The Environmental Degradation in the Earth Caused by Consumerism Culture in Astro Boy the Movie

Fatimah. 2014. The Environmental Degradation in the Earth Caused by Consumerism Culture In Astro Boy The Movie. Study Program of English, Department of Languages and Literature, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Brawijaya. Supervisor: Yusri Fajar; Co-supervisor: Nurul Laili Keywords: Astro Boy movie, consumerism culture, environmental degradation. Nature is very crucial for all creatures on earth especially for human beings that always depend on nature in their daily life. By the time, what human gains from nature and what human does to restore the nature are not balanced and the effects can be felt gradually. Many ways human do to campaign and stop this phenomenon. Mass media such as movie is one of the interesting media to describe the earth's conditions and it can be as the media object of research by using Ecocriticism theory. Astro Boy animated movie describes the environmental degradation caused by human's bad behavior such as consumerism which causes waste. This research is qualitative research and uses Ecocriticism theory. In this research, the environmental degradation will be explained through the texts and pictures. The findings of this research show the environmental degradation such as pollution, air and soil. Pollution has great effects for all creatures especially for human beings, short term or long term effects. Air pollution is caused by piles of waste that buried on the ground and make plants cannot grow. Plant is important for the air circulation. The effects of air pollution are irritation, respiratory infection, and even more serious are cancer, liver, heart disease, and so on. Besides air pollution, soil pollution also caused by piles of waste. The toxins elements through the air or rain water will be absorbed by the ground and contaminate the ground water. Human whose consume the ground water that contaminated before will get great effects such as intestinal disease. For children, they will get serious effects, they potential to impair cognitive development, loss several IQ points and get mental retardation. In sum, movie can be the media object to observe the phenomenon that happen in the world. To enhance the knowledge of Ecocriticsm, the further writer can use song as the media object to observe the phenomenon of environmental degradation

Impact of Environmental Degradation on Human Health

Degradation of environment is one of the most serious challenges before the mankind in today's world. Mankind has been facing a wide range of problem arising out of the degradation of environment. Not only the areas under human inhabitation, but the areas of the planet without human population have also been suffering from these problems. As the population increase day by day, the amenities are not improved simultaneously. With the advancement of science and technologies the needs of human beings has been changing rapidly. As a result different types of environmental problems have been rising. Environmental degradation is a wide- reaching problem and it is likely to influence the health of human population is great. It may be defined the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water, and soil. The destruction of ecosystem and extinction of wildlife. Environmental degradation has occurred due to the recent activities in the field of socio-economic, institute and technology. Poverty still remains a problem as the root of several environmental problems to create awareness among the people about the ill effect of environmental pollution. In the whole research it is clear that all factors of environmental degradation may be reduced through- Framing the new laws on environmental degradation, Environment friend policy, Controlling all the ways and means of noise, air, soil and water pollution, Through growing more and more trees and by adapting the proper sanitation policy.&nbsp

Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation

Economists, ecologists, private industries and government decision-makers have long been interested in the relationships between economic growth and environmental quality. These relationships are often the subject of intense public policy debates such as the current debate surrounding global climate change issues. From an ecological or environmental perspective, the argument is often made that economic growth is bad for the environment. But, what story do the data tell? In order to address the question, a estimable model was used to analyze the effects between gross domestic product (GDP) and environmental indications for air pollution in over 100 metropolitan statistical areas in the United States from 2001-2005. The analysis is then expanded to examine the estimable relationship at the state level. The air pollution indicators include ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. The results are mixed results. This study finds a statistically significant U-shaped relationship for some of the pollutants; however, the evidence is pretty weak with the exception of ground level ozone. This study does not find evidence to support the traditional EKC inverse U-shaped relationship. These results are compared and contrasted to previous studies providing insight into unresolved theoretical and empirical estimation issues and future research needs.Air Pollution, Environmental Economics, Environmental Kuznets Curve, Fixed effects regression, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Agricultural pricing and environmental degradation

The link between agricultural pricing and land degradation is often difficult to analyze empirically. The authors'understanding of how agricultural supply responds to changing prices in developing countries is incomplete. Even more incomplete is the author's analysis of subsequent impacts on the resource base sustaining agricultural production. Yet available evidence suggests that some important effects do exist, and much further analysis of them is warranted. The social, economic, and environmental relationships that determine the often countervailing effects of price changes on land use and management are extremely complex. Not enough is known about: (1) farming systems in developing countries; (2) open-access use and common property resource rights; (3) land tenure regimes and security; (4) access to technology and other farming systems information; (5) the distribution of wealth and income; and (6) coping strategies for variable climatic, economic, and social conditions. All these factors influence how rural households respond to price changes in terms of managing land and natural resources, and often they may override the incentive effects of price changes. Changes in pricing policies will then be less effective in correcting resource degradation than other approaches to dealing with its underlying causes. Such approaches include providing better research and extension advice, improving property rights and management, and establishing more secure tenure or access rights. At the same time, it is wrong to assume that poor farmers - even those in resource-poor regions far from major markets - are totally isolated from agricultural markets. Virtually all subsistence households require some regular market income for cash purchases of agricultural inputs and basic necessities; many small farmers provide important cash and export crops. So changes in market prices often significantly affect the livelihoods of rural groups. Clearly, the economic incentives emerging from these impacts will affect farmers'decisions to invest in land management and improvements. Just because we do not always understand the economic and social factors determining these incentive effects does not mean they do not exist. Nor should the complexity of the links between price changes and resource management - which sometimes appear counterintuitive - deter further analysis of the role of agricultural pricing in land degradation.Environmental Economics&Policies,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Research

Poverty and Environmental Degradation: Searching for Theoretical Linkages

Existing literature about poverty and environmental degradation suggests that poverty is the victim of environmental degradation, but could not conclude whether poverty is also the cause of environmental problems. However, most of those studies are empirical i.e. analyze case studies in certain locations and very specific to certain types of environmental problem, not theoretical or analytical studies which are based on behavioral economic model. Some relevant analytical economic models which are based on standard assumption of optimizing economic agents are surveyed. Those models confirm, among others, the significant role of property right and the way population growth may interact in the nexus. In addition to that, they may introduce some additional insights such as how environmental degradation could be seen as rational decision of the poor to disinvest in base-resource and the way that institutional failure may also be endogenously caused by poverty. The discussion of some limitation of both empirical and theoretical literature suggest that more economically-relevant definition of environmental degradation, and more emphasis on proper valuation of natural resources are necessary.Poverty, Environmental degradation

Wealth Heterogeneity and Escape from the Poverty-Environment Trap

A mutual link between poverty and environmental degradation is examined in an overlapping generations model with environmental externality, human capital, and credit constraints. Environmental quality affects labor productivity and thus wealth dynamics, whereas wealth distribution determines the degree to which agents rely upon natural resources and therefore the evolution of environmental quality. This interaction creates a `poverty-environment trap,' where a deteriorated environment lowers income, which in turn accelerates environmental degradation. We show that greater wealth heterogeneity is the key to escaping the poverty-environment trap, although it has negative effects both on the environment and output when not in the trap.Poverty trap, Environmental degradation, Wealth distribution, Human capital.

Growth and the Environment in Canada: An Empirical Analysis

Standard reduced form models are estimated for Canada to examine the relationships between real per capita GDP and four measures of environmental degradation. Of the four chosen measures of environmental degradation, only concentrations of carbon monoxide appear to decline in the long run with increases in real per capita income. The data used in the reduced form models are also tested for the presence of unit roots and for the existence of cointegration between each of the measures of environmental degradation and per capita income. Unit root tests indicate nonstationarity in logs of the measures of environmental degradation and per capita income. The Engle-Granger test and the maximum eigenvalue test suggest that per capita income and the measures of environmental degradation are not cointegrated, or that a long-term relationship between the variables does not exist. Causality tests also indicate a bi-directional causality, rather than a uni-directional causality, from income to the environment. The results suggest that Canada does not have the luxury of being able to grow out of its environmental problems. The implication is that to prevent further environmental degradation, Canada requires concerted policies and incentives to reduce pollution intensity per unit of output across sectors, to shift from more to less pollution-producing-outputs and to lower the environmental damage associated with aggregate consumption.environment, economic growth, Canada

Wealth Heterogeneity and Escape from the Poverty-Environment Trap

A mutual link between poverty and environmental degradation is examined in an overlapping generations model with environmental externality, human capital, and credit constraints. Environmental quality affects labor productivity and thus wealth dynamics, whereas wealth distribution determines the degree to which agents rely upon natural resources and therefore the evolution of environmental quality. This interaction creates a epoverty-environment trap,' where a deteriorated environment lowers income, which in turn accelerates environmental degradation. We show that greater wealth heterogeneity is the key to escaping the poverty-environment trap, although it has negative effects both on the environment and output when not in the trap.Poverty trap, Environmental degradation, Wealth distribution, Human capital.

Environmental Change, Protest, and Havens of Environmental Degradation: Evidence from Asia

As has been made clear by the other contributions to this debate, much of one’s analysis of the question of “pollution havens” depends upon how one frames the question. While I do not wish to repeat the arguments that have been made by the preceeding authors, I would like to suggest that it is useful to characterize the literature in economics on pollution havens in terms of its choices among two independent variables and three dependent variables. In seeking to identify which environmental factors might influence the global economy, scholars have generally focused on either expenditures on pollution abatement or on the relative “dirtiness” of different industries (generally measured in terms of toxic emissions). In order to determine the effects of these causal factors, most authors have examined intercountry differences in industrial structure, trade flows, and foreign direct investment (FDI). It is thus posible to place much of the literature within a 2x3 grid based on the choices made within this menu of independent and dependent variables. Lucas, Wheeler, and Hettige, for instance, have studied the effect of toxic emissions on industrial structure, while Tobey has investigated the effects of environmental compliance costs on patterns of trade.1 It is important to recognize, however, that the questions posed within this grid do not exhaust the research questions that are relevant to the study of pollution havens. A broader framing of the question underlying the debate might go as follows: to what extent do the environmental transformations associated with particular sectors influence their international siting patterns? Posing the question in this way would move the debate away from the questions of intentionality and regulatory costs addressed in this issue by David Wheeler (while still, of course, encompassing them) and towards the consequences, anticipated and otherwise, of environmental degradation. This article attempts to address new aspects of this broader question by departing from the existing literature in two ways. First, I address the consequences for international siting patterns of another aspect of environmental transformations: environmentally-oriented protest. While protest often results in tightened regulatory conditions, it also affects firms by creating non-regulatory difficulties in the actual siting and construction of plants and by generating uncertainty about future regulation. The connections between environmentally-oriented protest and the actual environmental problems caused by different sectors are not, of course, air-tight; it is possible that protesters are in fact mistaken about the environmental degradation that they perceive industry to be causing. In this article, I will not address this question, other than to note that a similar association of protest with environmental damage is made in much of the pollution havens literature in economics.2 Second, while most studies of pollution havens have taken aggregate statistics to be the relevant data in the determination of what drives siting decisions, I take a more phenomenological approach by examining the actual statements of firm representatives. The cases I examine provide examples of firms indicating that headaches over environmental protest are a primary factor in motivating their FDI. I attempt to advance this more political and phenomenological study through an analysis of two cases int he political economy of Japan’s relations with Southeast Asia. The first case takes up the possibility that Japan’s FDI to Southeast Asia during the 1970s was motivated in part by the dsire (on the part of both firms and the Japanese state) to escape from anti-pollution protest in Japan. The second asks whether the siting of overseas industrial tree plantations (particularly plantations of the species Eucalyptus camaldeulensis) supplying the Japanese market for wood chips and paper pulp has been influenced by the environmental problems whose plantations cause. The cases present useful contrasts for the study of pollution export, varying as they do in time (the 1970s for manufacturing FDI, the 1980s and 1990s for plantation forestry), sector (manufacturing vs. forestry), and the location of protest (Japan vs. Southeast Asia). However, they are similar in that each case has seen protest against environmental problems and clear statements by firms that the desire to escape that protest was influencing their siting decisions. While the first case seems to be a fairly straightforward example of firms searching for pollution havens, the second requires more interpretation and indeed presents a somewhat counterintuitive result

Development of reliability prediction technique for semiconductor diodes

New fundamental technique of reliability prediction for semiconductor diodes based on realistic mathematical models can be applied to component failure rate prediction including mechanical degradation, electrical degradation, environmental stress factors, and electrical load stress factors