Feminine Identity and the Corset: A History

Feminine Identity and the Corset: A History Concepts of feminine identity have changed drastically throughout history. Ancient sculpture reveals that beauty was considered to be a woman who was greatly obese, perhaps because of its connotations of a woman well-fed in a world where that was a difficult achievement. The ancient Greeks valued a more muscular figure in their artwork of the feminine ideal, yet these figures still retained a soft roundness. In modern times, the feminine ideal has shifted to something closer to the skeletal. As this transition occurred, fashion has played a significant role in shaping the female identity. The durability and versatility of the corset as a defining garment is almost as astonishing as its continuing appeal. Even after it lost its widespread popularity, the continued use of the corset in Hollywood depictions of the feminine preserved its use, established its historic connotations and illustrated how it symbolized something larger than itself. Contemporary fashion has given the corset a n ew lease on life as women continue to turn to this garment as a means of identification within the modern world. Although the corset has traditionally been viewed as a symbol of female submission, any intrinsic meaning is subject to wide interpretation. What the immediate meaning usually comes from is available imagery, past or present, the suggestive pictures that have pervaded public consciousness and are loaded with shared associations (Hollander, 1995: 26). The tight-lacing of the 17th and 18th centuries indicate the degree to which the corset was considered a means of female sexual expression and define ideas of female beauty. Understanding how the corset has been used in Hollywood, revitalized in cult fashions and re-introduced in high fashion illustrates how it can operate to convey female submission and aggressive sexuality depending upon the internal and external factors at play in its design and use within modern fashion. Hollywoods Creation Hollywood and the big name movie producers have employed the corset in any number of ways from the beginning of the industry. The corset was already used in everyday dress when Hollywood emerged and it was already a strategic garment in Vaudeville and Broadway. Even then, women craved the fashions they saw on stage depending upon the persona of the actress and the intentions of the wearer. Broadway and Vaudeville star Anna Held is the first great example of the corset as a defining garment of the female character. Most of her fame was not attributed to her singing voice, but rather to her rolling eyes, eighteen inch waist and naughty songs (Kenrick, 2004). As is shown in Figure 1, Held continued the practice of tight-lacing in order to portray an enticing, sexually appealing woman with a tiny waist and accented upper features. Through these types of costumes in combination with her activities, Held demonstrated a life of independence and success while remaining sexy and appealing to the opposite sex. Author Eve Golden was quoted saying Held was everything that was glamorous about Broadway, everything that was naughty about Paris (Van Degans, 2006). Mae West achieved similar associations in notoriety and accomplishments. As early as age 14, West was being hailed as The Baby Vamp (Mae West Biography, 2004). Like Held, she became famous because of her quick wit and brazen sexuality. In 1926, Mae wrote, produced and directed the Broadway show Sex, which led her to be arrested for obscenity (Mae West, 2004). She was so controversial that new censorship codes were put in place in 1934 specifically to address her writing, but this didnt keep her from filling her lines with outrageous innuendo and double entendres. Her first film role was supporting George Raft in Night After Night (1932), in which Raft said she stole everything but the cameras. The first film to star West, She Done Him Wrong (1933), the film version of Diamond Lil, broke box-office records and saved Paramount from selling out to MGM (Mae West, 2004). Although West continued to emphasize the hourglass figure, she rejected the wasp-waist and tight-lacing of Held. Instea d, as is shown in Figure 2, West presented a narrow yet proportionately-sized waist. Women wishing to appear independent and sexual began including the corset to heighten and claim their sexuality. Although many stars who appeared in corsets as a part of their outer costume, such as Mae West and Anna Held, retained doubtful reputations as wild, free and sexual women, the corset was also used by good girls. In the 1950 film Two Weeks with Love, Jane Powell, the girl-next-door, deepened her image with the part of Patti Robinson, a 17-year-old vying for the love of a charming Latin man. A main point in the plot refers to the vital role of the corset as a means of defining a woman, something no real femme fatale of the time would be without (Two Weeks with Love, 1950). This good girls struggles to acquire a corset helped to blur the boundaries between the appealingly feminine good girl and the aggressively sexual bad girl. Throughout Hollywoods progression, women were often seen using corsets as a means of obtaining the ideal female figure despite changing fashions. Thus, Hollywood allowed the garment to shape and redefine the figures of thousands of American women through the gene rations. Examples include the hourglass figures of Debbie Reynolds in How the West Was Won and Marilyn Monroe in River of No Return, the cinch waist shown in The Glass Slipper on Leslie Caron and the straight-line figure of Betty Grable. Each of these images gives women something they can identify with that would encourage their use of the corset to express some aspect of their sexuality. Debbie Reynolds is sweetly sassy with the traditional hourglass figure. Marilyn Monroe disrobes for the camera to casually reveal her stunning shape. Leslie Carons super slim waist is emphasized by the attention of the actors while Betty Grables curves are made more alluring by the control maintained in the World War II poster. In each case, the use of the corset emphasizes rather than negates the sexual appeal of the women and provides her with an aura of power. Throughout these depictions and regardless of the finished shape, the corset was essential to full expression of true femininity. Without it, the female was somehow less than a woman as she lacked any sexual identity. The corsets continued use as a symbol of female empowerment in Hollywood ensured its continued use in society. Corsets Return in Cult Fashion Modern fashions use of the corset began with the Gothic fashions of the late 20th century although it can be found in other styles as well. Fashion designers working within smaller cult groups incorporated it as a feature element of everyday outerwear. Again, it is typically used to heighten a womans sex appeal, but the forms of interpretation can vary widely based upon the vision of the designer and the intention of the wearer. One such designer is Vivienne Westwood, who worked in the rock and roll movement of the 1960s and 1970s in Britain. Her fashions reflect the sexual freedom of female expression found in the womens movements of the time. She felt the repression and conservatism of Britain were in opposition to the freedom and liberation being expressed in America. She rebelled against these attitudes in the aggressive, outspoken nature of the clothing she designed. Westwood discovered that there was a dramatic potential in the clothes themselves that could be heightened: laden with associations, biker gear links sexuality, violence and death, in a twentieth century archetype (Savage, 2001: 21). She built on these ideas by adding metal studs, chicken bones, chains, zippers and other things to her designs. This made her the mother of the punk rock fashions (Savage, 2001: 21). Many of these designs included the corset as a fetish object, made in leather, vinyl or other materials (see Figure 7) to denote a dominatrix-type image. This gave the garment connotations of power and control. The jewel-like elements on the corset featured in Figure 7 also provides a strong element of decadence and wealth. Westwood then took the corset in a new direction as she defined the romantic pirate movement and the savages movement of asymmetrical skirts and ripped layers. Her corsets took on softer fabrics, but did not reduce the sense of power and control associated with the earlier designs. The sensuous images used in the Aphrodite and Adonis corset epitomizes the type of soft, yet blatant, sexuality the corset has come to represent. Westwoods reworking of the corset for outerwear has become one of her most recognizable trademarks. Romantic and historically accurate, the corsets are also surprisingly practical. Stretch fabrics allow ease of movement, and removable sleeves convert a daytime garment to evening wear. Once a symbol of constraint, corsets are now an expression of female sexuality and empowerment (Vivienne Westwood, 2004). Westwoods brilliance is in finding a means of melding the blatant sexuality of the corset-as-outer-garment crowd with the soft femininity of the corset-as-undergarment crowd. Madonnas now legendary conical bra, created by Jean Paul Gaultier and worn throughout her Blonde Ambition tour nearly ten years later, would never have happened if it hadnt been for Westwood playing with the concept of underwear as outerwear some time before him (Frankel, 2001: 52). Westwood recognized the attraction to this style was the inherent empowerment afforded the wearer. There is always a sense of dange r just under the surface of her designs, as is somewhat apparent in the example pictured in Figure 9. The Corset in High Fashion From its appearance in cult fashions, the corset has also been accepted back into high society as a symbol of status and taste. The corset had many positive connotations of social status, self-discipline, artistry, respectability, beauty, youth and erotic allure (Steele, 2001: 1). These concepts have been re-introduced to the corset as fashion designers increasingly recognize its appeal as an undergarment to women seeking psychological empowerment as well as an outer garment to highlight and reclaim sexual expression. Even when the full corset is not used, many designs mimic the hourglass shape in the cut of a jacket, the lacing on the back of a shirt or the boning of an evening gown. The corset captured the dichotomy between artifice and restraint and reflected the highly ornamental status given to the female body (Keenan, 2001: 171). However, the primary purpose of these elements continues to focus on providing the wearer with a sense of sexual power. Following Vivienne Westwood, haute couture designer Jean Paul Gaultier realized the corsets connotations of feminine power. The corset My first trademark piece. At the beginning of the 20th century, women considered corsets anti-freedom, but when I put them on the runway in the early 1980s, it was to express the power of femininity. It was supposed to be hidden, but making it apparent made people rediscover it. I love the fact that a woman or man wearing one feels strong and powerful (Davis et al, 2006: 43). His corset dress designs are based on the idea of the corset with many designs incorporating boning, support and tabs, but his favorite feature seems to be the lacing which adds a touch of the romantic and the sexual as is highlighted in Figures 10 and 11. Whether through the Paris runway or the cult sectors, the corset has entered mainstream fashion thanks to the creativity of designers, the versatility of new fabrics and techniques and the desire of women to construct an identity in keeping with the pressures of the modern era. Designers such as Stella McCartney have modified the corset dress to make it extremely wearable. The dress pictured in Figure 12 could be worn to an evening event as easily as an afternoon lunch. Designers have begun using elements of the corset in ever-more casual designs. In addition to the feminizing aspects of the fabrics and patterns selected for these pieces of clothing, the slimming features of the corset combined with its breast enhancing abilities are at the heart of this popularity. Psychologically, the popularity of the corset can be explained by its strong connotation. The corset, still being a historical garment, probably gives the wearer the feeling of timelessness and freedom felt when wearing fancy dress. It lets her adopt a role, a character, maybe a powerful seductress, which is not allowed during daily life (All Tied Up, 2006). By wearing a corset-inspired top, a modern-day woman gains the ability of expressing her femininity, exploring her sexuality, imbuing herself with a feeling of confidence and power and showing off her figure in its best light. Conclusion The Corset-Defined Identity Throughout its long history, the corset has been a significant player in the shaping of female clothing and female identity. Whether used by outrageous female actresses pushing the bounds of female sexual expression such as Mae West or Anna Held or incorporated into films by directors to illustrate a specific point, the corset remained a significant symbol of female identity throughout most of Hollywoods history from the vamp to the alluring ideal feminine. Moving into the 21st century, the corset has not phased out of production or usage. With designers such as Vivienne Westwood redefining both the function and the message of the corset, as well as revolutionizing the fabrics, materials and comfort level of these garments, the corset has seen a comeback into modern clothing. By bringing the corset into the open, Westwood also brought the subject of female sexuality more into the open, encouraging discussion and display. Her powerful designs and innovative fabrics served to highligh t the concept that the feminine could be powerful as well as shapely even while comfort remained a concern. The corset was then morphed into other styles of clothing for a variety of purposes. This effectively brought the idea of the feminine into a new context still defined by the shape of the corset, the feminine had suddenly been shaped into something defined by the individual woman and could reflect everything from guileless submission to the needs of the male to powerful aggression and control on the part of the female. The corset bears an everlasting sexual attraction: it glorifies, underlines, exacerbates and idealizes the female form. It has evolved aesthetically and symbolically: from underwear to outerwear (in late nineteenth century ball gowns), from corsets to bustiers, from constriction to power, from lingerie to armor (All Tied Up, 2006). I think you see why the shaping of the waist is important regarding sexuality. You state that W.Westwood was solely responsible for the comeback of corsets in the 80s. you could argue that it has always been there. Doirs new look (the nipped in waist) a corset in a more relaxed form. Not only female wears corset. Men do. Currently and in the past. Could talk about the waist coat acting like a corset for men or look up dandies Corsets Return in Cult Fashion and The Corset in High Fashion chapters can be cut down a lot if you look at the trickle down theory by simmel.

Martin’s Luther King Jr. Strugle for Racial Segregation and Civil Rights Essay

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most important figures within the fields of politics and non-violent activism of the 20th century. King was born on 15th of January 1929 in the city of Atlanta within the boundaries of the state of Georgia. Originally Martin Luther King Jr. as named after his father as Michael King, although his father who was also named after Michael King after visiting the Nazi Germany in order to attend the Fifth Baptist World Alliance Congress in Berlin he found himself been inspired by a German reformer called Martin Luther, so he decided to change both his name and his son’s name into Martin Luther King and Martin Luther King Jr. respectively. King was the middle child of the family having a younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams King and an older sister Willie Christine King. As a reference to his education he attended Booker T. Washington High school, also it is stated that he was a precocious student as he skipped two grades the ninth and the twelfth and entered Morehouse College at the early age of fifteen. He graduated College in 1948 and enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester which he graduated with a B. Div. degree in 1951. Meanwhile in 1953 he married Correta Scott and eventually became a father of four children Yolanda King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice King. Thereupon he became a pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery in 1954; he began his doctoral degree course in Systematic Theology at Boston University and graduated receiving his Ph. D. degree in 1955 with a dissertation on â€Å"A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman†. Although an academic observation which was held in 1991 concluded that parts of his dissertation were plagiarized but the committee decided that his degree shouldn’t be revoked. As a remark Martin Luther King Jr. was strongly influenced by religion (as it was natural, as been a Christian Minister since 1947) more specifically he was influenced by Jesus Christ and the Christian Gospels from which he frequently used quotes in his public speeches, he was also inspired from Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent activist action. In April of 1959 he made a desired for him as it was stated trip to India with the assistance of the American Friends Service Committee, it has to be mentioned that the trip affected King in a profound way and helped him deepen his knowledge and understanding in non-violent resistance and his commitment to the America’s struggle for civil rights, as he stated the last day of his trip to India in a local radio, King said: â€Å"Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of non-violent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity†. The â€Å"Fight† Against Segregation It all started back in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Claudette Colvin an African- American girl which in fact was under aged unmarried pregnant girl refused to give up her seat to a white man. At that point King was a member of the Birmingham African-American community and also a member of the committee which looked into the case but it was decided that they should wait for a better case to pursue. Their patience yielded. On December 1, 1955 an other African-American girl called Rosa Sparks also refused to give up her seat, back on that date the buses rows were â€Å"separated†, white people should seat on the front rows and the African-American people should seat on the back rows of the busses seats, as natural at some point the two â€Å"different† categories of passengers would meet. At that point the bus’s seats were all occupied and according to Jim Crow laws the following African-American passengers that would board on the bus were required to stand. It was exactly what they were waiting for, and soon after Rosa was arrested the Montgomery Bus Boycott broke out, it lasted 385 days. The whole Boycott issue turned out as a huge victory, although during the campaign a bombing attack was made against King’s house and he was also arrested. As a result the United States District Court in Browder v. Gayle case ended the racial segregation in all Montgomery public busses. After the Montgomery Bus Boycott King’s contribution to the result transformed him into a national figure and he was also off the record declared the best-known spokesman of the civil-rights movement. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Soon after the Montgomery lowdown King, Ralph Abernathy, and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The group was created in order to saddle the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests in the service of civil rights reform, King led the SCLC until his death. In 1962 SCLC joins Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement which was stated to be the first major non-violent campaign of SCLC. The Albany movement was a desegregation movement which was formed by local activist organizations, the SNCC and the National Association for the Advanced of Colored People (NAACP). The movement’s leader was William G. Anderson. During the period of King’s involvement with the Albany movement he was arrested twice, once in a mass arrest on 15th December of 1961 and in July of 1962. Although it has to be mentioned that King had been criticized by SNCC, they’ve even given him a snide nickname â€Å"De Lawd†, because as they claimed he maintained a safe distance from challenges that had to deal with Jim Crow laws. Birmingham Campaign Soon after the incidents in Albany the Birmingham campaign came to light. Birmingham campaign was a movement organized by SCLC and led by Martin Luther King Jr. and others. In the spring of 1963 the operation of the Birmingham campaign was at its peak, including widely publicized controversies between black young people and white civic authorities and eventually led the municipal government to change the city’s discrimination laws. A fact that can’t remain unnoticed as during the early 60s Birmingham was one of the most racially divided cities in the United States. Ultimately Birmingham movement was defined as a model of direct action protest, as it effectively shut down the city through a boycott and a series of sit-ins and marches, and drew the world’s attention to racial segregation in the South. Also it is stated that it paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Great March on Washington After the Birmingham campaign the SCLC called for massive protests in Washington DC to push for new civil rights legislation that would outlaw segregation nation-wide which turned to be an unparalleled success. The Great march on Washington claimed the title of one of the largest political rallies for human rights in the United State’s history, as the estimated number of participants varies from 200,000 to 300,000 and still remained non-violent, the 80% of the participants were estimated to be black and the rest were white and other non-black minorities. Also the city was swarmed by more than 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered aircrafts and uncountable personal vehicles. But the march was stigmatized by the King’s famous â€Å"I have a dream† speech. King began his speech with the emancipation of the slaves, issued by Abraham Lincoln and concludes that even though blacks were freed from slavery they still aren’t free. Then he raised the matter of the unkept promise of America to the Civil Rights Union for the continued pursuit of justice as racial segregation still existed. Finally he promotes black people to keep on fighting for their rights in non-violent ways as he believed that violence would lead to a cycle of fighting, unnecessary death and cruelty. The Poor People’s Campaign and the opposition to the Vietnam War In 1965 Martin Luther King Jr. egan to express his doubts about the Vietnam War in public. On 4th April 1967 he delivered a speech at the New York City Riverside Church titled â€Å"Beyond Vietnam: A time to break silence. † In which he expressed his objection to the role of the United States in the Vietnam War, mentioning that United States was in Vietnam â€Å"to occupy it as an American colony† and called the US government â€Å"the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. † He also connected the Vietnam War with economic injustice based on the fact that the US government was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs. He summed up this aspect by saying:† A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death†. Almost a year later in 1968 King organized the â€Å"Poor Peoples Campaign† in order to raise the matter of economic injustice; King crossed the whole country in order to assemble a multiracial army of poor people in order to march on Washington DC and engage in a non-violent civil disobedience at the Capitol until Congress created an ‘economic bill of rights’ for poor Americans. The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D. C. , demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the United States. The reconnaissance King was awarded at least fifty honorary degrees from colleges and universities. On October 14, 1964, King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to racial prejudice in the U. S. In 1965, he was awarded the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish Committee for his â€Å"exceptional advancement of the principles of human liberty†. In his acceptance remarks, King said, â€Å"Freedom is one thing. You have it all or you are not free. † In 1957, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. Two years later, he won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. In 1966, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America awarded King the Margaret Sanger Award for â€Å"his courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong dedication to the advancement of social justice and human dignity†. Also in 1966, King was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was posthumously awarded a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for his Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam in 1971. In 1977, the Presidential Medal of Freedom was posthumously awarded to King by President Jimmy Carter, who stated: â€Å"Martin Luther King, Jr. , was the conscience of his generation. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humblest citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains us yet. † More than 730 cities in the United States have streets named after King. King County, Washington rededicated its name in his honor in 1986, and changed its logo to an image of his face in 2007. The city government center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is named in honor of King. King is remembered as a martyr by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (feast day April 4) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (feast day January 15).

Is Mankind Harming the Environment? Essay

This paper will discuss whether mankind has played a role in harming the environment. It will talk in detail about the various human activities that have had an impact on our natural habitat and will also give specific examples of what we should expect in the future as a result of our activities and how we should deal with them. Mankind has several natural resources at his disposal. These include the oceans, atmosphere, forests etc. Any misuse or overuse of these resources will eventually destroy the sustainability of these resources. The fish population may become extinct, climate changes may result in an increase in natural disasters, forests may not be replaceable etc. In short, abuse or improper use of the environmental resources may result in long term consequences for the entire mankind. (Ostrom, Elinor et al: 2002) There is significant evidence to prove that mankind has indeed played a major role in harming the environment. Most the earth’s fisheries have already been destroyed and the Amazon rain forest is also near destruction. â€Å"Humans have destroyed more than 30 per cent of the natural world since 1970 with serious depletion of the forest, freshwater and marine systems on which life depend. † (Guardian: 1998) This combined with the persistent increase in greenhouse gas emissions have resulted in a massive increase in ozone layer depletion and global warming. This in turn has resulted in climate change all over the world causing an increase in the frequency of floods, droughts, hurricanes, extremities of weather, coastal erosion, melting glaciers etc. No doubt global warming is the result of man’s own activities. Human activities which produce increasing amounts of greenhouse gases especially carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel are causing global warming all across the world. Global warming has even caused the sea level to rise between four and eight inches during the last hundred years and every year seal level now rises one tenth of an inch. If mankind continues to emit greenhouse gases at the same rate it will result in serious environmental degradation as well as negative effects on human health. (Mank, Bradford: 2005) As Athanasiou and Baer put it, â€Å"Even if we move quickly to cap the emission of greenhouse pollutants [a politically and diplomatically impossible scenario at present], the consequences of global warming will soon become quite severe, and even murderous, particularly for the poor and the vulnerable. And in the more likely case where we move slowly, the impacts will verge on catastrophic. † Maximum contribution towards environmental degradation comes from industrialized countries as about one-half of all greenhouse gas emissions come from these regions. For example the United States produces about one quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases. (Harris, Paul: 2003) Climatologists suggest that average temperatures globally are expected to increase between three and ten degrees Fahrenheit by the next century. They also predict that climate change will also cause new problems because of a persistent degradation of our ecosystem. Rising sea levels, severe natural disasters such as hurricanes, drought, floods, air pollution, spread of diseases like malaria and cholera and other environmental disasters are all negative consequences of global warming. (Smith, Daniel S. : 2001) Some scientists have even predicted that human activities and increasing greenhouse gases will make the Earth so warm that the inhabitants will be unable to adapt to the changing climate. â€Å"The predicted results of this warming include melting of the polar ice caps, flooding of coastal cities, massive extinction of species, and the deterioration of civilization as we know it. † (Parsons, Michael L. :1995) Increasing globalization and man’s desire to accumulate more and more profit has also played a major role in harming the environment. Increased use of energy has resulted in a widespread increase in greenhouse gas emission from fossil fuel use and this has resulted in an increase in global warming. If humans don’t take any action, global warming will continue to increase. â€Å"The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that basic changes in personal consumption, mostly in the realms of electricity use, climate control, and transportation, can reduce the average American’s carbon emissions by roughly one-third, from 15,000 to 10,000 pounds per year. Further reductions can be achieved through changing consumption patterns of food and consumer goods, neither of which is included in those calculations. If combined with more efficient technology, this sort of realignment of priorities would substantially reduce the threat of global warming, as well as variety of other environmental problems. † (Smith, Daniel S. : 2001) Mankind’s level of water consumption is also constantly on the rise and it is predicted that water shortage may become mankind’s biggest problem in the twenty first century. It is estimated that up two thirds of the world’s countries will face moderate to high water shortages by 2025. This accompanied with increasing air, water and waste pollution due to extensive industrial development has further deteriorated our environment. Greater use of fossil fuel and biomass burning and land clearing have led to a increase in nitrogen that has in turn, diminished the absorptive capacity of natural system. While the above evidence demonstrates mankind’s contribution to environmental deterioration, there are supporters who insist that man has played such a negative role. They feel that there hasn’t been such a major impact on the environment to begin with and that the consequences have been exaggerated to a large extent. Those who support globalization and deny its negative impact on the environment feel that economic progress is closely linked to environmental performance but in a positive manner. They feel that it is in fact economic prosperity that may lead to a cleaner environment. The logic behind this argument is that by adopting new and improved technologies, industries will have a less harmful impact on the environment and economic progress would enable countries to bring changes into their mode of operation and save the environment from harm. (John, Detlef). On the other hand a report by by the Working Group on Development and Environment in the Americas (U.S, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica and El-Salvador) shows that industrial development and globalization has caused severe damage to the environment and highlights that the Americas now have growing problems with air, soil and water contamination as a result of globalization, urbanization and modernization. (Schalatek, Liane: 2004) Human activities have destroyed our natural habitat, have resulted in accelerating global warming and have contributed to air and water pollution. The amount of greenhouse gases being emitted today is sufficient to cause considerable damage to the environment. The ozone layer is being depleted continuously, a number of pesticides and other organic pollutants have been spread globally endangering hormonal balances and the immune system in man and animals. Increasing dependence on natural resources has resulted in a rapid depletion of tropical forests and fisheries. Many regions are facing problems of water shortage, resource depletion, climate change; risks from biological agents etc. (Dahl, Lynn: 1998) There has been a decline in plants, animals, insects and birds. According to the UN, the current extinction rate is up to 1000 times faster than in the past. It is estimated that around 844 animals and plants have disappeared in the last 500 years. â€Å"The global demand for biological resources now exceeds the planet’s capacity to renew them by 20%†. (Adam, David: 2006).

Introduction to Electricity and Electronics

Electricity is a form of energy involving the flow of electrons.  All matter is made up of atoms, which has a center called a nucleus. The nucleus contains positively charged particles called protons and uncharged particles called neutrons. The nucleus of an atom is surrounded by negatively charged particles called electrons. The negative charge of an electron is equal to the positive charge of a proton, and the number of electrons in an atom is usually equal to the number of protons. When the balancing force between protons and electrons is upset by an outside force, an atom may gain or lose an electron. And when electrons are lost from an atom, the free movement of these electrons constitutes an electric current. Humans and electricity Electricity is a basic part of nature and it is one of our most widely used forms of energy. Humans get electricity, which is a secondary energy source, from the conversion of other sources of energy, like coal, natural gas, oil and nuclear power. The original natural sources of electricity are called primary sources. Many cities and towns were built alongside waterfalls (a primary source of mechanical energy) that turned  water wheels  to perform work. And before electricity generation began slightly over 100 years ago, houses were lit with kerosene lamps, food was cooled in iceboxes, and rooms were warmed by wood-burning or coal-burning stoves. Beginning with  Benjamin Franklins  experiment with a kite one stormy night in Philadelphia, the principles of electricity gradually became understood. In the mid-1800s, everyones life changed with the invention of the electric  light bulb. Prior to 1879, electricity had been used in arc lights for outdoor lighting. The lightbulbs invention used electricity to bring indoor lighting to our homes. Generating electricity An electric generator (Long ago, a machine that generated electricity was named dynamo todays preferred term is generator) is a device for converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. The process is based on the relationship between magnetism and electricity. When a wire or any other electrically conductive material moves across a magnetic field, an electric current occurs in the wire. The large generators used by the electric utility industry have a stationary conductor. A magnet attached to the end of a rotating shaft is positioned inside a stationary conducting ring that is wrapped with a long, continuous piece of wire. When the magnet rotates, it induces a small electric current in each section of wire as it passes. Each section of wire constitutes a small, separate electric conductor. All the small currents of individual sections add up to one current of considerable size. This current is what is used for electric power. An electric utility power station uses either a turbine, engine, water wheel, or other similar machine to drive an electric generator or device that converts mechanical or chemical energy to electricity. Steam turbines, internal-combustion engines, gas combustion turbines, water turbines, and wind turbines are the most common methods to generate electricity.