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