K+-+EQ4


 * Why is it important to balance personal, short-term benefits and society's long term welfare? **

=J-ren= I believe it is important to balance short term benefits with long term well being because if you look at it like a picture I’ll say if you concentrate only on the small details you don’t you don’t pay attention to the big picture, and if you just pay attention on the big picture and pay no attention to the little details you miss out on a lot on what’s going on in all the nooks and cranny’s in the picture. What you should do is pay equal attention to both. That way you don’t miss out on much and you can see the complete picture. But doing this can get a little confusing at times like choosing weather you should use anti-bacterial products or the good old soap and water. In some cases maybe if you immune system is weak or if you have a dieases or virus that weakens your immune system I would recommend using the anti-bacterial products but for day to day use I would use soap and water, as bacteria can build immunity to the anti-bacterial residue. Back to top == http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3090/2487507056_e040f800d7.jpg?v 0I use this picture to show people what sorts of great soaps you can use

=Belle= It is important to balance personal, sort-term benefits and society's long term welfare, because something can be looking fine now, but all it needs is time, then it'll look horrible. For example, if today I went to walk my dog, and I forgot to bring a bag to pickup it's droppings, maybe you would just leave it there. If everybody in the world "forgets" to bring a bag when they are walking their dog, then our world would be filled with animal droppings. Now, I want to talk about hand sanitizer, since this was a topic that was in my head for quite a while. When you go out to picnic, you might bring a bottle of hand sanitizer to clean your hands with before you eat. But actually, hand sanitizer only will kill the weakest bacteria on the surface of your hands, it will leave the strong bacteria there. They could be hiding in your nails, or in places that you possibly didn't rub to. Then the strong bacteria will get used to the hand sanitizer and produce more offspring that are also resistant to this chemical. The next time you use hand sanitizer, it won't be effective, since all the strongest bacteria lived and are there on your hands. My suggestion is to use them when you really need to, if you have a place that you can wash your hands with water and soap near by, go there. www.flickr.com/photos/44521275@N00/2219886922 I chose this picture because it says "kills 99.99% of germs instantly!" Did you ever think how come they didn't kill the 0.01% of germs? Well, those are the bacteria that are strong and they will get resistant to the sanitizer and produce offspring that are also resistant to it. www.flickr.com/photos/90014803@N00/339491574 I chose this picture because I want to tell you to use more soap. Back To Top Royce: Belle, remember that antibacterial products kill bacteria, not viruses Belle: Okay thanks. I'll change that. =Zachary= It is important to balance personal short-time benefits and society’s long term welfare because, what Belle said, something could look fine now and time can bring chaos. In short-term benefits, we need to be clean. Using soap and water will do just fine and once in a while, anti-bacterial products can be handy. However, like what Belle said, if we keep using those hand sanitizers the bacteria will get use to it and eventually start an epidemic. However, I don’t think hand sanitizers kill viruses since it works on __bacteria.__

Also, we need electricity to power our homes. If waste electricity for a party or something not needed, there will be less electricity to go around for the future and depending on the source of electricity; it could cause a riskier life for us by not having enough room to store depleted uranium or make the earth warmer. That is why we are doing earth hour to balance the delicate scale.

There is a downside if we save too much for the future. For example, if we cut down on the foods we eat; it can help the future however, if we cut down too much, how will we eat? A better example; let’s say someone from 2006 predicts an economic downfall in the next few years. If he saves all his money in his pockets, he is ready for the crisis when it comes however, how will earn money if he doesn’t open some up to see other opportunities. www.flickr.com/photos/31153174@N00/224649987 The reason why I chose this picture is because, this essential question is based on a delicate scale. If it get's heavy on one side, the person loses balance and down she goes. It follows the same system in real life.

=Jonathan= Everyone above mentioned about antibacterial hand soaps and sanitizers, which is great and relevant as we are learning about bacteria. But there are many other instances in which the balance between short term and long term benefits is destroyed. There is one very obvious disrupted balance, that is all around us, yet few actually pay attention to it. It is global warming.

Everyone knows why and how global warming is happening. Car pollution, factory waste, overuse of harmful detergents and cigarettes. All of this boils down to one thing. Overuse of short term beneficial items. Everything is convenient nowadays. Want to get to a mall? Hop into a taxi or drive your car. Dirty windows? No problem, use window cleaners. Want more things? Factories double the work and make them for you. Want to have some unique fun? Get your dad to bring you go-carting. All of these make our life more fun and interesting, easy and hassle-free. But what about the consequences of these actions. Cars and go carts (real petrol powered ones) give off pollution and carbon waste, which get trapped in our atmosphere and make our world warmer. Same with some window cleaners and some detergents. We always see those gigantic plumes of smoke rising from factories. Those are like mines for our environment, polluting and becoming a major cause of global warming. All these things that help make our lives now more convenient are destroying our environment in the long term. If we keep this up, people two generations from now may never see the ice cap in its full size.

This is why it is important to maintain a balance between short and long term benefits. Too much on one side, the other gets the short end of the stick. We should try our best to keep this balance going, global warming, antibacterial soaps and sanitizers or anything else. It is a delicate balance, like Zachary said, and we must strive hard not to tip it one side or the other.

This image shows how factories contribute to pollution, and in turn, global warming. The things that factories produce in bulk are great and convenient, but in the long term, this pollution affects the environment. This is an example of how important it is to keep the balance of short and long term benefits. Too much of one, the other is affected. Image: '[|Toxicity]' www.flickr.com/photos/52798669@N00/3194429061 Back to top =Rachel C= = I think it is very important to balance personal short-term benefits and society's long term welfare because like what Jonathan said, too much on one side, the other gets the short end of the stick. For example, if you litter, you're only caring about your own needs, but if everyone in the world littered, this might be bad for the world and trigger diseases in the long term. I picked this picture is to show if everyone threw as much litter as this person did, then our world would be full trash on the street and more. = = Back to top = =Rachel L.=

I think it is very important to balance personal short-term benefits and society's long term welfare because like what Belle said small things can look totally fine but then later on it becomes pretty ugly looking. For example you dont turn of your electricity for your whole entire life, which ends up wasting electricity/power, and also your money. Also another example is like wasting water! For example like keeping the water on for the whole time instead of electricity wastes a lot of water, and also your money again.

=Connie= Belle, you said that hand sanitizer kills only the weakest germs on your body, but your picture shows that hand sanitizer kills 99.99% of the germs on your body. That is how sanitizers work. They kill most of the germs on your body, leaving behind some germs that become resistant to anitbiotics. These bacteria then use binary fission to split, and more antibiotic- resistant bacteria are produced. There are some diseases that are made up of anitbiotic-resistant bacteria, like merca, and these diseases are very hard to control. In the future, a lot more bacteria will become antibiotic-resistant. There are some diseases, like the bubonic plague, that can wipe out the entire human population if they become anitbiotic-resistant ,so people should not use anitbiotics unless they need to. We also need to preserve our non-renewable resources like fuel and oil. People use fuel and oil for a lot of things, like driving, cooking, and making electricity. People like using a lot of fuel, because it makes our lives easier, but fuel and oil won't last forever. We cannot make more. Instead of being so selfish, we should save these resources so our future generations can use them as well.

Power-plants, factories, and cars let off a lot of smoke when they burn fuel. The carbon-monoxide let into the air is a toxic gas, and can damage a person's health. The earth's air is not as clean as it used to be. If we keep on letting this much carbon-monoxide into the air, Earth would not be a fit place to live on anymore. For now, cars and electricity-producing power-plants make our lives very easy, but in the future, they will be a threat to our planet's environment. In fact, they already are. This power plant here is producing a lot of electricity for people to use. However, it is also letting of tons of carbon monoxide into the air. I'm not saying we should stop using electricity, but we should start saving it, and not waste it. []

Belle: Yes, I did say that it kills the weakest germs on our body. And yes, I also said about the 99.99% thing. But I think that aren't 99.99% of the germs on your body weak? Compared to the resistant germs, I think they are considered weak.

=Anthony= I agree with Belle that if anything could obtain its required time, anything could look ugly. For example, if everyone kept on wasting paper cups, we start killing trees and later we will struggle in breathing because there’s no oxygen produced by trees. I think it is important to balance personal, short-term benefits and societies long-term welfare because they both do matter. One thing I think we really have to balance out is our immune system. If we always use bacterial agent killing sanitizer, our germs could reproduce more bacteria immune to the chemical and later it would get so strong we cannot defeat it. This is why people suggest soap and water instead of bacteria-agents because it doesn't strengthen the bacteria existing on your body.

www.flickr.com/photos/9778240@N07/3189644297 Here is a picture of a paper cup, I chose this picture because its an example for personal short benefits that could possibly cause long-term welfare.

Luke
In his response, J-Ren noted that if you only look at the small details of a painting, then you'll miss out on the big idea and have no idea what the artist is trying to express. I think it is really important to make sure that you are reaching all your short-term benefits and balancing it with long term and worldwide benefits. Antibacterial products, like Emily pointed out, is a crucial item that should be balanced. While it kills more than 90% of bacteria on your hands, antibacterial handsoap cannot kill the rest of the 10% or so survivors. These will mutate and become immune to antibacterial agents and pretty soon we won't be able to fight against that specific bacteria. Zachary also brought up a good point with the by-products of convenient-everyday-life actions, such as global warming. The by product of you hopping into a car or a taxi and going somewhere is CO2 emission. [| articles.greenlinkcentral.com/ ?m=20090222]

Jeff
I agree with Belle because people often forget how important it is to balance things out, and to protect the environment. Also, I agree that many things can go into a reduced state if you would just give it time. An example would be the current state of environment. If the population of humans increases to the point where the supply for oil is lower than the demand, then we will reach a point where oil will start to decline, then eventually die out as a source of fuel. That could be potentially devastating if we don't find a new alternative energy source before that happens. Also, if trees die, the oxygen level in the atmosphere will decrease, leading to the extinction of many species, maybe even humans. We need to balance our needs for energy, entertainment, food, etc. so that the people of the future can live a live as fulfilling as ours. I don't think I would be satisfied with the fact that my kids would be living in a cesspit with no trees, no fuel, dying people, and bad air everyday. My last example would be the use of anti-bacterial hand sanitizer. If super-bugs develop too quickly for us to find new remedies, or a alternative for antibiotics, we may very well have another pandemic on our hands. Something which has no cure could possibly wipe out humans to the edge of extinction, and I don't think we want that eitherI think regular soap and detergent is very sufficient in cleaning dirty hands and surfaces (tables, walls, etc.).

This is a picture of Cairo, Egypt. As you can see pollution is very clearly visible. Several scientists now say that heavy pollution in the future can even render cities inhabitable. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Cairo_in_smog.jpg Wikimedia Commons is a copyright-free file repository

=Emilie= It’s important balance personal, short-term benefits and society’s long term welfare because of the affect it’ll have in the future. One of things that you would have to balance is the use of antibacterial products. The reason for this is that if you use something such as antibacterial hand soap, it only kills 99.9% of the bacteria. That 0.1% that survives may then mutate and become immune to antibacterial products. This could be bad because we could have an incurable disease. Products with antibacterial chemicals in them can be useful to ward of known illnesses. In the long term, however, they could help mutate bacteria which is why you should balance personal benefits and society’s welfare, I chose the following picture because it shows symptoms of MRSA which is an antibacterial immune disease.

=Royce= I did a project on the disease MRSA, which Emilie mentioned, it is at this website:[]. We, as humans, have pushed our planet Earth to the brink of disaster. The CO2 that we have put into the air in a decade, equals that of which would normally take millions of years of natural emissions. Here is an example of weighing short term benefits, and not thinking about the long term consequenses. Imagine that you have a pretest on a subject you don't know about, since you don't know, you cheat, which benefits you by raising you test grade. But you are then put into an advanced class due to your test grade, the long term consequence would be you end up getting bad grades, or being put into a lower level. Using a dishwasher instead of hand washing it also wastes millions of tons of water each year, just because people are taking a shortcut, but not thinking about what they have wasted. Although our planet's surface is 75% covered by water, 97% of that water is undrinkable or is salt water, of the 3% left, 2% is locked up in glaciers and the icecaps, which only leaves around 1% of the world's water for mankind and the other organisms on this planet, if we continue to waste water, we will face major water shortages in the future. Next time you think about riding a car to a place you could easily walk, or wash dishes with a dishwasher rather than hand washing, think again. Source:http://www.pollutionissues.com/images/paz_02_img0249.jpg This picture shows what is happening to the rivers all over the world, polluting our limited water supplies

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