about $40 to $140, which is more expensive than the worlds most played game of the decade, Grand Theft Auto 5 (“Steam Store”).
Fig 2. The graphics of “Bless Online” compared between open beta and full release. The change is almost indistinguishable (“Bless Online Upgrades Graphics.”).
Several months had past yet no new news came out regarding “Bless Online.” Gamers were also upset that Neowiz had not released any official statement, which showed that the game was being improved upon or when the game’s release date is? According to Patreon, a donation website, it’s policy states that the person or company who is receiving the donation must show proof that the project is being funded with the donator’s money, and Neowiz did no such thing. After a large accumulation of criticism, Neowiz released a YouTube video showing gameplay footage of the old version of the game to the new (“Class Combat Before & after”). The trailer ended stating, that “Bless Online” would release officially, in May of 2018 via Steam (“Class Combat Before & after”). Steam is a website and program which make games easy to buy and download (it is the PC equivalent to the app store or google play).
As promised, game did release in May 2018 on steam, however, it released as a “Buy to Play” model, with a price of $40 minimum (Steam Store). This surprised many gamers because in Asia and European, the game released under a “Free to Play” model, requiring no purchases to enter the game. This decision by Neowiz deteriorated many fans, who were quick to label the game as a scam, on the mmobomb website one commenter wrote, “beware of scam, company lie all the time” (“BO Free to Play”). Despite the paywall, many other gamers still bought the game. According to Steam Charts, the player count peaked 27,000 in the first month. Soon afterward, popular game reviewing website IGN described the game as, “horrendous, no improvements were made, the game still crashes, the combat system is still unrefined and after 4 years the games amazing graphics looked horrible compared to the newer games” (Blevins).
Comments similar to Blevins’ were common across all that played the game. The situation grew worst, therefore, Bless Online’s Executive Producer, Sungjin Ko tweeted an apology to the players, on May 30, 2018. He also releases a statement on steam stating that, the team appreciated all the founder’s support; Ko also shared the future plans for the game (“An Apology and Update”). Around the same time, Steam was allowing refunds to anyone who purchased the game. This is rare for Steam to do, according to Steam Policy, users can only get a full refund if they played the game for less than two hours, whereas for “Bless Online” even players with 10 hours were able to get refunds (“Where Refunds Apply”). After a month, the player base had dropped to 1000 players per month (Steam Charts). In November 2018, “Bless Online” was released as a “free to play” game which brought up the player base to 4000 players per month, but many speculate that number will go down soon because it’s not worth playing the game even if it is free (Steam Charts).
As it stands today, the world inside “Bless Online” is empty, for an MMORPG game that relies on player interaction, that means the game is dead. Neowiz took advantage of the hype fans of the MMORPG genre by building a half-baked game and trying to milk as much money as possible before people got to even play the final game. The game became super popular due to is many promised real-world features but ultimately ended as a disaster due to a poor business model and unmet expectations. The desire for an ideal game among many players has blinded them into trusting Neowiz and giving them money. It is easy to distrust small companies but even popular ones like Neowiz might not always turn out as expected. Companies like Neowiz exist in all industries where profits can be made, however as consumers, people should be aware of what they are spending their money on.
Works Cited
“BLESS” MMOHuts, 7 Nov. 2018, mmohuts.com/game/bless/, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
“Bless Online.” Steam Charts, steamcharts.com/app/681660, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
“Bless Online.” Steam Store, Valve, https://store.steampowered.com/app/681660/Bless_Online/, Acc. 4 Dec. 2018.
“Bless Online: An Apology and Update from the Producer on Bless Online’s Status.” Steam Community, 22 June 2018, steamcommunity.com/games/681660/announcements/detail/1653264683467164625, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
“Bless Online Announced Rebuild Project for Future Global Release.” MMOSite News, news.mmosite.com/content/2017-07-17/bless_online_announced_rebuild_project_for_future_global_release.shtml, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
“Bless Online Is Going Free-To-Play.” MMO Bomb, 4 Oct. 2018, www.mmobomb.com/news/bless-online-going-free-play/, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
“Bless Online First Impressions Is It Worth Playing?” TheLazyPeon, YouTube, 7 Feb. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4CGkjFmaRM, Acc. 4 Dec. 2018.
“Bless Online – Official Trailer (2018).” SteamTrailers. YouTube, 27 Oct. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJcvYfQH_9I, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
“Bless Online – Open Beta Gameplay Trailer.” MMOJACKX57. YouTube, 16 Jan. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om2EnEhu-84, Acc. 4 Dec. 2018.
“Bless Online Upgrades Graphics.” MMOSITE, my.mmosite.com/2939211/blog/item/bless_online_upgrades_graphics.html, Acc. 4 Dec. 2018.
“Bless: Uncovering the Enigmatic New Game.” MMORPG.com, www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/7001, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018
Blevins, Tal. “First Look at Bless.” IGN Boards, IGN, www.ign.com/articles/2012/12/20/first-look-at-bless, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
“Class Combat Before & after.” Bless Online, YouTube, 11 May 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzjDnLXEj5A, Acc. 4 Dec. 2018.
“NEOWIZ GAMES Announces Unreal Engine 3-Powered MMORPG ‘BLESS’.” Unreal Engine, 18 Oct. 2018, www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/neowiz-games-announces-unreal-engine-3-powered-mmorpg-bless, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
Online, Bless. “Bless Online (@BlessOnline).” Twitter, 16 Nov. 2018, twitter.com/BlessOnline, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
Sullivan, Sean. “How To Set Up A QQ Account, And Play Chinese MMOs.” mmo.com, 14 Oct. 2015, https://mmos.com/editorials/how-to-set-up-a-qq-account-and-play-chinese-mmos, Acc. 4 Dec. 2018.
“Terms of Use.” Patreon, www.patreon.com/legal, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
“Where Refunds Apply.” Steam, store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds, Acc. 25 Nov. 2018.
Research Paper:
Md Sakil Khan
English 1100/A
Introduction to Composition
Prof. I. Bodre
December 11, 2018
Why We Cannot Sever Our Ties with Fossil Fuel
Burning fossil fuel gives our products energy, with this energy we can light our houses and move our cars. However, burning fossil fuel also gives off harmful fumes, which causes global warming, eventually leading humanity to its demise. We humans have become so depended on fossil fuels, that even when we know how harmful it is to the environment, we still continue to consume it. Fossil fuel consumption is the leading factor for global warming, but it was not always like this. In the past, global warming was always present on earth, in fact, it made life possible. Global warming was caused only by geological activities such as volcanos erupting. Back then, global warming was more relaxed, but after the industrial revolution, global warming has been increasing at an unprecedented rate; and we the inhabitants of Earth and the consumers of fossil fuel are to blame. There are alternative ways to get the energy that we desire, such as solar, water or wind energy. Although these alternative methods are at play in many locations, fossil fuel still dominates the global market. Which leads the question that, even with all the technological advancements, why can we still not sever our ties with fossil fuel?
Global warming is not a new subject matter, most of the public was aware of this for more than a hundred years when the hole in the ozone layer was discovered. The ozone layer is an atmospheric layer discovered by two French physicists, Charles Fabry and Henri Buisson (“Ozone Layer Facts,” para 2). Fabry and Buisson concluded that, “the ozone layer absorbed 98% of the harmful ultraviolet rays [from the sun]” (“Ozone Layer Facts,” para 4). Following their discovery, came the developed of the spectrophotometer, which is used to observe the condition ozone layer (“Ozone Layer Facts” para 3). With the use of the spectrophotometer, scientists observed that there was a spot in the ozone layer where only 90% of the rays were absorbed (“Ozone Layer Facts” para 2). Named, “the hole in the ozone layer,” scientists concluded that this phenomenon was caused by the extensive use of CFC aerosol sprays (hairspray, spray paint, etc.). The spray cans were filled with natural gases such as chlorine, fluorine, and carbon (CFC) (“Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” para 3). These gases, when released into the atmosphere, creates a greenhouse effect. A greenhouse is an enclosed structure containing natural gases; its function is to trap the heat gained from minimal sunlight (“Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” para 1). Typically, a greenhouse is used for agriculture in cold weather. However, on a global scale, when the gases are trapped on the surface of the earth, there is massive heat that is produced. Essentially, turning the world into a giant microwave, resulting in all the glaciers melting causing the sea level to rise, not to mention damaging the ozone layer.
When burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil, the same greenhouse gases (chlorine and carbon) are released into the atmosphere, further accelerating the rate at which the earth warms (“Fossil Fuels,” para 3). At the beginning of the discovery, that humans are affecting global warming, only a few, but important conservation efforts were made. Some countries, including the United States, regulated the production aerosol products; also, more importantly, for the first time, raised awareness in the public, regarding the harmful effect of using fossil fuel (“Ozone Layer Facts,” para 12-13). Sadly, at the time, the idea was still new, and many people chose not to believe that their local activities like using a tiny can of aerosol spray could possibly end all of humanity. According to Student Energy, “Fossil fuels are the world’s dominant energy source, making up 82% of the global energy supply” (“Fossil Fuels,” para 4). The problem was that the common people looked at it from a personal perspective, they thought that their one act (of using fossil fuel) will not do much harm. However, when seven billion people commit seven billion acts then it adds up to a massive size.
Fig 1. A chart showing global warming concern in the US for the past 20 years (“Global Warming Concern at Three-Decade High in the U.S.” 14 Mar. 2017).
In the United States, “we the people” have become very open-minded about topics such as equality of races and gender, same-sex marriage, animal cruelty and also highly concerned with global warming. As studied from a survey by the statisticians at Gallup Poll, in 2017, the concern for global warming as a serious threat has increased from 20% in 1997 to 42% in 2017, shown in fig. 1 (“Global Warming Concern at Three-Decade High in U.S.”). This proves that more people are becoming aware of global warming, and more people are concern about it. The United States is also technologically advanced. After the invention of motors and generators, we now have alternative methods for generating energy in the form of electricity, furthermore, unlike fossil fuel, electricity does not produce harmful fumes (Davison, para 3-4).
Electricity was discovered by Benjamin Franklin, however, at the time, there was no stable way of producing a large amount of electricity. Until an engineer named, Michael Faraday invented the first generator, which could convert mechanical energy to electrical energy (Davison, para 20-23). However, Faraday realized that he needed an endless amount of mechanical energy, in order to efficiently produce electricity. Water wheels already existed before the first generator, and they were able to convert the kinetic energy of the river to mechanical energy (“Faraday’s work”). Therefore, Faraday used a water wheel’s rotary motion to produce electricity. Over the years, engineers were able to optimize the water wheel model to create the more efficient hydro-dam model, which used the kinetic energy of the waterfall (Davison, para 20-23). All the power that is collected is then stored in power plants ready to be dispersed to local homes and businesses. The wind turbine was another invention that generated electricity. Wind power followed the same principle as hydropower, where the kinetic energy of the wind was used to spin huge fans generating the mechanical energy, which is needed for the electrical energy. The turbines were generally placed in the plains or any flat land near the coastlines, where there are heavy drafts coming in from the ocean (Davison, para 20-22).
Solar power is another alternative power source, which only became popular and mass-produced in the 21st century. Solar power is collected in a device called the solar panel. These panels are comprised of photovoltaic cells that capture the sun rays and convert them into electricity (Davison, para 15-17). These cells can convert the thermal energy from the sun to electrical energy. The alternative power source comes from the elements that already exist in the natural world, including the flow of water, the gust of wind and the sun rays, and requiring no burning. Furthermore, with electricity, we replace old fossil fuel products with electrical products. For example, we go from oil lamps to light bulbs; we also have an electric mode of transportation such as trains that do not require burning coal, and we have electric heaters and stoves that do not require us to burn gas.
Despite some conservation efforts and the presence of alternative energy, the use of fossil fuel continues to increase. According to an annual survey conducted by Enerdata, in the United States alone, the consumption of oil has increased by 80Mt (metric tons) (176,320 pounds) and the consumption of natural gases has increased 230bcm (billion cubic feet) in the last 30 years. If we are using alternative power, then how could we be burning more fossil fuel then before? A New York Times journalist, Mark Scott, has two theories on the matter. He states that the amount of technology used is increasing in the United States, which means more power is consumed than ever before. He further gives an economic example explaining a domino effect, in which the increase in hydro, solar and wind power creates competition for the oil industry, therefore oil price becomes cheaper allowing people to buy more fuel (Scott, page 2). In return, this effects hydro, solar and wind power industry preventing them from growing because investors want to stick to what sales, which is fossil fuel, rather than risk their investments with the eco-friendly methods.
Mark Scott is right, in the capitalistic economy that we live in today money tends to be more important than morals. In a scholarly report by T. N. Jenkins, an expert on Ecological Economics, argues that when it comes to capitalism people tend to be selfish, they look only for their own profit. Jenkins states mainstream politicians and economists focus solely on business and find ways of increasing efficiency, which has negative effects on global warming. The steel industry is one of the largest consumers of fossil fuel (“World Steel Industry,” page 1). ArcelorMittal is a steel company that produces 97.1 tons of steel a year (“World Steel Industry,” page 2). The company has a huge financial budget; therefore, they should have minimal problems converting their power usage from coal to electric. Using their profits, ArcelorMittal can commission their engineers to build an energy efficient furnace, however, they have not done so. The process of building an energy efficient furnace can be very expensive, an amount that far exceeds to that of burning coal (“World Steel Industry,” page 1). The company’s actions are justified by the saying, “if it’s not broken why fix it?” Since using fossil fuel worked and made them profit, they did not need to switch. Unfortunately, companies like ArcelorMittal only look at short-term profits for themselves, but they do not consider the harm it causes in the long run (Jenkins).
The construction and maintenance of hydro dams, wind turbine farms and solar panels are extremely costly, which prevents many poor countries to even consider building such sites, an option (Ramos, para 10-14). Those of us residing in the United States are blessed to have access to electricity and we are somewhat economically stable. Which means we have the financial backing for building the alternative power source sites, in our country, however, this is not the same case in many other countries. Global warming is not a problem for the United States alone but is caused and affected by all the people, in every country. In the survey by Enerdata, in the past 30 years, China’s oil consumption has increased 5 times the original 144Mt (317,376 pounds) (“Natural Gas Domestic Consumption”). Even though the United States is the largest consumer of fossil fuel, its annual growth is gradual. However, in China, the increased use of fossil fuel is very rapid. At this rate, China will double the United States annual fossil fuel consumption in only 10 years (“Natural Gas Domestic Consumption”). The lack of modernization in these countries plays a major role in term of their fossil fuel consumption.
A lot of these poor countries still have large areas that do not have the luxury of electricity, they rely only on fuel to light their homes and their stoves. From personal experience, in my visit to rural areas in Bangladesh, I noticed that people were buying gallons of petroleum from the local shops and using it to light lamps. Even in the suburbs electricity is scarce, two hours of blackouts three times a day are very common. So, during blackouts, people were relying on fossil fuel. It was surprising to see that fuel is so easily accessible, petroleum is sold at almost any local store in the area, but there are no generators nor solar panels that were sold. The lack of distribution of alternative energy has made countries such as Bangladesh and China heavily fossil fuel dependents. According to the article, “Fossil Fuel Dependency by Country” five countries, including Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Brunei Darussalam are 100% fossil fuel dependent, and 50 countries are above the 85% fossil fuel dependent threshold (Dillinger, para 5).
Naturally, countries that have a large population consume the most energy. However, countries like China and India, who have a large population of the lower class, tends to consume a large amount fossil fuel energy, because the people in the lower class are the ones with no access to the alternative power source. The middle and working class are also factors in this equation because they also utilize fossil fuel due to financial reasons. For example, some cars have been made to solely use electricity as a power source (such as Tesla); however, an average middle-class person would not be able to afford such cars. Even if someone is able to buy these electric cars, in many instances, the overall electricity intake price compared to gas usage price of the car over a week would be much higher (“Electric Cars vs. Conventional Vehicles”).
We know that the use of fossil fuel is harmful to the environment, the ecosystem and the ozone layer (which can be devastating to the existence of humankind). Yet, there are many reasons why we tend to use fossil fuels over other alternative power sources such as wind, solar and hydropower. In most regions of the world, Fossil fuel is easily accessible and widely available. On the other hand, hydro and wind power are only accessible to those living near bodies of water. It also does not help when politicians and businessman take cheap shortcuts with fossil fuel rather than spending a little bit more money on building electrical power sites for a prosperous future for all inhabitants of their nations. Mainly, the use of fossil fuel is a problem that is caused by all the people on the earth, yet when it comes to the use of alternative methods, only a small percentage of people have access to it. Therefore, we must approach the situation from the eyes of all the people, especially, the commoners because they make up most of the population. If we want to stop the consumption of fossil fuel, then everyone around the world must have access to the alternative power source. It is not that people do not want to use electricity over gas, but they simply cannot. However, the increase in awareness can help in many ways, we can vote for green politicians, we can boycott companies whose factories harm the environment. Then maybe we can stop further damage to our only home, earth.
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