Eugene Debs Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Eugene Debs - Assignment Example The Audubon Park is built in a 5,023 square-foot piece of land and is the first in Los Angeles City to be fully powered by on-site solar systems. Moreover, the building uses less water than any other conventional structure of its size. This paper is going to explore the Audubon Center and green building by describing what I saw and learned. The paper will also highlight the importance of green buildings for sustainability, particularly in Los Angeles, by discussing what kinds of changes and alternatives could be implemented in my home or on my college campus. Audubon Center Recently, I visited Audubon Center at Debs Park and learnt a lot regarding environmental conservation. I discovered that in order to conserve the environment, one has to put in place various significant issues. For instance, on assessing the Audubon Center, I concluded that virtually every aspect of the building, from ground floor to the rooftop, was custom-made to conform to the stringent requirements. Where need be, recycled materials including melted down handguns and scrap metal were adversely used in the rebar to act as strengthening materials to the concrete blocks and floors. Organic materials were also significantly embraced. This is demonstrated in all aspects, from the carpeting of Mexican agave plant, to cabinets and desks made of wheat board and sunflower board. Audubon Center uses a fully solar-powered air conditioning system thus meeting various goals of broad-based environmental movement that not only encourages the use of clean energy technologies, but also brings presence of nature close to people who rarely leave urban centers to travel to nature. I discovered that the solar power that cost about $90,000 and is about 10 tons uses an 800-square foot array of Chinese Sunda vacuum tube solar harvesters, each having a copper heat pipe and an aluminum nitride absorber plate that harvests the solar radiation. I found out that the Sunda tubes work on a principle of heat-pipe, whic h asserts that water under low pressure in tubes is normally heated and is transformed to a vapor that eventually flows up to the condensation section of the tube. Ultimately, water is heated and flows to the manifold that connects all the tubes, thus transferring thermal energy from the collectors to the hot water storage tank through insulated pipes. There are several things that can be done in my home area to conserve energy. Firstly, in order to achieve the requirements for the platinum Rating, my community must ensure that it constructs a building that would meet the fundamental requirement of green building by earning a minimum of 52 sustainability points out of the possible 69. I would advice my community that points are awarded on basically everything from the selection of site to the building materials used to being innovative in interior design by having indoor finishing that are environmentally friendly. It is worth noting that the Audubon Center at Debs Park scooped 53 L EED points. A major fraction of the points came from its efficiency in water system as well as renewable energy sources. I would also insist on using the locally manufactured and harvested materials which may include wood, sheet metal, paving materials, landscape plantings and concrete, since these are stressed by the LEED program. On visiting the Audubon Center, I discovered

Manifest Destiny Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Manifest Destiny - Research Paper Example Native American tribes in the Southern colonies felt continued pressure from white expansionism, as whites continued to flood South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi in order to expand their highly lucrative commercial agriculture. With the founding of the United States in 1776, whites in North America began to develop a new sense of self and constructed a new identity that placed increasing emphasis on the superiority of whites over Native Americans. This developing sense of identity eventually coalesced in the ideology of Manifest Destiny, the belief that Americans had a divine directive and natural right to possess all land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. In 1839, John L. Sullivan argued that America was to be the new temple of God on Earth, a Tabernacle with the soil for its floor and the skies themselves as its ceiling. American politicians and intellectuals used the language of Christianity and divine Providence to justify any actions that had to be taken in t he name of American expansion throughout North America (Sullivan, 1968, p.19). Thomas Paine, one of America's Founding right to aggressive nationalism was becoming inevitable. ... right to aggressive nationalism was becoming inevitable. Billington and Ridge (1982), indicated that "the true story of the occupation of North America is the story of a conquest, not of an uncontested march westward of Anglo-American frontiersmen" (p.18). This paper aims to analyze the historical phenomenon of Manifest Destiny, transformation of its ideology, its justifications and significance. MANIFEST IDENTITY AND PROVIDENCE As the Americans began to extend their territorial holdings in North America, Americans began to search for a rhetoric of justification for the expansion. The American justification for expansion included: the special mission of Providence, faux scientific laws of race and national development, national right, social duty, national defense and the extension of freedom (Weinberg, 1935, p.2). Among these, the special mission of Providence, and a belief the God was leading the United States to claim more and more land played a particularly important role in the development of expansionist ideology. National mission means that a Higher Power has created a special "destiny higher than [the nation's] own security and well-being", and as such, mere economic or security issues cannot provide the only justification for claiming land on the continent (Rossiter, 1971, p.44). Not only were the Americans fulfilling a special mission from God, the Americans also believed they were worshiping God t hrough their expansion. John L. Sullivan (1968) wrote in 1839, "The boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever