This week I have decided to write about Ebola for my weekly blog post. I have been putting off writing about Ebola for a long time because everyone else has been talking about it constantly and to be honest I was kind of sick of it. However there are not very many things to write about other than Ebola. My view on Ebola is that it is definitely a very dangerous disease and if one person gets it it could effect everyone else. This is why I think it is stupid that we keep sending doctors to treat people with Ebola in other countries, because then when they come back they are a risk to everyone else. My opinion is that we should focus more on teaching the people in those countries to treat Ebola, than going to those countries to treat them ourselves. I feel like this is an unnecessary risk that puts our entire nation in danger when one person brings it back. Could you imagine if Ebola began to spread in NYC because one man brought it back from Africa. Everyone would get it and soon our entire country would be infested with it. The only reason that the death rate for Ebola is so low is that it has been in our country for a very short while. In all, Ebola is very dangerous, and I feel like our government is playing hot potato with our lives and sooner or later if we do not get more careful we could all be at risk.
Today a man attacked four police officers with a metal hatchet. The suspect was said to have been stalking them. The police officers were reportedly posing for a picture on the side walk when the man attacked them. Two men were hurt, one was hit in the right arm and the other in the head. The two men that were not hurt shot and killed the man who was later identified to be Zale H. Thompson. Thompson had a criminal record and had been discharged from the navy for misconduct. Authorities believe that this may be connected to the recent calls by radicals posing a threat towards military and police officers. Thompson converted to Islam two years ago and is now being accused of being an Islam terrorist. He was unemployed and his parents said that he was depressed and spent most of his time on the computer. I believe that Zale H. Thompson is probably not the last Islam radical to try something like this and if it is not stopped soon there may be many more like it.
This week I decided to do my current event on foot golf. Foot golf is a fairly new sport and is only played at a few golf courses in America. Although it may sound funny It looks like a lot of fun and I certainly hope that at some point it comes to the upper valley. Foot golf is pretty much the same exact thing as golf only with a soccer ball and a bigger hole, other than that the rules and everything are all the same. Although it sounds really cool there are just a few problems with the sport. One problem is that golf is played by a lot of old people that can not kick a soccer ball that well, and since they pay the courses the majority of their income it would not be smart for companies to invest too much money in foot golf courses. Also since the majority of people that play foot golf are fairly young they could become a liability and companies are worried that they might get out of control and damage the course. One benefit of foot golf is that it does not require too much skill especially if u played soccer as a kid, where in golf it could take you many years to acquire the skill and muscle memory that it takes to send a small ball 100 yards down a field with a club. I think foot golf would be pretty cool especially for soccer coaches because they could bring their teams to a course for a practice once in a while or something and it would be a fun pass time on weekends. I bet it would be a big hit and I hope it comes to the upper valley some time soon.
This week I decided to do my weekly report on Nuclear energy. Nuclear energy was originally used in the mid 1900's by the United States to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. Soon after the UN established the UN Atomic Energy Commission to deal with the questions raised by nuclear energy. The president of the United States, "Dwight D. Eisenhaur also established a landmark address, "Atoms for Peace" in 1953 which led to the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1957. Today there are 439 nuclear power plants that produce fourteen percent of the world's electricity and in 9 countries they produce forty percent. In 1968 the UN passed a treaty between all countries on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The IAEA conducts onsite inspections to enforce this treaty and ensure that nuclear materials are only being used for peaceful purposes. Up until the Iraq war in 2003 their inspectors played a key role in discovering Iraq's banned weaponry. In 2005 the agency was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for their efforts and concern towards preventing nuclear war. One unhealthy product of nuclear energy is nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is the product of nuclear fission and nuclear technology. Nuclear energy is hazardous to most life forms but is sometimes used in small doses to create medicine and treat diseases like cancer. Nuclear waste is also regulated naturally decays over time. In conclusion there are tons of good uses for nuclear energy and tons of bad uses for it. If we use it safely it could save thousands of lives and produce valuable energy for countries around the world. If it is used dangerously it could kill thousands of people or destroy ecosystems, and as we saw during the Cold war and in japan during World War II it could end the world as we know it.
This week I decided to do my current event on natural disasters, more specifically forest fires. Forest fires are some of the most powerful natural forces known to man. One of the reasons I chose forest fires as my global issue for this week is because I can remember hearing about forest fires all the time when I was younger and seeing a smoky bear sign at almost every beach i went to, and I have always wanted to know more about it. Although some forest fires are caused by lightning strike most are human-caused. Climate change also plays a huge role in forest fires all over the United States. As climate change gets worse we get warmer and warmer weather, causing drought which dries out the forest, shrubs, and grass causing more and more forest fires. Forest fires can burn thousands of acres of land using weather wind and dry underbrush as fuel. They can move at speeds up to fourteen miles per hour enveloping everything in their path. For a forest fire to burn it needs three things, fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. The more an areas fuel load the larger and more intense the fire. If the heat source is not hot enough the fire will not burn because it has to be able to dry out the fuel to burn it. To put out a forest fire the fire fighters have to take away one of the three essential things. The most commonly used methods are to clear out shrubbery to deprive the fire of fuel and to douse it with water and or fire retardant. Forest fires are a very serious thing and occur in almost all fifty states. They destroy thousands of homes and farm land every year. If climate change does not slow down and drought out west continues, I do not think that we will be seeing a shortage of forest fires anytime soon.
|