GPHC 2018-2019

George Larach 9/17/18 GPHC 11 Environmental Sustainability at a Municipal Level If I was a mayor of a city, one of the policies I would enact in regards to environmental sustainability would be to ban plastic bags in all stores within municipal limits. Plastic bags are disposable, take between 10-1,000 years to decompose, and are a serious hazard to wildlife. Banning plastic bags from stores would mean that the production of said bags would decrease, and consumers would bring their own reusable bags to carry their groceries. To provide an incentive to switch to electric/renewable energy, I would instate a policy that requires parking lots that are of a certain size to include charging stations for electric vehicles. This would convince people to switch because they’ll see the abundance of charging stations throughout the city, and that would mean owning an electric vehicle would be more convenient. I would also improve accessibility to public transportation by expanding the v

The Balkans have been dens of corruption for decades, owing much of it to their shared history of being vassal states to larger empires since medieval times. Their most recent venture into being run by puppet governments, the Warsaw Pact, saw much of the Balkans under oppressive Soviet regimes, the Romanian Ceausescu regime being particularly notable for it's rampant corruption. Romania is not the most corrupt government in Europe, based on the perceptions of the population, Russia takes that dubious honor. Even in the EU, Bulgaria is more corrupt according to most measures, but what makes Romania special is the massive anti-corruption demonstrations in lieu of bills and decisions by the government to reduce the severity of abuse of office and change its legal definition within its borders. The populace is irritated and has been for years, and will continue to take action in more and more serious ways until it is addressed, so what can we do to help the problem? I want to tackle

The soil is important to sustain the Earth whether it is climate change or agriculture. The EU has ignored soil sustainability for some time until recently were they have explored tools to help it back into the spotlight.  “Soils provide the essential nutrients, water, oxygen and support for plants in our agriculture and also moderate flood risk, purify water, contain massive quantities of carbon and support a biodiverse ecosystem which suppresses soil-borne diseases and provide potential new antibiotics...","... Soil organic carbon contents are decreasing, which increases the likelihood of further global warming, loss of soil fertility, structure, and water holding capacity. The European Union cannot afford to ignore these issues. Environmental degradation not only impacts the environment, but it also impacts health and livelihoods,”    said  Professor Wim der Putten of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.  https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment

Prompt: Choose to address economic, social, or environmental sustainability at the city, state, or country level.  Whether you are a city mayor, a state governor, or a country president, write policy that you would enact to address the category of sustainability that you chose.       Reading is a universal skill, it just is. Reading is taught and used all around the world to all ages, it is an essential part of life. In the city of Houston, there are tens of thousands of children, and 38% of all kids under the age of 5 live in poverty. That is 204,000 kids just under the age of 5 living in poverty. Living in poverty means not as much access to education, which means a higher chance of low literacy or even illiteracy.       Third grade is the most important milestone in a child’s reading skills because that is the year when students are to transfer from learning how to read to reading to learn. If a kid is falling behind, they have a 1 in 8 chance of ever catching up and are 4 times

On September 2010 the Senate of France passed a law that banned any type of face covering to be worn in public. This includes headgear, helmets, balaclavas and different kinds of veils. The reasons behind the passing of the law, according to the president at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, were 1) to protect France's secular values and 2) to protect women from a symbol of oppression. The law was challenged on 2014, but the European Court of Human Rights upheld it, accepting the argument that the government made. France is not the only country that has banned face coverings, but it's certainly the one that has received the most criticism. In this case, instead of creating a new policy, I would repeal the current law. Whether the veil is a symbol of the subjugation of women or not is still a controversial debate, and I wouldn't take a side publicly, but I would advocate for individual religious freedom. France's laicism and allowing people to wear veils for religious reasons

Connor Morley David Roddy IB Global Politics in a Historical Context 21 September, 2018 The Time is Now for Environmental Change Across America My fellow Americans: as the President of the United States, the time is now to begin reforming the very tenants of our well-being as a nation. One of the ways to do this is to address the environmental problems that so plague us and that eventually contribute to economic downfall and social regression on an unprecedented scale. At this point, we need to implement small steps that gradually coalesce into less and less water, wind, and electric energy waste. It is known that cities such as Houston, Texas, are known throughout the nation as important energy pipelines. Cities like these will be pressured to have cleaner energy production through my neoliberalist policies, which are steadily allowing more economic viability through more environmentally conscious business practices, which are already getting higher demand than eve

   I, Hunter Richardson, Governor of the State of Texas, do declare,    It has come to my attention that inequity is rampant at all levels of the Texas education system. This issue seems to have been amplified by the actions and policy of my predecessor, Gov. Greg Abbott. Through unnecessarily large government subsidies for private schools and restriction of the state’s financial aid to less wealthy school districts, Abbott has created an environment in our great State of Texas where the economically disadvantaged are also disadvantaged in the quality of their education. ial aid to school districts, he has created in our great State of Texas an environment where economic disadvantage is perpetuated by educational disadvantage. It will now be my goal to eliminate this issue through redirecting our school funds back in to our public education system and then fairly distributing them among our districts. From here on out, we will seek to balance completely fairly the per student bud

Cement if often taken for granted. It's what builds our homes, constitutes our roads, and is critical to our infrastructure. However, the production of cement is not an effective process.  For the past century, global cement production has skyrocketed, and as a result their CO2 emissions have risen considerably as well. If I was the global Emperor, I would devote many resources to the research of concrete that would cost less to manufacture and produce to reduce CO2 emissions globally and become more environmentally stable and sustainable.

Social Sustainability aims to ensure everyone has equal access to opportunities in order to have a good life. The social sustainability model works to reduce factors that may hinder the one’s well being. Social sustainability addresses poverty, strives for the empowerment of women, works to improve education and healthcare, focuses on reducing corruption and puts an emphasis on social justice. When examining social sustainability in Houston, I noticed it was lacking one of the pillars of social sustainability, and that was in the city's inability to address the issue of poverty. The city of Houston has seen a 7% increase in poverty, most of which is concentrated in the inner city. In comparison to the 1980’s, the poverty concentration in Houston has expanded from the city to the outer suburban regions of Houston. Not only has Houston’s poverty rate increased, but its homeless population has also increased. Seventy-eight percent of the homeless individuals that go unsheltered (ind

Emily Routbort Mr. Roddy GPHC R 20 September 2018 Social Sustainability Addressing social sustainability is a challenge for many places in the world. Social sustainability works to reduce factors that negatively affect human social well being (p. 61 in the reading). Some examples of social sustainability issues are corruption, unfit healthcare and education, disempowerment of women, and social inequality. These problems should be dealt with after fulfilling basic needs such as food, water, shelter, and rest. From another standpoint, you might find to achieve economic and environmental sustainability, you must achieve social sustainability before other proceeding to solve economic and environmental issues. My reasoning for this is because you should have a strong established base that you can work off of (where everyone is working in harmony) so we can then proceed to work on other issues. In most of the world though, this is not the case (considering that you place s

       Environmental sustainability is a crucial part of maintaining well-being both now, and in the future. A large and important part of maintaining environmental sustainability is to combat pollution. There are many different types of pollution that are addressed in different ways. One type that is not often thought about, however, is light pollution. It is generally ignored, and not thought of as having the same negative, long-term effects on the environment as other types of pollution, but it does have important effects, and it is something that can be easily reduced at a local level.        Light pollution negatively effects most species of plants and animals, as well as humans. Before industrialization, plants and animals lived according to the sun's patterns for millions of years. They evolved to be this way. When you throw in huge cities that light up the sky for hundreds of miles around, nature is completely disrupted. Nocturnal species are unable to hunt the same way in

There are many ways that plastic bags are negatively affecting the environment. The problem with plastic bags is that they are usually used once before being disposed, and their long lifespan. Researchers estimate that each year 500 billion bags are used around the globe. Most of these bags end up polluting natural habitats by like rivers, lakes or oceans. Plastic bags are commonly mistaken as food by all kinds of animals ranging from land to marine life. Marine life either choke to death on bags if swallowed whole therefore they cannot digest other foods and die a long slow death of infection. There are also cases where the animal dies from being poisoned from the chemicals used to make the bags. Some easy solutions to solve this is to either reuse the plastic bags, bring your own reusable bag, decline the bag, or start charging for bags, or dont use a bag at all. If you don't have many groceries and you think or know that you can carry your own items, do it. Doing these sm

    Houston is the fourth largest city population wise in America. A high population number means a large homeless population as well.  Among the homeless in Houston & Harris County, TX, there are thousands of youth who are experiencing the negative consequences of homelessness.  For the 2011-2012 school year, over 10,000 children were registered as homeless in Harris County school districts. Youth who are in this situation are at high risk for depression, suicidal tendencies, mental disorders, physical abuse, pregnancy, juvenile incarceration, and more. Along with the physical toll this takes upon them and society comes the high cost of care needed to address medical and mental issues.   I believe there are many things that can be done to directly counteract homelessness among youth. This includes initiatives and programs specifically designed to provide shelter to those who are homeless youth and specific services to address social and psychological issues for families and yo

Cole Barger Mr. Roddy GPHC 20 September 2018 Policy Towards Littering The current laws in Texas about littering are stricter than some states, but they are not strict enough. If what you litter weighs less than 5 pounds and you get caught, you will receive a class C misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500. You cannot receive jail time for a class C misdemeanor, but you can receive jail time from a class A or B misdemeanor. The amount that you litter will equal different punishments. The punishments are fairly high, but not high enough for people to think twice about littering. My policy as state governor would be to raise all littering to at least a class B misdemeanor. Even if you are seen just throwing one plastic bottle onto the road you will receive a class B and be required to do community service. The difference between a class C and B misdemeanor is that with B you can receive up to 30 days of jail time. Of course the more serious cases will get at least class A. I t

Arjhong Mardani Global Politics Mr.Roddy September 20, 2018 Houston's Environmental Sustainability with Regards to its Population Size (Is the City in Danger?) A brief answer to this question is yes, Houston is in Environmental Sustainability danger. But what is ignored are the factors in which are causing such an issue for Houston. Can Houston change its ways, opr is it too late to turn back? Houston, Texas currently stands as the fourth largest city in the United States and is currently taking a spot in the top 100 of the largest cities in the entire world, as number 76. But surely one would think such a large and prosperous city would be very technologically advanced, economically sustainable, and other factors that would add to such a large city. One major component to a Sustainable City is its environment. Unfortunately Houston has seemed to partake in an unhealthy environmental habit, with large energy consumption, lack of a real and environmentally sustai

Callista Wilson Mr. Roddy GPHC 20 September 2018 Environmental Sustainability: Permeable Concrete In Houston   The city of Houston is a place filled with opportunity, diversity, culture-- and concrete. According to The Houston Chronicle, three-hundred and sixty thousand buildings were constructed between 2000 and 2015. Correspondingly, paved parking areas and walkways have also been created to support these buildings. As The Greater Houston Area constantly continues to expand, it is in the best interest of the city as a whole to compensate for constant development through the implementation of infrastructure which can adapt to the city’s environmental needs. Demographically, the city of Houston resides close to sea level, within close proximity of the Gulf of Mexico, and the land itself is fairly flat. For these reasons, it is nearly impossible to avoid encountering major tropical storms and hurricanes, however, it may be possible to mitigate the effects of future events o

Izzie Bair Mr. Roddy GPHC 20 September 2018 Social Sustainability: Homelessness in America Homelessness in America is a huge problem that is caused by multiple factors. When looking at the groups of people who make up this population you will find that a large percent of homeless people are young adults who were released from jail and had no prior job experience. Having no prior job experience along with having jail on their record, these young adults seem unemployable. This often results in them ending up on the streets. When being released from jail with no resources to fall back on they are unable to attain even the basic work clothes. I propose that every able bodied person being released from jail is provided with a pair of steel toe work boots. There was a company that donated steel toe boots to the Vancouver Homeless Fair. They went back to check on three of these people who received boots and all three of them are still working and two of them are off the streets. It

Cassandra Wilson September 20, 2018 Sustaining the Wetlands For many years,  wetlands have protected America from severe floods.  The wetlands in Louisiana are important to America because they help protect the land, people and businesses from storms and flooding. The moist land and plants of the wetlands work as a sponge to absorb storm water, this is beneficial because the more water that gets absorbed in the wetlands, the less water will cause flooding in urban areas and in homes and businesses. Wetlands also work as a natural barrier that decreases the intensity of a storm, so that if it moves further inland, it will not be as strong, and it will not cause as much damage as it would if there were no wetlands. Canals created by humans were made so that boats could travel easy to and from the Gulf of Mexico. Since the Gulf of Mexico is salt water and the wetlands are fresh water, and the canals cause the two types of waters to mix, many plants and animals in

Anna Kaplan Mr. Roddy GPHC Domestic Violence Survivors Access to Shelter - Social Sustainability Many people in the country suffer from and escape dangerous domestic violence situations in their own homes. These people often bring their children with them to escape the threat, but once they have left their home they are faced with a new problem: homelessness. Many of these people have no where to go so they try to go to a type of shelter or living facility, but many places discriminate against domestic violence survivors. In Rhode Island, 64.8% of domestic violence shelter requests were unmet. This being the highest amount in the country in 2013. Many states don't even have enough fair laws protecting people from being discriminated while trying to obtain shelter. As president, I would propose that all states must have at least three shelters that cater to particularly this need. These shelters would also have an emergency shelter service to help survivors in immediate need.

Zoey Weinstein Mr. Roddy Global Politics 9/19/2018 Sustainability Blog One of the major issues concerning women in America and all over the world today and for the past 88 years is the wage gap or gender pay gap. On average, nationally, women earn approximately 78 cents to the man’s dollar. The wage gap impacts women different ethnic backgrounds even more. According to the huffington post, Latina women earn 56% of what a white man makes and black women earn 64%. The first and most impactful thing the United States needs to do is pass equal pay legislation in all 50 states. Many states have enforced the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), an amendment that ensures that nobody faces discrimination based in their sex, especially in the workplace. This past May, Illinois became the 37th state to ratify this amendment. The first clause of the ERA is “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” This amendm

Environmental sustainability is a global issue and thus interconnected relations between countries is vital in achieving goals of keeping our environment sustainable. Globalization is key in helping our environment and gaining awareness to the individual, industrial, and governmental actions that are hurting our world. Countries, developed and emerging, must work together to save our planet. The economic growth of Western, developed countries is often at the expense of environmental sustainability. In addition, countries who aim to follow economic growth models with high consumption and industrialization come into conflict with countries who are focused on environmental growth and neglect the efforts of developing nations. Thus, “ if developed countries do not make significant and absolute reductions in their emissions there will be a progressively smaller carbon space available to accommodate the development needs of developing countries.” From the federa