Category: Rhetoric and Civil Life

Signed in 2016, the Paris Agreement was an agreement within the United Nations to address climate change.  Its aim was to collectively control the increasing global temperature and overall create a strong and productive response to the threat of climate change.  In addition, the Paris Agreement claimed to provide protection to developing nations that could potentially suffer from the economic costs of lowering emissions. With the intention to meet every five years, it committed its signatories to remain reliable for the goals set.  The overall intention is to keep climate change below 2 degrees celsius but allow nations to individually decide what efforts were needed in their own country to achieve the international objective, which allowed flexibility. With ambitious plans on a treacherous battle against greenhouse gases, is it likely that the Paris Agreement will prove successful and achieve victory?

Despite the efforts to create a solution, on June 1st, 2017, President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of agreement. Yet it wasn’t a surprise, given he had mentions of his unapproval during his presidential campaign, it was still a disappointment to other nations.  Trump’s reasons for backing out of the agreement was in the interest of the American economy and the working American class, with claims that the terms are unfair “to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers” (Trump) and that it is an economic burden to the country. 

Trump’s claims were supported by many other Republicans and although many agree that there are many economic downfalls, these claims also went against previous ideologies from the United States under President Barack Obama’s term in office, as he was in office at the time of the signing of the Paris Agreement. 

With the United States dropping out of the agreement, it seems highly likely that other countries that think that they could potentially suffer from the agreement will drop out.  Again, the United States is one of the largest contributors to climate change and their involvement in this agreement was very important.  

One thing to consider though is how Trump’s time in office is only temporary and that the United States is not yet formally out of the Paris Agreement yet.  Despite Bernie Sanders’ ended campaign, both him and Vice President, Joe Biden, stated their intentions to rejoin the agreement if elected in office. It is unsure where the campaign is going and nothing is for sure but it is important to consider the environmental impact that this campaign could have worldwide when voting.  This is more than the United States that this is effecting. The American withdrawal can take away so many of the efforts made and makes the rest of the world have a more difficult time.

In the last two weeks I noticed that a significant number of blog posts related to the virus and how that affects whatever civic issues topic or passion topic that fits that person and I didn’t think much of it because it just makes sense. Right now that is the most relevant news so why wouldn’t we be talking about it.  However, I didn’t really feel that my civic issues topic, which is discussing efforts to fix our environment, really fit into it until I saw a tweet reposted on Instagram. Below I will insert the photo but the pictures and caption show that despite the horrible thing that is happening to our population right now, some good is coming from it.  It shows clear water in Venice, Italy, which the post claims to not have happened in a very long time, and it shows photos of swans swimming in the water, even though it also claims that they had been kicked out previously by humans. My first reaction to seeing this was wow! This is incredible. Again, horrible circumstances, but I was thinking about how a relatively short period of time can bring back a damaged ecosystem.  After seeing this post, I saw it everywhere but mostly over Instagram and TikTok.  

( I’m sorry that image quality is low 🙁  )

So… My original idea for this blog post was to find more information on the water in Venice and how it’s improved but also to look into other environmental impacts of the Coronavirus… With very little digging, I found that this post was a lie.  Numerous articles were confirming that the area of Venice in which those photos were being taken, was an area that has a large population of swans and that they never left. I did originally find it suspicious that SO quickly, there were positive impacts on the water. It doesn’t take a long time to make a mess but it is to clean it up. It was too good to be true.  

The original post has since been deleted but there are so many screenshots and other posts and videos made using the original tweet as a source so the misinformation continues to go around.  While there is nothing really significant that I can do I was thinking about the ways I can prevent this. Really just not trusting information that seems fake because it might just be. I am not saying to reject it completely, just to trust your gut and to research before it tries to convince you of anything.  While as optimistic as we try to be, I think sometimes it can blind us from what’s really happening. In the past few years, climate change has been more of a discussion and many companies are listening to that and using that to promote products with labeling that seems natural and eco friendly when it is not. While this definitely isn’t the worst thing that is happening right now, it is sending out a false image of how we can fix this Earth. 

https://tbsnews.net/international/fake-animal-news-social-media-amidst-coronavirus-fear-59014

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-fake-animal-viral-social-media-posts/

 

At home, we always had three piles for our waste.  There were the regular trash bins, a box for paper/cardboard and a bin of plastics.  I had always grown up separating my trash so it could be recycled. I would go about every week to drop off our recycling and help my mother throw our plastic into larger bins where others did the same.  In my household, my mother was very serious about recycling so I grew up with it being normal to separate my waste. Even if I was in public and I had a plastic bottle, I would often carry it back home to avoid throwing it into a generic waste bin.  

I’ve noticed in the past five years especially that recycling has become more and more common in public spaces.  When I’m in the city there are usually two bins, one for plastics and one for trash. Even here at Penn State, we have so many different bins for paper, plastic, trash and even compost.  I grew up thinking that recycling was what we should do. 

I didn’t realize it though until the end of middle school that everyone’s home was the same as mine.  I assumed that every family recycled. I remember going to people’s houses and them just throwing away their water bottles with the rest of their trash. Most people just honestly didn’t care enough to recycle but then I heard a different perspective.  

It had been revealed that maybe our recycling efforts had been made for nothing.  Many American municipalities ship their recyclables to China to process but recently it came out that as part of an anti-pollution campaign, that they are no longer accepting “foreign garbage”.  Now that China is out of the picture, many companies don’t know where to send their recycling and they are sending their recycling to landfills. About one-third of the recycling made by Americans is exported, with most of it being sent to China. 

Now, what does that mean for us? What do we do now? 

As of right now, it means that in order to recycle it may come with a price.  Unfortunately, this will probably lead to a decline in Americans recycling. While it is a price to pay it may be a small price to pay to keep our planet looking clean.  What if we want to avoid this price increase? Search for waste-free options. Small changes can be made in day to day life that decrease the amount of waste we produce. Avoid using one-use utensils and dishes.  Reusable Tupperware are great for carrying food on the go and many are dishwasher safe. Of course, a nice water bottle can stop your contribution to plastic water bottle waste. These are a few suggestions but overall being aware of how much waste is being produced is the first step.

I read this New York Times article for reference! If you would like to check it out here is the link!

Whenever we hear about pollution, part of what also comes up is car usage and the gas we use and how it harms our planet. 

In the late ’90s, the first hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, was put onto the market.  Following the next decade, other car manufacturers started following and the idea of an electric car was beginning to be popular.  

Somewhere in that time, it also gained the title of being a cleaner option than regular cars.  Without the use of gas, it was expected that poof! there would be no more negative effects on the environment due to transportation.  

How clean are these cars actually?

For one, probably the most used and popular argument against electric cars is the concerns running around the battery.  The batteries used for these cars are used from rare metals that are difficult to find and take lots of work to do. The process of extracting and manufacturing the batteries have been proven to worsen carbon emissions.  Despite this, not all countries create batteries equally and have more consequences than others. Batteries produced in China have significantly higher levels of CO2 emissions than the United States or European nations.

It is definitely arguable that the production of electric cars is damaging to the planet but it can also be argued that the overall emissions after a lifetime may be less than regular cars.  

However, with the amount of electricity needed to power electric cars, it also produces significant numbers of emissions, compared to cars run on gas.  It has been found that sometimes it is almost worse to be driving an electric car.

This post was not to slam electric cars, but instead to also point out other things that are wrong with them and also say that they may not be as clean as companies are putting out.  In conclusion, most sources of transportation have a negative impact on our planet, but we can do our best to reduce that by taking public transportation, carpooling, riding bikes and even just walking! 

With the rise of veganism in popular culture, I have heard over and over again that there is a huge environmental impact of eating meat and animal products in general.  I have heard that it can take hundreds of gallons to produce just one hamburger. When I heard that I thought it was crazy. Now, I had always heard this from those vegan YouTubers like Freelee the Banana girl so despite it being correct, when looking into it more, it isn’t just meat that can also be harmful to the environment. Many fruits and vegetables can also be just as harmful or even worse. Now, this doesn’t go for all of them, but some of our favorites may be doing more harm than good.  

Bananas, for instance, are not always the greatest for our planet.  While growing the fruit isn’t the problem, transporting them produces a lot of pollution.  According to a Global Citizen article, the average banana travels over 5,000 miles.  

While meat gets a bad rap for using up water, so do avocados and almonds.  It takes over a gallon to produce just one almond. 500 gallons of water to produce just 2 pounds of avocados.  Not only that but avocados are a single crop, meaning that they are grown on the same land over and over again. This causes issues because the plant depletes the land and soil of nutrients, therefore they are more likely to get diseases, which increases the number of pesticides used.

Soy milk is often seen as an alternative to drinking regular cow milk, but it is also one of the major contributors to deforestation, which also negatively affects the levels of greenhouse gases. 

So how can we change our eating habits to better help our planet? It kinda seems like you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.  So many foods that are advertised as more environmentally friendly aren’t as good as it seems. While going vegetarian or vegan can help, meat isn’t always the issue.  Chicken and pork are actually really good substitutes for eating red meat, which seems to be the most dangerous to our planet. For our fruits and veggies, eating locally sourced foods is always best.  To cause the least amount of harm and to avoid pollution, eating from local farms is significantly better for our environment.

I am a procrastinator. I’ll be the first to admit it.  Now the longer I live, the more I also become comfortable with living with my procrastinator identity, which has become a dangerous territory.  It spread like a virus, starting off with chores and schoolwork, now I can’t think of something that I don’t regularly put off. I procrastinate in basically every aspect of my life, which is a horrible method of living (I would not recommend).  I fill my life with casual stress every day just because I cannot take deadlines seriously. 

I’ve always been one and I’ve actually tried to fix it, many, many times. Whenever I think I am about to beat the system, my brain finds a new way to procrastinate. You see, my brain sees me trying to fix this flaw as a challenge and so far I always lose and the procrastinator inside me always wins. 

Part of the issue is that when I sit down to finally do all the stuff I had been putting off or even future things that aren’t important now but will be in the future, I find that I don’t have the ability to focus on anything.  My stress eats me up and leaves me with very little done and even less time. I’m not going to lie, this happens way too often.  

While goals with deadlines fill me with stress, goals without them always never get done. We have all been there, there is something that you want to do but eh, it can wait until a better time… but that time never comes. 

In high school, it came up that, one of my friends, who had significantly better grades than me, never struggled that much with procrastinating. I was very confused, as I would say procrastination is probably my biggest challenge and not to exaggerate, but ruins my life every day. She kept going and just said when she has to do something she shuts everything out and just does it. I tried to take this advice and incorporate it into my life. Well… much easier said than done… But ! after many attempts, I made progress. It doesn’t always work but I’ve learned how to control stress and get through the challenges every day that pileup.  

I believe in just doing it.  Hearing every excuse in the world to not do something and telling yourself to suck it up and focus on something else for a while.  I learned to trust myself. If I need to do something and I am telling myself to do it, I learned to stop making comments about why it sounds unexciting and trusting that I know that there is a benefit.  I believe in doing 

A few years ago, my dad and I decided to learn to snowboard. The first day sucked but as I learned to balance myself, I relied on only being able to lean one way.  It was okay at first while I was still getting the hang of things, but the longer I went the longer I went without being able to turn a certain way and the scarier it got.  I would always say that on the next run did work on it but run after run the days would go by and I still didn’t know how to turn properly. I remember one run in particular I fell and I was watching others pass by, all being able to turn and I grew furious at myself. I had been wasting so much time just waiting to hopefully get better but not doing anything about it.  I told myself that I had enough and no matter how much I was struggling I had to keep trying to turn correctly. Yes, I didn’t do that well, but by the end of the day, I could do it. I realized it took me significantly longer waiting to learn than actually learning. 

I believe in telling yourself to get up and go, that tomorrow is no different from today and not making any excuses for myself.  While I do believe I will be a procrastinator forever, I know that if it is something I really want, I will look at myself in the mirror and tell myself to just do it.

I want to talk about sustainability and climate change.  In the past year it came to a lot of people’s attention that our planet is not in a great state if we continue to live the way we do. Around March of last year, I went to a reservation with my friends and it was beautiful there BUT even in the middle of nowhere, plastic bottles and candy wrappers were scattered along the trail.  Empty Gatorade bottles and old soccer balls filled the river. I was disgusted at the treatment of our planet. I live next to Manhattan and while it is gross to see garbage on the streets, it fits in. Seeing such waste on the trails stood out to me because it just didn’t belong. The area was so innocent and people were just treating it with no respect. I remember getting really upset and since then I have been trying to make an effort to consider how much waste I produce and where it goes. I don’t have a specific focus yet on what I necessarily want to focus on within that.  I was thinking that I could discuss how people are attempting to help the planet and how that actually affects our society and environment. I’ve seen a lot of people protesting plastic by replacing it with glass instead, which does not help the environment at all because waste is waste. I’ve heard of recycling centers that don’t actually recycle what is given but instead dump it into the same pile that the trash goes into. Eating a vegetarian diet has been proven to use less water and crops than a diet incorporating meat. Despite this, many fruits and vegetables are not locally grown and due to how far away these crops are, actually cause more damage to the environment. I think that it is important to discuss not only what we are doing for the environment but also questioning if it actually makes a difference.

Before starting Rhetoric and Civil Life, I just thought it was an English class. I was not sure what to expect.  I decided to take this class because I am an aspiring Paterno Fellow but I was intimidated because I tried out for Schreyers and was not accepted.  I was scared about how well I would do just because a lot of the other students in the class were in a program that I couldn’t get into. Also, when at orientation they had English classes that were suggested based on SAT score and my reading and writing score wasn’t up to par for this class. I really only took to hopefully get into Paterno Fellows but I had little confidence.  

 

Once in the class, I surprisingly felt that I fit in and I could handle all the work that came my way.  Because I only took the class because of Paterno Fellows, I didn’t realize that it also counted as a freshman seminar and public speaking.  I was told just over a month ago, so even being in this course for over half the semester, I was not aware. While I was scared about the public speaking aspects of the class, I did become more confident in my presentation skills. I still get nervous of course, but I definitely gained courage and I learned that I am capable of presenting without reading anything.  Both the civic artifact speech and TED talk assignments freaked me out. I felt nauseous walking over to class the day of the civic artifact speech. Even though my civic artifact speech was shorter, I had notes, and it was about something I was more passionate about, I felt less nervous for my TED speech. Probably the best thing I got out of the course was learning how to prepare for a presentation and I think it will help in other classes and just my future in general.  The other day I had a presentation but I wasn’t super nervous. If it were just a few months ago, I would have been terrified. It has only been two presentations that I’ve had to give but both really prepared me to I won’t be nervous for more.

Cosmetic testing  (jade) 

When did this become popular? 

In 1938, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was signed in the United States.  It required proof of the safety of cosmetic products.  This urged companies to begin testing on animals.  

In 1944 Draize eye and skin irritancy tests are developed and become standard practices of cosmetic animal testing. (link) 

Defense for it/ why is it a thing 

Testing on animals for cosmetic reasons is because companies attempt to incorporate new ingredients in their products and since they are new, there is no previous research on the safety of them.   

In certain countries like China. animal testing is required to make sure that the products are safe for human use.  Many companies use this as an excuse to test on animals. Since China has such a large market, many companies, even if they don’t test their products on animals will still sell to China. However, even if they don’t test on animals, they are not considered to be cruelty-free if they sell their products to China. Despite this, there are cruelty-free brands that refuse to sell to these countries to protest the animal testing laws. (link) 

Cosmetic animal testing (jade) 

Backlash for it 

Many countries have banned animal testing for cosmetics. Countries like Israel, India, New Zealand, Norway, and the European Union all have bans against cosmetic testing on animals.  Other countries like Brazil and Turkey have partial bans on cosmetic testing on animals.  

Is this accepted by medical testing on animals? 

Biomedical testing for drugs is required by the FDA and the US law to understand the effects of the drugs and to ensure safety for humans.  However, cosmetic animal testing is not required by the FDA in the United States (link) 

What can be done to stop cosmetic animal testing? 

Increasingly around the world, there are policies and laws to stop animal testing.  In addition, there are already ingredients that have been testing on animals that are proven to be safe on humans.  If companies opt to use ingredients that have been already tested, they can stop testing animals on new ingredients. (link) Companies can still ensure safety to their costumers if they choose to use ingredients that have already been tested. 

*Sources are linked within the outline

OUTLINE: 

 

INTRODUCTION:

CHANGE IN COLLEGE CULTURE

• Increasing amount of students applying for college
  • Rising number of college applications 
    • More competitive application process
    • As acceptance rates decrease, students apply to more schools which causes acceptance rates to decrease…
      • The Common application is a reason to blame
• How college is expected of children rather than just an option for students
  • Test prep, extracurriculars, sports = all for college 
  • Role of females changed
    • As women entered the workforce, there was more competition 
    • Women used are new expected to go to college and work

PUSH FOR CERTAIN CAREERS

• Career paths (doctors, lawyers, and engineers) all require degrees and often higher education even after college
• Options for students who are not interested in going to college are limited or are often not encouraged by high schools and 
  • Blue-collar jobs are not considered to be ideal jobs that one would strive towards.
    • However, there are a lot of people who it should be ideal for but instead, those students are being directed to pursue other career paths. 
• Career paths that do not require degrees are not getting the same 

CONCLUSION