E-Journal #4 : The most significant innovation that contributes to our society

The most significant innovation that contributes to our society

            Crowd of people are roaming through the streets, gazing in the small windows in which various images and texts flutter. The four side edged flat cube firmly gripped in the hands may be deemed as minor utility, but it is the most powerful weapon for the human species today. Cliché might it sound, but the most significant innovation that contributes to the society is the smart phone. Smart phone by its definition has a stark difference from 90’s mobile phones by aspects of its application. The era of mobile phone that is used for only calling or texting is an old story now. Smart phones contributes significantly in our modern day society by reducing the need to buy various utilities, helping the people constantly updated to the current information, and enabling direct communication between people in faraway distance.
            Innovation of smart phone enabled people to reduce amount of utilities in need. A simple slide on the screen can open up the categories of applications that one might had to buy all individually. Take for instance, people had to buy the mp3, a camera, an alarm, and other utilities for the entertainment. Everything was added up to the smart phone application, however , simplifying and making one’s life convenient. If anyone wants to listen to music, one can dig into the pocket for the smart phone, plug in the earphone, and tap the play button. Conglomeration of utilities in one gadget surely reduced a number of things needed and eradicated the past cumbersome methods. Therefore, smart phone is the most contributing innovation.
            The smart phone constantly opened the current information to the people every time, and everywhere. In the past, people had to wait for a day to read the newspaper in order to understand daily changes. Now, information can change every minute, and people can view the adjusted data in any moment. Whenever political or economic scandals emerged, people were eligible to contact to respond to the situation. This enabled the society to become more active and reactionary to the changes so that one can adjust the problems within the glimpse of time. For instance, the news alerted all the notice to the citizens about the investigations of the recently reported issue of South Korea’s puppet administration, providing specific details for the audience to rightly understand in any moment. The quick notice through the convenient smart gadget unified the people to gather as one, and carry out a peaceful protest against the injustice.  To conclude, smart phones became the most impressive innovation to do good in the society.
            The invention of smart phone contributed to the human history by enabling the people to communicate, no matter how far the distance was. The past mobile phones surely had connected the people within the range of nation, and never so for the international range as did the smart phone in these days. Now, so many applications in smart phone erased the boundary between nations by the usage of application. No longer does the people have to pay extra money for international calls, but rather voice talk through smart phone applications. Skype or Kakaotalk became great examples for this. People in distance can call one another directly by voice or video call, which in a way eliminate the barrier of distance. Furthermore, in the situations of emergency, smart phone can be very useful. The quick call menu on the screen allowed the people in need of help to call for help instantly. As long as the person is in the distance with call available, one can be rescued from the emergency. Therefore, smart phones attributed to connect people in distance, bringing a huge attribution.
            It is safe to conclude that smart phones contributed impressively in our modern day society by reducing the need to buy various utilities, helping the people constantly updated to the current information, and enabling direct communication between people in faraway distance. It is hard to imagine a street full of people who does not hold a smart phone. Now smart phone is within the frame of the 21st century’s norm of daily routine. As much as it became the essential to the world, it can be deemed as the innovation that attributed the most to our society.

E-Journal #3 : Most important things that people need to do in order to ensure a sustainable future

Most important things that people need to do in order to ensure a sustainable future

            “Reduce, reuse, and recycle to save the earth!” This is a very familiar campaign which roamed through the 21^st century. The slogan was chattered as if the whole environmental problem can be removed, but still the ominous signs of collapsing natural balance alerted the approaching catastrophe. Take for instance, the dramatic increase of temperature in summer, 2016. Due to the unusual weather, the Meteorological Administration failed to accurately forecast the heat, resulting 17 casualties of heat stroke this year in Korea (JoongAng, 2016). Three R was an effective idea, but must be refurbished to ameliorate the obsolete method of the past. Sustainable environment acquires a cooperation, which means a method that is simple yet powerful must be adopted into our daily activity, like dining. The idea is relatively simple; the individual family can set a weekly nutrient balanced eating schedule, which contains what the family will eat from Monday to Sunday, avoiding as much meat consumption, buying less fast-foods, and choosing sustainable industry for cooking ingredients. The project can be called, “the Dining Schedule to Save the Dying Earth,” and this will lessen the pollution of water, decrease the amount of waste produced from fast-food industry, and promote sustainable agriculture.

“The Dining Schedule to Save the Dying Earth” can effectively ensure the sustainable future because it reduce the pollution of water by avoiding meat consumption. The core of this schedule is to find alternate nutrient source (like bean) to replace the meat for protein. There are various ways to substitute the protein. By reducing consumption of meat, water pollution can be reduced. Namely, the process of raising livestock consumes massive amount of water. According to the Guardians, about 5,000 to 20,000 liters of water is needed to create 1kg of meat, while only 500 to 4,000 liters needed for wheat. As much as the amount of fresh water is becoming scarcer, it is mandatory to save it while it is available. Eating meat propels the substantial loss of water as much as creating pollution by animal waste. Reducing the consumption of meat by using the alternate nutrient source through using the food schedule will help sustain our future.

            Also the project of scheduling food can bring sustainable future by reducing waste from fast-food industry. By excluding as much fast-food from the dining list, it can lessen the amount of waste from the industry. According to the One Green Planet, Styrofoam, which is often used to package the fast-food, consists more than 40% of the total waste. It is a common sense (tragically) to throw away all the matters used for coating fast-food, and there is often no second use. What shocks even more is that Styrofoam takes over 900 years to decompose back to the nature. When these fast-foods are delivered, the problem enlarges, because it significantly adds the air pollution onto the strove of environmental waste. However, when the project is promoted, such production will be reduced as much as the consumer’s demand plunges. Furthermore, lack of planning is usually the reason for eating fast-food which offers quick and easy selections to the hungry people. The careful planning of dining schedule will reduce such reckless choices, and therefore help decrease fast-food consumption rate and contribute to sustainable future.

            Lastly, the project can ensure the sustainable future by supporting the sustainable agriculture system. The unfamiliar term sustainable agriculture means, “ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just and humane (Aiken 1983, Dahlberg 1986, Keeny 1990, O'Connell 1991),” according to the Agnet.org. As human entered the era of industrialization, various techniques developed, including the methods of farming. As National Geographic Learning’s Pathways 3 page 143 suggested, “five times more irrigated land... one-quarter of the planet’s fertile soil has been damaged by intensive farming...” growth of economy fueled the faster destruction of land. Violently used pesticides and chemical fertilizers did help produce more, but such practice not only damaged the fertile land, but also affected people. Sustainable agriculture hinders actions that harms the land, and instead looks for ways to preserve the land’s quality. For instance, farmers did not excessively farm on specific portion of land because it will lead the land depleted with certain type of nutrition. They also decided to use naturally made pesticide like a pyrethrum flower spray. Organic food is produced from sustainable agriculture, so buying the ingredients for dining here can support creating healthy farming system in the country. Therefore, by creating a schedule for dining with organic ingredients will help ensure the sustainable future by hindering any land damage.   

            To conclude, the project which can be called, “the Dining Schedule to Save the Dying Earth,” can ensure the sustainable future by lessening the pollution of water, decreasing the amount of waste produced from fast-food industry, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Though the project itself may not seem so much effective, but if most of the people in the world performs this, it will bring a huge impact. As much as dining being one of the most important process in human survival, a small change in continuous process will be very effective. The first step is to start without assuming that others will do the portion of work for oneself. This project can only succeed if everyone tries cooperate, and take the affair seriously. Reciting old ideas over and over will not bring a better future. Only if the people try to figure out why the last generation’s plan did not work out, can the people discover the key to sustainable future. Eradication of ignorant behavior is, therefore, compulsory.

Reference:

1) ["The aftermath of heatstroke this summer"]. JoongAng News. 29 Aug. 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.

http://news.joins.com/article/20514742

2) "How Much Water Is Needed To Produce Food And How Much Do We Waste?". the Guardian. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/10/how-much-water-food-production-waste

3) "10 Ways Fast Food Is Destroying The World". One Green Planet. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/10-ways-fast-food-is-destroying-the-world/

4) "Soil Management For Sustainable Agriculture In Korea". Agnet.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&id=20110801142816
5) Vargo, Mari and Laurie Blass. Pathways 3. Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning, 2014. Print.
6) Image: http://apelasyon.com/img/userfiles/images/organic_03.jpg