Veganism in the UK

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In the following charts I will be discussing the recent trends for veganismo before, during, and post-covid. Covid 19, like any other global events, has heightened our awareness on issues surrounding our world and our environment. More people are concern about the health of their loved ones and the health of the planet. when food and toilet paper was sacred, we saw that people were willing to try out alternative options to milk and meat, or whatever they could find in the supermarket.

From the second chart, we can observe that although the number of vegetarian decreased by 0.5 percent from 2019 to 2022, the amount of vegan increased by 2.7 percent. (67 million x 2.7% = one million eight hundred nine thousand) This number is very hopeful in the sense that more people are willing to consume less meat for the sake of the environment. Being a vegan is not easy (I certainly struggle with giving up dairy products), but if a million people can do it, more people will be encouraged to in the future and we can help our environment by a lot. In the first chart we see that 3.3 million of brits live a non-meat lifestyle and I think the US would potentially follow that trend in the future!

Source: https://www.finder.com/uk/uk-diet-trends

2 Charts That Relate to Sustainability

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For this Blog assignment, I made 2 charts. The first chart is a scatter plot chart. The second chart is a line chart. I inserted the links to my charts at the bottom because I can’t figure out how to insert the charts on this blog post.

For the first chart, I found that the average family wastes 180 gallons of water per week. I got this from the link below. I took that number and multiplied it by 4 to find out how much they waste in a month. I multiplied the number of gallons wasted in a month and multiplied it by 2 then 3 then 4 all the way up to twelve to see how much water is wasted for each month in a year. My first chart shows how many gallons of water the average family wastes in a year.

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/statistics-and-facts#:~:text=Water%20Stats,gallons%20of%20water%20annually%20nationwide.

For my second chart, I found out how many pounds of food are wasted by the average American in one month. I got this number from the first link below. I multiplied 20 by 1, 2, 3, all the way up to 12 to find the amount of food wasted for each month.

https://www.5280.com/2016/10/how-much-food-are-you-wasting/#:~:text=The%20average%20American%20wastes%20around,wastes%20nine%20pounds%20per%20week.

 

Chart 1: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-jinw_hxVzHjQrjhTdICHVJsv8g13ahH0ajJmawfEXU/edit?usp=sharing

Chart 2: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qin9nFouNjJ76o2g7SPIu-Onwz_c8ffmmFuWSRN7rSc/edit?usp=sharing

Food Insecurity

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Food insecurity is defined as a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. This is an unfortunate but prevalent problem in our world and nation today. Data also shows that food insecurity happens in some communities more than others. Specifically, data shows that Black and Hispanic Americans are particularly disproportionately affected. Identifying these inequalities/inadequacies is the first step in attempting to correct/fix them. According to USDA data, 19.1% of Black households and 15.6% of Hispanic households experienced food insecurity in 2019. White Americans fell below the national average, with 7.9% experiencing food insecurity.These percentage statistics portray how common food inadequacies are among Americans and how race plays a role. It is difficult for many of us to imagine not having enough food in our stomachs or worrying about our next meal(s), but that is a sad reality facing Americans. Outside of race, food insecurities appear to be directly affected by level of education and ability to work. College graduates experienced food insecurity at a rate of just 5% last year. For those without a high school degree, the rate skyrocketed to 27%. Adults who have a disability — in particular adults who have a disability and are not in the work force — also experience more than two times the rate of food insecurity as adults who do not have a disability. It is interesting to see how a college degree (and lack thereof one) impact rates of food insecurity. I think it is safe to say that there is a direct link between financial situations and food insecurities based on these statistics, with obtaining a job affecting one’s ability to buy and consume food for themselves and their families. I would be interested to know how common food adequacies are in the state of New York and Schenectady. The graph below shows how food insecurity is affected by race.

Works Cited:
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/912486921/food-insecurity-in-the-u-s-by-the-numbers

Food Security

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Food security is often something that we as a whole overlook.  Having access to daily meals and other foods is a luxury and a privilege, not a right.  We often think that since we live in such a developed country, with a higher income per capita than a majority of the world that this issue is not that big of a deal, except it is.  According to Feeding America, “In 2020, an estimated 1 in 8 Americans were food insecure, equating to over 38 million Americans, including almost 12 million children”.  This is a staggering number that clearly shows the extent of the effect that it has over our own country.  Another important thing to conceptualize is that there is no one specific group of people who is affected specifically by food insecurity as it “is in every community” according to Feeding America.  Below is a chart that visualizes food insecurity in America.  Food Security in US Households Report 2018 | Census COVID-19 Data Hub As you can clearly see a large portion of America is food secure, but still the slice of people who are not food secure is still incredibly large.

 

 

Works Cited:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcovid19.census.gov%2Fdocuments%2F6cf4af1ff4de4c04ad30001046685636&psig=AOvVaw1RrNohIGekR-rdrlrA23dp&ust=1651605413495000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjRxqFwoTCNDjwOTDwfcCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

https://hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/understand-food-insecurity/

 

The for Profit Prison System

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The United States has the largest prison population in the world. Despite being a developed country with countless resources to help the process of rehabilitation, the United States has created a policy of incarcerating people for crimes that many people find to be a problem of our society and not individuals. The war on drugs has been a prime example of this. The US has created a system where non-violent drug offenders can be sentenced to prison for a long time, despite having problems with addiction or mental illness. The problem is that many of the prisons in the United States are private, and designed to make money. When there is such an incentive to have people locked up in order to make money, people who otherwise would not be put in prison, are incarcerated for low-level offenses. This has created a system where people that grow up in low income neighborhoods, that are surrounded by drugs a violence, are extremely susceptible to being put in prison, simply because of the situation that they were born into. We know that people of color are much more likely to be incarcerated for the exact same crimes committed by white people, and this has created and even greater divide in our country.  This for-profit prison system has been one of the main contributors to the racial divide that we have seen in our country.

 

What's the deal with private prisons? | Jacqui Ford Law | Oklahoma City

 

Works Cited:

https://fordlawokc.com/whats-the-deal-with-private-prisons/

Refugee Crisis

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A major social justice concern is in regard to refugees. There are so many people displaced from their homes due to conflicts and issues within a country or between countries. The most recent refugee crisis is a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this conflict has displaced over 3.7 million Ukrainians. Another sad example of the refugee crisis is in Syria after the civil war in 2011. This is by far one of the largest refugee situations in the world with 6.8 million people being displaced. This number continues to rise today. This chart from the UN shows the number of refugees in 2021 in six categories: refugees under the UN mandate, asylum seekers, internationally displaced persons, displaced Venezuelans, stateless people, and other situations of concern.

 

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/25/after-a-month-of-war-ukrainian-refugee-crisis-ranks-among-the-worlds-worst-in-recent-history/ft_22-03-24_ukrainerefugees_1a/

https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=3HMho5

Necessities during Covid-19

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During the Covid 19 virus outbreak, this left many families coping with insecurities such as food, income, and health. With many people losing their jobs due to the worldwide shutdown, this impacted the food insecurity issue. Without jobs there was not a constant income coming into families homes that they could use for necessities such as food. The impact of Covid 19 on food security has a common theme of different races being differently affected. As presented in the chart below, it depicts the food insecurities by race with a variable of whether the family had children or overall. As we can see, the black and hispanic race was much more affected by Covid 19 in relation to food security. This chart was found in a study on whether the families had thought about food in the last seven days. The black communities suffered from Covid 19 food insecurity most prominently as shown in the chart at 23%. Whereas the Asians and White race were suffering less but it also depicts how all races had been affected by food insecurities during Covid. As the United States recovers from the pandemic, society must intend to help the families in need whether that’s through governmental funding or radical changes such as access to food banks and pantries. Although food insecurities is a major suffrage of Covid, there are several other social justice issues that the American society is working toward. Charts like the one below can visually present the effects Covid has had, and there are many other charts for other social justice issues.

References:

https://econofact.org/who-does-not-have-enough-to-eat-in-america

Race Wealth Gap and Gentrification

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For this blag post I wanted to focus on something that I have previous knowledge about and that is in part to my Political Science background as a Union College student. Much of the focused in my classes has been on race segregation as well as housing political segregation among races. Gentrification, which is the forceful removal of residents out of their homes in Urban area is what I will discuss in this blog. Much of gentrification is based upon the the wage gap of race in the United States. Here is a graph depicting the wage gap between Black and White Americans..

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As you can see very clearly by this line chart, there is quite the disparity between the average wages between black and white families. Coinciding with this wage gap, is the demographic of people who live in inner city areas which is where gentrification is most prominent. It is on average that 30% of inner city populations is made up of Black citizens. While this is less than the white community, the population of African Americans in the United States is only 13%. Of black people, there is a greater percentage living in inner city, gentrified areas than there is the percentage of white people. Everything in the US’s economy works around the capitalist society that our country was built upon. African Americans make less money on average and are faced with more severe challenges in urban areas than the white urban population is facing.

 

The Superyacht Phenomenon

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The superyacht is a phenomenon that has emerged in recent times. While building large yachts became a trend in the early to mid 20th century, owning a superyacht hasn’t really been a trend up until now. As wealth disparities and class divides continues to grow, the rich grow from rich to super rich, allowing them to buy things like superyachts that they previously could not. The chart below shows the growing number of superyacht projects, and how the vast majority of these projects end up being motor style, a more commercial style accessible only to the super rich.

2020 Global Order Book

The most egregious example of this is Jeff Bezos’ custom superyacht, Y721, which he commissioned in 2018 for $500 million from the Dutch company Oceanco, and was recently completed. The specs on the superyacht illuminate the vast wealth Bezos has to throw away: “This support ship measures 246 feet in length and accommodates 45 additional crew and guests. It will also feature a helipad and meeting space and have a vast amount of storage for Bezos’s endless number of water toys, with diving and snorkeling gear, jet and water skis, waterslides, and surfboards among the bunch.”

The average superyacht costs $275 million. If we assume that out of the 619 motor superyachts were average superyachts, around $275 million each, then the cost of all those superyachts and Bezos’ would total $155,250,000,000. With that kind of money, the U.N.’s plan for Elon Musk to end world hunger could be completed almost 26 times. That cost could cover a little over 1/2 the lower estimate to end climate change, and that is only for the money spent on purchasing motor superyachts in 2020. Over 2 or even 3 years? The money would definitely cover the lowest estimate, and then some.

Just something to think about when we see reports of Leonardo DiCaprio, the U.N.’s “Messenger for Peace for Climate Change” riding around in a superyacht.

 

SOURCES:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciaadamczyk/2015/04/08/how-much-does-a-superyacht-really-cost/?sh=718973bf36bc

https://www.boatinternational.com/yacht-market-intelligence/luxury-yachts-on-order/2020-global-order-book–42403

https://www.mynewsdesk.com/us/brandessence/pressreleases/superyacht-market-statistics-2021-industry-analysis-3072167

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57079327

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.architecturaldigest.com%2Fstory%2Fbezos-mega-yacht

https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/cost-to-end-climate-change/

Fixing the Gender Gap

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For the most part, you could say that in America, equality is equally divided amongst men and women.  However, with doing some more thorough research, there are at least 2.5 billion women living in countries with at least one discriminatory law on the books.  Those laws in specific countries restrict women to make decisions regarding marriage, divorce, and child custody, along with making choices about acquiring a job or starting a business. Not only that but when it comes to abuse, 1 in 5 women have experienced physical or sexual abuse globally.  One of the bigger issues that needs to be talked about is the wage women make compared to men.  For example, even though the gender gap has improved drastically, 25% of women aged 25-34 are more likely to be impoverished compared to men globally.  In comparison to business and the environment, 73% of men hold management positions and 70% are climate negotiators.  I know in my personal experience, the people who are very passionate about the environment and climate change have been women.  I realize that women have a say in this topic, but the possibilities are endless when solving environmental issues if we have even more female voices heard.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/decomposition-of-the-gender-wage-gap-1980

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/hourly-earnings-male-vs-female

resources: https://www.un.org/en/un75/women_girls_closing_gender_gap