Self-Reflection

Taking AP European History this year was probably one of the best decisions that I've made this year. It was pleasantly challenging compared to other social studies classes that I've taken in the past (granted, I've only taken summer school classes in high school). I feel that I've learned important study skills. Before this class I never had any reason to read the text book, but FRQ assignments forced me to read the chapters in order to answer the questions. This, in addition to time management skills, are something that I will use later in my academic career. I feel that these are my strengths. The matching sections of the tests are something that I would consider a weakness. I have no idea how I would have studied for these sections (like the midterm section on which I missed every question). Overall, I feel that this class has taught me more about history than any class I've ever taken before. I've learned most from class instruction and individual assignments. I can't remember much of anything that I was supposed to have learned from other people's presentations.

Meeting of the Minds

I wanted to wait until after the first Meeting of the Minds to write a blog about it. At first I was unsure how informative the project would be, but after watching the first debate I'm excited to personify Nietzsche tomorrow. I learned more about his philosophies while studying for this project than I would have merely writing a paper, and I hope that I can successfully pass this knowledge to my classmates tomorrow. I learned more about the historical figures that my classmates personified today than I have all year. I never really knew who Anne Boleyn was until today. Now when I think of her I will picture Sarah Drake.

Works Cited

"Chapter 7: Introduction to the Atmosphere." Physical Gerography.net. 5 May 2009.

http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7h.html

"Chlorofluorocarbons and Ozone Depletion." CIESIN Thematic Guides. 5 May 2009. http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/TG/OZ/cfcozn.html

Crabtree, Vexen. "The USA Versus the Environment Oil, Pollution and Kyoto." 4 June 2002. 5 May 2009. http://www.vexen.co.uk/USA/pollution.html#2004

"Kyoto Protocol." UFCCC.net. 5 2009. http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php

"The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer." CIESIN Thematic Guides. 5 May 2009. http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/TG/PI/POLICY/montpro.html

Dangers to the Global Environment

International Protocols

Montreal Protocol

• Signed in 1987
• Phases out damaging compounds such as CFCs.
• It outlines states' responsibilities to protect citizens' health.

Kyoto Protocol

• According to the United Nations website, "The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012."
• The Kyoto Protocol was accepted in 1997.
• Nations have unique reduction goals to meet based on industrial factors.
• In 2004, Russia ratified the protocol, making it internationally binding.

• The United States, the world's biggest polluter (4% of the population with 25% of the emissions), still has not accepted the treaty. George W. Bush has said that it would threaten the U.S. economy.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXdmqXG3ITU&feature=related

Dangers to the Global Environment

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

• It is a naturally occurring process.
• It is increased by carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane which are able to change the energy balance of the planet by absorbing longwave radiation emitted from the Earth's surface.
• Naturally, 26% of the sun's energy is reflected or scattered back to space by clouds and other atmospheric particles.
• About 19% of the energy available is absorbed by clouds, gases (like ozone), and particles in the atmosphere.
• Of the remaining 55% of the solar energy passing through the Earth's atmosphere, 4% is reflected from the surface back to space. On average, about 51% of the Sun's radiation reaches the surface.
• When greenhouse gases are present in the atmosphere, they absorb the sun's heat, trapping it near the surface and heating the ground.
• Carbon Dioxide is the main greenhouse gas.
• Greenhouse gas levels have increased since the industrial revolution.

Types of Greenhouse Gases

• Since 1750, methane concentrations in the atmosphere have increased by more than 150%.
• The primary sources for the additional methane added to the atmosphere are rice cultivation, domestic grazing animals, termites, landfills, coal mining, and oil and gas extraction.
• Nitrous Oxide is now increasing at a rate of 0.2 to 0.3% per year.
• Most of the nitrous oxide added to the atmosphere each year comes from deforestation and the conversion of forest, savanna and grassland ecosystems into agricultural fields and rangeland.

Dangers to the Global Environment

What are CFCs?

• CFCs are chlorine- and bromine-containing compounds which have been implicated in the accelerated depletion of ozone in the Earth's stratosphere.
• They were invented in the 1930s for use in many household and industrial uses including coolants for refrigeration units, and aerosol propellants.
• In 1973 CFCs were found to be catalytic in ozone depletion.
• In 1985 the polar ozone depletion was announced.
• Effective stratospheric chlorine levels as shown here for midlatitudes will return to 1980 values around 2050. The return to 1980 values will occur around 2065 in polar regions. In 1980, ozone was not significantly depleted by the chlorine and bromine then present in the stratosphere.

How do CFCs hurt the environment?

• CFCs released into the atmosphere accumulate in the stratosphere.
• Stratospheric ozone shields living organisms on Earth from the harmful effects of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation; even a relatively small decrease in the stratospheric ozone concentration can result in an increased incidence of skin cancer in humans and in genetic damage in many organisms.
• CFC molecules break down by the action of solar ultraviolet radiation and release their constituent chlorine atoms.
• These then react with the ozone molecules, resulting in their removal.
• CFCs have a lifespan of 20 - 100 years and so can cause damage long after their release.

WWII: Connection Across Time

Many events that occurred during World War II have left impressions on our society and still reverberate in modern news. Most notably, the creation and detonation of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki have left a trail of debris through the decades and into the modern era.

The question of the creation and eventual use of the bomb was not merely a physical problem -- the bomb would have come into existence eventually in some form or another-- but it was also moral. As with cloning in the modern day, the scientists who worked on the bomb had to decide how far they would go to "play God." And after the monster was complete, the were faced with the same decision once again -- could they, merely men, decide if thousands of innocents should die for what they told themselves was the greater good? In my mind, and in the retrospective writings of both Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, they did not have this right.

However, the scientists and policy makers of the world today are still faced with the same questions. Should we bomb an entire village of civilians because there might be terrorists hiding there? Should we sacrifice the lives of innocents in order to possibly protect ourselves in the future? These are the questions that George W. Bush faced when he decided to invade Iraq, and these are the questions that military minds must contemplate as they strategize.

World War II and her monster, the atomic bomb, did not create these questions or these circumstances, but she certainly magnified them into the deadly force that they are today. World War II left us with a power to wreak more death than ever had before and the responsibility to use it wisely -- not at all.

The Price

"The Price" by LIFE Magazine artist Tom Lea is the most shocking painting that I have found from World War II. It is magnificent in its brutality. This painting offers no glorification of the war that the artist witnessed first hand; on the contrary, it shows a very young man struggling through waves, wounded, and with his own blood splattered on his face.

Tom Lea was able to capture the horrific brutality of the war by using the shock value so often utilized by his contemporaries in their less realistic depictions. The tones are subdued, emphasizing the vibrant red that coats the soldier's arm and face. The painting is at once a commemoration and an expose of the slaughter that, at time it which it was created, remained hidden from the public eye.

Marines' Best Friend

This sketch, entitled, "Marines' Best Friend, was painted on location during WWII by U.S. Marine Corps artist Donald Dickson. It struck me as odd because it is not the kind of heroic -- or even high action-- art that is usually associated with commemorating wars. For this reason, I find it more authentic and more honest. The sketch depicts a rugged Marine intently cleaning his gun. I've heard numerous stories of the relationship that develops between a soldier and his gun; sometimes men even go so far as to name their weapons. This drawing depicts something of this relationship, and, although it evidently takes place during the height of a war, reveals a moment of peace.

This painting, entitled "Col. Robert S. Johnson, was created by Oklahoma Artist R.T. Foster and dedicated in 2000. Interestingly, it is part of a mural located in the Oklahoma capital building along with the previously mentioned commemoration of World War I, "Pro Patria." Like "Pro Patria," It glorifies the war effort, emphasizing the contribution of Oklahomans. Robert S. Johnson is known to have been the most successful pilot flying in WWII -- that is, the pilot with the most "hits." Like the painting, this phrase is misleading. It says nothing of the magnitude of death that the bombs dropped from caused on the ground.

The painting is victorious, showing two American planes with a clear shot of their target, the bridge in the background, and the pilot smiling and waving. If this piece of art is to be believed, then the act of war is a jovial experience. This is Oklahoman propaganda, if such a thing exists. It does not even serve the function of commemorating any of the dead Americans who doubtless flew with Col. Johnson. In fact, it does not even acknowledge their existence.

Response to the Holocaust

The powerpoint that we watched today about the Nazi Death Camps was probably one of the most traumatizing lessons I've ever had to endure, I left class appalled by the bestiality of human beings and their ability to distance themselves so far from reality that they were unable to perceive the Jews as fellow human beings. I was moved by the photos of the concentration camps, although I had seen them all (or photos like them) many times before. It is interesting to me that even as we expressed disbelief that people could deny that such an atrocity had ever occurred, we were able to speak candidly about pulling fillings from the mouths of the dead and shoveling bodies into ovens. It doesn't seem a stretch to imagine Nazi soldiers desensitized to the horror of their crimes or entire religious movements proclaiming the holocaust a hoax when a photos that should move us are reduced to merely articles of evidence that it actually occurred.

There is a common German saying Einmal ist keal inm which translates roughly "what happens but once, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all." Since the Holocaust only happened once (or so we would like to think) it fades into the past. Eventually events fade into the past, losing the emotion and meaning that they once had and depleting into a tangle of philosophical ideas about the human condition. I have no cure for this situation, yet it concerns me. I wonder if this is why history is destined to repeat itself.

Connection Across Time -- Between the Wars

As an artist, I am particularly fascinated by the development of art during the period between the wars. It's interesting to me that the tension leading to WWI and prior to WWII served as such a catalyst for new techniques and views of art. Artists have always been politically involved, all the way back to ancient Rome and through the modern era. I wonder why it was this war and not another that urged artists to neglect traditional styles of painting and sculpture in favor of a style all their own.

It is this kind of rapid development that that has transformed art in the last few decades. Photography, which until the 1950s and 1960s was not even considered an art form, is now well respected and has given way to photo editing and video presentations. Protesters continue to use art as a means of catching people's attention -- something unheard of before WWI. Consider even the practice in Thailand of putting pictures of black lungs and mouth cancer on cigarette packages. This is shock value at its finest -- Thank you Duchamp.

Fountain, Ready-Mades, and Modern Art

Marcel Duchamp, a Cubist and a founder of the Dadaist movement, was a man of unique vision. Appalled by the war and conventional culture's view of war as an honorable and heroic venture, Duchamp attacked symbols of classical and modern culture through vicious parody and satire. This work, one of the first "Ready-Made" sculptures, was dubbed Fountain (not "R. Mutt," contrary to popular belief) in a satire of what makes a Fountain? It is in this period that the titles of artistic works became key to understanding the messages that the artists were trying to send. Without the title Fountain urging the viewer to contrast what he or she sees with the conventional idea of a fountain and thus satirizing the idea of classical, this work is meaningless. Dadism is a challenge to viewers to see the world in a new way, both in art and in the macrocosm of war and peace.

Guernica: The first modern art?

Contemporary artists often use shock value in order to alert their viewers to causes such as inequality, violence, or even just a political affiliation. However, the idea of shock value is very modern, prior to the advent of modern art and it's deviation from conventional artistic techniques and standards the concept of catching a viewer's attention by something unexpected would have been absolutely impossible to perceive merely because there would have been no means with which to carry it out.

This is one of the many reasons that I love the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso. A prime example of analytical cubism, its muted color scheme reveals a feeling of dry agony. Picasso, a deeply political man, painted this in response to news of the fascist bombing of the city of Guernica in Spain. He used barely recognizable, mutated human forms to emphasize the horrific circumstances of the crime The viewer can see women jumping from burning buildings, being trampled by horses, and screaming with their dead children in their arms. The painting is blatant and unforgiving. Because of the style, it can reveal more than a realistically painted work could. The painting serves as a hyperbole of the destruction of the bombings and a fierce outcry against them.

Something we didn't mention -- Fauvism!

Although it may have been mentioned briefly, we missed an entire artistic period during our presentations! Fauvism, although not a long-lived artistic movement, was absolutely critical to the development of many later artistic periods such as cubism, dadaism, and most importantly, post-impressionism. Henri Matisse is seen as the founder of Fauvism, which means "wild beasts" since his critics said that it looked like wild beasts could have painted his works, and the above painting is probably his most famous. Woman With a Hat is one of Matisse's early works and is a good representation of very early Fauvism. Like Cubists, Dadaists, and Post-impressionists, art for the Fauvists was about simplification and seeing the world differently. Notice the placement of color in the above painting, the woman's nose is accented in green and it appears that she spilled multiple colors of paint on the bib of her shirt. While not realistic, this remains aesthetically pleasing. Matisse said that he did not paint with a preconceived idea of where the color would go. Like Picasso and many future artists, Matisse allowed his artistic intuition to guide his brush, setting the stage for many future artistic innovations.

Between the Wars: Science, Art, and Culture

After watching presentations about the science, art, and culture between WWI and WWII all last week, I noticed some recurring trends in various fields. For example, I noticed the in the sciences and philosophy, personalities such as Freud and Nietzsche began to explore the human psyche and analyze what drives men to act as they do. Similarly, surrealists such as DITali built off of Freud's theories to paint what he perceived as the newly a named subconscious. In the arts, it was a period of revolt against classical theories of painting with even the now respected Impressionist such as Monet and Cezanne exploring a new way of seeing the world. With the advent of Dadaism in art and comedic silent films, escapism was created as a genre. This idea is still a driving force in today's Hollywood. It seems to me that this period was a new age of discovery with an emphasis not on foreign lands or new technology but instead on the human mind.

Connection Across Time WWI

World War I was the first war in which machines began to replace hand to hand combat on the battlefield. The men of WWI were the first to be separated from their enemies by tons of steel tanks and fighter planes. This allowed for more violence as the soldiers felt separated from the victims of the havoc they proliferated. Since WWI -- rightly called the first modern war -- soldiers in every war have experienced this a same separation. 

The planes that bombed London during WWII had thier roots in the technology  of the  previous war, and, like the pilots of  WWI, these men could not see that they were destroying the lives of innocent civilians. This problem is still faced today during the "War on Terror" and conflicts throughout the world. Dogfights such as those that occured between fighter planes in WWI still exist todag, yet the use of technology to create destruction. Bombs which once dropped haphazardly from planes are now sallelite-guided missiles that could strike anywhere on earth.

The technology that was created during WWI; tanks, fighter planes, and toxic gas, have formed the base of every technical advance in war since. However, more imporantly, WWI changed the face of war from supposedly noble combat to a mechanically operated gamble between life and death. For the first time, it was not man fighting man but plane fighting plane or gun dueling gun. Modern weapons technology began during WWI, changing the face of war forever.  Indirectly, we could blame this war for making our current war mpossible.

Jasta 34b

When I imagine warfare during WWI, I imagine this painting by Bavarian fighter Rudolph Stark. The emphasis in this painting is on the planes and tanks -- the fighting machines of WWI; not on the men. There are no soldiers depicted in this painting, nor are there images of death and destruction. The version of war depicted in this image is clean and idealistic; it is accented by blue skies and pale fluffy clouds. Even the smoke rising from the bombs dissipates into clear blue skies. This is war without the death and destruction, the kind of war that Rudolph Stark would have viewed from his position behind the gun of a fighter plane. It is this distance from the reality of war that allowed for the most violent and deadly war ever.

"Pro Patria"

"Pro Patria" by Thomas Gilbert White is part of a mural located in the Oklahoma Capital building. It was commissioned to commemorate the end of WWI. This is the center panel, yet the two panels on either side list the names of every Oklahoma resident who died during WWI. Unlike the previous painting, it is the typical idealistic commemoration of the war. The painting depicts a soldier leaving his nuclear family to join the ranks of well equipped, healthy-looking soldiers who are guided by Lady Liberty herself, represented by the angel. Like most commissioned art, it makes no mention of the death and destruction caused by war. It is deliberately biased to show America as the hero -- supported by liberty and justice. It is this noble delusion of war as a heroic adventure that convinced soldiers to leave their homes and families. No one knew, before WWI what it mean to fight a modern war, since WWI marked the first. This mural is reminiscent of commemorative paintings of wars before and after this war. And, like the others, it depicts a lie.

"Paths of Glory" by CRW Nevinson

This is an oil on canvas by CRW Nevinson. Completed in 1917, it is a brutal expose of the reality of trench warfare. Nevinson, a soldier himself exposed to the public the savagery of unburied bodies left to rot in the trenches or in the no man's land between. This painting, now housed at the Imperial War Museum in London, was censored during and immediately following the war because of it's brutal commentary on the barbarism of war. The painting's emphasis on humanity seems unique for the era, traditional portraits of WWI focus on the tanks and planes -- killing machines that seemed to replace the human element of war. The painting is done in a style of photographic realism which contributes to the stark disgust experienced by the viewer. This is a painting of slaughter -- a term first applicable during WWI-- many deaths with little gain. It accomplishes it's goal by filling the viewer with a despair and the horror of war.

The Women of Britain Say Go!

This recruitment poster from World War I is interesting, if atypical, because of its commentary on the role of women in the World War I era. The poster's use of the women issuing an imperative is unusual because it gives women the power to commend the men of the nation, thus accepting that they have a distinct influence. This admittance gives women unconventional power.

However, the woman portrayed in this poster is the familiar wife and mother. She is not on the front lines, merely watching from the window as her children cling to her skirt. Thus, she plays the role of protector, yet not of an active participant in the war movement. The poster says nothing of the thousands of women who filled men's jobs manufacturing necessary war materials or healing wounds in field hospitals.

WWI

World War I is often called the first modern war, in class, we learned that this is because it was the first war in which modern weapons such as machine guns, tanks, submarines, and poison gas were used prolifically. I wonder if it is also called thus because of the previously unheard-of slaughter and death. World War I was also the first war from which many soldiers came home from war wounded -- both physically and psychologically--and were expected to re-assimilate into society. Use of modern antiseptic and surgical techniques allowed wounded soldiers who would have died in previous wars to return -- however worse for the wear.

I feel that we've overlooked this aspect of the war in class. I'd like to know more about the social and cultural changes that took place because of the onset and later end of the war. How did this differ in different nations?