Wednesday, April 10, 2013

cornucopians week 4

Cornucopias point of view

Juan Esteban's part:

I find the idea that Aldo Leopold stands that nature should be preserve thanks to its biodiversity, the species and the resources it contains, I find it to be wrong because thanks that the economic system and the sustainability of life is based in those resources humans will have trouble in having a comfortable life. Most of all our economic system depends basically in the use of fossil fuels thanks that countries like Venezuela, Iran, Ecuador, and United Arab Emirates depend on the subtracting of this fuel and selling it to countries that don’t have this resource. Basically crude oil become to be a crucial factor in the model of economies thanks that since 1969 its price has started to arise and also the increase of population has created a bigger demand of the products derived from oil. In 1969 the price of crude oil was established in 10$, in 2011 the price rise to 115$, until 2013 its price has vary a little but it has being the highest price in which the crude was sale. This argument has become a crucial statement that many people are not agree on but until now is what many countries depend on and change this system will be hard. Scientist stand that oil is going to be over for 2050 but until that day new kinds of alternative will be developed thanks to the increase of technology and the economic system in this time will change finding a new implementation of its model. Also we need to take in account that now day’s cars, airplanes, and many other objects are powered by gasoline and changing this whole production will take a long time. If oil is over we are going to replace it with a different kind of resource.  In the other hand we have another big important resource which is cotton. Cotton is a natural resource that is use to make cloth, and different materials that are used by humans.  At the same as oil cotton in the past years has increased it price thanks to the demand of people. Countries like China and Pakistan require and buy the largest amount of cotton so basically their economy also depends in this natural resource. In this case there have not been worries about getting out of cotton only the commercial price has increase.  Looking to these two specific examples we can determine that humans require and need to be us natural resource like because our life depend and go around this resource. These resources are basic in the economies of the world but thanks to the development of technology this resources could be replaced in the short future. Humans have the necessity to keep using these natural resources but we should keep in mind that we need to have a better control of these resources. Instead of just stop using all the resources and conserving nature we need to find a way of using these resources appropriately and find a balance because if we keep using them and they get over and technology has not being development the whole system is going to come down. In other words we need to be careful and use moderately all the resources. 

 
 Inside Futures: Relevant Trading-focused Information Authored by Key Players in the Futures, Options and Forex Industries

In this chart it displays the increase of the price of cotton since July 2009 and we can see how much it has increase until March 2011. Shows the variation in that short amount of time.  We can see that only in 2 years the price of cotton has more than double its price.



"File:Crude Oil Prices since 1861.png Jump To: Navigation, Search." WikiMedia Commons

In this table we can see the increase of crude oil since 1861 until 2011. You can see that in 1864 the prices were really high (116$) but then on 1882 (23$) we can see big fall in the price and that stabilized until 1969  when the price just started to go from 10$ up to fast until 2011 that the price was set at 112$. (juanes)

Andrea's part:
As a cornucopian, we believe that we should use all the resources that we have at the time for our personal benefit and not for the environment because human beings are the priority. There is no need to preserve the environment because we can replace it with technological advances, we must sacrifice natural resources in order to have a better future. Through the example of nature we have learned how to survive but now it has come the time to survive by ourselves. In a near future we will have ended looking at the example of the environment, we will be ready to survive only with machines and anthropogenic systems. Until then we must use the natural resources efficiently even though we will not use them after a while. The effect that the natural resources will have is that we will use nature as an example but still, nature should be used efficiently. (Andrea)




We can see in this graph that as we increase the demand, the point of equilibrium is lost. At price 2, the supply has increased but the demand has been reduced because of that and the supply has increased because of the ambition of human beings. Firms might want to produce more but the people will not be willing and able to buy more, therefore there will be a surplus. This graph demonstrates that we should produce only what is needed, because the firms will only sell Q1, the rest would be waste until Q2. From Q1 to Q2 there is no consumers that are willing ot buy and that is wasted. As a cornucopian we want to produce as much as possible and to make as much profit as possible but producing more when it is not needed will only produce a surplus in the economy that will harm because later on the resources will have already been lost and no profit will have been brought out of it. (andrea)


Maria Emilia Rodas part:

As cornucopias we do not agree with Aldo Leopold’s book The Land Ethic for various reasons. We do not believe nature has the only role an important value beyond the benefits it brings for us humans. People need to accept that nature has indeed a lot of benefits for us economically and practically. The increase in output of natural gas for instance, has transformed USA economic situation in a significant way. USA’s oil and natural gas companies provide jobs, revenue to governments and investment growth for millions of Americans. 474 billion dollars from the US economy in 2010 came from these energy resources used (energytomorrow.org). It is evident then, how natural resources have supported economic growth.Environment has aid countries like the US to grow in exponential ways.  

The environment was placed in the world with the purpose of being exploited. Humans get food resources, medicines, and clothes from it since the beginning of times. It is essential to understand that without energy producing heat, light or power people would not be able to build factories that provide jobs and homes. Just by only considering this point, it is already evident that the environment, which provides us with the energy resources, contains many benefits to us not only in the physical aspect but also in a country’s growth. Yes, there are several environmental problems currently, but we will be able to solve them just as we always have. Which is why, we should keep using the resources the environment provides us in the same way since that is their purpose

World Energy Generation by Fuel 

In the graph above we can see that energy consumption had tripled in the period of 23 years. It is also clear that the majority of the world power is also created by coal, which is a non-renewable source of energy. However, technology will enable us to replace it once we run out of it.


The next graph shows us how economic growth has happened in the USA. Y connecting the two graphs presented, we can infer that the increase in energy consumption has an important role in the economic growth of countries such as USA. So the higher the use of energy resources, the higher or better the economy will be. 

Martin Serrano's part:
I as a Cornucopian don’t agree with Aldos Leopold belief. He states that nature should be preserved not only for the resources humans use and for the economic interest; instead he says we should preserve it because there are other values and systems such as the beauty of flowers nature should be preserved. Nature was created for humanity to survive. The resources nature provides us are the ones that maintain humanity survival, economic systems and sustainability all over the world. Nature should be conceived a huge storehouse that should be only used by people. Nature is available to serve human needs the reason why worldwide economic systems are developing and growing thanks to the resources nature provide us. Humans and the world need these economic advances for living because the economy benefits the society itself. Making clear these concept let’s analyze the corn industry production in Europe.
According to the graph of corn production in Europe we can see that the production has increased a lot. Nature provides us the fertile land to be used and allows us to plant and harvest the corn. Corn is an unlimited resource that benefits society by giving us food, jobs in the corn plantations and also thanks to the developed technology a renewable source of energy that replaces the oil. As the graph shows that the corn production had increased in the past years, as well food has increasing. Corn is a very nutritive and complete food that is necessary and needed for living. Also it benefits society because as food such as corn production increases more people are feed, more people have a job and there are more raw materials for producing biofuel an alternative energy source that replaces oil, which compared it is more eco-friendly, cheaper and unlimited. All these characteristics mentioned before are the responsible for maintaining a stable economy that benefits society in many ways. Here are the examples of why nature should be preserved and that it has to be used only by people for the benefit of all. Thanks to nature we can use and enjoy the resources we daily use that are required for living. However nature also has important, beautiful and valuable values such as the beauty of flowers and the singing of birds, there is no sense of conserving it because by appreciating the beauty of flowers no one is beneficiated. And if that’s the case there is no way for us to survive because all the resources humans use that nature provides us come from nature. It is necessary to use our nature for resources because it allows our specie to survive. It is true that many resources are coming to an end such as oil but thanks to the advanced technology oil can be replaced easily and fast with alternative products such as the biofuel that comes from corn. By now let’s use all the resources nature provide us and if they start disappearing or decreasing technology and humans would find a way to replace it. 







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"Inside Futures: Relevant Trading-focused Information Authored by Key Players in the Futures, Options and Forex Industries." Inside Futures: Relevant Trading-focused Information Authored by Key Players in the Futures, Options and Forex Industries. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013



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