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My name is Maria Carla Bello and I was born in Havana, Cuba in 2003. I was born and raised there and I came to the US in 2016 with my parents because my brother was already here. My favorite food is cuban food, I'm not the type of person who likes to try different kinds of food so I usually eat cuban food almost every day. I'm currently enrolled at MDC, Padron Campus because it's the one closest to my house. One of my goals in life is to be a psychologist and that's how I see myself in the future, with my family and working on what I like. An ambition I have is to study fashion design when I finish my psychology career since that's one of the things that I've always wanted to do since I was little. I would like to stay living here in Miami or I would also like to live in California, I'm still undecided about that. The most important things for me are my family, boyfriend, friends, and my dog, they've always been there for me when I needed them the most. My hobby is to sew; my great grandmother was great at sewing so I guess I got that passion for sewing from her; when I went to high school I was in a fashion design class and that made me realize that I really love sewing and everything that has to do with it so it has become my favorite hobby since then. In my opinion success is that moment of our lives where we find ourselves enjoying what we do, no matter what that is, we just enjoy every moment we are working or just every moment of our lives. And last but not least, I'm very proud of myself for learning English in such a short time, I still need to practice it but I'm proud of how far I've come.

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1- Angie Schmitt. “Why are people abandoning Miami buses? Because the bus system abandoned them. StreetsBlog USA. Jun 1, 2018. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/06/01/why-are-people-abandoning-miami-buses-because-the-bus-system-abandoned-them/

Since 2013, there has been a decline in bus riders around 25%, but why is this happening? why has people   stopped taking public transportation? One of the biggest factors that led to this decline on bus riders was that last year, Miami-Dade Transit cut the service of 39 bus routes, affecting the riders that took those routes. Another factor that has contributed to this decline is reliability, since very few of the buses are adhering to their designated schedule. And last but not least it’s the fact that people are buying more cars, so they don’t feel in the necessity of riding buses anymore. All these factors have contributed to the fact that bus riders are declining very year that pass.

2- Joshua Ceballos. “Four Harebrained Ideas People Have Proposed to Fix Miami Traffic”. Miami New Times. January 22, 2021. https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/four-miami-public-transit-plans-to-fix-traffic-11814872

Traffic in Miami it’s been a problem and the seriousness of this problem keeps increasing every day. According to the article “Four Harebrained Ideas People Have Proposed to Fix Miami Traffic”, Miami’s bad traffic in part is due to public transportation since buses have to go in the same lane as other cars. In this article there was mentioned a solution for this, and it was to improve bus frequency and dedicate bus lanes to alleviate traffic.

3- “Betting on Buses: What's Being Done to Fix Miami-Dade's Public Transportation System”. 6 South Florida. April 30, 2019. Updated on May 1, 2019. https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/betting-on-buses-miami-dade-public-transportation/157409/

Many public transportation riders in Miami have bad reviews about transportation because, according to this article, they say that buses barely arrive on time, the service is unreliable and even there are ghost buses which means that they are scheduled but they never show up. And all of these affect Miamians because they have to wait long periods of time waiting for the busses to arrive, leading them to get late to places and even having to walk or take an Uber or another method in order to get to their destination.

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Where have all the bus riders gone?

Nearly every major transit agency in the nation saw ridership decline last year, and Miami was no exception. In fact, the drop has been especially steep, falling 25 percent since 2013.

The popular narrative casts transit as inherently inferior to driving, or blames new arrivals on the transportation scene like Uber. But those theories rely on intuition and guesswork, not research.

The Transit Alliance, a local advocacy non-profit, is filling in the picture with a look at changes in Miami transit service. The findings align with a recent study by McGill University researchers, who concluded that the "volume of service delivered by a transit agency in a region is by far the largest factor explaining public transit ridership."

Transit Alliance chair Marta Viciedo said the research drives home the point that public officials and policy makers at Miami-Dade Transit can turn around flagging bus ridership. Here's a look at what they found.
1. The total amount of transit service is declining
In the past year, Miami-Dade Transit cut service on 39 bus routes, affecting one in two local bus riders. Service was increased on just a single route.

The agency also has a habit of tinkering with its most popular routes, "throwing their ridership off a cliff, and priming them to be eliminated," the Transit Alliance says.

That was the case with Route 103 C, which saw ridership drop after service to Government Center loop was cut.

With less service, buses come less often, and the waits grow longer for bus riders. About 75 percent of the Miami-Dade Transit bus routes don't come more frequently than every half hour. That's a long time to wait in Mimi's sweltering heat, especially since only one in four bus stops provides any shelter.

"Riders are facing longer wait times, unreliable service, and a poorly designed route network facing haphazard cuts - sending the system into a death spiral of plunging ridership,"writes the Transit Alliance.
2. Reliability is declining
The Transit Alliance has been tracking how well buses adhere to their schedules, uncovering serious problems with reliability. About 500 bus runs start late each month, and hundreds more more never make the scheduled run at all.

Over a three-month period, the group counted 2,103 "ghost buses" that never arrived, a 152 percent increase over the same period the previous year.

Imagine waiting in the hot Miami sun for a bus that never shows. No wonder people are opting out.
3. More people are buying cars
How are people getting around if they're not riding the bus? It looks like many of them are switching to driving. In Miami-Dade County, the number of registered vehicles has increased 3.5 times faster than population growth since 2013.

National experts point to an improving economy and lax lending standards for car buyers as contributing factors behind this trend. Unfortunately, the lending terms for low-income buyers are often predatory, and people with bad credit and low incomes who take out car loans may be trading crummy transit for punishing monthly payments.

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Why Are People Abandoning Miami Buses? Because the Bus System Abandoned Them.

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Where have all the bus riders gone? Nearly every major transit agency in the nation saw ridership decline last year, and Miami was no exception. In fact, the drop has been especially steep, falling 25 percent since 2013. The popular narrative casts transit as inherently inferior to driving, or blames new arrivals on the transportation scene like Uber.

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Throughout the semester we have been asked to complete multiple assignments. In my case the ones I enjoyed the most doing were the CAS assignments. At first, I wasn’t very happy with it because I thought it was time consuming, but I tried to make it more enjoyable by choosing videos and articles that looked interesting to me. That way I ended up learning a lot of topics that I was interested in and completed my assignments at the same time. That’s why I loved the fact that we could choose the videos that we wanted, instead of doing it about a specific video given by the professor. And that was what made my experience to be more pleasant. If I would have to choose the CAS assignment that I liked the most that would be CAS1. In that assignment I chose two videos. One of them talked about the story of plastics and the other one about the story of electronics. These topics were very related because both, plastics and electronics, are very used on a daily basis by humans and they’re both damaging the environment in many ways.

Doing CAS2 helped me a lot to learn and understand the topic of how food waste is being implemented in the fashion industry. For that assignment I had to choose two articles that were from the same subject. Since I have always been interested in fashion I decided to read and write about food waste in the fashion industry. This was a new topic for me because I wasn’t very informed about it before completing the assignment. After reading both articles I made the conclusion that sustainable fashion in my opinion is one of the best ways to reduce pollution in our planet. It also made me think about how people every day buy a lot of clothes that they don’t really need. And it gave me a very good solution for when I need to update my wardrobe which is to buy clothes in secondhand stores. That way we have new clothes added into our closet without the necessity of wasting too much money in brand new clothes while helping our planet. I really think that this activity changed me as a person because now I’m more informed about the topic and will start implementing this in my life. And it also made me see that buying clothes at second hand stores is something a lot of people don’t like or judge, but the reality is that it should be something normal if we really want to make a change and protect our environment.

And last but not least, doing CAS3 opened my eyes by letting me see how air pollution is affecting each one of us. For this assignment I watched two videos of the same subject. I remember that one of the videos was a testimony of a mother that lost her little daughter due to air pollution in the area where they lived, and it really broke my heart to hear it from her. If we think about it, air pollution is not a topic that is talked enough about and is a huge issue that is increasing every day. My experience doing this assignment was different than I expected it to be because I thought that air pollution was only related to the emission of toxic gases from the fabrics, but it goes beyond that. From the creation of new products to the cars that we drive every day. So, this helps us see that air pollution is an increasing problem. While completing this activity I realize that we, the humans, are the only ones responsible for air pollution and for every problem that our planet is facing today, therefore we are the only ones who can work towards the solution of every issue.

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1st video: "The story of plastics" https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-plastic-animation/

The video "The story of plastics" explains in details how plastics affect not only the environment but also the people in the planet. According to the video, when it comes to plastics, the media tends to just talk about the plastics that ends up in the environment and kills the animals, but this topic goes deeper than that. The video explains that plastic has a whole lifecycle that is hidden from us, harming people and the planet from start to finish. This lifecycle consists of extraction, transport, refining, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. They explain that plastic is made from fossil fuels like fracked natural gas or oil, extracting them and turning it into plastics; a process that creates a lot of pollution that affects the people that live nearby these fabrics. It also explains that companies are planning on doubling down on plastics productions and planning to expand and create new petrochemical plants in the U.S. The video shows that 32% of plastics ends up in the environment, 40% ends up in landfills where platics just piles up, and 14% is incinerated (process that produces tons of toxic smoke that is harmful for people). At the end of the video, they give certain solutions to stop plastic pollution, one of them is to pass policies that create sistemyc change like phasing out the single use plastics such as trash-bags, and another solution is holding companies resposible for the plastic waste that they create. This way we can achieve a sustainable economy that works for the planet and for people.

2nd video: "The story of electronics" https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-electronics/

According to this video, nowdays, electronics are designed to be thrown away quickly beacuse they break easily and are impractical to repair. It is very common that people buy new electronics instead of repairing the one that broke so they end up with tons of electronics and accessories such as chargers that they can't use anymore like the woman in the video presented. She explains that the bosses of elctronic companies think that electronics should be thrown away in about 18 months so people buy more often, but this problem is not only hurting people's wallet, but they're also causing a global toxic emergency. Just like many other things, electronics also start at mines and factories and then are shipped from around the world to assembly plants, there the workers use lots of toxic chemicals to create these electronic gadgets (putting their life and health at risk). The video explains that most of the electronics that we throw away ends up in countries like India or Nigeria where people open these electronics to get the valuable metals inside and burn everything else, causing toxic smoke to spread in the air and poisoning the people that live there. If companies take the responsability for the problem that they create, then they will start to design electronics that are longer lasting, less toxic and more recyclable. At the end of the video, the woman gives us advice and says that when we take our e-waste to recyclers, we need to make sure that they don't export it to developing countries, and when buying new products, we should choose to buy greener products.

Reflection:

Consumption is somehting that relates to my role as a global citizen because I, just like everyone else, decide the products that go in the market and which ones doesn't. Companies rely on people to start making new products or keep making the same ones they produce. If they see that the demand of a product is high they know that they have to keep making and selling that product. Companies also see what are the needs of their costumers, which leads them to create new products and put them in the market. In my opinion, our society is demanding more products than we really need, that's why there is so much pollution nowdays. I, as a global citizen, think that we should start making smarter decisions when it comes to buying products, so that way companies don't produce products that we don't really need.

After watching these two videos, I'm inspired to make changes such as thinking what are the things that I really need in order to survive so I don't buy unnecessary things because that way I'm not only helping my wallet but also contributing to have a healthier and safer environment. Another action that I'm going to take is to recycle more often since that's something that I didn't pay much attention. And last but not least, I´m going to incorporate my family to take all these actions as well so we can all contribute to make a better world. The reason why I'm going to start doing all these things is because I really care about our planet and I believe that together we can all make a difference and make our planet a better place to live.

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About this film

Our first feature-length documentary, The Story of Plastic is a searing exposé revealing the ugly truth behind plastic pollution and the false solution of plastic recycling. Different from every other plastic documentary you've seen, The Story of Plastic presents a cohesive timeline of how we got to our current global plastic pollution crisis and how the oil and gas industry has successfully manipulated the narrative around it. From the extraction of fossil fuels and plastic disposal to the global resistance fighting back, The Story of Plastic is a life-changing, Emmy-winning film depicting one of the world's most pressing environmental issues.

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The Story of Plastic (documentary film) - Story of Stuff

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About this film Our first feature-length documentary, The Story of Plastic is a searing exposé revealing the ugly truth behind plastic pollution and the false solution of plastic recycling. Different from every other plastic documentary you've seen, The Story of Plastic presents a cohesive timeline of how we got to our current global plastic pollution...

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In the meeting with Prof. Isabel Duque, she explained to us various tools and methodologies when it comes to research an article. One of the tools that she told us about was the MDC learning resources. Although I knew about this tool, it was good for her to explained every step and some tips to make our experience easier. The reason why I love this tool is because of its extremely expanded database. We could find tons of artciles, videos, books, or any resource we need there. And since I started to study in Miami-Dade College this has been the best research tool that I could count on.

The topic I selected to do my research is homelessness in Miami because I think its an issue that is affecting our community. This topic have always been interesting and concerning at the same time to me, because homeless people are risking their lifes everyday with just the fact of being without a house and because of their extremely high risks of getting diseases or infections. According to the website (CBS Miami), the homeless population in Miami-Dade County is between 3000 and 4000 people. Although Miami has a very large population of homeless people, there are plans intended to remove many of the reminded people that are on the street. Mayor Franciz Suarez said that he wants to bring the city to a "functional zero" homeless population (The Next Miami). And also commisioners voted to approve a $7 billion budget to rediuce homeless population (The Next Miami). Hopefuly this issue gets solved as soon as possible or at least reduced.

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - City of Miami commissioners passed a resolution that makes homeless encampments illegal.

The resolution passed 4 to 1. Commissioner Ken Russell was the only person who voted against it.
READ MORE: Comedian Chris Rock In Town For 'Ego Death World Tour'
The ordinance prohibits encampments or temporary housing structures such as tents, on public property and in entryways.

It gives police the authority to give violators written warnings and instruct them to go to a shelter. Those who refused could be arrested.

The new push comes as the homeless population in South Florida sees a notable uptick.

Dozens of people rallied outside of Miami City Hall to protest the new ordinance.
READ MORE: 2 Teens Hospitalized After Drive-By Shooting In Pompano Beach
"I am a United States veteran, and I am ashamed of America," said Karen, a homeless woman.

"We are being attacked every day by the homeless people. Miami has a huge homeless population issue," said one woman addressing Commissioners.

Proponents say the ordinance criminalizes homelessness.

"Criminalization doesn't work. It costs too much money and scatters people around," said Matt Marr, a Professor of Sociology at FIU who's studied homelessness for years.
MORE NEWS: Social Interactions & Gaming Experiences On The Metaverse Leaving Consumers Potentially Vulnerable
He says on any given day there are between 3,000 and 4,000 homeless people in Miami-Dade County.

The measure defines "encampments" as the presence of any tent or temporary living structure for human habitation, people using heating devices such as camping stoves, grills or heaters and/or the "unauthorized accumulation of personal property," of up to three cubic feet.

"I am strongly against the criminalization of homelessness," says Gabby Cordell with the Choose Love Foundation.

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Miami Commissioners Pass Ordinance Banning Homeless Encampments

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - City of Miami commissioners passed a resolution that makes homeless encampments illegal. The resolution passed 4 to 1. Commissioner Ken Russell was the only person who voted against it. READ MORE: Comedian Chris Rock In Town For 'Ego Death World Tour' The ordinance prohibits encampments or temporary housing structures such as tents, on public property and in entryways.

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Documentation

Article #1: 'Don't feed the monster!' The people who have stopped buying new clothes.

This article was about the experiences of some people that have implemented sustainable fashion in their lives. Nowadays we are all used to buy new clothes very often without thinking about how we are damaging the environment. In the article there are various examples of people who have started second hand shops or exchange clothes in order to reduce the unnecessary purchase of new clothes. All the people mentioned in the article said that it wasn't an easy process, you have to adapt your mind so it sees the idea of buying used clothes as something normal and better for the environment. In the article they also mentioned various websites and shops such as "DePop", "Style Lend", "eBay" and others that have been created to sell or exchange used clothes.

Article #2: Food waste is going to take over the fashion industry.

This article presents the idea of using food waste as a new method of obtaining fabrics and materials needed in the fashion industry. The article talks about a man called Isaac Nichelson who "wants to set the fashion industry on a new path toward more sustainable production and sourcing" (Fast Company). The article said that the concept of implementing the use of food in the production and sourcing of the fashion industry is a very progressive idea but it was also used in the 60's since 97% of the fibers and materials came from natural sources; but now this percent has been reduced to 35%. This article shows us that it is possible to implement a sustainable production in the fashion industry in order to have a better environment.

Reflection.

In my opinion, sustainable fashion is one of the best ways to reduce pollution in our planet. We live in a very consumer society and we just buy clothes without thinking about the damage we're causing to the environment. Sometimes we even have clothes with the tags on in our wardrobes and we don't even know they are there; we just keep buying new clothes. There are even some people who thinks that the idea of getting clothes from a second hand store it's horrible and it's for poor people. These two articles taught me the different ways that there are to stop the unnecessary consume of new clothes and it also showed me how we can guide the fashion industry to a more sustainable production. I liked the way that Solutions Journalism portrayed this topic because it gave examples of people's experiences who have been working to implement sustainability in fashion and this way, I could understand what are some things that I can do to stop this problem and what are the experts doing to stop it too. I also learned that exchange and second hand stores are not as bad as some people think they are because if you think about it, this way you're always going to have new clothes in your wardrobe and at a lower price and you will not have garments that you don't use there, instead you could take them to these stores for people to actually use and give them life. Sustainability is something that takes time but it can be achieved or at least implemented more on the production of things and we should all work in order to achieve it.

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'Don't feed the monster!' The people who have stopped buying new clothes

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A growing movement eschews fast fashion in favour of secondhand clothing. Is this the biggest personal change that can be made for the environment?

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Video #1: The tragedy of air pollution- and an urgent demand for clean air.

This TEDTalk is a bout how harmful air pollution can be. This talk is delivered by a mother who's 9 year old daughter passed away because of air pollution. She says that they lived near one of the busiest roads in the UK, therefore their surroundings were very contaminated because of the toxic air that petrol and diesel vehicles spewed out. She also states that her daughter was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death in the death certificate. The woman also talks about the harm that fossil fuels are doing to our health and that toxic levels in the air are getting worse every day all around the world. Also at least one of 5 premature deaths are related to air pollution and not only that but around 8.7 million of people are dying from strokes, cancer, heart attack, dementia, stillbirths and miscarriages just because of the extremely high leves of pollution in the air.

Video #2: It's impossible to have healthy people on a sick planet.

In this TEDTalk there's a woman who talks about the serious outcomes of the climate crisis that the world is going through. She says something in the video that really caught my attention and it was that "the negative impacts of industrialization, have outweighed the good". Althought there's been a lot of innovations throughout the years that have been good to humans, these innovations have brought bad consequences as well which are affecting our health and this problem keeps increasing every day. She goes in depth about every climate problem we are facing and she also states that the Covid-19 pandemic is an example of the broken relationship with have with nature. We as humans are the only responsibles for everything that is going on in the world therefore we are the only ones who have the possibilities to find the solutions needed.

Reflection:

After watching both TEDTalks I learned how harmful air pollution can be. I wasn't very informed about this topic before but now I think it's one of the biggest problem we are facing right now in the world. Air pollution is not only killing millions of people, but animals too and not only that, it also brings health problems to almost every person in the world, either visible or non-visible health issues, it is affecting everyone. Even tho this topic has been affecting us throught the years, the information on the videos is kind of innovative for me since I wasn't very informed about such topic before. It is definitely a topic that should be talked more and we need to come up with as many solutions as we can and stop delaying it's solution because it just keeps getting worse. One of the solutions that should be considered to end this problem is to get rid of toxic fossil fuels and implement electrified transport. This was definitely a very interesting topic to learn more about and a problem that requires urgent solution.

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The tragedy of air pollution -- and an urgent demand for clean air

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“Breathing clean air is every child’s human right,” says grassroots campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, sharing the heartbreaking story of her seven-year-old daughter, Ella Roberta, whose asthma was triggered to a fatal point by air pollution. Now, Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is on a mission to raise awareness about the harmful effects of unsafe air on our health and the planet. In this moving talk, she details why governments have an urgent responsibility to take action on air pollution -- and ensure that all children have a chance to live full and healthy lives.

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Video: The recycling myth: What actually happens to our plastic.

Reflection: Recycling is a topic that in my opinion is not talked enough about and that should be one of our top priorities. According to the man in the video, in Germany, only 16% of the plastic is recycled, which makes the remainder 84% of plastics to end up in landfills, or to be burned, releasing lots of chemicals into the environment. This video was innovative for me because I used to think that most of the plastics that we throw away were being recycled but now I know the truth, which is that not even half of it is being recycled as it should be. What I learned from the video is the whole process it takes to recycle plastics. It was very interesting to see how in the places were they recycle, the plastics were separated by weight and even by size. It also helped me see the truth about recycling and that it is a way more serious issue that I thought it was. In my experience, I used to do beach clean-ups with my friends every weekend. When I was doing the clean-ups I always had in mind that I wasn't going to resolve the world's problem because that is something that we should all work on to resolve, but I was definitely being part of a change, and that is what we, as a individuals, have to do because once we start to make a change more people will want to join too. After watching this video, the actions I'm going to be taking in order to keep fighting this recycling issue, is to buy as less single use plastics as I can, but instead buy supplies and utensils that I can use multiple times, and I will also make sure that at my house we separate the plastics from the metals or paper trash because that way it is easier for the workers to pick up the trash and we make sure that they are only taking away the plastics.

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The recycling myth: What actually happens to our plastic