Why Study how Society Functions?

Over the course of the year we have been studying societies and how they work. We have learned about different ways that societies work, what affects them and how changes are brought about. After reading the prologue titled “A Tale of Two Farms”, and watching Al Gores “The Inconvenient Truth” some of these theories to why we study how societies functions become clear to us.

When we study how a society function we learn about mistakes that we have made, are making now or will end up making in the future. There are many questions as to how a society functions. How can some of the biggest and most powerful cavitations that existed thousands of years ago fail? Could it be the fact that once a population reaches a certain size, where the technology is increased at exponential rates and food source starts to become depleted due to the fact that there are too many people? Once a food supply runs low then people start to starve, recessions could occur where money is not worth anything and people are just trying to make it though another day not even know what the next is going to bring them. Eventually just ruins could be left of the greatest civilizations, ruins have already been left by some of greatest, and this is perhaps what was trying to be described in the poem “Ozymandius” by Shelley. One theory as to why these great colonies seem to diminish over time could be the possibility of ‘global warming.’ When people have higher demands of everything, the world tries to produce more to satisfy the people’s needs. However this effect is starting to show more by the increase use of cars, increased manufacturing of goods, which causes more toxins to be released into the air, and the fact that people are not taking care of the world like they should be. Al Gores “The Inconvenient Truth” goes into great detail about how we are tearing the world apart. Over the past years we have been causing more destruction to the atmosphere and producing more carbon particles that are messing up the ozone layer. This affects everything on planet Earth. As sunrays come though the layer and bounce of the glacier they reflect back up to the ozone but can not escape and are then reflected down again. This causes the atmosphere to get warmer, which disturbs the jet streams, and airflow that results in different current flow in the ocean. This entire problem put together causes disturbances, such as bigger hurricanes, which is resulting in millions of dollars of damage to countries. Also as it gets warmer the ice bergs start to melt, and instead of sun being reflected of the ice it will be absorbed into the water cause the ice to melt at exponential rates. This will disturb the home for many animals and it is already greater affecting polar bears that cannot even find land and end up drowning in the water. Over the past few years we have been noticing a great increase in the heat of the years, and have been producing some of the hottest years recorded. In the end this will cause yet another ice age, which is how, many societies will fall, and new societies will be created. We must learn to change our society so that we do not affect the planet in the way that we do. There have been some things, which are resulting in better results, but if we do not act in the next 50 years then according to Al Gore the results will be catastrophic. Some of these things have been the increase of hybrids, using solar, sun, and hydro energy. If we try and everyone works together then we can bring down the amount of toxins in the air to a reasonable amount, but if we do not then what will happen to our kids, and there kids and so on?

In the article “The Tale of Two Farms” the author studies how one society can effect another even if its thousands of miles away. It is important to know why this happens because it affects everyone. What if both societies died due to a lack or food or global warming? This could create a chain effect that could wipe out civilization. In Al Gores presentation he provided us with facts about the past thousands of years showing a natural occurrences in the temperate with ice ages occurring at certain times. However, over the past 50 years we have been going outside of this limit and at the rate we are going we will be extremely out of this limit in the next 50 years. So we must learn how to study and prevent obstacles like this from occurring.

In conclusion I think that it is extremely important to study how society functions, because how we have arrived to this time we have evolved from other societies and learned from our mistakes. In order to advance more into the future we will need to know how our society works, what we can do to make it better, and fix any mistakes before they cause chaos or problems. If we do not prevent the global warming and other effects that are occurring then there might not ever be any more societies to study, and the world will fade, population will cease to live or be created. We are in dangerous water right now.