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Pertinent issues of
our everyday life
The following discussion represents only the personal views of the writer, guided
by the limited knowledge he has regarding the few topics listed. It is by no
means exhaustive, nor is it the authority on the issues explored. Readers are
advised that the occasional lapses into the informal tone should not be
emulated. Also, caveat emptor.
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Preface in case of looming exams, skip page.
I think, therefore I am. The process of reflecting on and considering people, events,
facts, ideas, concepts, metaconcepts and so on has always been what distinguishes
Man from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Thinking has been with us since the first Homo Sapiens started to walk the earth, and
has taken many forms from the Socratic discussions of age to modern day
Parliamentary debates.
Now, it manifests itself to the student as the General Paper, or, if we can hold names
responsible to be indicative of what they are naming, the-subject-which-everyone-is-
forced-to-take-and-is-notoriously-difficult-to-do-even-though-it-is-a-h1-because-it-
actually-requires-you-to-think.
It is with thinking in mind, and thinking about thinking that the following information
and concepts have been compiled. They are meant to provoke and inspire thought,
and through it help one achieve both better results in the subject, as well as actually
develop ones thinking and analytical abilities.
For this reason, the content has been organised to firstly demonstrate the specific
issues and concepts pertinent to the study of the General Paper, followed by
numerous facts and information which, honestly speaking, only begin to scratch the
surface of the depth of thought and knowledge possible in each and every of the
issues discussed.
It is important to Draw Your Own conclusions, and Form Opinions of Your Own
regarding the issues and the facts. To conform with modern day communicative
slang, these two requirements shall henceforth be abbreviated as #DYOC and #FOYO.
Whenever they appear, one is reminded of the importance of conducting the often
foreign process known as thinking.
Another function of the following material is that of provoking curiosity. As such, links
to further exploration on the subjects have been amply provided. It may not be
possible, nor is it even recommended for you to look through all of them. But that is
the beauty of hyperlinks they only show things when we want to see them.
One might and most likely will do well in the exams if one is able to successfully
utilise the facts here to answer the issues raised. But without further reading on any
of the topics herein, it is unlikely that one can become a master at any of them.
Therefore, do not go away with the false security that these things are all there is
know. They are far from it.
Ultimately, though, it is called the General Paper for a reason.
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Content Greyed out things are stuff I havent had
time to properly do.
Science and Tech
The good and the bad
Ethical usage
Impacts
The environment
Inconvenient truths
Media
Social media versus traditional media
The role of the press
Freedom of speech
Singapore
Culture
Politics
Economy
Society
Government
Political systems
International relations
Society
The Social Contract
Change and globalisation
The individual against the state
Miscellaneous pursuits
Justice
Law
Crime
Punishment
Philosophy and Man
Questions you probably dont want to do
Things you dont need to be a KI student to know
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Science and Technology
Science and tech questions are a resident favourite amongst students, partly
because we live exactly in an age where we are surrounded by technology,
and partly because most of us take science, so this is the question we have
more content and examples for.
However, as with all safe choices, the rewards are often not high. Doing such
a question typically puts you in competition with many others. Also, because it
is no secret that these questions are popular, they are commonly deliberately
made challenging.
Definitions
Before going into the specific topics, its important to know what exactly these
words mean:
Science - a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or
truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws of
the physical and natural world gained through observation and
experimentation.
The Scientific Method - a body of techniques for investigating phenomena,
acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge,
based on empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles
of reasoning.
Technology - the application of practical sciences to industry or commerce
to produce methods, materials and devices used to solve practical problems.
Not sure how many of us are guilty of going into an SnT question without
even knowing what they really are exactly. Dont do that.
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Pertinent Issues
The good and the bad
Are we too reliant on technology?
Should technological advancement be the primary focus of modern civilisation?
Is technology a double-edged sword?
This series of questions basically require some exploration into the costs and
benefits of technology. The challenge here is to compare the good against the
bad. It is insufficient to simply point them out. An essay which merely states
these are the bad points, and these are the good points will not do well.
What is required is these are the bad points, and these are the good points,
but the bad points outweigh the good points becausetherefore, we are
indeed over-reliant on technology/technology is really a double edged sword
because
Ethical usage
We live in an age of technological giants and ethical infants. Discuss
To what extent should scientists be allowed to make scientific decisions?
Assess the view that technology and research should be allowed to be pursued
simply for its own sake.
When technology meets ethics it is often in considering how we have such
advanced tools, but dont quite know how to use them. The essence of this
question lies in mankinds flaws, and the fact that technology is but a tool
used by humans.
Do you blame the gun, or the person who fires it? This is not a simple
question, because without the gun in sight, the person may not have thought
about firing it as well. Furthermore, its possible to blame both, albeit to
varying degrees.
Refer to the section on ethics for more on defining right and wrong.
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Impacts of technology
Modern technology is diluting humanity. Discuss
Is technology making us lazy and stupid?
Technology is mankind finding better and better ways to destroy ourselves.
Assess the validity of this view.
How far can technology and science be blamed for the [insert problem here] we
face today?
Often the easier questions for SnT, such questions require one to demonstrate
how certain technologies have led to certain effects. Sometimes, one also
needs to assess if that is good or bad.
It is not enough to simply state, for example, that Twitter and Facebook are
making people less able to carry out quality conversations. The link has to be
drawn between the cause and the effect.
Specifically: Twitter and Facebook, by making people so easily reachable, have
allowed conversations to increase in accessibility and quantity to such a
degree that people now take them for granted. As a result, we no longer place
as much importance as before on making sure we communicate effectively
nor make full use of the once limited time and avenues we have to reach each
other. Everyone is simply a text message away.
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Interesting Content
When science confronts religion:
There was a time when we believed that the earth was the centre of the
universe. When Galileo asserted that the earth revolved around the sun
instead, his words were taken as blasphemy and Galileo was persecuted and
put under house arrest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei#Controversy_over_heliocentrism
In The Origin Of Species, Charles Darwin argues that man evolved from apes
and monkeys. He also identifies certain ideas which continue to govern
modern biology and thinking including the survival of the fittest, and natural
selection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_origin_of_species
On Creation.
The Big Bang Theory, before becoming a hilarious sitcom, is the idea that
everything in the universe was created from a large explosion that gave birth
to all the matter and energy in the Universe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design
In the Intelligent Design theory, supporters of religion argued that it requires
the action of a supernormal, all powerful being to create the conditions
necessary for something such as the Big Bang, or even to design the
beautifully self-sustaining system we know as Nature.
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Science and Armageddon
Now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds- said Oppenheimer, the
chief scientist of the Manhattan project which gave birth to the worlds first
atomic bomb. For many decades now we have been very worried that modern
technologies are going to turn against us, namely:
Nuclear technology Chernobyl and Fukushima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl
The Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant in Ukraine was a result of an explosion and fire released large quantities
of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the
western USSR and Europe. The battle to contain the contamination and avert a
greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an
estimated 18 billion rubles. The official Soviet casualty count of 31 deaths has
been disputed and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still
being accounted for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a series of equipment failures,
nuclear meltdowns and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I
Nuclear Power Plant, following the Thoku earthquake and tsunami on 11
March 2011. Due to the earthquake, reactions 1-3 of the 6 boiling reactors
were shut down automatically and emergency generators came online to
power the electronics and coolant systems responsible for keeping the
reactors stable. However, the tsunami following the earthquake quickly
flooded the low-lying rooms in which the emergency generators were housed.
The flooded generators failed, cutting power to the critical pumps that must
continuously circulate coolant water through the reactors for several days to
keep it from melting down after shut down. After the pumps stopped, the
reactors overheated and several hydrogen-air chemical explosions occurred.
Genetic Engineering and other cutting edge bio research
Although there have yet to be any major fallouts caused by what some people
term as playing God, fears remain over how we might accidentally build a
supervirus by playing with DNA the building blocks of life.
Further concerns are raised by ideas of cloning, eugenics, and embryonic stem
cell research. Specifically do clones have rights? Is it ok to temper with the
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genes of embryos and make them stronger/smarter etc? Is it ethical to harvest
stem cells from human embryos? (this process kills them).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_engineering
Genetically modified crops are plants which have had their DNA modified
artificially. In most cases the aim is to introduce a new trait to the plant which
does not occur naturally in the species, such as resistance to certain pests,
diseases, or environmental conditions, or resistance to chemical treatments or
the production of a certain nutrient or pharmaceutical agent.
Examples include Golden Rice, genetically modified to contain beta-carotene
(a source of vitamin A) and Flavr Savr tomatoes which have been treated to
hinder the protein synthesis processes of insects and other parasites,
effectively protecting them from such pests.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/16374/20130610/genetically-modified-
crops-insecticide-resistance-gm-technology-monsanto-bt-crops.htm
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The Environment
This next section is logically placed here because almost every technology
question deals with the environment. We seem to be very concerned with how
technology is depleting the planets resources, causing rising sea levels and
making the entire world hotter without realising WE are the ones doing it.
That said, not every environment question deals solely with technology as well.
It is important to differentiate the two.
The Energy Crisis
Fossil fuel consumption is one of the most commonly blamed technologies for
damaging the environment. Fossil fuels are basically fuels such as coal, natural
gas and crude oil which are formed over thousands of years from dead plants
and animals through chemical and geological processes.
http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/fossilfuels.htm
The main areas in which fossil fuels are used are in electricity generation and
transport. In coal-fired power plants, fuels are burnt to heat water into steam,
which drives turbines that generate electricity. For transport, fuels are used to
power engines for cars, trains, ships and aircraft, although not all vehicles use
fossil fuels.
Generation of electricity and heat was by far the largest producer of CO2
emissions and was responsible for 41% of world CO2 emissions in 2010.
Worldwide, this sector relies heavily on coal, the most carbon intensive of
fossil fuels, amplifying its share in global emissions. Countries such as Australia,
China, India, Poland and South Africa produce between 68% and 94% of their
electricity and heat through the combustion of coal.
By 2035, the World Energy Outlook 2012 projects that demand for electricity
will be more than 70% higher than current demand.
These facts were presented a 2012 report by the International Energy Agency.
You might want to read pages 7-10 here:
http://www.iea.org/co2highlights/co2highlights.pdf
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Global Warming
The Greenhouse Effect is a phenomenon that occurs when gases such as
Sulfur Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere absorbs outgoing heat
from the Earth itself and redirects it back down to the lower levels, causing the
latter to experience higher temperature than it would without these gases.
While commonly cited as a cause for global warming, one must really note
that this is a natural phenomenon that helps keep temperatures on the crust
at habitable levels. It is the artificial strengthening of the effect by humans
that we are concerned with.
A quick look at the sources of such gases in the US can be found here:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources.html
Also,
Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree
Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades,
according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were
the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia,
according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations'
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past
12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.
The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska,
western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average,
according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report
compiled between 2000 and 2004.
These facts, along with many more, can be found at:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_war
ming.html
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The lesser known side of climate change
However, there are arguments that climate change is a natural, not man-made
phenomenon. For example, the Milankovitch Cycle theory argues that
because of variations in the Earths orbit, we experience alternating hot and
cold periods in a 26000 year cycle, depending on how close we get to the sun,
as well as the tilt of the earths axis away or towards it. For all we know, the
temperatures may only be getting higher because we are on the summer
part of the cycle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles
The Climate Gate Scandal of 2010 occurred when a series of databases in the
Climactic Research Unit of the University of Anglia (one of the forefront
authorities on climate change), storing information, research and exchanges
by top environmental scientists were hacked and leaked. Scrutinising the
leaked data, many found supposed loopholes in the way climate change data
was being processed and possibly manipulated. It seemed as if global
warming was a lie constructed by scientists, leading to a large public loss of
confidence in the IPCC and CRU.
However, as serious investigations were carried out, it was increasingly found
that such allegations were taken out of context, and the scientists involved in
the scandal were exonerated (absolved of all guilt). In other words, the scandal
itself was a scandal.
To see how amazingly fickle the internet is and how gullible we can be, read
this seemingly reliable article (which is actually being used to market the
authors book),
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6679082/Climate
-change-this-is-the-worst-scientific-scandal-of-our-generation.html
And then these statements of the facts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-scandal-
mps-exonerate-professor-1931631.html
http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201007020005
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12-15 million hectares of forest are lost each year, the equivalent of 36
football fields per minute.
Deforestation is another worrying phenomenon that had multi-fold impacts
on the environment. Trees have been described as the lungs of the Earth,
with their ability to photosynthesise making them crucial carbon sinks that
regulate the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. As climate change activists
argue that CO2 levels are correlated with global temperatures, this is clearly
an area for concern.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/temperature-change.html
Deforestation causes 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
It is for this reason that many companies try to offset their carbon footprint
by planting an amount of trees able to absorb an amount of carbon equal to
their emissions. Real concern for the environment or commercial gimmick?
#FOYO
Rainforests and jungles also provide crucial habitats for many of the worlds
biodiversity. When forest cover is removed, wildlife is deprived of habitat and
becomes more vulnerable to hunting. Considering that about 80% of the
world's documented species can be found in tropical rainforests, deforestation
puts at risk a majority of the Earths biodiversity.
As forests are cut down, a process known as desertification sets in, in which
once fertile land starts to become barren, desert-like terrain. This happens
because trees protect soil from eroding through their roots system as well as
by covering the soil with dead leaves and other litter. Without trees, the soil
becomes more exposed to rainwater which washes the surface soil away and
causes the earth to erode.
The statistics and quotes from this section, as well as much more friendly
information on deforestation can be found here:
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_forests/deforestation/
The Worlds Trees
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Ozone Depletion
The ozone layer is a layer of O3 particles in the stratosphere (the part of the
atmosphere from 10-50km above the Earths crust) which absorb and reflect
harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun. These rays are known to pose health
risks to both plants and animals, including humans.
As the ozone layer depletes, life on earth gets more and more exposed to
such harmful rays. The main cause of ozone depletion is the use of
chlouroflourocarbons, or CFCs, which due to their unreactive nature eventually
end up in the stratosphere and react with the O3 particles to form other
compounds. CFCs are commonly used as propellants in aerosol sprays and in
refrigerators.
http://www.ozonelayer.noaa.gov/science/o3depletion.htm
In 1987, 27 nations signed a global environmental treaty, the Montreal
Protocol to Reduce Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. It had a
provision to reduce 1986 production levels of these compounds by 50%
before the year 2000.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/hats/publictn/elkins/cfcs.html
About 90 percent of CFCs currently in the atmosphere were emitted by
industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere, including the United
States and Europe. These countries banned CFCs by 1996, and the amount of
chlorine in the atmosphere is falling now. But scientists estimate it will take
another 50 years for chlorine levels to return to their natural levels.
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/ozone-
depletion-overview/
Unfortunately, thats all there is for now.
Would anyone care to help me with this?