Monday, May 2, 2011

Fear of Resource Depletion

The blog we have chosen is “No Impact Man.” The blog is run by Colin Beaven and focuses largely on making a better and happier environment in which to live in. Despite the good-natured aims, the blog provokes fear concerning depletion of natural resources. It achieves this by stating various events that are foreseen to happen in the future if our current consumption rate is maintained. It also dives into political issues and calls the reader to action. Our group feels that this is an appropriate blog not only because of the fear content, but also because there are many users who have commented on the posts.

Source: http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

17 comments:

  1. 1. The interface of this book is very simple and easy to read being designed to make moving around as simple as possible.It is designed around being able to find more articles, or more information on the author or recent comments or organizations or whatever you might want as easily as possible and to spend your time as efficiently as possible. Green and environment also play a important part from the green text, to the leaves at the start of each blog to the top of the page graphic. In essence this is a blog about educating people, connecting and inspiring conversation the easiest and most efficient manner in order to push the rhetoric of green and simple is good and the modern world of five links to find what you want is what is killing us and the planet.

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  2. Just by looking at the home page I see a lot of plain background and a hint of green. The green relates to environment and trying to turn everything that is not good for the environment around. Also the buildings on the home page are important because one is green and the others are gray. The green is what are aim is to focus while the gray is the stage of depletion we are at. It is all gray because if we are not careful it can get worse and worse. The blog wants us to be more aware and try everyone to care more and see how it can kill the planet if people don't start caring about the environment.

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  3. #7
    After reading through some of the blog posts and comments, it seems as though most people who follow this blog agree with the post’s ideas. While most of the posters seem to have previous knowledge on the information being displayed, they all back up the ideas’ of the blog by bringing in their prior knowledge to add to the blog. Because most of the posters appear to have prior knowledge on the topics, you could argue that the blog doesn’t do much for the readers. However, because of the blog’s strong following you could make the argument that the blog does reinforce the ideas of its readers by posting topics that the readers are passionate and knowledgeable about. For example, the first post includes information about the possibility of a water shortage in the Southwest U.S. and the readers appear take this information and combine it with their own information to make an even stronger argument.

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  4. #1. Looking at the blog the first thing i notice is that there is a bluish green tint to the background of the homepage. Which could represent the sky and the earth and how we need to protect the environment and not pollute it with trash and pollution as the blog might be suggesting. I also notice at the top of the blog there is a picture of 6 buildings (4 of which are grey, one is white, and one is green with a person standing on the top of the building) All, but the one building that is green is leaning to the right, which could suggest that in time our way of life could affect the environment. However, that if one person stands and fights to protect our environment that the earth would become stable as depicted with the one green building standing straight with a person on top. Also, with that one person on the building, could suggest that just one person could change how other people think and gather many people to help save the environment.

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  5. #6 The post which I have selected discusses a fear that many Americans are guilty of and oblivious to in their everyday lives. Implicitly, the reader interprets from the post “A Great Life Need Not Cost the Earth,” is the fear of the media consuming our lives, allowing life to quickly pass away from underneath our feet. The article shows an expensive luxurious plasma flat screen T.V., which the author comments, “I could spend my time working to pay for and watching things like this.” Then directly below the author comments, “Or I could take the same amount of time and spend it with my three-year-old daughter doing stuff instead of watching stuff.” There are two pictures then, one of a colorful kite being flown on a beautiful day , and the other of a cute little girl smiling while holding onto the string of the kite. I agree with Colin , the author, with his message of instead of allowing the media to consume ourselves wasting our lives away, we should instead invest our time with your children and/or friends, or participate in rewarding opportunities. As one reader commented, “people are more important than things.” Activities like these, I believe, will make the journey through life more worthwhile and may possibly improve our society.

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  6. 7.)
    I read the first several blogs that had comments on them. This blog definitely has an impact on the people's knowledge, beliefs and ideas. This blog causes many conversations amongst the people. Some agree with his cause and use prior knowledge to support Colin's articles, while others use their opinions to disagree with him. In the blog titled "An honest question for climate skeptics in the southwest" the comments prove this blog is effective in formulating ideas in others. In this article, Collin made comments about how the water is going to run out since the climate is getting dryer and dryer and crops will suffer. One comment agrees with him and discusses his fear about his spinach crop, he said, "Last year the spinach bolted in May, and this year I was really afraid I was gonna lose it in March when we had temperatures over 80 degrees." Collin also discusses how we, Americans, need to help slow/prevent the climate changes. Several posts disagreed with him saying, "They (skeptics) just disagree that we can do anything to prevent it from happening." Regardless if everyone agrees on the topics Collin writes about there is definitely evidence that this blog stirs up emotions, ideas and opinions in the bloggers.

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  7. 1. The page is has a simple light blue background with a plain white background in the middle. It represents in a sense of how the clear the air could be if people put more effort into using less sources- which is the movement he is trying to endorse. Colin Beavan also has his advertisement all over the page. He is trying to sway the bloggers to look into his book, movie, facebook, and twitter. It seems this particular blog has an agenda coinciding with wanting a better environment.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. 1. At first glance of this blog i was immediately allured. The webpage layout is simple; the background consists of musty blue which implicitly refers to the future of the US skies if pollution continues to progress. In the background at the top right side of the page is a very interesting picture which consists of 5 gray buildings and 1 green building which has a person on top of it which would suggest the individualism in adopting this green system, and also how one person could make an impact thus leading to the blog title "no impact man."
    Furthermore the struture of the website is also very user friendly; the title of each post is highlighted in a nature-green which not only is appealing but also directly tise to the theme and topic of the blog.

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  10. #7.
    After reading through several articles and the comments that follow, I have determined that the blog is actually very effective on the intended audience. The blog is being used to strengthen their beliefs and awareness of the topic at hand. Several of the comments from readers were praising Beavan for taking on the brutal task of becoming No Impact Man. This shows that the audience looks to Beavan as a type of hero and role model for this ideal way of life. Some of the commenters are quite inspired by the blog's contents and show intent to move their lives in a similar direction as Beavan's. Another common type of comment is one that backs up what Beavan stated with the reader's personal opinions and viewpoints. These comments act as evidence to fortify the claims that Beavan has made. This shows that the audience feels strongly about this topic and wants others to feel the same. These comments, along with the articles and the actual actions of Beavan himself, show that overall, this blog has a very strong effect on its readers.

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  11. #1
    The most recent post involves evidence from the government's report of precipitation changes of the western United States in the upcoming decades. Then from there brought in The New York Times as a source on the overall impact of global warming as a whole. This blog has brought up much thought among those who read and commented. Many of those who commented were not exactly sure what to think. They are stuck in between their "skeptic" friend who carpools them's beliefs of that humans have no impact at all, climate change is inevitable so why do anything, and the contrary. This blog does do something in the way of invoking that and perhaps to help the planet as one sees fit because, hey why not, why see the inevitable demise earlier than when it could be by not helping the planet.

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  12. 7.
    Colin Beavan's blog does actually seem to be having an impact on people. Just about every post has ten or more comments on it, and the information he is providing seems to be newer information that many people, even those who care about climate change, might not know. Although the popularity of his blog is probably in some part influenced by the success of his book, it still seems to be having an affect on people.

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  13. #7. After browsing through this blog and reading several comments, I believe that this blog does effect the reader's knowledge. The blog that I chose to take a closer look at was titled "An honest question for climate skeptics in the southwest". The article was about a report released that stated that the southwest is going to become much dryer. In the blog Colin Beaven provided a link to the actual report so that the reader's could see the report for themselves. I think this helps to show that this blog has high credibility. People are very willing to comment and give their opinion on the blog and most of the comments are very receptive to the arguement that Colin Beaven is making. I feel that this blog may at times induce fear, but it will also help the reader's take actions to prepare for the global warming crisis. Overall, I think this blog definitely helps people to become more knowledgeable about our environment.

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  14. 7. After reading some of the articles on this blog and looking through at the amount of comments, I think it is safe to say that this blog definitely accomplishes its goal of having an effect on the people who read it. It uses fear to its advantage by saying the effects that global warming will have on our world by 2050 and even further. The first article highlights the amount of water that the Southwest will lose over the next 60 to 90 years and points out that this means less water, meaning more wildfires and many other conflicts. If you do not have water, it makes it somewhat difficult to live so the article is trying to instill fear in people to change their habits by pointing out that there will be water difficulties in the Southwest unless we do. People also seem to comment on a lot of the articles and provide their feedback to the topics, proving that this topic is relevant to people and want to know more about it. This shows that the blog is effective because so many people have shown interest in it. I do think that we as a class are biased in evaluating this blog however because we were required to read Colin Beavan’s book over the summer. Because all of us “read” it we were exposed to the material and therefore could be biased as opposed to a class from a different university.

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  15. 7 and 4
    After reading the comments of this blog, this blog is an effective blog as it ignites fear of resource depletion, yet gives hope with previous experiences and ideas of ways to conserve the resources on earth. Another reason why this blog is so effective is because Colin Beavan went a year with being as eco-friendly as possible, which ads credibility and ethos to him as an author. The respect people hold for Colin Beavan is also seen through observing the comments. Some commenters from the article “An honest question for climate skeptics in the southwest” have said what things they have changed because of reading his book or watching the No Impact Man movie. For someone to be a “No Impact Man,” it is seen that he sure is making an impact on climate change activists now. Therefore, since reading many comments, Colin Beavan himself has an effective impact along with the rhetoric of fear yet hope that is displayed throughout this blog.

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  16. #1

    From the blog we can see that, the author uses combination of white, green, gray and black colors. The green color itself indicates the color of our nature. By relating the green color to our environment, we can see that the blog is trying to create awareness among people about our environment and nature. On the other hand, the white color is used as the main background of the blog. White is often related to something that is clean that has no dirt or stain at all. This indicates that the author is fighting for a clean environment for people to live in. Meanwhile, the white color could give us different thoughts and perspectives. White is also related to something that is dull and plain. From this we can conclude that, the dull and plain-looking color is the results of resources depletion. When every source in the environment has been used up, there will be nothing left for the future generation. Besides that, the header of the blog featured a background of blue color, clouds, flying birds and tall buildings! From this, we can infer that the flying bird in the blue sky represents the effect of clean and unpolluted environment. The header of the blog reflects differences among the building. We can see that there is an inclination among most of the grey-colored buildings. This shows that, uncontrolled and unplanned development will lead to major destruction in our environment that will bring effects and threats to people and nature. In contrast, a man standing on the green-colored building reflects any human being who’s fighting for green environment. We can also say that the man could be the blog author itself. From the header itself, the author is trying to say that any people could be the hero or heroine that saves our nature and environment from further threat. A single act of kindness could touch a thousand hearts. One person who is trying to save the nature could persuade others to do the same. That’s the motif that I believe behind the creation of this blog.

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  17. #7
    I believe that the background colors don't have the effect as stated above. Sure the colors match some environmental colors. But I believe colors like gray and white don't indicate the environment. I think they represent cleanliness instead. Meaning that the blog is implicitly trying to say that keeping clean will in turn keep the environment clean. For example if we clean our house, or the street, or the city, the environment will also be healthy and clean.

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