Free Essays - Memories and Motherhood in Landscape for a Good Woman :: Landscape for a Good Woman Essays

Memories and Motherhood in Landscape for a Good Woman The relevance and subsequent interpretation of memories as they relate to one's desire to mother ". . . refusal to reproduce oneself is a refusal to perpetuate what one is, that is, the way one understands oneself to be in the social world." -- pg. 84 In reading Carolyn Kay Steedman's Landscape for a Good Woman, two themes took center stage: Memories and Motherhood. As the book unfolds Steedman repeatedly points out that childhood memories are used by individuals for various purposes; rather than objective recollections dominated by facts, she proposes that they are more subjective in nature, likely to alter with time or as circumstances dictate. Thus, fact has very little relevance, taking a back seat to the history we create for ourselves. ". . . childhood is a kind of history, the continually reworked and re-used personal history that lies at the heart of each present" -- pg. 128 Though she examined sociological, political, economic and psychoanalytic issues, one aspect Steedman fails to address is the biological, as in the so-called "biological clock". Frankly, her argument may benefit from this phenomena. Though women in their teens and early twenties frequently express an emphatic lack of desire for children, citing specifics of their personal histories to support these decisions, years later the same memories are given an opportunity to soften, recede or even disappear altogether. Thus, in light of this altered history, the individual in question feels more at ease reassessing her choices (in light of these memories) and considering motherhood a viable alternative. "We all return to memories and dreams . . . again and again; the story we tell of our own life is reshaped around them. But the point doesn't lie there, back in the past, back in the lost time at which they happened; the only point lies in interpretation." -- pg. 5 Another point Steedman only touches on lightly is her sister's interpretation of the past. Personally, I find it fascinating to discuss childhood events with siblings who participated in the same events. The significance of seemingly unrelated experiences, occurring after the occasion in question, together with personal feelings, frequently cause siblings' recollections of the same events to differ. In light of Steedman's work, it is easier now to understand how children, raised by the same parents, offered the same opportunities and sharing the same historical events, may end up with radically different memories.

Drug Testing and Ethics Essay

Is drug testing an unwarranted invasion of employee privacy? Which is more important–getting drugs out of the workplace or protecting the privacy of the employee? What about other health-threatening activities, i. e. smoking outside of working hours, unprotected sex, etc. Should employers be able to question or test employees or potential employees about these activities? Both of these scenarios are tricky ones. On the one hand, any employer would want to get drugs out of the workplace. On the other hand you don’t want to invade an employee’s privacy. At the same time some jobs may require employees to conform to a certain standard of behavior both on and off the job, but how much is too much? How much should be employees be judged and how high of a standard should be set. Where do we draw the line? Shaw and Barry in their text Moral Issues in Business state â€Å"A firm has a legitimate interest in employee conduct off the job only if it affects work performance† (Shaw & Barry 2010, p477). It can be argued that as long as the drug use doesn’t affect the employee’s work performance, then he shouldn’t be tested. If he is tested and the result is positive, but work performance is satisfactory, then drug use should not be considered as grounds for termination. Perhaps a better way to state this could be that as long as employee performance meets or exceeds the expected standards, then drug testing should not be used even if drug use is suspected. Egoism can be used to argue from both points of view. According to this theory, â€Å"an act is morally right if and only if it best promotes an agent’s interests† (Shaw & Barry, 2010 p59). Following this theory, if the employer drug tests several employees and fires all who test positive, then they are acting in their best interests. On the other hand, if the employee’s best interests are served through their drug usage, then the employee has acted in the best moral way that he can. Using this theory does however raise some interesting questions. If the best possible person for a specific job is fired as a result of a drug test result, and the company’s performance in that specific department falls as a result of this, then was the action a morally right one? From a personal point of view, I believe that drug testing should be used only if the job requirements demand it. I don’t see any need for the person who picks up my garbage to be tested. I do however see a need for the school crossing guard at my children’s school to be tested. The person who shovels the snow from my driveway in the winter and mows my lawn in the spring and summer doesn’t need to be drug tested. My doctor should be. Several years ago my husband and I had a spat over my decision to hire the town drunk to do some lawn work and prune some tree branches off our roof. In all fairness I had no idea that he was the town drunk when I hired him, I was out in our backyard picking up fallen branches and he walked by at that moment. He asked if I had any odd jobs to be done and since he came across as clean and presentable and lucid I hired him on the spot. It wasn’t until three weeks later when my husband came home early and saw Bruce (the town drunk) at the top of a 50 foot tree sawing branches off that he realized who his new handyman was. Since he was usually the one on call at night whenever Bruce had one of his â€Å"benders† and had had cleaned him up several times, he now knew where Bruce was getting his drinking money from. My husband came home and told me he’d fired him. I rehired Bruce a day later. My reasoning was that he’d never shown up drunk, he did a great job on any task I set for him and his fee was reasonable. It was within my best interests to keep Bruce employed therefore I was acting as an egoist. It was within Bruce’s best interests to remain employed since it gave him the money to support his habit. He was acting as an egoist. We were both also following the theory of Libertarianism under which each person is free to live as he or she wishes â€Å"free from the interference of others† (Shaw & Barry, 2010 p122). My husband in his decision to fire Bruce was also acting partially from an egoist point of view since an unemployed Bruce meant a sober Bruce which meant no trips to the ER which meant that my husband wouldn’t have to deal with a cursing, screaming, bloody drunk Bruce. At the same time he was also acting from Kant’s theory which states that â€Å"Only when we act from a sense of duty does our action have moral worth† (Shaw & Barry, 2010 p69). My husband felt that it was his duty as a member of the medical profession, not to enable a habit that could possibly cause harm to an individual. A high incidence of false positive results in drug testing is another reason for the argument that drug testing should not be used. In researching this paper I was surprised to learn how many over the counter drugs can produce false positive results. According to an article on The National Center for Biotechnology Information website entitled â€Å"Commonly prescribed medications and potential false positive urine drug screens† published Aug 15th 2010, â€Å"A number of routinely prescribed medications have been associated with triggering false-positive UDS results. Verification of the test results with a different screening test or additional analytical tests should be performed to avoid adverse consequences for the patients. † Some of the more common drugs that could produce false positive results were nonprescription nasal inhalers such as Vicks, antihistamines, antidepressants, and antibiotics such as Amoxicillin which has been associated with false positive urine screens for cocaine. Employers should not be able to question or test employees about other behaviors that they might consider health threatening. This is a rather grey area and raises the questions of where to draw the line. For example if a company which is trying to reduce health insurance costs, decides to eliminate all smokers from their payroll since it costs more to insure smokers, shouldn’t they then eliminate overweight employees who are more likely to develop health problems than fit ones? What about employees with pre-existing conditions such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure or kidney problems? Shouldn’t they be eliminated as well? Should employers be allowed to use polygraph tests to â€Å"screen† out potentially costly employees who may engage in illegal drug use or any of these activities? The polygraph test, or as it is more commonly known, the lie detector test measures several physiological with in the human body such as increased blood pressure, increased pulse and respiration. However in spite of what most people believe it is not the most reliable test. Shaw and Barry in their text Moral Issues in Business list three assumptions made by those who advocate for the use of these tests. These assumptions are *  1.  Lying will automatically trigger a distinctive response to the question. * 2. Polygraphs are very accurate. * 3. Polygraphs cannot be beaten. (Shaw & Barry, 2010 p480). Unfortunately for these advocates while the polygraph test measures bodily responses to questions it cannot indicate whether or not the response is actually a lie. A person who has a history of being abused may register different reactions to questions along that subject area and all that these reactions may indicate is discomfort to the question not necessarily that the response to the question itself is a lie. Opinions vary as to just how accurate the tests are with the percentages ranging from 90% to as low as 55%, the higher percentages coming not surprisingly from the American Polygraph Association. Finally polygraph tests can be beaten and even generate false positives. Spies John Walker and Aldrich Ames both passed polygraph tests as did Gary Ridgeway the â€Å"Green Killer†. Ames actually passed two different polygraph tests. Since these tests are costly, using them as a screening method for either new hires or present employees may not be the best solution and should be considered on a case by case basis. Other methods should be used before resorting to polygraphs testing such as drug testing which may indicate previous drug use (although as has been mentioned earlier some false positive results may occur) or even background tests which may turn up questionable incidents. If during the course of these two checks questions are raised about the employee or new hire, then the employer could resort to the use of a polygraph. It could be argued that utilizing either or both of these two other methods is even more costly to the employers but I would say that any employer who needs to use a polygraph test to weed out potentially costly employees could afford to administer the extra tests to be absolutely sure. Fortunately for most employees, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 which protects the rights of employees and outlines the usage and restrictions of lie detector tests states: â€Å"The EPPA prohibits most private employers from using lie detector tests, either for preemployment screening or during the course of employment. Employers generally may not require or request any employee or job applicant to take a lie detector test, or discharge, discipline, or discriminate against an employee or job applicant for refusing to take a test or for exercising other rights under the Act†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ It then goes on to outline just which employers are permitted to utilize lie detector tests †¦ â€Å"Subject to restrictions, the Act permits polygraph (a type of lie detector) tests to be administered to certain job applicants of security service firms (armored car, alarm, and guard) and of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and dispensers. Subject to restrictions, the Act also permits polygraph testing of certain employees of private firms who are reasonably suspected of involvement in a workplace incident (theft, embezzlement, etc. ) that resulted in specific economic loss or injury to the employer. † (United States Department of Labor website) My argument to using a polygraph test therefore would be that assuming that the employer fell into one of these categories then yes they should be permitted to utilize lie detector tests but only as a last resort. I submit this argument using the rule utilitarianism theory. This is not to be confused with act utilitarianism. Under act utilitarianism, â€Å"we ask must ask ourselves what the consequences of a particular act in a particular situation will be for all those affected. If its consequences bring more total good than those of any alternative course of action, then this action is the right one† (Shaw & Barry, 2010 p63) The action that produces the greatest amount of happiness is the right one. Rule utilitarianism asks â€Å"what moral code †¦ a society should adopt to maximize happiness. The principles that make up that code would then be the basis for distinguishing right actions from wrong actions† (Shaw & Barry, 2010 p80-81). Under act utilitarianism, if 20 employees were polygraphed and 15 of them failed the test and were fired as a result, then the action would not be a moral one since more people would be left unhappy rather than happy. Using those same figures, if the rule or moral code that needed to be followed was that of a no drug policy, and the same 20 employees were polygraphed and again 15 failed and were fired, then the action would be a morally right one since firing the 15 employees made sure that the moral code was enforced. References http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20689123 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygraph_test http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/eppa.htm#who

Family Environment and Delinquency Essay

When a child loses a parent through death, desertion, divorce, or long separation, some form of deprivation is bound to result. Where, as is generally the case, the male parent is missing, the child is placed under an obvious economic handicap. Absence of either parent may also cause a certain affectional loss for the child. In addition, the complementary control, example, and guidance given by both parents are wanting and complete socialization of the child is rendered more difficult. At the death of a parent no cultural opposition is imposed upon the situation. Rather, social and economic assistance both public and private is readily forthcoming. Furthermore, the acquisition of a stepparent through remarriage of the remaining parent may even reestablish something of a family norm for the bereaved child. But, in cases of desertion and divorce (and illegitimacy) we have an entirely different set of circumstances. Here we frequently find the child exposed to a highly emotionalized atmosphere of discontent and discord. The child most often remains with the mother only, financial support may be withheld by the father, or the parents may fight over the child’s custody. In case of desertion no new father may legally become part of the child’s home. And the subtle challenge of public disapproval of the family situation and the psychological impact of a seeming rejection by one’s parents may becloud the child’s outlook. Divorce in many cases is indeed simply a formal recognition or acknowledgement of an already socially broken home, and it is generally appreciated that the home in constant discord might cause the child more harm than if the parental relationship were severed. Such reasoning has merit, but, interestingly enough, this argument has been used to justify divorce rather than to plead for the rehabilitation or prevention of unhappy families. Such a viewpoint, it should also be noted, contradicts another social philosophy which holds that even a bad home is better than no home at all for the child. There are many varieties of broken homes and many correspondingly different kinds of family relationships involved. Even the social disparateness in family structure which results from long-term hospitalization, military service, or employment of the breadwinner away from home, may bring about some serious consequences for the members of a family. On the other hand, the conventional family structure may cloak a host of baneful influences or situations harmful to a child’s wholesome development. To say it in another way, all broken homes are not bad ones, and all conventional types are not good ones. This article is not concerned with a delineation of all possible types of homes and their effect on children, but rather it is restricted to a consideration of the more evident types of broken homes as they relate to children who are apprehended for committing delinquent acts. With the establishment of juvenile courts in the United States around 1900 and the compilation of social statistics on youth who were brought before these courts, observers were struck by the high proportion–40 to 50 percent–of all delinquent children who came from broken homes. Since it was far beyond normal expectancy that such a proportion of all youth was similarly disadvantaged, early writers saw broken homes to be an important, if not the greatest single proximate (causal) factor in understanding juvenile delinquency. There was no denial that the broken home was only one of a number of factors to take into account and that the age of the child and the quality of the home life, as well as the mere fact of a break, were important. A number of studies have shown, however, that abnormal or defective family relationships are much more prevalent among families of delinquent children than among families of comparable children who do not become delinquent. This aspect of the matter is a subject unto itself. Not counting the statistical tabulations of many juvenile courts over the years, dozens of studies have been made which deal with the broken home and juvenile delinquency or crime. Some of the early studies attempted to estimate the proportion of broken homes in the population at large from existing census data, to use for a comparison with their special groups of delinquent or institutionalized children. A common conclusion was that delinquent children had about twice the proportion of broken homes as did children in the general population. A few comparisons were made of boys in the same school or city area, revealing a greater prevalence of broken homes among the delinquent group; while one such comparison of several groups of children in 1918 suggested that more orphans were found in the delinquent group. The first major attempt at a controlled comparison was made by Slawson in 1923, using delinquent boys in four state institutions and boys in three New York City public schools, from which he concluded that there were over twice as many broken homes in his delinquent group.6 Concurrently, in England, Cyril Burt analyzed a group of misbehaving (â€Å"delinquent†) children and public school children of the same age and social class. Although his classification of â€Å"defective family relationships† included other factors besides the broken home, he, too, found the problem children to be doubly disfavored. And, in 1929, Mabel Elliott compared the family structure of her group of Sleighton Farm girls mostly sex offenders with that of a group of Philadelphia working-class continuation school girls, revealing the respective proportions of broken homes to be 52 and 22 percent. Even greater refinement was introduced into the question by Shaw and McKay when they compared boys against whom official delinquency petitions were filed in the juvenile court of Chicago in 1929, with other boys drawn from the public school population of the same city areas. They found that a rather high proportion (29 percent) of the school boys 10 to 17 years of age came from broken homes. After the school population data were carefully adjusted statistically for age and ethnic composition to make them comparable with the delinquent group, the proportion of broken homes rose to 36.1 percent for the school group, as compared to 42.5 percent for the delinquent boys. This result, as Shaw and McKay interpreted it, â€Å"suggests that the broken home, as such, is not an important factor in the case of delinquent boys in the Cook County juvenile court,† while other writers further interpreted the findings as showing that broken homes generally are â€Å"relatively insignificant in relation to delinquency.† Even accepting the above figures for Chicago, mathematical exception has been taken to such interpretations. From an over-all viewpoint it is well to remember that a large proportion of children from broken homes do not become delinquent, but this hardly refutes the inescapable fact that more children from broken homes, as compared to unbroken homes, become delinquent. Even among families having delinquents, siblings are more often delinquent in the broken family group. For the social analyst, the broken home may be regarded either as a symptom or as a consequence of a larger process, but for the child it becomes a social fact with which he has to abide. In a very real sense the abnormal structure of his family may impede his own normal adjustment and in some cases may bring him into conflict with the requirements of the larger society, more so than if he were surrounded by a conventional family milieu. That so many children surpass this handicap is an exemplification of their own resilience and a demonstration of the presence of other forces acting towards the child’s socialization in the community, rather than a proof of the unimportance of normal family life in the development of norms of conduct or the unimportance of the handicaps experienced by me child in the broken home. In former years when divorce was less common and desertion less apparent perhaps, broken homes were probably thought to be largely a result of the death of a parent. The material and other losses to such children may not have been readily perceived. How such a simple event as death could wreak enduring havoc with the child’s development was difficult to discern. Hence, disbelief in the importance of orphan hood as to delinquency causation, coupled with the very unsatisfactory nature of the early studies, no doubt led some sociologists to take exception to the prevailing beliefs and to question the whole relationship. A convergence of information from the other disciplines as to the deleterious effects of divorce and desertion or family separations upon the child, as well as a psychological appreciation of the different nature of these types of family disruption, brought a more unanimous acknowledgment of the importance of the socially broken home. In some quarters the recent â€Å"wave† of delinquency has been interpreted to be a result of the growth of divorce and separation. However, information on the particular family relationships of children in the community and those who become delinquent are generally lacking. We know that over the past 50 years there has been a lessening of orphan hood through improvement in life expectancy, and an upward rise in family dissolutions through desertion and divorce, until now there seems to have been a reversal in the relative importance of the two factors of death and social discord in the breaking up of a child’s family. Oddly enough, in spite of the change in the nature of broken homes the high over-all proportion of delinquent children from broken homes apparently has not changed significantly. One large minority in the population consistently shows twice the average rate of socially broken homes and twice the average rate of delinquency. Other groups with strong family cohesiveness show below average rates of delinquency. Such apparent associations cannot be dismissed as happenstance. On the whole very little disagreement has been expressed over the probable harmful influence of the socially broken home on the child. This does not gainsay, however, the deprivation consequent to the loss of a parent through death. Indeed, the same high proportions of delinquents were found to come from broken homes more than a generation ago when orphan hood loomed larger as the reason for family disruption. Of even more importance to the child than the nature of the break is the fact of a break in his home. All in all, the stability and continuity of family life stands out as a most important factor in the development of the child. It would seem, therefore, that the place of the home in the genesis of normal or delinquent patterns of behavior should receive greater practical recognition. The relationship is so strong that, if ways could be found to do it, a strengthening and preserving of family life, among the groups which need it most, could probably accomplish more in the amelioration and prevention of delinquency and other problems than any other single program yet devised. If delinquency is more likely to occur in a disorganized family than in a â€Å"normal† one, the family situation may somehow create the delinquency. But how? Perhaps a disorganized family tends to produce children with sick personalities, and sick personalities have unusual difficulty conforming to social rules. On some such assumptions consensus appeared possible on the causal connection between family disorganization and delinquency. Then Shaw and McKay suggested, after a comparison of the incidence of broken homes among Chicago schoolboys and male juvenile delinquents, â€Å". . . That the broken home as such [does not seem to be] a significant causal factor in cases of delinquent boys brought before Cook County Juvenile Court.† To many, this study seemed to imply that the family, an institution so important in the socialization process, was irrelevant to delinquency. The authors of the study did not draw so radical an inference from their data. Although the formal break in the family may not in itself be an important determining factor, it is probable that the conflicts, tensions, and attitudes which precipitate the disorganization may contribute materially to the development of the delinquency and the personality problems of the child. The actual divorce or separation of the parents may not be so important a factor in the life of the child as the emotional conflicts which have resulted in the break in the family relationships.

States considering laws to prevent obesity in America

States considering laws to prevent obesity in America Obesity... overweight... fat. No questions, its one of this nations worst and most costly health problems. But, can government, in its finest we know whats best for you tradition, actually outlaw obesity in America? According to a recent Washington Post article, legislatures in at least 25 states are currently debating more than 140 bills aimed at curbing obesity. New state laws currently under consideration would restrict the sale of soda and candy in public schools, require fast-food chains to post fat and sugar content directly on all menu boards, and even attempt to tax the fat away. According to the Post, six bills proposed by New York State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D) would slap hefty taxes on not only fatty foods, but also modern icons of sedentary living movie tickets, video games and DVD rentals. Ortiz estimates his tax laws would haul in over $50 million a year, which New York could use to fund public exercise and nutrition programs. We have focused on smoking; now it is about time we fight obesity, Ortiz told the Post. Over 44 million Americans are now considered obese, with an associated increase in cases of serious and costly diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and kidney failure. As costs to health plans of obesity-driven illnesses soar, the success of anti-smoking legislation passed during the 1990s and the seatbelt laws of the 1970s have lawmakers thinking similar laws could help force Americans to push away from the table. Obviously, civil libertarians and consumer rights groups do not like the idea of legislating eating behavior. Its an individual responsibility issue, states Richard Berman, executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom in the Post article. If Im going to shorten my own life by eating too much or being too sedentary, that may not be much different than shortening my life by riding a motorcycle without a helmet on. On the other hand, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson cites the $117 billion spent annually on obesity-related health care when he states, If were really interested in holding down medical costs and improving the health of citizens, we have to do something about obesity. Some insurance industry officials have suggested charging obese persons higher premiums. HHS Secretary Thompson, however, cautioned that doing so could run afoul of federal anti-discrimination laws. The most potentially contentious fat-fighting suggestion mentioned in the Post story came from Eric Topol, chief of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. Topols suggestion would offer a federal income tax credit to slender people, while the people ruining our health care economics [the obese] would pay the standard tax. People who are able to be disciplined and lose weight should be rewarded, said Topol.

Manifest Destiny Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Manifest Destiny - Essay Example The originally-thought of as divine destiny to help other nations became an intense selfish purpose to divide and conquer other nations, not just northward, which justified the original term â€Å"continentalism† but also westward, or the whole world ultimately. This belief became a source of division among the American nation, particularly on the issue of â€Å"All Oregon or Nothing†. During the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 which discussed the joint occupation by the United States and Great Britain of the Oregon Country, the British government refused the idea of then President John Tyler to divide the Oregon Country along the 49th parallel. Instead, the British suggested that a boundary line along Columbia River be made. This was objected to by the advocates of Manifest Destiny. They wanted the whole Oregon Country instead of sharing it with the British. They demanded that annexation be made (otherwise known as 54degrees 40’N). Then Presidential candidate James Polk proposed to divide the Oregon Country along the 49th parallel. Again, the British refused the proposal. Advocates of Manifest Destiny cried out for â€Å"The Fifty-Four Forty or None!† When Polk became President, he insinuated to terminate the joint occupation agreement. Thus, the British had no option but to accede to the proposal of dividing Oregon Country along the 49th parallel. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 was born

The climate change. Carbon Tax in Australia Essay

The climate change. Carbon Tax in Australia - Essay Example It is supposed to affect most of the Australian industries along with the household people. Carbon tax has been proposed with the view of associating cost with carbon emission and encouraging people to make use renewable sources of energy. An IMC plan has been set out to promote this new carbon tax in Australia. The target audience has been identified to be the Australian households and the industries in Australia. Relevant communication objectives have also been developed focusing more on the awareness amongst people about carbon tax and its implications and thereby helping to create a brand image of the same. Creative strategies towards the achievement of each of the communication objectives have also been developed. Media plan have been formulated and is considered to be the key of the effectiveness of this IMC plan. A proper media mix has been taken into consideration to enable effective communication with the specific target audiences. The climate change as a consequence of glob al warming is an important environmental issue in today’s world. The earth’s temperature has been rising at an alarming rate in the recent years. All the nations in the world are concerned about it, and Australia is no exception. The government of Australia has come up with the proposal of implementation of a new environmental tax, namely carbon tax. ... This study discusses the development an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) plan so as to promote carbon tax, its implications, and advantages associated with it. A proper segmental analysis along with the formulation of specific communication objectives has been included in this study. Creative strategies to achieve the communication objectives have also been included in this study. Lastly, a proper media plan has been developed for creating an effective communication with the target audience. 2. Segment Analysis The key principle behind IMC is the knowledge of customers. This knowledge is made possible through proper segmentation of target audience or customer in order to identify them (Duncan 204). Segmentation of customers is usually done on the basis of certain parameters like geographic, psychographic, demographic, and behavioural characteristics. This study is about developing an IMC plan for the promotion of the proposed carbon tax by the government of Australia. Hence t he first primary task in developing such plan would be the proper segmentation of a target audience. Carbon tax is designed to be imposed on those adding to the carbon emission in the atmosphere. Carbon emission occurs mainly from two sources: from the production of goods, which results in carbon emission, or from the consumption of goods and services, which results in the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. Hence the Australian economy can be thought of as two broad segments, namely the Australian households and the companies in Australia that are involved in consuming and producing energy from sources that cause carbon emission. Australian households