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Hello, my name is Kevin Severo. I'm 20 years old and I am enrolled in MDC Eduardo J Padron campus. I was born and raised here in Miami by parents that were born in Cuba and immigrated here in their 20s. The neighborhood I grew up and still live in is in Little Havana and is filled to the brim with old people. This is my last semester at MDC where I have been taking STEM classes to advance as much as I can in my major, which is Computer Engineering.

My biggest hobbies right now are playing video games, building and upgrading computers, and going out and trying new places to eat. My biggest goal in life is to be able to do the things I just mentioned in my late 30s or 40s with peace of mind. I've been given different consoles and videogames since I was a kid and that played a huge part into why it is that I'm so interesting in anything and everything in relation to my computer and why my major is computer engineering. What makes me most proud of myself is how quickly I'm willing to and able to grab new concepts. Lastly, my favorite foods are tiramisu, kibbeh, and spaghetti.

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1st Video:

"The Story of Stuff" https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/

This video talks about the process that product we consume go through before they're available to be consumed. The Story of Stuff shows that the linear way that people thing about the production of goods is incorrect and incredibly harmful to the planet. Throughout the video, we are shown the different ways that each part of the line of production affects us such as the impact that factories have on the environment, the products that are made have on us, and on the global economy. We are also told about how we consume more than we actually need to and how we are constanly driven to buy newer versions of items. Lastly the video talks about solutions at the differnt parts of the line of production to better the system and make it ideal for the planet and the people on it.

2nd Video:

"The Story of Bottled Water" https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-bottled-water/

The Story of Bottled Water opens the video by immediately pointing out several different reasons why tap water is better than bottled water. The video then talks about how it is we came to like bottled water as much as we do today, they said that, during the 1970, soda producers were looking to make more money so they manufactured demand for bottled water via ads that made tap water look unsanitary even though most bottled water is pulled from the tap. The video then talks about the disposal process that water bottles go through after they'd been drank. Most water bottled get sent to a landfill or an incinerator, but, for the few that get recycled, they get parts of the bottle reused and the rest of it put in a landfill outside of America. At the end of the video, it talks about solutions we can take part of to help the water bottle problem that we are experiencing.

Reflection:

The consumption and manufacturing of goods it in a horribel place right now, it is set up in a way that encourages the destruction of the planet. These videos have made it blatantly obvious that it is up to us as consumers to monitor the products we by and take into consideration how it is that they got to the shelves that we're buying them from so that the portions of the planet and the people used to make the item aren't being put to suffer. We as citizens also have to be more conscious of the way that the products we consume are disposed of and regulate the amount of goods we purchas in the first place to better match our actual needs. After watching these two videos I was inspired to better research the products I buy. Instead of picking out the one that best first my budget, I will now look to buy products that both fit my needs and minimize the negative impact I have on the rest of the planet.

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The tool that caught my attention was the opposing viewpoint research tool. When prepping for a research topic, I find it that the hardest part of the whole project is the very beginning. Finding what topic to write about takes forever and the opposing viewpoint tool helps you do just that by letting you look at articles that related to a specific topic that's already pre-displayed for you to pick from. A tool I already knew about was the MDC academic search tool. It's ideal to use for almost any occasion, you can look up articles using keywords just like you would through a normal search engine except, with this search tool, it specifically returns articles that are made by credible sources.

The topic I selected to research is plastic pollution, plastic pollution is a huge problem world wide but I see it daily because I work in the beach area and constantly see how much it has effected Miami. The annual flow of plastic pollution to the world's oceans is estimated to be 4.8–12.7 metric tons, a large proportion of which comes from sources on land and is transported by rivers or wind. We find plastic residue in all shapes in sizes, whether its a bottle cap or a whole plastic cooler, so I think it's important to inform ones self on the topic so we can fix the problem before it becomes something irreversible.

Work Cited

Windsor, F. M., Durance, I., Horton, A. A., Thompson, R. C., Tyler, C. R., & Ormerod, S. J. (2019, February 20). A catchment‐scale perspective of Plastic Pollution. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved January 28, 2022, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14572

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Fighting Food Waste.

World hunger has always been a major issue, but, as of recent, it has been progressively worse across the globe. Due to the growing rate at which we throw out food, researchers world wide have been attempting to resolve this issue, and came up with an app called "Olio". Olio was created by the inventor Tessa Clarke and was made specifically to prevent food from going to waste. The BBC states that Clarke's invention allows neighbors and businesses to share food scraps. Clarke states that "Half of all food waste occurs in the home.” With her app, Clarke hopes to reduce the food waste by giving people the means to share food you the user don't want with people how may be in desperate need of it.

Burning Sugar Cane Pollutes Communities of Color in Florida. Brazil Shows There's Another Way.

Brazil has a massive sugar cane industry that produces raw sugar, ethanol and electricity. Florida is also a big producer but there has been a problem in the process they use for the past years. Due to the burning portion of the cane harvesting process, the people that live around the factories have been negatively affected, primarily through health related issues. Due to the residents of São Paulo, the nation’s largest sugar-cane-producing state, voicing concerns in relation to ash and soot blanketing their homes, and of respiratory problems (Sussman), they hey have discovered a way to process the sugar cane without harming the people that live near these factories. In 2002, producers invested in harvesting equipment that allowed them to cut the cane without burning it. Furthermore, they also came up with a way to use the leaves. Instead of burning them, now people leave them on the floor to form a protective blanket on the fields to enriching the soil and collect some of these leaves to generate renewable energy. Hopefully,  Florida will begin to use these methods as well so that residents near the sugar cane plants can live healthier lives.

Work Cited

BBC. (2018, May 29). People fixing the world, Fighting Food Waste. BBC World Service. Retrieved February 3, 2022, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswvr3?utm_source=Solutions%2BStory%2BTracker.

Sussman, N. (2021, December 29). Burning sugar cane pollutes communities of color in Florida. Brazil shows there's another way. ProPublica. Retrieved February 3, 2022, from https://www.propublica.org/article/burning-sugar-cane-pollutes-communities-of-color-in-florida-brazil-shows-theres-another-way

Reflection:

After finishing this assignment, I came to realize how much there is to learn about the negative affects humans have on each other. In the articles i read, I got to learn about the negative effects our sugar cane harvesting methods have on the landscape and the people that live near the plants and was shown the contrast that Brazils healthier sugar cane harvesting methods have to ours. Furthermore, I also learned about the amount of food we waste due to our poor eating habits and an app named Olio which can help us feed those who don't have the luxury to throw out food the way we do. I chose the articles I read today because I always like to read up on issues related to the planet or people on it and both articles spoke on topics I hadn't yet read about. I also chose the BBC audio article because I already had the preexisting tendency to listen to informative videos on youtube so I figured that this would be right up my alley. I think that both articles did a good job at expressing their respective points by providing some type of audio aid to interest audience more than they would of been with just a block of text.

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Azzorello, M. Y., & Van Vleet, E. S. (6AD). Marine birds and plastic pollution - int-res.com. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/37/m037p295.pdf

I will use this article to speak specifically on the affects that plastic has on marine birds. Since the article speaks mainly on that topic I think it will be a good way to add onto the topic of plastic pollution on Florida since I already have a topic discussing on general plastic pollution in the water.

Mohammed, J., Torres, R., & Obenshain, E. (1998). Waste reduction at sea: Pollution Prevention Strategies on Miami-Based Cruise Lines. Pollution Prevention in the Coastal Zone. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://p2infohouse.org/ref///26/25783.pdf

I'll use this article to present a solution to specifically our aquatic pollution problem. This article speaks specifically about the pollution that we experience here in Miami due to tourist (specifically from cruise lines) and gives one way that we can reduce pollution and help better our aquatic pollution situation.

Windsor, F. M., Durance, I., Horton, A. A., Thompson, R. C., Tyler, C. R., & Ormerod, S. J. (2019, February 20). A catchment‐scale perspective of Plastic Pollution. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14572

I will use this article to inform the audience to the general affects that plastic pollution has on our planet. To do this I'll get the statistical information inside the article to prove to the audience how bad plastic pollution is. This will be simple with specifically this article since it consist mostly of just statistics relating to the topic.

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Video 1:

In "The Emergent Patterns of Climate Change", Gavin Schmidt goes on to talk about the different ways in which different parts of the world change out climate globally. Schmist did an amazing job of doing so using statistics and visual aids, such as the model used to determine how atmospheric particles would interact with each other, throughout his TED talk. After talking about different models and how each on went on to be made, he brings up how we've known what going to happen to the earth since more than 100 years ago and that the models all indicate that the planet is heating up, but nothing is being done, then leaves with an amazing quote by Sherwood Rowland, which says "What's the use of having developed a science well enough to make predictions if, in the end, all we're willing to do is stand around and wait for them to come true?" to makes us think about our situation and how we should begin to act on it.

Citation:

https://www.ted.com/talks/gavin_schmidt_the_emergent_patterns_of_climate_change

Video 2:

In “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: is talk about it”, Katharine Hayhoe talks about how climate change is being taken as less of a fact and more of an opinion here in the USA and, little by little, the whole world. In Hayhoe's TED talk, she bring up her personal experiences, mentioning how when she went on to give speeches at a Texas university she was disregarded the whole time and called a democrat at the end. She then goes on to discus throughout her whole TED talk that science isn't a major factor in whether or not something will be done against climate change, but instead, the main factor that will determine whether or not we go on to save the planet is how much we decide to talk about global warming, and convince those around us to do something about it.

Citation:

https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it

Reflection:

After watching both TED talks, I have learned that it's been incredibly obvious that the planet is warming up due to the carbon emission caused by constant use of fossil fuels, and that we've known that for around 150 years due to the models we've made in refined to be able to predict what will happen to any part of the planet, but that we have done little to nothing to stop it from changing. We've had the statistics and graphs to inform the public of most disasters that could be laid out in front of us but the public refuses to do anything but disregard fact and treat it like an opinion. So, due to the carelessness of those around us, it has become our responsibility to inform those in our communities of the same issues that scientist have been trying to warn us about since before we we're born. The easiest way we can do so is by finding a emotional link that you and a person in your community share with the negative impacts of climate change, so that you can get them to care about the problem through their care about something they hold dear. Because if we don't do our part in our individual communities and raise awareness on climate change and global warming, then the public will do little to nothing to change the path that the planet is on.

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Video:

How solar energy got so cheap, and why it’s not everywhere (yet)

Reflection:

The main take away I got from this video is that solar energy is cheap and and clean source of energy that should be used more often. I personally used to think that solar panels were really expensive because I'd never see them on the roofs of peoples houses so I immediately assumed that they we're not at a price range that was reasonable for people to use. However, they're actually really affordable for companies to use since they're just 20 cents a watt. Solar energy was originally very expensive, but, since Germany passed a law in 2000 to boost renewable energy development and the US had already created the modern day solar panel in 1954, we had china jump into the solar panel making market in 2004. After China made solar panels for a cheap price, you'd expect solar panels to be everywhere, but solar energy still only produced three percent of the world's electricity because they still had one problem. The only downside that solar power had was that fi the sun wasn't around then there would obviously be no power being made. This downside was soon circumvented by the use of lithium-ion batteries, which allow the storage of enough hours of energy for us to make it through he night or a random storm.

Work Cited:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUvaYycoWqI&ab_channel=DWPlanetA

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At first I thought the assignments would end up being another bunch of book work that I had to finish for the sake of finishing. They were introduced in a way that, as far as I remember, felt brief, and that gave me the impression that I would be completing the assignments for the sake of doing them rather than learning something from them. Initially, the assignments felt a little overwhelming since 3 of them were put out immediately but I really quickly realized that I would have ample time to complete them since the due dates where spaced out from each other.

While working on my CAS and SP assignments, I felt as if I had learned a lot from the articles and videos I wrote about both in terms of the actual topic I researched and my ability to write. Seeing videos on the harmful effects of the chain that products go through and of climate change and how to prevent both topics, made me more conscious of my actions in a way that made the material super easy to take in. Furthermore, the MDC data base that was presented to me during on the of SP assignments ended up being one of the most useful research tools I've come across since it carry's information on almost any topic I could think of in a really simple way just like google scholar but with different results. Outside of the fun new research tool and enjoyable videos, the actual articles I picked out were the same as any other article out there and proved to be boring to summarize, so I was glad that that assignment was kept super brief.

Things relating to the environment have always been go too topics for me to write about when it comes to research papers, so, like i mentioned earlier, I figured the assignments would be boring and easy since that's exactly what the professor happened to make all the work about, but as I sat through videos on both climate change and pollution, I found the topics a lot more enjoyable since I got to listen about the topics from someone who cares about it while munching on my favorite snacks instead of hearing my bored inner monologue. Moreover, the actual writing of the assignments was really simple to complete due to the simple fact that you had the professor readily available to help you out and others assignments to serve as templates for how the work should be turned in like how the paragraphs should be spaced and what parts to make bold or a different font size. Overall, the assignments felt stress free due to the ample amount of time and tools given to complete them.

Completing the CAS and SP activities made me more mindful of the way I consumed random products because of the "Story of Stuff" videos and made me more caring for the environment because of the Ted Talks speaking about how global warming is something we have been predicting for years and need to act on. These assignments made me take the concepts I mentioned earlier into consideration more often whenever they could be applied. For example, when I go grocery shopping at my local Publix or when I look for a topic of conversation to break the ice with, one of the things I think back to are the videos I watched and how my decision to be spread awareness on the topic or to pick a ethically sourced product could make all the differenced somewhere else in the world. Furthermore, the practice I got from writing these assignments, paired with the new research tools I got, have made it a easier for me to write overall about any future topics I could be assigned.