Group Topic's 1000 word essay: Simmone Cruz

How Climate Change, The Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Bill, and Gender Inequality impact everyday life 

 

Let’s Talk About Climate Change

 

Climate change is the long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns primarily caused by human activity. Global warming, the long-term heating of the earth’s climate, has been observed for centuries but has rapidly increased due to human activities like burning fossil fuels and increasing carbon emissions. As global temperatures rise, an influx of storms impacts local and international communities. The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events like hurricanes, flooding, tsunamis, fires, and melting ice are apparent symptoms of human-induced climate change. Not to be confused with weather changes, which vary over minutes or hours, climate change is the long-term evolution of the earth’s temperature that now threatens every aspect of human life. 

 

Humans are exacerbating climate change through reliance on fossil fuels, deforestation, and agriculture. Governments, large corporations, and the fast-fashion industry are significant contributors to global warming as they’ve strived to cut costs ad increase profits, regardless of the environmental impact. 

 

Agriculture is susceptible to climate change, which poses a threat to long-term land productivity and food security. Over the next several decades, warmer weather in low-altitude regions will increase the likelihood of drought. Declines in soil moisture will continue to increase the need for agriculture irrigation, leading to smaller crop yields and, in the worst case, desertification, which will significantly impact global food production. As the climate continues to change, millions of people below the poverty line and in developing countries will face challenges like extreme heat, food and water insecurity, and other health-related risks. 

 

With both humans and animals facing new challenges due to climate change, there are ways to help and combat these effects. Individuals can advance policies to fight climate change, engage with businesses to reduce carbon emissions, and help people/animals to adapt to changing climates. Installing solar panel systems reduces an individual or business’ carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from consumption of fossil fuels) and reliance on fossil fuels. Wind turbines are becoming an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy, lowering overall energy costs. Lastly, carbon capture technology strips carbon out of factory emissions and removes carbon already released into the environment. 

 

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and donors like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, are accelerating climate action by empowering transformations in clean technology, energy access, climate resilience, and sustainable forests for developing and middle-income countries that will be hit the hardest by climate change. On the other hand, large corporations like Nike are doing their part to reduce carbon emissions. For example, Nike’s Nike Air line at least 50 percent recycled materials and diverts more than 95 percent of waste from landfills.

 

The good news is, climate change can occur at the individual level. One of the best ways to reduce one’s environmental impact is to avoid meat and dairy products. Red meat has the most significant environmental impact, so decreasing or replacing dairy products with non-dairy alternatives is a great place to start. Try to choose fresh, seasonal produce grown locally to help reduce the carbon emissions from transportation, preservation, and prolonged refrigeration.

 

With over 30,000 Americans dying each year from air pollution, improving a car’s fuel efficiency can go a long way. Plus, if you’re traveling locally, walk or bike when possible instead of hopping in the car. With our lives and the lives of so many animals at stake, it’s critical to combat climate change at every turn to avoid a more challenging future. 

 

Exploring the Structure of the Infrastructure Bill

 

With the new $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal, only $550 billion will be used to fund new infrastructure projects for five years, including technology, construction, and transportation. Around $130 billion will be allocated to support recent technology advancements, which pertains to information technology infrastructure that serves as the backbone for enterprise IT environments. Construction can expect $360 billion for new construction projects, focusing on developing and maintaining services, facilities, and systems around the country. Lastly, transportation can expect roughly $117 billion to address outdated and often crumbling canals, waterways, roadways, railways, pipelines, bus stations, and airports, among other needs. 

 

Within the technology portion of the infrastructure deal and President Biden’s “Build Back Better” campaign, major funding will go towards improving and expanding the nation’s broadband service (Fiber Optic, Wireless, DSL, Cable/Satellite), creating a network of plug-in electric vehicle chargers, and improving state and local cyber security programs. With many car companies such as Ford and General Motors announcing that they’ll have electric cars widely available by 2026, demand for electric car chargers will increase dramatically across the country. So, it’s critical to get ahead of the surge in demand by laying the infrastructure for electric vehicle chagrin before it’s too late. The infrastructure bill will fix the current and future electric charging issue by providing $7.5 billion in funding. 

 

On the cyber security front, Congress allocated about $2 billion to address an increase in cyberattacks on private businesses and government agencies. Of those $2 billion, $1 billion will be funding a grant program for state, local, and tribal governments to reinforce their cybersecurity programs. Other portions of the funds will strengthen the security of the electric grid and to the Department of Homeland Security for cyber research.

 

Construction is an important sector that significantly contributes to the economic growth of the nation. Construction projects provide jobs, inject funds and new life into a community, and create the infrastructure critical to keeping the country moving forward. The infrastructure bill will help the construction industry and give states higher budgets to construct different types of residential areas and non-residential areas. 

 

Amtrak, the nation’s most extensive railway system, is a significant focus of the transportation segment of the infrastructure bill. The goal is to modernize and expand the public transit and rail networks (including Amtrak) across the country while reducing greenhouse emissions. According to the bill, the package will provide $39 billion to modernize public transit, $66 billion to improve passenger and freight rail, and $12 billion in partnership grants for intercity rail service, including high-speed rail. The plan is the most significant federal investment in public transit in history and passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak.

 

Gender Inequality and Widespread Discrimination

 

The LQBTQ community has faced discrimination and hate crimes since before the 19th century. Notably, the 2016 Orlando club shooting was the worst gender-related hate crime, leaving 49 dead and 50 injured. 

 

Case study 1

Police officer Michael DiCecco was known to harass transgender women. On the night of April 21, 2016, Michael stopped Melanie Legend and allegedly put his “thumb in Melanie Legend’s waistband and pulled her pants down in the middle of the street.” The officer was arrested, sent to trial, and eventually settled the case for $25,000. 

 

Case study 2

Brian Stone, a hardworking Red Robin employee, was fired for his sexual orientation. Brian’s boss, Louis Tsourovakas, mocked Brian for attending a gay parade in Miami and told him to find a new job. 

 

Unfortunately, the attacks on LGBTQ people don’t stop there, and there have been unprecedented rates of suicide in transgender youth in 2020 alone. But, this can be prevented if people focus on themselves instead of others and laws are enacted to protect transgender youth, especially regarding healthcare.  

 

Immigrants face similar discrimination attacks in the U.S. as they lack many legal protections citizens take for granted. The Charter of the United Nations and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaim the right of everyone to enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms, without distinction to race, color, or national origin. However, despite these efforts, many minorities continue to experience various forms of discrimination, especially in countries with a dominant majority or a history of colonialism and occupation.

 

While discrimination occurs on several fronts, gender inequality is particularly apparent within the education system. The existing patterns of inequality, especially gender inequality, are reproduced within schools through formal and informal processes. Studies have shown:

● Teachers may have higher expectations for boys in math and science, and for girls, higher expectations in language.

● Teachers tend to praise students matching gender expected norms.

● Students are praised more often by female math teachers than female language teachers, but male language teachers more often give praise than male mathematics teachers.

 

Across the globe, women are more educated than ever before but still are not as educated as men. Only 60 years ago, only 50 percent of women underwent formal education. While great strides have been made, and only 20 percent of women didn’t have formal education in 2020, it still lagged behind the rate of male education. 

 

Sadly, the education gap extends itself into the workplace. It’s common knowledge that a woman makes substantially less money than a man working the same job. According to the United States Department of Labor, the ratio of women’s to men’s earnings has remained steady between 80-83% since 2004.  

 

In summary, women of color and transgender individuals experience exceptionally high poverty, unemployment, and other economic hardships. Plus, transgender individuals suffer from prejudices in the workforce, higher levels of domestic violence, higher rates of hate crimes, and higher levels of police brutality when compared to the cisgender population. Despite these harsh realities, one can take actions to promote gender equality in daily life, like sharing household chores and childcare equally, watching for signs of domestic violence, supporting mothers and parents, rejecting racist attitudes, listening, reflecting, and constantly learning from different people.