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Analytical Paper Ii

Over the course of the semester we have been discussing our world and many of the problems with it. The beginning of the semester and the first three books more or less educated us about the problems within our country and in some respects what it happening around the world. The next three books, Deep Economy by Bill McKibben, Making Globalization Work by Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Mid-Course Correction by Ray C. Anderson. These books all talked about problems in the more global sense, they also presented different solutions than we read about before. It is very interesting seeing different perspectives and possible solutions to the challenges we face politically, socially, environmentally and culturally. We also face challenges when it comes to global consumption and our extreme use of natural resources. After reading these books and paying attention to the news you hear and seeing more of the challenges face and by interactively reading these books and then seeing other people talking about it, it really helps the message sink in. Throughout these books we see three different views and three different ways we can try to improve our ways along with everyone else’s to improve this planet for everyone who will live on it in the future.
At the beginning of McKibben’s book he talks about history much like Ishmael and how our economy has evolved over the course of history. He states “Keynes calculated, the standard of living had increased one hundred percent over those four thousand years.” (McKibben, pg. 5) He talks about how before history began humans did not know how to do anything new. We had the basic things down that we had to have in order to survive. In the early 1700’s McKibben explains that something “new” finally happened that would revolutionize the way we do business and transport goods in this country forever. The Steam engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. (McKibben, pg. 5) This produced steam power by burning coal and using the steam to run the...