Alternative Energy

The biggest challenge coming our way in the future, what with COP 26 and all, has to be climate change and, in my view, even more important is developing a source of alternative energy. Fossil fuels, it has been agreed, are dirty and are not good for the air, the environment, and the human body. However, what can be done about it? It just so happened that with the advent of fossil fuel technology, gasoline engines, and coal-powered machinery, useful methods of transportation, construction, and living became more efficient,  more streamlined, and more powerful than ever before. It took the creative minds of every-intelligent men to take their discoveries and invent these items, probably never thinking that they would ever be harmful and make things more difficult and inefficient in the long run. But it has come to be.

What, then, does it take to rise above the current obstacle to reach beyond the dirtiness of fossil fuels? It will take similar, motivated, as powerful and inventive men like those in yesteryear to come along and really think deeply and become even more inventive and creative to come up with the next true form of alternative energy. I know that there are such men working on this very mission right now, on their way to developing more efficient and useful forms of alternative energy such as wave, solar, and biomass power, There are groups working on nuclear fusion, as opposed to nuclear fission, and many are working on safer forms of nuclear energy. 

It may come soon, it may come later, it may be through tedious inventive tinkering or may even come by accident, but the time for alternative energy has come. I'm sure it will come, eventually, and will be a very bright spot in world that otherwise could remain very bleak indeed.

Global Warming and Climate Change: Learning Starts at Home

 There is vast effort to make strides to progress with the advent of technology to help with the fight against global warming and climate change. The topic of climate has, after all, been with us for years past and may well be for years to come, if we don't wake up and smell the coffee. Or, smell something else. Let me tell you a story. 

When I was young my parents and my family belonged to a country club, complete with a pool, tennis courts, a small golf course. What is so unusual about that you might ask? Around the perimeter of the course were cabins that guests had to own. Not the land, but the house. Beautiful, peaceful. In the middle of the country. In addition to paying the monthly country club fee, owners paid a land maintenance fee. The kids had activities from marshmallow roasting to hay rides to nature walks. Swimming, tennis, and gold competitions. 

On a small logging road, deep into the woods where we took nature walks, I happened to chance on a small garbage "dump." I found it by accident while tooling around on my mini-bike through the woods, and took some meandering roads and trails and yes, came to that "stink-pot" in the middle of the woods, smelly with not only fresh food but old toasters and rubber tires and empty cleaning bottles. God, I thought. Do people just toss their stuff in there randomly? I asked my parents and found that, yes, even our trash, even the stuff we buy and discard gets thrown away there. Hey, maybe I can throw some stuff I don't need in there. And I am embarrassed and shocked to say that I did throw unneeded "stuff" into that dump. One day, I did just that. Hey mom, just going to throw some stuff out in the dump. Although they may have, I don't remember anyone raising any objections my act. But after I thought it was terrible, thoughtless, that it must be bad for the environment, stinky, and after that one time I never did it again.

I don't know if the dump is still there or if the same thing goes on, but if so, I hope they've cleaned up their act.

The Future of Global Warming and Climate Change

 We have just had four years with an American president who did not care about climate change or global warming. He showed little interest in race relations, global coherence, equality for the common man. He took funding away from activities that bond Americans with the rest of the world, and focused more on elevating the economy, which is good, of course, but did he follow through with everything he promised? In the end we could all see this answer: not really. Now there is a new president in office with whom the political industry is incredibly familiar and spent the first day or two in his new position to "undo" some of the decisions made by his predecessor. So, then, we must ask about the future of global warming and climate change, an issue that will stare our sons and daughters and grandchildren directly in the face for decades. Is the economy, with all its infrastructure-building might, its glory to all those who can attain it, worth looking past the empty promises of restoring business and bringing back manufacturing, in order to bring forth an economy that over centuries will be short-lived anyway? If you think in terms of the youth of America, a country perhaps just entering puberty, then yes. But if you have the wherewithal to look into the future many years, no, centuries ahead like many European countries, then absolutely not. One shortcoming of America is that in its brazen youth tends to forget about the long and hard-lived lessons of its forefathers - countries like Greece, Italy, Turkey, Japan, China - and only thinks of the here and now. Democratic presidents like our current one know that this is true and therefore want to maintain good relations with the rest of the world. For it is only then, after growth and downfall, periods of sunshine and drought and war and famine and incredible lives lost lost during a pandemic, and bouncing back numerous times, it is only then that America can be looked up to, for real this time.

Few and Far Between!

When I looked and saw the last time I posted on Jeff's Place, I was surprised to find that it was nearly a year ago. That's probably because this year has been so strange and difficult. Shortly after my previous post (on January 10th), we began to hear about the Corona Virus II, which later became COVID-19. I was a bit shocked, as we all were, to see sights and stories on the Net about what was going on. I had plans to go to America at the end of February. Could I keep my plans? 

As the days progressed, sure enough it began to look bleak. We learned more about the power of the virus and problems that came with the virus. Well, I monitored the situation, and decided to take the chance to go to America via Seoul. There were a few cases in Korea then, hardly any in Japan, and none in the US, so I thought I may be okay. 

I boarded the plane, and there were  many vacant seats from here in Fukuoka to Seoul. I got to Seoul at around 11 and my next flight was at 10 the next morning. Wow, over 12 hours of layover! My goal was to settle in for the night in the transit lounge wearing my mask and gloves with my bags close at hand. I managed to get dinner and several beers and then found a sofa, and claimed it as my own, bearing down for the night with mask, iPhone and podcasts, sleeping with my head on my carry on bag covered by lone coat. Before I knew it it was 7 am and I woke to the bustling of the airport. I grabbed a cup of joe and a quick breakfast and made my way to the gate where I settled in once more. 

On the plane, I saw many a nervous face as we all donned masks and wiped off every thing in sight with alcohol wipes. We flew. We went on. We ate with removing masks for a short time. We made it to the US! After being picked up I went home and spent a great time with Mom; however, while I was in America the cases picked up worldwide, and I was told that if I were to go back to Japan via Seoul that I would have to quarantine for two weeks. Because of this, I cancelled that flight and booked another to go directly to Japan from the US. No need for quarantine. But I didn't know then that I would make it just in the nick of time, as the very next day, the cases shot up rapidly, and travel across global borders was banned.  Wow! How lucky was I!

My Winter Vacation Story!

This winter vacation was very busy for me. I had classes until December 25th - Christmas Day! I was shocked at first, and it was upsetting to have classes then as I usually don't. This year was different, however. But, I didn't mind it that much! My students and I listened to Christmas music and learned the story of Christmas. Then they had to write a 300 word essay about a social issue that they care about, such as global warming, obesity, aging population, economic disparity, gender issues, etc. I allowed them to write the essay while they listened to the Christmas music, and it seemed to be very enjoyable for them. They were able to write 300 words relatively easily. After they finished, they printed out their papers and exchanged them with partners. Their partners were to read them and then give comments and advice on how to make their partners' papers better. The students were able to give comments quickly, but giving advice was a bit harder. This is probably because the students lacked confidence in their own writing.
     After that, my students and I went on a research trip to a small town in Amakusa called Miyajidake. Miyajidake is a small town in the middle of the biggest island in Amakusa - Shimoshima. It is a beautiful place, but unfortunately there is nothing there. The rural area has been suffering from a drop in population for the last decade, and recently nursery and elementary schools have closed as young people move away to larger towns in search of jobs. However, this leaves the town depleted of the energy and vibrancy of young people. The residents there want to change that and invite many people, including foreigners to the area. And this is where we come in...our lab was invited to research the situation to see what could be done to further develop the area. And so this is what we've been doing. More info on this later!

The Problem of Civil Wars

These days, many countries small and large are coming face to face with turmoil within their own country confines. Some of these small skirmishes turn into large scale wars that last for years, even decades. It's very sorrowful to see civil wars happen because at times many precious cultural items are caught in the middle of gunfire and bombing, making areas not also dangerous, but devastated, and some violent acts eventually lead to all-out destruction. Small scale civil skirmishes often show up as interracial violence, armed terrorist conflict, and inter-faction fighting.
     In this case it's useful to differentiate between the cause and the symptom of civil warring, which is something many people, including scholars, tend to overlook. For example, political violence obviously has its roots in dissatisfaction with political leadership or governmental positioning somehow. The bi-product is an all-encompassing civil tension that eventually stretches and bursts, exploding outwardly, and is most definitely a symptom of something deeper. We can almost for certain say it is not a cause of unrest that leads to wars. People are people and most of today's living of life with financial, educational, and familial burdens can bring unrest for one reason or another. But what, then, causes violence and civil unrest? Is it just political dissatisfaction? For me, no. I think political unrest is just the springboard bringing to light things that lie deeper. I believe unrest comes from two major factors: 1) Proximal distress, which is the inability to live within close proximity with one another. Here, people are not able to coexist readily with other people in close situations, and the closeness makes people react negatively outwardly.  This also includes information explosion where one is so burdened by information overload that it makes one outburst negatively. 2) Financial and civil inequality, where the majority of people are dissatisfied with their financial and civil positions in life which also makes them react negatively because they feel as if they should have at least as much if not more than the general population. They feel they have been and continue to be treated unfairly which leads to negative outbursts as well. How then do we thwart the underlying causes of civil unrest? First of all we all should have more patience and compassion, and that includes governments. Civilians are important and are the major merit of any country. Without civilian life all countries would cease being countries, would they not? It's not until this point is solved that we can continue to move on in fruitful directions. Otherwise, we all might very well be doomed.

Future of Living

How will we live in the future? Will we live in large houses that consume a lot of electricity? Or, will we reside in smaller homes that need less energy and therefore consume less fossil fuels? Will we use practices such as composing, water recycling, home growing vegetables, fruits, and herbs? Will we use renewable energy. such as bio-gas, solar, wind, and water power? The answer to these questions for a sustainable world should be: yes! This world is becoming depleted, indeed, but actually it brings on a new and exciting time of examining new ways to live. I have often thought about this and realized that I don't like consuming so many things that get thrown away leading to nothing more than waste. Our human time of over-consumption perhaps has come to an end. Most of us have enough money to buy and use anything we want, but is buying too much useful or effective? Hmmm. Of course, we need to buy things as we don't know how to live off the land like our forefathers, but we should limit what we buy and not equate buying with money. I've studied development economics and here, we examine economic practices for enriching standards of living. Consumer economics studies those actions that overarching companies like Amazon and Apple take to be profitable. These actions trickle down sometimes negatively because wealthy corporations get wealthier, commodities' qualities get better (and therefore pricier), and this in turn, affects people with lower incomes negatively because they can't afford to buy new products like homes, cars, or computers, and can't even afford to live in simple apartments. This in the next turn forces them to look for alternative living styles out of necessity, but I say it's more out of desperation. This is exactly what we are seeing now: people living off the grid, fending for themselves, becoming less consumerists and more naturalists, which leads to many needing less and wanting less. But major companies still try to take advantage of economically disadvantaged. Are we as simple livers and consumers in peril?