Sunday, November 02, 2008

News coverage during the war!

Recently i have been studying the type of news coverage during the 1st gulf war and the war in Iraq. It saddened me to find out from undercover filming what was really going on and how the US military told bare face lies (this is fact) to all the journalists who had been embedded among the soldiers in Iraq.

The fact that journalists get to go with the army and report everyday makes you believe that you know what is really going on however if you take a step back you will realise that all these SELECTED journalists from the best institutes have a lot to loose. Living on a personal level with the soldiers makes it almost impossible for journalists to report anything in a negative light, after all these people are feeding, clothing and protecting them.

Obviously we cant just let journalists roam free and put the army in vulnerable position but even the where abouts of the journalists and where they get posted is controlled. for example all the journalists will get posted to the same place, this means that in a confined space there is no room for radical and opposing stories, only enough for all the stories to be somewhat similar, so this makes it easier for the army to filter the similar stories. Which brings me on to AL JAZEERA, a fantastic realistic view news broadcast which was set up in quatar for similar minded Arabs with opposing views to the control they live by. Although Al Jazeera may be rejected by some countries you must ask yourself why. This broadcast does not follow the typical conventions of news programming. Not motivated by political agenda however still discussing these issues on a level where no other channel would go.

AL JAZEERA openly accepts criticism of Arab governments and giving the view of the people ( not what we are brainwashed to believe what the public think). So it brings me on to say i would recommend watching this channel on sky TV and you can see for yourself what you make of it. Please leave some comments on what you think of it, im very open to criticism and debate : )

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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

We don't own this earth it owns us! What are we doing? How can we be so lazy?

Global warming is a serious problem affecting our modern society, some choose to ignore it and others make a difference, which are you? Some natural factors have affected global warming it is not just humans! (Although we are at least major catalysts):
  • The change in land masses and the constant moving of these land masses affects ocean currents and wind which in turn affects climate in different areas around the world.
  • The tilt of the Earth is another factor, although widely thought the Earth's tilt is unchanging it is said that the angle of the tilt changes by little more than half a degree each century, this change is called precession. In the time of the Egyptians when the pyramids were built (around 2500BC) the pole was near the star Alpha Draconis rather than Polaris (the Pole Star). Precession affects seasons and climate, more tilt means colder winters and warmer summers, less tilt means milder winters and cooler summers.
  • The vast stretches of open water that cover 71% of the earths surface also have an effect on the climate. Ocean phenomenon such as the Pacific Ocean's El NiƱo, which is a change in the temperature of surface water in the tropical Eastern Pacific, can affect climate and weather worldwide for a period of time afterwards.

We as humans are separating ourselves from nature by disrupting the harmony and destroying the beauty. We have developed several technological ways of polluting and harming the enviroment some of the most effective are as follows:

  • Through our growing numbers, demand and greed we are taking more and more from the enviroment and putting less back. Humans have been affecting the build up of green house gases such as carbon dioxide since we began, cutting down trees reducing the amount of plant-life breathing in the carbon dioxide. Since the end of the 19th century (the industrial revolution) we have been increasing the amount of CO2 in the air through the invention of the motor engine and increase in burning of fossil fuels, on top of that cutting down frightening numbers of trees, this is now having an effect are we too greedy to care?
  • Methane levels have over doubled since the industrial revolution, this is caused by livestock and Paddy feilds.
  • We are also affecting something underground we cannot see happening, this is called permafrost. Permafrost is a solid structure extending as far down as 2,000 feet in some areas, it is made from frozen soil filled with roots, sticks, plants many of these said to date back as much as 30,000 years. Permafrost holds about 14% of the worlds carbon and if this starts to melt the carbon will be released but also the ground will become soft causing havoc to anything built above these areas found in Alaska, Canada, Siberia and Scandanavia.

TO BE CONTINUED

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