Climate Change: Global Warming

The news is full of reports about violent storms, the catastrophic consequences of the lack of rain, devastating forest fires, and floods – all over the globe. Everyone is talking about that. Are these the result of the climate change that U. N. O. is currently seriously investigating?
Meteorologists and climate researchers are still arguing about it. One thing is sure, however: the earth is becoming gradually warmer. Quite nice, you might think: after all, it is fun to go to the seaside so early in the year, may be even go for a swim. Who needs cold temperatures? Furthermore, it has been proven that for millions of years warm periods have been followed by ice ages. The result of that is that the Sahara, which was once a blooming region with rivers and lakes has become an arid desert. On the other way, Mediterranean used to be a salt desert. So there has always been climate change.
What has become so dramatic that we now refer to the situation as a climate disaster or catastrophe even? The fact is that we human beings are becoming increasingly more aware of the climate change. And we see or hear reports about the devastating effects a hurricane has had in New Orleans, for example: Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of the city of New Orleans. How do things like that happen? One main reason is that the oceans are warming up. This is due to the so-called greenhouse effect. Everyone knows what a greenhouse is: gardeners use them to plant seedlings and grow plants in. A gardener’s greenhouse is pretty much air tight and made of glass or transparent plastic. The bad weather stays outside, but the warm rays of the sun enter the walls of the greenhouse and warm up the interior. The soil and the plants store the heat, and the flowers and vegetables thrive magnificently – provided they are watered regularly. It can be a very dry place if the farmer does not watch out. Sometimes in the summer when it is especially sunny, they have to air them to prevent it getting too hot and stuffy inside.
That is more or less how our climate works on earth: imagine the roof and walls of the greenhouse are not made of glass but of a layer of gases with the same properties. This layer ensures that solar radiation can warm the earth and that not too much of this warmth is lost to the ice cold universe beyond. The climate is thus balanced, as we know that today. Then along comes man and produces carbon dioxide by burning gas, oil, coal and wood. The gas rises into the atmosphere and makes the layer of insulation thicker and denser.
The same amount of solar radiation penetrates this layer, but not so much heat can escape into outer space. The planet gets increasingly hotter.
It is not necessarily bad that things burn – if the system is balanced. If people increase the production of carbon dioxide and do not worry about how to handle, i.e. reduce, this, the greenhouse effect will become more dramatic. At some time or other it will become too warm. Trees that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen are being chopped, and plants and algae that live in the ocean and can also convert huge amounts of carbon dioxide into oxygen are also dying off.
A few facts and figures on the production of carbon dioxide: in 1991, 22 billion tons of carbon dioxide was pumped into the atmosphere worldwide. In 2006, it was 29 billion. In the same fifteen years, China doubled its share in the production of carbon dioxide from 2.8 to 5.3 tons. In Germany, it was reduced from one billion to 880 million tons. The USA produces 6.5 billion tons, which is around 22 per cent of the total amount.

• Dramatic consequences

The Aral Sea in Kazakhstan will most likely disappear all together in the next eleven years because the farmers are compelled to redirect the water for irrigation purposes. There is hardly any snow any more in the French Alps, and Glaciers are melting throughout the Alps. There will not be any water in the Alps any more either, because snow and glaciers are huge source of drinking water, and the warmer it is, the more water they yield. This water is in turn needed for plants, animals and humans. – The whole world is hit by the greenhouse effect. We cannot stop this, but we can do something to prevent this climate change happening so fast. Climate researchers are working overtime at universities and laboratories to find solutions. Once a year, politicians and scientists meet at a World Climate Conference. They agree that it is important that the change of the climate needs to happen slowly to avoid disastrous consequences. If the global warming does not rise above two degrees, we could all cope with the climate change. But that would mean drastically reducing the production of carbon dioxide worldwide. A start was made in Kyoto (Japan) in 1997. There it was decided to cut carbon dioxide production by five per cent by 2012. Many countries are now focusing far more on renewable energy: wind, water and solar energy. If we can succeed in halving the amount of carbon dioxide we pump into the atmosphere by 2050, we will have made a significant contribution towards decelerating the climate change. To achieve that, people from all over the world must make a huge common effort.

Secrets: Why do we need them?

You have a secret and you are not sure how to handle it? You are torn between telling someone and keeping it to yourself? Everyone has secrets; that is for sure. And you can make a secret out of anything. The reason of having or keeping a secret is not the important thing; may be it is about a tattoo you have done that nobody is supposed to know about, or the year you have planned to spend abroad that you do not want to talk openly about for fear of others interfering with your plans. The thing is that some things are so important that you do not want to share them with anyone, or maybe only with a selected few. There are innumerable examples of secrets, great and small. Secrets are as much a part of life as the air we breathe.

It does sometimes feel strange when we are not entirely open with parents or friends. You ought to be able to tell your nearest and dearest just about anything, do not you think? So why do we keep secrets about even truly harmless things? Because they only affect us personally and are nothing to do with anyone else?

Secrets make for an important part of our personality. They belong solely to us as individuals. If we did not have secrets, people would be able to see right through us. The world would know what makes us tick and we would thus be open to manipulation. Secrets are like the closed door to which only you have the key, or the locked drawer that contains your diary, love letters and dreams. Such things are not for everyone’s eyes, and it is up to every individual to decide who and when he tells someone something, or confesses something – even if that means keeping some things secret from the people who are important and dear to us.

You probably prefer to discuss some important or private things with friends rather than with your parents. Sharing secrets bonds people together, makes friendships more strong and meaningful. Having secrets gives you the power to decide yourself who you want to share them with and who you want to include in your circle of confidants. And you will only share a secret with someone who is worthy of your trust.

Secrets should never harm the dignity of a third person, however. It is often good to keep some things to yourself, especially in the case of close friendships or loving relationships. Close friends or couples regard secrets as a breach of trust, because most people expect their partners to be completely open about what they are thinking. But when two people know absolutely everything about each other, the relationship can become pretty boring. You have probably experienced yourself other people are more attractive and interesting if there appears to be something about them you do not know.

But how do you treat secrets other people have shared with you? Your friends probably tell you private things because they know they can trust you not to tell anyone else. They know that when you give your word of honour you mean it, and you would never let them down even if you do not expressly say so.

But what if you feel that a secret you have been told requires action on your part as you need to help someone? Maybe because a friend of yours is planning to do something stupid and you can persuade him/her not to, especially when it is something you know is wrong? That is difficult and there is no right answer as to how to behave. It can make life very difficult for you because you are torn between keeping your word and applying your common sense. If you talk to a third person about something someone has told you, does that mean you are betraying someone’s trust? Or is it the right thing to do because you prevent something really awful happening and your friend may actually thank you for it in the long run?

The important thing is that you know people you can trust in such situations if you listen to your heart the decision as to whether and whom you tell may be easier than you think.

Wishes and Resolutions

We can wish for anything under the sun; it might be something material, like a bike, for example, a CD of your favourite band, a computer or something you cannot afford to buy yourself. But you can also wish for something that nobody can buy – love from a person who means a lot to you, a good mark in your next exam, or making up with someone close to you after a quarrel or misunderstanding.

If someone asks you what would you wish for if you could, the first things that come to mind are things that money can buy. But if you take the time to think about what your greatest wishes are, you will most likely find that other things are more important to you such as your own health and that of your family and close friends, or the wish to feel true happiness. Anyone can wish for these things – wherever they come from, and whether they are rich or poor.

If you know the kind of things you would really wish for, then you also know what is especially important for you in your life. But what is the use of having a heartfelt wish if you do not have a hope of it ever being fulfilled? A frustrating thought? It is not always up to you, though, whether your wishes come true or not. But there are always of making it more likely that your wish will come true. If you know exactly what you want, you can undertake certain things to reach that goal. Your wish becomes a kind of resolution. For example, you wish that you can pass an important exam? A wish alone is not enough to make this come true, but if you prepare for the exam as best you can, the likelihood of your passing and getting a good mark is all the greater. There is no guarantee, of course, but with a little effort you can help luck come your way.

Wanting to pass an exam is a realistic wish. But there are some wishes that what are very difficult to make come true. Then it is better to stop wishing too hard to avoid beings disappointed when things do not work out the way you would like them to. Sometimes it helps to adapt a wish to raise your chances of having it come true – do not give up wishing altogether, but be a little less ambitious in your expectations. Of course, you wish for peace for the whole world, but it is difficult to achieve that as an individual. But is that a reason to become resigned and give up altogether? You could make an effort on a smaller scale by committing a regional project, for example, become pro-active for a good cause at school, or help two of your friends to find a way to get along after falling out. Small steps can often lead to greater achievements.

Of course, you may also be disappointed because even a realistic wish has not come true. For whatever reason. But still worth believing that your wishes have chance of being fulfilled. You are the only one who can really judge whether a dream has any chance of coming true. If you get the feeling that a wish will never be fulfilled or is about to burst like a bubble, do not lose heart. It may hurt at the start, but if you focus your energy on other things you would like to see happen, you will soon see that there are many other causes worth fighting for.

Most people have wishes that change their lives to the positive in some way or other; maybe they become famous, end up with the job of their dreams or perhaps they manage to save a relationship or a beautiful friendship, or make new friends. Many have already resolved what they need to do to turn what might initially look like a far fetched dream into a real goal. All too often these (good) resolutions are forgotten, however, because people become occupied with other important things or put off becoming pro-active. There are two things that can help remind you of your wish and resolutions long after you made them: pen and paper!

Make a note of the things you would really like to have or to have happened, as well as a list of resolutions and keep your “wish list” in a safe place! Then make a note in your diary of when you want to have another look at your own wish list. That way you can check after a year or so what has become of your plans. Of course, this is no guarantee that wishes come true, but you will have a far clearer picture of what you really want from life. As with many other things, it is more fun to do this with a friend or even with a group of friends. That is why it makes sense to jot down your wishes and talk to friends about them: then you can decide together what you can undertake to make them come true. Your friends may well come up with some good ideas to help you fulfill your dreams.
P: S: There is one thing that people all over the world share when it comes to wishes: the hope that their wishes come true.

The Scientific Literature of Dream-Problems

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school in psychology. He was born on May 6, 1856 and died on 23 September 1939. During his life time of 83 years, he has found many novel theories in many fields. Dream analysis is one of the most interesting teachings among them. As it is a huge subject, I thought of writing what I basically understood about the scientific literature of dream- problems by reading his book “Interpretation of dreams” which was published in1913.

When we hear the word “dream”, a feeling that cannot be expressed in words comes to our mind (mental processes). It is something that we can’t feel in the real world or in our waking state. There is a mysterious feeling about dreams. Because of that, we have become very curious about knowing what actually makes us to see dreams and how it happens.

People who were in the past also had this enigma about dreams. They had their conceptions of universe and of the soul. By mixing the idea of dream with these kinds of conceptions, they believed that dream is something supernatural which predicts the future and also believed it as a message from god. They thought of two classes of dreams. One is the dreams which influenced only by the present or the past. The other one is on the other hand, the ones which determine the future. This belief was there for many centuries.

But in the later periods, the scientific interest in the phenomena of dreams was improved.

There is a problem about the relation of the dream to the waking state. After we woke up, we feel like the dream we saw is from another world, though it is not. We feel like that because the dream is something entirely different and alien from the things that we concern in the waking state. Or else, there can be some few elements we had in the waking state. Our normal behavior and the consciousness are entirely lost in the dreaming state, therefore the dreams brings out the complete unencumbered isolation of the psyche. Also at least a little part of it has to be somewhere in our real experiences.

Sometimes we can see the dreams which we feel that we have never known in the real world. It can be about a place or a person or anything that we cannot reminisce that we have known in the waking state. Not only that, but also there can be so much of knowledge in the dreams that we cannot remember in our actual life. That is the knowledge and the memory of our unconsciousness. The things which we see in our dreams can be the materials which were entered to our memory in our childhood. Most of them are caused to product interesting hypermnesic dreams.

When concerning about the stimuli and sources of dreams, it says that a dream is a result of such a disturbance which occurs to disturb our sleep. Dream is a reaction of our mental processes against that disturbance. There are four categories of stimuli.

1) External sensory stimuli.

It means objective stimuli. For an example, a strong light may fall upon eyes while we are in a good sleep. As it disturbs to our sleep, it can be a stimuli for a dream. In our dreams it can be made us see as we walk alone the beach in a sunny day.

Sometimes we can see different dreams for the same stimuli. It is because there are some memory images in our mind at that particular time we get the stimuli and the most suitable image which goes with the objective stimuli is taken to produce the dream.

2) Internal sensory stimuli.

A dream cannot be produced only by the external sensory stimuli, because the entire external sensory stimulus which comes while we sleep, cannot make a dream or support to originate a dream independently. There has to be some internal facts too. Therefore we have to consider about the internal sensory stimuli also. Subjective sensations which we see or hear in our waking state are important in dream illusions. The subjective stimuli are independent of external accidents. They are, so to speak at the disposal of the interpretation whenever they are required. The main proof of this stimuli is that the hypnogogic hallucinations. They are very obstructive but changeable pictures which people see while falling asleep. Some may linger for a while even after we opened our eyes. If someone wakes up shortly after having that kind of an experience, it will be oft possible to trace in the dream pictures, the ones s/he saw before falling to the sleep. It also can take as a hypnogogic hallucination. Not only that, but also auditory hallucinations may also occur and then can be in the dreams.

3) Internal (organic) physical stimuli.

Our internal organs are reminds us their existence. That also causes for a creation of a dream. If there is a disease, it can become a source of most painful sensation. Psyche become more conscious of its physicality than the waking state and it receives some stimulating which are originating in the parts of our body. Diseases of heart and lungs may be subject to the nightmares. Stimuli proceeding from the interior of the organism, from the nervous system, apply at most an unconscious affect on our mood during the day time. But, at night, that effect of the impression which was had at the day time is no longer active. The impressions that came up are able to force themselves to get our attention. They are drowned by the other external affects at the day time.

4) Psychic sources of excitation.

People dream of what they do in the waking state and of their interesting things. That interest is not only a psychic bond, but also joining the dream into the real life. If an interest which we have during our waking state, together with the internal and external sensory stimuli that occur during sleep, enough to cover the whole etiology of the dream. But the interests in our waking state are not very influential to say confidently that every one who dreams are continuing these interests of the waking state.

We all have experienced that dreams are forgotten after waking. They fade away when we woke up. We can recall it after waking but most of the times we cannot remember the whole complete exact dream. Sometimes we know that we have dreamed during the sleep but do not remember what we dreamed of. But the dreams manifest a peculiar power to be in the memory. Some dreams are last in the memory for a long time such as for 35 years, without being forget a little part of it. And also without losing the freshness of that dream.

This forgetting is a complex phenomenon. The factors which cause to forget in the waking state are can be the cause to forget the dreams also. In waking state, we forget such a lot of things, may be because they are slight to remember or there can be a slight amount of emotional feelings. But we can remember the strong important things obviously. This is true for the dreams also. In dreams, most of the scenes are lack of order and lack of sense. This also causes to forget because we easily forget the things which are not in an order and lack of sense. The relationship of the dream to the waking state is also important in forget dreams. If that dream has a great relation to the waking state, it will not be forgotten. Also when we are waking, our attention suddenly rushes to the sensations of the real world. Therefore, only few dream-images are capable to be in the memory by force with that rush. But the people who are specially interested in dreaming,

can remember the dreams more easily and also they dream more than other people.

As we know, the hypnogogical hallucinations (even in their content) they are identical with dream pictures. Transformation of an idea into a hallucination is not the only departure of the dream from the corresponding waking thought. It can make a suitable situation from a hallucination. It shows us something as in actual.

In this book, “Interpretations of Dreams”, Freud discusses about the ethical sense in dreams too. He considers about the dream as a sub problem, to what extent the feelings and the moral bonds of the waking state affect the dream life. Some writers assert that there is no influence to the dream life from the moral obligations. But some, on the other hand emphasis that the moral bond which are related to man persist even in the dream life. Of course there are such immoral dreams that no one denies. But we have to know how they originate. All the ones who consider about this problem, have recognized a special psychic source for immorality of dreams. We are not responsible for our dreams. Dreams take us to the reality of our lives. But if someone can cleanse his/her mind morally before s/he sleep, that person might not see immoral dreams.

Since dreams have become something biological, there were many incomplete theories about dreams, such as; “Dream is something which was sent by god to the man…” Scientists’ and medical writers’ most favored theory is that only a fragment of psychic activity paralyzed by sleep finds expression in dreams. It can be identified as the most popular theory of dreams.

The relation between dreams and mental diseases is another important section that Freud has discussed here. When we talk about this relation, we have to concern about three things.

1. Etiological and clinical relations as when a dream represents a psychotic condition.
2. The changes that the dream life undergoes in cases of mental illnesses.
3. Inner relations between dreams and psychoses, analogies that point to an intimate relationship.

After having an idea about these things, an abnormal morbid phenomenon can be considered as an increasement from time to time recurring normal dream state. The unequivocal agreement between dreams and mental diseases goes to characteristic details also.

According to Freud; “It is very probable, however, that a modified conception of the dream must also influence our views regarding the inner mechanism of mental disorders, and hence we may say that we are working towards the explanation of the psychoses when we endeavor to elucidate the mystery of dreams.” (p.102)

Freud has explained this subject in a really interesting and a broad way with a lot of experiences as examples. When we study about these things, our curiosity and the interest of the subject are developed. It encourages continuing the study.