Depletion of Fossil Fuels

It is no secret that most of our modern world revolves around fossil fuels. But fossil fuels continue to rapidly decline because of the higher demand for them and we will soon run out. In about fifty years our fossil fuel reserves will be nearly depleted which is the reason that we must begin to wean our society off of fossil fuels and on to more abundant sources of energy. The problem with losing fossil fuels is that the energy produced by them is greater than that of more abundant alternatives. Fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas are also easier to break down because all you must do to get energy is to combust them. Other alternative sources of power like wind and solar power are clean and infinite but cost more time and money to convert to usable power. Any estimates that scientists produce for the amount of fossil fuels left are not very accurate because the demand for them increase yearly so there is no way to know exactly how much longer we have until our reserves are completely depleted which means we need to start converting now. The reason that most people do not convert their homes or their vehicles is because of how expensive it is to run on solar power or drive a hybrid because the initial cost of conversion takes about fourteen years to even itself out. Some people who can make the conversions are just to lazy or set in their ways to want to make any kind of change simply because it would be an inconvenience. People can also do things in their everyday lives that can eventually make a difference. Things like carpooling, walking, or even taking the bus can save on use of gas and save you money at the same time. Smaller things can also help, such as unplugging outlets when they are not in use, shutting of water when you are not using it, and you can buy local products which reduces the amount of gasoline used to transport goods from the producer to the consumer. Some experts believe that our current industrial society can not evolve nor be sustained forever while operating on fossil fuels. These facts prove that if we do not make a switch off of fossil fuels very soon than we might literally be taken back into the dark ages. Fossil fuels despite there uses are obviously very harmful for the environment. When fossil fuels are burned they give off high levels of carbon monoxide which decreases the o-zone layer which has been connected with global warming. I think that the people of my generation should take it upon themselves to reduce the amount of fossil fuels used in our daily lives because if it is not us that reduces the amount of fuel depletion there will be very little left for us in the near future and almost none left for the next generation of people and when there is no energy there can be panic. Another short term effect of fossil fuel depletion is that the cost of gas and other products like groceries and pretty much anything that is delivered on a truck will skyrocket up. The spike in prices will degrade the economy even further which will be a worldwide problem.

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Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was one of the most successful leaders to ever live, but he was also as ruthless if not more ruthless than Joseph Stalin. Mao Zedong was born in 1893 into a well-to-do family in the Hunan province. Zedong was an exceptional student and showed great promise according to his high school teacher, and soon to be father-in-law. Zedong attended classes part time at Beijing University while working as a librarian at National Peking University. While in Beijing he read constantly and was eventually introduced to Communist theories. Zedong attended his first session of the National Congress of the Communist Party in 1921 at the age of 27. Two years later he was elected commissars of the Central Committee. Zedong crushed his opponents in an effort to get to the top. The Communist party was also fighting a guerrilla war with the rest of Nationalist China. This fighting continued on until the beginning of Japanese aggression against China. Until the United States forced Japan to surrender in 1945 Mao Zedong was forced to fight two wars one against the Nationalists and another against the Japanese and in both he was successful. Once Japan was out of his way Zedong forced all of his attention on the Nationalist forces and by 1949 Zedong drove all of the Nationalists off of mainland China onto the island of Taiwan. In order to keep control of Mainland China Zedong instituted the “Great Leap Forward”. This plan was based off of the Five Year Plans instituted by Stalin. The first part of this plan was to take all small agriculture collectives and turn them into much larger people’s communes, and many peasants were ordered to work on massive projects that included infrastructure and the small scale production of iron and steel. Also Zedong got rid of private food production so livestock and farm implements were brought under collective ownership. During this plan Zedong instituted unproven and unscientific new agriculture techniques. These new techniques combined with the diversion of labor to the production of infrastructure caused about a 25% drop in grain production every year over the course of three years. Because of this it is estimated that as many as 30 million of people died in what is thought to be the largest famine in human history. Because of this incident Zedong was forced to abandon the policy in 1962. Also all of the infrastructure projects that many peasants were forced to work on and, in most cases, give their lives for were virtually useless because they had been built without the input of trained engineers, whom Zedong had rejected. After the failure of the Great Leap Forward other members of the Communist party thought it best to remove Zedong from office. When he caught word of this Zedong put the “Cultural Revolution” into effect. The “Cultural Revolution” was a movement that allowed Zedong to circumvent the Communist hierarchy by giving power to the Red Guards. The Revolution led to the destruction of most of Chinese culture and heritage because a large number of Chinese intellectuals were imprisoned. This led to the deaths of millions of people and possibly set China’s culture back beyond repair. Mao Zedong died on September 9, 1976 at the age of 82. Mao Zedong led a very interesting life and only wanted reform for his country, but was it worth the tens of millions of lives? I believe that the sacrifice was to great for the results. Mao Zedong based his revolution and leadership on that of communism in Russia without the same results. With Stalin’s plans Stalin was successful but when it came to Mao the lives were a waste because these reforms set back China much more than it propelled it forward.

The History and Controversy Behind The Flag On Iwo Jima

When the picture of the American flag being raised on top of Mt. Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima it was one of the single greatest moral boosters to the American people. The strange thing about this is the battle on Iwo Jima had not yet been won when the picture was taken. Also the battle itself was not the biggest and also did not have the most cost of life compared to other battles in the Pacific. So, why did this picture become such an important part of the American victory in the Pacific?

The famous flag raised above Iwo Jima was actually not the first flag raised. The first flag that was raised was much smaller than the second flag that was raised and it was for this reason that the second flag was put there. The flag could be seen all over the island and gave a huge morale increase to the U.S. soldiers and dealt a huge blow to the morale of the Japanese soldiers. The picture of the flag being raised was taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This photo had been taken while six U.S. Marines were raising the flag but three of the men in the picture never left Iwo Jima. Of the soldiers that raised the flag only one of the men was successful in putting his live back together after the war. The men that made it back could not understand why they were so successful. The image of the soldiers raising the flag was such an important image because it not only gave a boost in morale to the soldiers but also the citizens back on the home front. The image was the largest part of the seventh bond tour in the U.S. The seventh bond tour raised more money than any other bond tour during WWII. But the controversy behind the flag was that one of the men, Harlon Block, was misidentified as Henry o. Hansen. This stirred up controversy with the Block family and one of the flag raisers Ira Hayes. The Block family refused to accept that it was not their son in the picture because they said that they would recognize their son anywhere. Ira Hayes brought up the misidentification to his public relations officer who tolled Hayes to keep quiet or it would jeopardize the bond tour. A different kind of controversy also surrounded the picture. When Rosenthal was asked if the picture was staged he responded “yes” but Rosenthal thought that they were referring to a second picture that was taken of all the men on top of the mountain in front of the flag. For the rest of his career Rosenthal was constantly accused of staging the picture and trying to cover up the first flag raising. The lie that was told to the American people about the mistaken identity was necessary because if the people had known that the government was lying to them when the bond tour was going on the tour would not have made nearly the money it did. If the money was not made it would have been a devastating blow the U.S. war effort. It was wrong that Block was not properly viewed as the sixth soldier until some time after the bond drive but it was necessary not to mess with the story the government had already given the American people. All that the government did to protect their bond drive was justified because the money that the gained from the drive helped to save countless U.S. lives because of the supplies it was able to buy.

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Italian Invasion of Ethiopia

My topic today is going to be the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. In 1935 Benito Mussolini, Italy’s Fascist leader, adopted Adolf Hitler’s plans to expand his countries borders. Mussolini’s aim of invading Ethiopia was to Boost Italy’s national prestige, which had been wounded by the Italian defeat by Ethiopian forces in 1896 when Italy tried to get a late start on the scramble for Africa. After the attack on Ethiopia by Italy the League of Nations officially declared Italy an aggressor but did nothing about it. The war between Italy and Ethiopia lasted seven months when the Ethiopians were eventually outgunned by the Italians. The Italians made widespread use of chemical weapons and air power. On March 31,1936 the Ethiopians counterattacked the main Italian forces at Maychew but were defeated. As the Italians continued there advance into Ethiopia the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, left for French Somaliland and was exiled. On May Fifth 1936 Italian forces entered Addis Ababa and four days later the Italians announced the annexation of Ethiopia. After about a year of violence the Italians declared the whole country to be pacified and under complete Italian control. Ethiopian resistance still continued. After the failed assassination attempt on Italian marshal Rodolfo Graziani the colonial authorities executed 30,000 Ethiopians, including about half of the younger, educated Ethiopian population.



Despite the boosts in moral that the Italian people got from the annexation of Ethiopia it does not justify what Mussolini did to the people of that country. He murdered them and stole from them all because the ego of his country was hurt from losing their original colony. The Italians massacred thousands of Ethiopians for the attempted assassination of one man. 30,000 lives will never stack up to the value of one life. It is also ridiculous that the League of Nations did not step in to stop the obvious killings that were going on in Ethiopia. They officially stated that Italy was an aggressor refused to step in because they were trying to avoid war even though what they were doing in ignoring the aggression was promoting further aggression from Italy. The League of Nations was also promoting violence because when Italy declared Ethiopia as an annexed part of Italy Britain and France just accepted it when they should have stepped in and removed the Italian threat from Ethiopia. At the same time Russia and the U.S. did not accept Ethiopia as part of Italy. The only action that the League of Nations did, which most countries ignored, was an oil embargo that was placed on Italy which had very little effect and did not even put a dent in the thousands of people being killed. It could be argued that it was only done so that Italy would be recognized as a major world power but it does not justify what they did. It is not solely the fault of the Italian Fascists but it is just as much the fault of the League of Nations for there inaction during the Italian aggression.


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