Position Paper
I will be using the essay "Careful, You May Run out of Planet" by David Goewey as the basis of my position paper.
The 1 required internet source that I have to help prove my position is an article from www.alternet.org (with a title similar to the essay) that talks about America’s obsession with SUV’s and how their owners are oblivious to the fact that their gas guzzling monsters are affecting our precious environment (just as Goewey’s essay does) while providing great statistics and key information. The article’s author Craig Williams also provides reasoning behind why people choose to purchase/drive SUV’s before stating his opinion and the actual truths behind SUV myths. In the end he throws out a question that should really grab the attention of people around the world and mainly SUV owners, about realizing that there is only about 50 years worth of fossil fuels left on Earth.
"Kid Kustomers"
It’s no secret that many more companies are directing their marketing towards children. Various ads have some type of cartoon or animated character in them to grab the attention of the youths in their marketing audience. This essay talks about the change in advertising from twenty five years ago to the present. First it began with advertisements for Disney, fast-food restaurants, toy and candy companies, and cereal manufacturers. Now even clothing stores and phone companies are targeting kids. Children being the little innocent, impressionable, little people that they are think they want what the advertisements are telling them that they want. With ads brainwashing kids, they begin their quest to consume the products that they see by nagging their parents. It’s the only way they can get what they want. Companies know that children will nag their parents about something that they want until they get it, so they continue to project ads targeted towards children in an attempt to get money from their parents---the main consumers.
“Careful You May Run Out of Planet”
David Goewey’s essay gives readers an outlook on the effects SUV’s have on the planet. SUV’s emerged from the idea that the world needs to be explored, which goes back to the historical beginnings of America when the Europeans first sailed over here and encountered “the wilderness”. This fascination with the American frontier hundreds of years later created America’s obsession with SUV’s and as a result of millions of petroleum utilizing vehicles, our planet is suffering. The increase of carbon dioxide levels just happens to coincide with the increase in gasoline use. So much for exploring the world in SUV’s, if we aren’t careful, we might just run out of planet to travel. Ice caps are melting, causing sea levels to rise. If the sea levels keep rising, there won’t be any land to cruise in our beloved vehicles. There are also extreme weather fluctuations globally. Remember the tsunami and all of those hurricanes? What about the seemingly small local weather changes? Hasn’t it been abnormally warm in certain regions and abnormally cold in others? Its all apart of the damage from gas from those massive SUVs.
The Signs Of Shopping
I never realized that “the mall has been the subject of innumerable debates” before until I read the essay “The Signs Of Shopping” by Anne Norton. I love to shop, it’s one of my favorite things to do. I didn’t realize that malls supposedly help create our very sense of identity in the world. I just thought of the mall as a place to get away from the outside world and indulge in things that I love: shoes and clothes. But malls are more than just places to shop though, and this essay gives a more defined outlook on that. Shopping malls and catalogues are specifically designed to encourage product consumption and identity construction while catalogues and home shopping networks on television eliminate shopping’s geographic restrictions. The general idea is that “sell you what they want by telling you who you are.” That’s kinda messed up :(
