The Donner Party and the American Character :: essays research papers

According to the thesis of Fredrick Jackson Turner, the frontier changed America. Americans, from the earliest settlement, were always on the frontier, for they were always expanding to the west. It was Manifest Destiny; spreading American culture westward was so apparent and so powerful that it couldn’t be stopped. Turner’s Frontier Theory says that this continuous exposure to the frontier has shaped the American character. The frontier made the American settlers revert back to the primitive, stripping them from their European culture. They then created something brand new; it’s what we know today as the American character. Turner argues that we, as a culture, are a product of the frontier. The uniquely American personality includes such traits as individualism, futuristic, democratic, aggressiveness, inquisitiveness, materialistic, expedite, pragmatic, and optimistic. And perhaps what exemplifies this American personality the most is the story of the Donner Pa rty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When their journey began in 1846, the members of the Donner and Reed families had high hopes of reaching California, and they would settle at nothing less. Their dream of making a new life for themselves represented great determination. When their packed wagons rolled out of Springfield, Missouri, they thought of their future lives in California. The Reed family’s two-story wagon was actually called the â€Å"pioneer palace car†, because it was full of everything imaginable including an iron stove and cushioned seats and bunks for sleeping. They didn’t want to leave their materialistic way of life at home.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However, the Donner Party also possessed the American trait of expediency, which ultimately caused their party many deaths. Taking the advice of Lansford Hastings, the author of The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California, the Donner Party took the supposed new and faster route that cut under the Great Salt Lake to California. However, even when they were trapped under several feet of Sierra Nevada snows, they didn’t give up; perseverance and optimism prevailed. Soon after many days trapped in makeshift shelters beneath the mountains, the emigrants ran out of food. With their pragmatic minds, they ate every bit of their oxen they could including boiled hides and charred bones. Being practical, they also ate bark, twigs, and leaves. They had to eat something; it was still survival of the fittest.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some members of the Donner Party were courageous and determined enough to venture over the mountains to California to get relief. A small group set out, along with two Indian guides.

Potential Climate Tipping Point Of Earth System Environmental Sciences Essay

Essay: â€Å" Critically measure the likeliness and possible impacts of the Earth System traversing a clime tipping point within the twenty-first century. † Introduction Climate alteration have been in grounds since scientists predict that, if no neutralization is planned and put into pattern, we might be affected by ruinous alterations in clime forms. Harmonizing to the IPCC ( 2001a ) , climate alteration is the consequence on the Earth ‘s clime province, and its atmospheric composing, csaused by an digesting series of actions. These actions might hold natural or human beginnings. The UNFCCC ( 1994 ) see the natural beginnings as clime variableness, and these entirely do non represent clime alteration. The human 1s are the 1s that lead clime alteration, and are besides the 1s we can act upon. Sun ‘s energy fluctuation, alterations in the Earth ‘s orbit, vents ‘ activities and ocean ‘s kineticss are considered to be the natural beginnings that can alter the clime ( NOAA, n.d. ) . The anthropogenetic causes that can impact clime are related to the steeper addition in Greenhouse Gases ( GHG ) emanations, which are conducte d by firing fossil fuels, coal mines, landfills, agribusiness, among others ( EIA, n.d. ) . Climate has ever changed, but it can make a certain point where life as we know it can be earnestly affected. There is a point where there is no return, there is no manner of halting or altering something back to what it was, this is the tipping point ( Macmillan, 2010 ; Cambridge, 2010 ) . Furthermore, Wordnik ( 2010 ) defines tipping point as â€Å" the point at which a slow, reversible alteration becomes irreversible, frequently with dramatic effects † . For Lenton, Footitt and Dlugolecki ( 2009 ) some of the clime tipping elements – the 1s that will be affected by making a tipping point – are sea degree rise, Monsoons, Amazon rainforest dieback and oceans circulation ; as shown in figure 1. Harmonizing to the IPCC ( 2007a ) abrupt clime alterations, which can take to a clime related tipping point, have a low chance to go on in the twenty-first century. On the other manus, at Lenton, Footitt and Dlugolecki ( 2009 ) these alterations might happen within the twenty-first century unless, in the short term, really drastic attempts lessening aggressively the emanations. Th erefore this essay critically assesses the Earth System tipping points ‘ possible impacts on some of its elements and their chance of go oning in this century. Figure 1: Lenton et Al. ( 2008 ) universe population denseness and tipping elements sites.Sea Level RiseAs exposed in VilibiA†¡ ( 1997 ) , sea degree can be measured taking into history a land point of mention ( tide gage informations ) or planetary sea degrees ( satellite altimeter informations ) . In the first one, even though clime alteration is steering sea degree rise, a lessening in sea degree can be obtained if the landmark is in a topographic point where hemorrhoids of ice were melted off. That occurs because the ice weight exerts force per unit area on the land beneath, and when it melts off, the land steadily bounces back, locally raising its height comparative to ocean ‘s degree and, therefore, giving the false feeling of lessening in sea degree. Conversely, in the 2nd one ( satellite altimeter ) , when planetary sea degrees are the benchmark, the H2O that comes from the melted land-based ice joins the sea H2O increasing its degree. As it is shown in figure 2, t emperatures are expected to lift, taking to a steep addition in the sea degree harmonizing to the medium temperature scenario ( figure 3 ) . Figure 2: EDF ( 1999 ) temperature alterations ‘ projections Figure 3: EDF ( 1999 ) sea degree alterations ‘ projections Ice sheets are a impulsive force because of the monolithic impact of its liquid H2O in sea degree. Harmonizing to the American Geological Institute ( 2010 ) , ice sheets are â€Å" a glacier of considerable thickness and more than 50,000 square kilometres in country, organizing a uninterrupted screen of snow and ice over a land surface, distributing outward in all waies and non confined by the implicit in topography † . The Greenland ice sheet and the West Antarctic ice sheet, if thawed wholly, would take together to a 12 metre rise in sea degree ( IPCC, 2001b ) . The Maldives 1,200 islands is an illustration, they are less than three metre above sea degree, therefore, a little addition in sea degree can do them vanish. Bangladesh is another 1, nowadays the loss of land along their rivers obligates a million of people to be relocated, and if the sea rises one metre, more than 13 million will hold to be relocated ( World View of Global Warming, n.d. ) . Lenton, Footitt and Dlug olecki ( 2009 ) anticipations province that it would take 300 old ages for the full ice sheets to run, however, because of its elephantine dimension, merely a little fraction of it go oning in this century will hold an tremendous impact. Harmonizing to the medium temperature alteration scenario, even though after the temperature rate of addition is likely to decelerate down ( figure 2 ) , the sea degree will go on to lift ( figure 3 ) . That will likely be due to the negative ice-albedo feedback connected to the temperature addition. The Copenhagen Diagnosis ( 2009 ) states that the IPCC AR4 ( Integovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report ) presented a sea degree addition half that of the observed by more recent research. It besides suggested that the net fluctuation of the Antarctica and Greenland ice mass is rapidly diminishing. As temperature additions and ice sheet ( higher reflective power ) thaws, Earth and deep ocean H2O ( lower reflective power ) absorb more heat, taking more ice thaw and sea rise.MonsoonsRamage ( 1971 ) defined monsoons â€Å" as a seasonal reversing air current accompanied by seasonal alterations in precipitation † ; more late, Trenberth et Al. ( 2000 ) and Zuidem a et Al. ( 2007 ) say that it is the asymmetric warming of land and sea associated with precipitation and atmospheric circulation seasonal alterations. The summer monsoons carry air from sea to the land ( traveling from a high to low force per unit area country ) ; in land this air raises, gets colder and turn into heavy rain. In contrast, winter monsoons work on the other manner around traveling air from land ( that cools faster ) to the sea ( that maintains heat ) , therefore doing land drouth. A simplistic account for monsoons is that they are seasonal, strong and big graduated table air currents that blow from sea to land or the other manner around, doing a batch of rain or drouth. Harmonizing to the University of California ( 2002 ) , planetary heating might heighten the summer monsoons behaviour and weaken the winter monsoons behavior, altering its impact in Earth life. The alteration in behaviour happens because during summer, with more wet in the air as the ocean will be warmer, it is expected a encouragement in rainfall and implosion therapy. On the other manus, winter monsoons ( in raising temperatures scenario ) might non be as strong, due to set down non being every bit cold as it was, doing the weakening of the air current blow to the sea. In many topographic points, concern and agribusiness have their growing reliant on the monsoons. As the monsoons are seasonal, many activities are driven and impacted on its dependability, besides that, if a monsoon lead countries to deluge or drought, that besides have an impact on the Earth life. The Indian and the West African monsoons are the tipping elements with closer tipping points harmonizing to Lenton et Al. ( 2008 ) . The Indian summer monsoon is expected to heighten due to greenhouse gases concentrations that trap the air. In this instance, more rain in expected, which could be good for agribusiness, but excessively much rain ( frequence and measure ) it can turn into inundation and have a negative impact. The West African monsoon, on the other manus, might hold a positive result after its alterations, as it can do the desert wetting agent, increasing the growing of flora. Besides harmonizing to Lenton et Al. ( 2008 ) both instances are expected to make its tipping points within the following decennary, foremost the Indian monsoon ( around one twelvemonth ) and so the West African monsoon ( around 10 old ages ) .AmazonThe Amazon rain wood is normally called the lung of the Earth. It is in the North of South America, most of it is in Brazil, but it extents besides ov er Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and Gallic Guiana. It covers around five and a half million square kilometres, which is about 16 times the country of the United Kingdom ( as the country circulated in black shows in figure 4 ) . The biodiversity in the Amazon tropical wood is tremendous, harmonizing to Da Silva et Al. ( 2005 ) latest research indicate that there are more than 40,000 works species, 3,000 fishes, 1,200 birds, 420 amphibious vehicles, 400 mammals, and 370 reptilians in the part. Lenton et Al. ( 2009 ) list the economic, societal, environmental built-in values of the Amazon Forest: C segregation and storage, biodiversity, H2O cycling and landscape value. Because of its magnitude, the Amazon is highly of import to the universe. The chief menaces to its ecosystem are the deforestation and clime alteration. Harmonizing to the Permanent Interministerial Working Group for Reducing the Rates of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon ( 2004 ) , the chief causes for the deforestation in the Amazon are cattle ranching, logging, agribusiness, illegal appropriation of public lands, and route building. As the Amazon is a huge unpeopled country, the Brazilian authorities battle to command and hinder its abuse, hence appears that at the present clip, there is no simple solution for this issue. Additionally, clime alteration ( in this instance, partly due to the El Nino increased impact ) may increase temperature and cut down the rainfall in the part, doing the die-back of the wood ( Cox et al. , 2004 ) . As shown in figure 4, from the entire country of the Amazon forest, more than half of it is likely to vanish until 2030 due to the deforestation that already took topographic point, and the deforestation and drought previsio ns for the future old ages. Figure 4: BBC ( 2008 ) Area of the Amazon Forest The work from Jones et Al. ( 2009 ) suggests that any seeable reaction from the ecosystem can perchance look merely after a long-run transmutation is already taking topographic point. This can intend that, even though we are presently under the threshold of the Amazon tipping point, with CO2e at 430 ppmv on the manner to 450 ppmv, it can take to more than 2A °C addition in temperature ( Lenton et al. , 2009 ) and can already be perpetrating the Amazon future die-back, even though there is no evident grounds at the minute. This suggests that the stabilisation of this ecosystem clime impacts do non depend merely on the stabilisation of the clime.Ocean CirculationHarmonizing to the Center for Climate Change and Environmental Forecasting U.S. Department Of Transportation ( 2009 ) , the â€Å" thermohaline circulation ( THC ) refers to the physical drive mechanism of the ocean circulation ensuing from fluxes of heat and fresh water across the sea surface, subsequent interior commixture of heat and salt, and geothermic heat beginnings † . Furthermore, at the IPCC ( 2007a ) portion of the THC is the â€Å" meridional overturning circulation ( MOC ) that is established along the western boundary of the Atlantic basin † . The IPCC ( 2007a ) provinces that, in the Atlantic, the planetary heating due to the nursery gases raise in the ambiance drives the addition of fresh water into the ocean which can take ocean ‘s circulation decline or even its motion shut-down. Increase in freshwater overflow, from rivers and from land ice melted, into the ocean makes less salty the ocean ‘s surface Waterss. This decrease in the salt lessening ocean ‘s denseness, being less dense it might non be heavy plenty to travel under the surface and impel the MOC motion. This motion is of import because it captures CO2 from the ambiance and sinks it, hive awaying it into the deep ocean. Another ocean, in concurrence with the ambiance, phenomena that influence planetary clime and is influenced by clime alteration is the ENSO ( El Nino and La Nina ) . El Nino is the heating of the surface of the Pacific Ocean in the tropical part ( weakening its normal status ) ; it happens every 2 to 7 old ages jumping to the conversely cold stage, La Nina ( IPCC, 2007a ) that strengthens its normal status. They cause opposite extreme conditions effects such as inundations and drouths, and other conditions effects around the universe. If the amplitude of ENSO gets higher, if can escalate the effects of other tipping elements, such as the Asiatic Monsoon and the Amazon die-back causes.DecisionEven though some tipping points were seen individually in this essay, as they are portion of the same ecosystem, alterations in any of them will straight or indirectly act upon the other 1s. Some of these influences, such as the 1s from the ENSO into the Monsoons or the Amazon are more clearly co nnected, but the theoretical accounts used to measure the tipping elements and their possible tipping points are non able to foretell all the possible interactions of the Earth complex ecosystem and its reactions to the clime alteration. Nonetheless, even though there are multiple tipping points, they relate to a specific country and hence have their ain local importance, timing and pay in a planetary graduated table influence. Undesirably seems like there is no exact reply for the likeliness of the Earth System traversing a clime tipping point within the twenty-first century. Harmonizing to the IPCC ( 2007b ) likeliness â€Å" refers to a probabilistic appraisal of some chiseled result holding occurred or happening in the hereafter, and may be based on quantitative analysis or an evocation of adept positions † but no research, paper, article, study, book affirm with certainty any reaction related to climate alteration as a whole. Publications normally conclude their statements with unfastened decisions, smoothing their findings with looks such as: far from inevitable, distinguishable possibility, more likely, really improbable and chances that can hold an ample scope, which are non decisive. Cox et Al. ( 2004 ) even declares that â€Å" we are still a long manner from being able to gauge the chance of such an ecological calamity happening in the existent Earth system † . The return place mess age should be that, even though there are no warrants, there is a opportunity of traversing a clime tipping point Oklahoman or subsequently. Are we prepare to disregard the chances and take the opportunity to be affected by ruinous clime alteration, or should we be more careful and take actions now that can extenuate the negative impacts on the Earth system? Word count: 2,332

Compare Business Analysts From IT and Business - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1240 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Compare and contrast essay Did you like this example? Abstract This first part of the paper will look into details about the background of the business analysts and see what are some competences and transferrable skills they may have in becoming a successful business analyst. It will then look into one of the dilemmas that many organizations face today namely whether to outsource, buy or build equipment in house. Essay: Compare business analysts from IT and Business. Which ones are more effective in what situations? Give examples. The profession of a business analysts represents a myriad of professional career background. It is their background that drives the way that a business analyst approaches analysis project and think about business solution. There’s a long standing debate regarding the level of knowledge one needs to have either in IT or business because for instance, an individual who is fluent in given technology does not automatically qualify him or her as a business analyst. In reality, there’s a long list of varied answers like any other profession but it is indeed one of many competencies that a successful business analyst must possess. Then the question is, where do most business analysts come from? The majority of business analysts today come from both IT background and business areas. In the best situations, the business analysis professional has a combination of IT and business skills. Business analysts coming from IT background has both positive and negative aspects. Those with IT background has better understanding of computers and technology and are very agile in making changes and diagnosing issues. As they are very analytical individual, they have strong problem-solving skills and communication skills. In addition, as they are solution oriented, they know and will recommend what technologies and software development are available. They have emphasis on solution design, inherent logical thinking patterns and attention to detail which can shed a light to a problem from a new perspective. However, there are also some drawbacks with business analysts coming from the IT side. They have tendency of looking from one area i.e. IT perspective and does not take holistic view of the problem, coming up with IT solution rather than business solution and jump to solutions without giving much thought about enterprise as a whole. They may not consider process changes or organizational changes as effective methods for problem solving. Furthermore, they may not un derstand the time required to implement a change in business procedures when new software is deployed. Therefore, they need to learn to have a business thinking mind by understanding the vision, mission and goals of the business and adjust their view of technology to one that supports the business goal rather than driving them. Likewise, individuals from business units have equally both positive and negative aspects that complements the other. They can recommend procedural or workflow changes to improve efficiency in their areas. In addition they show strong analytical and problem-solving skills within the business area along with strong communication skills with management and their co-workers (Carkenord 2009, p.9). They can think outside of the box and aid in the transition from old process to changed process and reduce risk by working within the confines of the business. On the other side, as they lack technical awareness, they will be confined in providing their experts in bu siness and doesn’t consider what capabilities are available through technology and the relative time and cost of developing each capability. Moreover, lack of technical awareness can lead to difficulty communicating with technical professionals as they don’t have much knowledge about the IT architecture (Blais, 2011 p.33). In order to better understand when and where they are most efficient at, let’s consider a scenario. For instance, a retail company wants to upgrade their CRM platform to a scalable and cloud based system that helps to track and decide marketing budget, marketing channel, improved selling and creating exciting client experience. Potential problem area under this scenario is the fact that they do not have enough expertise in software services and require a methodology and architecture that matches their need and expectation. Business analyst coming from business unit will architect a solution by understanding the business needs of the entire CRM application by breaking down into different areas of the business. They will conduct feasibility study by cross examining in full detail looking at where the opportunity and risk may lie and delegate, create guidelines and establish rapport, trust and communication with different stakeholders. They will design workflows, vision to mission mapping and conduct functional complexity analysis. They will put in place steps to implement the change such as creating test plans and executing the test scenarios. On the other hand, if a business analyst comes from IT background, they will be more efficient and faster in finding and designing the software that minimizes migration effort using an automated tool. As it is going to be cloud based, they will identify and architect the best possible approach to data interaction from desktop application to web at near real time synchronization rate. They can diagnose and detect a loophole in the system if there’s any and set security measu res to maintain and protect it. They can design a pilot version of the CRM to go through quality checks before implementing it. If the background is in IT, they may be in the habit of thinking about how to automate and integrate repetitive tasks and provide more sophisticated data for decision making. On the other hand, if the background is in business, they may be thinking about new ways of doing business, how to better support customers and how the business can be more successful (Carkenord, 2009 pg.162). A business analyst that has these two modes of thinking is the most useful and valuable in business analysis work. 2.Case Study: â€Å"Buy, don’t build.† Give 2 examples when this statement is correct and is not correct. Organizations face the dilemma when making build or buy decisions at it is very important yet complex issue. Of course the main focal point of making the decision is to choose the most cost-effective, functional and feature rich solution bu t it is not always crystal clear which one is right for your process. There are number of reasons why a company would consider building in house. First of all, there’s a concern over intellectual property. If a company needs a security software or payment solution, outsourcing to another IT firm in China, Bangladesh or India will need to be reconsidered. Because outsourcing such product development can be cost-effective in the short-term but in the long run, they may face some problems as there are copy right issues in many of the outsourcing destinations. There are many other reasons such as lack of competent supplier, too small volume to get a supplier attracted, reduction of logistic costs and simply over organization pride. The advantage is that they have complete control and it is tailored to unique business needs. An example where â€Å"buy, don’t build† may be the case is if a company has a lack of technical experience and budget to build. For instance , let’s assume a company needs a software for CNC machine to design a product model. It may be much cheaper to buy it rather than building it as it is for a one-time or short term use. The advantage of buying is that it is a ready-made solution and they can have expert support and training. Don’t waste time! 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