Category Archives: Human Society

Growing Sustainably

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For the last blog post, I wanted to think about improving our world to combat climate change and a growing population. One of the biggest threats to humans in the next decade is global climate change. It can be seen that if we continue to follow the highest emission path of releasing CO2 into the atmosphere many parts of the world will become unlivable.

With the threats of the rising temperatures and natural disasters we as a society need to be able to counter this. One of the methods to do this is through building sustainable cities. Goal 11 “Sustainable cities” with the growing population the ability to accommodate this along with creating a sustainable development that will last. The goal states, “we need to build modern, sustainable cities. For all of us to survive and prosper, we need new, intelligent urban planning that creates safe, affordable and resilient cities with green and culturally inspiring living conditions” (Global Goals, n.d). 

This goal can be seen more locally within New York State. There is a push by the state to grow in a sustainable way. There is a state program called Climate Smart Communities (CSC) created by the NYSEC which provides a framework for local governments to guide their climate action plan. This program has been successful with 2,706 sustainable actions being completed across the state (New York State 2021). An off branch of this program of CSC was created by the Under the NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) called Clean Energy communities. This program created a commission that focuses on the mitigation of climate change and energy use on a more local level. Schenectady has completed 7 actions adding up to 2100 points. Including implementing clean fleets, being a part of Climate Smart Communities, LED Street Lights, PACE financing, Unified Solar (NYSERDA n.d.). 

All these programs created by the state of New York work towards the goal of sustainable  cities. These programs combine state action, local municipalities, and the individual to work towards creating a greener and more sustainable place to live globally. 

Within the goal set up by the UN, it includes the target to  “affordable and sustainable transportation” which New York is doing by setting up grants that encourage individuals to buy electric cars but also encourage governments to implement electric fleets. Another target is “inclusive and sustainable urbanization” and “reduce environmental impact of cities”, these targets are something the ClimateSmart incentive is tacking step by step through their incentives program that it is getting more and more towns to implicate green incentives that will better the local community, the nation and in turn the world. 

Making the world a better place, is such a broad ask for anyone, if it’s a country of a single person. By breaking the statement down into parts and focusing on making small improvements, you are in turn helping everyone. By New York State and then Schenectady working to create a more sustainable place and developing or green initiatives it is, in turn, reducing the amount of fossil fuel emissions being released which is helping EVERYONE in the future. 

 

Global Awareness; An Around the World View

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For the last blog of the year, I wanted to focus on something very broad that covers much of the worlds views and understanding of climate change. This is no easy task to quantify. Obviously, the worlds more advanced and industrialized countries will have a higher understanding of the dangers of climate change while the populations of third world countries are proven to likely be more concerned with locating the day to day necessities of life rather than showing concern for what their grandchildren’s future may look like.

This chart here shows a list of surveyed countries and where they rank on how large of a threat they see climate change to be. After viewing this, it is pretty embarrassing that roughly 40% of the Americans don’t see climate change as a serious threat but that they are more concerned with ISIS and cyber attacks – this is a serious lack of intellect. However, over a 5 year span from 2013-2018, every country on this list had an increasing concern in regards to climate change, which I guess is a good sign when it comes to awareness. A quick political digression, but in the US, in 2018, 27% of republicans viewed climate change as a real threat while 83% of democrats viewed it as a threat. This is in direct result of former President Trump and makes Americans look dumb compared to the other world powers.

Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity

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 A way to use mathematics to explore sustainability is through calculations of the Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity.  Ecological Footprint is defined as the demand humanity has on Earth’s resources while Biocapacity is defined as the supply of Earth’s resources available for consumption.  To calculate the Ecological Footprint, one must examine how many resources it takes to provide for the demands of humanity while Biocapacity is found by calculating the amount of biologically available resources for humanity.  Through a comparison of the two, we are able to see that the earth is in a state of “overshoot.” This is because Earth’s Biocapacity is less than the Ecological Footprint, meaning that we are consuming resources faster than they can be resupplied.  Through calculations and comparisons like these, we are able to quantify the environmental issues of our planet, which can then be utilized towards making a solution.  Our overconsumption of resources, such as fossil fuels, is why we are in such a state of overshoot, so we must understand the effects of our actions and move towards use of renewable resources to get out of this state.

 

https://www.footprintnetwork.org/

Global awareness

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Global Awareness is a capacity that incorporates the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary for a person to competently and perceptively navigate the challenges and opportunities of a globalized world in a way that promotes the greater good. When thinking of global awareness there are 5 themes that may contribute to a better outcome. That includes perspective consciousness, state-of-the-planet awareness, cross-cultural awareness, knowledge of global dynamics, and awareness of human choices. The one that: out to me the most was cross-cultural awareness because I believe that It is hoped that learning about sustainability from the perspectives of people in different countries in an experiential setting may help people gain a broader understanding of the challenges facing the world. Nonetheless, global awareness is very important considering that people like ourselves are that are affecting our planet. With that being said if we are not cognizant of our actions that may or may not affect our environment then It will become nearly impossible for us to reflect and aim for a better goal.  With that at being said global awareness must be the first act to create change. The main idea of this course is a way to reach sustainability and decrease the use of carbon emissions. We have incorporated data based on ecological footprints and bad habits that create an impact on the environment. As a population, we are very dependent on fossil fuels. “The United States gets 81% of its total energy from oil, coal, and natural gas, all of which are fossil fuels.” This knowledge is relevant and considering how damaging fossil fuels are to the environment we decrease that number substantially before is too late.

source:http://needtoknow.nas.edu/energy/energy-sources/fossil-fuels/

The Global Perspective to Climate Change

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A large part of the climate issue is addressing the social justice aspect of it. Many people are not aware of the disparities in how climate change affects different groups of people. Unfortunately, the places that produce the least amount of CO2 emissions are many of the countries that are suffering the most from the effects of climate change. Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia are extremely vulnerable to climate change, but use the least energy per capita out of the entire world. These populations are highly vulnerable to floods, droughts, hurricanes, and countless other negative effects of climate change. In some parts of these regions, the changes in climate are actually forcing large populations of people to migrate to different regions. When we look at some people who live in areas that are reaching a wet-bulb temperature so high that the human body cannot physically survive in these temperatures. Accordingly, “Even heat-adapted people cannot carry out normal outdoor activities past a wet-bulb temperature of 32 °C (90 °F), equivalent to a heat index of 55 °C (130 °F)” (Wiki). These mass migrations that we are going to see in the future are going to cause huge social problems, and lead to economic strains and conflicts in other parts of the world. In order to address this issue, we need to educate people on the issues that are going to affect them. One of the problems with addressing this issue is that many people think that climate change is not going to affect them or their children. This is false, climate change is a global issue, and we are not going to be able to address the issue until everybody realizes that this issue will affect them.

 

Works Cited:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature#:~:text=The%20wet%2Dbulb%20temperature%20is%20the%20lowest%20temperature%20that%20can,C%20(130%20%C2%B0F).

 

Moving Towards a Brighter and More Sustainable Future

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Math related to sustainability isn’t just something meant for textbooks but math has real understandings and effects on our world and how sustainable we are as individuals.  Worldwide, roughly 9.2% of the population live in extreme poverty and in the US alone, 34 million people live in poverty.  However, these statistics only relate to income, with roughly 1.3 billion people in 107 countries being considered poor in relation to either access to food, education, or healthcare. The relation between human society and the environment is not a simple one and adverse effects from humans create disastrous consequences not only for the environment but also for other humans, especially those most at risk.  Poverty can simultaneously affect and be affected by a lack of sustainability efforts.  Poorer communities lack the resource security to practice sustainable methods and therefore harm the environment by using all the resources they can find.  Poverty also has a negative affect on air pollution with people in poverty not having the education or ability to utilize non-harmful environmental practices.  Poorer communities also live in areas with the greatest threat of danger in the face of climate change.  The poorer communities live near urban areas which produce 80%of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions in North America.  These poorer communities usually live near pollution sites and in areas with inadequate housing and insulation to protect against environmental change.  Poverty is a big factor in the continuation of unsustainable practices, as well as being some of the most vulnerable communities to the effects of climate change.  It will take a better understanding of the relation between people and the environment, especially those in poorer communities and most at risk, to truly work to make a more sustainable future.       

 

Works cited:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/26/climate-change-will-hurt-poor-people-the-most-federal-report.html

Global Perspective

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For my final blog post of the term, I will focus on Global Perspective. A global perspective is a viewpoint that attempts to understand the place of individuals, groups, cultures, and societies in the world and how they relate to each other. An example of a global perspective is studying the implications of economic policies on illegal drug use specifically the supply chain, where the drug is produced, and the local area where the drug is sold.
The link below provides information on the global perspective of climate change. In terms of the math part of this, According to The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 has increased from 280 ppm in the period 1000–1750 AD to 379 ppm in the year 2005. The concentration of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled from 700 ppb in the period 1000–1750 AD, to reach a concentration of 1774 ppb in the year 2005. The concentrations of hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, SF6, and N2O have also increased. The tropospheric concentration of ozone has increased even though its stratospheric concentration has decreased.

 

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4020-5774-8_1#:~:text=The%20global%20mean%20surface%20temperature,warmed%20faster%20than%20the%20oceans.

 

 

global perspective

 

Importance of Global Awareness

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Seeing that this is the final blog of the term, I reflect back on everything that I have learned throughout this term regarding sustainability and the associated mathematics. I never thought that something as basic as percentages or ratios would play such a big role in sustainability. Consider, the percentage of contamination of a certain substance. Or, the percentage of a substance that is being wasted due to one’s lack of accountability when it comes to sustainability. Learning about energy flow and all the different many different forms of energy was really interesting. It was not until taking this class that I learned that energy has a unit, the unit being Quad. Another important factor that needs to be considered not only through a sustainable lens, but through many lenses in life is precision. If mathematicians are not precise about their measurements and data sets for sustainability related entities, there could be outcomes that are detrimental to the environment. Learning about how many different variables are at play for climate change are overwhelming. But, learning about them individually and ways that we can play our part has been helpful. One of the most notable things that I take away from this course is how large my carbon footprint has been throughout my life. From here on out, I aim to consider the ways in which I can make my carbon footprint smaller for the benefit of the environment. This course has taught me so many new ways that I can think about sustainability and how easy it is to take sustainable action. If we all play a small part in becoming a sustainable nation, our earth will be more likely to succeed.

Racial Disparities in Los Angeles County Jails

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Los Angeles County, in California, has the largest jail system in the countryand is home to some of the jails and prisons with the worst, and most inhumane facilities. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, over 17,000 people in Los Angeles County were incarcerated daily. In this, Black and Latinx identifying people were the most incarcerated, especially Black women. This is at an incredibly disproportionate rate to white counterparts, who have been imprisoned at far lower rates. Amidst the pandemic starting in 2020, a call to action was made to lawmakers, forcing an examination of living conditions in jails in Los Angeles County, in accordance with the safety, health, and wellbeing of those being incarcerated. After some back and forth, the County decided upon establishing a “care-first” initiative, that would work towards reassessing how jail facilities were used, who were being incarcerated, and who deserved compassionate release due to COVID-19 complications. In other efforts in jails across Los Angeles County, the population began to decrease as there were increased efforts in slowing the transmission of the virus. The graph below details the jail population at the beginning of the pandemic until April of 2022 and expresses an extreme decrease in jail population by 30% a few months into the pandemic. Although promising, this change did not last for long as a few months later the population threshold in county jails fell way over the capacity set for the jail systems in the county. Although there have been strong efforts in lowering jail populations in accordance with health standards set by the Jail boards, these capacities continue to be exceeded because many people who are incarcerated do not have the resources to be released on bail. Jails are one institution that continues to disproportionately affect and impact Black and Latinx people in Los Angeles County. Going to jail and staying there for adverse periods of time has strong effects on mental health, and creates extreme obstacles for obtaining jobs and having steady foundations upon one’s release. This treatment continues the cycle of high crime rates and social and economic deterioration in predominantly Black and Latinx communities in Los Angeles. People should contact their city representatives, and fight for changes to be made in the LA county jail system. This is not a problem that will go away soon, as it is a foundational component to maintaining the class and race divide within the country.

Sources:https://www.vera.org/care-first-la-tracking-jail-decarceration