ASIGN5_SMT312 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ASIGN5_SMT312 - Essay Example Energy costs take 8% of the GDP of the United States. The United States is conducting a geological survey to evaluate its oil reserves. OPEC refers to organization of the petroleum producing Exporting countries. This is a cartel of twelve countries namely United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Iran, Qatar, Libya, Nigeria Kuwait, Angola, Iraq and Algeria. The headquarters of OPEC are in Vienna. They hold regular meeting represented by member countries oil ministers. In 2008 Indonesia withdrew from the group due to its declining reserves. The countries with the most coal reserves in the world are the United States, Russia and China respectively. There are about 847 billion tones in the world. These are enough deposits to last the entire world for the next 130 years at the existent level of production. A survey conducted by the United States Geological Survey show areas around Arctic Alaska, Amerasia, East Greenland Rift Basins in North America have large deposits tar sand. It’s estimated that 84% of gas and oil production would take place off shore. Like any non-renewable energy source tar sand affect the environment. When being mined toxic chemical infiltrate rivers and other water bodies. In addition because of the high carbon emission it causes deforestation. Most of time a large section of trees, bushes, top soil are cleared thereby causing environmental degradation. The oil crisis in 1973 emanated when the then Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting placed an oil Embargo on the United States of America. It came about after the United States supplied Israeli with military equipment during the Yom Kippur War. The embargo was placed on October 1973 to march 1974 (Campbell, 89). 16 The 1979 oil crisis which is also known as the second oil crisis resulted from the Iranian Revolution. Massive protests that led to the fleeing of Mohammed Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, also disrupted the county’s oil sector

Alcoholism and Its Effect on the Family Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Alcoholism and Its Effect on the Family - Essay Example The alcohol that is carried from the mother into the placenta reaches the baby inside the womb thereby introducing the mother to the risk of giving birth to a baby with "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or FAS" (Parsons). According to Parsons, babies born with FAS have "deformities in the brain and skull" and are "physically shorter and underweight compared to normal babies." Apart from this, they have "difficulties in learning, attention span, judgment, memory, problem-solving" (Parsons), and usually exhibit behavior problems. These physical and behavioral limitations are carried over to adulthood leading to difficulties in relationship establishment and making these affected children socially impaired and incompetent to live a normal existence. In physically healthy children of alcoholics, "learning disorders, behavioral problems and emotional disturbance" (Burge & Schneider) are apparent. According to G. Berger, many of them have "low self-esteem" and carry feelings of "loneliness, guilt, helplessness, fears of abandonment and chronic depression" (qtd. in Parsons). These children's ability to read and learn slows down as alcoholic parents neglect their important role in the family. Moreover, as the home becomes a venue for conflict due to constant arguments about the issue of excessive drinking, the home becomes no longer conducive to study and learning. According to Ferguson, as performance in the school gets adversely affected, children experience problems academically and have "difficulty establishing relationships with teachers and classmates" (Parsons) thereby resulting to feelings of inadequacy and isolation. Other children manifest "behavioral problems [such as] lying, stealing, fighting, and truancy" (Parsons). This is mainly due to the "extremely unstable home environment" (Parsons) they live in. As children "can not predict the behaviour of the problem drinker" (Walker) in the family or know not what to expect from an alcoholic parent, they develop erratic behaviors and become unpredictable themselves (Parsons). On Marriage The attitude of the problem drinker negatively alters as the dependence on alcohol increases. According to Burge and Schneider, excessive alcohol use does not only lead to clinically significant physical impairment as the drinker's health deteriorates, it also leads to distress as the family gets exposed to common scenarios among alcoholic families such as car accidents due to intoxication or arrests for alcohol-related violations or misconducts (Burge & Schneider). These situations more often than not trigger arguments between spouses and other family members about the risk of intoxication that result to domestic tension. As the alcoholic individual fails to fulfill major obligations at work, relationship between spouses gets affected. For instance, "repeated absences or poor work performance related to alcohol use" (Burge & Schneider) leads to inefficiency and eventual job loss. Unemployment then leads to "financial difficulties" (Parsons) which is another formidable domestic issue that couples deal with on a regular basis. Liquor addiction also makes the alcoholic parent neglectful of children or household. Feelings of "hatred and self-pity" (Parsons) thrive as the nonalcoholic spouse feels