Module Review Questions free essay sample

Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? What is the impact of information systems on organizations? * Define an organization and compare the technical definition of organizations with the behavioral definition. The technical definition of an organization is a stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and develops them to outputs. The definition of an organization also focuses on three elements: Capital, labor, and production and products for consumption. The technical definition also infers that organizations are more stable than an informal group, and are formal legal entities, and are social structures. On the other hand behavioral definition of an organization defines it as a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that are carefully balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution. This definition highlights the people within the organization, their ways of working, and their relationships. We will write a custom essay sample on Module Review Questions or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The relationship between technical definition and behavioral definition shows us how a firm can combine capital, labor, and information technology which impacts the inner workings of the organization. * Identify and describe the features of organizations that help explain differences in organizations’ use of information systems. Features that are common among an organization include the following: * Routines and business processes: Standard operating procedures (SOP) have been developed to allow an organization to become productive and efficient thereby reducing costs over time. Organizational politics: Differing viewpoints about how resources, rewards, and punishments should be distributed bring about political resistance to organization change. * Organizational culture: Assumptions that define the organizational goals and products create limitation on change, especially technological change. * Organizational environments: A shared relationship exists between an organization and environments; information systems provide organizations a way to identify external changes that might require an organizational response. Organizational structure: Information systems reflect the type of organizational structure entrepreneurial, machine, divisional, and professional bureaucracy, or adhocracy. * Describe the major economic theories that help explain how information systems affect organizations. There are two economic theories discussed in the book: transaction cost theory and agency theory. Transaction cost theory is based on that a firm incurs transaction costs when it buys goods in the marketplace rather than making products for itself. For example, traditional firms seek out to reduce transaction costs by getting bigger, hiring more employees, vertical and horizontal integration, and small-company takeovers. Information technology can help a firm lower the cost of market participation (transaction costs) and help firms shrink in size while producing the same or greater amount of output. In contrast, an agency theory views the firm as an interconnection of contracts among interested individuals. The owner employs employees to perform work on his or her behalf and delegates some decision making authority to them. Therefore employees need constant supervision and management, which creates management costs. As management costs rise the introduction of information technology reduces costs by providing information more easily so that managers can supervise a larger number of people with fewer resources. * Describe the major behavioral theories that help explain how information systems affect organizations. Behavioral theories, ranging from sociology, psychology, and political science, are useful for describing the behavior of individual firms. Behavioral researchers theorize that information technology could change the decision-making hierarchy by lowering the costs of information acquisition and distribution. For instance, IT could eliminate middle managers and their clerical support by sending information from operating units directly to senior management enabling information to be sent directly to lower-level operating units. IT even allows organizations to act as a virtual organization since they are no longer limited by geographic locations. One behavioral approach views information systems as the outcome of political competition between organizational subgroups. IT has become very involved with competition because it controls who has access to what information, and can control who does what, when, where, and how. * Explain why there is considerable organizational resistance to the introduction of information systems. There is considerable organizational resistance to new information systems because they change many important organizational dimensions, such as culture, structure, politics, and work. The first model described by the book states that changes in technology are absorbed, deflected, and defeated by organizational task arrangements, structures, and people. In this model the only way to bring about change is to change the technology, tasks, structure, and people simultaneously. A second model, which requires the need to unfreeze organizations before introducing an innovation, quickly implementing the new system, and then refreezing or institutionalizing the change. * Describe the impact of the Internet and disruptive technologies on organizations. As the Internet increases the accessibility, storage, and distribution of information and knowledge for organizations; nearly any information can be available anywhere at any time. This Internet increases the scope, depth, and range of information and knowledge storage. It also lowers the cost and raises the quality of information and knowledge distribution. Furthermore, lowers transaction costs and information acquisition costs. By using the Internet, organizations may reduce several levels of management, enabling a closer and quicker communication between upper levels and the lower levels management. Disruptive technologies caused by technological changes can have an effects on different companies depending on how they handle the changes. For example, some companies create the disruptions and succeed very well whereas other companies learn about the disruption and successfully adopt it. Other companies are obliterated by the change that they were very efficient at doing what no longer needs to be done. Some disruptions mostly benefit the firm. Other disruptions mostly benefit consumers as well. 2. How does Porter’s competitive forces model help companies develop competitive strategies using information systems? * Define Porter’s competitive forces model and explain how it works. The Porter’s competitive forces model provides a general view of a firm, its competitors, and the firm’s general business environment. In this model, five competitive forces shape the fate of the firm: * traditional competitors * new market entrants * substitute products and services * customers * suppliers * Describe what the competitive forces model explains about competitive advantage. Some businesses do better than others because they have access to special resources that others do not, or they are able to use common available resources more efficiently. The reason for this could be because of greater knowledge and information of assets. Nonetheless, they excel in revenue growth, profitability, or productivity, ultimately increasing their stock market valuations compared to their competitors. * List and describe four competitive strategies enabled by information systems that firms can pursue. Their four generic strategies, each of which has allowed a firm to use of information technology as a strategy. They are: * Low-cost leadership: Lowest operational costs and the lowest prices. Product differentiation: Enable new products and services, or greatly change the customer convenience in using existing products and services. * Focus on market niche: Enable a specific market focus and serve this narrow target market well than its competitors. * Strengthen customer and suppliers: Tighten links with suppliers and develop closeness with customers. * Describe how information systems can support each of these competitive strategies and give examples. Low-cost leadership: Use information systems to improve inventory management, supply management, and create efficient customer response systems. Example: Sam’s Club, Costco Product differentiation: Use information systems to create products and services that are customized and personalized to fit the precise specifications of individual customers. Example: Apple, Starbucks. Focus on market niche: Use information systems to produce and analyze data for finely tuned sales and marketing techniques. Analyze customer buying patterns, tastes, and preferences closely in order to efficiently pitch advertising and marketing campaigns to smaller target markets. Example: Whole Foods. Strengthen customer and supplier intimacies: Use information systems to facilitate direct access from suppliers to information within the company. Increase switching costs and loyalty to the company. Example: Amazon. com * Explain why aligning IT with business objectives is essential for strategic use of systems. The basic principle of IT strategy for a business is to ensure the technology serves the business and not the other way around. The more successfully a firm can align its IT with its business goals, the more profitable it will be. Business people must take an active role in shaping IT to the enterprise. A business cannot ignore IT issues nor tolerate failure in this area or just see it as a nuisance to work around. Businesses must understand what IT can do, how it works, and measure its impact on revenues and profits. 3. How do the value chain and value web models help businesses identify opportunities for strategic information system applications? * Define and describe the value chain model. The value chain model highlights specific activities in the business. The model also identifies specific and critical leverage points where a firm can use information technology the most effectively to enhance its competitive position. The value chain model views the firm as a series of basic activities that add a margin of value to a firm’s products or services. These activities are categorized as either primary or support activities. Primary activities are most directly related to production and distribution of the firm’s products and services, which create value for the customer. Support activities make the delivery of primary activities possible and consist of organization infrastructure. A firm’s value chain can be linked to the value chains of its suppliers, distributors, and customers. * Explain how the value chain model can be used to identify opportunities for information systems. Information systems can be used at each stage of the value chain to improve operational efficiency, lower costs, improve profit margins, and forge a closer relationship with customers and suppliers. Organizations can use information systems to help examine how value-adding activities are performed at each stage of the value chain. Information systems can also improve the relationship with customers and with suppliers. Furthermore, information systems can help businesses track benchmarks in the organization and identify best practices of their particular industries. After analyzing various stages in the value chain, an organization can devise a list of candidate applications for information systems. * Define the value web and show how it is related to the value chain. A value web is a collection of independent firms that use information technology to coordinate their value chains to collectively produce a product or service. Customer driven value web operates in a less linear fashion than the traditional value chain. The value web is a networked system that can synchronize the business processes of customers, suppliers, and trading partners among different companies in an industry or in related industries. * Explain how the value web helps businesses identify opportunities for strategic information systems. Information systems enable value webs to be flexible and adaptive to changes in supply and demand. Relationships can be bundled or unbundled in response to changing market conditions. Firms can accelerate their time to market and to customers by optimizing their value web relationships by making quick decisions on who can deliver the required products or services at the right price and location. Information systems make it possible for companies to establish and operate value webs. * Describe how the Internet has changed competitive forces and competitive advantage The Internet has nearly destroyed some industries and severely threatened others. The Internet has also created entirely new markets and formed the basis of thousands of new businesses. The Internet has enabled new products and services, new business models, and new industries to rapidly develop. For this reason the Internet has created a competitive rivalry which has become much more intense over the last decade. Internet technology is based on universal standards that any company can use, making it easy for rivals to compete on price alone and for new competitors to enter the market. Because of this information is available to everyone, and the Internet raises the bargaining power of customers, who can quickly find the lowest cost provider on the Web.

Gun Control In The U.S. Essays - Gun Politics, Firearms, Gun Control

Gun Control In The U.S. Essays - Gun Politics, Firearms, Gun Control Gun Control in the U.S. Gun control, as we know it, consists of the government restricting the ability of individual citizens to purchase weapons. The different types of gun control vary from waiting periods between when you purchase the gun and when you actually get it, background checks so that high-risk people can't purchase guns through legal channels, and completely banning certain types of guns. There are countless ways for criminals to avoid these government regulations, causing them to only render the ability of innocent citizens protecting their home and family's ability to purchase guns. The "waiting period" method of gun control is basically a two-step process. The first step in the procedure is that the person wanting a gun goes to his local shop (or calls a reputable mail order outlet) to place the initial order. Then, he must wait one to two weeks while the government performs a small background check for past criminal activities, disorderly conduct, or lack of mental/emotional stability. During this time, if the purchaser of the gun wanted the gun for impulse reasons (out of rage), it is hoped that they will not still want to cause bodily harm after a couple weeks. The problem with this method of gun control is that it stops the ordinary citizen from purchasing a gun on the whim, but it actually protects the common criminal. Underage buyers and other delinquents can purchase mass quantities of weapons through "dummy buyers" that have clean backgrounds. So if a burglar enters a house with full intention to maim or kill, the innocent victim (who can't get a gun to protect his family because he was arrested for drunk driving seven years ago) is simply a victim of a law that supports black market trade. There are over 200 million registered guns in circulation (Larson), and they are the ones that will not be killing our children. The unregistered ones are owned by murderers, rapists, and thieves. Another practiced technique of preventing dangerous firearms from killing honest people is to ban an entire type of weapon. The AK-47 is a commonly-used example of that. Again, the criminals still have limited access to the weapon through underground channels, but these banned weapons are so powerful that there is really is not practical purpose for them in the home (or in hunting). This can easily be adverted by the common criminal who knows anything about the way guns are assembled. A semi-automatic machine gun can be converted into a fully-automatic gun with a little handcraft. A shotgun can become a bloody powerful weapon by sawing-off the tip of it. Obviously, new methods of gun control are needed to produce desired results. In the first half of 1991, fifty children under the age of seventeen had been shot to death. If we continue to monitor the sale of firearms, there must be new techniques that can watch where the guns end up. And if we decide that we can/will not go down that track, we must make that judgement earnestly, and without haste, because it will decide the future of The United State of America as we know it. - Bibliography Larson, Erik. "The Story of a Gun", The Atlantic Monthly. January 1993 Pooley, Eric. "Kids with Guns." , New York. August 5, 1991.

Critical Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Critical Assessment - Essay Example From an engineer who is deeply worried about climate change, it is easy to judge that such as from this article will never take place and feeding our atmosphere with sulfuric acid is way off the scale of "achievable" to be a fraction of a significant discourse on reversing or slowing even climate change. Someone would anticipate for much better writing than this in an article written by three professors from Cambridge Center, Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard University. I could not help but marvel whether this article was hurriedly brought to press in response to a number of the references in the article such as Barker et al. (2007), Blackstock et al. (2009), Robock (2008), Royal Society (2009), and Nordhaus (2008), which were all significant publications concerning this topic of climate change. All this books which the article referenced gave revealing arguments against climate engineering/geoengineering and the authors made them clearly, movingly, persuasively, and without ty pos, unlike McClellan, Keith & Apt (2012). This article fails to make the point that a majority of geoengineerings vocal supporters only have a financial concern in the field. There is tons of cash to be made in this field if the idea of geoengineering finally takes off. McClellan, Keith & Apt (2012) fail to acknowledge they indeed do have such a financial concern in a firm working on eliminating carbon dioxide from the environment, but then they brush that aside through saying their financial concern is not in solar-radiation managing, which is the center of this article. I would opt to read a thoughtful article by any scholar with no financial concern in climate engineering in any way. The authors are obviously charmed with the lost cost, easiness of tunability and implementation of SRM. However, there is modest discussion of the diverse

Crimes against humanity and genocide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Crimes against humanity and genocide - Essay Example The Holocaust does not begin with the first shots fired in 1939, or a charismatic leader whose speeches entranced the nation; it begins with a boy named Adolph Hitler. Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Vienna Austria to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara. Hitler had a very difficult childhood, as his father was demanding and critical f his every move. He expected Hitler to follow his example and work for the Austrian government as he had. The young Hitler had bigger things in mind. He first wanted to become an artist, then an architect. He failed at both. Hitler soon found himself drifting and alone in Vienna. He could barely keep a regular job and would occasionally stay at a homeless shelter. Hitler came to hate Vienna, for it was a place that represented poverty and failure. In one f his writing's he told f how foreign the city seemed and how repelled he became from the whole mixture f people: Czech's, Poles, Serb's, Jews and more Jews. In the spring f 1912 Hitler left Aust ria and moved to Munich, Germany. In 1914, war broke out through most of Europe and Hitler quickly enlisted in the German army. Though he never rose above the rank f corporal, he nevertheless found a place for himself. In civilian, life he was a failed artist with few friends and virtually no social life. The war gave Hitler a place to outlet his fanatical German nationalism, for he believed in "Deutschland euber alles," or "Germany over all." (Lerner 1992, 21-30) In 1918 the unthinkable happened--Germany conceded defeat at the hands f the allies. Hitler's world literally fell apart, and he could not understand how the great German army could lose to supposedly "inferior" nations. Searching for someone to blame, Hitler settled on the Jews, the Communists, and the New Democratic Government. He concluded that these groups had "stabbed Germany in the back"(the holocaust pg 42) by handing information over to the allies which had lead to Germany's defeat. (Staub 1989, 31-36) By the mid 1920's, Hitler had joined and quickly rose to the top f a small political party called the German Workers Party. Hitler used his charismatic and persuasive personality to mold and shape the party to reflect certain views, especially German Nationalism and anti-Semitism. Hitler worked very hard to improve his party's image and in 1927 he changed the name to the National Socialist Party, also known as Nationalsozialistische, or the Nazi Party. Many people were beginning to realize that the Nazi's were a force to be reckoned with. (Porter 1982, 1-3) In 1932, Hitler ran for presidency but lost to Paul von Hindenburg, an aristocratic military commander. 1933 marked the great rise f Nazi Germany when Hindenburg appointed Hitler to the position f supreme German chancellor. (Hintin 2002, 1-7) The fire f the Reichstag, the German parliament, marked the day when all hope was lost. The Nazi's convinced most f Hindenburg that the cause f the fire was a communist uprising and Hindenburg agreed to sign an emergency decree to control the situation. This decree took away all individual freedoms and privileges and would grant Hitler the power to make his own laws without having to pass them through parliament. (Burleigh 1997, 25-27) The Jews were the ones who were beginning to feel the wrath f Hitler's oppression. Hitler began to pass many laws that forbade non-Jews to shop at Jewish owned

Impact of Human Activities on Natural Hazards Essay Example for Free

Impact of Human Activities on Natural Hazards Essay Natural hazards are naturally occurring phenomena that have disastrous impact on humanity. These phenomena had been in existence even before the advent of humanity. The hazardous dimension of these natural phenomena are in the context of the impact that such a phenomenon would have on human population in the area affected by that phenomenon. In this essay, the effect that human activity has on these natural hazards would be analyzed. Some human activities may be exacerbating the factors that cause the natural hazard, like the impact of excessive and unplanned logging on floods and droughts. In certain other cases the human activities may cause subsequent or supplementary hazards to a primary hazard event, like building dams in earthquake prone zones may lead to flash floods and landslides in the event of a rupture. A hazard can be defined as an event that has the potential to cause harm. This potential may be on account of its unexpected timing of occurrence or the actual intensity of the event itself. Human societies can withstand these events within a normal scale of occurrence. However, human societies become vulnerable when these events occur unexpectedly or are of an intensity or duration that falls beyond that normal scale (O’Hare and Rivas, 2005). Natural hazards can be broadly classified under the heads of geological, hydrological, climatic and diseases. This essay would limit its scope to analyzing causal relationships, if any, of human activities on landslides, floods and drought and the secondary hazards triggered by those activities in the event of an earthquake. Of all human activities that have a direct or indirect impact on natural hazards, deforestation is by far the most significant. Deforestation is the removal or destruction of forest cover of an area. It may occur due to unscientific logging practices without regeneration and may be accompanied by subsequent conversion to non-forest usage like agriculture, pasture, urban, mining or industrial development, fallow or wetland. At a very broad level, it has been argued that deforestation is a major cause of global climatic changes. It has been predicted that removal of forest cover will lead to violent and unpredictable environmental fluctuations. At a smaller landscape, deforestation has a direct bearing upon the climatic, hydrological, edaphic and biological aspects of that area. Deforestation is associated with higher levels of soil erosion and landslides, sedimentation in river beds and changes in fluvial geomorphology (Haigh, 1984). Quite a few of these effects of deforestation have a direct bearing on the natural hazards that will be covered in this essay. One of the major functions of a forest is to maintain the humidity level in the atmosphere. Trees withdraw groundwater through their roots and transpire the excess water through their leaves. Forests return a major part of the rainfall received by them through evapotranspiration. Annual evapotranspiration in tropical moist lowland forests ranges up to 1500 mm per year, with transpiration accounting for a maximum of 1045 mm per year (Bruijnzeel, 1990). This process of evapotranspiration in the leaves of trees takes the latent heat of evaporation from the surrounding atmosphere. Thus evapotranspiration has a cooling effect on the atmosphere that aids precipitation. Deforestation denies the atmosphere of this cooling effect and is thus a contributing factor to lowering of annual rainfall in an area. Further, the effects of deforestation generally compound the severity of drought. Lack of trees translates to the lack of root fibers that hold the topsoil. In the event of a drought, the topsoil flakes and gets blown by the wind, leading to severe dust storms. This phenomenon had devastated the American Great Plains for close to a decade in 1930s. The dust bowl covered farming areas in Colorado, Kansas, north west Oklahoma, north Texas and north east New Mexico. The fertile soil of the plains was exposed due to lack of vegetation cover and actions of the plow. These farming techniques that led to severe soil erosion, coupled with prolonged periods of extremely low rainfall, led to a series of severe dust storms that ranged up to the Atlantic coast. Much of the fertile topsoil was lost in the Atlantic (Cartensen et al. , 1999). Direct causal relationship between human activity and drought is yet to be conclusively established. However, there are studies available that point to a positive correlation between the two. For example, climate-modeling studies have indicated that the 20th century Sahel drought was caused by changing sea surface temperatures. These changes were due to a combination of natural variability and human induced atmospheric changes. The anthropogenic factors in this case were rise in greenhouse gas levels and aerosols (GFDL Climate Modeling Research Highlights, 2007). The effect of human activities like deforestation is rather more direct and pronounced in case of hydrological hazards like fluvial floods. Fluvial floods occur when the discharge of a river exceeds its bankfull capacity. Forests create deep, open textured soils that can hold large quantities of water. When the forest cover is removed through logging, the soil becomes compacted. More rainwater is converted to runoff or near surface flow and less proportion percolates as groundwater. Research has shown significant increase in monthly runoff following logging activities (Rahim and Harding, 1993). The runoff rainwater carries with it considerable amounts of loose soil particles. Removal of vegetation cover through excessive logging activities or overgrazing leaves the soil bare. In such a situation, the upper layer of the soils becomes susceptible to erosion by surface runoff. These suspended soil particles are deposited on the riverbeds. The effect of this type of soil erosion by surface runoff is even more pronounced when the deforestation happens in the riparian zones as well.

Plagiarism and the Internet :: Cheating Education School Essays

Plagiarism and the Internet Copyright infringement, i.e., plagiarism is a crime that is occurring at epidemic rates in todayà °s society. Plagiarism can be found everywhere in this new age of technology. This is partially due to the fact that it is so easy to commit, as there are numerous resources on the Internet that people can use to pass off as their own work. However, it is also becoming easier to catch, as there are many sources on the web that work with people to catch those who are attempting to pass off other peoples ideas and words as their own. Today I decided to do a search on Yahoo about buying papers on the Internet. To my surprise over seven hundred thousand results came back with web sites where you could purchase a paper or essay of some sort. Although these web-sites all contain a disclaimer stating that under no circumstances should you try to pass their papers off as your own, the urge is just too hard to resist for some people. They see this as an easy way to get out of writing that paper they have been dreading working on even though it is illegal and these web sites state that you must site their web-site if you use any portion of the paper that they provided you with. Other people canà °t bring themselves to pay the money for a paper so they choose to simply cut and paste information from a web site with their topic into their own paper. Although there are many people that blatantly plagiarize, there are also some that do so unintentionally. It is easy to plagiarize if you dont know how to cite information in a paper properly. Countless amounts of people put quotes or the citation in the wrong place, which often results in plagiarism. This can also occur when a person does not properly paraphrase a statement that they got from a source. Therefore, it is quite easy to commit plagiarism whether you mean to or not. In this new decade of technology it is becoming easier for teachers and professors to catch plagiarizers, for example the web sites such as www.

49 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth Essay

Some of them, with their complicated timers and instant start-up features, constantly consume small amounts of electricity. (â€Å"Even the TV?† my wife asks. â€Å"Good thinking,† I tell her.) 3. SEPARATE YOUR GARBAGE. At our house we have separate garbage cans for glass, paper, plastic, aluminum, wood, organic matter, natural fabrics, synthetic fabrics, and rubber. (We split the work—my wife does the separating, I drop everything off at the recycling center.) 4. USE LESS WATER. We have two bricks in our toilet tank. But there’s a much simpler way to save water: Don’t flush every time! (â€Å"Don’t take the sports section in there with you!† is my wife’s tip. A sense of humor isso important.) 5. DON’T MOW THE LAWN. Let it grow. Naturally. Like a meadow. (â€Å"Like a dump!† jokes my wife.) See more:  Perseverance essay 6. DON’T SHAVE AS OFTEN. I shave once a week. (â€Å"If it’s good enough for Don Johnson,† I quip. â€Å"That was passà © years ago,† my wife informs me.) 7. DRIVE SLOWER. I try to maintain a nice, steady 40 miles per hour, the legal minimum on most highways. Also, I roll up the windows. It reduces wind resistance — and noise. (â€Å"You can’t hear those horns?† my wife asks, incredulous.) 8. SHOP WITH A RE-USABLE SHOPPING BAG. And, if you can, walk to the store. (â€Å"It’ll do wonders for your figure,† I mention casually to the missus.) 9. BOYCOTT! Boycott polluters, or anyone who sells any product that can cause pollution, or any product that might contain an ingredient that can cause pollution. (â€Å"What does that leave?† my wife asks. â€Å"Just the good stuff,† I reply.) 1 0. DO YOUR LAUNDRY BY HAND. It may be drudgery of the lowest order to have to hand-launder your clothes and hang them on a clothesline, but it saves water and energy. (â€Å"Whistle while you work,† I kid my wife. â€Å"Hitler is a jerk,† she continues. I’d forgotten that verse!) 11. TURN DOWN THE HEAT. Especially the water heater. (â€Å"They take cold showers in Sweden,† I like to hint. â€Å"Go to Sweden!†Ã¢â‚¬â€my wife.) 12. TAKE FEWER SHOWERS. But don’t share them, even if it’s been touted, albeit humorously, in other â€Å"x-number-of-simple-things-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth† books. Why? It uses more water. Figure it out for yourself. Better would be to take a bath in â€Å"recycled† bath water. Best: An occasional sponge bath. (â€Å"No, I’m not kidding,† I tell the wife.) 13. REPLACE METAL DOORKNOBS. During the winter, when it’s very dry, touch a metal doorknob and you get a little shock from the static electricity. That’s wasted electricity, I figure. We’ve replaced all our metal doorknobs with ones made of non-conducting rubber, wood or glass. (â€Å"You’ve got a screw loose,† my wife points out. And she’s right!) 14. GO SOLAR. For a small investment of about ten thousand dollars you can convert your house to solar energy. It’ll pay for itself in twenty years, I estimate. (â€Å"What next?† my wife wonders, as we all do.) 15. MOUNT A WINDMILL ON YOUR ROOF. It’s cheap—about eight hundred dollars—and easy to install. (â€Å"A little more to the right,† I yell up to her.) 16. MAKE YOUR OWN HONEY. In addition to producing delicious honey, our beehive is a real conversation starter. (â€Å"We have to talk,† my wife says. See?) 17. WORK AT HOME. Recently, I quit my job of twenty years to become a full-time writer. I write at home, on a computer. I’m not using up any gasoline or motor oil, I’m not wearing out any clothing or shoes. To put it simply: I’m not a drain on the environment. (â€Å"You don’t move,† my wife observes, exaggerating slightly.) 18. BOARD UP THE WINDOWS. Windows are nice, but they either let in too much heat, or let out too much, or vice versa. (â€Å"This is better than mini-blinds!† I shout to the wife, who can barely hear me over her own hammering.) 1 9. GET RID OF THE TELEPHONE. Think you can’t live without a telephone? Think again. We’ve done fine. (â€Å"Who would call us?† my wife rationalizes.) 20. GET RID OF THE BED. Many leading chiropractors say that sleeping on the floor, with no mattress or cushion, is the best way to sleep. (â€Å"We certainly haven’t needed a bed much lately,† my wife confides to a mutual friend.) 21. GET OUT AND ORGANIZE. At my wife’s suggestion, I got out of the house and into the community—to organize. Now I work with a diverse group of community activists and we meet four times a week—at our house. (â€Å"Whoare these people?† my wife asks. â€Å"They are the people,† I tell her proudly.) 22. BAN ALL CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS. Not just spray cans, but the refrigerator and the air conditioner. Get rid of them! We now have ice delivered to our house every day. (â€Å"You’re crazy!† my wife shouts from the kitchen. â€Å"So was Van Gogh!† I shout back.) 23. TREAT WOUNDS NATURALLY. If you’re injured, cut on the head, above the eyebrow—from a sharp piece of ice, let’s say—treat it naturally. Salt and lemon juice is the combination my wife favors. (â€Å"I want a divorce,† she says, pouring salt on my wound. â€Å"Ouch!† I say.) 24. KNOW THE LAW. And know a good lawyer. (My wife does.) 25. WHEN YOU MOVE, BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR. Having recently relocated to a smaller environment—an apartment—I can empathize with anyone who has had to go through a â€Å"moving experience† as I call it. Remember, along with a new habitat come new co-inhabitants. Get to know them. They are your neighbors and, as simplistic as this sounds, they are the keys to your survival. (When I explain this simplistic theory to one of my new neighbors, she’s fascinated. Maybe the beard works!) 26. CARPOOL. At my new part-time job I carpool with a couple of the ladies from the office. We’re saving gas, money, and we’re getting to know each other better. (â€Å"He used to have a fear of intimacy,† my wife tells the judge. On the advice of Barry, my lawyer, I can say nothing.) 27. MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR. I know, I know. But, if I could just use one earth-saving tip to draw your attention to the beautiful and cosmic experience of making love with a truly giving and understanding sexual partner. (Takethat, you lying, blood-sucking witch!) 28. SHARE YOUR SHOWERS. I’ve done a complete one-eighty on this one. Use a kitchen timer. (Or Ravel’s Bolero!) 29. WOMEN! Or should I say, women judges! (This just in: She gets the car, the house—everything except the profits from this book, Dear Reader.) 30. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. When someone (especially someone much younger and less experienced than yourself that you only met two weeks ago) tells you that one person can’t make a difference—that no matter how much shouting and yelling and â€Å"whining and complaining† one person does nothing will change, that â€Å"you’re too old to be acting that way,† that â€Å"you should settle down and focus on one thing and do that well†Ã¢â‚¬â€when someone lays that trip on you, it’s time to split. (â€Å"I can make a difference!† I tell her, gathering my things.) 31. BUNDLE AND RECYCLE NEWSPAPERS. Sorry, I lost sight of what we’re trying to do here, which is save the earth. Take all your old newspapers, bundle them together, and bring them to a recycling center. They’ll give you a few bucks, which is nothing to sneeze at. (What happened?) 32. BUY A â€Å"RECYCLED† CAR. There are some good deals in used cars—if you take the time to look. (I didn’t, and boy am I sorry.) 33. DON’T LITTER THE HIGHWAYS. Be considerate. There are laws, but they’re rarely enforced. (Except in my case, of course. I told the officer I wasn’t living in my car—it had broken down, I was tired—but: A $100 fine for vagrancy, a night in jail, a towing charge of $75, and a ticket—I’m getting rid of this damn car!) 34. KEEP FIGHTING. That’s right. No matter how tough it gets, the fight to save the earth will go on, with or without you. (Right now it’s without. I’m back to my old habits again—smoking, drinking, and hanging out with a bunch of losers. One of them is a real nut, calls himself â€Å"The Master.†) 35. DONATE OLD CLOTHING. There are people out there who can get some good use out of your old moth-eaten sweater or sports jacket or worn-out pair of shoes. (I’m a 41 short.) 36. FOLLOW THE MASTER. The Master has forged an â€Å"alliance with the human spirit† that allows him to speak directly and simultaneously to every living thing on this planet. (Follow The Master.) 37. THINK FOR YOURSELF. Take it from someone who, after having his self-esteem obliterated by a persuasive con man and his gang of sycophants, escaped on foot—with nothing to eat for nine days but wild berries and mushrooms—and lived to talk about it! (You might have seen the story in the papers—†DAZED FOLLOWER OF DIZZY GURU FOUND ON FREEWAY†) 38. HI, HOW ARE YOU? I knew it was her before I picked up the phone. (The cobwebs that covered the receiver were now sticking to my face. â€Å"Fine,† I said.) 39. DON’T BE FOOLED. A wise consumer is a protected consumer. (I told my ex this when we got together for some Irish coffee at the mini-mall, near the old house. She ended up selling that barn for—get this—$650,000! â€Å"Honey, it seems like old times!† I whooped.) 40. RECYCLE! REVIVE! RERUN! Excuse my exuberance, but something is finally happening out there—something positive, something good. People are separating their garbage. They’re using biodegradable, ecologically safe, recyclable and reusable materials. Everything old is new again! (When my ex-wife and I decided to re-marry, I suggested a â€Å"Save the Earth† clause be added to our pre-nuptial agreement. â€Å"We have to talk,† she said, showing great interest at the time.) 41. MOVE TO THE COUNTRY. Inherit the land again. That’s what we did. Bought forty-three acres in Upstate New York. It’s a working farm, where my wife can go out to the barn and milk the cows, pick out the freshest eggs and knit our clothes from the wool she shears from our very own sheep. (And I can finish this book!)