Yanel Orozco - Topic Group Presentations

 

Climate Change- Group 3

     Group three was the first group to present. Their topic was Climate Change. They had much to say about the topic since there are numerous factors to the topic of climate change. First, we were introduced to what climate change was, which is the Earth’s change in temperature and weather patterns over time. The Earth’s temperature has gone up one degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years, which may not seem like much, but has drastic effects on the planet. Climate change is a naturally occurring phenomenon; however, humans have contributed to the speeding of climate change throughout the years. Group three spoke about the causes of climate change, which included fossil fuel emissions, which is a big factor in climate change. Fashion industries and big corporations, such as nestle and H&M, highly contribute to climate change. It takes about 3,700 litres of water to make a pair of jeans, which equates to the emission of around 33.4 kilograms of carbon emissions. The United States government moved their big companies to third world countries, such as China and India, since production there is cheaper. However, this decision has negatively impacted those in third world countries who now must suffer because of the pollution caused by these companies. Another big contributor to climate change is oil drilling. When extracting oil from the ground, wildlife, marine life, and even our atmosphere are affected. Oil drilling destroys animal habitats, causing animals to relocate. Marine life is affected by pollution in the oceans. The heat emissions released through oil drilling get caught inside our Earth’s atmosphere, causing it to warm. The biggest oil drilling incident in the United States occurred on April 20th, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico when an oil drilling machine exploded, resulting in the death of 11 workers and a huge oil spill into the ocean. This oil spill added to the climate crisis by destroying marine life and animals, as well as releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. If it happened once, it could happen again, however, no action is being taken to prevent it. With causes, come effects and the biggest effects of climate change are stronger natural disasters like hurricanes, tornados, and tsunamis. Rising sea levels and longer droughts are other effects that threaten wildlife. Climate change must be taken seriously, for the sake of our Earth and the creatures living in it. You can help by advancing policies to fight climate change; engaging with businesses to reduce carbon emissions; helping people and nature adapt to a changing climate.

Gender Inequality – Group 2

     Group two spoke about gender inequality. Gender inequality is when men and women are not treated equally. Let’s say for example a woman is getting paid less for doing the same job as a man, which can be described as gender inequality. Gender inequality is experienced in the LGBTQ+ community, where people within the community have been discriminated against for not being considered “normal”, resulting in killings, suicides, and harassment. A true example was a cop named Michael DiCecco who harassed a transgender woman, Melanie Legend. The officer saw Melanie walking and pulled her pants down in the middle of the street. A year after the incident, the case was settled for $25,000. Gender inequality is a big issue when it comes to education. A man can have the same level of education as a woman, yet it will be more difficult for the woman to have a higher management job. These issues stem from back in the 1950s when women were expected to play the role of “stay-at-home-wife”. Only the men could work and provide for the family. Women were seen as fragile and incapable of doing what a man could do, therefore, those social standards can still be seen in the present day. In the education system, studies show that teachers treat students differently based on gender. Males are expected to succeed in math and science, while girls are expected to succeed in language. Some teachers praise students for matching the expected gender norms. If a woman were to study engineering, which is seen as a male profession, she might be looked down upon, expected to fail at her job. Working in male-dominated jobs makes it more difficult for a woman because they must work ten times harder to meet the expectations of those at work and prove that they are capable of doing the same job. How can we close the gender gap? Group two provided us with some helpful solutions to gender inequality. The first and most important is to stand up for your rights. The second is to raise awareness and protest about the situation. Finally, be a role model to others. Don’t follow the social norms, instead, fight for what you believe is right.

Infrastructure – Group 1

     Group one spoke about infrastructure and how it plays a role in our economy. To simply define infrastructure, it is the fundamental structures and facilities that help a society function. Examples of infrastructure include buildings, roads, and power supplies. Beginning with the economy, around 360 billion dollars are put into construction to fund new projects, 113 billion is given to technology to fund new technological advances throughout the country, and 117 billion to find transportation around the country. Technology, construction, and transportation are what make a society function. However, these factors contain issues that need to be fixed. When it comes to technology, cyber-attacks are a big issue. Experts estimate that a ransomware attack will occur every eleven seconds in 2021, disrupting normal operations and damaging important IT assets and infrastructure that can be impossible to recover without the budget or resources to do so. The transportation issue is when it comes to electric cars. There are not many charging stations across the country and the ones available are only exclusive to Tesla vehicles, making it difficult for people to own electric vehicles. Thankfully, this issue will be solved thanks to the infrastructure bill, which will provide nationwide EV stations. Finally, construction has issues that need to be fixed. When building new roads or bridges, it can cause more traffic in other areas, leading to more accidents. Construction also negatively impacts the U.S by releasing pollutants into the air.