Carmel blaze out of control

Roy Elal

7B

6/12/10

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11916009

Written in: 4/12/10

Author: BBC

On December 2, the second day of Hanukkah, which is considered the holiday of miracles, happened an extremely tragic event. Forty-one people (37 of them were prison guards) were killed on Thursday as a huge brush fire continues to rage across the Carmel Mountains in northern Israel, killing and injuring dozens, among them prison guards and firemen. This inferno's beginning is unknown, and it managed to burn 7,000 acres (28,327,465 meters) of forest land in the first 3 minutes it started. The people who have started this (if it was intentional) are unknown, and the reasons for this unfortunate happening is so far, also unknown. Over 17,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, for safety reasons.

Once the Haifa firefighting department realized they couldn't handle the fire, they had to call all the firefighters in Israel to come help. Once they still couldn't handle it, the Israeli government asked any young person with good physical abilities to come and help. Once they still couldn't handle the fire, the Israeli government started calling other countries to come and help. Special equipment, aircrafts and crews were sent from Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Jordan, Egypt, and the UK. The US sent an expert team, firefighting supplies, and a 747 airplane (biggest aircraft in the world). Surprisingly, the Palestinian Authority also sent firefighting units to help. So far, 35 airplanes are helping! Israel's prime minister is still asking for help from Germany, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Everyone that arrived so far to help, decided together they should push the fire "from green areas to burnt areas". Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister has described this situation as an 'unprecedented disaster', meaning it is an exceptional accident as an Israeli spokesman described the saying. This definitely teaches us that not even 35 airplanes and all the firemen/women and volunteers there are in a country, plus other firemen/women plus experts, take as much as 5 days to put it out (put it out today 6/12/2010). Therefore, what we should interpret from this information is that our technology isn't as advanced and efficient as we thought! Since I am an Israeli, and I have an Israeli channel (whom shows the news, etc.) and I got a lot of information, from the news on TV, and not the website mentioned above.

I chose this situation, because, it's a terrible thing that happened in my country, and involved many other countries (which reminds of how our school is, many different cultures, and nationalities, and people from different countries help those people who are in need of help, who are from a different country!) After all of the disastrous things whom happened in this event, there was probably one benefit: this benefit was that we, as the human race, or everyone who contributed to help, realized that we need to improve our technology, or at least the ways to put out a huge forest fire. What I learned, is first, that my home country; Israel, we will have a hard time in the next couple of years, especially if a war brakes out. Another thing I learned is that our (our meaning everyone in the world) technology needs to improve, and become more advanced than it is now. The first time I heard about this, was when it went on the news. I didn't manage to complete my homework that day because I stayed up until 1 or 2 AM watching the news to see what's happening. I was pretty sad, because 41 people in my country, the were burned alive.

Food Inc. Reflection

After watching Food Inc, what are your impressions of how science of food industry, technology of food industry, and society are interrelated?

Well, the science of food industry is basically the plants that grow whom then are fed to the animals. Next comes the technology of food industry which is all the machine, and factory stuff. Last is the society, or the people, us, who eat this food who goes all the way from science of food industry, to technology of food industry, then to us. These 3 are interrelated because its a process, who goes in order, first science, then technology, and then us!

How did the film describe science & technology as a positive or negative impact on society or the environment?

The film described science and technology as a negative impact on the environment concluding in the fact it also has a negative impact on society.

How do our consumer choices affect what is out on the market and therefore, our own species survival?

Since we nowadays get to choose what we want, since we are they predators, eating more of some food we don’t have much of, ends up with that animal’s extinction, and therefore our specie survives.

How are we as humans connected to how the Earth is used?

Since we are controlling the Earth right now, we get whatever we want, resulting in us affecting the Earth like no other animal.

A few ideas that popped up in conversation throughout the movie were:

When do we say "no" to more high tech devices and go back to what caused the problem in the first place? Why are we only into the "HOW" things work and not the "WHY" things don't? What did this farmer mean?

I agree with the farmer, because it’s true, we don’t go back to see what is wrong and why it doesn’t work, we move on and try to create something better, which usually means gaining more money (for the creators) and less time to waste.

What is the difference between natural farming and industrial farming? Which is better? Are they both necessary for human survival? Why or why not?

The difference between the two types of farming is that industrial farming is made using machines and factories, while natural farming, like its name implies, is natural! No special materials used, etc. The better one is, in my opinion, is natural farming, because it doesn’t cost as much for the farmers and there are no special materials used so it’s almost 100% you can’t get any weird illness.

If technology and industry have improved so much that we are getting faster, fatter, bigger, and cheaper, how are science and technology held responsible for improving or ruining human health and survival?

Science and technology are responsible for partially ruining human health and survival because they put all these materials and ‘poisons’ as some people would say into the chickens or the food we eat.

What economic costs, environmental costs, ethical costs, health costs, and cultural costs did you observe while watching the film?

I saw that some people, to be specific some farmers, had economical problems, because they were farmers, and farmers don’t earn a lot so they had problems with that. Environmental costs would be that the industrial farmers, the ones using the machines and factories, have to ruin the animals, using machines and ‘poisons’ to make them big and fat, resulting in the fact that they earn more money. Health costs is that what the industrial products put in the meat, which means they can destroy the health of the people who eat their products, which is health costs, because in the end, the company would have to pay.

Finally, state your final thoughts about this film and any changes you see happening in the food industry in the future or even your own eating habits.

Unfortunately, I don’t see any change in my eating habits for the future, after watching this film, I still believe that there is no issue here in Serbia, and that even if something does happen and I become sick, it’s not going to be such a big deal like the kid in the movie who sadly died.