Suboxone: Neuron and Post-synaptic Potentials

Suboxone Biological Psychology Suboxone | Addiction psychology has made a great impact on the field of biological psychology, especially when it comes to subjects such as | |psycho-pharmacology. The abuse of prescription pain medicine has risen to an estimated 9 million in America alone who take the medication for | |non-medical reasons. The psychology field has had a new revolution in addiction control called Suboxone. In order for psychiatric doctors or other| |doctors to prescribe this medicine they are required to complete a training course on the substance. Rapidly replacing Methadone, a more | |traditional detox and maintenance drug used for many years, Suboxone seems to have many treatment advantages over it. | |Buprenophine | |Buprenophine, the chemical compound found in Suboxone has stated that it is suitable for people who still have social ties to their families and | |employers whereas Methadone is suited best for those who need additional structure in their treatment with more supervision. While it is nearly | |impossible to overdose on Suboxone due to its ceiling effect, Methadone is easily abused as it is a full-agonist opiate. Another advantage that | |Suboxone has over Methadone is it readability. Where patients must go to Methadone clinics for dosing, doctors can prescribe Suboxone for a month | |at a time, allowing patients to detox and maintain their treatment. Buprenophine is available in two pill forms, one without Naloxone-called | |Subutex, or one with Naloxone-called Suboxone. Naloxone is a well known opiate antagonist, that when injected, causes instant withdraw in the | |patient. Putting this ingredient as an additive with Buprenophine keeps the drug from being abused. Buprenophine is usually prescribed for just a | |few weeks, but some patients may need maintenance doses depending on their opiate usage and/or dependency. In order to better understand the way | |Suboxone and other opiates work within the central nervous system individuals should understand post-synaptic potentials, synaptic ransmission, the| |receptors that produce and regulate behavior (including abusing opiates), as well as understanding and knowing the primary neurotransmitters and | |their role in brain function and behavior. | |Excitatory and Inhibitory Post-synaptic Potentials | |The role of excitatory and inhibitory post-synaptic potentials is summed up by NCBI Bookshelf (n. d. ; | |â€Å"Postsynaptic conductance changes and the potential changes that accompany them alter the pro bability that an action potential will be produced in | |the postsynaptic cell. Post-synaptic Potentials decrease the probability that the post synaptic cell will generate an action potential. PSPs are | |called excitatory (or EPSPs) if they increase the likelihood of a postsynaptic action potential occurring, and inhibitory (or IPSPs) if they | |decrease this likelihood. Given that most neurons receive inputs from both excitatory and inhibitory synapses, it is important to understand more | |precisely the mechanisms that determine whether a particular synapse excites or inhibits its postsynaptic partner. â€Å" | |Synaptic Transmission and Receptors Producing and Regulating Behavior | |Neurons communicate through synaptic transmission. The synapse can be found as a tiny gap found in the middle of the axon terminal and the neuron | |next to it. Neurotransmitters are chemical substances that are located in synaptic vesicles are responsible for delivering messages across the | |synapse and bind to the receptor sites. When a molecule of a neurotransmitter binds to the receptor it then continues to activate or inhibit the | |neuron until the deactivation occurs. A method of deactivation is called re-uptake, allowing the neurotransmitter molecules to be delivered back to| |the presynaptic neuron. Various drugs, including opiates such as hydrocodone or methadone function as agonists because they increase the activity | |of the neurotransmitter while others such as Naloxone act as antagonists decreasing the activity of the neurotransmitter. | |Primary Neurotransmitters | |The three major neurons located in the nervous system are the sensory, motor, and inter-neurons. Sensory neurons are responsible to input messages | |from the sense organs to the spinal cord and brain. Motor neurons carry impulses from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and organs. | |Interneurons perform connective or associative functions within the nervous system. The brain and spinal cord are called the central nervous system | |while all neurons that connect the CNS to the muscles, glands, and sensory receptors are located in the peripheral nervous system. In this regard, | |the PNS is divided into two systems:the somatic nervous system that includes sensory and motor neurons, and the autonomic nervous system required to| |regulate glands as well as other involuntary functions such as circulation, breathing, and digestion. The autonomic nervous system consists of two | |branches as well. The sympathetic branch activates or arouses bodily organs while the parasympathetic branch does the complete opposite. Most | |nerves enter and leave the CNS via the spinal cord. | | |

Miss Bridget

It has been stressed that, in the 19th Century, if any women, Irish, Chinese, Jew or Japanese, wanted to go to America, it would be best if they were married. Irish women in America were not as bent on marriage as much as other nationalities; in fact, Irish women preferred to stay single. A single Irish domestic servant then living in America was called a â€Å"Miss Bridget†. Irish women preferred being a domestic servant to being married because, as a servant, they would have shelter, food, and financial security and need nothing else. Marriage, therefore, was not the option for Irish women in the 19th Century. Nineteenth-century women, in general, were viewed as dependent on men for refuge, food, and economic support. Throughout their lives, women were being dependent, initially to their fathers and then to their husbands- raising this question: â€Å"Is there anyone who will depend on the women†? This is one reason why women want to get married, for them to experience how it feels like when someone, like their children, depend on them. Generally, for any culture or race, women primarily marry to start a new family. Other possible reasons include money, protection, and shelter. The Chinese were the first immigrants restricted by race and class to go to America. As a result, it was then very difficult for Chinese women to go there; however, almost all Chinese families still wanted to migrate to America for promises of better opportunities than China could offer. The Chinese families, therefore, influenced their women to get married in order to increase their chances of migration. Consequently, since Chinese women wanted to keep their families happy, like Wong Ah So, they would want to get married in order to obey their parents’ wishes. Southern Ladies (white women), however, did marry because who would not want to marry rich white men? The husband would have nannies/maids in the house who would take care of the kids, cook for the family, and clean the house. The only concern a wife then would have to deal with was making sure the servants were doing their work. After marriage, women were to find out that their marital situations were not in congruence with their expectations or not like the way they thought it would be, particularly because of their culture. When Rachel Calof lived with her Aunt, she met a young boy, a butcher who liked her very much, but her grandfather did not give that boy a chance to go out with her. â€Å"He stated that my marriage to a butcher would defame the family name forever† (Calof 8). Her family’s culture made it impossible for her to marry the butcher. For Irish women, their culture and status shaped their expectations of marriage. For instance, being from the lower echelons of society would mean having no expectations of marriage. The best option in this case would then be to become a nun since the Church provided shelter, protection, money, and food. They would even have the chance to help the Irish community. From the beginning, society viewed women as daughters of Eve, so as time progressed, it seemed like society and/or men molded women into beings it/they wanted them to be. For decades, women have been viewed negatively and no one expected or wanted women to take charge. All that women hoped for was for the time to come when they would earn society’s respect and acquire an equal treatment with men.   Since women’s social value was rooted on motherhood, if they wanted society to view them as perfect Americans, wives had to support the American Revolution, raise funds for the American soldiers, demonstrate loyalty, and teach their children loyalty to their country, especially the boys. To be â€Å"True Women† in the 19th Century, they had to be sexually pure, religious, domestic, and submissive.   It was a wife’s responsibility to her husband to be a â€Å"true woman† and to respect and not question the husband’s actions and decisions. In a typical home, the father was the head of the house and the provider of food, clothing, shelter, and protection. The child was supposed to obey and respect his/her father at all times.   Abigail Adams, John Adams’s wife, was involved behind the scenes in his political career and reminded him after the Declaration of Independence to acknowledge women’s role in the American Revolution. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, another woman, also tried to resolve these conflicts and wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. She spoke at the Seneca Falls Convention Center saying, â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness† (Stanton 214). After Stanton delivered this speech, everyone was surprised for she modified a word from the Declaration of Independence. Had it not been for women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Lucretia Mott, today’s women would still be viewed as daughters of Eve. In conclusion, marriage in the 19th Century had its advantages and disadvantages. Women were better off being married because of their over-reliance on men and for better chances of survival. The advantages of being married then included having shelter, food, protection, financial support, and a family. The Japanese culture would be a good illustration here- when Japanese men wanted to get married, they had to prove to the Japanese Government that they were prepared to get married and financially ready to raise a family. A Japanese woman was never required to prove to the Government her financial capability; all a woman had to do was show up and get married. Even though women would not have a voice in the house after being married, having a place to stay when they grow old would be an ample consolation.            

Global Wine War Essay

Introduction Human beings have been dealing with wine for thousands of years, from the Mesopotamians to the ancient Egyptians, from the Greeks to the ancient Romans, the latter which under their vast empire spread viticulture through the Mediterranean region. Through centuries countries, such as France and Italy, obtained a consolidated position in the wine industry, both in demand and production. In the last part of the 20th century newcomers (Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, USA, etc.) have successfully challenged the leadership of the so-called Old World that represented the majority of global market share. Wine Industry Analysis using the Porter’s Five forces Model A brief Porter’s five forces analysis can help understand how the evolving of competitive environment is actually composed and why this market shake occurred. Figure 1. 1: Porter’s Five Forces Model For what concerns the threat of new entrants; the Old World companies completely underestimated this threat. When the newcomers entered the market they could bargain market share of the pre-existing ones without facing real opposition, exploiting better marketing strategies and more efficient organizational approaches. Regarding to the threat of substitute products; this seems to be a challenge for the future, with the introduction of branding as a marketing approach; the threats from the beer industry and â€Å"soft drinks† producers must be taken into account. Referring to the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, the entrants are in a much better position because of bigger production plants which allow them to gain a stronger contractual power towards distributors; moreover their value chains are more concentrated removing the troubles of the too much fragmentation and variety of actors between the producer and the consumer, which on the contrary, Old World’s competitors are facing. Furthermore analyzing the rivalry among existing competitors it is possible to understand that the traditional producers are facing much more difficulties, because they cannot exploit advantages the newcomers have, such as professional management, large marketing investments and economies of scale and scope. Unfortunately, these are not the only intricacies they are bearing with; the pre-existing producers have always been in competition one against the other, making it more difficult to achieve competitive advantages through cooperation. Eventually the newcomers are concentrating their action in the new growing markets while the old ones are still mainly struggling in the Old World declining markets. Network value analysis It is also of a relevant importance introducing the Chain Value Model that was at first presented by Porter in â€Å"Competitive Advantage. Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance†. This model was introduces in order to better understand the activities through which a firm, in particular a wine firm, develops a competitive advantage and creates shareholder value (fig. 1. 2). Concerning the primary activities we can see that in both the inbound and the outbound network logistics, the NW producers managed to reduce costs of transport and warehousing, exploiting new technologies of packaging (an example is the Australian â€Å"wine-in-a-box† instead of the classic glass bottle. ) Analyzing the outbound logistics, it is possible to explore the fact that as consequence of being big multinationals the newcomers can bargain power of the distributors, carving out margins which the European competitors are not able to gain due to the excess of fragmentation which reduce contractual power towards the distributors. With reference to the inbound logistic a major role in reducing costs per unit is played by mechanization and scale economies, which are widely exploited by the NW producers. The same advantages are reflected on the operations where mechanization of harvesting and scale are making the incumbents competitors more profitable, moreover they are also exploiting scope economies, while in the Old World, the fragmentation and the wide specialization, which were the strength of the systems now are showing themselves as weaknesses. Figure 1. 2: â€Å"Chain Value Model† by Michael Porter The use of new technologies and new organizational approaches are also incident on the quality of the final product, which is granted by the integration of the processes and an efficient network strategy by the newcomers, while in the OW these challenges have not been answered yet. One of the largest disadvantages the mature competitors are facing concern the activity of marketing and sales, where due to the newcomers approach they are loosing the market confront. The Old World is exploiting factors largely underemployed by the Europeans, the use of professional marketing, market researches try to understand and forecast the market in order to be more responsive to the real needs of the demand. The correct use of branding from part of the NW producers is resulting as one of the strongest competition advantage towards the OW ones. Concerning the support activities the situation does not vary, the new-comers have advantages in the firm infrastructures mainly because of a more efficient organization of the all networks and because of a better organization and integration of the production chain. As regards to the Human Resources Management the differences are mainly a consequence of the different organization types of the actors of the market; in the New World the companies are organized as multinationals with professional managers and marketers, in the Old World the firms are often too small, fragmented and in competition among them to have access to such resources. On the side of technology development the newcomers are exploiting the new technologies in order to gain efficiency and quality, developing new mechanical tools and new approaches mainly regarding harvesting. Completely different is the approach of the New World competitors, strongly opposing the use of new technologies providing quality with a traditionalist method, an unfortunate approach for gaining market share. In terms of procurement it is unclear if there are advantages of one system towards the other. The outcome of the analysis shows how the New World could gain market share against the Old World, challenging a domination that lasted for centuries. 1. How did the French became the dominant competitors in the increasingly global wine industry for centuries? What sources of competitive advantage were they able to develop in order to support their exports? Where were they vulnerable? * Competitive advantage sources: history and traditions; know-how; experience; strong internal demand; world wide quality recognition; leader in wine sector for centuries. * Weak areas: fragmented chain of production; too strict regulation and classification; scarce innovations; no differentiation of the product; poor marketing; no branding bargaining power. As wine production grow up in the Mediterranean area, this alcoholic beverage became more and more blended with cultures, religious traditions and everyday life in the area that now is called the â€Å"Old World†. Wine first uses and its complex production made it not accessible for all, actually it was considered a luxury good. But centuries of development in the production process, like vineyard horses or row plantations, innovations in the distribution and preservation of the wine, like cork stopper or mass production of glass bottles, made it affordable for everyone generating a strong internal demand in countries such us French, Italy, Germany and so on. Specifically, regarding France, in 1966 the domestic demand accounted for 120 liters per capita and it became the country with the higher consumption of wine, followed by Italy with 110 liters. In order to better understand the dimension of the market, in the same year in Australia, USA and UK the annual per capita consumption was far less than 10 liters. In France, wine was not only highly consumed in every house, but it became one of the business strengths of the country. Actually it was the second largest French export, because History and tradition made the French wine synonymous of quality in the whole world. Moreover, since there were hundreds of different types wine, French government codified a hierarchical classification (Appellation d’Origin Controllee – AOC, Vins Delimites de Qualite Superieure – VDQS, Vins de Pays) and nurtured the concept of terroir to help consumers recognize their finest wines in a highly fragmented market. This significantly strict regulation was an important innovation that made the difference among the main competitors, such as Italy or Spain. French source of competitive advantage was not only the century know-how that permitted to have a high quality wine and the strong internal demand, but also the demand coming from the neighboring countries without a highly developed wine industry. Wine producers, in many countries of Europe, were isolated from each others, and most of the world’s wine drinkers consumed either local wines or imported from close winemakers. This tradition made the fortune of France, since the climate and the soil in the United Kingdom didn’t allow grape growing enough to satisfy the huge internal demand, British were forced to import from the closest producer. The century tradition was an advantage for the French wine because it was a symbol of quality, but it was also a drawback, because it fiercely limited the flow of innovation and development concerning the production, distribution and branding of wine. Moreover, since the whole production chain was fragmented in many segments, there was a lack of economies of scale and integration that had terrible results in market power of the French producers. Actually branding was poor or even not existing and a number of small producers with very small bargaining power were incapable to deal with retailers as supermarkets loosing market visibility and the connection with the whole segment of customers. The direct competitors, the Old World producers, were all in the same situation: fixed to the traditions and unable to satisfy the increasing fast-changing consumer tastes and preferences. The fact that they had been the market leaders for centuries made them unconscious about the possibility of new hardened competitors growing in the New World. 2 What changes in the global industry structure and competitive dynamics led France and other traditional producers lose their market share to challengers firm Australia, US, and other New World countries in the late 20th century? In the last twenty years, the worldwide wine industry has become increasingly internationalized and sophisticated, though over the years, the market has become fragmented, international, multi-lingual, operating in many currencies, and information-intensive. The wine industry globally faces continued shake-up and consolidation and the generation of mega wine companies has become inevitable as no one wine company – listed or private – currently has more than one percent of the world wine market, in stark contrast to other beverages. Global wine showed solid growth in volume terms in recent years, up nearly two percent to 25,066 million liters. Still red wine provided much of the impetus for volume growth in the world wine market over survey period, with sales rising nearly 12% between 1998 and 2003. However, volume growth of global wine was dampened by changing patterns of consumption in important Western European markets, like Italy, France, Portugal and Spain, as younger consumers moved away from traditional everyday wine drinking to more occasional consumption. Globally, the two countries that are leading the wine production and consumption businesses are France and Italy. However, the irony is that these two countries are also witnessing a steady erosion of their global market share. In our opinion there are five key success factors that we have identified that are extremely relevant to compete favorably in the global wine industry: * a strong existing domestic market * domestic market growth potential * economies of scale advantage * industry adaptability to change and * potential to attract foreign investment. First, a strong domestic market is one where a large volume of wine is purchased and where consumers readily select domestic wines. Second, even more important is the potential for growth in a producer’s domestic market, as this shows if opportunities for additional sales exist where producers may have local knowledge and other native advantages such as local distribution. Third, countries where production is dominated by larger firms have the advantages of scale and scope as well as improved power in promoting and pushing their wines to consumers and retailers. Fourth, industry adaptability to change summarizes the willingness of producers to experiment with cost saving production methods or to pioneer new marketing techniques. It also indicates if producers are free from excessive regulations or blind adherence to long standing traditions. Finally, countries that have business-friendly climates, favorable costs or other natural comparative advantages will attract foreign investment in wine production, which makes these countries stronger global competitors. Old World producers were the first to define tastes and quality standards and they have traditionally been supported by a strong local consumer base. The New World has had to work hard to build their wine industry, both in infrastructure and reputation. Large scale wine production is relatively recent, and many of the New World producers faced difficulties such as currency collapse, prohibition and international sanctions. Per-capita consumption also lags that of the Old World countries. Yet New World producers have recently been successful in producing consistent quality wine and in capturing global market share. .The group with the strongest competitive position includes Australia, Chile and the United States. Australia and Chile both have small populations that provide for a tiny domestic market with little potential for growth. However they are very well positioned to produce and export wine with their adaptive, large-scale producers and their great lure for foreign investments, providing them with a position of a strong competitive advantage. The US is a populous, affluent nation, and while the US wine market is already large, it has even more potential to expand. With all other key success factors strongly favorable, the US also possesses significant competitive advantages. The countries with the weakest competitive advantages in the global wine industry are two traditional strongholds of wine production in the Old World: France and Germany. While they have large domestic markets, there is little opportunity for further growth. There are many causes of the decline of France, and the Old World in general, in the market share of this sector; these concerns globalization, changes in the demand, more responsive strategies of the rivals and also the lack of market research and marketing investments by the French firms and totally ineffective technology and innovation policy. Moreover, the concentration of production into small wineries, complex labeling practices and inability to leverage new production and marketing techniques does also not bode well for effective competition in a global market place. Nor does either country hold much potential for attracting foreign investment, save for some traditionally undervalued areas of France, like Languedoc. In response to the shrinking costs of transport, globalization allowed companies situated in different areas of the globe competing in the same final market, an example is the UK one, where in the past the demand was completely satisfied by French, Italian and German wines. Although consumption per person has decreased in traditional consuming and producing countries (Italy, Spain, France), the consumption and production of wine is increasing in new countries in northern Europe, Americas and Asia. Countries like South Africa, Australia, Chile and Argentina are radically modifying the industry’s competitive environment. With the â€Å"globalization† of the wine market, the environment is becoming more competitive and producers are implementing new strategies. We can observe two very different production and marketing models. * The traditional French model, based on the certificate of guaranteed origin (AOC), whose objective is to turn out a high added value typical product in limited quantities through the combination of a demarcated territory called terroir and enforcement of constraining specifications and regulations. * The second, is being implemented by producers in the so called New World (the United States/California, Australia, South Africa, Chile, Argentina). It is based on â€Å"industrialized† mass production and intense marketing of relatively standardized products which are easily identifiable through private brands. There are different observable relationships between the players and the production sites in the industry. In this context, the French wine industry appears to be in an insidious or even open crisis. In most producing regions, a major symptom is the decrease in domestic sales in a context of market shrink. In addition, there is a loss of export market shares which is estimated at ten points in several countries that have traditionally been markets for French such as Great-Britain, Germany and Canada. In these cases, these losses are not due to an overall market decline, which is actually on the rise, but rather to the increase in competition by producers who are mostly from the southern hemisphere (Argentina, Chile, Australia, South Africa) and California. The real alleged weaknesses of the French wine industry have been the subject of numerous analysis and reinforcement proposals: regulations which are too strict and consequently slow down innovation, a complex and hard to understand product supply, minimal or even no effort made concerning promotion and marketing. Furthermore, we believe that the main mistake lies in the structural organization of the wine industry in France. Hence, we would like to not concentrate on the wine product and its specific qualities but will try to compare the way the industries’ players are organized, in order to analyze where the French industry is not adequate to modern challenges. The terroir/AOC model has been a reference for worldwide wine production until the 1980s but it is no longer the case in the early 2000s. Why is France’s position on the international wine markets degrading while New World wines experienced spectacular improvements and now aim at catching up with traditional â€Å"Old World† products? From an organizational point of view the terroir/AOC model seems to have a certain number of cumulative weak points in comparison to the new world’s model (identifiable with Porter-like clusters.) In terms of the supply structures, the French established supply model and infrastructure are characterized by fragmentation and a high number of small winemakers that have a negative effect on investment capacities (material or immaterial) in the industry as a whole. This fragmentation has certainly a negative effect on the ability to innovate in terms of products, processes and even marketing and selling. The small scale of businesses and lack of tradition as regards pooling resources do not allow producers to find the financial means necessary for heavy investments. This weakness tends to neutralize the local industry’s reaction capability when it faces the new environment pressures. The fragmented supply chain is, indeed, both the cause and the consequence of a â€Å"non-competitive/non-co-operative† tradition among producers; individual strategies of traditional producers aim to avoid all forms of comparison with neighbours and potential competitors. This lack of cooperation is, in Porter’s perspective, one of the major weak points. On one side, for New World producers, wine-making is an economic activity and is taken on as such: producers define output, profit and market share growth objectives and give themselves the means to reach them. On the other, for traditional terroir producers, wine production, though highly lucrative, is not taken on in its economic dimension but rather centered round the â€Å"cultural† nature of the product. The â€Å"New World producers are turned towards innovation, the terroir is founded on immutability of tradition; it is consequently strongly resistant to change. Terroirs’ organization model is traditionally supply driven in a context of scarcity. This avoids producers to think about productive environment and production method change. Consequently, traditional producers have had trouble in considering both the qualitative and quantitative evolution of demand and its consequences on supply, where â€Å"New World† producers are used to have a proactive behavior and, therefore, anticipating and stimulating it. And even when the need to change is implemented, the existence of tight regulation within a specific AOC can make a substantial product modification or production method more difficult to happen. A further set of identifiable weak points is linked to the nature of the top-down complementary relationships between grape growers and wine traders and to the transaction costs that result. The terroir/AOC† model of organization tends to generate opportunistic behaviour that can call into question its very survival, specifically in a very competitive context. In fact, while the perspective of getting an AOC label encourages players to enhance production quality, it may lead to let up on efforts made to maintain product quality once the label has been obtained, interfering with the overall image of the terroir and raising suspicion as regards product quality. To particularly highlight is the existence of incomplete contracts between grape growers and winemakers/wine merchants, the latter being responsible for the marketing of the product. This â€Å"generates considerable price variations and makes it impossible to set up contracts that guarantee traders constant and adequate wine supplies in terms of quantity and quality. The problem can spread to wines beyond generic wines and condemns, in advance, all ambitious and viable marketing strategies from the traders. † The presence of extremely heterogeneous quality levels within the same appellation can thus call into question the appellation itself and therefore the whole of the â€Å"terroir/AOC† organization and strategy. To avoid such opportunistic behaviours, autonomous certification bodies should be entitled to reconsider such certification on a regular basis and ban weak products/producers. The industry’s players themselves or a third party must assume responsibility for product quality guarantee. A major terroir organization characteristic is fragmentation and corporatism. Consequently, taking responsibility for such guarantee scheme is extremely difficult owing to incompatible corporatist and general interests. What is more, the existence of non-market regulation mechanisms (based on, for example, family or friendship ties) can in this case be counter-productive. Indeed, players can be tempted not to sanction one of their kin in the name of these relationships and later themselves avoid possible sanctions, whereas the intervention of a third party that is likely to guarantee this quality is difficult to promote with local entities. Under the AOC label, regulation is indeed carried out at local level by local players themselves and therefore known to be rather lax: making it impossible to use the label as a genuine quality guarantee. 3. 1 What advice would you offer today to the French Minister of Agriculture? To the head of the French wine industry association? To the owner of a mid-size, well regarded Bordeaux vineyard producing wines in the premium and super premium categories? * French Minister of Agriculture: increase government investments in the wine industry; promote a responsible wine consumption of wine through events marketed at the new generation; create a new clear classification system based on the consumer tastes; promote the creation of big companies and disadvantage the proliferate of little-medium producers; sign contracts with other agriculture ministers of consumers countries in order to favour the French wine. * Head of the French wine association: better integrate the network; quickly spread the know-how, techniques and innovations throught the French producers; promote wine events to increase the consumptions; promote the invention of new products made with wine; try to anticipate the next changes in the consumer tastes; advertise and invest more on the type of wine that is preferred by the consumers in that very moment; make advertisement aimed to a responsible and wealthy consumption of wine; try to drive the consumption to the type of wine that is over offered; lobbying the ministry of agriculture in order to have grants and privileges. * Owner of the mid-size, well regarded Bordeaux vineyard: found a bigger company with the surrounding producers; invest in innovating the production process in order to increase the quantity and the quality; buy extensive land in the New World and exploit economic scale advantages. 3. 1 Possible advices to the French Minister of Agriculture Since the main objective of France is to take back the market share of the past and maintain the leader position in the wine market, it has to better exploit its competitive advantages and adopt some technical and marketing innovations in order to compete and defeat the new threatening producers. The first functional recommendation for the French Minister of Agriculture is to increment the government investments in the wine industry. The larger flow of money would be used, firstly, to invent or to develop techniques and tools for harvesting or farm vineyards, secondly, to achieve and overtake the distribution and marketing level of the New World producers. All those developments will also increase the production of wine and fulfil a larger portion of the international demand. In the last ten years, the new generation has grown with a high consumption of beer and super-alcoholic cocktails, the French Minister could aim to substitute these beverages with the wine. He might promote a responsible wine consumption through events directed to the new generation. It is important to advertise wine as a drink for all ages instead of a refined beverage just for mature people as this would implement the demand from part of the younger generation. One of the common problems of wine consumers is choosing which kind of wine and which brand purchase at the supermarket. This issue could be solved with a classification of brands and wine names that could be easily understood and memorized by the consumers. Quality can be maintained and highlighted also gathering the large number of different types of wine in few clusters with easy names to remember. This problem is also due to the large number of brands in the market. The majority of potential consumers are confused and at the end they prefer to buy a bottle of beer of a well known brand. It’s possible to overcome this situation promoting the creation of big companies and disadvantage the proliferation of little-medium producers. Big companies bring into the market well-known brands, which massively increase producers’ market power. In order to increase the French market power compared with the direct and New World competitors’ ones, the French Minister of Agriculture could sign contracts or agreements with other agriculture ministers of consumers countries in order to favour the French wine. Since, UK, one of the larger consumer countries is next to France, it would be easy to find something to exchange for a commercial agreement. 3. 2 Possible advices to the head of the French wine industry association As the Head of the French wine industry association to manage and represent all the wine producers, its objective is to promote and give advantage to its associates. Furthermore it would be useful to advise him to promote a better integration of the wine production process from the vineyards to the final consumer. This issue could be achieved through a cooperation or collaboration between the wine producers, merchant traders and the retailing sector. A superior control, permitted by this form of collaboration, avoid more handling stages, holding less inventory, capturing the intermediaries’ mark-up, sharing common objectives and improving the time to market. Moreover, the cooperation can spread the know-how, technique and innovation through all the French associates. It is really important to promote higher investments in R&D in order to fill the gap that has occurred between France and the other New Word competitors. New innovations and technologies bring new developments and improvements to overtake and succeed on the marketing and distribution level of the competitors. Concerning the distribution, communities, retailers, and consumers are demanding more sustainable, eco-friendly packaging options, whether for everyday items or higher end purchases like fine wine. For some products, the barrier to conversion has been package performance. Therefore would be important to spread the use of â€Å"green† materials to pack and deliver the products. Since the French has never developed an efficient marketing strategy it has been difficult to align the interests between supply and demand. The French wine association has to try to anticipate the next changes in the consumer tastes, by means of market surveys and data collected through an effective wine industrial analysis. It is also important to drive the offer towards to the type of wine that is preferred by the consumers in that very moment. On contrary it is possible to drive also the demand and not only the supply of wine. Guiding the consumption towards the type of wine that is over offered or over produced it is hoped to avoid sure future losses. Nowadays people are blasted with advertisement that recommends not consuming wine because it is unsafe for the drinkers’ life. There will be an increment of demand persuading consumers that a little quantity of wine is not dangerous but rather really healthy, in particular the consumption of red wine. As well as the French Minister of Agriculture the Head of the French wine industry Association might promote and arrange wine events to increase the new generation consumption of wine. 3. 3 Possible advices to the owner of a middle size well regarded Bourdeaux vineyard producing wine and premium and superpremium category The main issue for French wine producers in the actual competitive environment, considering how the newcomers are acting and consequently gaining market share, is size. One of the challenges each small producer has to face is a competitive market without boundaries, totally changed from what it was only 10 or even 5 years ago, in which large multinationals are now efficiently operating. There is no univocal solution to this problem, but a few advices could be given to small or mid sized European companies. In order to gain advantage in terms of scale but even scope, the best way is to control the full production chain. From the vineyard to the glass, this can be obtained through either acquisition of neighbour producers, merging with other companies to better integrate or forming and exploiting networks. Each winemaker should analyze the market, an affordable process, and identify its possible cooperation/competition strategies. Maximum control over the value chain can often guarantee that the final product is produced and sold at the company’s standards. One of the troubles the incumbents have to face is the inconstant quality often found within the same wine denomination. Bottles often sold at very high prices, due to a very lousy quality denomination system, are ruining the reputation of the other products of the same wine group. This is unacceptable as it ruins the whole regional system, but a solution can be found through the aforementioned network implementation or radical integration.

Discussion and Writing Suggestions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discussion and Writing Suggestions - Essay Example The solar power technology has improved dramatically over the years and the largest solar power generation plant is located in the Mojave Desert in the state of California. The solar power generation is through the Concentrated Solar Power where large mirrors are used to concentrate sunlight to produce heat that can be used to produce steam that can turn turbines to produce electricity. Solar power has advantages and disadvantages both to the environment and the economy. There have been various concerns raised by environmentalists on the viability of solar power generation especially through the use Concentrated Solar Power which has various effects on the environment (Demirdjian 2). The article of Marla Dickerson â€Å"state solar plans are as big as all outdoors† points out some of the major environmental concerns that arise due to the setting up of a solar power generation plant in Mojave, California and other solar power stations. These environmental issues are also raised by Peter Maloney in his article â€Å"Environmentalists against Solar Power†. The major environmental concerns are the need to use large amounts of water to cool the turbines in a land where water is already a scarce resource. This implies that more water will be extracted from the desert thus depleting further the underground water resources. Maloney elaborates that the mirrors and the solar panels will need to be washed which will require more water. According to Peter Maloney a successful Solar Power generation can be successfully integrated through the use of rooftop solar energy. This recommendation will eliminate the need to use large tracts of land to generate energy. Behrens and Leonard (87) states that the Mojave, California Solar Power generation occupies 78,490 acres of land in the desert. Peter Maloney argues that the land is home to many living things which include squirrels, humans and other small animals. The use of this desert land will lead to the reduction in biodiversity since many living organisms are destroyed. Peter Maloney quotes the founder of the Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy, Jim Harvey saying â€Å"Our position is that none of this is needed. We support renewable energy, and we support California’s renewable energy targets, but we think it can be done through rooftop solar† Rooftop solar power generation has limited implications on the environment. Marla Dickerson elaborates how California has the largest and most sophisticated solar thermal facilities in the world that can be utilized effectively to supply energy to the entire state. Marla points out that the dependence of energy from outside the state will be reduced since California will be able to supply its residents with reliable sources of energy. The objections put forward by Maloney and Dickerson are of great significance to the wellbeing of the environment. To provide a clean and habitable environment, human actions must be closely scrutinized in order to make judgments on the positive and negative impacts of human actions. Use of solar power has various positive impacts on the environment. Murakami (32) points out that solar power helps in the reduction of green house gases which have a negative impact on the ozone layer. Traditional sources of energy generation like the burning of

SIOP Lesson Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

SIOP Lesson Plan - Essay Example To effectively teach this lesson the teach needs only to be conversant with the subject content and have an understanding of these best practices. This is why I have decided to include them in this essay. The first thing that a teacher should do when teaching this lesson is helping the students to build background knowledge on the subject in the lesson. Building background knowledge integrates new concepts in a lesson with previously taught concepts and thus promotes achievement of literacy (Cohen & Cowan, 2007). The major best practice that a teacher can use to build this kind of knowledge, is reviewing previously taught concepts. In this case, the teacher should review the concepts taught in the topic on use of microscope to observe cell organelles. This would help the students to connect between the two lessons. According to Cohen & Cowan (2007, p. 183), â€Å"other best practices for building background knowledge are discussion, background generating activities, pre-questions an d objective stating, and field trips†. In the discussion practice, the teacher can discuss with the students about a cell and importance of plants to humans. They can also try to discuss how humans derive these benefits from plants. In the case of background generating activity, the teacher should have the students observe different parts of plant cells using a microscope. If the teacher can have the students state the questions they might have on plant cells and what they aim to understand by the end of the lesson, the students can build background knowledge about this lesson. A short trip in which the students familiarize themselves with different plants can also be a best practice for building background knowledge. This lesson involves teaching of several words that the students might find difficult to comprehend. As a result, a teacher should find a way to instruct such words to enhance understanding. The best practice for vocabulary instruction is use of diagrams. In this practice, students are able to visualize the meaning of the words and therefore they can understand them much better. The good thing with this kind of practice when used in teaching the lesson is that, all the difficult words in the lesson are represented using a diagram from the science book. Therefore, it is very easy to apply this best practice in this lesson to promote conceptual understanding of vocabularies found in the topic of plant cells. Comprehensible input is adjustments made by a teacher in his teaching technique to enhance students understanding. The adjustments are crucial in enhancing the students, ability to comprehend the lesson content. Several best practices that a teacher could use when adjusting his teaching technique are available. Most common among these best practices include pausing frequently, paraphrasing and repeating ideas that look difficult, and use of gestures and body language (Wandberg & Rohwer, 2010). In teaching this lesson, a teacher should pau se as often as possible to give students time to comprehend an idea. He should also paraphrase ideas from the way the science book represents them. This would make the ideas to be rather simpler to understand. He should also be repeating ideas when necessary to ensure all students understand them. Gestures and body language would also be necessary especially to show the functions of a cell membrane and its characteristics. We will need to group

Notion of Disciplinary Societies and Societies of Control Essay

Notion of Disciplinary Societies and Societies of Control - Essay Example Various ways of control are done as laws are not the only means of it but also through rewards and punishment (Deleuze 1995, p. 5). People who show exemplary values to the society by following the laws and doing their duties for the society are rewarded. On the other hand, violators face the consequence of their actions as they receive the punishment. Punishments are then penalized in various ways and in different degrees. Bribes and stealing may be penalized by lighter sanctions like less than a year of spending time inside the jail or by fines. Higher degrees of crimes are punishable by the law via life sentence and even death penalty (Foucault 1977, p. 130). Another way of prevention of those crimes is through discipline. It is primarily taught at school as the learners must learn the value of self-control. Other programs are even conducted by the government to ensure the proliferation of discipline among the people in the society. It is a good way of preventing crimes from becomi ng widespread. It also serves as a way of control though it may not be a direct approach. The time nowadays seems to pass by quickly as changes happen almost everyday. The technology advancement accelerates at the speed of information that leads to the creation of the digital age. Information is primarily an important entity for that age as geographical boundaries have been overcome by the geniuses of the people. Networks and computers are now used for education, business and collaboration across fields of interests as people have seen the vast potential of the technology (Best, 2010, p. 6). Internet has proven to be a cost-effective way of advertising and conducting businesses as companies both big and small are able to reach out to a wider range of audience and potential market as they do not need to physically go to other faraway locations just to conduct their businesses. Education also benefits from the technology of the worldwide web as students are able to study anytime and a nywhere. It serves as a good form of education especially for the working class. Through online classrooms, multimedia supported web pages and online forums, students are able to study in a flexible manner. Despite of those advantages, the growing popularity and use of internet has posed various risks especially to the security of people. Their identities are transmitted through the interconnected wires and sensitive data are shared. Sometimes it may become the source for frauds, scams and even national threats (Agre, 1994, p. 102). It may pose a big risk to the liberties of the individuals and nations alike. In particular, two concepts will be discussed deeply in the paper based upon the notions of the two authors namely Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Foucault wrote about the discipline in the society through his work Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison while Deleuze wrote about the societal control through his work Postscript on the Society of Control. Both concept s will be compared and contrast and analyzed regarding their implications to the current state of the society where mobile phones, computers and internet are widely-used. The concept of discipline in the society as depicted by Foucault showed the starting point of control and how the society deals with crimes. The society was once

Make My Day Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Make My Day - Research Paper Example It protects citizens from charges if they apply force to resist an attack at their places of residence. Previously, it was difficult to quantify reasonable force to be used to dispel enemy attack, and many innocent citizens faced prosecution in case they confronted these burglars with any amount of force. This improved law justified the use of any force, including one that may result in the intruder’s death, to protect citizens from court litigations that may result in them serving a jail term (Willibanks, p. 182). Starting from Colorado, eighteen other states also joined the fray after they realized that it had substantially reduced its crime rates due to this change of approach in tackling crime. Among these states are: Alabama, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee and Florida. Thesis statement Adoption of â€Å"Make my day law† in some American states reduced crime rates and general disorderliness that was being experienced at the time. â€Å"Make my day law† and crime rates In Oklahoma, the events that led to enactment of this law started from a real life experience of Dr. Frank Sommer. On a night as he was sleeping in his house in Tulsa, he heard sounds of two intruders in his garage. He picked his gun and headed downstairs to the garage to check what was wrong. As he looked through the keyhole of the door leading to his garage, he noticed two people busy ransacking his two cars. As he opened the door to confront the two, a sudden power failure made the garage dark and he could not locate exactly where the two burglars were. He then shot randomly, and one of the robbers was shot dead. The debates that arose thereafter were of the favor that the state adopts this law since you do not commit any crime when protecting what belongs to you. The mover of the bill, Senator Charles Ford expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that citizens must suffer when protecting their homes and families (Stout, p. 147). According to Clarke (p. 26), the effects of this legislation was immediately felt in this state; According to statistics provided by the authorities, within the first 6 months of its enactment, crime levels went down by half. In 1986, there were close to 60,000 robbery cases; this reduced to 31,656 by the year 2000. They go ahead to show that by the year 2003, eleven buglers were already killed by home owners. These indicators, however, only showed home robberies as the crime that was significantly reduced; all other criminal acts virtually remained constant. This was a first step towards actualizing a crime free society. The state of Florida is not keeping records on the impact of these new laws on crime levels; but information from the judicial circles indicates that cases of self defense have significantly reduced. This is attributed to the new law that guards citizens from litigations relating to crimes committed within their premises, in the event that the intruder suffers physical harm. I nitial â€Å"Make my day† law enacted in Florida was well intended, and helped reduce crime rate (Stout, p. 172). It set laws that protected the owners from prosecution when attacked in their home. The authorities eventually pushed for the tougher â€Å"stand your grounds† legislation that extended this immunity cover to business premises, along

Week 10 and Week 12 Discussions Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Week 10 and Week 12 Discussions - Coursework Example The effect is increasing in investments diverted to other uses other than agriculture. Japan being a manufacturing country due to its enormous amount of industries, this has resulted to huge investments in industrial projects hence the main income generating that drives the economy of Japan. The Japanese word is used to mean ‘group’ in Japanese. In the business world, the word is used to refer to a partnership or other forms of alliances. The partners work closely to ensure that they all succeed in the invested business. Partners work towards a common goal and are all involved in making decisions concerning their organizations. The Japanese essentially operate in quite a different manner when compared to other countries. They often consider others first before considering themselves. The other countries like the U.S believe that it is better off to consider themselves first before giving others room. The main consequences felt while the Korean War was sexual harassment as the women were badly exploited during wartime. Those who protested against the government were killed hence their cases of the unjust murder were reported in Cheju Island. The Koreans were made to be dependent on nuclear bombs and have the largest amount of a nuclear bomb in South Korea. The Korean people and the land in general have been overexploited that there are many reported cases of pollution in the two states. Dams help in flood control as noted by the Chinese government. The harmful gas released to the atmosphere as sulphur dioxide is reduced by dams as they are absorbed. Helps in water storage and there is a forecasting by the Chinese people that waste water can be in future treated and stored in dams for future use. Where any dam is constructed there is pressure exerted on the natives to relocate from their land. Dams constructed alter the surrounding environment and worse off threatens the river’s wildlife. The weight exerted by huge dams

Next Plc as a Major Company Dealing in Retail Fashion Clothing Essay

Next Plc as a Major Company Dealing in Retail Fashion Clothing - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Next plc does business in the following major domains: retail stores that sell a variety of products, but the major one among them being clothes, catalog sales, and customer support services through ‘Ventura’. The company designs, manufactures and sells clothes under the brand name ‘Next’ and targets people between the age group of 20 to 40. Since its expansion drive in 1999, the company had to close down the international outlets that were managed by it directly and has since then concentrated on franchising options for the overseas markets. It operates in well over 20 different countries. Since 1999, the company’s primary activities have been progressing along two major sections namely retail clothing and catalog sales. The retail section of the company contributes to around two-thirds of the company’s income. It was around  £821 million in 1999. Moreover, the company has also adopted the policy of closing down s maller stores and has been in favor of opening superstores. Under its ‘Next catalog’ banner, the company offers the service of enabling customers to order products using a catalog, after which the purchased products are delivered to the customer’s home. In fact, this method of shopping (under the next brand) has become ingrained in the minds of the common Briton. One of the primary differences between other companies and next happens to be the fact that the latter focuses on the middle-class customers. It designs and markets affordable clothes that are contemporary unlike other retail houses such as Marks & Spencer that produces fashionable garments under various brand names. Likewise, the company has also adopted the policy of designing its clothes under its watchful eye, but in an attempt to cut down costs, it has been getting the goods produced in countries such as China, where the cost of production is comparatively much cheaper. The production operations are handled by the company’s house in Hong Kong. The company has also started offering financial services under the next brand credit financing. In spite of these branches, retail and catalog sales continue to be the two main contributors to the company’s revenues.

Place Final Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Place Final Project - Essay Example United States is centrally located to its influential neighbors, West of Europe, East of Russia, North of South America, and South of Canada. Surrounded by powerful nations, its political and foreign policy has been set to address its relationship with its neighbors. The cultural mix of its people has been as a result of its location and its resources. Culture is an important element in any community. However, United States has had a history that has allowed migrants to seek refuge in it. The historic slave trade from the coast of West Africa brought a large number of Africans into America. The World War One and Two provided a safe refuge for Europeans who were escaping their homelands due to fighting. The late 90s and the 21st century has witnessed a migration of the South Americans into America as they search for a better life. Student Exchange programs that have been started between America and Asian countries have seen the number of Asian population increase drastically. The movement of cultures into America has been from every direction. The cultural positioning of communities in the United States has influenced national decisions. United States is recorded to have 77% of its population being whites and 13.2% being Africa America. There are states that are considered to be of a black majority like Mississippi and Alabama while others in the North are considered to be of a white majority. The divisions are due to historical occurrences though there is a continued diffusion of these communities as they interact. Political candidates address each region depending on its cultural composition. For example, the Hispanic community has grown to influence a presidential candidature, Marco Rubio. The Federal Government is making decisions with much consideration of the geographical compositions of each state. The Federal budget is also affected by the composition

Psychology article summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Psychology article summary - Essay Example This is an important source of physiological stress for them because of the risk for dehydration. So the two experiments here rely on the toads sensitivity for detecting the composition of fluids around him and the stress it feels when conditions arent suitable for it- which leads to changes in both his heart rate and in its attempts to avoid these conditions and run away. Researchers therefore used an amount of sodium chloride which neither caused the toads to gain weight or loss weight, to create a "neutral" situation and then test their responses. A pilot experiment showed an increase in the heart rate of toads, which is important to set off their attempts to flee the environment. It used two solutions, one was good for the toads and the other wasnt. This technique was also good to evaluate the functional significance of conditioning (like in Pavlovs experiment with the dogs) in the context of water balance. During the experiment, researchers put the toads in Plexiglas cages, added water, changed the chemical composition of the water and lastly drained the tank. Toads were either put with another toad in the tank or placed there alone. There were mostly insignificant differences between the groups, but one significant find was that the toads placed with another toad in a tank learned to expect the reinforcement better. The toads showed learning abilities, as they anticipated the changes in water composition after it was done to them several times. Their anticipation could be witnessed by their increased heart rate. They managed to avoid losing weight almost as well as the toads never exposed to the different solution in the water. This experiment added another feature- an added compartment in the Plexiglas tank in which there was no altered solution. The toads could escape there to avoid being in contact with the solution. The results showed that all toads showed a consistent weight loss and did learn to avoid being in

Measuring the acceleration due to gravity in the lab Essay Example for Free

Measuring the acceleration due to gravity in the lab Essay The distance between the ceiling and the floor (h) was measured. A rubber was then dropped from the ceiling and the time taken for it to hit the ground was recorded. Results Attempt Time Taken (sec) 1 0. 47 2 0. 45 3 0. 71 4 0. 55 5 0. 5 6 0. 71 7 0. 4 8 0. 46 9 0. 58 10 0. 56 Average Time = Sum of all times Number of Times = (0. 47+0. 45+0. 71+0. 55+0. 5+0. 71+0. 4+0. 46+0. 58+0. 56) 10 = 5. 85 10 = 0. 59 sec (to 2 dp) H = height of the drop T = time taken Acceleration due to gravity = 2H T2 =2(2. 59) 0. 592 = 5. 18 0. 3481 = 14. 88 m/s2 (to 2 dp) Evaluation The results circled in the table are anomalous. There was a wide range of results, from 0. 4 to 0. 71. This spread of results indicates that the data may be inaccurate. Although the experiment was repeated nine times, different results were found at nearly every attempt. This could be due to the timing methods used. A stop clock held by a person was used to measure the time the rubber took to hit the ground. As a humans reaction times are not perfect, the button could have been pressed long after the rubber had touched the ground. Also, the timekeeper could have pressed the button too early; at the time he expected the rubber to fall in order to try and get a more accurate time. As the area used was not a vacuum, air resistance would have affected the results. The shape of the rubber dropped was a pyramid, so air resistance would be different dependant on the side upon which it was dropped. These reasons explain why some of the results were anomalous. I do not believe that the procedure was accurate enough to measure the acceleration due to gravity in the lab. The timing apparatus was too imprecise and the air resistance due to the lack of a vacuum meant that the data was not as exact as was needed. A more suitable set of timing equipment would have been to replace the stop clock with a light-gate and data-logger. A light gate would be positioned at the top of the drop, with one at the bottom. The computer would then calculate the time taken much more accurately. The air resistance could not be helped, as a vacuum would be highly impractical and unnecessary for our purposes. However, if it were possible, the experiment should have been performed in a complete vacuum. If a perfectly spherical object were used then the air resistance wouldnt be different no matter how it was dropped. The experiment should be repeated in exactly the same fashion as before, but with the changes outlined above implemented. This would give more accurate results. It should then be repeated in the same way as this, but with a denser object of the same dimensions. This would show that the acceleration was due to gravity and not the mass of the object. One more experiment should be undertaken with the same stipulations but an increased dropping height. This would show that the acceleration is the same no matter how high the object is dropped from.

Post Modernism in Pop Culture and the Simpsons

Post Modernism in Pop Culture and the Simpsons Attempts to define post-modernism can come in many different forms as different people have different ideas as to what exactly the term means. This being said, most people who take part in the debate over modernism and postmodernism share a consensus that postmodernism might be many things, but it certainly is linked with the growth of popular culture in the late twentieth century in the West. In other words, postmodernism can be seen as a new historical moment, a new sensibility, or a new cultural style, but popular culture can be referenced as the site on which these changes can be most easily found. Postmodernism is a perspective which tends to reject many of the accepted values of modernism. It involves a reinterpretation of gender roles and the differenced traditionally applied to them. It takes a more global perspective in its view of ethnic and national distinctions, and rejects stereotypes of all kinds. At the same time, it embraces the notion of nostalgia in art (film, telev ision, advertising) and uses multiple referencing (among other strategies) to communicate on a variety of symbolic levels. This essay will research the nature of postmodernism and apply it to a body of film, television, or advertising material. It should the focus on a single example and analyze it as typical of postmodern artistic form. From this essay it will be clear that postmodernism represents a blurring of the boundaries between levels of culture, and The Simpsons is a typical example of postmodernist artistic form. It was the late 1950s and early 1960s that the movement that we now come to know as postmodernism began to emerge. In the words of Susan Sontag, a critic of American culture, it came with the emergence of a â€Å"new sensibility†, and this involves a blurring of the distinction between â€Å"high† and â€Å"low† culture. Anyway, the distinction becomes less meaningful. The post-modern new sensibility did not follow along the same lines as the cultural elitism of modernism. Although modernism seems to have an important place in popular culture, it is marked by a significant suspicion of all things popular. It was those items that were associated with elite culture that were accepted under modernism. Culture was that which would be readily accepted into a museum, it was that which had a homologous relationship with the elitism that is inherent in class society. What this means is that the drive towards post modernism in the late 1950s and 1960s was associated with the growing attack on the elitism of modernism. The emergence of postmodernism signaled a refusal of â€Å"the great divide†¦ a discourse which insists on the categorical distinction between high art and mass culture,† moreover, â€Å"to a large extent, it is by the distance we have traveled from this great divide between mass culture and modernism that we can measure our own c ultural post modernity.† A good early example of the new wave of post-modern popular culture can be seen in the American and British pop art movement of the 1950s and 1960s as it rejected the division between high culture and popular culture. This can be said to be â€Å"postmodernisms first cultural flowering.† One of pop arts first prominent theorist, Lawrence Alloway explains that â€Å"the area of contact was mass produced urban culture: movies, advertising, science fiction, pop music. We felt none of the dislike of commercial culture standard among intellectuals, but accepted it as a fact, discussed it in detail, and consumed it enthusiastically.† This acceptance of the new movement of postmodernism allowed people to treat popular culture in the realm of serious art, and not a second tier of culture. When seen from this perspective, postmodernism first came out of a refusal by the different generations to abide by the categorical certainties of high modernism. It came to be thought of as taboo to continue to maintain an absolute distinction between high and popular culture. This was very evident in the way that art and popular music merged. A good example of this can be seen in the way Peter Blake designed the front cover of the Beatles Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and the way Andy Warhol designed the cover of the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers. By the middle of the 1980s, the post-modern new sensibility had become deeply engrained into popular culture, and for some, a reason to despair. The postmodern condition is one that is marked by a crisis in the position of knowledge in Western societies. This served to give intellectuals less eminence as the â€Å"academy† continually lost its credibility. Iain Chambers argues this point from a different perspective. He says the debate over postmodernism can in part be understood as â€Å"the symptom of the disruptive ingression of popular culture, its aesthetics and intimate possibilities, into a previously privileged domain. Theory and academic discourses are confronted by the wider, unsystemized, popular networks of cultural production and knowledge. The intellectuals privilege to explain and distribute knowledge is threatened.† Another cultural theorist, Angela McRobbie agrees with this as she sees it as â€Å"the coming into being of those whose voices were historically drowned out by the (modernist) metanarratives of mastery, which were in turn both patriarchal and imperialist.† She put forth the argument that postmodernism has enfranchised a new sect of intellectuals who speak from the margins from a perspective of difference, including ethnic, class, gender and sexual preference differences. These are the people whom she refers to as â€Å"the new generation of intellectuals.† A similar point is made by Kobena Mercer as she sees postmodernism as partially an unacknowledged response to the emerging identities and voices of those people who have emerged from the margins, and this opens a new way of seeing and understanding. Hyperrealism can be said to be a component of postmodernism. In the sphere of the hyperreal, the real and the imaginary continually come into contact with each other. Simulations begin to be experienced as something that is more real than real itself. The evidence in favor of this argument can be seen throughout our Western society. For example, we live in a society where people write letters to the characters they see on television, asking them out on dates, and offering them places to live. This can be called the dissolution of television into life, or the dissolution of life into television. It was said by John Fiske that postmodern media does not, like it once did, â€Å"provide secondary representations of reality: they affect and produce the reality that they mediate.† Additionally, Fiske argues that those events in our lives that ‘matter must be synonymous with media events. The arrest of O.J. Simpson was a good example of this. As the news of his story unfolded, people in the area rushed to his house so that they could be part of the news cycle. They wanted to be indistinguishably live people and media people. This is an attribute of the postmodern era. These people were aware that the media was not merely reporting of circulating the news, they were creating it. Therefore, if people wanted to be part of the news of this event, it was not sufficient to be there on the scene, to actually be part of this event, they had to be on television. This is a testament to the fact that in the hyperreal world of the postmodern, the distinction between a real event and its media representation loses its distinction. Frederic James who is an American critic of culture as is well versed in postmodernism argues that it is a culture of pastiche. To him, postmodern culture is â€Å"a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum.† Postmodernism is a culture that is put together from many different places it can be said to be â€Å"a culture of quotations.† Our cultural production is the consequence of other cultural production. â€Å"Postmodern cultural texts do not just quote other cultures, other historical moments, they randomly cannibalize them to the point where any sense of critical or historical distance ceases to exist there is only pastiche.† This trend of the pastiche is noticeable in both the body of film and television. It can be seen in the ‘nostalgia film that is evident in both television and film. Some movies that would fall into this category of the postmodern nostalgia film would be Back to the Future as it seeks to recreate the atmosphere and stylistic peculiarities of America in the 1950s. Other films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Robin Hood and Lord of the Rings act in a similar way as they induce a sense of narrative certainties of the past. In this way, â€Å"the nostalgia film either recaptures and represents certain styles of viewing the past.† These films seek to make cultural myths and stereotypes about the past. They offer â€Å"false realism: films about other films, representations of other representations.† As this study of postmodernism in popular culture progresses, it is useful to apply it to a single example, and then analyze it as typical of postmodernist artistic form. The Simpsons is a spectacularly popular show of the lat two decades and it represented the first prime time animated series since the Flintstones. Since its inception, this show has emerged as a cultural phenomenon. It is because of this immense success that The Simpsons represents a worthy object of study for cultural critics. There is no doubt that this television series can be placed in the category of the postmodern. All of the rhetorical devices that are synonymous with postmodern theory are present in The Simpsons: pastiche, quotation, intertextuality and reflexivity. The Simpsons, because of the way it uses reflexivity and intertextuality in particular is a great example of the postmodern at work. All elements of this show are related to a network of intertextual references to popular texts of other. In particular there are four ways in which The Simpsons uses intertextuality in recurrent forms. Firstly, there are single elements in the show that carry many intertextual references. A good example of this is the fact that the name of the town that The Simpsons live in is called Springfield. This is significant because it is the same name as the town that the vintage television show Father Knows Best was set in. This might be a rather obvious reference to the nostalgic, but there are much more subtle references in the show that make it surely a postmodern creation. For example, the curator of Springfields museum is named after a couple of dormitories at Harvard University. Also they build on nostalgic phrases on the past, â€Å"two cars in every garage, and three eyes on every fish.† In this way The Simpsons can be said to be a collection of quotations. Many of the scenes from The Simpsons are also taken from other movies or television shows. There is that episode that includes â€Å"22 Short Films about Springfield,† and this in particular serves as a parody of Pulp Fiction, another important creation in the postmodern milieu. In fact, there are whole episodes of The Simpsons that are entire parodies of other shows. For example, the episode â€Å"Bart of Darkness† is a parody of Alfred Hitchcock, and there are even echoes of Jimmy Stewart in â€Å"Itchy and Scratchy Land.† Additionally, the show is one that heavily displays internal references. This builds on the fact that each episode is at its outset freestanding. Even though the main characters do not evolve, they posses a memory of past episodes and the supporting characters do change. The Simpsons can also be said to be postmodern because of the way that it is an example of reflexive television, one in which the text is a reference to its condition of consumption and production. This can be seen in four ways. First, The Simpsons can be seen to be reflexive from an examination of the opening credits where the family rushes home to crowd the couch and watch television. This highlights the fact that the show is about the process of watching television, and television consumption is a necessary component of family life. The Simpsons also possesses a commentary on the star system. In one way, the show contains a television universe where television stars are created. One such example is Krusty the Clown whose purpose is to fulfill the ongoing process of consumption and merchandizing. In another way, real stars make cameo appearances on the show giving their voices characters that either represent themselves of other figures. The show can even serve as a parody of the a nimation industry within the animation industry. There is an episode where the ratings of the new â€Å"Itchy Scratchy Poochie Show† has poor ratings. This episode is interesting because it highlights a caricature of a market research process which utilizes the pulse meter for assessing how new characters are received when they are seen by the audiences for the first time. This is a great example of how The Simpsons is reflexive television. The Simpsons can even refer to what has been dubbed postmodern hyperconscious. It is a type of commentary on the role that they play in popular culture. An example of this comes when Homer is enjoying a night out and Apu ask Homer if he is on television as he looks familiar. Homer says, â€Å"sorry buddy, you got me confused with Fred Flintstone.† This is reflexive in that it shows that the series creators are aware of the links between their show and their predecessors. These are just some of the many examples that make The Simpsons a great example of postmodern culture, although their use of these rhetorical devices is systematic. What is the reason for this shows particular approach, meaning that unlike the other cartoons on television, The Simpsons is very unique? This is because the show is not intended to attract the same audiences as other cartoons, it provide a social commentary and is thus attractive to the sophisticated public. The Simpsons actually works in an interesting way as its form serves to encourage the consumption of popular culture. The show uses postmodern strategies to make political and social commentary in a way that is non partisan and in a way that is appealing to the masses. The creators of the show clearly do not want to create divisions among its audiences. In this paper it has been shown that attempts to define postmodernism can be a difficult task, but there are simple ways to explain it. One thing for sure though is that postmodernism is linked with the growth of popular culture in the late twentieth century in the West. Postmodernism is a perspective which tends to reject many of the accepted values of modernism. It involves a reinterpretation of gender roles and the differenced traditionally applied to them. It takes a more global perspective in its view of ethnic and national distinctions, and rejects stereotypes of all kinds. At the same time, it embraces the notion of nostalgia in art (film, television, advertising) and uses multiple referencing (among other strategies) to communicate on a variety of symbolic levels. It was then shown that The Simpsons is a perfect example of postmodern pop culture as it is nostalgic and reflexive, and also uses rhetorical devices which are common in postmodernism. From this essay it is clear th at postmodernism represents a blurring of the boundaries between levels of culture, and The Simpsons is a typical example of postmodernist artistic form. Works Cited Cantor, Paul A. â€Å"In Praise of Television: The Greatest TV Show Ever.† American Enterprise vol. 8, no. 5 (Sept-Oct. 199): 34-38. Elm, Joanna. â€Å"Are the Simpsons Americas TV Family of the ‘90s?† TV Guide v.38 no. 11 (March 17, 1990): 7-8. Fiske, John. Media Matters: Everyday Culture and Political Change. University of Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Huyssen, Andreas. After the great divide: modernism, mass culture, postmodernism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986. McRobbie, Angela. Postmodernism and popular culture. New York: Routledge, 1994. Sontag, Susan. Against interpretation, and other essays. New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1966. Storey, John. â€Å"Postmodernism in Popular Culture,† In Stuart Sim, The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Consumerism And Sustainable Development Environmental Sciences Essay

Consumerism And Sustainable Development Environmental Sciences Essay Sustainable development has been a goal widely pursued by all nations, globally. Citizens lifestyle has an important effect on the sustainability of a city. A sustainable lifestyle will promote the development of a society; on the contrary, an unsustainable lifestyle will hinder the development of economy and society. At the same time, globalization also has vital effect on development of a society including positive and negative. In human living environment area, the Agenda 21 was held up and adopted, in the agenda, people tried to find the appropriate way to achieve a sustainable living lifestyle. According to Agenda 21, the reason why the global environment becomes deteriorated is mainly the unsustainable pattern of production and consumption, especially in industrialized countries, which needs serious concern, aggravating poverty and imbalances. However, with the increase of global population, how to balance the relationship between resources supply and demand to achieve the goal of sustainability is complicated. For communities and individuals, special attention should be paid on the use of natural resources which generated by unsustainable consumption and reduction of pollution. In other words, the communities and individuals should look for an appropriate living style of environment-friendly, energy conservation towards achieving sustainable goal. Although government has been put much efforts to encourage people to do some reduction of pollution, reduction of energy consumption, and waste recycling, actually there is still a long distance to reach the goal of sustainability, and there should be a series of fundamentally changes for individuals to adopt to pursue a green, sustainable society. Globalization Globalization means different things to different people. In general, globalization is a process that promotes world-wide exchanges of national and cultural resources. It has many aspects including economic globalization, social cultural globalization, and environmental globalization. In recent decades, the world markets have become integrated (Simone Borghesi 2001) As Lindert and Williamson 2011 pointed out, world market integration is not a new phenomenon, but it has steadily increased since the 1820s if we exclude the period between the two World Wars. (P.H.Lindert 2001)The increasing economic globalization could promote the society to be sustainable in one hand because the objective of sustainable development is the development should meet the needs of all people, however, this could not be realized in a limited environment. As we all know the carrying capacity of environment is limited, but the globalization increased the trade between nations in terms of the productions. Howeve r, on the other hand, the globalization of markets also brought about globalization of environmental problems. A long-term correlation between the globalization of international markets and environmental degradation is quite obviously (R. Looney 2003) Global climate change, ozone layer becomes thinner, reduction of biodiversity, over consumption of natural resources, desertification are all global environmental degradation brought by the economic globalization. The industrial revolution use large amount of natural resources as materials in the process, this led to the deterioration of environment and pollution. The acceleration of economic growth led to the increasing of world population that also promoted the deterioration of environment. In order to achieve much profit, companies extend the use of land, damage the habitats of living organisms, thus, decrease the biodiversity. In addition producers focus more on the economic values of products instead of their environmental values, this will lead to the imbalance of environment. Lifestyle and sustainability Concept of sustainable development The concept of sustainability means that something is maintained for a period of long time. The concept of sustainable development first came out of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in (1972) Since the publication of the UN Brundtland Commission report  Our Common Future  in 1987, the concept of sustainability has become associated with the integration of economic, social, and environmental development to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs(Development 1982)In this definition, we should focus on two key points, one is the needs and the other is meet the generation needs need the efforts of all nations. Thus, the conference required the cooperation of all nations to act to reduce the environmental pollution and protection of resources. Since then, it has become clear that what we do has an impact on the environment, from the climate change, desertification, and the destruction of forests to the disappearance of species. By discussing the impact of human beings behavior on the environment, it should be in a social and economic dimension, especially the North- South dialogue and the rights of future generations. This finally led to the United Nations Convention on Education and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In this conference, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Framework on Climate Change, the Rio Declaration and 38 of the 40 chapters of Agenda 21 were agreed. (Development 1992) After that the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was set up to review progress in the implementation of Agenda 21 and other UNCED documents. There are more than 1000 NGOs are accredited to participate the Commission work(Nations 1987) Concept of lifestyle The concept of lifestyle comes from social science and refers to a bundle of practices or ways of behaving that are meaningful for individual as well for the community. Lifestyle includes different ways of socializing with others and different types of consumption of everything, from houses to clothes, food, and leisure time activities. Lifestyle could reflect individuals attitude and values and at the same time signals these to others through visible, or conspicuous, consumption. Sustainable lifestyle can thus be defined as bundles of practices that are tied together by attitudes related to sustainable development, or as ways of living that in practice lead to sustainable development. In 1992 at the UN Conference in Rio de Janeiro, there was an international agreement on promoting sustainable development and thus also promoting sustainable lifestyle. Following the line of the Brundtland report, the conference reached consensus on the so-called Agenda 21 programme, which contains detailed guidelines and objectives, in a non-legally binding language, and advice on how NGOs, citizens, and other actors can be involved in the process. The slogan was act local -think global and during the 1990s Local Agenda activities were started in many countries by both governments and NGOs. In 2007-08 such initiatives received high attention, with global climate being highlight on the political agenda. Local Agenda 21 was no longer a slogan, though the concepts of sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles were then used together with climate discussions. The processes of Local Agenda 21 build on the idea that changes must come from below, from changes in the everyday life o f ordinary consumers. Current lifestyle When talking about living lifestyle, smoking, poor nutrition, obesity, elevated stress, and suboptimal sleep will come into ones mind, these are major contributors to the general of lifestyle-related conditions, morbidity, and premature death (Dean 2008) Preventable lifestyle-related conditions such as ischemic heart disease, lasting bronchitis, and emphysema, hypertension, stroke, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and some cancers, are not only leading causes of disability and premature death in high-income countries, but increasingly in middle and low-income countries (Tal Gilbert 2004) Compared to the impact of environment brought from lifestyle, the bad lifestyle seems to have much effect on individuals health. However, from long-term sight, bad lifestyle will bring waste of resources, pollution of environment and at last hinder the development of society. When considering the relationship between lifestyle and consumerism, green consumerism should be advocated (Andrew Gilg 2005) Then what is green consumerism? In short, who buys and why. Current global levels of domestic energy consumption and waste production have been acknowledge as important contribution to the detriment of environment (Nations 1998) This reflects a abnormal consumerism that who needs so much energy and whether they really need. This caused the debate of how we will live in the future(De Young 1993) and response there has been a call for the development of national policies and strategies to encourage changes in consumption patterns(UNCED 1992:64). One approach has been the promotion of environmentally-friendly lifestyles which often take the form of media or community campaigns. These campaigns encourage individuals not only to decrease the amount consumed, but also to alter the nature of goods consumed (lUCN/UNEPAVWF 1991). Many studies will discuss in later sect ion. Changing Lifestyles towards Sustainability In discussion of sustainable lifestyles above, how to achieve sustainable lifestyles is important. There are two ways of changing lifestyles: bottom-up and top-down. (Hanssen 2012) The so-called bottom-up means people themselves try to find sustainable lifestyles with their knowledge and experiments, and the second way means changing the lifestyles by enforcement of government. Authorities can promote changes by political initiatives such as economic incentives or green taxes and through information and labeling of green products and campaigns focusing on changing attitudes. Furthermore, authorities can focus on establishing the physical infrastructure which supports sustainable lifestyles: public transportation, renewable energy production, recycling waste system, and so on. As the discussion above, it is the needs for individuals and government to change the lifestyle and the lifestyle needs to be sustainable. Many countries have been implemented sustainable lifestyles. The global climate change has caused the attention from all over the world, and many countries have been done for it. For example, the non-motorized in Amsterdam. Today, due to the lack of natural recourses, the transportation system becomes unsustainable. The carbon emission from the combustion of fossil fuel is the contribution to the air pollution. Therefore, it is encouraged encourage people to use more bicycle or walking instead of motors in order to not only to reduce the carbon emission but also to get a healthy lifestyle. The picture shows people in Amsterdam riding a bicycle (Figure1) Another example is a car dependent city of UK-Belfast. This is a city depend seriously on cars. The research was done to see the citizens response to the measures of limit the use of cars and their attitudes and awareness of climate change. Sweden is adopting the measures to reduce carbon emission from transportation to decrease the climate change. And in Malaysia, the government wants to do the similar to reduce the air pollution especially global climate change, however, the climate in Malaysia may be a challenge for implementation of this. Because the climate in Malaysia is the tropical rainforest climate, the temperature there is also higher for people to ride bicycles(M. R.Mat Yazide 2011) Therefore, this programme needs to be evaluated in Malaysia. From these examples, we can see that the sustainable lifestyle is a main stream for each country. There is a research about the carbon emission of each nation, from the chart ,we can see that those nations with high income have higher emission(Figure 2). Figure 1. People are riding bicycles in Amsterdam source:(M. R.Mat Yazide 2011) 1-s2.0-S1877343509000396-gr1.jpg Figure 2. Country-wise emission per capita source:(Pal 2009) Those countries which have high income have the high carbon emission (Figure 2) It is unequally for those low income countries who to share the deterioration environment. It is not the responsibilities of one or two countries, but the world-wise efforts to reduce the carbon emission globally. In the recent decades, some nations have been tried to change their citizens lifestyle through public participation, and associated with some NGOs develop some environmental protection programmes. These activities are all design to increase the citizens awareness to let them know the living environment has become deteriorated. Water should be recycled, waste should be classified, energy should be produced from renewable resources, and the community building in neighborhoods to strengthen and revitalize local social life. In order to look for a new, environment-friendly lifestyle, eco-village was born (Hanssen 2012) The people deciding to build and live in these eco-villages thus establish other physical, social, and cultural structures around their everyday life as part of living a sustainable lifestyle. However, this type of lifestyle was questioned that whether this really can lead to the global sustainable lifestyle or only the pursuit of a small part of people. In addition, this raises the question of whether sustainable lifestyles are only for those who want to live an alternative life or whether they should be acted as a mainstream trend and made available for a broader audience. In order to find a more sustainable lifestyle and examine which type is more effective for people and society to implement, many studies were done by researchers. In general, social science is used to deal with such issues and divided into two directions, psychological and sociological approaches. As an example of the psychological approach, there was a study done to look the effects of an Internet-based tool that used a combination of tailored information, goal setting, and feedback on households direct and indirect energy consumption in Netherlands. An evaluation lasts 5 months showed that households gained a significant direct energy saving of 5%, whereas there was no measurable effect on indirect energy consumption. It is thus possible to document a small but significant relation between knowledge and action. From a sociological approach, the Action at home of UK, which is part of the Global Action Plan that originally developed in the United States during the late 1980s, has been evaluated by Hobson to find the simple relation between knowledge and change of behavior (Hanssen 2012)The Action at home programme lasted 6-month where households were provided with information, support, and feedback in a local setting enabling local support and networking between participants. An evaluation based on qualitative interviews suggests rethinking the ideas on information, barriers, and behavioral change. Information should be seen as a much more constructivist approach, where people use and develop arguments through conversations with others, rather than by receiving objective knowledge. The focus should be on the whole array of social structures sustaining specific behaviors, rather than on only barriers to action, and finally the understanding of behavioral change should rather focus on how debat e can bring unnoticed routines that are never consciously thought of. Though there are disagreements in the understanding of behavior and the role of information between the social and the psychological approach, it is possible to draw some general recommendations on how to best persuade people to change to a more sustainable lifestyle: Communication should be as specific and personalized as possible, and information should be as adjusted to the lifestyle of the citizens as possible, thereby making the advice meaningful and useful for the citizens attitudes and practices. Conclusion In order to achieve a global, green, sustainable development, the efforts needed from all over the world. For governments, based on the Agenda 21 and the characteristics of city, they should formulate the local strategy to meet the needs of development is the most important thing. Such as in Hong Kong, due to the limitation of land and high building density, government should make some strategies like economic incentive to encourage local citizens to reduce the private cars and increase use of public transportation. However, the premise of implementation of reduction of private cars should be the sound transportation system. A sound transportation will bring more convenient to citizens like time saving. For citizens in Hong Kong, time is money, to save time equals to earn money. Thus, for cities like Hong Kong with fast life, using of public transportation instead of private cars will bring amount of saving of energy and reduction of air pollution. Sustainable development is a long-term process that getting more from less, for longer and for all. For people, they should start from changing their daily life. As the analysis above, people could do to reduce the stress of environment from these following aspects: Resources conservation Resources conservation including reduction of using natural resources to make sure the limited resources could use longer for more people. Such as water conservation in daily life. Water is the source of life. People could not live on earth without water. Another important resource is biodiversity. Biodiversity conservation should be paid much attention because the whole earth includes people, animals, atmosphere, land and water stays in a stable system. Lacking of one of these factors, the system will damage, and we human beings could gain the benefits from the biodiversity such as food, fibers and even medicine. These are the necessities for human beings life. Rich biodiversity will offer the ongoing resources for future generations to reach the sustainable goal. Resources recycling The resource recycling is mainly about the waste classification. There will be amount of domestic waste production in our daily life. The compound of the domestic waste is so complex and difficult to deal with. And the process of dealing with the waste will bring the pollution of environment such as release the greenhouse gas, sewage discharge into river and marine. Waste classification could reduce the difficulties in the process of dealing and increase the effectiveness. The most common waste in our life is plastic bags and bottles. And the material of the plastic bags and bottles is too difficult to deal with, so it is important to distinguish it from other types of waste and deal with centralized. Resources reuse Resource reuse means using again especially in a different way. This could help increase the effectiveness a resource. For example, the can could use to keep the screws that we do not need to buy another container. This will help saving not only money but also resources. In our life, especially for children, because of their growth, their clothes will become too small to wear. At this time, some parents will consider throwing them out then buy new ones. This is an unsustainable behavior. On the contrary, many parents will consider passing the cloth to other children who can wear them. Giving things to those people who need them is better treated as litter. This behavior reduces the production of waste. The three aspects above are what we can do now in our daily life to help construct a sustainable society. In the process of changing lifestyle, however, citizens attitudes play a vital role. This related to their awareness to the environmental and social risks. It is need to increase citizens awareness through formal and informal education. However, sustainability is a contested concept, and developments in the structures and practices of everyday life continue to change and thus provide new challenges for what a sustainable lifestyle is or should be. In the future, there is also a need to continue experimenting, debating, and developing new approaches to sustainable lifestyles