Civic Issues

Plastic Bottles are a Waste

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We have all drank from plastic water bottles and have thrown them in the trash. Some may recycle them, but this doesn’t completely counteract the issue. Over a million plastic water bottles are sold per minute. In fact, “global sales of bottled water are expected to nearly double by 2030” (Ramirez). Plastic bottles are used everyday by millions of people to stay hydrated. My question is why?

Plastic water bottles are becoming more expensive as inflation increases. While the cost of a single reusable water bottle is significantly less than a month’s worth of plastic water bottles. Using reusable water bottles can be more environmentally safe way of consuming water. With less plastic waste we could see a great improvement in littering, ocean pollution, and fumes that come from degrading the plastic.

While plastic water bottles may come with convenience, I wonder who really benefits from the sale of plastic. Plastic water bottle sales have a global value of over 270 billion dollars. This amount of money is what is driving companies to push plastic water bottles over reusable, as it supports company growth while, ignoring the environmental impact. On top of that 25% of plastic water bottle sales benefit only 5 companies such as: Pepsico, The Coca Cola Company, Nestlé, Danone, and Primo Water. These companies push their bottled water into tons of sports, events, college, campuses, and every grocery store.

It was found that in westernized cultures bottled water is viewed as cleaner and better than tap. Despite clean tap water being widely available in these countries. While in non westernized countries where clean tap water isn’t available, plastic water bottles are used out of necessity. Living in a country with clean tap water, we need to utilize it as it is no better than bottled. On top of that many schools and business in the U.S. have started to push filtered water fountains in every building and floor. What is our excuse to keep using plastic water bottles.

Plastic water bottles not only are littered every day but they take over 1,000 years to fully degrade. On top of this 85% of plastic water bottles end up in waste or the ocean. We as a westernized country with access to clean tap water needs to do better and avoid these harmful products especially when we have so many alternatives and access to recycling.

In recent, years reusable water bottles have already become quite popular. Brands like Yeti, Stanley, Hydroflask, etc… are already consistently available for purchase. On top of those popular brands there are a lot of other alternatives because those brands can be a little pricey. Many schools and companies also give away free water bottles to support the anti-plastic cause. There is no excuse to not use a reusable water bottle in your day-to-day as they have become exceedingly accessible.

While plastic water bottles aren’t the main source of pollution it is important for everyone to do their part. This planet is our home and it has served us well for centuries, it’s about time we try to fix our mistakes and treat the Earth with more respect.

Work Cited

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/world/plastic-water-bottles-un-report-climate/index.html

Why are Disposable Water Bottles Harmful to the Environment?

(easybib and other citation websites were not working so I pasted the links)

 

Personal is Political

The Anguish of a Trip to Germany

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This past summer my mom told me that we were going to Germany to visit her cousins. Normally I would be excited to travel to another country especially one with so much culture. However, in prior visits to these family member we haven’t had the most pleasant experience. My family members we’ll call Marry and Robby, can be difficult to deal with. While Robby is mentally challenged and is overall one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, his sister Marry is in my words a nightmare. She has belittled me and my mother in the past, calling us “lazy” and “fat”. She treats us like she knows everything and we know nothing. She has also in the past invited herself to stay in our home in the U.S. for four weeks during the school year and heavy work load time for my mom.

This trip she decided it would be a good idea to eavesdrop into me and my mother’s conversations. My grandmother, though we love and support her, can be difficult. She is stubborn and a right wing fundamentalist who is convinced she can do everything at the ripe age of 93. My mom and I had a multitude of conversations during this trip about how to best deal with her and we often spoke negatively of her actions. Our biggest conversation occurred after my grandma disappeared for three hours without telling anyone. I spent two hours looking for her in a country I didn’t know and my mom called every number she could think of. She eventually returned and my mom and I had a long conversation about how to handle the situation. Marry decided it was a good idea to eavesdrop into this conversation and completely took it the wrong way.

A few hours later when my mom tried to talk to my grandma, she was completely cold and unreactive. At this point I reached the end of my “stresscation” while my mom and grandma were staying another week. During this week my grandma refused to speak to my mom and she couldn’t figure out why.

One they returned my grandma finally said why she was silent for the last week. Marry told her that we didn’t love her and we hoped she would pass away. This is entirely untrue and a complete overstep on Marry’s part. While my grandma can be difficult she’s still family and we love her as such. This caused a complete intervention to beheld including my mom and her brother. She couldn’t understand that Marry had lied and told her a ridiculous notion. This is until my Uncle Joey (mom’s brother) was able to reach her and have her understand that Marry was lying and made a comment without any facts or truth.

How we treat our elderly hs become apparent to me throughout this ordeal.  While I know my grandma is hard to deal with she is my family and we love her. Our words hold meaning that could crush self-esteem and we need to be better at communicating issues to all parties involved. We need to crete family policy and boundaries with my mom’s cousins so that this doesn’t occur again.

RCL

Big Pharma Needs a Cap(sule) (intro + outline)

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Big pharma, in the United States, has become an extremely profitable market. Many joining the field in hopes of riches, but that’s not how the prescription business started. With the creation of the original vaccines and medications many doctors and scientists rejoiced a cure or crutch for diseases and disorders. There seemed to be a genuine interest in helping others and sharing the findings. However, in modern day, many search for new medications in order to gain a large profit. This is seen by the excessive price of many prescriptions, company’s margins, and lack of policy capping prescription prices. You may wonder, why is big pharma such a big and profitable industry? Big pharma has found a way to justify high prices by claiming that research cost billions of dollars and treating prescriptions like a business opportunity. While, yes, research costs money, yes, prescriptions are sold but, millions of Americans can’t afford their life saving prescriptions as big pharma is now. Many prescriptions are unattainable because of the price regardless of the importance of the drug. Many of our elderly population requires multiple over priced prescriptions. With their lack of employment and living on savings and social security, it’s not enough money to live a healthy life. While there have been a few price caps already put in place, it’s not enough. Prescriptions like insulin have become capped the machine to inject it still remains absurdly expensive. Prescription that help with hemoglobin and autoimmune diseases have become exceedingly expensive even though these medications are required for the treatment. Insulin isn’t the only expensive prescription that needs a price cap. Big pharma cannot continue to be run like a business but be run as live saving service. As America doesn’t have universal health care and with prescription prices rising, there should be a federal policy capping the price for all prescription medications.

1st Body topic: Insulin cap

  • insulin prescription has been caped
  • WEPA ACT
  • Biden administration cap
  • Why isn’t the injector capped too

2nd Body topic: Other prescription that aren’t capped

  • hemoglobin prescriptions
  • autoimmune disease prescriptions
  • make policy that caps these prescriptions

3rd body topic: The elderly issues with perscriptions

  • the elderly are the most affected
  • have bad insurance
  • little savings
  • social security isn’t enough

4th body topic: Bad insurance and paying the research

  • insurances don’t cover all prescriptions
  • Make policy for universal health care
    • specified to elderly
  • Find better ways to pay for prescription research

Conclusion

Personal is Political

Take a Time Out

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Many parents use time outs as a tool to discipline their kids. When a child did something wrong or something they weren’t supposed to parents would send their child to a corner to sit in silence. For me this was the worst punishment my parents could give me. I was always a hyper child my mind constantly raced. Sitting in silence with nothing to do felt almost torturous when all I wanted to do was run and play.
When I was five I thought it was a great idea to draw on the wall. I wanted to draw flowers to decorate our house to make it in my mind “pretty”. My dad saw this act and was immediately irritated. He sent me to time out for five minutes in the corner by the staircase. This punishment made me feel horrible. The first few seconds made me feel antsy and stuck. I hated being in the same spot for long. After about five seconds my mind told me to just walk away and I did. I left and when my dad went to check on me, I heard his surprise from the other room. He came and grabbed me and put me back in the corner and told me to stay another five minutes.

I stood there for maybe five more seconds and left again. While I understood my dad wanted me there to punish me for drawing on the wall, i couldn’t just stand there. I needed to be entertained by something, I needed to be doing something. Once my dad realized I left again he went and got me and asked why I couldn’t stay still. I explained that i needed to be doing something the best way a five year old could. To my surprise he understood and decided that the next time i misbehaved the punishment would be different.

After this act of drawing on the wall I misbehaved by riding my bike where I wasn’t supposed to. Instead of putting me in time out he decided to take away my bike for the week and told me to do something else. While I missed my bike and learned my lesson I was able to still do other activities where I wasn’t misbehaving. For me taking the thing that I misbehaved with was a much more effective punishment.

Many kids respond differently to different forms of punishment. For me taking things away was more effective then a time out. However, other kids could respond better to time outs, forced exercise, do extra chores. There are a lot of different ways to punish kids for misbehaving. Finding the right policies in your household could be a great way to push for good behavior in your children. The right policy could make all the difference in paenting.

RCL

Big Pharma Needs a Cap(sule)

1 Comment

Big pharma, in the United States, has become an extremely profitable market. Many joining the field in hopes of riches, but that’s not how the prescription business started. With the creation of the original vaccines and medications many doctors and scientists rejoiced a cure or crutch for diseases and disorders. There seemed to be a genuine interest in helping others and sharing the findings. However, in modern day, many search for new medications in order to gain a large profit. This is seen by the excessive price of many prescriptions, company’s margins, and lack of policy capping prescription prices. You may wonder, why is big pharma such a big and profitable industry? Big pharma has found a way to justify high prices by claiming the research cost billions of dollars and treating prescriptions like a business opportunity. While, yes, research costs money, yes, prescriptions are sold but, millions of Americans can’t afford their life saving prescriptions as big pharma is now. As America doesn’t have universal health care and with prescription prices rising, there should be a federal policy capping the price of prescription medications.

Personal is Political

The Way of Martial Arts

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When I was young I was very active in extracurricular activities. I tried a multitude of different sports and hobbies to bide my time. I did sports like basketball, volleyball, softball, and cross country. I also found a love for music when I was learning to play the guitar and piano. However, the one thing I didn’t really think about was martial arts. That was until my fourth grade science teacher was sharing a story about her karate class. This immediately peaked my interest, she spoke about how karate helped her form more discipline in her life and how much fun she had earning the next belt. After I heard her speak about her love for karate I went straight to my mom to ask her if I could sign up for karate class. My mom said yes and the next week I was in my first class.

We spent the first class learning more about the rhetoric of karate and the importance of discipline. While I found this class quite boring as the most exciting thing we did was practice a simple punch. However, this was only the first class and I continued to hold out hope for the next one. The second class came around and we learned how we leveled up belts and practiced a punch and a kick. While I enjoyed this class a little more, I was starting to feel like no one in the class took it seriously. While I understood this was just an entry-level karate class, I hoped for a little more structure and practice.

What really bothered me was the way you earned the next belt. You would typically think that you would demonstrate what you learned to level up but, in order to get the next belt you had to do kind deeds. While I understood the sentiment, I was completely baffled that the way to level up had nothing to do with karate. I ended up telling my mom about it and she found it odd too. With this new information I decided after that class to quit. While I could have tried a little harder I couldn’t get past the lack of actual Karate was done during the classes and the unrelated way to level up. It’s as if someone was tasked to paint a flower to become CEO of a technology company.

While doing good deeds is a nice aspect to instill in children, it had nothing to do with the class I signed up for. I found that taking that karate class was entirely a waste of money especially after hearing what went on later in the class. My friend who also took the class and said the next five classes were about the same. They spent more time talking then actually learning karate. Karate could have been another fun activity but it turned into a bore. Not all activities may be right for everyone and some policies within the activity may not translate well.

Civic Issues

Save the Sea Turtles but at a Cost

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Since around 2020 a large initiative started surrounding the endangerment of sea turtles. This initiative was commonly known as “save the turtles” at was mostly spread via social media like Tik Tok and instagram. Celebrities and influencers posted constantly about the importance of saving the sea turtles via reducing plastic waste. This largely surrounded plastic straws and utensils. Many restaurants and chain fast food switched from plastic straws to paper to appease the movement and rising dissonance regarding the straw’s materials.

While saving the environment is important and everyone can play a part in helping the environment, is straws really the focus of an environmental movement?  I argue that there are much bigger fish to fry then a plastic straw. In fact, the majority of plastic waste comes from abandoned fishing gear, not plastic straws. On top of that the leading contributors to the anti-plastic straw initiative is Americans while America only accounts for “just 0.9 percent of the mismanaged plastic waste in the ocean in 2010” (The Center for Accountability in Science Team). So why, is it so important to avoid plastic straws?

Using paper straws over plastic, while can somewhat help the environment, has been noticed to be more painful then it’s worth. The straws disintegrate when used, leading to the drink to become papery and almost gross to drink. Also, many during the initiative switched to reusable straws that were often overpriced and barley used. It could seem simple to use reusable silverware and straws everywhere but the amount of dishes caused by this almost doubles.  While I understand the want to help the environment but, the plastic straw initiative has simply become inconvenient and more trouble than it’s worth.

The “save the turtles” and “plastic straw” initiatives catalyzed a lot of grocery stores to stop offering plastic bags. However, to fully understand the changes we have to go back to the early years of Gen Z and prior. Grocery stores used to over a choice of paper or plastic free of charge but this changed to just plastic. However, now grocery stores took away all of the free options and replaced them with cheap paper bags that they charge for or an overpriced reusable thick plastic bag. While I understand the environmental impact of plastic bags, grocery stores have gone too far. No one wants to pay for a paper bag that’s not going to be used again. Also, many people often forget or don’t carry their reusable bags around. So when you come to the grocery store with nothing but a long list, unless you want to pay for an unnecessary bag your forced to make multiple trips to your car to pack individual items. It also comes to light that with the amount of plastic reusable bags that are bought and never used, they’ve almost become their own environmental risks.

Overall, the everyday plastic use has been significantly overblown while the more dire culprits have gone unnoticed. Instead of focusing on fad activism we as a society need to better understand these environmental issues and make reasonable action towards it. We need to stop taking everything we see on the internet as truth and focus on legitimate research and studies.

Work Cited

Lai, Olivia. “Us Is World’s Biggest Contributor to Plastic Waste, Report Finds.” Earth.Org, Earth.Org, 27 Jan. 2022, earth.org/us-is-worlds-biggest-contributor-to-plastic-waste-report-finds/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw7-SvBhB6EiwAwYdCAUnnTvtjMpHhpO-a_OjiCNqXYXKNoOKkSNyHu7Iqao2UJAKtAGopGRoCUEYQAvD_BwE.

“Where Does Plastic Ocean Trash Come From?” The Center for Accountability in Science, 9 Nov. 2020, accountablescience.com/where-does-plastic-ocean-trash-come-from/?fbclid=IwAR3C37nvrHbHzP8Gn4dtVeZacj7_-9jB2-tVj8S8SSkqy3wc5NjZoqJHwLA&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw7-SvBhB6EiwAwYdCAeNsFqiNNsBVpfX-lur5GPq3yfkMFfsbZdeaVfZjLDRzZI8aNBlr-BoCQjIQAvD_BwE.

Personal is Political

The Bus Stop

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When I was in Kindergarten I used to take the bus every morning to school and from school. My mom gave me a talk before riding the bus pertaining to proper behavior and what to do if no one was at the bus stop t get me. On Fridays my mom often had to stay at work a little later and would mean that she may not be able to get home in time to let me in the house. My dad worked until late so there was no one able to let me in some times. My mom told me the first thing I do if no one comes was to knock on the door in case she just hadn’t made it outside yet. If no one answered I was to knock on our neighbors door and tell them the situation. My mom previously spoke to them about this. Lastly if they didn’t answer, I was to stay in the backyard until my mom came home.

While my mom not being home in time wasn’t a common occurance the few times it happened I was able to handle the situation and follow the instructions my mom gave me. On one Friday my mom wasn’t at the bus stop as I assumed she got caught up with work. Being five years old I thought it would be the greatest thing in the world if our door was unlocked and I could be in the house all by myself. However, when I checked our front door it was locked and no one answered my knock. While I was disappointed to not be able to have the house to myself I walked to our next door neighbors house and knocked on the door. They didn’t answer the door either. Since I was only left with one option I trudged to my backyard where I decided to play in my neighbors gazebo as they often let me play in it when I was younger.

Eventually my mom came home barely twenty minutes later. She saw me playing in the backyard and seemed happy and excited that I followed all of her instructions.

Leaving children unattended can be a dangerous thing to do but, if given the opportunity they could surprise you. I listened to my mom because I always understood that she knew best and in our situation her trust and instructions helped a situation that could have been potentially dangerous. Kids being left unattended can lead to kids running away, starting trouble in the neighborhood, or cause issues in the house.  However, a little trust can go a long way. While it is important to watch your kids, kids just might surprise you with their maturity and listening skills. Some of my friends had similar experiences growing up and that same trust was shown to them and they followed their parents instruction as well. While I would have rather been inside with my mom coming home from school I’m glad that my mom was able to trust me to stay safe when she couldn’t watch me.

Civic Issues

Cigarettes are not the Butt of a Joke

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Growing up many adults in my life smoked cigarettes. I would watch them finish smoking it a throw it on the ground followed by stomping on it. Before I knew of the environmental impacts I didn’t blink twice at this. Now knowing it’s effects it concerns me that people would do this knowing the environmental impact. While I know that smoking is already horrible for human health its addictive properties have held a tight grip on many for centuries.

Pollution is a massive issue within our society and so is smoking. You may ask yourself, what do these topics have in common?  Smoking causes the equivalent of 17 million gas powered cars every year. While this may not sound significant if you take into context how many cars exist however, smoking contributes to more than just air pollution. Around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered each year.

Many smokers tend to just throw their cigarettes on the ground or in local rivers. While this may be the simplest manner of disposal it certainly isn’t the safe. Many animals face dire consequences from these littered cigarettes. Animals will swallow cigarettes when they are simply looking for food. Many hunters will find cigarettes inside of their hunted animal. This means that many animals are becoming sick and can potentially die due to choking or the toxic chemicals in cigarettes.

On top of all of this, cigarette filters are not biodegradable. This means that they do not naturally decompose. While the rest of the cigarette is decomposable this process takes a long time. Studies have shown that a cigarette will only be thirty-eight percent decomposed after two whole years. This is a complete and utter travesty for the environment. As cigarettes continue to pile up more and more the contribution to pollution will only rise

Many view the issue as not a big deal or as not worth their time. However, according to the “World Health Organization: each year cigarettes cost eight million human lives, six hundred million trees,  two hundred thousand hectares of land, twenty-two billion tonnes of water, and eighty-four million tonnes of CO2 emission” (Ocean Care). This is an unimaginable amount of pollution.

However, there is few ways of safely disposing of cigarettes or at least reducing the harm. Instead of throwing them on the ground you could throw them in the trash or dumpster. You could also turn to cigarette alternatives like e-cigarettes or vapes. This at least makes sure they end up in a landfill and not the street. Another way is by recycling them. While cigarette recycling is a newer concept it is completely doable, it just takes a few extra steps. Companies like Terracycle, can collect cigarette butts via mail and recycle and reuse their components. The components of the cigarette are returned to their raw materials and used to create new cigarettes. W

While, cigarette pollution has been an issue for years many seem to turn a blind eye. This issue only furthers the amount of pollution on our planet, adding unnecessary and avoidable waste to our planet. There are ways to tackle this issue we just need to start to take real action against it.

Work Cited

“5 Ways Cigarette Litter Impacts the Environment.” Truth Initiative, Truth, truthinitiative.org/research-resources/harmful-effects-tobacco/5-ways-cigarette-litter-impacts-environment#:~:text=So%2C%20it%20may%20come%20as,environmental%20impact%20of%20cigarette%20butts. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.

“Cigarette Butts: Toxic Plastic Pollution.” OceanCare, 2 Nov. 2023, www.oceancare.org/en/stories_and_news/cigarette-butts-pollution/.

“Cigarette Waste Free Recycling Program.” TerraCycle, www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/cigarette-waste-recycling#:~:text=Instead%2C%20collect%20cigarette%20waste%20using,or%20large%2Dscale%20outdoor%20environments. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.

Personal is Political

The Scare of a Lifetime

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Teen pregnancy has lead to some unwanted and unfortunate situations for a lot of cases. Many young parents, who are still children themselves, struggle with the responsibility of parenthood. While I myself have never experienced this kind of stress or scare I have had some encounters with the subject.

One time I was going out to the movie theaters with my friends. We were watching the at the time new movie Everything everywhere All at Once. Once the movie ended and I dropped all but one of my friends home my friend, we’ll call her Abby had to ask me for a favor. She explained to me how she has been feeling a little sick recently and that her period was late. This immediately raised alarm bells in my mind, as all signs pointed to pregnancy. She then asked me to take her to CVS or any drug store to purchase a pregnancy test.

We got to the store picked out a test and she decided to take it the next morning so she had more night of “not knowing”. The next morning I decided to call her and find out the results. Thankfully, in her situation, she wasn’t pregnant. However, the scare alone gave her more stress than almost anything else in her life. The stress of having a child that young was enough for me to feel stressed for her.

Being a parent is a full time job. It requires maturity, a living wage, a safe and suitable home, and much more. All of these things required for parenthood were not things Abby had. A child would have only made her life much more difficult and the baby would have most likely not have a normal or happy childhood. One big responsibility of parenthood is being able to put food on the table. When your as young as my friends was finding a job that can support two lives is exceedingly hard. With her fast food salary she barely has enough to cover herself let alone a newborn. However, as its stands in Pennsylvania, there are still options to choose from before a baby is born.

If she had been pregnant, she would be able to choose to keep the baby, put it up for adoption, or have an abortion. While abortion is still legal in PA, there is a lot of contention surrounding the subject. With most Planned Parenthoods in my area and many more having groups of protesters outside of the building. Having an abortion is not as easy as many make out to be.

There are many steps to it, like for some unknown and maybe unreasonable reason the “mother to not be” has to listen to a baby’s heartbeat before the procedure. While this might not sound like a big deal but, when your pregnant and your hormones are all over the place this can lead to rash decisions. While it is perfectly ok and respectable to keep a child conceived within teen pregnancy, a lot of people would rather not.