The English for Liberal Arts Program

Turning the Earth into a Machine

Sample ELP Lecture by Mike Kleindl

Lecture Outline:

Introduction:

1. The six hottest years

2. Examples of environmental damage:

1. ozone holes
2. Chinese plowing
3. mercury in tuna
4. toxaphene

3. Each year U.S. dumps 1 billion kilograms of toxic chemicals into air:

1. we breathe 10,000 to 20,000 kilograms of air each day
2. this air includes 1,000,000 molecules of dioxin
3. dioxin one of deadliest poisons

4. This is our world -- based on view that Earth is a Machine

5. This view is wrong, and should be changed.

6. The first step in changing this view is to understand where it came from.

7. Start by looking at world view of Greeks, then Romans, Christians, the Age of Reason, Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution.

8. Also look at philosophies of Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Locke, and Smith.

9. Why are the ideas of these men important to us?

10. Their ideas lead to Industrial Revolution and to computers, cars, cell phones, DVDs, etc.

11. Their ideas influenced the Japan during the Meiji period.

12. Their ideas also lead to the Earth as a Machine world view and to poison air, poison water, acid rain, global warming, etc.

13. Now let's look at the world view of the Greeks.