Jeremy Rodriguez

Professor Coppola

Writing for the Sciences

12/16/19

Abstract

I deleiberly got better with most of the learning objects such as enhancing my ability to edit my own papers, learn to read my work in a way where I can be detached from what I wrote, developed new strategies to fight a difficulty to work. Some points I was not able to experiment with or did unintentionally like experiment with negotiating writing goals, acknowledging others linguistic differences and doing genre analysis. Over all the semester was more helpful than expected allowing me to transfer a lot of the skills into projects outside of class. 

Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility

I do not fully understand what that means. My guess was, notice that everyone express themselves differently and use that to help your writing. I can not find a place where I was able to do that except taking others at their word when then asked for more detail. 

Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment

For all aspects of this class I found that setting a timer allowed me to work through my moments when I thought I was not able to focus or worse, did not want to. For drafts I found that allowing myself to write without worrying about what I wrote would give me more than the required page numbers for later projects and allowed me to refine and remove pieces. I appreciated the fact that the professor allowed for revisions because it allowed me to fail to succeed. During editing and revision I found it to be easier if I stepped away for a day or two in order to forget what I had written. For my long essay, handing in the first draft I had an acute sense of how I failed because even though I wrote it two days before all the things I wrote made less sense once printed out and expanded. I learned to be harsher on myself when reading. I purposefully would try to find out why what I had written was wrong which eventually became counter productive to my other classes.

Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation

I was not present to this objective in my writing which is likely apparent in my writing. Each project was almost identical to one another except IMRAD. IMRAD was useful because it removed anything that was not necessary.   

Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes

Collaboratively I found I enjoyed the critical looking at others work which I discovered during the course. At times handing my paper off gave me a new clarity seeing that the words I wrote make no sense. Have someone else read it, voluntarily unlike class, was rewarding because there was a clear sense of working towards excellence. During the group project it was difficult to transition from others work and back out to form a cohesive narrative. Since everyone focus on their own issues, in order to avoid gridlock, it was clear everyone wrote differently.  

Engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond

I did not play with genre, not deliberately, so I would say that was a fail. My writing was one note, trying to get cross what was being asked of me and nothing else. At times I would get distracted and write tangents which were penalized. 

Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing

Actively choosing a stance was simple but it allowed me to see how few times I have thought through why I believe something. While choosing one article to write about I clearly had an opinion but found it hard to support it. Other times I found that I needed to generate an opinion in order to hit the page count because I was not initially engaged because there was nothing distinct I choose to learn about.  

Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects

During this class I found how useful sourcing was, and the amount of literature surprising. At times it was difficult to know when something needed to be cited, a distinction of what is generally common knowledge was hard to draw. During my long paper where I tried to use a wide array of sources from the economics to psychology and using analytical research for climate change I found it rewarding to find what these people worked on. At some point I went source crazy and got about 46 and had to begin cutting, it was really fun.     

Strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)

Out of the skills listed I believe I got the most practice in summarizing because I went off the assumption that economics was not directly in my audiences field of knowledge which lead me to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the topic. In evaluation I often got stuck with sources trying to understand what the researchers were trying to explore and what their results meant. I read one study, relating to the long paper involving the lack of behavior change in people with dire consequences, 4 times in 2 sittings. I felt I did not evaluate the sources as rigorously, assuming that being peer reviewed was enough. When I did evaluate one source, I was scared if I was reading bad science because one of the authors was not a reputable as I assumed. 

Jeremy Rodriguez

Annotated Bibliography for Scientific Controversy Position Paper

Arvesen, A., Bright, R. M., & Hertwich, E. G. (2011). Considering only first-order effects? How simplifications lead to unrealistic technology optimism in climate change mitigation. Energy Policy, 39(11), 7448–7454. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.09.013

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. This article discusses how many of the articles on technological progress are over optimistic because of the simplifications made. In the paper it is used to justify the claim that “the unforeseen effects of climate change and the lack of connection interaction of the society the assumptions we make about technology are overly optimistic”. In the context of the paper this it argues to rely less on technology because there are more unpredictable variables. The article is not recent almost being written 9 years ago. Since the paper was on economics and not a constantly developing field of research it was still relevant. 

Arrhenius, S. (1896). On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground. Retrieved November 10, 2019, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/14786449608620846?scroll=top&needAccess=true

This author was a Nobel prize-winning chemist who did research on carbon which laid the foundation for the discovery that was set for the understanding of climate as we do now as well as the precursor to proving CO2 in the atmosphere lead to man-made climate change. In the paper, it is used to justify the claim that, “The first predictions of CO2 being released into the atmosphere and influencing the Earth’s global temperature we released as early as 1896 by physicists when showing CO2 can absorb radiation.” It is also used it showed that climate change has been a predictable and observable reality since it was first indicated in 1896. It also showed that little has been done to change anything even after the link was first made for over 120 years. In the context of the paper, it makes the prediction that CO2 has an ability to retain heat in the atmosphere. The article is old however since it had a large historical significance it was worth keeping as a nice reference to history. 

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Kim, H., Wohl, M., Salmon, M., & Santesso, D. (2017). When do gamblers help themselves? Self-discontinuity increases self-directed change over time. Addictive Behaviors, 64, 148.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article describes the tendency for gamblers to self-admitted into programs to adjust their behavior.  In the paper it is used to justify, “(humans) … have the capacity to seek help and to try and adjust when we’re off, even in the most addictive behaviors like gambling.” The use was to show that the automatic response like addiction or in the case of climate change our normal routines are able to be changed because of the ability to self adjust. The article is recently being released in 2017 and had little to suggest it was invalid. 

Mansyur, C., Pavlik, L., Hyman, V., Taylor, N., & Goodrick, D. (2013). Self-efficacy and barriers to multiple behavior change in low-income African Americans with hypertension. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 36(1), 75-85.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article describes how people resist or are barred from changing behavior. In the paper’ “Individuals who smoke and have hypertension often maintain behavior even when there are severe consequences looming. (Mansyur, 2013)”. This was used to support that there is an uphill battle to changing behavior which puts humanity in danger with CO2 emissions. The article was specifically with people who are likely to get or have a disease that could be avoided with habit change but do not. The study is old being written in 2013 however it clearly shows a common psychological phenomenon on the persistence of unwanted behavior. 

Dietz, Thomas, Frank, Kenneth A., Whitley, Cameron T., Kelly, Jennifer, & Kelly, Rachel. (2015). Political influences on greenhouse gas emissions from US states. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, 112(27), 8254-8259.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article discussed how politicians had a large effect on CO2 emissions in states they were elected in. This paper originally seemed to counter what I expected however it supported how these politicians are a reflection on the beliefs of the county. The office is effective if there is a consensus for change, which was the barrier mentioned in the political route difficulty.  The article was written in 2015 which was recent. 

Moser, S., & Kleinhückelkotten, S. (2018). Good Intents, but Low Impacts: Diverging Importance of Motivational and Socioeconomic Determinants Explaining Pro-Environmental Behavior, Energy Use, and Carbon Footprint. Environment and Behavior, 50(6), 626-656.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article discusses how wealthier people use more CO2, even when using things commonly associated with a green lifelike shopping locally for produce, energy saver technology, using electric cars. This was used to support the same claim as the article, that the wealthier emit more. The article was released in 2018 which means it is more up to date. 

United Nations, (2019) Only 11 Years Left to Prevent Irreversible Damage from Climate Change, Speakers Warn during General Assembly High-Level Meeting | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. (2019, March 28). Retrieved November 9, 2019, from https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12131.doc.htm.

The authors of the article are from the United Nations a respectable source however it was delivered by politicians who many are given the most recent research on climate science. The article describes the statement that the world is getting dangerously close to having irreversible side effects on the world. This was to place that the situation of climate change needs to begin getting resolved. The article is recent, however, if it was not it would be much worse for humanity.  

         Smith, N., & Leiserowitz, A. (2014). The Role of Emotion in Global Warming Policy Support and Opposition. Risk Analysis, 34(5), 937-948.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The paper discussed how voters were swayed to vote by the appearance of certain words as well as what drove them to make the votes they made. My paper used this to claim, even though emotions can be favorable to make decisions in favor of good policy it can be a detriment. The article was written in 2014 making it older however it displayed something generally expected. 

Fisher, D. R., Waggle, J., & Leifeld, P. (2013). Where Does Political Polarization Come From? Locating Polarization Within the U.S. Climate Change Debate. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(1), 70–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764212463360

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. This article discusses the difficulty to implement political policy due to polarization. In the paper I used it to describe “Policymakers may know that science but have the same difficulty in its execution as scientists due to polarization and conflicting opinions (Fisher, 2013)” which showed that more is required to get something done then have facts, it requires consensus, the major obstacle to change politically. The article is older however the effects are still seen because polarization is a common occurrence in politics. 

Ryabchuk, A. (2016). Voter abstention in South African 2014 elections: Beyond the apathy argument. Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa 92, 37-59. doi:10.1353/trn.2016.0026.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. As shown in one nation, South Africa after questions this assumption it was found that “respondents expressed deep dissatisfaction with elections as a way to influence politics – some did not see alternatives to the ANC (one of the parties) rule, even though they would be willing to support a smaller party, and others did not think that they could make themselves heard through elections, choosing instead other forms of political engagement.” (Ryabchuk, 2016) 

 IPCC (2014). Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change . EXIT Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I. Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. This studied showed the divisions of where most of the CO2 emissions came from. In the paper it was used to elaborate that these markets exist because people are exchanging their money for something they want. This leads to the fact that sacrifice to these industries is required to get CO2 under control quickly. This article was generated in 2014 and there were likely more recent sources on more accurate distributions that I could not find. 

Lane, J. (2011), “CO2 emissions and GDP”, International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 38 No. 11, pp. 911-918. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1108/03068291111171414

The author has a PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The paper discusses CO2 emissions are linked with GDP growth over time. This lets the discussion talk about how CO2 was then linked with the standard of living. A cut to emissions would likely be cut to GDP for some time which would cost people certain luxuries. The article was written long ago in 2011 however discussed a big relationship that had yet been described. 

Jin, W. (2012). Can technological innovation help China take on its climate responsibility? An intertemporal general equilibrium analysis. Energy Policy, 49, 629–641. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.07.007

The author has a PHD and has had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. This paper discusses how new technology could allow the hitting of the targets set for China without any new policy. This was used in the paper to justify that technology did not require a political change to help and was very effective. It was also the starting point to question optimism brought along by technology. The article is older, 2012 and with hindsight, the article was overly optimistic as China currently will not which was why it was brought up. 

Gaspar, R. (2013). Understanding the Reasons for Behavioral Failure: A Process View of Psychosocial Barriers and Constraints to Pro-Ecological Behavior. Sustainability, 5(7), 2960–2975. doi: 10.3390/su5072960

The author has a PHD and has had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article is one paper that describes the difficulty in behavior change even when expected is still underestimated. In the paper it was used to show that the largest obstacle to climate change is human behavior which underlies each of the other methods of change. The article is old but the topic it discusses is accepted in the field as common knowledge.  

Liu, W., & Li, H. (2011). Improving energy consumption structure: A comprehensive assessment of fossil energy subsidies reform in China. Energy Policy, 4134.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article discusses a case in the best way to mitigate China’s CO2 by cutting subsidies. An outright count would have major effects on the economy. The article was used to show that a large scale economic change that could be implemented like remove the subsidies in the US would lower CO2 but could have large consequences to the economy. The study is being conducted in 2011 however it was echoed in the case study brought in the US. 

Rau, G. (2011). CO2 mitigation via capture and chemical conversion in seawater. Environmental Science & Technology, 45(3), 1088-1092.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article describes the current usage of technology to remove CO2 from the air and chemical conversion of sea water. In the article it was used to show how technology has a powerful effect on what we can do which would lead to an overly conservative approach to have the greatest impact on CO2 which was the assumption that no new technology would come to help. The study was old however the technology has only gotten better with more nuanced pricing but with more downsides than initially presumed. 

         Xu, B., & Lin, B. (2017). Does the high-tech industry consistently reduce CO2 emissions? Results from nonparametric additive regression model. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 63, 44.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article uses regressions to show that technology is a good predictor of lower emissions and is directly causing it. This was used in the paper to support that technology has a positive effect and clearly could aid society. The paper was written recently which aids even though it was commonly assumed. 

Hinnells, M. (2008). Technologies to achieve demand reduction and microgeneration in buildings. Energy Policy, 36(12), 4427-4433.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. This article is a case study in the UK with the statistic that most of the emissions from Britain are related to housing. This was used in the paper to support that emissions are directly controllable by everyday individuals and not other companies. The article was written in 208 and likely is out of data and not a good source to use. 

Shapiro, J. (2016). Trade Costs, CO 2 , and the Environment †. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 8(4), 220-254.

The author had the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. This paper showed the difficulties smaller nations have in giving up CO2 since their economies are more fragile. In the paper it justified that giving up CO2 has a cost that needs to be accounted for. Since smaller nations like the ones discussed, island nations with small economies would be hardest hit by climate change related issues the peer review shows one reason why these nations are dependent on CO2. The article is from 2016, still recent enough since the economies of the nations have not changed rapidly. 

Kaufmann, R., & Vaid, D. (2016). Lower electricity prices and greenhouse gas emissions due to rooftop solar: Empirical results for Massachusetts. Energy Policy, 93(C), 345-352.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article is a case study in Massachusetts showing how the usage of solar panels saved the power grid a substantial amount of money on energy with no CO2 emissions. The peer reviewed paper used showed that there are powerful economic incentives for solar and renewables. The article was written in 2016 which was recent.  

Erickson, P., Down, A., Lazarus, M., & Koplow, D. (2017, October 2). Effect of subsidies to fossil fuel companies on United States crude oil production. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-017-0009-8.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article articulates the effect that subsidies had in the US market, spurring more production of fossil fuel companies which lead to more CO2 emissions. In the essay it was used to share “In the United States oil subsidies have made more than half of the oil deposits profitable further making the nation more dependent on fossil fuel (Erickson, 2017).” Showing that the continued push towards oil is not due to active demands but through economic incentives that could be used to fund renewables. The article was written in 2017 and little has changed in the US regarding the subsidies. 

Nejat, P., Jomehzadeh, F., Taheri, M., Gohari, M., & Abd. Majid, M. (2015). A global review of energy consumption, CO2 emissions and policy in the residential sector (with an overview of the top ten CO2 emitting countries). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 43, 843-862.

The authors have the PHD and have had the source peer reviewed by their respective field. The article describes one of the largest sources of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, housing. In the article, the quote “In total, about 17 percent of global CO2 emissions come from households” (Nejat, 2015) allowed the discussion of how much CO2 is under direct control. The article is from 2015 which is 4 years old and likely getting out of data for estimates on CO2 creation however while looking for other statistics on where most CO2 and energy consumption comes from these were the most available in the CCNY academic library, using a form of Google to discover articles felt like cheating.     

Jeremy Rodriguez

10/6/19

Proposal 1-

Should we ban plastic bottled water? Inside nearly all water bottles, scientists find evidence of tiny particles called microplastics that could have negative health risks. Some of the chemicals used to create plastic bottles like BPA, PCBs & PAHs are toxic to humans. Another danger, due to improper disposal of water bottles many end up in landfills which will never degrade them and they also end up in the oceans where many animals like birds, fish, and even plankton eat them and die. The production of plastic drains deposits of finite fuel and emits many gases into the Earth speeding up global warming. 

Some of the opposition includes the inconvenience to citizens to buying water, it also cuts a massive revenue source from major companies that produce the product, many distributors of water will also be affected by not being able to sell something they spend money on via government intervention. Even further rather than an all-out ban there could be measures to increase accessibility and compliance for recycling that would eliminate the dangers of killing wildlife and being trapped in landfills. Another possible issue would be there being more difficulty in transporting water for people to drink in the case of disaster relief. An increase in the volume of reusable could negatively affect people that generate income from the recycling of plastics. 

There are plenty of other alternatives for plastic including reusable water bottles & bioplastics that can be broken down by animals and used as animal food if out at sea. 

Proposal 2-

Should we be allowed to genetically engineer heritable traits into kids? There are already many oppositions to the ethical concerns of genetic engineering. Editing the human genome already happens to aid with certain diseases but only 1 has made the edit heritable. Editing is frowned upon due to the possible negative health effects, however even if we were able to 100% percent certain the edits wouldn’t do anything other than what we intended to do, should we? When we introduce new genes into people we could have similar negative effects like our GMO plants. The edits could lessen genetic variability in human beings which could be devastating if something happened to dwindle the human population. The market of designer babies could be done by companies allowing for unequal advantages to be added to children at high prices that few can afford. 

Going forward with the editing could eliminate many genetic conditions that negatively affect human lives negatively. If done it could be funded by the government to pay to reduce certain diseases for no charge to families. Certain genes could be off-limits like those that are cosmetic in nature, like increasing muscle volume, changing color or rearranging the face to look more attractive as could significant alterations to one’s mental capability like raising intelligence. 

Proposal 3-

Should we aim to eliminate aging? Aging is the common thread that makes all diseases appear, compound, and are most often the cause of death. With the help of technology eliminating aging could potentially make humans live to their biological capacity free of most diseases or even to live indefinitely long as a consequence. Its elimination would remove many of the worst diseases it’s linked to like Alzheimer’s as well as reduce human suffering. 

Allowing people to live indefinitely has many theoretical issues. The longer lives mean people could mean the need for an exponential need for resources to sustain more people, it could mean an increase of social spending and treatment of diseases and supporting retired individuals. It could have great social consequences like a rise in conservatism and a lack of meaning and enjoyment. 

Citations
Proposal 1

Shukman, D. (2018, March 15). Plastic: WHO launches health review. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43389031.

Hu, W. (2018, April 20). Could New York City Parks Be Going Plastic Bottle-Free? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/nyregion/nyc-plastic-bottle-ban-proposed.html.

Royte, E. (2018, May 16). We Know Plastic Is Harming Marine Life. What About Us? Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-health-pollution-waste-microplastics/.

Fairs, M. (2019, July 11). Bioplastics could be “just as bad if not worse” for the planet than fossil-fuel plastics. Retrieved from https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/15/bioplastics-bad-environment-damage-arthur-huang/

Proposal 2

Zimmer, C. (2018, December 1). Genetically Modified People Are Walking Among Us. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/sunday-review/crispr-china-babies-gene-editing.html.

 Proposal 3

Lifespans Are Long Enough. (2019, February 21). Retrieved from https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/lifespans-are-long-enough.

Responses to Climate Change

Jeremy Rodriguez

City College of New York

Abstract

Though science agrees that climate change is an urgent threat there are many routes to solve the problems. Trying to solve the issue politically requires an increasing amount of consensus which, decreases the number of power individuals feels to make meaningful contributions. Curtailing the companies directly to tackle climate change is also blocked for the same reason as well as balanced with the economic incentives to maintain carbon emissions and to boost effective CO2 free startups. Technology has the best chance of creating a significant contribution but creates an unrealistic optimism that climate change will be defeated which leads to further inaction. All routes have one component in common, individuals. To generate the greatest effect on climate change some level of autonomy, control, and responsibility needs to be in place due to natural barriers to change. Ultimately, the collective decisions of one person as an individual is a more tangible metric and should encompass the entire issue of climate change and should be the primary focus.

The first predictions of CO2 being released into the atmosphere and influencing the Earth’s global temperature we released as early as 1896 by physicists when showing CO2 can absorb radiation (Arrhenius,1896). Since then the world has continued making massive leaps and bounds both creating new technology and understanding more about how the earth functions. Climate science has continued to shed light on how CO2 affects the planet we live on. With this knowledge, the end goal for scientists is the same: reduce global emissions before the effects are irreversible, however, the most efficient way to get there is up for debate. There are political, economic, technological and social ways to reach the goal. The best way to deal with climate change is to focus on the effects that individuals have over the collective effort required since all routes to alter climate change are done by individuals. 

The political route to alter the responses to climate change is at the effect of individuals. No matter what political structure is chosen, all major decisions are made by groups of people or one individual who have been collectively dubbed a government. As shown, politicians could notable effects on behavior that leads to CO2 emission reduction in the United States (Dietz, 2015). This could lead to the assumption that the right politician would be able to greatly affect the United States emissions. Even though it is true that policy does change behavior, it is apparent that in the majority of the world people choose those who make policy. The politician is only a reflection of voter behavior and attitudes. For example, climate change votes are driven more by certain emotions rather than “cultural worldviews, negative affect, image associations, or sociodemographic variables” (Smith, 2014). This could be an indication that politicians aren’t at the root of the change. The individual’s emotions spur them to act in a way that was not expected to make a difference for the planet. It could likely be expanded that voters, to some degree, allow certain emotions to predominate when casting ballets. The politician’s individuals elect is most likely not primarily due to the candidate or part but due to their own views and attitudes. Politicians are not necessarily the initial cause of lower emissions. 

The political route to climate change is negatively affected by multiple factors. Logically it fits that if the problem is to change politically then it will be affected by all the factors related to voting. As mentioned, emotions are one of the factors that lead to certain outcomes. Political scientists have found many correlations that affect voter turnout and these issues directly apply to climate change. One of the biggest is voter abstention. The assumption in abstention is that people don’t care for the options, believe they will not be heard, or that their candidate already won. As shown in one nation, South Africa after questions this assumption it was found that “respondents expressed deep dissatisfaction with elections as a way to influence politics – some did not see alternatives to the ANC (one of the parties) rule, even though they would be willing to support a smaller party, and others did not think that they could make themselves heard through elections, choosing instead other forms of political engagement.”(Ryabchuk, 2016) Though South Africa is one small nation with completely different demographics then the USA and other parts of the globe there could be similar sentiment all over the world. This dissatisfaction is likely present not just about parties but about the issues the parties represent. If a voter is trying to make their ballet heard then some inconvenience in the political system, that there will likely be no change, or it makes more sense to try some other form of change then voting will not occur. Since mentioning that CO2 is a global issue, making it hinged on the politics would likely increase dissatisfaction and the abstaining of voters.   

 Another area of contention is the likelihood of policy to be made. Policymakers may know that science but have the same difficulty in its execution as scientists due to polarization and conflicting opinions (Fisher, 2013). The greater the action needing to be taken to tackle emissions the more politicians need to be present to represent what the people want which decreases the chance something will be done. The other thing that decreases as mentioned is large actions taken is the amount of influence any individual voter could have. All the dissatisfaction or dilution of the vote would likely increase the number of people who will give up and not take any actions or at least any political action. In choosing the political route each of these issues compounds on itself making its perceived difficulty higher and hurting the chance to alter policy. Because of these reasons the political route is dependent on people and is hindered from going further.      

Large companies are not the primary cause of CO2 emissions. There are many industries that are earning billions that directly affect CO2 emissions and it is often easy to blame the companies. While it is coal, oil, natural gas, meat, airline, automotive industries are the largest contributors to climate change (IPCC, 2014), they are again only a reflection of the needs and choices of individuals.  Looking at the United States the wealthiest individuals produce the most emissions (Moser, 2018). And even further, CO2 emissions are linked with GDP growth over time (Lane, 2011) which therefore links CO2 with standards of living since it is a function of GDP. These three things coalesce to show that most industries that profits from CO2 emissions come from people spending money to increase their standards of living. It could also be interpreted that lower CO2 would also lead to a sacrifice in the standard of living. It is true that if there was no access to these sources then emissions would be lower but as it stands, the primary cause of emissions is people in effect trading the welfare of the environment for a better quality of life. The revenues generated are only done so because they facilitate that exchange between emissions and quality of life and have been reinforced by the continued drive to develop and have people’s quality of life improve. People need money to have basic resources like food and shelter of some kind. The necessity of a higher standard of life can be debated however this standard comes at the cost of the planet.

Even after accepting a drop in the standard of living abandoning all polluting businesses to curtail emissions there are negative effects that should be considered. This seems like the most logical, cut everything that is emitting CO2 into the air and then see what else needs to be done. Even on the micro-scale taking away subsidies would have large effects (Liu, 2011). In their case study on removing subsidies in China, the largest producer of emissions they concluded that “removing coal and oil subsidies would both cause certain economic costs and have negative effects on employment and resident welfare.” Extrapolating this outward, many businesses that currently employed people would need to make large cutbacks. These cuts lead directly to the ability for consumers to spend which would likely negatively affect the economy and quality of life would likely decrease. In a more extreme case where emissions-based companies would be out of business, even individuals who work for them would have less or no income. If a portion of people is out of work, then they cannot spend anything.

In many places around the world, as income rises people emit more carbon (Wolfram, 2012), and small nations are harder impacted by CO2 lower methods like taxes (Shapiro, 2016) these nations likely must sacrifice things. That was a simplified cause and effect model, not including the global economy. Nations with lower standards of living are therefore are left further behind since they will have a more difficult time promoting more economic activity solidifying their current issues with even lower chances of improving standards of living. The outcome is not necessarily favorable to most and will actively create discomfort in order to aid the planet. In this scenario, this is the assumption that people agree this is the best outcome which is not the likely outcome if it were to happen. People would most likely have their standards of living diminished for no fault of their own for “the greater good”.       

Incentives for money both benefit and harm the goal of lowering CO2. The number of people funding these emission making companies may suffer from the same dilution of influence as politics. Since the companies earn billions, the cutting of one customer will likely make little or no difference in defeating the point of trying. Since money is an incentive because it directly translated to the standard of living, people often aim to make better decisions to save money. The benefit of the standard of living is immediate and is not diluted because it is directly under the individual’s control. Since economic incentives are independent of the dilution effect by politics there are ways that CO2 reduction continues to occur. Whether it be a cheaper energy bill with the addition of solar panels, less money spent overall by switching to an electric car or buying reusable products there happens to be an incentive with a standard of living increase. This same incentive can also run at odds with the overall goal to reduce CO2 emissions. In the United States, oil subsidies have made more than half of the oil deposits profitable further making the nation more dependent on the fossil fuel (Erickson, 2017). As mentioned previously, most emission reduction runs counter to the perceived economic incentive because the standard of living is decreasing. Most of the time cutting emissions is directly related to a lower standard of living because less is being spent. For all these reasons the economic route is also at the effect of people and difficult to change. 

Technological innovation is driven by individuals and has downsides. Rather than requiring everyone else to change, new innovations begin as individuals create something unique that nobody else has done. The goal of most technology is twofold, either make a difference and earn compensation for the time and energy put into its creation to at least maintain operations. New technology most often benefits from economic incentives because it increases the standard of life. Current technology is already dealing with the effects of CO2 like current carbon capture (Rau, 2011) and new technology is directly lowering CO2 emissions in the largest producer (Xu, 2017). This progress is happening while millions remain with the same behavior however there are still people causing the events to happen. These massive developments are due to China’s research into the technology and where there is less research being done there is greater CO2 emissions. The most likely move for technology will either focus on increasing the energy output from sources that are renewable in order to keep standard of living high, deal with the consequences of higher CO2 by removing them or managing the consequences of CO2 emissions.  

Technology creates optimistic views that lead to the maintenance of behavior. There is no shortage of new discoveries from carbon capture to advancing solar panels. These solutions offer tangible ways to alter the issue of climate change however there are still other issues. Because of the unforeseen effects of climate change & the lack of connection interaction of the society the assumptions we make about technology are overly optimistic (Arvesen, 2011). Since there is difficult in the political and economic route to change technology can only do so much. It also points out that technology is generally made to solve problems that are already known, not surprise consequences. This hinders the responses of human behavior since it is still suboptimal to continue our current path and calculate how much technology will help. 

Technological innovation has variability that leads it to be unpredictable & therefore unreliable in the short term. Technology is only enhanced progressively which is a matter of time. As of our current estimate’s climate change is sure to be irreversible in under 12 years (UN, 2019). In that limited amount of time what kinds of innovations can be expected? One study found that even the largest contributor to emissions in China with its technological innovations would be able to hit its targets without political change (Jin, 2012). Taking the most conservative meaning of this we could expect to see very little change technologically in other parts of the world as well. Working with the current technology and making actions that could be supported only with current technology would seem like the best move. There is hope that new technology will relieve emissions but not all emissions. For these reasons’ technology should not be the focus. 

All routes require individuals, so it is better to begin there. All emissions are directly controllable by someone and having that individual empowered to make the decisions that need to be made is the most important. For example, about 50% of emissions in the UK are from the household (Hinnells, 2008) which are directly controllable by everyday individuals. In total, about 17 percent of global CO2 emissions come from households (Nejat, 2015). As an individual the only emissions that matter are the ones that can be controlled directly, and not that of politicians, companies, or of any other individuals. With these insights already a tenth of the problem is directly under people’s control. If the planet is to end it is not due to the errors of some unnamed entity but people that think of each action moment by moment. The negative emissions generated by one person are more tangible than the promise of new technology, the hope for a new politician or hoping for big business to alter its practices. 

There are natural barriers to human behavior change. Regardless of the stakes, humans rarely can change their behavior and maintain it for long periods of time. Individuals who smoke and have hypertension often maintain behavior even when there are severe consequences looming. (Mansyur, 2013). To compensate, we also have the capacity to seek help and to try and adjust when we’re off, even in the most addictive behaviors like gambling (Kim, 2017). Even further people have positive biases that “as long as people have the right attitudes, intentions, skills, information … the right pro-ecological behavior should follow. Putting these things together shows that even when we are in danger of our own behavior and have all the right information, tools, & support we still fail. All the efforts to combat climate change are contingent on the individual’s predisposition to stability and maintain behavior even when actively trying to alter it.

Regardless of the difficulty individual behavior is as simple as it gets. All other routes add even more layers of complexity to the fundamental difficulties placed on people. As discussed, the political route adds the cooperation of more and more people which leads to the dilution of power defeating the action. The economic route has individuals sacrifice the standard of life in order to reduce emissions. The technological route requires the least number of individuals but dependent on individual action. Rather than add layers of complexity leave the difficulty to the most manageable level, that of the individual.    

References

Arvesen, A., Bright, R. M., & Hertwich, E. G. (2011). Considering only first-order effects? How simplifications lead to unrealistic technology optimism in climate change mitigation. Energy Policy, 39(11), 7448–7454. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.09.013

            Arrhenius, S. (1896). On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground. Retrieved November 10, 2019, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/14786449608620846?scroll=top&needAccess=true.

Kim, H., Wohl, M., Salmon, M., & Santesso, D. (2017). When do gamblers help themselves? Self-discontinuity increases self-directed change over time. Addictive Behaviors, 64, 148.

Mansyur, C., Pavlik, L., Hyman, V., Taylor, N., & Goodrick, D. (2013). Self-efficacy and barriers to multiple behavior change in low-income African Americans with hypertension. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 36(1), 75-85.

Dietz, Thomas, Frank, Kenneth A., Whitley, Cameron T., Kelly, Jennifer, & Kelly, Rachel. (2015). Political influences on greenhouse gas emissions from US states. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, 112(27), 8254-8259.

Moser, S., & Kleinhückelkotten, S. (2018). Good Intents, but Low Impacts: Diverging Importance of Motivational and Socioeconomic Determinants Explaining Pro-Environmental Behavior, Energy Use, and Carbon Footprint. Environment and Behavior, 50(6), 626-656.

United Nations, (2019) Only 11 Years Left to Prevent Irreversible Damage from Climate Change, Speakers Warn during General Assembly High-Level Meeting | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. (2019, March 28). Retrieved November 9, 2019, from https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12131.doc.htm.

            Smith, N., & Leiserowitz, A. (2014). The Role of Emotion in Global Warming Policy Support and Opposition. Risk Analysis, 34(5), 937-948.

Fisher, D. R., Waggle, J., & Leifeld, P. (2013). Where Does Political Polarization Come From? Locating Polarization Within the U.S. Climate Change Debate. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(1), 70–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764212463360

Ryabchuk, A. (2016). Voter abstention in South African 2014 elections: Beyond the apathy argument. Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa 92, 37-59. doi:10.1353/trn.2016.0026.

 IPCC (2014). Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change . EXIT Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I. Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

Lane, J. (2011), “CO2 emissions and GDP”, International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 38 No. 11, pp. 911-918. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1108/03068291111171414

Jin, W. (2012). Can technological innovation help China take on its climate responsibility? An intertemporal general equilibrium analysis. Energy Policy, 49, 629–641. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.07.007

Gaspar, R. (2013). Understanding the Reasons for Behavioral Failure: A Process View of Psychosocial Barriers and Constraints to Pro-Ecological Behavior. Sustainability, 5(7), 2960–2975. doi: 10.3390/su5072960

Liu, W., & Li, H. (2011). Improving energy consumption structure: A comprehensive assessment of fossil energy subsidies reform in China. Energy Policy, 4134.

Rau, G. (2011). CO2 mitigation via capture and chemical conversion in seawater. Environmental Science & Technology, 45(3), 1088-1092.

Xu, B., & Lin, B. (2017). Does the high-tech industry consistently reduce CO2 emissions? Results from nonparametric additive regression model. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 63, 44.

Hinnells, M. (2008). Technologies to achieve demand reduction and microgeneration in buildings. Energy Policy, 36(12), 4427-4433.

Wolfram, C., Shelef, O., & Gertler, P. (2012). How Will Energy Demand Develop in the Developing World. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(1), 119-138.

Shapiro, J. (2016). Trade Costs, CO 2 , and the Environment †. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 8(4), 220-254.

Kaufmann, R., & Vaid, D. (2016). Lower electricity prices and greenhouse gas emissions due to rooftop solar: Empirical results for Massachusetts. Energy Policy, 93(C), 345-352.

Erickson, P., Down, A., Lazarus, M., & Koplow, D. (2017, October 2). Effect of subsidies to fossil fuel companies on United States crude oil production. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-017-0009-8.

Nejat, P., Jomehzadeh, F., Taheri, M., Gohari, M., & Abd. Majid, M. (2015). A global review of energy consumption, CO2 emissions and policy in the residential sector (with an overview of the top ten CO2 emitting countries). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 43, 843-862.

These slides focus on industrial, plastic and agricultural waste studies that describe different issues. For agricultural waste, a study was done to show the effects of pesticide-contaminated water and its effect on human health. The study displayed that, water polluted by pesticides leads to AMD disease in humans who utilize this water. Moreover, for Industrial waste, a study was done to show the concentration of chemicals in the Ganges river from Industrial waste. This water is being utilized by the environment which also produces the crops that humans are consuming and this can cause lethal health issues. Lastly, a study found new ways to quantify and predict how much plastic waste was entering the oceans and that plastic was primarily entering through 20 nations. A sentence was written in order to allow the presenters to elaborate based on the collaborative essay.

https://jrodrig042.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/8982/files/2019/12/science-presentation-4.pptx

Solutions To Ocean Pollution

Sharmin, Sana, Kamila, Jeremy

City College 

December 09, 2019

Abstract:

To understand the factors which lead to water pollution research was done on studies that show the detrimental effects of each factor. The factors which are focused on in this essay are industrial, plastic and agricultural waste. For agricultural waste, a study was done to show the effects of pesticide-contaminated water and its effect on human health. The study displayed that, water polluted by pesticides leads to AMD disease in humans who utilize this water. Moreover, for Industrial waste, a study was done to show the concentration of chemicals in the Ganges river from Industrial waste. This water is being utilized by the environment which also produces the crops that humans are consuming and this can cause lethal health issues. Lastly, a study found new ways to quantify and predict how much plastic waste was entering the oceans and where it was coming from. For each, a corresponding solution was found by searching into peer-reviewed literature and also analyzed using the IMRAd method.  One study showed how natural pesticides are a better alternative to getting rid of pests to midgate the issues found. Furthermore, to tackle the issue in the Ganges a specialized water tax of the industry to reduce pollutants would be effective. Finally, implementing the research done on plastic decomposing wax worms could get rid of over 50% of plastic as a solution to this issue.

Keywords: Water Pollution, detrimental, Industrial waste, Agricultural waste, Plastic waste, pesticide, contaminated, AMD, disease, natural pesticides, concentration of chemicals, lethal health issues, water taxes, and wax worms

Introduction

In this section, there will be an analysis of each source utilized for both the problems and solutions. First, the growing population causes a need for more food, and when pest interferes with the crops being produced, it causes a reduction in crop yield. This leads to less food for people and causes starvation and malnutrition which eventually leads to death. Therefore, pesticides were established to deter pests from food thus there would be a greater yield in food production. However, many commercial pesticides that are being used are extremely toxic and cause water pollution (Cooper et al., 2007). Pesticide polluted water causes many detrimental processes in the environment such as getting organisms sick with Age-related degeneration (AMD). AMD is the main cause of blindness in developed countries (Montgomery, 2017). The early stages of the disease are often asymptomatic, but late AMD, either neovascular form or geographic atrophy, results in the loss of central, high-acuity vision. Factors that affect the risk of early AMD may differ from those that affect progression to late-stage disease. Both environmental and genetic factors affect the etiology of AMD. Limited research evidence indicates an association of pesticide with retinal dysfunction. The article reports on several cases that show signs of macular degeneration in pesticide after systemic or intraocular treatment with pesticides. Yet, few studies have addressed this issue. This study evaluated the association of pesticide use with physician-confirmed incident AMD.

Industrial production is our main source of mass production. With industrial production, comes industrial wastewater. Many essential products have waste that needs to be disposed of, such as antibiotic medicines. When producing them, the wastewater ends up in the water. Being a developing country, it is quite difficult not to have any problems and India is facing water issues that include not able to provide clean water which contributes to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene issues which are leading diseases.  Contaminated wastewater containing deleterious heavy metals and microbes may pose a serious threat to human health. Vegetables are an essential part of life as they provide extremely important components of our diet, however, the vegetables grown from contaminated water can cause adverse effects. This paper is rare in its own kind as it was conducted to quantify the effects of sewage water on crops. This study was conducted to investigate the water quality of sewage effluent into the Ganga River in India to find out the metal concentration, microbial contamination and its effect on crops to analyze the severe the problem of water pollution is.

Plastic remains one of the largest contributions to the amount of ocean pollution. The motivation behind the study chosen was to get an accurate estimate to magnify the issue of how much plastic is entering the ocean and where specifically plastic was coming from. The study was worth being conducted because it would allow global agencies to focus on the largest contributors to have a great effect to reduce the issue. The hypothesis guiding the study was that there was more plastic entering the ocean than was being accounted for currently. The specific purpose of the study was to create a model to estimate the amount of plastic that was to enter the ocean as the population increases at current rates. (Jamback, 2015). The motivation of the research on wax worms was to find a solution to the growing amount of plastic present in the environment. The study was worth conducting because there is currently very little done to degrade plastic The hypothesis governing the study was if Wax Worm homogenate can degrade Polyethylene. The specific purpose of the study was to see if Wax Worms were able to degrade Polyethylene faster than control, if their chewing was the primary cause or if it was their homogenate.  (Bombeli, 2017)

Methods

In this section, there will be a deconstruction of each study and the methods used by each. In reference to the agriculture waste, an Agricultural Health Study (AHS) cohort design included 52, 394 private pesticide applicators and 32, 345 of their spouses enrolled between 1993 and 1997 in Iowa and North Carolina. Once enrolled, participants completed self-administered questionnaires that collected information on lifestyle characteristics, demographics, lifetime pesticide use, medical history, and other farming practices. Researchers also conducted follow-up interviews in 1999-2003 and 2005 to 2010. To investigate the relationship of pesticide use and it’s washed up to local water which people were drinking and AMD incidences. They conducted a case-control study nested within the AHD study. Medical history collected in the follow-up interview included self-report of physician-diagnosed retinal or macular degeneration. We verified self-reports using information from participants’ eye-care physicians. Physicians either completed a short questionnaire on AMD diagnosis, retinal pathology, and treatment or provided relevant medical records.

In regards to industrial waste, wastewater samples were taken of water from sewage plants and farms. Moreover, vegetables were collected from the local market. In total 154 samples of the wastewater and 268 samples of different vegetables obtained for examination. Furthermore, on-site tests were also done like temperature and PH. Other variables were calculated through the experiment which includes acidity, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand et.al. For the sewage water, Physico-chemical characteristics test was done on the sample. In the first week of every month, samples of filtered water from the three sewage treatment plants were collected from March 2005 to February 2006. In every session, five samples from each plant, each containing two liters of water, were sent to the laboratory for testing. For the examinations of heavy metals in water, three samples of 100ml were taken from closed to irrigation pumps during April, September and December 2005. The samples were sent to the lab for testing which was conducted using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. For vegetables, they were collected from the nearby villages and examined for the coliform count. The presence of Salmonella, Vibrio, E. coli, and Clostridium were examined for January to March 2005 and August to October 2005. The method of Islam et al. (1992) was used in the isolation of vibrio from both irrigation water and vegetables (Rai et.al, 2010)

In reference to plastic, research created a new framework in order to magnify the scope of the plastic being taken to the ocean. Once collecting all available data on all solid waste produced available protocols were added in order to realistically continues the scope of other ways plastic enters the oceans, primarily from interactions of the number of individuals and their proximity to the sea as well as measuring from developing nations where records are not kept on waste and illegal dumping. In addition,  the authors were able to magnify the scope of the current problems with the projected growth of the population and trends of the economic consumption of plastics in developed and developing nations. (Jamback, 2015). The study pertaining to wax worms was split in order to pinpoint the source of what caused the degradation of the bonds of plastic. The control contained a regular Polyethylene bag and the test was one where there was a group of worms present. Furthermore, to isolate the effects of the worms mastication (chewing) the researchers washed both bags with a pure water solution to remove any possible contaminants that could alter the breakdown of the plastic. In the experimental treatment, a further step added a spray of worm homogenate, a mixture of the chemicals created by the presence of the worms to the polyethylene bag. No worms present in order to indicate if the worms or their chemical signature was enough to degrade the bag. In each treatment  the researchers used different forms of analysis to check if there were chemical signs of degradation such as shooting rays of light as well as the overall mass of the bag over time. The independent variables were the presence of wax worms and worm homogenate and the degradation of plastic over time. (Bombeli, 2017)

Results

This section will be an interpretation of the results of the data. In regards to agriculture, AMD risk was positively associated with age and smoking and was slightly elevated among women, those with more than high school education, and those who consumed alcohol more frequently; AMD was not related to race/ethnicity, state, or body mass index. Both early AMD (57 cases) and late AMD (72 cases) were associated with age and smoking; late AMD was also associated with residence in North Carolina and has more than high school education. AMD risk was elevated among people who used the water in their residence which were in close proximity to agricultural land that used insecticides and fungicides. The pesticides ended up polluting the surrounding bodies of water and making people sick. The results suggested that some pesticides had strong independent effects: their associations with AMD persisted in models including other pesticides. Others did not have independent effects: when modeled with other pesticides, their associations with AMD became weaker and nonsignificant. Some were intermediate, affected by modeling with some pesticides but not with others. The remainder were not correlated with other pesticides; therefore, their effects were presumed to be independent.

In regards to industrial waste, the pH of water revolves between 7 to 8, also the data suggests that pollutant from Dinapur is way compared to DLW and Bhagwanpur combined. Moreover, zinc metal was prominent in heavy metal pollutants as it was between 1 to 3 while other metals like Cu, Cd, Pb, and Cr were all less than 1. The mean coliform was greater in Spinach compare to other vegetables. The water samples were well above the limit at all sites and were recorded as being at the maximum at Dinapur sewage treatment said which was also reflected in microbial contamination of vegetables, (P.K Rai et al.) said “As far as microbial contamination in vegetables is concerned, the maximum was recorded at Dinapur site was particularly during the rainy season.” and “The fecal coliform count per 100 ml was 4 × 10^5 at Bhagwanpur, 3.2 × 10^3 at DLW and 4.2 × 10^7 at Dinapur.” (p.359). 

In regards to plastics, the study found that of the 2.5 billion metric tons of solid waste generated by about 93% of the population of about 11% was plastic. Of the plastic entering the ocean, it was noted that 83% of the plastic could be linked back to only 20 nations, most of which were nations undergoing serious developmental change. (Jamback, 2015) Both Wax worms and wax worm homogenate when present significantly speeds up the rate of polyethylene decomposition. The worms were able to reduce the mass of a normal plastic bag by 92 grams and it was found that the homogenate significantly speeds up the presence of decomposition due to the presence of different chemicals only found when the bags degrade. (Bombeli, 2017)

Discussion

In this section, there will be a discussion on the issues presented and how the studies imply their solution. Beginning with agriculture, researchers found associations of AMD with the use of organochlorine and organophosphate insecticides and phenoxy acetate herbicides as classes as well as with individual pesticides. In particular, there were consistent associations with chlordane, DDT, malathion, and captan. Additional pesticides with slightly less consistent but nevertheless notable associations were heptachlor, diazinon, pho-rate, 2,4,5-T, and 2,4-D. Overall, these results are consistent with experimental studies of mechanisms underlying AMD, including oxidative stress, inflammation, and complement activation. There is a need for further research involving a wider number of cases since this study involved a relatively small number of cases, and its novel results require replication. Nonetheless, the study presents practical implications for farmers, physicians, and regulators since it suggests that the use of specific pesticides may be a modifiable risk factor for AMD.

It is necessary to yield more crops to feed the growing population, but the process of yielding more crops shouldn’t be with the use of toxic pesticides.  There are many safe and natural pesticides that work as well as toxic pesticides. A natural pesticide to deter pests away would be essential oils. According to researchers species of Cockroaches were exposed to multiple Essential Oils such as Lime Oil (Yoon, 2009). Lime Oil was really effective in acting as a pesticide to these roaches. Additionally, 10 uL of the lime oil was used to be exposed to the organisms and it made the roaches repel from about 85.7% and 83.3%. In that, this oil inhibits the ATPase enzyme in the organism and harms them. Additionally, it reduces growth in these organism’s offspring. The utilization of these essential oil pesticides can be a safe process if done the natural way allowing mass industrial solutions due to the quantities already produced. 

In regards to industrial waste, the study also concluded that pollutants in that sample were too greater than the limit that it has completely change physicochemical characteristics of water. The results of wastewater almost came as per expectations as (P.K Rai et al.) compared the study with other paper and said, “The metal concentrations in wastewater at different sites were almost in accordance with that of Sharma et al. (2007) except the concentration of Cr at DLW.” (p.359). Heavy metal concentration was found in water which was being used for irrigation, were above the permissible limit as per general water quality criteria used for irrigation (Pescod, 1992; Sharma et al, 2007; P.K Rai et al.). Similarly, coliform counts crossed the permissible limits in water samples and vegetables, which shows a greater risk of health diseases. From the study, it is clearly shown that medical researchers are needed for further study and to better give better projections of disease caused by Microbial as (P.K Rai et al.) said: “Further study in collaboration with medical researchers will be extremely fruitful” (p.359). A solution is to implement water tax, whereby industries will be charged for purifying contaminated water (Del Rea, 2019). Industrial waste is all about money problems and many would prefer not to spend money on cleaning the mess if they are given the option to avoid it. A committee could be formed to identify the minimum cost to purify one gallon of contaminated water and should be charged on companies according to their usage which is using water for industrial use and possibly causing water pollution. The government could also just apply the taxes on all companies who are using water. It’s like allowing them to pollute water but taking all the responsibility of purifying water. 

In regards to plastic, the scientists stated that the best long term solution would require funding of better waste management in the nations that are developing due to it taking a lot of resources and time to generate. The authors claim that the projects disagree that there will be a peak amount of waste and can see that it will infect continue to grow to link this to the population and their increased economic consumption of products in urban areas and in developing nations. The authors described many flaws with the study. Due to the amount of uncertainty in “relatively few measurements of waste generation, characterization, collection, and disposal” as well as each study have different ways to generate the amount of waste generated. Even further there was actions like illegal waste and waste collection efforts as well as international waste exchanges across countries that were not able to be taken fully into account and estimated and not taken from any reference source. (Jamback, 2015). Luckily, the researcher’s main conclusions were that the compounds found in the worm could become an effective way to break down polyethylene and that the worms were likely able to do this because of the similar compounds present in honeycombs molecular structure. The author relates the study outcome to those of previous ones by noting the rate at which polyethylene was decomposed was faster than the bacterium that was used as well as it showed signs of chemical decomposition compared to the said bacterium. In the future tests were proposed to see if the worm homogenate worked on other related plastics. (Bombeli, 2017) Taking both into account since it was noted in the first study that over half of all plastic generated is polyethylene the worm homogenate could be synthesized in order to magnify the rate of decomposition. The main challenge then remains further removing the plastic from the ocean is vast enough quantities to remove significant ecological impact. It has been discovered that even though the vast majority of plastic can not be tracked to its end source there are optimal locations over the oceans to begin extraction (Sherman, 2016). Due to the main water currents, it has been found that about 45% of plastic, including the microplastics, pass through two locations off the coast of China and the Philippines as well as between California and Hawaii. With efforts to extract the plastic the extracts from all the species that have been discovered that increase the rate of decomposition can be used to safely remove the plastic from the ecosystem and the need to store it or heavily chemically treat it.  

References

Jambeck, J., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., . . . Law, K. (2015). Marine pollution. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science (New York, N.Y.), 347(6223), 768-771.

Bombelli, Paolo, Howe, Christopher Jonathan, Bertocchini, F, & Apollo – University of Cambridge Repository; Apollo – University of Cambridge Repository. (2017). Polyethylene bio-degradation by caterpillars of the wax moth Galleria mellonella. 

Cooper, J., & Dobson, H. (2007). The benefits of pesticides to mankind and the environment. Crop Protection, 26(9), 1337–1348. doi: 10.1016/j.cropro.2007.03.022’

Montgomery, M. P., Postel, E., Umbach, D. M., Richards, M., Watson, M., Blair, A., … Kamel, F. (2017). Pesticide Use and Age-Related Macular Degeneration in the Agricultural Health Study. Environmental Health Perspectives, 125(7), 077013. doi: 10.1289/ehp793

Yoon, C., Kang, S., Yang, J., Noh, D., Indiragandhi, P., & Kim, G. (2009). Repellent activity of citrus oils against the cockroaches Blattella germanica, Periplaneta americana and P. fuliginosa. Journal of Pesticide Science,34(2), 77-88. doi:10.1584/jpestics.g07-30

Lubick, N. (2009, February). India’s Drug Problem. Nature News, 457(5), 640–641. doi: 2009 Macmillan Publishers

Rai, P. K., Mishra, A., & Tripathi, B. D. (2010). Heavy metal and microbial pollution of the River Ganga: A case study of water quality at Varanasi. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 13(4), 352–361. doi: 10.1080/14634988.2010.528739

Del Real. (2019). What’s All This About a Water Tax? The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/us/california-today-water-tax.html

Sherman, P., & Van Sebille, E. (2016). Modeling marine surface microplastic transport to assess optimal removal locations. Environmental Research Letters, 11(1), 1-6.

Shasta Dam Debate

Jeremy Rodriguez

City College

Abstract

On September 28, 2019 the New York Times published an article called ‘The Interior Secretary Wants to Enlarge a Dam. An Old Lobbying Client Would Benefit’. Inside the article, the Shala Dam in Northern California was proposed to create major expansion. The project had many negatives including violating California state law, the harm to local and endangered species, the cost of over 1.5 billion dollars being cost-prohibitive and it being proposed by the Internal Secretary who was a former lobbyist for the company that would contribute in the project. Even the pros are likely negatives as well, for example, the wealth to local farmers would not be the most efficient way to make sure people are fed and being paid for by the company would still further negatively impact the environment. The best course of action would likely be to postpone voting on the bill until the issue with the California state is dealt with and find alternative projects that can be funded by Westlands Water District that do not have any impact on the local environment.     

On September 28 the New York Times published an article titled, ‘The Interior Secretary Wants to Enlarge a Dam. An Old Lobbying Client Would Benefit’ by Carol Davenport. Inside the article dam is being built with almost certain effects on the local environment that would damage the local industry. Debate rises in whether if it should be built, including the controversy that it is violating a law in California state and could be evidence of corporate influence over politicians. We can see a lot of debate occurring on what to do over the proposed solution of a dam. We should handle both major scientific and ethical decisions in congress prior to executing anything with the dam. 

There is a negative side we can see in going forward with the project as it is. The writer states, “The department’s own scientists and researchers concluded that doing so (further construction of the dam) would endanger rare plants and animals in the area, as well as the bald eagle, and devastate the West Coast’s salmon industry downstream.” This is clearly showing an adverse effect on nature that also affects the economy, & welfare of other people’s income. Fewer plants have multiple disadvantages like easier erosions and killing the animals that depend on them. The salmon industry in the area also has a direct economic effect on the people who live on it. Furthermore, the article discusses that the dam, “not only would be environmentally damaging and cost-prohibitive, but it would also be illegal under California law.” Allowing such a project puts law itself into question if it is done. If one agency can disregard another this lays the groundwork for lack of coordination that can be damaging to civilians and the government. Again, it is also cost-prohibitive making money a limiting factor. The other negative is that the person proposing the idea, “Mr. Bernhardt stopped lobbying for Westlands in November 2016 and began work at the Interior Department in August 2017, first as its deputy secretary. Soon thereafter, the agency moved ahead on Shasta, explicitly naming Westlands in their budget request to Congress.” This calls into question if the proposal is to everyone benefit or is a way to carry out favor or earn something for himself. 

Even though there are potential benefits the many not be worth it. The author notes, “The project is going forward now, in a big win for a powerful consortium of California farmers that stands to profit substantially by gaining access to more irrigation water from a higher dam and has been trying to get the project approved for more than a decade.”  

It seems apparent that there are people that do benefit from the decision and the profit. More money to farmers could help to feed more people but it runs the risk of using more land from forests and taking money away from projects that could have a greater benefit to feeding the hungry. Another possible benefit is Westlands could help cover one-third of the projected $1.5 billion costs and perhaps paying “the lion’s share,” and “If it’s built the way it’s described, Westlands will benefit,” but the state of California as a whole also stands to gain …” according to Mr. Birmingham, the water district’s general manager. The additional money saved if the project was to go through could be reflected in other projects around the city. Even though it is not directly stated how the state would benefit, there are likely ways that those would backfire. Even with the additional money to spend on the project itself could cost much more in the long run due to the degradation of the environment.     

Overall it seems that the best course of action is to put down the decision in order to settle the fact that it violates the state law as well as time to investigate the intentions of the deal. A possible way to make the most out of the offer is finding a project that Westlands could fund that has less impact in order to gain in effect 1.3 Billion in discretionary spending. Whatever decision would allow time to better protect the local environment or choosing a different project to fund.  

References

Davenport, Coral. “The Interior Secretary Wants to Enlarge a Dam. An Old Lobbying Client Would Benefit.” The New York Times. The New York Times, September 28, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/climate/bernhardt-shasta-dam.html.

Pedophile Ethics

Jeremy Rodriguez

City College

Abstract

On September 29, 2019 the New York Times published an article called ‘Preying on Children: The Emerging Psychology of Pedophiles’ by Benedict Carey. There are different ethical questions to be brought up about pedophiles. It could be advantageous for law enforcement to defer punishment on persons that have only been caught with child pornography in order to build better networks to catch those who assault children. The current focus on catching all people leads to further hiding making it more difficult to catch everyone involved. Learning about pedophiles who do have these urges and have yet to act on them could be informative in such investigations and how to begin to rehabilitate them in some way. 

One of the most uncomfortable topics to read & think about is that of pedophilia, people having desires with children. On September 29, 2019 the New York Times published an article called ‘Preying on Children: The Emerging Psychology of Pedophiles’ by Benedict Carey, which describes the perceptions and observations from many studies about pedophiles. Many pedophiles have not been molested, have been impaired with alcohol or drugs and are rooted in factors outside of their control. Many ethical concerns like, should some be sympathized with or further probing their mind to prevent more crimes. It could be advantageous to learn more about pedophilia in order to prevent the worst outcomes from occurring.

From what the research has shown, there is little choice in who people decide to be attracted to. “People don’t choose what arouses them — they discover it,” said Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the Johns Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic. “No one grows up wanting to be a pedophile.” This quote just points out that most pedophiles don’t choose to be that way even though they have these unsettling urges. Since there is no active choice in their perception of arousal should they feel guilty? Pedophiles do make an active choice to commit the crimes however the ones that have yet to do so could be seen as victims of their biology. Looking at the science it is clear, “The biological clues attached to pedophilia demonstrate that its roots are prenatal,” said James Cantor, director of the Toronto Sexuality Center. “These are not genetic; they can be traced to specific periods of development in the womb.” This is clear evidence that there is something biologically different that is not under their control. 

If these individuals aren’t choosing to have such urges, where do they fit into society? Through one’s personal perceptions everyone has some temptations that need to be fought with, however the discomfort arises because this urge is about sexual assault. They have to fight a battle against themselves to actively avoid their biological predisposition for moral and ethical reasons. As mentioned in the article, “virtuous pedophiles” people that have the urges but have yet to act and seek help. In the article, Dr. Cantor stated, “That’s the kind of person we’d like our clients to become, a person who’s aware of the urges and learns to effectively manage them.” Potential lies here to uncover more about pedophilia but also to spread awareness for managing people’s own impulses. Even though they aren’t choosing how to feel and their urges, they are choosing to take actions that are prosecuted against like download illegal images and even commit the crime of sexual assault. This is not only just a failure in morality but it is a lack of inhibition of underlying urges. The attraction is clearly separate from the action, “I couldn’t help myself” does not suffice in a criminal defense where there is a victim of a crime, however, this issue does not begin at the crime. 

Some ideas could allow more open conversations of psychologists by allowing the act of having child pornography to be deferred if no other physical assaults have occurred or conspiracy to do so. This could put a halt to, “an era of increasing alarm over the proliferation of online abuse…going only further underground”. From that law enforcement develop strategies to prevent far worse crimes, something that already occurs in the US in order to catch people that present greater risks to society. 

In the interest of limiting the harm done to others could be in society’s best interest to actively listen to this group of people to prevent such actions. This preserves more innocent lives while allowing law enforcement to better prevent the worst from occurring. Maybe more minor crimes like look at photos can be minimized in order to catch people that commit the crime. 

References

Carey, B. (2019, September 29). Preying on Children: The Emerging Psychology of Pedophiles. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/us/pedophiles-online-sex-abuse.html

Opportunities for Radiative Cooling 

Jeremy Rodriguez

City College

Abstract

On September 12, 2019 an article published in the New York Times described an invention by Dr. Raman from the University of California Los Angeles that was able to power a lightbulb via a phenomenon called radiative cooling. This technology holds many drawbacks in maximum energy production which was 3 orders of magnitude less than a normal solar cell and theoretically is capped at 50 times less energy per square meter. The device does have a lot of promise being a useful addon in many solar cells to produce energy when the sun is down as well as recycling energy expended by other devices such as computers. Since technology can aid in many different places it could become commercially viable and is likely able to lessen the effects of CO2 emissions by saving energy.

The New York Times article published an article on September 12, 2019 called, ‘New Device Harvests Energy in Darkness’ by Rebecca Boyle which discusses a new invention that was able to generate power for a lightbulb in the dark. Scientist and Entrepreneur Aaswath Raman’s invention was powered through a phenomenon called radiative cooling. His company, SkyCooling has already used this effect prior to this for other innovations. The phenomenon itself is simple, through certain materials the heat builds up on one side allowing the other to be cooler. In this transition from hot to cold, which happens as the sun goes down, we can harness some of the thermal energy to power objects without dwindling solar batteries or CO2. 

The invention succeeded in powering a light bulb turning on however it has many limitations. The article stated that the energy created was, “about three orders of magnitude lower than what a typical solar panel produces” showing the technology is not able at this current place to replace or compete with solar. The effect also seems to be limited, “ Researchers … calculated that at best only about 4 watts of energy can be extracted from a square meter of cold space. By contrast… the most common type of solar panel generates about 200 watts per square meter in direct sunlight.” From this, it is clear that this new energy may not be the opening to a completely new world. As a power source, it most likely will not reach anything as viable as solar panels.  However, Dr. Raman clarifies that “thermoelectric devices could complement solar-powered lights in areas where changing batteries is a challenge, like on street lamps or in remote areas far from electrical grids”. Utilizing this technology to generate energy in specific places can aggregate to a large amount of power generated and support a major downside to solar. These minor roles are a niche for the technology because it could be integrated into space for solar panels rather than compete against them.  

This invention and use of our understanding can easily lead to more innovation and new technology.  As said, “after the sun sets, solar cells don’t work and winds often die down, even as demand for lighting peaks” Assuming that there is always some fluctuation in heat then there is an opportunity to generate energy. Things like friction, physical contact, and even sound waves generate some amount of heat. Over time there could be ways to gather much more energy from any of these minor sources of energy. One potential use of the technology could be a further deploying them to building walls, computers, and likely other places to recapture heat we emit. Since it’s powered by only heat it is so versatile, it can be used anywhere. This technology brings an opportunity to recycle energy rather than just generate it. 

A drawback of the technology is cost. As mentioned in the article, “…thermoelectric devices are less efficient and more expensive than photovoltaic cells..”, this is damaging since it isn’t as versatile if the cost is a major impediment. This issue also seems to be greater since “One challenge will be improving the device’s efficiency without raising its costs”. Even though the power is versatile it is not likely to be used in places that need it most, where costs to build regular solar panels are steep. 

The technology promises to be commercially viable and ecologically liberating however major discoveries need to be made for this to happen. Since it could be used virtually anywhere and aid a major drawback of solar panels it can be easily sold as an addon once costs subside. Though not a paradigm shift it offers to expand the use of scientific knowledge via its implementation. There are likely other ways that technology will aid society from lighting rural areas to saving bills for city dwellers. Where else can we implement natural phenomena to generate energy?  

References

Boyle, R. (2019, September 12). Transformative? New Device Harvests Energy from Darkness. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/science/solar-energy-power-electricity.html

Jeremy Rodriguez

125 Stagg Walk Apt 1D

Brooklyn, New York 11206

(347) 771-0304

Michael Coppola

9/30/19

City College of New York

160 Convent Ave 

New York, NY 10031

(212) 650-7000

Dear Professor Coppola,

The start is harder than the end. In general, I’d like to communicate to you my who I am as a person, what I enjoy, and my relationship with science. I’ll do that by sharing what kind of circumstances I had growing up, what kind of things I’ve done both personally and academically and where I’m likely heading. 

I was born in Brooklyn to a Hispanic family in the Williamsburg Projects. Growing up I had encounters with the realities of drugs, feeling poor, obesity, and things more fortunate people do not need to deal with so young. I was raised by my loving and human grandparents. My grandfather was constantly struggling with addiction with drugs and my grandmother was addicted to pills and had bipolar depression. Some of the more radical moments included glass shatter on the floor, finding baggies of heroin, knives out with the intention of suicide and even the occasional group hug. 

These years were formative as I became very averse to drugs. I learned a lot about perspective as I grew up reflecting on these moments. What may seem hectic to you was normal for me and something I was grateful for. I had food and people who cared, that was more than good enough.   

My parents were around. My mom struggled to support me. She came from Puerto Rico with no ability to speak English, pregnant, and no job at the age of 17. She worked two jobs and got an associate’s degree all to support me and eventually became a police officer. She serves as motivation as well as someone to outdo and surpass. My dad was in jail for a few years when I was young. To this day I have no idea what he did. He is always reliable in his presence and came across as a great role model. His time reformed him because he chose to change. 

Growing up I was very active I’m told. From being called a drama king from my elementary school principal and being uber-competitive since kindergarten. I was raised in the house. My grandparents wanted to keep me away from the bad crowd that leads both my dad and uncle to leaving school. I got involved with the chess club, kickball, and baseball back then. 

In middle school, I tried theater. I started by turning down a lead role because I was scared to be center stage. By the end of high school, I had the most memorable show in the school, tied for the most performances in the school’s history, and went to the National Shakespeare Competition twice. Theater gave me a lot of confidence to be on stage and to handle the chaos of mistakes.

 I joined the wrestling team near the end of high school. From the first day at 198 pounds, I became the rookie of the year and cut almost 40 pounds in the process. Even further I became my coach’s right hand setting up the gym equipment, helping train students and planning the work outs for the week. I learn a lot about the consistency required to be competent at something. While at a tournament, I realized that all of us would practice over 100 hours for only 6 minutes of actual combat.  

One major habit I picked up was writing after winning a contest in my class for a short story. I was awarded a journal from which I began writing every day. Journaling helps me plan and ease my mind when I’m upset or stressed and I have written over 1000 pages in less than a year’s time. 

I did well academically, but never really tried pursuing my potential. I had decided that 20% of my effort for an A was good enough. I spent most of the class periods talking to friends since I’d finish the work quickly. 

I learned to befriend teachers in order to get more lenient punishments for talking but primarily because I’d be taught too rather than taught at. I’d describe my time as very careless and unintentional. For example, I studied for about 3 hours for the SAT the night before gave me an 1130 superscore, the highest seat in my class to the Valedictorians dismay. Choices like that were rewarding because I was still at the top but hurt me in the future. Where could I have been if I decided to get extra lessons from my teachers. Where could I have been if I choose and practiced wrestling and acting earlier? 

A major event was the passing of my grandmother. It was strange to lose someone at 18 years old. I’m glad she was in my life. She fought cancer and survived. Growing up it was common for her to go to the hospital and come back completely normal. After a certain point, it was normal. Since then NYCHA has been trying to evict me and my grandfather. Over the almost 2 years she’s been gone I’ve had to come to terms with all the actions I regretted when she was alive. In a way, she is a guiding force, an idealized version of herself in my mind.           

In college, I began in Economics. Before college started all I did was research ways to earn money. In orientation I meet the EBFS, a club on campus who taught financial literacy and I joined instantly. In that time I become an officer for the club and even worked in a professor’s lab. 

I fell out of love with economics because it was too easy for me. The club also becomes less fulfilling as I gained more power. After becoming VP I stayed hoping to become more diligent and organized but hoping I’d fall back in love with it all. The president resigned and I took the mantle. I thought I’d finally be able to make my mark but I was already in a play which took up a lot of time. I ended up getting fired and after the production was over I had nothing. I learned valuable things from that failure about leadership and how to treat those who volunteer their time.   

I switched to Psychology, which was the only major I saw myself in. I always read about people and was interested in understanding how we are wired. Strangely enough, I began having strange anxiety. I would imagine dying constantly. I couldn’t fight it off. It pulled me out of great moments with those I loved. I decided that I wanted to make a contribution to the world before I died. I always thought of making history and being remembered. I decided to cure aging so people wouldn’t have to die. There seemed to be evidence to support the idea that humans could have an infinite life if the cells keep dividing and reducing the chance of error. Maybe others would not have to see their family die. In that warped mindset riddled with fear, I choose Biochemistry.  

Growing up I honestly didn’t think I’d pursue science in any meaningful way. At best it was cool to see animals, how their bodies were adapted to the world around them and at worst it was hating the high school experiments. Since I wanted to make a major contribution I assumed science was the best way to go. 

I have taken science classes. I thought if I was going to grab a psychology degree I should choose the more difficult of the two, a bachelor’s in science, to be more competitive. Looking at my track record It didn’t make sense to take more science. Chemistry was a slog and I remained as I was stuck at the class average of 50 till the end. Going into Biology, I recognized the vast world of cells and how they functioned so intelligently. I keep trying in class because I wanted to prove to myself I was smart and I didn’t want to kill my 3.7 GPA. In both, I got a B with the help of a curve. 

That being said since college began I have been particularly interested in one-upping myself and trying to become better. For some reason I wanted to try my hand at Physics, finish the Calculus trilogy and do all the introductory Science courses. 

I thought that taking the classes would get me to unlock more of myself. I’ve never put in this much effort before and have never felt so competent. At my current state life is pretty transitional, I’m going onto a new semester and I actually feel like I’m creating the outcomes. One distinction, I’ve been working a lot harder to get where I wanted to be. 

Recently I’ve started a great many things relating to my interests. I created a fan page of one of my favorite games and have learned how to grow an audience of over 2,200 people and worked with over 95 artists to make the page. I got to learn a lot about consistency and the ecosystem of growth. I’ve been synthesizing most of the information I’ve been able to gather from my courses to have more vivid ideas.  

We’ve reached the end of this paper. A few of my goals academically are to get a B in all my STEM classes so I can keep my GPA up, and also use the skills I learned in those classes to come up with more unique ideas in my psychological and personal pursuits like running experiments on myself. In my own life, I would like to earn money from the audience I’ve grown and continue to lead people since those have been rewarding experiences for me.    

Sincerely, 

Jeremy Rodriguez