Month: March 2024

RCL Blog 5 – Issue Brief Introduction and Outline

Emma DeMichele

From the plastic utensils provided with take-out meals to the water bottles we purchase when we’re thirsty and dispose of once we’re done with them. Single-use plastic is everywhere, deeply ingrained into our daily routines, and yet they are so quickly disposed of that it hardly even crosses our minds. Single-use plastic products are primarily composed of petrochemicals, which are derived from fossil fuels, and are intended for immediate disposal after use. These plastics are typically utilized in disposable items such as bottles, wrappers, straws, and bags. Single-use plastics highlight our society’s tendency to opt for convenience, disregarding the long-term consequences. Instead of investing in quality products that can be repeatedly used and are made to last, our dependency on disposable plastic products has resulted in an alarming accumulation of waste. The United Nations Environment Program reports that globally, we generate 300 million tons of plastic annually, half of which can be attributed to single-use plastic products. 

 

Reducing plastic consumption is the most effective way to reduce this waste and the carbon footprint associated with plastic production. As a result, an influx of single-use plastic bans are being enacted all over the country and the world. Cities like Malibu, Seattle, and Miami Beach have outlawed plastic straws, while Connecticut, California, New York, and Vermont are among the states that have banned plastic bags. California has seen a 70% reduction in plastic bag usage since implementing its plastic bag ban in 2014. These single-use plastic bans help to significantly cut down on the amount of waste that reaches landfills each year and reduce the need for plastic production that contributes to global climate change. Additionally, it compels companies to reconsider their product designs and opt for more sustainable materials. Consumers are also encouraged to rethink their daily habits and abandon the throwaway culture our society is so accustomed to. 

 

The adoption of single-use plastic bans are a crucial step towards moderating environmental impact and promoting sustainability. With the potential to prevent tons of plastic waste annually, reduce pollution, and shift societal attitudes toward responsible consumption, implementing these strategies at Penn State is imperative. Single-use plastic is everywhere in our community, from the take-out boxes from the dining hall to the plastic straws in our drinks from downtown. By taking a proactive approach to this pressing issue, Penn State has the opportunity to enact positive change in our community and contribute to a more sustainable planet for future generations. 

 

Outline:

  • Introduction
  • 1st paragraph
    • More about the issue and why it’s a problem
    • More data/statistics and such
  • 2nd paragraph
    • Places/businesses that have implemented single-use plastic bans
    • What worked well and what were the issues posed by this
  • 3rd paragraph
    • Alternative solutions to single-use plastic products
    • New technology/innovations that can remedy this issue
  • 4th paragraph
    • The recommendation for what Penn State should do
  • Conclusion
Categories: RCL1 Comment

Personal is Political Blog 8 – Andrew

Emma DeMichele

For this Personal is Political blog, I wanted to interview my friend Andrew about his Hispanic heritage and how it has influenced his experiences and perspective in life. Hope you enjoy the interview!

 

Can you tell me a bit about your family’s cultural background and where they’re from?

Both my parents are fully Hispanic and they were both born and raised in Venezula. My dad moved here for college and my mom came here after my father graduated from grad school. My father got into Colgate University, so he came here to attend college, and his four brothers all got into college and moved here too. Then, my dad went to graduate school at UMiami, but during the summers he would go home to work at a law firm in Venezula, and he met mom because she was an assistant at the law firm. They started dating and did long-distance until my dad graduated, and they moved to Brooklyn and got married in the states. 

 

What are some traditions or customs that your family has that are unique to your Hispanic heritage?

For New Years, we do a lot of different stuff. Like, we have to walk around the house with a suitcase with coins in our shoes, we throw eggs at the street, and obviously everyone eats the grapes so I wouldn’t say that’s our thing. And for us we celebrate Christmas the day before mostly, like we have a big Christmas Eve dinner with my family, that’s something that’s always really special to us. And just things like that, nothing really crazy or that different, I would say.

 

How has your family’s Hispanic heritage influenced your upbringing and identity?

So, Hispanics are stereotypically really loud and outgoing people, and I think that personality has really rubbed off on me, because I’m pretty outgoing too. And especially my mom, she’s like this really short, basic, stereotypical Hispanic, like 4’8 and super loud. But i feel like her personality and strength really rubbed off on me. She really motivated me to be outgoing and like, push myself. 

 

Can you share any experiences of discrimination or challenges you faced due to your Hispanic identity while growing up?

One story that I always remember is when we went to go pick up my dad from the airport because he was coming back from a business trip. We were all kind of young, and we were in a packed minivan. It was my two younger brothers, me, and my older sister, and my mom. To be fair, we were parked in the wrong spot, but this police officer came up to us, and at this point my mom didn’t speak any English she only spoke Spanish, and the officer was prominent on her only speaking English. She was like ‘Oh no you have to speak English. I can’t talk to you if you’re only going to speak Spanish’. So I remember my older sister trying to translate, but at the time she was only like eleven, so a lot of the things she wasn’t able to say. I remember my mom just getting really flustered because she had like six cops all yelling at her to speak English and she can’t do anything about it. And she has four kids all parked in this minivan, and obviously my brothers were all upset and crying. The officer was just saying all these kind of derogatory things, like ‘You should be able to speak English’, ‘You have to learn’, ‘This is inappropriate’. And when we got out of the minivan she was like ‘How many of there are you’, and she was just saying things like that which really stuck with me. When my dad came out he was really upset too and I just remember the whole scene and everybody watching us. It was just really awkward.

 

In what ways do you feel your Hispanic heritage has influenced your perspective on the world and your sense of self?

I remember when I was growing up I lived in a really white town and I was the only Hispanic kid in my elementary school. So I kind of almost forgot about it and pushed it off because I wanted to be like everyone else. But I think as I got older, and my middle school and high school was more diverse, so I got into my heritage a lot more. And especially since where my parents are from there is lot of poverty, so when I would go visit or just here stories from my family, it always made me think about how fortunate I was to grow up here and not be in the same situation that they were. So it kind of made me take advantage more of the opportunities that were given to me. And now I’ve learned to be proud of my heritage and not just like, push it off, just like embrace who I am.

 

Categories: Personal is Political2 Comments

RCL Blog 4 – Issue Brief Introduction Draft

Emma DeMichele

Issue Brief: What Penn State Can Learn From Single-Use Plastic Bans.

 

From the plastic utensils provided with take-out meals to the water bottles we purchase when we’re thirsty and dispose of once we’re done with them. Single-use plastic is everywhere, deeply ingrained into our daily routines, and yet they are so quickly disposed of that it hardly even crosses our minds. Single-use plastic products are primarily composed of petrochemicals, which are derived from fossil fuels, and are intended for immediate disposal after use. These plastics are typically utilized in disposable items such as bottles, wrappers, straws, and bags. Single-use plastics highlight our society’s tendency to opt for convenience, disregarding the long-term consequences. Instead of investing in quality products that can be repeatedly used and are made to last, our dependency on disposable plastic products has resulted in an alarming accumulation of waste. The United Nations Environment Program reports that globally, we generate 300 million tons of plastic annually, half of which can be attributed to single-use plastic products. 

 

Reducing plastic consumption is the most effective way to reduce this waste and the carbon footprint associated with plastic production. As a result, an influx of single-use plastic bans are being enacted all over the country and the world. Cities like Malibu, Seattle, and Miami Beach have outlawed plastic straws, while Connecticut, California, New York, and Vermont are among the states that have banned plastic bags. California has seen a 70% reduction in plastic bag usage since implementing its plastic bag ban in 2014. These single-use plastic bans help to significantly cut down on the amount of waste that reaches landfills each year and reduce the need for plastic production that contributes to global climate change. Additionally, it compels companies to reconsider their product designs and opt for more sustainable materials. Consumers are also encouraged to rethink their daily habits and abandon the throwaway culture our society is so accustomed to. 

 

The adoption of single-use plastic bans are crucial step towards moderating environmental impact and promoting sustainability. With the potential to prevent tons of plastic waste annually, reduce pollution, and shift societal attitudes toward responsible consumption, implementing these strategies at Penn State is imperative. Single-use plastic is everywhere in our community, from the take-out boxes from the dining hall to the plastic straws in our drinks from downtown. By taking a proactive approach to this pressing issue, Penn State has the opportunity to enact positive change in our community and contribute to a more sustainable planet for future generations. 

 

Sources:

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/single-use-plastics-101#ban

https://www.seasidesustainability.org/post/the-u-s-progress-with-single-use-plastic-bans

Categories: RCL1 Comment

Civic Issues 4 – The Problem with Sweatshops

Emma DeMichele

This Civic Issues Blog is going to focus on sweatshops and the environmental and ethical concerns raised when it comes to fast fashion. While the production of fast fashion certainly can be very damaging to our environment, many are unaware of the poor treatment of workers that is common in the fast fashion industry. For this blog I want to take a deeper dive into the industry’s exploitative labor practices, low wages, and poor working conditions in garment factories.

 

A sweatshop refers to a manufacturing place where employees are working under unethical and unhygenic working conditions. Many fast fashion clothing brands receive clothes from these sweat shops because they can get mass amounts of product for extremely low prices. However, since many of these factories are in underdeveloped countries, they do not have to abide by the same labor laws and are not required to provide safe working conditions or fair wages for their employees. Sweatshop workers are not paid nearly enough to provide for themselves or their families, with the average wage for workers in Bangladesh being only 33 cents per hour and around 58 cents per hour in India. Many workers will be required to work up to 14 or 16 hours a day, all while enduring verbal or even physical abuse from their managers. Accidents and injuries are frequent in these sweatshops because of the poor and dangerous working conditions in the factories. Sweatshops also take advantage of poor, underprivileged kids and don’t have to follow the same child labor laws that we have in the US. 

 

Sweatshops and fast fashion clothing production can have a severe impact on the environment as well. Trend cycles and the inexpensive and low-quality clothing that characterize fast fashion have driven up the demand for buying clothes like never before. Around 80 to 100 billion new pieces of clothing are produced every year, while so much of these clothes are dumped into landfills simultaneously. The clothing industry is the second most polluting business in the world, behind the oil industry, and the ultra-trendy, poorly made clothing that is a product of fast fashion is certainly a contributing factor. Additionally, the poisonous clothing dyes and chemicals used in cotton growing are extremely harmful to the environment as well. These chemicals can pollute our oceans, killing organisms important to our ecosystems and can have a direct impact on our health as they have been linked to problems like skin irriations and cancerous growths. 

 

The best way to detect which brands rely on sweatshops and unethical labor practices is to do your research! If a brand is not being transparent about how they make their clothes, that could be a big red flag. You should always be able to find out more about a brand’s production practices on their website or through a quick google search. While it can definitely be challenging to only buy clothes that are 100% ethically made, I encourage you all to do your research about the clothes you are buying and think twice before purchasing from fast fashion brands!

 

Sources:

https://earth.org/sweatshops/ 

Categories: Civic Issues2 Comments

Personal is Political Blog 7 – Nora

Emma DeMichele

For this week’s Personal is Political blog, I decided to interview my friend Nora, who is majoring in mechanical engineering here at Penn State. Hearing some of her experiences of being in a major that is more male-dominated inspired me to want to interview her to get her perspective on that. Our interview was on a bit of a time crunch since she had to leave for a class soon, but nonetheless I think she had some very interesting insights to share and I hope you enjoy this conversation with her.

 

How would you describe your experience so far being a woman in an engineering major?

I would say that we are severely under-represented as women in engineering majors. You walk into any of my engineering lectures and there’s maybe 4 or 5 girls in a 50-person lecture, and they all sit together because no one else wants to talk to them. So we kind of all have to band together a little bit. But it’s good to have something that connects all of us together. 

 

How was your experience being involved in WEPO, Penn State’s Women in Engineering program?

It was such a great opportunity to connect with the other women in engineering and STEM fields because we’re all going through the same struggles. It was also good for networking and having a system of upperclassmen to ask questions and help you if you’re struggling. Obviously, engineering is pretty hard enough itself, and being a woman makes it even harder, so knowing that other people have gone through that and can give you advice is super helpful. Especially for incoming freshmen, since I know WEPO was super helpful for me. gives us a leg up a little bit and prepares us for knowing that it’s going to be harder for us than it is for other people. 

 

Have you experienced any specific instances of bias or discrimination in your classes?

I would say that in some group projects, a lot of guys like to have the women do the creativity part. Like ‘You can just do the slideshow and I’ll do the CAD design’ or ‘You can just put this all together and I’ll give you the equations and information that you need’. I just don’t get that because we’re just as capable, or maybe even more capable than half the people telling us to do that. So I would say that making sure that everyone’s part is the same in terms of the weight of the part is sometimes a struggle.

 

What do you think the future is for women in engineering?

I think that the future is the women in STEM. Now that we have these programs to get people more involved and there’s more outreach for high schoolers, WEPO does a lot of outreach where they go to high schools and tell girls about STEM fields and tell them that they can if they want. So, bringing in more women to have more representation is going to make male-dominated fields like that less male-dominated and it’ll just be better for everybody. Women will be able to thrive alongside the men and it’ll just be more equal and more inclusive. 

Categories: Personal is Political3 Comments

Public Policy Notes 3/14/24

Emma DeMichele

How do you shape public policy?

  • think of problems connected to a policy (what are the harms?)
  • what are the issue areas (do they connect/overlap)
  • who is in charge of this area of policy (jurisdiction)
  • who is affected/who makes/who can enact the policy? (aka stakeholders)

Topic idea: Environmental topic (not sure what yet)

  • Harms: favoring the environment/sustainability can sometimes harm the profits of businesses or be costly to consumers
  • Issue area: Environment
  • Jurisdiction: will probably stick to a campus-wide or local problem, since climate change is obviously a very wide-reaching issue
  • Policy instruments: I think mandates and inducements are the best ways to support environmental issues, as many people know about the dangers of climate change but still don’t change their actions, so I don’t know how well capacity builders work for this issue
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Personal is Political Blog 6 – Sophia

Emma DeMichele

For this Personal is Political blog, I decided to interview my friend Sophia again to get more insight into her dad’s drinking problem and how it has affected her life and family dynamics. It is only something she has shared with me somewhat recently, so I wasn’t sure how comfortable she’d be talking about it, but she said she wanted to do the interview and knew that she only had to share however much she felt comfortable with. I hope you guys enjoy reading about her family’s story. 

 

Could you provide some background on your family’s situation?

So, my parents were both Christian and met at church, and they got married and had me. For a while, we were living in Somerville (outside of Boston), but my dad was working near here (my hometown), where we live now. So he would only come home on the weekends, but when he was here he stayed with a friend, and that’s where he developed his drinking problems. When we moved here when I was in 4th grade, that’s when we all saw how different he was and his lifestyle. He would come home late a lot and always missed our stuff. Last summer, my dad got pulled over for drunk driving and got his license taken away. He couldn’t drive anymore which sort of forced him to stop drinking since he didn’t have transportation. He started going to church again with our family which has brought us all closer and I think helped him to fight off his drinking problem. He also has a lot more free time so he can focus on his hobbies, like working out, playing the guitar, cooking, and reading the bible. He has more time to work on himself now, but he has had some slip-ups with drinking. 

 

How has your relationship with your dad been affected by his alcoholism?

My sister was younger, so she doesn’t really remember as much but I remember always resenting him for not being home much and everything when he was in the thick of his alcoholism. I never really wanted to talk to him because of it and I wasn’t very close with him. Since he has stopped drinking we have had a much better relationship and have been talking more now. It is still kind of hard because I’ve always been so used to just ignoring him, but it’s gotten better, and when I’m at college I don’t have to worry as much about whats going on at home.

 

Are there any support systems you have in place to cope with your dad’s situation?

The main one is God. That was the main reason I started reading the bible on my own and getting closer to God. I hung out with my friends a lot, too. Or with my sister. But I think because I was so used to it I didn’t really think about it much.

 

How optimistic are you for your dad’s recovery from alcoholism? 

When he first got his DUI, he did like a complete 180 and changed up everything in his life. But then he started slipping up again, because even though he wasn’t able to drive he still had friends drive him sometimes. On New Years, my mom gave him divorce papers and basically said ‘if you don’t actually stop drinking we are getting a divorce’, and he hasn’t slipped up since then. So I think there’s more at stake for him now and even though it will probably be tough, I am hopeful that this will be a lasting change.

 

Have you learned any lessons from this situation?

Definitely that everyone is redeemable and everyone can change. Even when it looks like someone is too far gone, which I used to think that of my dad, there is still hope for everyone.

Categories: Personal is Political3 Comments