Impact Of Patient Engagement In Key Areas Of Health Care Assignment

Impact Of Patient Engagement In Key Areas Of Health Care - Assignment Example However, this has worsened the health of patients. For example, a poor engagement between family, care provider and a patient could lead to a patient taking medication for a simple illness yet they are suffering from something worse that they may not have been informed by their health providers. All this is brought about by the lack of transparency. Patient engagement in their safety has also enabled them to provide important information that may be lacking from their medical records hence improving the severity of their illness.  Quality and patient outcomes  Patients have also been engaged in as far as quality and outcome is concerned, and this has also impacted positively in their welfare. There has been involved and informing them when choosing options of treatment and, therefore, they are given a chance to choose what they are comfortable with (Mullins, Abdulhalim, & Lavallee, 2012). For example, both patients and their families are engaged in educational initiatives on heal thy eating habits and the provision of better healthcare services at lower costs hence making it affordable to many people. Improvement of health outcomes has also been witnessed due to patients being involved fully in prevention, decision -making and self-management activities (Herrin et al., 2015).  Effective communication  Patient engagement in effective communication has led to a successful relationship between patient and care provider.  

Design a study to show relationship between body mass index to asthma Research Paper

Design a study to show relationship between body mass index to asthma in both children and adults - Research Paper Example ethical issues that face experimental and quasi-experimental designs and is suitable for the study that only seeks to observe body mass index among asthma patients. Treatment and control would be impossible in the study because the variables are natural phenomena. Weakness in investigating causal relationships is the design’s major limitation but the study is only interested in investigating a relationship and alternative quantitative methods are infeasible. Non-experimental design is also easier to implement because it is limited to observation variables in their natural occurrence. These justify the design’s selection (The University of Southern Alabama, n.d.). The study seeks to investigate potential relationship between body mass index and asthma. It further identifies two sub groups of research participants, children, and adults. This therefore identifies three variables in the study. The first variable is incidence of asthma in a research participant and will be considered as the independent variable in the study because of the limited ability environmental factors such as body mass index to determine its occurrence. The measure will be determined on a nominal scale, a qualitative scale that has only the identity property. The measure will further have two levels, existence of asthma and absence of asthma. Participants will be interviewed on previous experience of asthma symptoms and experience with the symptoms will be categorized with the symbol 1 while absence of asthma symptoms will be categorized with the symbol 2. Interviews will be used to measure the variable and its advantages ability to gather comprehensive information, flexi bility, and ability to clarify interview questions and to verify responses justify its selection. Interviews also allows for collection of secondary data on a subject matter and for consideration of interviewee’s potentials such as intellectual capacity (Kothari, 2004). Body mass index is another variable and will be

Phishing and Pharming Attacks

Phishing and Pharming Attacks In this report, it provides overview about phishing and pharming like what is phishing, what is pharming, what are the impacts that caused by phishing and pharming and what are the solutions can be apply to remediate or minimize the chance of being attack by phishing and pharming. Phishing are internet frauds or identity thefts that use to acquire or steal targeted victims sensitive information like personal identity data or financial account credentials. Phishing can be carried out by attackers using social engineering like sending email, through instant messaging (IM), peer to peer (P2P) networks, search engine and other techniques to redirect users to fraudulent website. Pharming is the new twist of internet fraud or identity theft. It is the evolutionary of phishing that used to achieve the same goal, but pharming is more sophisticated. Pharming can be carry out by using technical subterfuge such as DNS cache poisoning, domain hijacking and other techniques to redirect users to fraudulent website or proxy server to solicit users sensitive personal information. Phishing and pharming attack will cause financial impacts on the targeted victims or hard-hit to small organization. It will also cause the undermining of consumers confident in using internet over secure transaction or communication. Beside from this, phishing and pharming will also cause the law investigation become harder. Table of Content Summary2 Table of Content-3 Table of Tables and Figures4 Introduction-5 Method of Phishing Attack-6 2.1. Link Manipulation6 2.2 Filter Evasion7 2.3 Website Forgery7 2.4 Phone Phishing-8 2.5 Example of Phishing9 2.6 Phishing Report-10 Method of Pharming Attack13 How Pharming Works13 DNS cache poisoning16 Domain Hijacking16 Registration of similar sounding domains17 Impact caused by phishing / pharming18 Prevention of phishing and pharming20 Prevention: What to do?20 Prevention: What not to do?-21 Classic phishing defenses 21 Client-side21 Server-side22 Enterprise-22 Additional Pharming-Specific defenses23 Change Management, Monitoring and Alerting-23 Third-party Host Resolution Verification Services-24 DNS Server Patching, Updating and Configuration25 Search Engine Control-26 Conclusion-27 Recommendation29 Reference30 Bibliography31 Appendix32 Template 1.032 Template 2.034 TABLE OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1-9 Figure 210 Figure 311 Figure 412 Figure 514 INTRODUCTION Phishing and Pharming are two of the most organized crimes of the 21st century requiring very little skill on the part of the fraudster. These result in identity theft and financial fraud when the fraudster tricks the online users into giving their confidential information like Passwords, Social Security Numbers, Credit Card Numbers, CVV Numbers, and personal information such as birthdates and mothers maiden names etc. This information is then either used by fraudsters for their own needs such as impersonate the victim to transfer funds from the victims account, purchase merchandise etc., or is sold in a variety of online brokering forums and chat channels for a profit. The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) study indicates that 26,877 phishing attacks were reported in October 2006, a 21 percent increase over Septembers 22,136 attacks and an increase of 70% as compared to October 2005. Through these attacks the fraudsters hijacked 176 brands resulting in huge financial losses and loss of reputation to enterprises. The Gartner study reported that more than 2 million Americans have had their checking accounts raided by criminals in 2004, the average loss per incident being $1,2002. With phishers developing evermore sophisticated attacks, these numbers are bound to increase in the near future. Hence, battling these attacks has become a high priority for Governments and Industry Groups. METHOD OF PHISHING ATTACK Link Manipulation Most methods of phishing use some form of technical deception designed to make a link in an e-mail (and the spoofed website it leads to) appear to belong to the spoofed organization. Misspelled URLs or the use of sub domains are common tricks used by phishers, such as this example URL, http://www.yourbank.example.com/. Another common trick is to make the anchor text for a link appear to be valid, when the link actually goes to the phishers site, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine. An old method of spoofing used links containing the @ symbol, originally intended as a way to include a username and password (contrary to the standard). For example, the link http://[emailprotected]/ might deceive a casual observer into believing that it will open a page on www.google.com, whereas it actually directs the browser to a page on members.tripod.com, using a username of www.google.com: the page opens normally, regardless of the username supplied. Such URLs were disabled in Internet Explorer, while Mozilla and Opera present a warning message and give the option of continuing to the site or cancelling. A further problem with URLs has been found in the handling of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) in web browsers, that might allow visually identical web addresses to lead to different, possibly malicious, websites. Despite the publicity surrounding the flaw, known as IDN spoofing or a homograph attack, no known phishing attacks have yet taken advantage of it.[citation needed] Phishers have taken advantage of a similar risk, using open URL redirectors on the websites of trusted organizations to disguise malicious URLs with a trusted domain. Filter Evasion Phishers have used images instead of text to make it harder for anti-phishing filters to detect text commonly used in phishing e-mails. 2.3 Website Forgery Once the victim visits the website the deception is not over. Some phishing scams use JavaScript commands in order to alter the address bar. This is done either by placing a picture of a legitimate URL over the address bar, or by closing the original address bar and opening a new one with the legitimate URL. An attacker can even use flaws in a trusted websites own scripts against the victim. These types of attacks (known as cross-site scripting) are particularly problematic, because they direct the user to sign in at their bank or services own web page, where everything from the web address to the security certificates appears correct. In reality, the link to the website is crafted to carry out the attack, although it is very difficult to spot without specialist knowledge. Just such a flaw was used in 2006 against PayPal. A Universal Man-in-the-middle Phishing Kit, discovered by RSA Security, provides a simple-to-use interface that allows a phisher to convincingly reproduce websites and capture log-in details entered at the fake site. To avoid anti-phishing techniques that scan websites for phishing-related text, phishers have begun to use Flash-based websites. These look much like the real website, but hide the text in a multimedia object. 2.4 Phone Phishing Not all phishing attacks require a fake website. Messages that claimed to be from a bank told users to dial a phone number regarding problems with their bank accounts. Once the phone number (owned by the phisher, and provided by a Voice over IP service) was dialed, prompts told users to enter their account numbers and PIN. Vishing (voice phishing) sometimes uses fake caller-ID data to give the appearance that calls come from a trusted organization. EXAMPLE OF PHISHING As scam artists become more sophisticated, so do their phishing e-mail messages and pop-up windows. They often include official-looking logos from real organizations and other identifying information taken directly from legitimate Web sites. The following is an example of what a phishing scam e-mail message might look like. Figure 1: Example of a phishing e-mail message, which includes a deceptive URL address that links to a scam Web site. To make these phishing e-mail messages look even more legitimate, the scam artists may place a link in them that appears to go to the legitimate Web site, but it actually takes you to a phony scam site or possibly a pop-up window that looks exactly like the official site. These copycat sites are also called spoofed Web sites. Once youre at one of these spoofed sites, you might unwittingly send personal information to the con artists. PHISHING REPORT Figure 2: The number of websites hosting key logging crime ware systems raise by over 1,100, reaching 3,362, the second highest number recorded in the preceding 12 months. Web sense Security Labs believes much of this increase is due to attackers increasing ability to co-opt sites to spread crime ware using automated tools. Figure 3: The number of unique key logger crime ware variants detected in January reached a new high of 364, an increase of 1.4% from the previous high in October, 2007. Figure 4: Anti-Phishing Working Group, Phishing Activity Trends Report, June 2005 Phishing undermines consumer confidence. Corporate websites of valid, well-respected companies are being cloned to sell nonexistent products, or to get consumers to participate in money-laundering activities while believing that they are dealing with a legitimate organization. The public relations consequences for the company that has had its website cloned can be as severe as the financial losses. 3.0 METHOD OF PHARMING ATTACK You must be well aware of phishing and its potential to cause damage. They bait bank customers with genuine looking emails and manage to usurp money or personal information from unsuspecting customers with reasonable success. You are also aware that responding to mails sent by your bank may not be a good idea because banks never require to send emails to get your credentials. They have more secure channels to get that information. However, pharming attacks do not require an attacker to send mails. By carrying out pharming attacks, a criminal can get access to a wider target than phishing emails and as quickly as possible. Hence the ph effect on the word farming. They are not fishing, they are farming for gullible people! By the way, pharming is a real dictionary word. HOW PHARMING WORKS Pharming attacks do not take advantage of any new technique. They use the well known DNS cache poisoning, domain spoofing and domain hijacking techniques that have been around for quite long. However, the motives of carrying out these attacks have changed. Earlier they were interested in just disrupting services and causing nuisance. But now, the game has become a matter of money than that of chest thumping. These techniques continue to exist because administrators and website owners dont care to secure and monitor their DNS servers while they have invested millions of dollars in application firewalls. How a typical pharming attack is carried out: Figure 5: 1. The attacker targets the DNS service used by the customer. This server can be a DNS server on the LAN or the DNS server hosted by an ISP for all users. The attacker, using various techniques, manages to change the IP address of www.nicebank.com to the IP address of a web server which contains a fake replica of nicebank.com. 2. User wants to go the website www.nicebank.com and types the address in the web browser. 3. Users computer queries the DNS server for the IP address of www.nicebank.com. 4. Since the DNS server has already been poisoned by the attacker, it returns the IP address of the fake website to the users computer. The users computer is tricked into thinking that the poisoned reply is the correct IP address of the website. The user has now been fooled into visiting fake website controlled by the attacker rather than the original www.nicebank.com website. Once the attacker has managed to get the user to visit the fake website, there are many ways in which the user can be tricked into revealing his / her credentials or giving out personal information. The beauty, or lets say, the notoriety of pharming over phishing is evident from the fact that one successful attempt in poisoning the DNS server can be potentially used to trick all the users of that DNS service. Much less effort and wider impact than phishing. DNS cache poisoning All DNS servers cache the queries that users have made for a certain period of time. This is done to speed up the responses to users for frequently used domains. This cache maintained by the DNS server can be poisoned by using malicious responses or taking advantage of vulnerabilities in the DNS software itself. Domain Hijacking This is an actual incident that took place a year ago. Panix, an ISP based in New York was the target of a domain hijack attack. All domains are typically registered with registrars which store information about the owner of a domain and location of the domains DNS servers. If any of this information is required to be changed, the approval of the domain owner is required. A domain owner can even switch registrars depending on costs and convenience. However, confirmation of the switch is required from all three parties, the domain owner, the old registrar and the new registrar. In case of Panix, a change was initiated by an unknown person in Australia. The person managed to skip confirmation from the old registrar and the domain owner. This was because the new registrar was not following the domain transfer process strictly. The result was, the unknown person managed to gain control over the panix.com domain completely. The person managed to divert all the web traffic of panix.com and customer emails to another server located in Canada. Domain hijacking has the widest impact because the attacker targets the domain registration information itself. Registration of similar sounding domains Similar sounding or similar looking domains are another source of security issues for internet users. An attacker can register a domain www.n1cebank.com and carry out pharming and phishing attacks on unsuspecting customers who dont notice the difference in the letter i being replaced by a 1. Also domain names created by typos on the original words (e.g. www.nicebqnk.com) manage to attract a lot of traffic. One such study on a popular domain cartoonnetwork.com shows that one in four people visiting the website incorrectly type a simple name like cartoonnetwork.com. So what about typo domains? One quick search in Google reveals that it is quite a big concern. An attacker can easily buy typo domains and setup his fake website on these domains to fool unsuspecting visitors. IMPACT CAUSED BY PHISHING AND PHARMING There are impacts that caused by rising of phishing and pharming. One of the impacts that caused by phishing and pharming is the lost of financial on both organizations and consumers. According to the InternetNews.com, there are about $1.2 Billion lost in financial of banks and credit card issuers at year 2003, while at year 2004, there is about  £12 Million lost in financial reported by the Association of Payment Clearing Services in United Kingdom. Due to the credit card association policies, the online merchants that accepted and approved transactions made by using credit card numbers which solicit through internet fraud may need to liable for the full amount of those transactions. This may cause hard-hit to those small organizations. Another impact that caused by phishing and pharming is the undermining of the consumers trust in the secured internet transaction or communication. This situation occurred because the internet fraud like phishing and pharming made consumer feel uncertain about the integrity of the financial and commercial websites although the web address display in the address is correct. Phishing and pharming also caused some impact on the Law investigation. It makes the law investigation become harder because the technique that used by attackers to perform phishing and pharming is more sophisticated. In nowadays, those attackers can perform all of the phishing and pharming attack at a location that provided with the internet connection. With the available of internet connection, they can make use of it to perform attacking activities. Those activities included the control of a computer located in one place to perform phishing and pharmings attack by using computer located at another place. The investigation become harder also because of the division of attacking tasks to several people located in different locations. PREVENTION OF PHISHING AND PHARMING Pharming attacks tend to be harder to defend against that traditional Phishing attacks due to the distributed nature of the attack focus and the use of resources not under the control of the victim organisation.   In addition, the manipulation of the DNS resolution process occurs at such a fundamental level that there are very few methods available to reliably detect any malicious changes. 5.1 PREVENTION WHAT TO DO? By using anti-virus software, spyware filters, e-mail filters and firewall programs and make sure that they are regular updated to protect your computer. Ensures that your Internet browser is up to date and security patches applied. Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information or threats of termination of online account. Dont rely on links contained in e-mails, even if the web address appears to be correct, and use only channels that you know from independent sources are reliable (e.g., information on your bank card, hard copy correspondence, or montly account statement) when contacting your financial institution. When submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser, always ensure that youre using a secure website. Regularly log into your accounts. Regularly check your bank, credit and debit card statements to ensure that all transaction are legitimate. PREVENTION WHAT NOT TO DO? Dont assume that you can correctly identify a website as legitimate just by looking at its general appearance. Dont use the link in an e-mail to get to any web page, if you suspect the message might not be authentic. Avoid filling out forms in an e-mail messages or pop-up windows that ask for personal financial information. CLASSIC PHISHING DEFENCES Many of the defences used to thwart phishing attacks can be used to help prevent or limit the scope of future Pharming attacks. While readers are referred to the detailed coverage of these defence tactics explained in The Phishing Guide, a brief summary of these key defences is as follows: Client-Side Desktop protection technologies Utilisation of appropriate, less sophisticated, communication settings User application-level monitoring solutions Locking-down browser capabilities Digital signing and validation of email General security awareness 5.3.2 Server-Side Improving customer awareness Providing validation information for official communications Ensuring that the Internet web application is securely developed and doesnt include easily exploitable attack vectors Using strong token-based authentication systems Keeping naming systems simple and understandable 5.3.3 Enterprise Automatic validation of sending email server addresses, Digital signing of email services, Monitoring of corporate domains and notification of similar registrations, Perimeter or gateway protection agents, Third-party managed services. ADDITIONAL PHARMING-SPECIFIC DEFENCES While Phishing attacks typically use email as the attack delivery platform, Pharming attacks do not require any email obfuscation attacks to succeed therefore Phishing defences that rely upon email security play a lesser role. The defences that will be most successful in preventing Pharming attacks focus upon the following areas: Change management, monitoring and alerting Third-party host resolution verification DNS server patching, updating and configuration Search engine control 5.4.1 Change Management, Monitoring, and Alerting The potential for an administrator or other authoritative employee to maliciously modify DNS resolution information without detection is great.   As financial incentives increase, organisations and ISPs will need to ensure that adequate change control, monitoring and alerting mechanisms are in place and enforced. It is recommended that: Wherever editing is possible, access to DNS configuration files and caching data is limited to approved employees only. A change management process is used to log and monitor all changes to DNS configuration information. Auditing of DNS record changes is instigated by a team external to any DNS administrative personnel; with automatic alerting of changes conducted in real time. Regular audits and comparative analysis of secondary DNS and caching servers should be conducted. Third-party Host Resolution Verification Services Toolbars Many third-party developed plug-in toolbars originally designed to detect Phishing attacks are deceived by Pharming attacks.   Typically, these Phishing toolbars show the IP address and reverse lookup information for the host that the browser has connected to, so that customer can clearly see if he has reached a fake site.   Some managed toolbars (normally available through a subscription service) also compare the host name or URL of the current site to an updatable list (or real-time querying) of known phishing sites. Some toolbars now offer limited anti-pharming protection by maintaining a stored list of previously validated good IP addresses associated with a particular web address or host name.   Should the customer connect to an IP address not previously associated with the host name, a warning is raised.   However, problems can occur with organisations that change the IP addresses of their online services, or have large numbers of IP addresses associated with a particular host name. In addition, some toolbars provide IP address allocation information such as clearly stating the geographic region associated with a particular netblock.   This is useful for identifying possible fake Pharming sites that have been setup in Poland pretending to be for an Australian bank for instance. Server Certificates To help prevent pharming attacks, an additional layer can be added to the authentication process, such as getting the server to prove it is what it says it is.   This can be achieved through the use of server certificates. Most web browsers have the ability to read and validate server identification certificates.   The process would require the server host (or organisation) obtain a certificate from a trusted certificate authority, such as Verisign, and present it to the customers browser upon connection for validation. 5.4.3 DNS Server Patching, Updating and Configuration As with any Internet-based host, it is vial that all accessible services be configured in a secure manner and that all current security updates or patches be applied.   Failure to do so is likely to result in an exploitation of any security weaknesses, resulting in a loss of data integrity. Given the number of possible attacks that can be achieved by an attacker whom manages to compromise an organisations DNS servers, these hosts are frequently targeted by attackers.   Therefore it is vital that security patches and updates be applied as quickly as possible typically organisations should aim to apply fixes within hours of release. Similarly, it is important that organisations use up to date versions of the service wherever possible.   As we have already discussed in section 3.6, each new version of the DNS software usually contains substantial changes to protect against the latest attack vectors (e.g. randomising DNS IDs, randomising port numbers, etc.) 5.4.4 Search Engine Control Internet search engines are undergoing constant development.   Many of the methods used by attackers to increase their page ranking statistics are known of by the search engine developers, and a constant cycle of detection and refinement can be observed by both parties.   For instance, Google modified its search algorithm to reset the page rank statistics of web sites that had recently changed ownership this was to reduce the impact of instant backlinks and the weighting they attach to a ranking. Traditionally the emphasis on increasing a pages ranking has been for revenue or lead generation most closely associated with advertising.   However, the increasing pace at which customers are relying upon search engines to access key services (such as online banking) means that a Pharmer who can get his fake site ranked at the top is likely to acquire a high number of victims. Organisations should ensure that they regularly review keyword associations with their online services.   Ideally automated processes should be developed to constantly monitor all the popular search engines for key search words or phrases customers are likely to use to locate their key services.   It is also important that region-specific search engines also be monitored. CONCLUSION The term phishing is about the use of social engineering by performing online imitation of brands to send spoof email that contain of hyperlink to fraudulent website to solicit users sensitive personal information like credit card number, PIN, mothers maiden name and etc. Phishing can also be done through installing keylogger at users computer. Pharming use technical subterfuge like DNS cache poisoning, domain hijacking, routers setting or firmware malconfiguration to redirect users to a fraudulent website. Pharming may also perform by sending the targeted victims an email that contained of viruses or Trojan horse that will install small application that will redirect user to fraudulent website. There are impacts that caused by both phishing and pharming. Those impacts included the lost of financial, undermining of user confident in secured online transaction or communication, hard hit to small organizations and cause the law investigation harder. As a web developer, SSL certificate, switching of the recursion queries or DNS security extension should be apply because it can protect the DNS or website from phishing and pharming attack. Visual clues can also be use so that user can easily differentiate between authentic website and fraudulent website. Token based authentication also one of the technique that can be apply to protect the website or DNS server from phishing and pharming attack. Users are also responsible to protect their self from phishing and pharming attack by not opening email or download attachment from unknown sender or email that required user to respond by clicking on the hyperlink contained in the email. User should also double confirm the URL at the address bar when a warning message like SSL certificate do not match with the sites appear. User can also install security suite or firewall in the computer in order to protect user from phishing and pharming. User can also look for the lock or key icon at the bottom of the browser that lock the site they want to enter their sensitive personal information. As a user, we can also report the attack of phishing and pharming to the related agencies or company through internet or telephone to assist the work of minimize the attack. In addition, laws are also being introduced to against phisher and pharmer. RECOMMENDATION To prevent from becoming the victims of phishing and pharming, I suggest to users that must install security suite or firewall in their computer and the detection signature of the security suite should be up to date. Besides from this, I also suggest that users should beware in opening any email or attachment that they receive in order to prevent their self from becoming the victims of phishing and pharming. I also suggest to web developers that they should use SSL certificate, switch off the recursion queries, install DNS security extension in protect

jOHN :: essays research papers

Love is the greatest gift we can ever hope to give or receive. Love is the one thing that can overcome so many of the difficult times that we are faced with in life. Love is so powerful - it can turn frowns into smiles. It can help mend the most broken heart. It can even turn all of the ugliness in the world into the most beautiful portrait we could ever have the pleasure to behold. Such a monumental task - of course... it could be. But only if we try to do it alone. Instead, if each of us, in our own small way contributed just a little - together, the task can become the reality we're reaching for. As potent as what love can be, it can only work it's magic if we choose to allow it to. For that to come to pass we must let go of the other emotions that can get in love's way. How is that - you may wonder? Consider the thought that... Anger - It's normal, but holding on to it indefinitely isn't really necessary. Let it go... Forgiveness is so much better for the soul than holding on to a grudge. Not only will the person you're angry at be happier but so will you. Harshness - Harsh words take just as much effort and energy as kind ones do. Why not consider your choice of words before you speak them and choose gentler ones to get your point across. Impatience - Aren't we all guilty of this at one time or another? Keep reminding yourself of the old saying - "Patience is a virtue" - who wouldn't want to be a little more virtuous? (Webster describes "virtuous" as being of moral quality or excellence) Envy - We all know the saying here - "The grass is not always greener on the other side". Take that to heart and concentrate on "fertilizing" and "watering" your own to get it just as "green" as your neighbors' "lawn". You may wind up being the one envied instead. Mistakes - We all make them! So when someone else does, forgive them as you hope others would do for you. Allow them to be "only human" and consider the fact that they didn't mean any harm by it. Did you, when you made one? Revenge - Someone always gets hurt by this one - and not always the one you expect to.

Mitigating Global Warming Essay

Change in global climate became a widely accepted social problem in the last two decades. However, in those early days, controversies existed about the certainty of global warming; while scientist and environmentalist pointed out that the world was getting hotter due to the increasing release of greenhouse gases and other human activities, multinational corporations and some national governments refuted such claims, under the guise that there were no sufficient scientific evidence to support such claims (McCright and Dunlap, 2000). Fortunately or unfortunately, recent scientific evidences point, irrefutably, to the fact that the world is indeed getting dangerously hotter. The Stanford SOLAR Center defines global warming as the ‘gradual increase in planet wide temperatures, while McCright and Dunlap (2000) defines it as ‘discernable increase in mean global temperature resulting from the release of greenhouse gases produced by human activities’ (p. 499). Whichever way global warming is defined, the apparent truth, as has been voiced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U. S National Research Council, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and countless other bodies and research institutions, is that the globe is hotter than it has ever been in history and if nothing urgent is done, serious danger looms. The Problem In the early days when stories about a warming earth was first heard, there were several counterclaims and numerous challenges to scientist to prove that the earth was indeed getting hotter. In recent times, however, it is clear that the issue of global warming has passed that stage. There are now countless irrefutable evidences from both government and private interests to show that there is indeed a problem at hand. The Stanford SOLAR Center points out that it is certain now that the earth is presently the hottest it has been in at least 400years and possibly even over the last 2,000years. It has been shown that the mean global surface temperature has increased by an estimated 0. 5-1. 0 °F (0. 3-0. 6 °C) within the last century alone and this is documented as the largest temperature rise in surface temperature over the last 1,000years. The IPCC (2007a) also states that eleven of the last twelve years (1995-2006) rank among the twelve hottest years since record of global surface temperature started in 1850. They also stated that from 1900 to 2005, precipitation increased significantly in the eastern parts of the North and South America, Northern Europe and Northern and Central Asia and that the most significant increases were experienced from 1970 onward. To buttress this stand, the body pointed out that in the last fifty years, cold days and cold nights have been significantly infrequent, while hot days and hot nights have become more frequent. The frequency and intensity of heat waves and heavy precipitation events over land areas have increased globally, especially since 1975. Further, there is irrefutable evidence that the average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the last half of the 20th century were the highest observable in any fifty year period over the last 500years and possibly the highest in the last 1300 years. All these hard facts point to the same conclusion; the earth is getting hotter, faster than any time in history and the trend does not look like it is ready to reverse. We have a grave global problem on our hands, which require urgent and drastic steps. The Causes Before recommendations can be made about how to go about mitigating this Herculean problem, it is pertinent to first provide a brief overview of the causes of this problem. In most studies and reports, the release of greenhouse gases (e. g. , carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons and their substitutes, methane, nitrous oxide, etc. ) have been severally indicted as the primary cause of the problem. It is important to know that these gases, especially carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide, are natural components of the atmosphere. These gases reabsorb the heat reflected from the earth surface, regulating Earth’s temperature, which is essential for life. However, since the industrial revolution of the 1700s, these gases have been released into the atmosphere in higher than normal concentration, thus offsetting the normal balance. Carbon dioxide is released from burning fossil fuels and other industrial activities, while deforestation and increasing land use, causes more nitrogen oxide gases to be released into the atmosphere. The increasing concentration of the gases in the atmosphere trap heat radiated from the earth, preventing additional thermal radiation from leaving the earth and thus excessively increasing the temperature of the earth’s surface (Global Warming, 2008; IPCC, 2007a; IPCC, 2007b). Another factor that has been indicted in the cause of global warming is solar variability; changes in the heating capacity of the sun. Studies on the sun activities have shown that the sun exhibit slight variation in activity. Although, this has been named as one of the factors responsible for global warming, there exists consensus that the role of solar variability, if present at all, is very minimal. Solar irradiance measured over the last 30 years has shown changes of only a few tenths in solar activity, and this depends essentially on the solar 11-year cycle. The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), in this regard, states that â€Å"The Sun is once again less bright as we approach solar minimum, yet global warming continues. Eventually, we are left with greenhouse emission as the primary cause of global warming. Why We Must Act Now That the earth is warming up might sound far fetched to many, however, the report the global warming is already having its toll on, not just the environment, but also on plants and animal lives, will drive the point home. The IPCC reports that changes in snow, ice frozen ground can be attributed to global warming. Ice melting has caused sea levels to increase continually, with the resultant flooding experienced in several parts of the globe. The reduction in snow and ice cover over mountains and frozen ground and reportedly increased the number and size of glacial lakes, increased ground instability in mountain and other permafrost regions and led to changes in some Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems. Changes in algal, plankton and fish abundance can be linked to increasing water temperatures as well as related changes in ice cover, salinity, oxygen levels and circulation. And these are just a tip of the iceberg, of the results and pending results of global warming. To make matters worst, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that â€Å"with current climate change mitigation policies and related sustainable development practices, global greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow over the next few decades† (IPCC, 2007a p. 4). The implication is that something better and more drastic needs to be done to curtail global warming. Recommendations The IPCC states rightly that a wide variety of national policies and instruments are available for the nation to create the right incentive for mitigation action. Since the primary and most significant cause of global warming has been identified to be greenhouse gas emission, several policy instruments exist to curb emission of the gases, at least to reduce the emission to reasonable limits. Government must set stringent regulations and standards for greenhouse gas emission. Large and small corporations must be enticed or forced (whichever is appropriate) to obey these regulations on gas emission. Taxes and charges can also be used to control gas emission. For example, setting a higher price for carbon emission will drive large corporations to look for more cost effective ways of disposing their waste or stay within their gas emission limits. Another modern way of reducing gas emission is through gas tradable permits. Companies that can efficiently manage their gas emission below their limits could sell such gas emission points to other corporations. Government can also provide incentives, such as subsidies and tax credits to companies that develop more efficient and better technologies of managing gas emission. This could drive large corporations to spend more on R&D as it concerns gas emission management. Governments might also enter into mutual agreement with industries, though it is reported that the majority of such agreements have not yielded any significant gas emission reduction, it should be hoped that better understanding between both parties created through such agreements would eventually pay off. Automobiles and other individual items also add to the greenhouse gas build up in the atmosphere, therefore, increased information campaigns about the dangers of global warming would increase awareness in the populace. This could help influence behavioral changes, such as increasing preferences for items that do not negatively impact the environment e. g. fuel economy cars. The impact of such changes might be difficult to measure, however any step, instrument or policies that could reduce greenhouse gas emission in whatever level or degree should be welcomed. Bibliography Global Warming (2008). Stanford SOLAR Center. Available at http://solar-center. stanford. edu/sun-on-earth/glob-warm. html (Mar 14, 2008). Goddard Institute for Space Studies (1999). Link Between Solar Cycle and Climate is Blowin’ in the Wind. NASA: New York N. Y. Available at http://www. giss. nasa. gov/research/news/19990408/ (Mar 14, 2008). Human Impacts on Climate (2003). American Geophysical Union. Available at http://www. agu. org/sci_soc/policy/positions/climate_change. shtml (Mar 14, 2008). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] (2007a). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O. R. Davidson, P. R. Bosch, R. Dave, L. A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] (2007b). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O. R. Davidson, P. R. Bosch, R. Dave, L. A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. McCright, M Aaron and Riley E. Dunlap (2000). Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of the Conservative Movement’s Counter-Claims. Social Problems, 47(4): pp. 499-522.

Individual Assignment Environmental Fundamentals Paper Essay

 · How do you define environmental science ?  · How does the relationship between science and technology affect environmental problems and solutions in today’s society?  · Why is the concept of environmental sustainability important, and why should it be studied? What are the historical patterns surrounding sustainable and unsustainable human interactions with the environment?  · In general, how do human values affect sustainability given current challenges facing society? After reviewing the research on the environment, how do environmental hazards affect human health? Provide at least two examples. It is important to remember that college is not all about studying. College is a significant step into adulthood and should be treated as such. While you should not party the night away, do not keep your nose in your books to the point that you do not get to enjoy this time of your life. This work comprises ENV 100 Week 1 Individual Assignment Environmental Fundamentals Paper   General Questions – General General Questions Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you discuss the fundamental principles of environment science. In your paper, answer the following questions:  · How do you define environmental science ?  · How does the relationship between science and technology affect environmental problems and solutions in today’s society?  · Why is the concept of environmental sustainability important, and why should it be studied? What are the historical patterns surrounding sustainable an†¦ To get this material copy and paste link to browser – https://bitly.com/1xptIgO It is important to remember that college is not all about studying. College is a significant step into adulthood and should be treated as such. While you should not party the night away, do not keep your nose in your books to the point that you do not get to enjoy this time of your life. General Questions – General General Questions Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you discuss the fundamental principles of environment science. In your paper, answer the following questions:  · How do you define environmental science ?  · How does the relationship between science and technology affect environmental problems and solutions in today’s society?  · Why is the concept of environmental sustainability important, and why should it be studied? What are the historical patterns surrounding sustainable and unsustainable human interactions with the environment?  · In general, how do human values affect sustainability given current challenges facing society? After reviewing the research on the environment, how do environmental hazards affect human health? Provide at least two examples.

Poeffect essays

Poeffect essays Essay written by Henry George When reviewing Nathaniel Hawthornes Tales, Edgar Allen Poe pronounced that the short story, if skillfully written, should deliver a single preconceived effect- an effect upon which incidents be fashioned to accommodate that effect. Edgar Allen Poe was indeed a skillful writer. His short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a flawless example of a story in which all elements contribute to the delivery of a single emotional effect. Poe accomplishes this by achieving a perfect tone, developing suspense and unifying stylistic elements thereby meeting his own criteria. In his pronouncement Poe also wrote that "In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design." Thus, in "The Fall of the House of Usher" Poe creates a perfect tone critical to the delivery of his preconceived effect. The senses of "insufferable gloom," "utter depression of soul" and " sinking, sickening of the heart" which pervade the narrators spirit immediately establish the tone. The narrators description of the scene as "dull," "dark," "bleak," "desolate" and "terrible" all function in communicating the tone. These concrete and denotative words ensure a clear and solid tone is conveyed to the reader thereby contributing to the overall effect of terror. The regular use or repetition of the words "dark," "gloomy" and "oppressive" in some form serves function to further define and emphasize a perfect tone. It also perceivable that Poes choice in the narrators role being the participant supports his intent to communicate consistent feelings; hence consistent tone. In order to strengthen his already established tone, Poe selectively uses imagery in scenes of terrible nature. The imagery ...