(목요모임) [June.25, 2015] Thursday meeting topic

[susanna]

Light pollution

 Did you know that there's a type of pollution being released from every city around the world, every single night. But it's not what you'd expect. It's light pollution. And researchers say it's causing problems for some of the creatures that live near us.  Everyday, when the sun goes down, our world switches on. Every twinkle you can see here is a billboard, streetlamp, office building, stadium and a thousand other things, all lighting up the night.
Without man-made lights, we'd only have daytime to get things done and stuff like night-time sports practice or walking down the street after dark would be pretty tough. But all of that illumination comes with a side effect called light pollution.

About a quarter of the world's electricity is used for lighting, but a lot of that light isn't being used efficiently. For example, some streetlights spread their light around rather than pointing it in the direction it's needed, and some lights are kept on even when there's no one around.

That's wasting a lot of electricity which costs billions of dollars and helps to release millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the air. But it isn't just a waste of energy. Studies show the lack of real darkness can mess with us. You see your body has a kind of inbuilt clock that's supersensitive to light. It's how you know to wake up in the day time and sleep at night, but artificial light can confuse it. So if you've got your lamp on, or there's a bright light outside your window, you can end up staying up for longer or not getting enough rest. It doesn't just make you grumpy; experts say it's also putting people's health at risk.

And it's not just humans. A new study has found that lights on the coast and on ships out at sea are making some tiny sea species like these move away from, or move closer to, our glow.

Some bigger animals like sea turtles like to nest on dark beaches, but too many lights can stop them from settling. And their hatchlings need natural moonlight, not spotlights, to find their way out to sea.

Lights can also disturb frogs and butterflies and it can confuse migrating birds, making them lose their way. Because of this, some people around the globe have decided it’s time to switch off.

In New York, the Mayor is getting people to turn off outdoor lights which aren't needed to help migrating birds find their way and to save energy. Paris has done a similar thing, for a couple of years too. And on some coasts around the world, lights are banned during turtle nesting seasons.

It's a start, but experts say we could do a lot more to reduce light pollution by using light wisely. That means switching off lights when you're not around (especially outdoors), directing light where it's really needed and using dimmer, energy-saving light globes.
All that would have one more benefit too. The glare from light pollution blocks our view of the stars, which means there are millions of kids around the world who've never seen the night sky for what it really is. And as these pictures show, it could be a pretty spectacular sight.

http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s4230574.htm

1. Do you know what is the light pollution?

2. How has light pollution affected you? What effect of light pollution can be the most damaging?

3. How has the world changed since you were a child? ( technology, values, environment, health)

4. Do you know about any anti-pollution programs in your community?

5. What should we do to increase the awareness about environmental pollution?

Are Teens Today More Narcissistic Than Previous Generations?

 Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: taking selfies and being told you’re “special” has spoiled your poor, young adult brain. There’s a lot of media shade being thrown at millennials — those born between the 1980s and early 2000s — saying things like today’s young people are entitled and hard to manage, that we’re obsessed with gadgets and appearances, and that our job skills aren’t up to par with our egos. And while it’s tempting to dismiss the accusations as generational jealousy, recent research seems to indicate there may be some truth to this kind of talk.

“Millennials are more narcissistic than boomers and gen Xers were at the same age,” said Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of several books on narcissism — a personality type characterized by selfishness, an overblown view of one’s own talents, and a craving for admiration.

Twenge told Youth Radio that according to her research, millennials tend to be “tolerant, confident, open-minded, and ambitious but also disengaged, narcissistic, distrustful, and anxious.” In a study of college freshmen published in 2014, Twenge found that millennials were more likely to score themselves as “above average” and have positive self-views compared to previous generations. Millennials also scored higher on a test known as the Narcissism Personality Inventory, which measures factors like vanity, superiority, and self-sufficiency.

Assuming for now that teens today might be more narcissistic than they were in the past (which, by the way, not everyone does), some psychologists say narcissism can be a coping mechanism that actually benefits millennials.

“I think of narcissism as an adaptive thing that teenagers use to work on self-image and identity,” University of Notre Dame psychologist Daniel Lapsley told Youth Radio. Given the issues today’s teens have to deal with — fierce competition for college, a tough job market, and, thanks to the Internet, less privacy than any previous generation — he says that teens may need a slightly inflated sense of self in order to successfully overcome the challenges they’ll face.

“A certain sense of invulnerability is a good thing,” he said. “There’s going to be occasions in your life where you have to engage in behavior where it’s not certain. Asking someone for a date or applying to college. If it goes the wrong way your self-esteem is at risk.”

http://blogs.kqed.org/education/2015/06/19/narcissism-me-generation/

1.What is the difference between self-esteem and narcissism?

2. Do you think you are narcissistic? Why do you think so?

3. Do you think that females rather than males are more narcissistic or the other way around?

4. Do you think self-esteem affects beauty? or Do you think beauty affects self-esteem?

5. Do you often take your selfie? What do you think about selfie? 

[Scarlet]

Good Job !

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