Global warming has struck again killing about 300,000 people worldwide and is leaving people homeless. It seems that according to the media that we are all going to die in the next few years from Global warming. Did they ever start to think that their could be other things that could be killing people like disease, lack of food, or natural causes such as old age?

In the village of Newtok, Alaska, Real life Eskimos are being forced out of their homes because of flooding which they believe is caused by global warming melting the ice caps that protect their village. "We are seeing the erosion, flooding and sinking of our village right now," says fellow Eskimo, Stanley Tom. (Anyone else think that it is weird that there is an Eskimo name Stanley or is it just me.)

While I do agree that it is very bad that the Eskimos have to relocate, did anyone ever stop and realize that there would be a very hot summer at some point in the future so building buildings on top of Ice would be bad. We are in one of the hottest summers on record so ice foundations are not going to hold up.

Meanwhile we have British explorers who are sacrificing their lives in the artic to measure how much ice we have left thanks to global warming. Facing sub-zero temperatures may not be the only thing that they will have to face. If they get back and find that Global warming is not affecting the North Pole as much as the Global Warming people want, their findings could be stored away like they never existed, like when Jimmy Carter was president and we were in a state of global cooling.

Also, we must alert the polar bears because a large piece of ice in Antarctica is going to break off any minute now according to the article. This ice strand forms this barrier and if it breaks there is not telling what that could do to the polar bear population.

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window,

And in-flu-enza.

Imagine walking down the street with the fear of dying from a deadly disease lingering in your mind and then hearing a bunch of kids skipping rope to that little chant. “By the start of [Woodrow] Wilson’s second term in early 1917, however, the president found that he could no longer resist the strong pull toward war.” [David Rubel] In the year 1918, Americans were filled with the feeling of patriotism as the end of the Great War was rapidly approaching. However, a plague would soon rise up that would similarly encompass the globe such as the black plague in the middle ages. America had a great deal to learn and would learn the lessons that the Spanish Influenza would teach them in a awfully harsh way.

  Science was at its peek it seemed at the beginning of 1918 for we had electricity and the marvels at events such as the World Fair of 1893 were not far into people’s minds. Simple diseases were becoming curable which let some Americans be relieved. However, the electron microscope would not be invented until a few decades later, which means that people were still susceptible to viruses. Viruses had eluded scientist of the time for they were too small to see under there microscopes. During the epidemic, People wore masks over there mouths to try and protect themselves even though the virus passed through the masks. In many towns, Public buildings such as schools, churches, and theatres were closed because of the constant threat of the virus spreading to more people.

In World War 1, the Spanish Flu found its way into the camps of soldiers on both sides. The disease that had mutated over the course of time infected soldiers who knew all kinds of ways of living including the rough lifestyles of trench warfare. Many soldiers unknowingly became carriers of this airborne pathogen and it spread by the soldiers simply breathing. The Spanish Influenza started at a military base called Fort Riley in Kansas. Soldiers were burning Manure that had traces of the virus in it. The sky had turned black for days and the “The Spanish Flu” had gotten into many of the soldiers at Fort Riley. Around sixty of the one thousand soldiers that became sick, died of the influenza.

What should we learn from such a deadly pandemic that killed around twenty to forty million worldwide? The Spanish Influenza was an epidemic that could happen again that we could prepare for. In my opinion, quarantining the sick would be our best bet. William Maxwell (Who I think was in our video that we watched because the quote that I am going to give sounds so familiar. I think that it is the guy who talks about the peacock feathers being bad luck.) stated that “I realized for the first time, and forever, that we were not safe. We were not beyond harm.” The “Flu” gave Americans the reality check that we were not super humans that something so innocent as burning manure or simple flu symptoms could result in a world-wide pandemic.

The Spanish Influenza affected many lives and still people remember the horror of the all the lives that had been taken. I leave you with a quote from a medical journal that I think wraps up the mood of the “flu” quite nicely. "The 1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which marked, the end at least for a time, of man's destruction of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all--infectious disease," (12/28/1918).

[On a side note, I encourage you to look at the wikipedia article on the Spanish Influenza and then scroll down to the fictional victims listed there. The last one has been added on wikipedia so its not just in the minds of teenage fan girls.]

Book Sources:

Journal of the American Medical Association final edition of 1918

Rubel, David, Encyclopedia of the Presidents and their times, pg. 128

Study and then prepare a blog explain the significance of the Gilded Age. Use both solid research and photos linked to your blog to exaplain this pivotal era.

The Gilded Age is referring to the large increase in the United States’ population and the flourishing of the wealthy people after the Reconstruction and the Civil War. The period lasted from 1877 to 1890. This period often focuses on the wealthy people’s obsession with new marvels and their selfish want for better and elegant things. This was also a period where the black Americans were severely persecuted even after the progress of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

One of the main figures of this time was the noble Rockefeller family. Considered American royalty during this time, the family made their wealth off of a private oil company called the Standard Oil Company. The family was soon involved with many things and in the middle 20^th century was involved with the Chase Manhattan Bank and the building of the World Trade Centers. Of German American origin, this family is seen in American history popping up everywhere. The Rockefeller’s were known for their generosity and have started up around seventy-two institutions to prove it.

• The International House of New York - New York, 1924 (Junior) {Involvement: John D. 3rd, Abby Aldrich, David & Peggy, David Jr., Abby O'Neill};

• The College of William and Mary's Wren Building - Virginia, from 1927 (Renovation funded by Junior);
• Colonial Williamsburg - Virginia, from 1927 onwards (Junior, Abby Aldrich, John D. 3rd), historical restoration;
• The Museum of Modern Art - New York, from 1929 (Abby Aldrich, Junior, Blanchette, Nelson, David, David Jr., Sharon Percy Rockefeller);
• The Riverside Church - New York, 1930 (Junior);
• The Cloisters - New York, from 1934 (Junior);
• The Interchurch Center - New York, 1948 (Junior);
• The Asia Society (Asia House) - New York, 1956 (John D. 3rd);
• One Chase Manhattan Plaza - New York, 1961 (David);
• The Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza - Albany, New York, 1962 (Nelson);
• Lincoln Center - New York, 1962 (John D. 3rd);
• The World Trade Center Twin Towers - New York, 1973 (David and Nelson);
• The Embarcadero Complex - San Francisco, 1974 (David);
• The Council of the Americas/Americas Society - New York, 1985 (David).

[Thanks to Wikipedia for the list]

The gilded age was also a time when ten million immigrants had come to America which explains the sudden boom in population. Many Chinese immigrants had come to America at this time. This was also at a time when many Italians had come over. In one instance, several Italians were accused of committing a murder of a policeman. This is where we start hearing the word Mafia being used.

A major fashion statement of the time was the high waist skirts and the corset.

The corset is a device that is supposed to give an ideal figure by minimizing the waist and highlighting the bust and hips. It was worn mainly by women but it was not uncommon for a man to wear one as well. These horrid garments would often break ribs as they narrowed a person’s figure. Corsets are often made with a simple fabric and then boning is put in to add a firm holding of the person’s body.