The Global Perspective to Climate Change

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).

 

Racial Disparities Amongst Youth in the US Prison Systems

There is a huge disparity in the disproportionate amount of African Americans that are incarcerated each year in the United States. This has been a long withstanding issue in America, but the issue itself has gained a lot of media attention, especially in recent years, due to current events that have taken place within the past five years or so. The staggering gap between racial identities that face imprisonment is alarming, and when applied with qualitative data, it becomes even more appalling.

This post is from the Census Bureau, and is as recent as 2019. It is a comparison between the percent that youth under that age of 18 from different racial demographics make up in the larger population compared with their respective incarceration rates. White youth make up approximately 72% of the population living in the United States (under the age of 18), and are 62% of juvenile imprisonments. There is a 10% buffer there. Hispanic youth/youth of other races account for around a quarter of the population under the age of 18, and make up 23% of juvenile imprisonments. Comparatively, black youth make up just 15% of their age pool, but are a whopping 35% percent of underage imprisonments/arrests. They account for 20% more of imprisonments than they do in comparison to their percentage of the populationThis is a staggering statistic, and speaks to the immense issue that is present with respect to racial disparities and the prison system. And this is just in regards to kids under the age of 18.

Sources cited:

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/07/27/disparities/