TOW #6: The largest methane leak in U.S. history began one year ago at Aliso Canyon. What have we learned since then?

The largest methane leak in U.S. history began one year ago at Aliso Canyon. What have we learned since then?

              In this editorial, the author shares the story of the largest leak of methane gas in United States history. It happened in Aliso Canyon, California and it released more than 90,000 metric tons of the potent greenhouse gas. The article later describes the negative effects that it had on neighboring residents. This particular piece was written by The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board. This group is comprised of nine individual writers who have each gained years of experience in, our outside of The Los Angeles Times.

              This article was written for an indefinite audience. The issues present have the ability to impact each and every person in the country on a profound scale. The writing is used to persuade readers into taking their own actions to increase the currently insufficient progress being made. This article was written after the worst methane leak in the history of the country. Not only did it force nearby citizens to relocate due to the methane’s impact on their health, but it caused an energy shortage. Furthermore, it was written during a time period in which the effects of fossil-fuel addiction are becoming ever more apparent.

              The author begins the text with an anecdote of how the leak came about. They describe how the leak was thought to be small and routine. The author’s then use a litote and say “the leak was neither small nor routine.” Implying that the leak was profound while also instilling a sense of uncertainty and dread. This is much more effective than presenting the 90,000 metric tons statistic at the beginning. Without context, the statistic is meaningless to the reader. The authors proceed by appeal to readers’ emotions. They tell the story of the 8,000 families forced to relocate due to the sickening smell of the gas.” In fact, residents in the surrounding area still experience frequent nausea, nosebleeds, and even rashes. The authors also tell how the fear of widespread power-outages would have caused the state to grind to a holt had it not been for a summer of unusually low power-usage. These stories appeal to fear. If the facts regarding fossil fuels’ danger did not convince readers to take action, the fear of the consequences of over-dependence will.

TOW #5 "Obama Calls for New Cooperation to Wrangle the ‘Wild West’ Internet"

              This article discusses President Obama’s recent comment that he internet has become “the wild wild west.” He made these comments during a gathering in Palo Alto, California. He spoke alongside figures like Tim cook, the CEO of Apple. Together, they proposed ideas as to how major corporations and intelligence agencies might share information in a more protected way. The report on the events were given by Nicole Perlroth and David E. Sanger. Combined, these two have written over 5,000 articles for The New York Times.

              It is quite clear that this article was written for the modern audience. The issue of cyber-security is a profound and rapidly-changing one. The ways in which we, as a society, handle the developing threats are critical to keeping the information of the world safe. The New York Times, like all media, benefits from attention and thus would be hasty to write an article that appeals to people’s fears. The article states that Obama chose to have the event around Stanford University because it is largely acclaimed to be the birthplace of the internet.

              The most prevalent rhetoric is Obama’s metaphor of the internet being like the wild west. This metaphor is extended by the idea of major corporations being asked to take the role of Sheriff. The article’s commentary on the events display sarcasm towards the end of the report. While quoting many of the figures who spoke at the event on how important trust between the corporations and intelligence agencies is to maintaining a safe cyberspace, the article mentions how “intelligence agencies were surreptitiously siphoning off customer data from companies like Google and Yahoo as it flowed internally between their data centers.” Tis is made particularly effective by its juxtaposition to a quote from the Vice-President of security at Google, who said, “The tricky thing with information-sharing is that it is about trust, information-sharing becomes pretty hard to do once trust is lost.” The purpose of this sarcasm was to show that there is still a large amount of work to do in order to achieve the goal of safety, and the authors prove it with the goals themselves.

TOW #4: "Freakonomics" by Steven B. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubned (Part One)

              Why are schoolteachers like sumo wrestlers? What makes the KKK similar to a group of real-estate agents? Why do drug dealers live with their moms if they make so much money? These are the main topics of conversation discussed in the first half of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubned’s Freakonomics. The authors, both being economists, attempt to explain seemingly inexplicable phenomena through the lens of economics. All the issues explored are used to answer a question, “How do humans respond to incentives?”

              Although the questions mentioned above are the main focuses of the first three chapters, the authors’ analysis involves the discussion of many other issues. In fact, the entire book is simply a collection of anecdotes used to answer the topic question of each chapter. One that was particularly interesting was the story of Paul Feldman. After showing how even some of the most acclaimed professions such as school teachers and sumo wrestlers can, and do, cheat, Levitt and Dubned answer a pressing question, “Are all humans innately corrupt?” The answer to this question lies in the story of Paul Feldman, a bagel salesman. Essentially, Feldman would drive to an office building early in the day, drop off a basket of bagels and a money jar, and come back to pick them up in the evening. This would seem to be a horrible plan as most customers would just take a bagel without paying, but astonishingly, Feldman’s income averaged roughly 87% of his bagel sales.

              This particular anecdote epitomizes the authors’ purpose. As seemingly impossible outcomes are presented, the reader begins to change the way they think. Not only does the reader think about how human’s act, but how we, both individuals and society as a whole, evaluate ourselves. This book shows how complex an issue can be even when there appears to be a certain right and wrong. In response to the bagel story, the authors explain “If morality represents the way we would like the world to work, and economics represents how it actually does work, then the story of Feldman’s bagel business lies at the very intersection of morality and economics.” As humans, we are wired to think about situations morally, but Freakonomics shows that the human way of thinking is fundamentally flawed.