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Denver Coliseum: Stock Show/Homeless Shelter

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Denver Coliseum: Stock Show/Homeless Shelter

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Affirmative: Do not host the stock show at the Coliseum this year; find an alternative location

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DENVER - The closure of the 300-bed shelter at the Denver Coliseum comes at a time when the shelter has been running at nearly full capacity. People who have called the Coliseum home tell Denver7 they're anxious for what's to come.

"I don't have any idea what I am going to do," said Robert Green.

"I hope they move us somewhere, some place that is comfortable like this," said Michael Hofmann.

Come Dec. 3, the Coliseum, which opened its doors as an emergency shelter at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, will be shutting down services so preparations for the upcoming National Western Stock Show can begin.

"The setup of a facility for the stock show is certainly an important task, but most critically, is our ability to help folks who have been counting on this shelter as their safe place to be," said Deputy Director of the Housing Stability and Homeless Resolution for City of Denver, Angie Nelson.

The task at hand means relocating hundreds of people in a short amount of time. The Department of Housing Stability says there's enough space to make it happen.

"Currently across the entire shelter system, the beds that we have available with occupancy for men, we currently have enough space across the shelter system to accommodate the number of folks coming from the Coliseum," said Nelson.

Options may include motel rooms for people over 65 who have medical conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19. The city is also looking into long-term housing and other shelters.

"Moving is hard even when where you're moving from as is, is a COVID emergency response shelter to another shelter. The place where you've been that's been able to offer you some stability can feel a little bit like home, it's your home base for a while," said Nelson.

The stock show was canceled last year due to the pandemic but will return in early January 2022. For now, the biggest worry for many who used to call the Coliseum home is, where next?

"This is a good place to stay, it is protected, it is good for everyone here," said Hofmann.

The City of Denver's Department of Housing Stability, also known as HOST, has seen some success in placing vulnerable residents in stable housing. Mayor Michael Hancock and HOST launched an effort Sept. 2 to get 200 people experiencing homelessness housed in 100 days. So far, they've exceeded their goal by housing 256 people in 68 days.

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Denver Coliseum will no longer serve as an emergency homeless shelter for men

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The closure of the 300-bed shelter at the Denver Coliseum comes at a time when the shelter has been running at a nearly full capacity. People who have called the Coliseum home tell Denver7 they're anxious for what's to come.

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Affirmative: The coal plant should not close because over 200 people will lose their job.

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CRAIG - In a quiet valley tucked away from Colorado's bustling ski resorts, far from his hometown in northern Mexico, Trinidad Loya found a way to support his family's American dream: Coal.

He, his son and grandson - all named Trinidad Loya -worked for the coal plant in Craig, Colorado, with the eldest Loya starting more than 30 years ago. The plant currently employs 180 people, paying higher salaries and bringing far more job security than most other jobs in the area.

But that's all about to change.

The coal plant is closing, along with the mine that feeds it and has nearly 115 more employees, and all the workers will lose their jobs over the next decade, according to Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. which partially owns and operates the Craig Station.

That will mean a tough transition for the Loyas and other workers who've made a life in Craig, a rural town with a population 9,000 that draws elk hunters from around the world to its scenic surroundings.

"A power plant job, especially in a rural community like Craig - those are what I call cradle to grave jobs," said Richard Meisinger, business manager of the 111 chapter of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union which represents the bargaining unit at the Craig plant and nearly 4,200 members across Colorado and Wyoming. "People hire on there when they're young anticipating that they are going to work at that power plant there their entire workable lifespan."

The same scenario is playing out in other small towns across the U.S. After decades of relying on coal for their workforce, tax base and way of life, the towns face uncertain futures as new state and national legislation forces the retirement of fossil fuels because of the worsening effects of human-caused climate change. Only a few towns have a viable plan to transition to cleaner energy, like one in Wyoming chosen for a Bill Gates-backed nuclear power plant.

The impact spreads beyond the plants workers and is felt by the rest of the community, too. In Craig, much of the infrastructure of the county is supported by the coal plant workers, who make an average of $100,000 a year, compared with a $40,000 average salary across the county.

Now, some workers will retire, while others, like the younger Loyas, must find a new way to support their families, and possibly leave Craig behind.

On Monday, the youngest Loya, started an apprenticeship position at another Tri-State owned facility across the state in Pueblo - some 300 miles (483 kilometers) away from Craig where he lives with his wife and two children, ages 7 and 3. When he's not working as a sub-station technician there, he plans on making the five-hour drive to come home and see his family. He took a pay cut for the position.

He's holding out hope a job opens at the Craig plant due to job movement within the plant. In the meantime, he'll stay with a sister in Pueblo and hope for the best.

"It felt right to our family at the time," Loya said.

* * *

Craig sits in the heart of Colorado's western front, only 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the popular Steamboat Springs ski area.

Cows and lambs graze on farmlands. Creeks stream out of the nearby rivers. Deer traverse downtown Craig at night, munching on grass and curiously peeking around closed storefronts and offices. The rural escape is why many of those who grow up in Craig choose to stay.

In winter months, the town, known as the elk hunting capital of the world, houses thousands of hunter groups donned in camouflage and bright orange who come to the area in search of game. Tens of thousands of hunters stay in the town's hotels and frequent the local restaurants. According to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife report, the hunting industry brought $136 million to northwest Colorado in 2017.

Moffat County is made up of millions of acres of public lands, and its mineral deposits of high-volatility and low-sulfur coal brought the industry to town and sustained families for decades.

The town has reinvented itself before.

What was once a last stop on the Denver and Salt Lake Railway which allowed for nationwide agricultural exports like wool, soon the area became a money-maker for the oil industry and then a source of uranium. The oil fields and uranium mills left Craig by the 1960s as demands changed, but by the 1970s, coal was king in Colorado with companies buying up mines and others like Colorado-Ute Electric Association purchasing lands to build a power plant. This would eventually become the Craig Station.

Now, the town is changing again.

The owners of the Craig Station decided to close the 1,285-megawatt, three-unit plant over a ten-year period. Unit 1 and 2, owned by PacifiCorp, Platte River Power Authority, Salt River Project, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and Xcel Energy, are set to close in 2025 and 2028. Unit 3, solely owned by Tri-State, will retire by 2030.

As the coal industry goes, so will nearly half of Moffat County's gross domestic product, Peterson said. It could affect services like healthcare, fire departments, infrastructure and upkeep for neighborhoods and roadways.

According to Ray Beck, former Moffat County commissioner and mayor of Craig, the county's biggest source of revenue is property tax. Moffat County's 2020 assessed value was nearly $430 million with 62% coming from the top 10 taxpayers, all energy-related businesses.

"We can't recover from that," Beck said.

A scenario put together by the Moffat County assessor found that the economic situation would only get worse as the plant's three units shut down over time. According to the forecast, in 10 years when the entire powerplant shuts down, it would take 65 Super Walmarts and 93 Hampton Inns to replace the assessed value, Beck said.

The loss of coal jobs in a community like Craig also will hurt small businesses whose customers are primarily coal workers and have disposable income, said Jennifer Holloway, executive director of the Craig Chamber of Commerce.

That's bad news for Gino's Pizzeria, the West Twin Cinema and Thunder Rolls Bowling Center.

When discussions about the end of coal began, many in the town were in denial and some thought the decision would waver with the political winds.

But that hasn't happened, and people are now facing the reality of the loss of their way of life.

"We're taking people who generationally have been taught that they are the heroes in this story and suddenly they don't differentiate between coal is bad and they are bad," said Sasha Nelson, executive director of workforce education and economic development at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Craig. "That is the message that we're sending to some extent and that's a hard one for proud people, for hard-working people, people who struggled, to be receiving. And there's a lot of resistance and pushback."

* * *

Tim Osborn, the power plant manager, estimates that they'll lose another 10 or so workers in 2022.

"I forecasted all the way out to 2029 and we should have about 100 people here - if they're all here in 2029 - that are age 55 and up," Osborn said. "Attrition is the driver, that's what I'm counting on throughout the process. It appears we can do that."

The attrition of workers retiring or moving on is already being felt. Many plant workers described picking up additional hours of overtime as well as doubling their work during shifts due to the lack of bodies available in certain plant positions.

Many of the plant workers are finding their morale has gone down as the closure date inches closer.

"It's hard to get out of bed every day to go to work," said Ron Geary, an electrician at the plant with a full gray beard and self-deprecating humor who treasures the work he does and the people he works with. One of his fears during this transition is the mental health of his colleagues who are losing a part of their identity and job security with retirement plan.

"The coal miners, like my dad, they're invested in that work because it's a way for them to participate in our nation and be patriots. I mean you're providing electricity for the rest of the country to develop and grow and become successful," said Holloway, 49, who grew up in the area and stayed to work at the Chamber of Commerce.

Many coal workers are frustrated and angry at the decisions made by Denver-based politicians that affect rural communities. They see other nations like China and India continuing to build new coal mines and think it's hypocritical.

Two-thirds of the world's coal is used for electric power, according to Carlos Fernandez Alvarez, a senior energy analyst for the International Energy Agency. For western, more developed nations which have diversified their power systems and become more efficient, energy demands are not increasing. But for developing counties such as China and India, power demand is rising due to population growth and wider electrification efforts, so the transition is more difficult, he said.

Power demand in India is expected to grow faster than anywhere in the world over the next two decades as the economy grows and ever more extreme heat increases demand for air conditioning that so much the rest of the world takes for granted.

"It's OK as long as it's not on American soil, but they're gonna shut us down because we produce a little too much (carbon dioxide) when they're doing the same thing there?" Wes Lytle, a coal worker at the Craig plant, said about other nations.

One of the hardest parts of losing the plant is helping people find new jobs with employment benefits that provide a comparable lifestyle that coal families currently enjoy.

For the Loyas, as for other coal families, the power plant afforded them a lifestyle they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Nelson is trying to figure out how to help coal workers find their next opportunity. Over the last year, she has created a catalog of courses with industry-recognized credentials and apprenticeship-like training for members of the community who need help figuring out what's next.

As she's studied other transition communities, Nelson says worker transitions are typically split into three categories: one-third will have the means to retire between now and the final closure date, one-third will follow the industry or a similar field and one-third will retrain for a new career, open a business and some will become unemployed.

In Spoon River College in Canton, Illinois, the community was given a four-month notice before two coal plants closed in 2019. Twenty percent of workers sought retraining with help from the community college. But 14% didn't find new jobs and were unemployed in summer 2021.

"That 14% of folks that become unemployed, that concerns me," Nelson said. "Who are those folks and how do we help them and support them?"

In Craig, some workers are trying to plan ahead. Christine Schneider, 50, a water chemistry technician, has already sold her home and is living in an apartment. She's also started training for a commercial driver's license and is considering moving to Texas to be with her daughter.

"There's a chance I might still make it to 62 out there but I'm not wagering everything on that," she said.

* * *

Plenty of people are trying to make sure it's not the end for Craig or the workers.

Discussions are underway to decide what comes next for the plant facilities. Osborn, the plant manager, says the ideal situation would be to use the repurpose some of the plant's equipment for renewable energy projects and keep people in the town employed.

"There's technology that doesn't even exist right now that we would hopefully be able to study and implement and design and keep people employed here in town and still be a viable place of employment," Osborn said.

Sean Hovorka, a production superintendent at the Trapper Mine and recently elected member of the town's city council, sees a future in mining because of renewables.

"You look at windmills, solar panels, any of that - you've gotta have mining for it," he said. "You've gotta have the lithium that goes into the batteries for your Teslas and all that stuff. Mining is, it's gonna be a critical field and we knew that we were gonna be part of the green energy movement."

"With the direction that the green energy is going you're only gonna need more copper, you're only going to need more, nickel, cobalt, lithium - all of those other things that have to be mined," Hovorka said.

Brent Wanner, head of power sector modelling and analysis for the World Energy Outlook, an annual publication by the International Energy Agency, said the power sector is in a good position to lead the change in large-scale clean energy transitions. The industry leads the way in emissions declines and is already transitioning away from coal to new options.

The older Loya said it's disappointing to see the end of the plant, which holds his family's American legacy, but he prefers not to see it as a doomsday scenario.

"There's always a light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "Maybe this will become a hydrogen plant."

* * *
The story has been updated to correct the spelling of the last names of Sean Hovorka and Christine Schneider, and the spelling of Moffat County. Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

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Colorado coal town grapples with future as plant shuts down

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The coal plant is closing, along with the mine that feeds it and has nearly 115 more employees, and all the workers will lose their jobs over the next decade, according to Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. which partially owns and operates the Craig Station.

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5 Global Crises the world can't ignore in 2021

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In some of the world's most dangerous and complex places, COVID-19 has reversed decades of progress, with the aftershocks of the pandemic threatening more children's lives than the virus itself. COVID-19 magnified the effects of poverty - as conflict, political unrest, food insecurity and violence made children and families increasingly vulnerable.

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Update-July 19, 2022: With a catastrophic famine looming on the horizon across East Africa, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has released our first ever Crisis Alert update to our annual Emergency Watchlist, highlighting that over 3 million people could die without urgent international funding. Learn more about the famine threat.
The International Rescue Committee has released its 2021 Emergency Watchlist, a global list of humanitarian crises that are expected to deteriorate the most over the coming year. The triple threat of conflict, climate change and COVID-19 is driving the crises in nearly all Emergency Watchlist countries, threatening famine in several in 2021.

Displaced families, and in particular women and girls, are disproportionately affected by humanitarian crises-and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception.

"2020 will go down as one of the most turbulent years in history, but the next year will be remembered for how we either helped or turned away from those suffering the most," says IRC president and CEO David Miliband. "Watchlist 2021 should serve as a wake-up call for policymakers, government leaders, and concerned citizens around the world about the cost of neglecting humanitarian crises-and how they urgently need international attention."

Learn more about the world's worst crises:

10. Mozambique: Humanitarian needs rise rapidly as insurgency intensifies

The number of people in need in Mozambique has nearly doubled as an insurgency grips a country still struggling to recover from two powerful cyclones that struck in 2019. The rapidly escalating conflict in the northern Cabo Delgado province has pushed Mozambique not just onto the Emergency Watchlist for the first time, but straight into the list's top ten countries of most concern.

Humanitarian risks in Mozambique in 2021

9. Venezuela: COVID-19 compounds years-long economic crisis

The collapse of Venezuela's oil industry has been a key factor in a deepening economic crisis that has devastated the country's health system and caused widespread hunger and displacement. COVID-19 restrictions have left Venezuelans stuck in limbo, unable to leave the country to seek safety and services-while lockdowns elsewhere are forcing those who had already left Venezuela to return.

Humanitarian risks in Venezuela in 2021

The IRC's crisis response in Venezuela

Launched: 2018. Where we focus with local partners: Maternal health care; sexual and reproductive health care; provision of masks and other COVID-19 protective gear; child malnutrition services; child protection services; gender-based violence prevention and response; cash assistance.

Learn more about the IRC's Venezuela response and our support for Venezuelans in neighboring Colombia.

8. Nigeria: Conflict and famine risk in the northeast

Even after a decade of conflict that has uprooted nearly 3 million people and left millions more facing a hunger crisis, violence is still growing in northeast Nigeria. Civilians are bearing the brunt of the conflict; Nigeria was the deadliest crisis for civilians in 2020 out of all 20 Emergency Watchlist countries. It remains a challenging place for aid workers to provide humanitarian assistance.

Humanitarian risks in Nigeria in 2021

The IRC's crisis response in Nigeria

Launched: 2012. Where we focus: Primary health, nutrition and reproductive health care; educational support services for out-of-school youth, women's protection and empowerment; water and sanitation services; economic recovery and development.
Learn more about the IRC's work in Nigeria.
7. South Sudan: Recovery from civil war at risk

South Sudan's high Emergency Watchlist ranking is driven by widespread humanitarian needs and a fragile peace deal that could unravel under the additional strain of COVID-19. A new unity government took office in early 2020. It faces the challenge of leading the country's recovery from civil conflict amid unrelenting violence, an economic crisis, and now an unprecedented pandemic in one of the world's weakest health systems.

Humanitarian risks in South Sudan in 2021

The IRC's crisis response in South Sudan

Launched: 1989. Where we focus: capacity building in state health clinics; training local health workers; nutrition programs; sanitation services; support to survivors of sexual violence; child protection services; human rights training; cash assistance; job and livelihoods training.
Learn more about the IRC's South Sudan response.
6. Burkina Faso: The world's fastest-growing displacement crisis

Just two years ago, Burkina Faso faced virtually no mass conflict or displacement. It entered the Emergency Watchlist for the first time last year and is now ranked at six. The escalating conflict is driving steep increases in humanitarian need and-with the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis-the risk of famine. Over 1 million people are now internally displaced in Burkina Faso, more than double the number at the start of 2020.

Humanitarian risks in Burkina Faso in 2021

Conflict involving an array of government forces, local militias and militant groups may spread, affecting more of the population.

The conflict is increasingly deadly for civilians and disruptive to health services and education.

There is a risk of famine due to the conflict and disruption to markets from COVID-19.

The IRC's crisis response in Burkina Faso

Launched: 2019. Where we focus: clean water; sanitation service support; primary health care, including reproductive health care and child health care.
Learn more about the IRC's Burkina Faso response.
5. Ethiopia: New conflict threatens the region

On the Emergency Watchlist for the third year running, Ethiopia enters 2021 with a major confrontation underway in the northern Tigray region between the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). At the same time, climate change, the biggest locust outbreak in living memory, and the COVID-19 pandemic all drive up the number of people in need to the second highest in the world.

Humanitarian risks in Ethiopia in 2021

The IRC's crisis response in Ethiopia

Launched: 2000. Where we focus: cash and basic emergency supplies; safe water and sanitation facilities; women and girls' protection; primary health care; education; livelihoods-related training and job opportunities for youth and vulnerable households.
Learn more about the IRC's Ethiopia response.
4. Democratic Republic of Congo: Unprecedented hunger crisis

There are now more people facing a severe hunger crisis in the Democratic Republic Congo than has ever been recorded in any country. Congo ranks in the emergency Watchlist top five for the third year in a row, reflecting persistent volatility in a country that is now in its fourth decade of a major humanitarian crisis. On top of large-scale violence, Congo also has had to grapple with outbreaks of Ebola and COVID-19.

Humanitarian risks in Congo in 2021

The IRC's crisis response in Congo

Launched: 1996. Where we focus: Health care: containing Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks, health worker training, rehabilitation of hospitals and clinics, water, sanitation; support for survivors of violence; conflict reduction; economic recovery.
Learn more about the IRC's response in Congo.
3. Syria: The deadliest place for humanitarians

The year 2021 marks a decade of conflict in Syria, as violence, displacement and humanitarian needs continue to grow. Syria is also the deadliest country in the world for humanitarians. Attacks on aid workers, civilians, homes and hospitals remain common. Many families have been uprooted multiple times. The health system has been decimated, undermining Syrians' ability to cope with the challenges of COVID-19.

Humanitarian risks in Syria in 2021

The IRC's crisis response in Syria

Launched: 2012. Where we focus: support for health facilities and mobile health teams with trauma, primary, reproductive, and mental health services; COVID-19 awareness, and infection, prevention, and control training; food and cash distributions; women and children's protection; early childhood development programs.
Learn more about the IRC's Syria response.
2. Afghanistan: Stalled peace process under threat

Afghanistan has risen to second on the Emergency Watchlist because of its high exposure to the triple threats of conflict, COVID-19 and climate change, as well as uncertainty over the stalled peace process between the government and the Taliban. Even after four decades of crises, humanitarian needs in Afghanistan are growing rapidly amid the pandemic and unrelenting violence, with the number of people requiring aid for 2021 nearly doubling compared to early 2020.

Humanitarian risks in Afghanistan in 2021

Political uncertainty is likely to dominate 2021 and drive conflict between the Taliban and Afghan government forces.

Civilians and humanitarians are likely to continue bearing the brunt of the conflict.

COVID-19 has pushed Afghans at home and abroad into poverty, making food insecurity likely to continue to grow in 2021.

Women are disproportionately affected by the crisis in Afghanistan and reports of early marriages and violence against women have increased.

Increasing natural disasters, partly due to extreme weather resulting from climate change, are uprooting families and driving greater humanitarian needs.

The IRC's crisis response in Afghanistan

Launched: 1988. Where we focus: education; child protection; water and sanitation, including hand-washing station installation; support for health facilities; COVID-19 prevention information and training sessions; emergency response; economic recovery; women's protection and empowerment.
Learn more about the IRC's Afghanistan response.
1. Yemen: Unrelenting conflict and risk of famine

Yemen tops the IRC's annual Emergency Watchlist for the third year running. Over five years of major armed conflict, severe underfunding, and now the COVID-19 crisis have pushed the humanitarian response to the brink of collapse in 2020. Eighty percent of the population is in need of aid. Yemenis tell the IRC they worry more about hunger than COVID-19: As the pandemic deepens the country's economic crisis, and with no political resolution in sight, Yemen faces the risk of famine.

Humanitarian risks in Yemen in 2021
Read more about why Yemen is the country most at risk of humanitarian catastrophe in 2021.
The IRC's crisis response in Yemen

Launched: 2012. Where we focus: primary health facilities; emergency obstetric and newborn care centers; reproductive health care; mobile health teams; a COVID-19 isolation unit; treatment for malnourished children; cash transfers; livelihood programs; women and children's protection; water and sanitation services; education.
Learn more about the IRC's Yemen response.
World crisis 2021 outlook

The world is facing unprecedented humanitarian emergencies in the coming year. The worst humanitarian crises of 2021 will be in countries failed by world leaders. The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has left countries affected by conflict and crisis to struggle on their own-and the world's most vulnerable people are paying the price. The effects of climate change will only exacerbate these crises. The international community must take action now, before decades of hard-won progress on reducing poverty, hunger and disease is lost or even reversed.

Top 3 crises we're most concerned about in 2021 from our annual emergency watchlist:
▪️Yemen
▪️Afghanistan
▪️Syria

Here is why we're most concerned about these 3 countries and how you can help.

RT to help us raise awareness and critical action. More: https://t.co/YyagR43BzM pic.twitter.com/R8U36TpGEb
- IRC - International Rescue Committee (@RESCUEorg) December 16, 2020

The Emergency Watchlist draws on 85 quantitative and qualitative measures, including insights from the IRC's 30,000 staff and volunteers in over 40 countries globally. For IRC analysis of all 20 countries in our world crisis 2021 list, along with our recommendations for global leaders, download the 2021 Emergency Watchlist report.

You can also test your knowledge of the world's worst crises with our quiz.

About the IRC's global crisis response

In 2021, the IRC will have been working for an average of around 15 years in the 18 Emergency Watchlist countries where we have a presence.

The IRC responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future. In more than 40 countries and over 20 U.S. cities, our dedicated teams provide clean water, shelter, health care, education and empowerment support to refugees and displaced people.

2022 Crisis update

The IRC released our 2022 Emergency Watchlist on December 15, 2021:Read profiles of the top 10 crises the world can't ignore in 2022.

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The top 10 crises the world should be watching in 2021

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The IRC has released its 2021 Emergency Watchlist, a global list of humanitarian crises that are expected to deteriorate the most over the coming year.

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In this collection of studies, Deloitte explores some pivotal national challenges facing the United States in 2021 and beyond.

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2021's biggest us politics stories - cnnpolitics

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Analysis: 2021 was a transformative year in US politics. Here are the biggest stories.

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This year brought a dizzying mix of triumphs and setbacks in Washington, where lawmakers have grappled with everything from the deadly Covid-19 pandemic to the January 6 assault on democracy. Here are five of the biggest political stories of 2021.

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Vaccine required for foreign people to enter the country

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Vaccine required for foreign people to enter the country

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Affirmative: The US should require the vaccine for foreign people to keep citizens safe

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The United States will require vaccinations for all border crossings beginning Jan 22.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide, the U.S. will require non-U.S. travelers entering the country by land or water to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning Saturday, Jan. 22.

The new rule affects both the U.S. Canada and U.S. Mexico border crossings and it includes travel for essential or non-essential reasons.

The new restrictions will not apply to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, or U.S. nationals.

COVID-19 testing is not required for entry via land or ferry port of entry.

The Department of Homeland Security first announced the new rules back in October when the White House announced that beginning November the U.S. government would move away from the country-by-country restrictions. This was previously applied during the COVID-19 pandemic and adopted travel policies that relied primarily on vaccination to advance the safe resumption of travel.

In March 2020, to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, the U.S. government issued restrictions on travel into the United States. DHS implemented temporary restrictions, limiting entry at the U.S. northern and southern land borders to persons engaged in essential travel, including lawful trade, emergency response, and public health purposes.
Current requirements to enter the United States:

All foreign travelers who intend to enter the United States will have to present proof of vaccination against COVID-19 as described by the CDC.

You are required to show a negative COVID-19 test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 when you travel to the United States by air.

Wearing a mask over your nose and mouth is required in indoor areas of public transportation, including airplanes.

The United States will accept vaccines approved and accepted by the World Health Organization.

Moderna ARNm-1273

Pfizer-BioN-Tech BNT162b2

Jansen (Johnson & Johnson) Ad26.COV2.S

Oxford-AstraZeneca AZD1222

Covishield

Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV

Sinovac CoronaVac

Covaxin

What documents will be accepted as proof of vaccination?

The CDC specifies that the following proof of vaccination against COVID-19 will be accepted:

Verifiable records on paper or digital: Certificate with QR code or digital pass in a phone application

Non-verifiable printed records: Printed vaccination record, vaccination card.

Non-verifiable digital records: Digital photos of the vaccination card or vaccination certificate from a public agency or application without a QR code.

The vouchers must include the full name and date of birth that matches the passport of the person entering the country.

Name of the official agency that issued the proof of vaccination.

Manufacturer of the vaccine and vaccination dates.

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US to require foreign travelers to be vaccinated to enter the country as of January

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The United States will require vaccinations for all border crossings beginning Jan 22. As COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide, the U.S. will require non-U.S. travelers entering the country by land or water to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning Saturday, Jan. 22. The new rule affects both the U.S.

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Affirmative: The government should put more work into getting rid of corruption therefor a  solution is creating pathways so that civilians have tools to participate in the government and help find solutions.

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wmode=transparent&wmode=opaque 1. Corruption is not only about bribes: People especially the poor get hurt when resources are wasted. That's why it is so important to understand the different kinds of corruption to develop smart responses. 2. Power of the people: Create pathways that give citizens relevant tools to engage and participate ...

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Denver Zoo struggles to feed hungry animals.

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Denver Zoo struggles to feed hungry animals.

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Affirmative- They could hold a fundraiser or let more people in if they are vaccinated nor wearing a mask, or they could sell some of the animals to other zoos who can afford it. So that the animals can get fed and treated better.

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Denver Zoo invites you to join us for Flock Party: a fun-filled evening dedicated to providing our 3,000 amazing animals with world-class care. This colorful, casual, socially distanced and ALL-INCLUSIVE benefit features festive food + drink, live entertainment, exclusive animal experiences and so much more-with proceeds benefiting our beautiful American and Chilean flamingos and ALL the wonderful members of our animal family.

With 80+ acres to explore and something fascinating around every bend, Flock Party is a brilliant movable feast providing you with plenty of room to safely spread your wings throughout the event. Join us for the soiree of the year-and get ready to shake a tailfeather for a good cause!

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Denver Zoo invites you to join us for Flock Party: a fun-filled evening dedicated to providing our 3,000 amazing animals with world-class care. This colorful, casual, socially distanced and ALL-INCLUSIVE benefit features festive food + drink, live entertainment, exclusive animal experiences and so much more-with proceeds benefiting our beautiful American and Chilean flamingos and ALL the wonderful members of our animal family.

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Health and Human Services jobs changing due to shifts in technology

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Health and Human Services jobs changing due to shifts in technology

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Affirmative: Allows for more efficient and precise work to be done without the stress on workers.

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( Originally published April 9, 2020. Updated with new personas, HHS customer of the future, Child support supervisor of the future and Child support caseworker of the future.)

Health and human services (HHS) agencies often struggle to serve some of society's most needy populations. At many HHS agencies today, tight budgets limit the size of the workforce, even as the volume of caseloads continues to grow. That imbalance makes it hard to provide efficient and effective solutions to address the critical needs of individuals and families, and can leave employees feeling stressed and overworked. Those same employees may also see few opportunities for career development or advancement. High rates of turnover can put a steady stream of inexperienced staff into critical jobs with little training to prepare them.

To compound those challenges, most HHS agencies are still using workforce approaches that were designed in the distant past to meet the needs of that era, not of today.

HHS agencies may strain to cope with some of the disruptions on the horizon. How, for example, can they reorganize to serve a growing aged population, while also meeting the needs of younger constituents who adapt easily to new technology and prefer to communicate via digital means? How can agencies offer workers the job flexibility they demand, replace older workers as they retire, and attract younger generations into the workplace? How can they manage and analyze vast pools of data, so they can gain new insights to guide their policies, track performance and outcomes, and drive efficiencies?

At the same time, these disruptors-if leveraged correctly-may also help HHS agencies address the challenges that make their work so difficult today. New partnerships with businesses and nonprofit organizations, for instance, can create community networks that fill a broader array of critical needs than an agency could on its own. Mobile technologies can give employees the job flexibility they crave, allowing them to work anywhere, at any time. Advances in artificial intelligence and virtual reality can change the nature of work at HHS agencies while also enhancing training capabilities.

If HHS leaders can learn to view these disruptors as potential accelerators, rather than obstacles, they can use them to reform outdated bureaucracies and introduce new practices to meet the needs of the workforce and the public.

As part of that reform, HHS agencies will likely see major changes in the jobs their employees perform. For one thing, technology will handle many of the repetitive tasks that now take up a large portion of the typical agency worker's day. Freed from much of their data entry, report writing, and other routine functions, caseworkers will be able to spend more time working directly with individuals and families on strategies to meet their specific needs. Managers can focus on coaching and supervising the people who report to them and on overseeing relationships with community partners. All employees will have tools to help them work more efficiently and effectively and gain better insights to inform their decisions.

Some jobs that are currently fixtures in an HHS agency will likely disappear as new ones emerge. Other roles may retain familiar titles but will undergo a profound shift in emphasis.

Understanding how the HHS workforce will evolve can help agency leaders get ready for this profound transformation.

To help HHS leaders and employees visualize the possibilities, we've developed a series of personas that describe what a range of different jobs could look like in 2025. We have chosen to describe these 2025 jobs from the vantage point of the workers themselves, exploring how their work has changed, what kinds of skills and career pathways they have, the types of digital tools that assist them in their work, and what a typical day on the job may look like.

Bringing these future jobs to life can help stimulate conversations around what needs to change in order to address the workforce challenges HHS agencies contend with today.

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The future of work in health and human services

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( Originally published April 9, 2020. Updated with new personas, HHS customer of the future, Child support supervisor of the future and Child support caseworker of the future .) Health and human services (HHS) agencies often struggle to serve some of society's most needy populations.

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Underground Coal Fire Investigated as Marsall fire ignition 

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Underground Coal Fire Investigated as Marsall fire ignition 

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Affirmative: The state should do more research before investigating  something over 4 years old. However to solve this Colorado should keep the ground moist so its not dry.

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The same mine sparked a wildfire in December 2005 and has been the site of multiple efforts to prevent another one.

BOULDER, Colo. - While speculation about the cause of Colorado's most destructive wildfire has focused on a religious group's property, investigators are also looking at other possible ignition points - including the possibility the blaze erupted from a dormant coal mine, 9Wants to Know has confirmed.

An estimated 38 abandoned coal mine fires are burning underground in Colorado, according to a 2018 state report - including one in the area where the Dec. 30 Marshall Fire is thought to have originated. Fed by ferocious winds, the fire raced across more than 6,000 acres, leveled nearly 1,000 homes, and is believed to have taken at least two lives.

Some of those underground fires have burned for decades.

"There's not much you can do from the outside to stop these fires because often the coal produces enough oxygen, in the coal bed itself, to keep those fires going," said Jurgen Brune, a professor in mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. "Those are slow burning fires, almost like glowing embers in a fireplace."

There has been intense scrutiny of land owned by a religious group known as Twelve Tribes, which includes several pieces of property near the intersection of Marshall Road and Colorado Highway 93, about a mile south of Boulder. Cellphone video shot by a neighbor during the fire's early stages showed a shed on fire on the Twelve Tribes property.

But while investigators later got a warrant to search the property, they've made no arrests and haven't pinpointed exactly what started the fire - or whether there could have been more than one ignition point.

If investigators ultimately determine a person started the fire, criminal charges could be filed.

But 9Wants to Know has learned that one of the things that has the attention of investigators is a smoldering underground fire in a long-abandoned mine just across the road from the Twelve Tribes property. Known as Marshall No. 1 and 2, the mine is home to a fire that has been burning for years and is rated No. 19 on the list of 38 underground mine fires known to be burning around the state, according to a 2018 report by the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety.

The mine, which was active from 1863 to 1939, is located just south of the Marshall Mesa Trailhead just off Highway 93 and Marshall Road. That trailhead remains closed, guarded by a police officer.

Cellphone video shot by a neighbor in the early moments of the fire, which was obtained by 9NEWS, shows a plume of smoke rising from the area of the mine and flowing east with the hurricane-force winds experienced that day.

And while fire activity in Marshall No. 1 and 2 was rated as "very low" in that 2018 report, it was the scene of a 2005 brush fire that was sparked by a "hot vent" from the mine. That blaze led the state to take steps in 2006 to lessen the danger. Workers brought in 275 tons of gravel to fill in low areas above the smoldering fire. They returned in 2016, excavating, compacting and backfilling areas "where surface expression of the mine fire had been observed," according to the report.

In addition to that remediation work, additional data were collected in the area of the Marshall Mine in 2013 and 2018, including taking ground temperatures and mapping fissures, snowmelt and surface features.

It's against that background that the investigation, now being led by the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, includes work aimed at determining whether that long-smoldering underground fire breached the surface on Dec. 30.

While many underground fires burn for decades without flaring into the open, there is a predicable sequence of events when it happens.

"The ground that is above the coal will collapse and cause sinkholes or cracks in the road and things like that," Brune told 9Wants to Know. "So that's how we typically find out about these instances."

Exactly that has happened before in Colorado with disastrous results.

On June 8, 2002, a fire smoldering for more than 90 years in an underground coal seam broke the surface on the western edge of Glenwood Springs and erupted into a blaze that covered 12,000 acres and burned down 29 homes on the west side of town.
Contact 9Wants to Know investigator Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.

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Underground coal fire being investigated as potential Marshall Fire ignition source

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The same mine sparked a wildfire in December 2005 and has been the site of multiple efforts to prevent another one. BOULDER, Colo. - While speculation about the cause of Colorado's most destructive wildfire has focused on a religious group's property, investigators are also looking at other possible ignition points - including the possibility the blaze erupted from a dormant coal mine, 9Wants to Know has confirmed.

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Children are forced to do work for their parents or beg because covid has lowered their income. and so to solve this you can get back on your feet by refinancing so your monthly payments are cheaper, staying calm, and paying off your credit cards so your child docent have to beg or make money for you.

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Homeless Sweeps: Large Police Crackdown on Individuals Along Platte River

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Homeless Sweeps: Large Police Crackdown on Individuals Along Platte River

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Affirmative:provide housing for the homeless so they don't have to sleep off the  platte river
Solution:provide tiny low cost homes for the homeless

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Most of us see tiny houses on the pages of travel and architectural magazines, perched in the middle of a remote but achingly beautiful spot. Or, tiny houses are often built in a prime location only accessible to the super-rich. They are often associated with those who want to 'get away from it all', downsizing and living the quiet life in the heart of nature.

Tiny houses are so small that some can be latched onto the back of a vehicle. So, they also appeal to remote workers and those living a semi-nomadic lifestyle.

However, in recent years, tiny homes have been touted as a solution to homelessness in the United States. Yet there is controversy on whether tiny houses are suitable for homeless people in America.

Depending on who you ask, helping homeless people into tiny homes either saves them from the city streets or paves the way for shantytowns. Let's dive deeper into the debate.

Are Tiny Houses Really Suitable for Homeless People?

Nickelsville Othello Village in Seattle is one example of a tiny home community for homeless people. The village sits on a plot of land behind a gas station. It consists of 28 wooden homes and 12 tents.

The residents share a kitchen, shower, and toilet. Food is stored in plastic boxes to prevent rats from breaking in. In the beginning, the huts lacked heating and electricity.

The children living in Othello Village first had to use flashlights to read their books. The settlement previously had issues with funding, and an exit date was set for last December. However, a last-minute save from a local church gave the community more time to remain.

While tiny homes provide homeless people with some shelter, many activists argue that living in such conditions isn't suitable for any human being. Seattle is one of the world's wealthiest cities. So why can't it provide safe and sanitary housing for its residents?

The city of Seattle isn't alone. As tiny houses are seen as a quick and affordable solution to homelessness, they are being built in many cities across the country.

The shed-like "homes" have cropped up in plenty of vacant lots and scrublands across at least 10 states including Florida, New York, and Utah. However, most tiny homes are built in northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

Interestingly, many of these cities have changed their views from banning and even clearing unauthorized and unsafe homeless communities featuring tents to funding plots and camps that skirt building regulations due to loopholes.

Some argue the boom of tiny homes creates ghettoes or shantytowns. Homeless people are kept out of sight and treated as second-class citizens who aren't integrated with mainstream society.

While tiny homes may be appropriate to house people independently, communities of tiny homes separated from the rest of society could be detrimental. Being separated could prevent homeless people from finding jobs, building outside relationships, and integrating with the rest of society.

'Tiny Homes Are Empowering'

On the other hand, many people living in tiny homes feel empowered and content with their private spaces. This is the view of the residents of Othello village, which opened in 2016. Residents are grateful for the lockable doors on their huts. This alone offers significantly more privacy than the city shelters many have experienced living in.

Likewise, shelters are often hugely busy and reach full capacity. They also exclude many individuals such as couples or those living with pets. In tiny house and tent communities, the rules are more flexible and adaptable for homeless people.

Othello is self-managed. Members take turns completing chores like operating the security gate. This type of self-organization is empowering for residents. It also offers a warm community feeling that cannot be replicated in city shelters.

One man who is an advocate for tiny homes is 3D printer Frank Ossm. Having been homeless himself, Frank realizes the value of tiny houses in improving the lives of homeless people. His company 3D Print Housing Corporation aims to make affordable housing a reality in Canada using 3D printing.

While tiny homes may be just that - tiny, the support and assistance they provide for homeless people can be invaluable. Many people living on the streets alone, with all their belongings, do not want to move into a shelter with limited space. Guests don't want to sleep next to a stranger or worry about others stealing their belongings or assaulting them.

A tiny home offers homeless people their own private and safe space. They can move in and lock the door when they need privacy. They can feel safe after feeling vulnerable on the city streets or in a shelter.

There's Room for Progression

If we are to accept tiny homes for homeless people as permanent features of US cities, they must meet higher standards. This is beneficial not only to the residents of tiny homes but to the city, too.

However, tiny homes are a temporary solution. The long-term plan should be to move homeless people into mainstream accommodation.

Andrew Heben, an urban planner of tiny homes, argues for an added urgency for more tiny houses. This is because tiny homes' requirement is likely to increase if Trump is successful in the next election. The Republican president has proposed cutting billions from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which covers affordable housing. This move could see many more fall into homelessness in America.

Heben has experience opening tiny village communities for homeless people. His first community, Opportunity Village, opened in 2013 in Eugene, Oregon. It provided tiny homes to 100 otherwise homeless people. His second village will be a permanent community, and it will have some differences from his first project.

The tiny homes will be 250-square feet structures featuring en-suite bathrooms and kitchenettes. They will cost $60,000 each rather than $3,300, which was the price of each unit from Opportunity Village. Despite the price difference, the tiny houses will still only cost a third of the price of conventional "affordable" housing in the area.

Perhaps higher quality tiny homes, with more resources and appropriate cover and safety, are the solution to the debate. Because for the people moving from the stark city streets or the crowded communal shelters, moving into a safe, comfortable, and private tiny home can be life-changing.

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Are Tiny Homes a Solution for Homeless People?

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Most of us see tiny houses on the pages of travel and architectural magazines, perched in the middle of a remote but achingly beautiful spot. Or, tiny houses are often built in a prime location only accessible to the super-rich.

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US readies 8,500 troops for deployment to Ukraine.

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US readies 8,500 troops for deployment to Ukraine.

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Affirmative: The US should send the troops if they believe that an invasion is imminent as it could help an ally of the country.

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CNN 28 mins ago By Barbara Starr and Jeremy Herb, CNN

As many as 8,500 US troops have been put on heightened alert for a possible deployment to Eastern Europe as Russian troops mass on Ukraine's border, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued the prepare to deploy orders at the direction of President Joe Biden, the latest step the US has taken to prepare for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine that officials have warned could be imminent.

Kirby said that the "bulk of" US troops placed on heightened alert were intended to bolster NATO's quick response force, but said Austin also wanted to be "postured to be ready for any other contingencies as well."

As of Monday afternoon, no final decision to deploy the troops had been made, Kirby emphasized.

"The United States has taken steps to heighten the readiness of its forces at home and abroad, so they are prepared to respond to a range of contingencies, including support to the NATO response force if it is activated," Kirby said. He noted the NATO Response Force "comprises around 40,000 multinational troops."

Earlier on Monday CNN reported the Biden administration was in in the final stages of identifying specific military units it wants to send to Eastern Europe, according to multiple US and defense officials.

"In the event of NATO's activation of the NRF or a deteriorating security environment, the United States would be in a position to rapidly deploy additional brigade combat teams, logistics, medical, aviation, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, transportation and additional capabilities into Europe," Kirby said.

Biden discussed options for bolstering US troop levels in the Baltics and Eastern Europe with his top military officials during a briefing at Camp David on Saturday, according to a senior official.

Kirby would not say where the US troops might deploy, but said the US has "made it clear to the Eastern flank allies that we're prepared to bolster their capabilities if they need it."

The news come amid US warnings that a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent. The State Department on Sunday reduced staffing at the US embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, with the departure of nonessential staff and family members out of "an abundance of caution."
Video: Former Ambassador warns Russia is overreaching in Ukraine (CNN)
Biden will hold a secure video call with European leaders on Monday afternoon, which the White House said was part of the administration's consultation and coordination with European allies in response to Russia's military buildup.

The goal of sending military reinforcements to Eastern Europe would be to provide deterrence and to reassure allies, and there's been no suggestion US combat troops would deploy to Ukraine or take part in any combat roles. Kirby noted the US does have military advisers in Ukraine.

The US sent two weapons shipments to Ukraine over the past week as part of recently directed security assistance to help bolster Ukraine's military.

NATO countries are also sending additional ships and fighter jets to Eastern Europe and putting forces on standby, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement Monday.

"NATO will continue to take all necessary measures to protect and defend all Allies, including by reinforcing the eastern part of the Alliance," Stoltenberg said.

US, UK reduce embassy staffing in Kyiv

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's latest intelligence assessment found that Russia has now deployed more than 127,000 troops in the region, while US officials have said Russia is in a position to launch an invasion at any time.

US officials still don't know what Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to do, or if he has decided to invade Ukraine. But some officials who have seen the intelligence say there is evidence Russia is planning to try to take Kyiv and overthrow the government, as CNN has previously reported.

The UK foreign office said in a statement on Saturday that it has information the Russian government is planning to "install a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv as it considers whether to invade and occupy Ukraine."

Moscow denies it is planning to invade, accusing the US and NATO of escalating tensions over their support for Ukraine. The Kremlin on Monday dismissed the reports about plans to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine as "hysteria.

"Tensions are escalating due to concrete actions taken by the US and NATO," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "I mean, the informational hysteria that we are witnessing. It is generously framed by a huge amount of false information, just lies and fakes."

State Department officials told reporters Sunday that the decision to reduce staffing at the embassy was not due to any change in threat levels to US personnel in the country. The officials said the move to reduce embassy personnel and urge Americans in the country to leave was in part because State Department assistance would be "severely impacted" if there is Russian military action in Ukraine.

In addition to the US reducing staffing at its embassy in Kyiv, the UK Foreign Office also announced Monday that some British Embassy staff and dependents were being withdrawn in response to growing threats from Russia.

The US is continuing to engage diplomatically with Russia, but recent talks have failed to bring about any breakthroughs. Russia has said that the US and NATO must commit to never admitting Ukraine into NATO and pull back military deployments from Eastern European counties, including Romania and Bulgaria. The US has said repeatedly these demands are a non-starter, though Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week the US would respond in writing to Moscow's demands following his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

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US places up to 8,500 troops on alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe amid Russia tensions

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CNN 28 mins ago By Barbara Starr and Jeremy Herb, CNN As many as 8,500 US troops have been put on heightened alert for a possible deployment to Eastern Europe as Russian troops mass on Ukraine's border, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

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using psychedelics to cope with trauma should be more available and used.

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Psychedelic therapy (sometimes referred to as psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, or PAP) is a type of psychiatric practice that involves ingesting a psychedelic substance as part of a psychotherapeutic process.

In psychedelic therapy, the use of psychedelics is typically combined with talk therapy.

A range of consciousness-altering psychedelic drugs are currently being used or researched for therapeutic purposes in both clinical and nonclinical settings.

Some are derived from plants, like psilocybin (magic mushrooms), DMT, peyote, ayahuasca, and ibogaine. Others - including ketamine, MDMA, and LSD - are chemical compounds.

While Indigenous communities have used psychedelics in therapeutic and religious settings for centuries, psychedelic therapy is relatively new in Western clinical settings.

It's becoming more popular with increased legalization of certain psychedelic substances, a rise in mental health conditions, and a lull in psychopharmacological research.

Between the 1950s and 1970s - before former President Richard Nixon outlawed them with the Controlled Substances Act - scientists produced a breadth of evidence both verifying and pointing toward the therapeutic potential of psychedelic therapy to treat:

In recent years, renewed interest and investment have fueled additional research, much of which is ongoing.

Here's a look at the potential uses of various psychedelics.

Ketamine

Ketamine is the most-studied psychedelic drug for mental health therapy.

In low doses, it has shown to be beneficial in numerous trials exploring its potential to treat depression, but its effects are short-lived.

For people with severe depression, for example, shows significant improvement after treatment, and results last about 6 to 8 weeks, on average.

These findings have led to the development of a drug called Spravato. It's a nasal spray that delivers the active ketamine ingredient. However, intravenous ketamine administration is considered to be more effective and less expensive.

MDMA

Multiple phase 2 clinical trials - which are done to discern whether a treatment works - suggest that MDMA can treat PTSD symptoms for up to 4 years.

Researchers have also completed a phase 3 trial, which determines whether a treatment works better than what's currently available, involving MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. This was the first phase 3 trial of any psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Among 90 participants with severe PTSD, 67 percent no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis after three treatments, and 88 percent had reduced symptoms of PTSD.

The trial sponsor, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, says the results could make way for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval by 2023.

Psilocybin

Psilocybin, the main compound in magic mushrooms, has shown positive results in treating depression and anxiety in people living with terminal illnesses.

Experts believe it could also help with obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction, and treatment-resistant depression, but more research is needed.

LSD

LSD, a long lasting, potent psychedelic that's considered to be the prototype for therapeutic psychedelics, has been shown to help with both alcohol use disorder and in people living with terminal illnesses.

At this stage, clinicians are still evaluating the effectiveness of their treatments, so exact dosing, number of treatments needed, and the approach to psychedelic therapy will vary depending on who is guiding you.

That said, most psychedelic therapy in clinical settings is conducted via three stages:

Consultation

The first step is usually a preparatory consultation to ensure that you don't have any contraindications to the treatment. This is also a good opportunity to discuss your personal background and any goals or concerns you have around psychedelic therapy.

Ingestion

The second phase involves ingesting, either orally or via injection, the psychedelic substance under the supervision of a trained therapist.

There are usually multiple sessions, depending on the type of psychedelic and the treatment plan. For example:

MDMA-assisted therapy usually involves at least three sessions.

Ketamine-assisted therapy involves between one and 12 sessions.

Psilocybin- and LSD-assisted therapy typically involve at least two sessions.

Integration

The final phase is the integration process, when the therapist and client work together to integrate meaning from the psychedelic experiences.

Some experts have expressed concerns at the rise of self-medicating, particularly after the 2020 Global Drug Survey showed an increase in the number of people who say they are self-treating various mental health concerns with psychedelics.

Many of these concerns stem from the potential contamination of substances that don't come for a lab-tested source, along with the lack of medical supervision.

Otherwise, psychedelic substances are generally considered low risk, especially when used in a clinical setting.

MDMA can sometimes cause short-term high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and elevated body temperature, but these effects typically go away after use.

Psilocybin may similarly elevate blood pressure temporarily or cause light headaches.

That said, psychedelics have been to an increased risk of psychosis in people with psychotic disorders or a predisposition to them.

There's also the risk, particularly with LSD use, of hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD). This is a rare condition involving intense flashbacks and hallucinations. However, experts note that this appears to be more common when using substances without medical supervision.

There are a few concerns about ibogaine, including a possible link to potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmias. As a result, it's been limited to observational trials so far with a focus on treating opioid addiction.

There's a lot of excitement around the potential of psychedelic therapies. As a result, a lot of new therapists, gurus, international retreats, and clinics are opening up.

If you're interested in participating in a psychedelic-assisted treatment in a clinical setting supported by an expert, a good place to start is the database of accredited therapists maintained by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

The association also welcomes questions or concerns about psychedelic-assisted therapy, and can make recommendations to help guide you.

Whether it's a clinical setting or a retreat, it's important to understand that ingesting psychedelic substances alters consciousness and can make you vulnerable to suggestion.

As a result, some participants in studies or treatments have alleged unethical and sometimes even criminal behavior. Read reviews, evaluate accreditation, and consider how you might ensure accountability should anything go awry during or after treatment.

There's still a lot to learn about the potential of psychedelic therapy, but the existing research is promising, particularly for those with severe PTSD.

Because of this, advocates and lobbyists are working to decriminalize some psychedelic substances to improve access and research opportunities. Stay tuned, because these treatment options are evolving each week.
Kate Robertson is a Toronto-based editor and writer who has focused on drugs, primarily cannabis, since 2017. She has been published in The Guardian, Maclean's magazine, the Globe and Mail, Leafly, and more. Find her at @katierowboat.

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Psychedelic Therapy: Uses, How It's Done, Risks, and More

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Psychedelic therapy (sometimes referred to as psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, or PAP) is a type of psychiatric practice that involves ingesting a psychedelic substance as part of a psychotherapeutic process. In psychedelic therapy, the use of psychedelics is typically combined with talk therapy.

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Affirmative: People need to start taking climate change seriously and find a way to keep are water sources from evaporating a solutions is underground water storage and floating covers.

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Despite having a higher capital cost than wind breakers or partial dyke covers, complete reservoir covers offer the best cost /efficiency ratio out of all the existing methods to effectively reduce evaporation. While quite as not effective as enclosed underground storage (99+% reduction in evaporation losses), some modular floating covers are getting very close (98%) while being substantially more affordable to install and maintain. The most effective modular cover currently on the market, suitable to most reservoir and water containment structure in windy areas with fluctuating water levels, is the proprietary Rhombo cover from Advanced Water Treatment Technologies.

Compared to other modular floating covers, it is ideally suited for larger reservoirs because it will resist high winds and does not stack even with strong water currents. This cutting edge cover is similar in simplicity as other sphere covers except that it does not have the gap in between the sphere.

The Rhombo cover ofers the following properties:

Up to 99,9% coverage of the surface

Up to 98% reduction of evaporation from water surface

Up to 96% emission reduction

Up to 90% odor reduction

Over 75% reduction in heat loss

Over 90% reduction in algae growth

Annually, an estimated 495,000 cubic kilometer of water evaporates into the atmosphere. Approximately 990 cubic kilometer or 261,530 billion gallons are lost through evaporation of fresh water reservoir. Even preventing a fraction of this evaporative loss would permit to replenish aquifers, lakes and rivers. Covering reservoir in drought prone areas and large water bodies in arid and semi arid climate is essential to preserve water supplies in those areas. With technologically advanced modular covers able to prevent up to 98% of evaporation losses, there are cost efficient tools to help us maintain our fresh water suppliers.

Learn more about floating covers.

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Evaporation Prevention: How to stop evaporation on ponds and lakes

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Evaporation prevention and stopping evaporation is important for water conservation. There are methods to limit evaporation in open ponds, lakes & tanks.

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16th street mall homelessness , drugs, crimes on mall costing denver 

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16th street mall homelessness , drugs, crimes on mall costing denver 

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Affirmative: double the police patrolling around the mall to bring the crime rate down
Solution : the City began a effort to recruit and engage those experiencing homelessness and connect them with employment

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Pro trump supporter gets 3 years of probation for rioting the capital

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Pro trump supporter gets 3 years of probation for rioting the capital

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Affirmative: The people actually involved in this riot should have actual jailtime.

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brandon straka: pro-trump influencer sentenced to three years of probation  - cnnpolitics

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Pro-Trump influencer sentenced to three years of probation for his participation in the Capitol riot

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A pro-Trump organizer and social media influencer who spoke at a Washington, DC, rally the day before the US Capitol attack was sentenced to three years of probation on Monday.

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stores should not be able to use plastic bags and we should switch to something more biodegradable

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pollute our land and water. Because they are so lightweight, plastic bags can travel long distances by wind and water. They litter our landscapes, get caught in fences and trees, float around in waterways, and can eventually make their way into the world's oceans.

are made from non-renewable resources. The extraction and production of petroleum and natural gas creates greenhouse gases, which contribute to global climate change. This is short-sighted as the typical useful life of each plastic bag is about 12 minutes https://greentumble.com/how-are-plastic-bags-made/

never break down. the plastic breaks up into tiny little pieces that end up in the ocean to be consumed by wildlife. Today, there are an estimated 46,000-1,000,000 plastic fragments floating within every square mile of our world's oceans. https://greentumble.com/plastic-bag-degradation-what-you-should-know/

are harmful to wildlife and marine life. Plastic bags and their associated plastic pieces are often mistaken for food by animals, birds, and marine life like fish and sea turtles. Animals can also easily become entangled in this plastic.

are harmful to human health. Plastic fragments in the ocean such as those from plastic bags can absorb pollutants which are known to be hormone-disrupting chemicals. When marine organisms consume plastics in our oceans, these chemicals can make their way through the ocean's food web and then into humans who eat fish and other marine organisms https://greentumble.com/serious-effects-of-plastic-pollution-on-human-health/.

are costly to pay for and to clean up after. Plastic bags cost about 3-5 cents each, and that cost is then incorporated into prices of the items sold at stores. The cost of plastic bag cleanup is about 17 cents per bag, and on average, taxpayers end up paying about $88 per year just on plastic bag waste. So that "free" plastic bag isn't so free after all.

are not easy to recycle. As plastic bags tend to get caught in recycling machinery, most recycling facilities do not have the capacity to recycle plastic bags and therefore do not accept them. As a result, the actual recycling rate for plastic bags is about 5%. https://greentumble.com/can-plastic-bags-be-recycled/.

There are better alternatives available, and jobs to go with them! Reusable shopping bags are very durable and can be reused many times over the course of their useful life.

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pollute our land and water. Because they are so lightweight, plastic bags can travel long distances by wind and water. They litter our landscapes, get caught in fences and trees, float around in waterways, and can eventually make their way into the world's oceans. are made from non-renewable resources.

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Affirmative: places that are more fortunate than most  could be sending fresh water to the places less fortunate
Solution : recycle waistwater

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Experts Name the Top 19 Solutions to the Global Freshwater Crisis

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"...Decisions executives make to respond to freshwater scarcity will penetrate almost every aspect of their business operations."

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Bigger Countries Should Help Developing Economies Switch To Switch To Renewable Energy.

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Bigger Countries Should Help Developing Economies Switch To Switch To Renewable Energy.

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Affirmative: All places should be using clean energy to help protect the Earth and to have a more sustainable energy source.

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HUAI'AN, CHINA - JANUARY 3, 2021 - A coal fleet is carried along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in ... [+]
Barcroft Media via Getty Images

It's hard enough for rich industrialized countries to tackle carbon reduction goals. For emerging economies to do the same can be downright daunting. But rich or poor, it must be done. That's the sentiment from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which is helping countries move from dirty energy forms to cleaner and lower-carbon ones.

But developing countries must have energy-access: India, for example, says that while it is shedding coal-fired power plants, the fuel will still make up 30% of its electricity portfolio in 2040. And emerging countries lack access to finance and technologies - noteworthy, given the $131 trillion that IRENA says is needed to get to carbon neutrality in 2050.

"We need to be clear, we cannot envisage a different path between the developing and the developed world," Francesco La Camera, director-general for IRENA during a Zoom conference on Monday. "Oil, coal, and natural gas can play a role said. But it is the worst option. The developing countries can leapfrog (over them). This has to be a common effort ... New energy systems will be decentralized."

What then is the path to keeping temperature rises to no more than 1.5% by 2050 and thereby mitigating the worst effects of climate change? IRENA, which released its World Energy Transitions Outlook yesterday, says that renewables and green hydrogen are central to the cause. Renewables, it adds, should supply 90% of all energy needs. If that happens, fossil fuel usage would fall by 75%.

Already, about 170 countries have clean energy targets - made possible by an abundance of sustainable resources that are cost-effective and that can be scaled up. And decarbonization is directly tied to electrification. In 2050, electricity will make up greater than 50% of final energy use compared to 21% today.

The good news is that the world's major economies are committing to net-zero targets by 2050 while the financial markets are rewarding sustainable technologies: IRENA says that in 2020, the S&P Clean Energy Index of clean energy stocks was up by 138% compared to the fossil fuel-heavy S&P Energy Index that was down by 37%. Moreover, investing in clean tech creates three times more jobs than do fossil fuels for every million dollars of spending.
Technical and Financial Support Wanted

An engineer stands beside a fence protecting a solar panel installed in the Takpapieni village in ... [+]
AFP via Getty Images

"We are making this report very clear that our numbers are not wishful," says La Camera. "These are numbers we can achieve. But we have to speed up our initiatives. What is encouraging is that the new U.S. president is bringing a clear message to the market - that we have abandoned the old system. This year, we will get the political momentum."

What's more, key companies are leading the charge, including Barclays, Morgan Stanley, and TD Bank Group, Amazon, Microsoft Corp., and Apple.

To be sure, a lot is standing in the way of IRENA's ambitions. In 2018, non-renewables comprised 86% of the global electricity mix while sustainable energies made up 14% - and other studies don't see that flipping because natural gas is replacing coal. Moreover, it will also take $131 trillion to 2050 to get to carbon neutrality. Can emerging countries make this energy transition? Consider also that the International Energy Agency says that energy demand will rise by 30% to 2040 and that the Asia-Pacific region will make up two-thirds of that demand.

To boot, an earlier analysis by Universal Ecological Fund, says that roughly three-fourths of the climate pledges to date are insufficient to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement. That is, they are unlikely to achieve emissions reductions of 50% by 2030. Of the 184 climate pledges, about a quarter of them were sufficient or partially sufficient. And if the world fails to meet those objectives, the cost will be high: $2 billion a day in economic losses as a result of extreme weather events. It says that international technical support and financial assistance are a must.

The European Union and Canada were the first advanced economies to embrace the Paris climate agreement: Europe committed to reducing its greenhouse gases by 40% by 2030 from a 1990 baseline. And Canada agreed to cut its greenhouse gases by 30% from a 2005 baseline. The United States, meanwhile, is now back to the table: under President Biden, the country is committing to being carbon neutral in 20 50 and to run fully on renewable energy by 2035.

Even India, which had settled on coal a decade ago as the fuel that would help it industrialize, is now saying that solar energy is critical to such aims: it plans to meet 40% of its electricity from sustainable fuels by 2030. That's because it is cheaper and cleaner than coal, while its air and water quality have become almost unbearable. As a result, it has declined to construct several hundred coal plants and it has chosen instead to build 100,000 megawatts of solar, which will be difficult given its current infrastructure.
The Cost of Inaction

PAVAGADA, KARNATAKA, INDIA - 2020/01/25: A worker is cleaning solar panels at the Fortum solar park ... [+]
LightRocket via Getty Images

Meantime, China's President Xi told the UN General Assembly that his country would hit peak CO2 releases by 2030 and that it would be carbon neutral by 2060. Key to the effort is China's commitment to reduce its reliance on coal - now at 66% of its electric generation portfolio. Its immediate aim, however, is to reduce that percentage to 59% and to increase the use of natural gas to 7.5%. And it wants sustainable energy to jump from 15% today to 30% in 2050.

At the same time, the continent of Africa is looking to leapfrog into the renewable energy age - just as it did with cellular phones. To that end, the European Commission has mobilized roughly $50 billion in sustainable investment for Africa. And companies like General Electric, ABB, Alstom, Siemens, and Schneider Electric are working to electrify the continent.

However, the International Panel on Climate Change as well as the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa says that temperatures in southern Africa could hit 5-6 degrees Celsius by century's end based on global emissions.

Globally, the number of climate-related disasters, including extreme heat, droughts, floods, and storms, has doubled since the early 1990s, says the UN, with an average of 213 of these events occurring every year from 1990 to 2016. Over the last ten years, in fact, climate-related disasters affected on average 16 million people and have caused billions of dollars in eco-damages.

"The transformational challenge can still be achieved," says IRENA's Francesco La Camera. "The energy transition is already happening. Renewables are the cheapest form of energy and makeup one-third of global capacity... But the more we delay the actions, the less effective they will be. We are trying to stress that the path to 1.5 degrees Celsius is very narrow. If we do not start now, we will never succeed."

The technologies now exist to achieve sizable CO2 reductions over the next 15 years. But the "last leg" to carbon neutrality, or the remaining 20%, is tough. It will take money and research to commercialize those future technologies - resources and expertise that emerging countries do not have. But those same nations realize that inaction also has consequences. And if they can leapfrog over centralized fossil-fueled generation and instead go straight to onsite generation using renewables, they will have a chance to construct modern economies.

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How Rich Countries Must Help Developing Economies Afford The Clean Energy Transition

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It's hard enough for rich industrialized countries to tackle carbon reduction goals. For emerging economies to do the same can be downright daunting. But rich or poor, it must be done. That's the sentiment from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which is helping countries move from dirty energy forms to cleaner and lower-carbon ones.

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affirmative: to solve this issue of street racing throughout the denver metro area the denver police have started a task force directed strictly toward the street racing issue and they have opened a website you can go to report street racing and they suggest you call 9/11 non emergency line

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Denver police crack down on illegal street racing

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The Denver Police Department wants the public to know illegal street racing will not be tolerated here and is collaborating with other metro police to stop the acts.

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Colorado Makes Additional Funding Available For Child Care Facilities Across The State

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Colorado Makes Additional Funding Available For Child Care Facilities Across The State

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Affirmative: This allows parents to know that the places their kids are while they're at work are nice and well funded.

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Colorado Makes Additional Funding Available For Child Care Facilities Across The State

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Gov. Jared Polis in partnership with the Colorado Department of Human Services will use nearly $300 million in stimulus money to help stabilize the child care Industry.

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Affirmative: Water contamination is getting to be a big problem everywhere around the world, and to solve this issue, we need to recycle, and with bigger companies and just in general get all trash away, if you see any throw it away etc. As well as we should be able to design technology to purify water for us with the era we are in with technology.

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In the 21 century, the world has made great strides in reducing poverty, eliminating diseases and improving the quality of life for all. However, this progress rests on shaky foundations. Current global issues threaten to undermine humanity's attempts to better the world and damage all of society.

According to the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, global issues are those that potentially affect everyone on earth, not just large groups of people. Similarly, solutions to global issues require all people to cooperate in order to meaningfully change the status quo. Since they pose a fundamental risk to society as a whole, global issues require much attention.

Here are just five examples of current global issues. Many of them are interconnected, but any one of them could have serious consequences for everyone if left unchecked.

1. Terrorism

International terrorist organizations can cause conflict anywhere, thus terrorism is a global issue. The expansion of attacks by terrorists hurts many people in developing countries; according to the U.S. State Department, terrorist attacks killed over 11,000 and wounded 21,000 in 2012.

Terrorism also had wide-ranging economic impacts. Former U.S. Ambassador Francis Taylor found that global airline industries lost $15 billion and global insurance industries lost $50 billion in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. World governments will need to strengthen their relations and promote democratic principles to reduce terrorist threats.

2. Lack of International Labor Laws

Weak international labor laws are a global issue because they hurt workers in the developing world and the economies of developed nations. Laws must exist to protect workers' rights while allowing multinational firms to do business. The World Bank urges countries to cooperate and strengthen labor laws to prevent abuses and ensure fair wages; at the same time, the laws must facilitate wealth creation. Without optimal rules, the world economy weakens and workers face terrible conditions.

3. Climate Change

Climate change affects all of earth's environments and is thus a global issue. A report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that droughts and extreme weather would intensify globally, leading to poor crop yield, water shortages and even desertification. The worst-affected areas, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, will have trouble adapting because per capita GDP is low; millions will be unable to grow or afford food and will starve.

As entire regions face food crises, global economic production becomes much lower, and nations have to care for hungry refugees that flee inhospitable conditions. To prevent the situation from becoming worse, the world must adopt more sustainable energy policies and waste management practices.

4. Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is another global issue that threatens the health of millions and the progress of modern medicine. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the discovery of drug-resistant E. coli, staph and pneumonia-causing viruses all over the world; it also found that 20 percent of previously treated tuberculosis cases were drug-resistant.

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant disease is extremely dangerous. Antibiotics that people use to treat serious infections will stop working and disease fatalities will increase. The global community will need to implement stronger restrictions on antibiotic use to curb drug resistance in deadly diseases.

5. Poverty

While many of the above problems exacerbate poverty in many world regions, poverty itself is a global issue because it leads to social problems that affect even the richest people. According to the research site Poverties.org, poverty leads to higher crime rates, more instances of substance abuse and greater susceptibility to infectious disease. This hurts economic productivity and can lead to instability. Poverty also is linked to terrorism. Consequently, the world must fight poverty to address other global issues.

The world's current global issues are complex, interconnected problems that require concentrated action for systemic change. Any single global issue could become a crisis with huge economic and human costs. Only with strong international cooperation can the world solve global issues.
-Ted Rappleye

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In the 21 century, the world has made great strides in reducing poverty, eliminating diseases and improving the quality of life for all. However, this progress rests on shaky foundations. Current global issues threaten to undermine humanity's attempts to better the world and damage all of society.

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Affirmative: Way to change and stabilize climate change is for all countries to change to sustainable energy.

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In 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of "severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts" unless greenhouse gases are curtailed. More than 830 scientists, bringing the concerns of the 80-plus nations they call home, contributed to the report. Within their borders and on the world stage, nations wield influence that individuals, cities, and businesses cannot. Their policies can spur green innovation or stunt it, toughen pollution standards or weaken them. The fate of any accord on climate change lies in their hands.

Offshore Energy

Solar is the "biggest tool in the toolbox" for cutting carbon, says Greg Wilson of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The International Energy Agency says wind power will also play a big role and could increase up to tenfold by 2050. At their peak potential, solar and wind could help us avoid some 12 gigatons of yearly carbon emissions, almost a third of the world's current total. New wind and solar technologies abound. Places short on land are using local waters for wind turbines and solar panels (like these on a pond in Japan's Kato City).

Carbon Capture and Storage

1. Capture CO₂ from power plants or industrial processes.

2. Transport the captured and compressed CO₂, usually in pipelines.

3. Inject the CO₂ into deep underground rock formations for storage.

It's too late to keep some fossil fuels from being burned. According to one estimate, the world's existing power plants are on track to pour more than 300 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere before they eventually shut down. That's where carbon capture and storage comes in (above). Projects in the U.S., Canada, and China are attempting to let us have our coal and burn it too by seizing carbon before it escapes into the air and storing it, usually in the ground. Capturing carbon, though, makes burning coal much less of a bargain. The cost of one pilot project in Mississippi has ballooned to more than six billion dollars.

"The science is clear, and the threat is real. The facts on the ground are outstripping the worst-case scenarios. The costs of inaction-or inadequate actions-are unacceptable."

Reforestation

Maintaining the world's forests could do a great deal to stem the worst effects of climate change. Forests absorbed 11 percent of U.S. emissions in 2013. Even though an estimated third of the world's forests have been cut down, experts say we might be able to reclaim five billion acres. Countries such as Ethiopia and Uganda have pledged to restore 865 million acres of degraded lands, which could sequester billions of tons of carbon.

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intergovernmental panel on climate change

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In 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of "severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts" unless greenhouse gases are curtailed. More than 830 scientists, bringing the concerns of the 80-plus nations they call home, contributed to the report. Within their borders and on the world stage, nations wield influence that individuals, cities, and businesses cannot.

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Affirmative: Food needs to be distributed more efficiently and less food needs to be wasted.

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By Jaclyn Tan
(Based on an interview by Nicole Konen)

"One of the reasons we talk about food scarcity and world hunger is that we recognize there are countries of the world, even today- where people for whatever reasons, cannot provide for themselves," said Dennis Conley, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

A shortage of food may happen when not enough food is produced, such as when crops fail due to drought, pests, or too much moisture. But the problem can also result from the uneven distribution of natural resource endowment for a country, and by human institutions, such as government and public policy, he said.

Food- calories and distribution

Food scarcity may exist at an individual level, a city level, state level, nation level, continent level, or even a global level, Conley said.

The World Trade Organization estimates that if total calories from all the food produced were divided among all the people on earth, there would be 2,750 calories per person per day. Since the recommended daily minimum per person is 2,100 calories a day, there are enough calories to feed everyone in the world. But not everyone is getting the need calories and food because it's "not evenly distributed across the landscape of the world," Conley said.

Food scarcity on a global level: natural resource endowments and human institutions

From country to country, the production and distribution of food is influenced by two variables: natural resource endowments and human institutions, he said. The natural resource endowment of a country can include such things as forests, water, fertile land, ore deposits, and a diversity of wildlife. The amount of natural resources a country has determines how much a country can produce for its own people. Human institutions, such as government, public policy and aid organizations, not only set up systems to produce and distribute food, but also to import and export food if there are shortages or excesses.

Conley said some countries, such as Thailand, have both abundant natural resources and efficient human institutions to manage these resources. Thailand produces more than enough rice to feed its own population, so it exports the surplus. "Thailand is a developing country, but it has the natural resource endowments and the human institutions in place to take care of their population."

When the natural resource endowment of a country falls short, human institutions can step in to reduce a scarcity of food. For example, Conley said, Japan is an industrialized and developed economy. "But they do not have enough arable land to produce the food, primarily rice, to feed all of their people. And they know that." So the Japanese government- the human institution in this case, he said- provides substantial subsidies and incentives for farmers to grow rice. That way, the country doesn't have to be as dependent on other countries for rice, which is a staple food in Japan.

In the same way, Conley said, the government of Mexico imports corn because it knows the country's natural resources cannot produce enough corn for the population. India and China also import a lot of food to meet their food needs because they have such large populations relative to their natural resource endowment, he said.

Roadblocks in human institution intervention

Sometimes other factors make it hard for human institutions to take intervening action to lessen food scarcity. War is one example, as in the case of Somalia, Conley said. Food may not reach certain areas of the country due to fighting and armed conflict, so food scarcity is a problem there, he said.

Another issue with reducing food scarcity on a national level is each country's sovereignty. Even if there were food scarcity issues in a certain country, such as Somalia, "a country has sovereignty over their geographic region and their people," Conley said. So an outside agent like the World Trade Organization or other humanitarian organizations can't help unless the country grants them permission to do so.

Human institutions and food production

Although there may be enough food being produced in the world now, that may not be the case in the future as the world population increases to a projected nine billion by 2050. Conley said technology will be the key in increasing food production. "The amount of land available to do that is limited," he said. "It's got to be technology that does it."

But human institutions often are slow to respond to change, Conley said. For example, seed companies can use genetic modification technology to create higher yield seeds within three years, he said, but it takes up to an additional four to seven years to get U.S. and foreign government approval to market the seeds because they're genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. "My own personal opinion is, it takes too long," he said.

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Global Food Scarcity: Definition, Distribution, Roadblocks

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By Jaclyn Tan (Based on an interview by Nicole Konen) "One of the reasons we talk about food scarcity and world hunger is that we recognize there are countries of the world, even today- where people for whatever reasons, cannot provide for themselves," said Dennis Conley, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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Red Rocks Should be aloud to play as loud as they want

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Red Rocks Should be aloud to play as loud as they want

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Affirmative:The people that are getting mad about the music chose to live there so they should have to deal with it  instead of ruining other people experiences. a solution to this is for people to bring headphones to the concert and listen through an app.

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Before Norwegian DJ Kygo's June 24 concert, Red Rocks Amphitheatre posted to Twitter that people sitting above Row 40 should bring wired headphones and download the Mixhalo app, which lets people listen to a studio-quality mix of the show straight from the soundboard.

"No one wants this," tweeted one person. "We want louder music." Another posted: "I didn't pay all this money for a silent disco. Also only compatible with WIRED headphones? It's 2021 yo!" Not everybody was outraged. "Y'all realize this is optional right?" someone noted. "Like, you don't have to do it."

As word spread, music lover Jeff Jordan started a petition on Change.org dubbed "Repeal the Morrison/Red Rocks decibel limit," which has gotten more than 17,000 signatures so far, essentially asking the venue to raise the decibel level at concerts. He writes in the petition that for the past five years, music fans around the globe have left Red Rocks "wondering why the music is so quiet in a venue known for its acoustics. The reason is a noise/dB limit in the town of Morrison due to certain artists' use of bass along with certain residents' proximity to the venue.

"Recently, Red Rocks has suggested people bring headphones from home, to connect to their cell phones using an app that connects their phones to the music being played live. This is unacceptable. People pay great sums not only on concert tickets themselves, but on travel arrangements from the world round to attend these shows: Hundreds, if not thousands of dollars."

Brian Kitts, director of marketing and communications for Denver Arts & Venues, the city agency that oversees Red Rocks, responded to the petition by writing, "While we appreciate the passion for both EDM and our venue, it's inappropriate [to] make assumptions - which could easily have been checked with a quick phone call or email - and then turn them into a campaign of misinformation.

"Red Rocks continues to have the same acoustic quality that fans have experienced for more than eighty years. To be clear: No change has been made to sound limits at Red Rocks since 2016," he added. "At that time, and after months of study, decibel limits and curfews were revised (and, had nothing to do with sound ordinances). Hundreds of EDM and other artists have played the venue since then, and millions of fans have loved those shows - without the performers questioning or even coming close to the decibel limits. It's dishonest to suggest that this process happens on an evolving basis. It just doesn't."

Not long after Red Rocks changed its sound limit restrictions about six years ago, a different petition, which got more than 20,000 signatures, was started, stating that the new restrictions unfairly targeted EDM events, "as these events tend to have large amounts of low frequency bass sounds that travel further than higher frequency sounds, thus being more present in the homes near the venue."

In a 2015 Westword article, Kitts said, "There is a misconception that EDM is under attack, and the sound levels are going to be fifty percent of what they were last year, and that's just not the case. What you're doing is shaving off certain high points of the show, to the point that fans aren't going to notice."

In his recent petition, Jordan wrote, "Now that Red Rocks shows have resumed virtually every night since its COVID restrictions were lifted, there is no reason why a Tuesday night show should be significantly quieter than a weekend show. Repeal/raise the Morrison noise ordinance. It's now detrimental to the Red Rocks experience we all know and love."

Kitts writes that inviting fans to use headphones and the Mixhalo app above Row 40 didn't have to do with sound quality at the venue; instead, it was a way to welcome the app to Red Rocks.

"Those lucky enough to attend Kygo's show last week would've seen an invitation to test the Mixhalo app," Kitts writes. "In an attempt to control the test and not interfere with the venue's bandwidth, Red Rocks suggested the app was available to those above Row 40 - it's as simple as that. Mixhalo is an optional enhancement to the fan experience; for those interested, it provides sound directly from the mix booth and soundboard to fans' ears. At some shows, audiophiles can even tune in individual instruments, such as a lead guitar.

"Importantly, Mixhalo also has relevance for those wanting clearer sound who may have experienced hearing loss. Mixhalo has been embraced by Incubus, Metallica, Aerosmith, Pharrell Williams and others, and is an amenity at other venues including the Staples Center in Los Angeles.... Again, Mixhalo is for true music and tech lovers, and for those who aren't interested - it's no different than a snack or beverage at Red Rocks: If you don't want it, don't get it."

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EDM Fans Raise Noise About Red Rocks Amphitheatre's Decibel Limit

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Before Norwegian DJ Kygo's June 24 concert, Red Rocks Amphitheatre posted to Twitter that people sitting above Row 40 should bring wired headphones and download the Mixhalo app, which lets people listen to a studio-quality mix of the show straight from the soundboard. "No one wants this," tweeted one person.

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it should be ok for any age to use thc in medical ways because it the solution could be truly helps lots of people and sometimes the people that need it the most are not of age

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As more states, including Virginia and New York, continue to legalize marijuana, an overwhelming share of U.S. adults (91%) say either that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use (60%) or that it should be legal for medical use only (31%). Fewer than one-in-ten (8%) say marijuana should not be legal for use by adults.

The new survey, conducted by Pew Research Center from April 5-11, 2021, comes as congressional Democrats consider legislation that would decriminalize marijuana nationally. Views of marijuana legalization have changed very little since 2019.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand the public's views about legalizing marijuana, specifically whether marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, medical use only, or not legal at all. For this study, 5,109 U.S. adults were surveyed in early April. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center's American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP's methodology.

Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

A separate question that asks whether the use of marijuana should be made legal - without specifying for recreational or medical uses - has shown a steep, long-term rise in support for legalization. From 2000 to 2019, the share of Americans saying marijuana should be legal more than doubled.

There have long been age and partisan differences in views about marijuana, and that remains the case today. Very few adults of any age are completely opposed to the legalization of marijuana. However, older adults are far less likely than young people to favor marijuana legalization for recreational use.

This is particularly the case among adults ages 75 and older: Just 32% say marijuana should be legal for recreational and medical use, by far the lowest share for any age category and 21 percentage points lower than adults in the next-oldest age group, those ages 65 to 74 (53% of whom say it should be legal for both recreational and medical use).

Among younger adults, there is wider support for legalization for medical and recreational uses, including 70% of adults under age 30.

Republicans are more wary than Democrats about legalizing marijuana for recreational use: 47% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favor legalizing marijuana for both medical and recreational use, while an additional 40% say it should only be legal for medical use. By comparison, 72% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say marijuana should be legal for both medical and recreational use, and an additional 23% say it should be legal for medical use only.

Ideological differences are evident within each party. About four-in-ten conservative Republicans (39%) say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, compared with a 60% majority of moderate and liberal Republicans.

Nearly two-thirds of conservative and moderate Democrats (63%) say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use. An overwhelming majority of liberal Democrats (82%) say the same.

There also are racial and ethnic differences in views of legalizing marijuana. About two-thirds of White (63%) and Black (65%) adults say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, compared with smaller shares of Hispanic (52%) and Asian adults (43%).

While both Republicans and Democrats differ greatly on whether marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, there are also age divides within each party.

A 63% majority of Republicans ages 18 to 29 favor making marijuana legal for recreational and medical use, compared with 53% of those ages 30 to 49 and 48% of those 50 to 64. However, only about a quarter of Republicans 65 and older (27%) say marijuana should be legal for both.

Still, wide majorities of Republicans in all age groups favor legalizing marijuana for medical use. Even among Republicans 65 and older, just 12% say the use of marijuana should not be legal.

While majorities of Democrats and Democratic leaners across all age groups support legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use, older Democrats are less likely to say this. About three-quarters of Democrats ages 18 to 29 (78%) favor legalizing marijuana for both medical and recreational use, while 64% of those 65 and older say the same. Roughly equal shares of Democrats ages 30 to 49 (73%) and 50 to 64 (70%) say marijuana should be legalized for medical and recreational use.
Note: Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

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Americans overwhelmingly say marijuana should be legal for recreational or medical use

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As more states, including Virginia and New York, continue to legalize marijuana, an overwhelming share of U.S. adults (91%) say either that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use (60%) or that it should be legal for medical use only (31%). Fewer than one-in-ten (8%) say marijuana should not be legal for use by adults.

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Maybe let people choose if they want to be vaccinated or not if not let them use covid tests and where a mask. this resolves this issue because letting the different people with different beliefs choose what they want to do.

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The science is clear: Vaccines are a safe and effective way to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, and vaccine mandates are an effective tool in promoting widespread vaccinations.

Still, the battle to inoculate the nation against the coronavirus has reached a fever pitch in recent months. President Biden has focused on getting as many Americans as possible vaccinated against the coronavirus, most notably rolling out wide-reaching vaccine mandates for government employees and for businesses with more than 100 workers.

But Republicans have grown increasingly hostile to the notion of mandatory vaccines - despite vaccine mandates existing in the background in parts of the United States since the 19th century - and have parlayed the fight against COVID-19 into a political battle, with vaccine mandates as the latest frontier in the great American defense of freedom and liberty.

These lawmakers decry the Biden administration's actions as government overreach, but now themselves are telling employers they can't impose mandates even if they want to.

Take for example Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, who earlier this week issued an executive order banning mandatory vaccines within private companies.

"No entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19," Abbott wrote in his order.

The order notes that vaccines are "encouraged" for those who are eligible but should remain "voluntary." Abbott is himself fully vaccinated against the virus and survived a brush with COVID-19 this summer.

Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis - also vaccinated against the virus - has vowed to sue the Biden administration over its federal vaccine mandates. So far, he has made good on his promise to keep such orders out of Florida, having previously fined a county in the state $3.5 million for imposing vaccine mandates on its employees.

"We're going to make sure people are able to make their own choices. We're not going to discriminate against people based on those choices, and you're going to have a right to operate in society," DeSantis said, painting the issue of vaccines as a matter of civil liberties.

A uniquely American predicament

Most Americans have in fact received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

A September Pew Research study found that in August, 73% of American adults said they had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and a majority said they had received the full course of the vaccine.

Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, 86% said they were at least partially vaccinated against the virus, compared to 60% of Republicans. Unvaccinated Americans also tend to be younger than 50 and less educated.

For some of those who have not been vaccinated, the message from conservative leaders like Abbott and DeSantis about choice and liberty resonates, despite public health guidance on how to prevent serious illness and death from the coronavirus.

"Somehow it has morphed into not getting the vaccine as a way to defend their freedom and resist this 'tyranny,' " said Ken Resnicow, a professor in the school of public health at the University of Michigan. "There's not many countries that have this dynamic."

Resnicow referenced a study on which he was the lead author that found a correlation between a person's belief in conspiracy theories and the apocalypse, and their willingness to actively prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Particularly among self-identified evangelicals, Resnicow has found a distinct rejection of the coronavirus vaccine, which he said has made vaccine hesitancy especially difficult to address.

"There's a sensitive issue - that it's conflated with religion and evangelicalism, and people are scared to touch that third rail. And I think we have to confront how religion and science are now at loggerheads, and that wasn't always the case," he said.

"There's this 30% of evangelicals for whom science is almost the enemy."

Rupali Limaye, director of behavioral and implementation science at the International Vaccine Access Center based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has made similar findings as it relates to the difficulty of squaring public health realities with differences in political opinions.

"There is a really stark divide between states that have more heavily Democratic-leaning leadership versus those that have more heavily leaning Republican leadership," she said.

Limaye said that particularly among Republicans, the idea of freedom - a core tenet of the American ideal - has given people a basis on which to pin anti-science rhetoric.

"This idea of liberty and autonomy - this comes up a lot as those underlying values of individuals that feel as though we don't really need to be mandating vaccines," she said,

"I don't think it's an issue that they hate vaccines themselves. They hate the idea that vaccines are essentially forcing them into doing something they don't want to do. Vaccines are just sort of the casualty of all this."

The political split in polling

Niambi Carter, an associate professor of political science and Woodrow Wilson fellow at Howard University, said that Republican politicians have been exploiting the political expediency of vaccine hesitancy to advance their own political goals, an argument the White House has made as well.

"Unfortunately we have politicians who will participate in this kind of nonsense because it serves them politically, not necessarily because they believe it," Carter said, referencing the lawmakers' own vaccination status. "They're telling us to gamble our lives, but they're not willing to take that same gamble with theirs. And I think that is what is the most galling about this."

Opposition to vaccine mandates may even be growing among Republicans.

While Americans overall are generally favorable of Biden's new vaccine mandates for federal workers, Republicans specifically are not.

Polling by the British market research firm YouGov published on Oct. 13 shows that fewer than half of Republicans - just 46% - support mandatory vaccines for children. That's a 13-percentage-point decline since August 2020, before the current fight over the coronavirus vaccine erupted.

And when asked about the COVID-19 vaccine specifically, the difference is even more clear. An overwhelming majority of Democrats, 79%, are in favor of mandatory childhood vaccines against the virus and just 9% are opposed. This compared to just a quarter of Republicans who would support such a mandate, versus 63% who oppose it.

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The political fight over vaccine mandates deepens despite their effectiveness

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The science is clear: Vaccines are a safe and effective way to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, and vaccine mandates are an effective tool in promoting widespread vaccinations. Still, the battle to inoculate the nation against the coronavirus has reached a fever pitch in recent months.

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Affirmative: We should easily we able to offer classes to ones struggling with college, because some if not most are stuck in debt with student loans and paying all this money, the least they could have is classes to teach them things about being successful, like stuff no one teaches.

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Stanford University joined a group of about a dozen highly selective colleges and universities that offer digitally taught college courses in an effort to target academically talented high-school students in economically disadvantaged communities.

Stanford this fall started offering a computer-science class in which students watch lessons prerecorded by a Stanford professor and then meet in person with alumni in the field who act as teaching assistants. The class, part of the National Education Equity Lab, a nonprofit that provides classes for disadvantaged high-school students to earn college credit, has enrolled 225 students from across the country.

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Stanford Joins Group Offering Classes to Disadvantaged High-School Students

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Stanford University joined a group of about a dozen highly selective colleges and universities that offer digitally taught college courses in an effort to target academically talented high-school students in economically disadvantaged communities. Stanford this fall started offering a computer-science class in which students watch lessons prerecorded by a Stanford professor and then meet in person with alumni in the field who act as teaching assistants.

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affirmitive: because of the pandemic and people being in their homes and not out on the roads street racers took it as a time to use the highways as racetracks this cause multiple fatalities throughout the U.S witch all could have been avoided a solution we are trying is by reporting street racing when it is seen and opening task forces to stop the racers from injuring innocent people

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Street racing surges across US amid coronavirus pandemic

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Illegal drag racing has exploded in popularity across the U.S. since the coronavirus pandemic began, with sometimes deadly consequences

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Affirmative: There needs to be more affordable housing in denver to reduce homelessness.

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1. Sleep Deprivation
Respondents who are frequently woken by police typically sleep only in short bursts: 49% report 2 hours or less of uninterrupted sleep.

2. Pushed to Less Safe Places
87% of respondents seek different sleeping locations to avoid police contact; Half have sought more hidden and isolated locations.

3. Harm to Physical Health
Among those instructed by police to quit using shelter from the elements, there is a 71% higher rate of frostbite, a 39% higher rate of dehydration, and twice the rate of heat stroke.

4. Harm to Mental Health
65% of respondents report that they are constantly stressed and anxious about the possibility of police contact.

5. Streets Often Better than Shelters
The average perception of shelter conditions was between "very unhappy" and "mostly dissatisfied."

"The Police have made sleeping in a safe place unavailable. I'm now moving camp every day. I'm in constant movement."

Sleep Deprivation

Constant move on orders by police enforcing camping ban laws lead to serious sleep deprivation - making life even harder for homeless people.

Respondents who are frequently woken by police typically sleep only in short bursts: 49% report 2 hours or less of uninterrupted sleep.

Poor sleeping habits, exacerbated by constant police interruption of sleep, leads to increased rates of depression, forgetfulness, sickness, anger, and hallucinations.

The data is clear: police contact, and the fear of police contact, substantially undermines the sleeping-related health of Denver's homeless residents.

Pushed to Less Safe Places

Camping ban enforcement forces already vulnerable homeless people into less safe areas where they are more likely to be assaulted, robbed, and abused.

Both male and female respondents who have found more hidden sleeping locations report increased rates of robbery, physical violence and sexual assault.

Women who have found more hidden sleeping locations report a 50% higher rate of robbery, a 60% higher rate of sexual assault, and more than 3 times the rate of physical assault.

Denver police data show that the number of the number of crimes against homeless people-quite often physical assaults-increased for four straight years from 2013-2017-rising 42% over that period, to reach 1,008 crimes in 2017.

Harm to Physical Health

Forcing people who have to sleep outside to not use protection from the elements leads to frostbite, hypothermia, and greater sickness.

Among all those who have been instructed by police to quit using shelter from the elements, there is a 71% higher rate of frostbite, a 39% higher rate of dehydration, and twice the rate of heat stroke.

52% OF RESPONDENTS STATED THAT THEY HAD SOMETIMES CHOSEN NOT TO USE SHELTER, SUCH AS A BLANKET OR TARP, DUE TO FEAR OF BEING CONTACT BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.

Harm to Mental Health

Continual police orders to move along with nowhere to go leads to massive stress and mental instability.

65% of respondents report that they are constantly stressed and anxious about the possibility of police contact.

Respondents who stated that they were contacted many times by the police in the last year were 57% more likely to self-assess their mental health as worsening, when compared to respondents who were contacted rarely or never by the police.

Streets Often Better than Shelters

Living in shelters has its own set of serious health and safety issues. Staying in close quarters with large numbers of people can often be less healthy and less safe than staying on the streets.

The average perception of shelter conditions was between "very unhappy" and "Mostly dissatisfied."

1. Addiction is a lead cause of homelessness.
Only 28% of homeless people in Denver have a substance use or abuse issue.[1] 100% of homeless people have a housing accessibility problem. Rent keeps raising and incomes stay stagnant. Government funding for low-income housing has all but disappeared.[2]

2. It's a lifestyle choice
Insufficient income and lack of affordable housing are the leading causes of homelessness.[1] In Denver, out of 250 individuals offered housing in Denver's "housing first" model, only one individual refused housing. Pretty clear most people don't want to be homeless. Additionally, 37% of the homeless population has a disability.[2] 21% are over age 55.[3] Inability to pay medical bills is a major contributor to homelessness.[4]

3. Denver will be a disaster like LA, Portland, Seattle
Each of these cities do actually have a camping ban and other laws against resting in public.[1] Criminalization of homelessness is nationwide. Courts have ruled these laws unconstitutional in their district, forcing them to step back on enforcement, however that has not stopped them from violating constitutional rights in continuing to enforce these laws in sweeps. What is clear nationwide is that criminalizing homelessness does not end homelessness.

"Of course it's worse now that people can't stay in central areas, where it's lit and safe. There really aren't places for all these people to go, so we are hiding. And we are more alone. And that's bad. People try hard to find ways to protect themselves. But there are always predators who try to use and abuse and assault people who are living marginally. We still have people who will go out and mistreat people who are disabled, who are mentally ill, who have any kind of problem who look like they can't take care of themselves... So is it better? NO. We are more vulnerable, and things are worse. People are more likely to try to hurt you if they think you are alone and you are vulnerable. And in Denver it's a lot harder to find a place of sanctuary now."

Enforcement
The Denver Camping Ban is enforced on a daily basis. Police force homeless people lying down and using cover to "move along" at all hours of the day and night. But since there is no where to legally "move along to" homeless people simply move to another block, a hidden alley, far by the river, etc.[1]

The U.S. Constitution
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Martin v. Boise, that prosecuting or otherwise punishing homeless people for sleeping on the street if they have nowhere else to go qualifies as "cruel and unusual punishment" and is unconstitutional.[2]

Many other cases have ruled that laws against sleeping, sharing food, sleeping in one's vehicle, and seizing homeless people's property in sweeps are unconstitutional.

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Move along to where? survival should not be criminalized. Making it a crime to sleep with cover in public has serious consequences on the health and safety of homeless people. These laws make already vulnerable people less healthy and less safe. Five effects onHealth and Safety486 people experiencing homelessness in Denver were surveyed.

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Anti maskers explain they dont wear masks.

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Anti maskers explain they dont wear masks.

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Affirmative: People need to educate themselves on covid and start wearing a mask.

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This story is part of a group of stories called

At the outset of the pandemic, Amy, a 48-year-old mother of two from Ohio, was afraid. When the government began recommending people wear masks, she not only complied but also made masks for others. "I was like, oh, this is scary, this could be really bad," she said.

But when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state would extend its lockdown for the month of May, she'd had it. Pandemic over or not, she was done. After that, Amy became vehemently anti-mask and began to doubt whether the coronavirus was really that big of a deal. Her mother unfollowed her on Facebook over her "anger posts" about masks, and she hasn't heard from her in a month. She carries a homemade mask with her, just in case, but she doesn't believe in them.

"It's a violation of my freedom, I think, and then also I just don't think they work," Amy said. "A lot of stuff says it does, but then some doesn't."

Masks have become an extremely heated point of contention during the Covid-19 outbreak. Viral videos of people having meltdowns over masks are commonplace, and in many parts of the country, it's not abnormal for strangers to confront each other publicly over the issue. A small but vocal segment of the population has dug in and ignored the growing evidence that masks make a difference in combating the coronavirus. For those who believe that at the very least wearing a mask can't hurt, it's hard to not develop some animosity toward those who refuse. The question I keep hearing from pro-mask friends and family is always the same: What are these people thinking?

In recent weeks, I spoke with nearly a dozen people who consider themselves anti-mask to find out just that. What I discovered is that there is certainly a broad spectrum of reasons - some find wearing a mask annoying or just aren't convinced they work, and others have gone down a rabbit hole of conspiracies that often involve vaccines, Big Pharma, YouTube, and Bill Gates. One man told me he wears a mask when he goes to the store to be polite. A woman got kicked out of a Menards store for refusing to wear a mask amid what she calls the "Covid scam garbage."

But there are also many commonalities. Most people I talked to noted government officials' confusing messaging on masks in the pandemic's early days. They insist that they're not conspiracy theorists and that they don't believe the coronavirus is a hoax, but many also expressed doubts about the growing body of scientific knowledge around the virus, opting for cherry-picked and unverified sources of information found on social media rather than traditional news sources. They often said they weren't political but acknowledged they leaned right.

Most claimed not to know anyone who had contracted Covid-19 or died of it, and when I told them I did, the responses were the same: How old were they? Did they have preexisting conditions? They know their position is unpopular, and most spoke on condition of anonymity and will be referred to only by their first names. Amy told me people are "not very nice about this."

The mask debate is complex. As much as it's about science, health, and risk, it's also about empathy. If someone doesn't personally know anyone who died from Covid-19, does it mean those lives don't matter? Are older and immunocompromised people disposable? Does one person's right to ignore public health advice really trump someone else's right to live?

"Death is happening in these wards where even family members can't visit their loved ones when they're sick with Covid, so the death and the severity of this disease are really invisible to the public," said Kumi Smith, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota who studies infectious diseases.

It leads some people to brush the issue aside.

"I'm empathetic that anyone has to die ever, but that's the reality of our lives. And I almost feel like if I'm going to get Covid and die from it, then so be it," said Gina, a Pennsylvania real estate agent who wears a mask at work but otherwise opposes mask mandates.

"I'm empathetic that anyone has to die ever, but that's the reality of our lives"

But the empathy question also works the other way - attacking people for not wearing a mask doesn't change minds. An open, more forgiving conversation might. That's what happened with Scott Liftman, a 50-year-old man from Massachusetts who read a story in the Atlantic about men who won't wear masks. He contacted the article's author, Harvard epidemiologist Julia Marcus, and has come around - somewhat - on the idea of putting one on, at least in certain situations.

"I want to be sensitive, I want to follow scientific principles, but I also want to exercise common sense, too," Liftman told me. "You never want to read something that just shames you. I really think that no two people are so different that they can't find some common ground."

"These people are part of our community, and they are putting other people at risk," Marcus said. "If you can inch some people, you will see risk reduction overall."

Freedom, but for your face

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spin out of control in the United States, many states, localities, and businesses have turned to requiring people to wear masks in the hope the measure will slow the spread of infection. Currently, 34 states have mask mandates, and polls show a hefty majority of Americans would support a national mask mandate, as well.

For those who disagree, that's partially where the problem resides: They insist they're not anti-mask, they're anti-mandate. "If you want to wear a mask, great. I will never look down on you, have anything bad to say to you, do what you want. But the mandates are what I disagree with and I don't think are right, especially now," Gina said.

Rallies against mask mandates have popped up across the country, much like the protests to reopen the economy that took place at state capitols earlier this year. People wanted the freedom to get a haircut; now they want the freedom to go to the grocery store without covering their face.

Some of the people I spoke with drew the line, specifically, at government mandates. It's one thing for a private business to require customers to wear a mask, they said, but another thing for a state government to do it. Private establishments "have a right to do so, and you should respect those rules," Jason, a paramedic from Michigan, said.

Others, however, chafed at rules from businesses, too. Members of one Facebook group circulated a list of stores with mask requirements, chatting about boycotting those retailers or visiting to try to challenge the rules.

When I spoke with Jacqueline, who lives in Wyoming, she was upset over the mask requirement at her local Menards. She'd been to the home improvement store, sans mask, twice in recent days - the first time, she was allowed to make her purchase despite ignoring the rules, but the second time, she had no such luck. She was asked to leave the store after a physical altercation ensued - Jacqueline says a worker pushed her, the store says she rammed someone with a cart - and management called the police to file a report. She's now banned from the store. "They don't have to ban me because I'll never go back again," Jacqueline said. She told me she'll go to Home Depot instead. (It also appears to require masks for customers.)

As to why she believes she's exempt from the rules, Jacqueline cited the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. "No states are allowed to make laws that take our freedoms and liberties away," she said.

But then she mentioned a mask exemption card she got - not from a doctor, but from a friend. It appears she has one of the fake cards some people are using to try to get out of wearing a mask by claiming they have a disability. "I get overheated really easy," she explains.

The issue with the freedom argument is that wearing a mask is about more than protecting yourself - there's growing evidence masks are useful for protecting others from those who may have Covid-19 and not know it. Not wearing a mask may encroach on another person's freedom to go out in relative safety.

Part of the problem is the facts have changed. Another part is where the facts are coming from.

There is no denying that Covid-19 messaging from official channels has, at times, been confusing and contradictory. Early on, people were told not to wear a mask, but now that's changed. Scientific consensus evolves with new information, this is a new disease, and like it or not, the world is full of uncertainty.

Given that uncertainty, it makes sense people would have doubts. If officials changed their minds on masks before, what's to stop them from doing it again? Some people also feel the pandemic isn't as bad as it was made out to be in the spring. They don't know very many people, if anyone, who have gotten sick, and in some places, especially more rural areas, masks just aren't that common.

Among those I spoke with, however, I noticed that while the conversation might begin with contradictory messaging and doubts about efficacy, it often devolved into conspiracy theories. The mainstream media was lying, they said, asking whether I'd seen this video on YouTube or followed that person on Twitter. Jacqueline's Facebook timeline was filled with posts the platform had flagged as false, and with diatribes that the company was censoring her. She told me she hurt her hand several weeks prior, and that she had weighed going to the emergency room but decided against it: She's 65 and believes she'd automatically be given a positive Covid-19 test and placed on a ventilator to likely die.

Bryan, who lives in New Jersey, declined to speak on the phone for this story out of concern I might misconstrue his words. He opted to communicate via LinkedIn, sending, over several days, more than 4,000 words explaining his thoughts on masks and the pandemic. Initially, he said his main issue was the mandate.

"What the mandates have done is scare people into believing they are a must if they are to avoid catching the virus. And because those scared few feel that way, they become angry and vile towards anyone who does not share in their fear," he wrote.

Bryan told me that he and his fellow "truth seekers" have always questioned the numbers on Covid-19's mortality rate, and he expressed doubts about government officials' advice and the media's coverage of the pandemic. He acknowledged that some of what he was saying made him sound like a conspiracy theorist, but also leaned in: He believes masks are a step in "getting people into compliance so that they can make vaccines mandatory as well." His theory: "Soon it will be, 'take the vaccine,' or you can't travel, shop, etc." Or worse, he said, digital IDs or "health care passports."

Certain theories and conspiracies came up over and over again. Nearly everyone I spoke with referenced a single Florida man whose death in a motorcycle crash was erroneously listed as a Covid-19 death, saying it was evidence the virus's fatality count was vastly overstated. ( Research has shown that coronavirus deaths are likely underreported.) Many said that hydroxychloroquine is the miracle cure for Covid-19, despite evidence it is likely ineffective, and that efforts to develop other drugs or a vaccine are simply a ploy by Big Pharma to make money. Sometimes Bill Gates was involved, though exactly why he was painted as a nefarious figure was somewhat unclear.

Bryan mentioned an event related to pandemic preparedness, hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in October 2019, as evidence of activity that seems "strangely coincidental" given current events. "Who is one of the ones backing all of that 'preparedness?' Good ole Bill Gates, a man who not long ago had a huge image problem due to some monopolistic practices, etc. Now he seems to have revived his image because he is a 'virus and vaccine expert'?" Bryan wrote.

Most of the people I spoke with got their information from their own "independent investigations" or content they found on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

"YouTube is where alternative thinkers are going to do their thinking," Mak, whose hot yoga studio in British Columbia was shut down due to the coronavirus, told me.

"There's definitely some sort of an agenda here to initiate control upon the people and to make people more obedient and compliant, and see which people are going to comply with some directives," he said.

"I know they're lying to the masses"

Some anti-maskers have turned to making content of their own. Tanya, also from British Columbia, had gone to local hospitals to try to record what was going on and prove that media stories about the outbreak were false.

"I know they're lying to the masses," she told me. "I don't know anybody who has had coronavirus, I don't know anybody who knows anybody, and I know a lot of people."

"Anti-maskers will say masks are making you breathe in your own carbon dioxide," said Eleanor Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University. "That's not at all a thing, because we know ... there are plenty of people whose occupations require them to wear a mask."

Politics is part of it, but not all of it

Like so many things, masks have become a politicized issue. President Donald Trump and many Republicans have spent months using them as a political lightning rod. Some have since changed their tune - the president has begun recommending masks, though his message hasn't been consistent or wholehearted.

"The challenge is that when you had political leaders early on saying we are not wearing masks, we don't think it's important, we don't think it's a good idea, there are a lot of people in the country who very, very seriously follow President Trump," said Catherine Sanderson, a professor of psychology at Amherst College. "When you have somebody in that sort of a vivid role saying, 'I'm not going to do this,' it creates a norm people are motivated to follow."

Jacqueline told me she believes the pandemic death count has been inflated in an effort to undermine the president. "They're all saying this so that they can make the president look bad, so they can cause the problems they are causing," she said.

Politicization is playing out at a much more local level, too. I spoke with Anthony Sabatini, a member of the Florida House of Representatives who has filed multiple lawsuits over mask mandates. Ahead of our interview, he emphasized he's worried about mandates and government overreach, not the masks themselves.

During our discussion, he initially claimed police would be going into businesses and homes, checking to see whether people were wearing a mask. When I asked for evidence, he referenced an ordinance against gatherings of more than 10 people - not masks - but claimed they were "part and parcel" of the same issue. When I asked Sabatini whether he personally wears a mask, his initial response was, "Where? In my bed?" I clarified: when he goes out, like to the grocery store. Sabatini, who is 31, told me he doesn't go to the grocery store because he's "too busy" and "a millennial," and therefore eats out all the time. He conceded he sometimes goes to the grocery store, so when I asked whether he wears a mask there, he insisted I name which specific store.

Sabatini said older people are generally most at risk of dying of Covid-19, adding that he is "very careful" around them - specifically those 82 or older. The majority of deaths have been in nursing homes, he explained, and he doesn't know anyone personally in a nursing home. "Anyone in my age group, it's just rare that you know anybody that's in that age group," he said.

According to the Florida House of Representatives' website, there were more than 500 people residing in nursing facilities in Sabatini's district as of the 2010 census, and about 5 percent of the population he represents is age 80 or older.

"Grandmas and grandpas die all the time"

Spring outside of my Brooklyn apartment had been a symphony of sirens. If there's a chance wearing a piece of cloth over my face will do something to help stop that, that's fine by me. It was an issue I posed to many of the anti-maskers: If I'm wrong, the worst that happens is I was a little uncomfortable at the grocery store in July. If you're wrong, you and others could get sick and die. Is that worth the risk?

"I don't want to be responsible for killing anybody," Gina, the Pennsylvania real estate agent, told me, though she still insisted the virus is overblown. "If the cases weren't reported on anymore and talked about, coronavirus would be gone."

"I hear all the time, people are like, 'I'd rather be safe than sorry, I don't want to be a grandma killer.' I'm sorry to sound so harsh," Mak said, chuckling. "I'm laughing because grandmas and grandpas die all the time. It's sad. But here's the thing: It's about blind obedience and compliance."

"When there is a vaccine, these are the same group of people who are saying they're not getting a vaccine"

As tempting as it is for many people to write off the anti-mask crowd, it's not that simple. As Lois Parshley recently outlined for Vox, enforcing a mask mandate is a difficult and complex task. But it's an important one: A lot of anti-maskers also have doubts about a vaccine, which public health experts say will be a crucial part of moving past the pandemic.

"Masks are actually probably a proxy for not believing in science, not believing in experts," Amherst College's Sanderson said. "The challenge, of course, is when there is a vaccine, these are the same group of people who are saying they're not getting a vaccine."

So how do you break through? As enticing as it may be for some people to shame and attack people who won't wear a mask, it's probably not the answer.

"One of the challenges is that you need to bring people to your side without saying, 'You're stupid,' because when it's, 'You're stupid,' it's very hard to convince someone," said Sanderson, who's also the author of Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels, a book about social norms.

As difficult (and at times contentious) as some of the conversations were, across the board, everyone was extremely nice. They also sent follow-up information to try to get me to see things their way. It's easy to see how, for someone who's on the fence, you might get sucked in: If pro-mask Bob tells you you're a murderer but anti-mask Sue tells you she's got a video you should see, you might prefer to deal with Sue.

Masks aren't a panacea, Smith, from the University of Minnesota, said. But that doesn't mean they're not worthwhile. "We're at this point where we are desperate in the United States," she said. "I'm not about to argue anti-maskers down and say, 'No, this will save everybody's lives most definitely,' but I think to reject it wholesale because some scientist changed their mind is really problematic."

Like it or not, we're all in this together, mask on or mask off. And just like the science can change, minds can too.

Liftman, the Massachusetts man who spoke with the Harvard epidemiologist who wrote about men who won't wear masks, told me his conversation with the writer changed his mind. He felt like she showed compassion and didn't condemn him. He's still a little skeptical - he thinks it's bad he's supposed to wear a mask when ordering from the ice cream truck outside. But when he's inside a store or in a crowded area, he gets it. While he still believes in individual liberty, he says it's not just about himself, it's also about the worker at the grocery store who doesn't have a choice, and the person next to him in line.

"I was kind of very skeptical about the whole thing. Is this about government control? Do we really need it? As the science has evolved, I've become more in line with the idea that we really should protect ourselves more often than I initially thought," Liftman said. Speaking with Marcus, and another virologist he reached out to, made a difference. "It opened my eyes up to being a little bit more sensitive."

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This story is part of a group of stories called At the outset of the pandemic, Amy, a 48-year-old mother of two from Ohio, was afraid. When the government began recommending people wear masks, she not only complied but also made masks for others.

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Affirmative:  Giving students multiple schooling options, helps them have more flexible schedules, and motivation to be in school, therefore a solution is more schools should have a hybrid campus .

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The jolt to higher education

COVID-19 prompted a swift pivot to remote learning across higher education in 2020, exposing challenges in the technological infrastructure and financial sustainability that had been festering at many institutions for years.

In the long term, however, the staggering disruption to higher education's traditional residential, face-to-face delivery model may also have an upside: a radical reimagining of the way colleges and universities conduct operations and serve their students.

Emergency remote education has inspired a burst of innovation on most campuses and set the groundwork for what's next. Professors have reimagined courses that have been untouched for years. Academic leaders have revised calendars to offer more flexibility for students. Campus officials have modified a range of services-from academic advising to career counseling-to offer them remotely. And campuses, like much of the corporate world, have moved to a remote work environment using a variety of tools to support the administration of the institution.

Now, as higher education leaders plan for what their institutions will look like on the other side of the pandemic, the decisions they make in the coming months will have ramifications for years-even decades. With presidents and governing boards already confronting growing uncertainty-enrollment and revenue shortfalls and major demographic shifts-colleges may be reluctant to embrace even more of it. That said, a once-in-a-generation opportunity could exist for institutions to harness their new investments (and learning) in digital technology to enhance the student experience and the shift to some remote work.

What a hybrid approach means for higher education

Twenty years ago, colleges and universities faced an inflection point, although not in a moment of national crisis. The internet was popularizing the idea of learning online. But rather than take advantage of the new medium and a new population of students, traditional colleges ceded the online learning market largely to for-profit providers. The growth spurt of those colleges in the first decade of the new millennium forced many traditional higher education institutions to play catch-up in the online space over the past decade.

Traditionally, universities had erected divisions between the online and in-person experience, often with different management structures, tuition rates, degree requirements, and faculty compensation. At colleges that offered online programs, students often couldn't mix and match online and face-to-face experiences. More importantly, even if residential students could enroll in online classes, they had to navigate the brick-and-mortar campus in order to access most services, such as financial aid, counseling, or academic and career advising, not to mention all of the other unstructured residential learning opportunities only afforded to those within the confines of the campus.

The effect of the pandemic

Right now, the stakes are high for institutions to place the right bets. Overall, enrollment fell 4% in fall 2020, with the number of first-year students dropping by a staggering 13%. By one estimate, the pandemic has cost colleges at least US$120 billion. At the same time, a demographic cliff is projected to arrive in 2026, when the number of students graduating from US high schools will significantly drop.

Colleges enjoy a certain amount of brand loyalty based on the physical bonds that connect students to each other and their campuses. Once that physical campus was removed from the equation during the pandemic, however, many institutions lacked the digital infrastructure to engage students as a "community." And students noticed: In one survey of 3,000 undergraduates, nearly 80% of respondents said their online courses lacked the engagement of in-person classes.

There were some exceptions. Those institutions that already had a robust set of digital tools in place-such as Georgia State University, Duke University, Arizona State University, University of Central Florida, and University of Michigan-found the shift to the hybrid environment smoother because they understood how their institutions should serve the needs of learners both in person and virtually. Arizona State, for instance, added a new modality during the pandemic that combined its experience with online and face-to-face classes, called ASU Sync, which allowed students to watch a real-time, live broadcast of their in-person class.

The experience of the pandemic has offered a radical opportunity for experimentation, encouraging institutions to rethink the overall operating model. As colleges and universities plan for their postpandemic future, they face a series of choices. They can either approach the exercise by returning to the old way of doing business, or they can select a range of hybrid approaches and reshape how their campuses operate, diversify their offerings, and differentiate themselves.

What exactly is a hybrid campus?

Higher education has long been seen as a traditional experience: Full-time students sequestered in a bucolic campus environment interacting in person with professors, staff members, coaches, and classmates, rich with planned and unplanned interactions that comprise the student experience and "social learning."

In contrast, the hybrid campus reimagines residential education in a tech-enabled world: a technology-enabled student experience. This is not only hybrid instruction, but rather a blended, immersive, and digital residential experience that fuses the online and physical worlds across campus. It transcends the current concept of blended education, which too often focuses solely on classroom instruction that toggles between face-to-face and online. Instead, the hybrid campus can deliver everything an institution offers with a blended approach.

Think of the hybrid campus as similar to the retail model that sits somewhere between the physical and digital worlds, with little distinction between the two. Many retailers that started online also operate physical outlets to spark sales on their websites and increase customer loyalty. Most customers, however, don't make a distinction between the two. The same thing happens when we shop at Home Depot, which started as a brick-and-mortar store: We don't differentiate between buying online or driving to the store. What's critical here for institutional leaders is not the technology necessarily but the changes to campus culture and operating models that go well beyond the acquisition and deployment of new tools.

The recent and sudden transition to purely remote operations unveiled the drawbacks of this bifurcated model when colleges aren't strategic about what they're doing in person and what they're offering virtually. Understanding the distinction between the two is important as institutions reimagine the campus and decide which services deliver their best experience face-to-face and which could easily or more effectively be delivered online. The know-how gained during COVID-19 can provide important guidance for making such decisions and to institutionalize what they've already accomplished during the pandemic.

Why the hybrid campus now?

A hybrid approach will allow institutions to become more resilient during future disruptions, whether pandemics or natural disasters; help institutional leaders better manage costs and pedagogical demands; and, ultimately, become more student-centered. Moreover, this model can make higher education more accessible to a much broader population of learners: adults with some college education but no degree, those with degrees but seeking to improve their skills, and international students who wish to take advantage of a US education without relocating.

In the end, one potential lasting impact of COVID-19 in higher education is the belief and an urgency within institutions that they could remake legacy structures that have long been seen as intractable. New institutional frameworks and services were quickly established to support students in the pivot to online learning and then to get them back to campus.

As colleges and universities plan for their postpandemic future, they face a series of choices. The rest of this report discusses how some colleges are already changing and making this vision a reality and what needs to be done next in three key areas of the institution: academic affairs, student success, and the campus workforce(figure 1). Not every campus will follow all the routes we lay out, nor are we suggesting that institutions flip a switch overnight and rely more on the digital model they adopted during COVID-19. But the investments colleges made in 2020 can get them closer to a hybrid strategy that combines the important elements of "place" with online and tech-enabled education.

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The hybrid campus: Three major shifts for the post-COVID university

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During COVID-19, many higher education institutions adopted a mix of face-to-face and online delivery of courses and services-creating an opportunity for a more permanent shift to a hybrid university.

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Taking in refugees in the United States 

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Taking in refugees in the United States 

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Affirmative- People should help refugees with their basic needs when they can, and so to solve this people should volunteer to open their home to refugees to help them.

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U.S. Refugee Admissions Program

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a refugee is an alien who, generally, has experienced past persecution or has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Individuals who meet this definition may be considered for either refugee status under Section 207 of the INA if they are outside the United States, or asylum status under Section 208 of the INA, if they are already in the United States. Since the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980, which incorporated this definition of refugee into the INA, the United States has admitted more than 3.1 million refugees.

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Refugee Admissions - United States Department of State

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U.S. Refugee Admissions Program Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a refugee is an alien who, generally, has experienced past persecution or has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Individuals who meet this definition may be considered for either refugee [...]

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Affirmative: The number of people dying to violence needs to decrease by creating more opportunities for people to get help change there life.

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The Peace Alliance has done extensive research to identify the most current definitions of terms used to describe violence in our global society. You will notice the use of language in this research, such as "Far-Right" terrorism, "Islamic Deviant" and "Black Supremacist", that are either new to you, or you have heard them used in current political conversations to identify specific partisan groups. That is not how they are used here. We use the terms utilized by researchers who gather these data, and provide definitions within our information, to be as clear as current terminology allows. Each of these sections are but a snapshot of the data. Click Learn More under each header to download a PDF with full statistics and definitions.

DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

In the last five years, far-right terrorism has been on the rise. While other forms of terrorism remain predominant internationally, on the domestic level the surge of far-right political violence represents a worrying trend. Political instability as well as the polarisation of society produced a fertile ground for domestic terrorism in the West. Nevertheless, 96% of deaths from terrorism in 2019 occurred in countries at war, highlighting the strong connection between terrorism and ongoing conflict.

In 2019, there were 53 terrorist attacks recorded in the U. S., resulting in 39 deaths from terrorism. Of those 39 deaths, 34 were attributed to far-right extremists, reflecting the growing prominence of politically motivated terrorism in the US, and far-right terrorism in particular. By contrast, religiously motivated terrorism continued to fall, with four deaths attributed to Islamic extremists in 2019.¹

In the first-half of 2020, far-right terrorists committed 67% of domestic terrorist attacks, far-left terrorists committed 20%, and extremists with other motivations (such as supporters of the Boogaloo movement) and islamic deviants each committed 7%.²

Terrorism in the West makes up a small fraction of total terrorism in the world. Between 2002 and 2019 there were 236,422 deaths from terrorism globally. Of these, 1,215 occurred in the West, or just 0.51 per cent of the total.³

INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE (IPV)

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) refers to violence perpetrated by a former or current partner or spouse. IPV represents a severe public health issue that affects millions of individuals, worldwide as well as in the U. S. IPV can have multiple, serious consequences for its victims, ranging from economic complications as well as physical conditions. It is therefore crucial to prevent it. IPV encompasses acts of stalking, psychological aggression, physical violence or sexual violence-behaviors and tactics through which an intimate partner seeks to establish and maintain power over another. ⁴ ⁵

Data from U.S. crime reports suggest that about 1 in 5 homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner. The reports also found that over half of female homicide victims in the U.S. are killed by a current or former male intimate partner.⁶

Intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime in the U. S.⁷

Estimates published by the World Health organization indicate that globally about 1 in 3 (30%) of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. ⁸

GUN VIOLENCE
Learn More
Gun Violence represents a challenge to everyday life in the United States. Between 2008 and 2017, 342,439 people were killed by a gunshot, meaning that 1 person was shot dead every 15 minutes across the U. S.Prevention based on research on the development of risks can largely reduce the probability that firearms will be introduced into community and family conflicts or criminal activity. 9 Gun violence represents a multifaceted problem requiring a nuanced approach focusing on prevention. ¹⁰

Americans account for less than five percent of the global population, but own nearly half (46%) of all civilian guns in the world.¹¹

Since 1963, nearly 193,000 children and teens have been killed with guns on American soil-more than four times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action in the Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars combined.¹²

In 2021, Deaths from gun violence increased by 23% compared to 2020.¹³

ONLINE VIOLENCE
Learn More
As the web is becoming a space where marginalized people can make their voices heard, new challenges for the safety of its users are constantly arising. For women, online violence can manifest in many different ways - harassment, doxing, toxicity, bullying, revenge porn, misinformation and defamation. Since the introduction of social media platforms, online violence against women has been on the rise. Online forms of violence often are correlated to offline forms of violence and should, as such, be viewed in continuity with one another. Moreover, online violence is not limited in time or space. 14 ¹⁵ ¹⁶

About four-in-ten Americans (41%) have experienced some form of online harassment.¹⁷

Research showed that adolescents who reported cyberbullying were 11.5 times more likely to have suicidal ideation, compared to 8.4 times of those who reported verbal bullying.¹⁸

A survey conducted by MDPI found that of the total number of women who have been victims of online violence, 61.64% have experienced online violence once, while 12.33% have experienced online violence more than once. On the other hand, these percentages are much lower for the male population: only 6.17% of male respondents stated that they were victims of online violence once, and the same percentage experienced it more than once.¹⁹

IMPACT OF PEACEBUILDING
ON THE COST OF VIOLENCE
Learn More
Peacebuilding is a practice aiming at reducing both direct and structural violence through inclusive activities. Although inter-state conflicts are declining in number, countries are experiencing growing societal polarization. 20 It is therefore crucial to develop effective peacebuilding strategies and implement programs aimed at reducing conflict among both states and communities.

Preventative action is more cost-effective than actions taken to end conflicts that have already broken out. Studies indicate that preventing violence could have an average net savings of up to $70 billion per year.²¹

Every $1 invested in peacebuilding carries a potential $16 reduction in the cost of armed conflict.²²

While the global economic losses from conflict in 2016 reached a staggering $1.04 trillion, just $21.8 billion was spent on peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities combined during that year. This means that the financial resources devoted to avert violence and consolidate peace constituted a mere 2% of the total cost of conflict.²³

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Statistics on Violence & Peacebuilding - The Peace Alliance

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The Peace Alliance has done extensive research to identify the most current definitions of terms used to describe violence in our global society. You will notice the use of language in this research, such as "Far-Right" terrorism, "Islamic Deviant" and "Black Supremacist", that are either new to you, or you have heard them used in current political conversations to identify specific partisan groups.

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affirmitive: everyone around the world is dealiing with these issues and people are trying to raise awareness to them so they stop a solution to all of these problems are given in the text and another solution is also by spreading awareness to the issues so people will have more effort to get them to stop

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5 Global Crises the world can't ignore in 2021

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In some of the world's most dangerous and complex places, COVID-19 has reversed decades of progress, with the aftershocks of the pandemic threatening more children's lives than the virus itself. COVID-19 magnified the effects of poverty - as conflict, political unrest, food insecurity and violence made children and families increasingly vulnerable.

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there are skate stoppers all over and it stopes people from skating in parks or private areas and they can change this for making new skateparks in more populated areas.
https://www.djc.com/news/co/11188168.html

affirmative: instead a solution is making more areas to skate and or let skaters skate in places because they will probably do that anyway

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Too young to retire but too old to work 

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Too young to retire but too old to work 

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Affirmative; People should try and hire older people before young ones because they have limited options.

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Elaine Simons, a 61-year-old substitute art teacher in the Seattle, Washington area, was on a 10-month contract and hoping to settle into a more permanent role at the school where she was teaching when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US in March 2020.

Her school shut down for the remainder of the school year, with Simons having to pack up her classroom and learn to navigate the technology necessary to teach remotely. In June 2020, Simons was informed her teaching contract would not be renewed.

Some 5.7 million workers ages 55 or older lost their jobs in the US in March and April 2020, 15% of workers in an age demographic that has also experienced the vast majority of Covid-19 deaths. The unemployment rate for workers ages 65 and older hit a record rate of 7.5% in 2020.

Simons was able to find a summer teaching position but had to file for unemployment assistance before the fall 2020 school year began. Since then, she has switched back and forth between taking periods of substitute teaching jobs whenever they're available, and reverting to unemployment during periods where she's been unable to find work.

She found, despite claims of substitute teacher shortages, that longer term substitute contract positions weren't being offered, and older workers at higher risk for Covid-19 like herself aren't willing to take substitute gigs day by day, at various different schools without any compensation for quarantine if they catch or are exposed to Covid-19. Simons is fully vaccinated and boosted, but still worried about catching Covid-19 and exposing her elderly mother, whom she helps care for.

"Some like myself are too young to retire, so I'm still looking for that dream job, I want my permanent job. I want to be fully set for my pension and my social security," said Simons, who cannot afford to retire early because the social security benefits would be far too low to live on.

Even with unemployment, Simons has had to rely on food banks, food donations, and mutual aid with neighbors. She has tried to get ahead on bills in anticipation of receiving no income if her unemployment benefits expire and she's unable to obtain a new substitute contracting position, which has been more difficult as many employment resources offered to the unemployed, such as job counseling and training, have been limited during the pandemic.

"I'm sad that at almost 62 years old, I don't see the likelihood of getting employment at this point," added Simons. "It's really hard for people in my age bracket. I think that we're feeling undervalued. We're feeling missed. Nobody seems to care that we're also part of the high risk community."

The unemployment rate has tumbled dramatically since the height of the pandemic but older workers are still struggling to find work despite all the reports of worker shortages.

Jerry Jenkins, 63, of Lehigh Acres, Florida, lost his job at a manufacturing plant in 2021, where he had worked for seven years. With Florida's maximum unemployment benefits among the lowest in the US, at $275 a week, Jenkins was forced to cash in part of his retirement savings as he is still trying to find another job.

"I'm losing my retirement because no one will hire me. I can't even get anybody to answer my resumes," said Jenkins. "I've even tried to go back to some of the jobs I've had in my past to get rehired, but no one seems to be interested because I only have two or three years before retirement."

He expressed frustrations with the touting of falling unemployment rates, given he and millions of other workers aren't classified as '"in the labor force" in part due to expired unemployment benefits.

A June 2021 analysis by economists at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School found at least 1.7 million more older workers than expected retired due to the pandemic. The analysis encouraged policy solutions such as expanding Medicare eligibility to the age of 50, expanding social security benefits, and creating a department dedicated to older workers at the US Department of Labor.

Monique Morrisey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, explained there are differences among affected older workers, with 55 to 64 year olds who are not eligible for Medicare and in most cases are not yet receiving social security, and workers 65 and older who left the workforce. The issues facing late middle age workers are more worrisome, given their economic demographics.

"Among this younger group, the job losses are concentrated among non-college educated workers in lower paid jobs and are disproportionately also jobs that have high contact with the public," said Morrissey. "It's a lot harder to get another job when you're an older worker."

A survey published by AARP in May 2021 found 78% of workers ages 40 to 65 reported either seeing or experiencing age discrimination in the workplace, the highest level found by AARP since they began surveying the question in 2003. More than half of jobseekers over the age of 55 were classified as unemployed for longer than 27 weeks in early 2021.

As of October 2021, older workers were the furthest behind in employment recovery among age demographics.

Beverly Matozzo of Deptford, New Jersey, worked about 12 hours a week at a school cafeteria for seven years, but was laid off once the school year ended last summer and she hasn't been able to return as she is recovering from a knee injury and from Covid-19.

Matozzo, 73, filed for unemployment, but has yet to receive any compensation because the office that assisted in filing her claim made an error with her working dates and she hasn't been able to get the state unemployment agency to fix the problem and get her claim paid out. She has also been locked out of her account and still trying to resolve that issue.

"I have been told a thousand different things. All I want is my 17 weeks of unemployment, which is what I am owed," said Matozzo. "I've had to have three shots in my knee, walked with crutches for several weeks, and now I've just gotten over Covid. I just want to be with people. I enjoyed being around the kids, they make you feel alive and fun, so as soon as I can, I'm going back."

57-year-old Dawn Leeson of Springhill, Florida, ran a nonprofit after-school program before Covid-19 forced her to shut down the program in March 2020, and she contracted Covid around the same time as her son was hospitalized in New Orleans. She receives social security disability benefits, which aren't enough to survive on, and limits her options for new work.

"My job is still not available. I've looked a little bit even though I'm not ready to go into the workforce because of my fears of Covid. I'm high risk and so is my partner," said Leeson. "I know at this point I don't have a lot of options. Who is going to want someone who is disabled and 57?"

Leeson's unemployment benefits were cut off in September 2021 when federal extended unemployment benefits ended without any further extensions, after it took her months to start receiving benefits due to long delays and backlogs. She has gone from having zero debt to accumulating about $10,000 in credit card debt in order to make ends meet over the past several months.

"I barely leave my home, so I don't have gas and car expenses. We eat cheaply. I've lost 5lbs mainly by eating just a sandwich for dinner most nights," added Leeson. "I made it through the holidays, but I'm really scared about what comes next."
This article was written with the support of a journalism fellowship from the Gerontological Society of America, the Journalists Network on Generations and the RRF Foundation for Aging.

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Too young to retire but at risk for Covid, older Americans struggle to find work

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Elaine Simons, a 61-year-old substitute art teacher in the Seattle, Washington area, was on a 10-month contract and hoping to settle into a more permanent role at the school where she was teaching when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US in March 2020.

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we can make travel better by making everyone have a negative test and vaccination card when at the airport so we can stop spreading COVID
COVID-19 (coronavirus) travel advice - Mayo Clinic

affirmative: however to solve this people can double mask on planes and have to wear masks no matter what with a test and vaccine card.

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Starting on December 6, air travelers aged two and older, regardless of nationality or vaccination status, are required to show documentation of a negative viral test result taken within one day of the flight's departure to the United States before boarding. You must show your negative result to the airline before you board your flight. That includes all travelers - U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), and foreign nationals.

If you recently recovered from COVID-19, you may instead travel with documentation of recovery from COVID-19 (i.e., your positive COVID-19 viral test result on a sample taken no more than 90 days before the flight's departure from a foreign country, and a letter from a licensed healthcare provider or a public health official stating that you were cleared to travel).

Exemptions will be considered on an extremely limited basis. Please visit the CDC for more information about exemptions and the requirement for proof of negative COVID-19 test or recovery from COVID-19, including types of accepted tests for all air passengers arriving in the United States.

Please see the CDC website for further information on the Omicron Variant.
CDC Order
The CDC recommends that you do not travel internationally until you are fully vaccinated. International travel poses additional risks, and even fully vaccinated travelers might be at increased risk for getting and possibly spreading some COVID-19 variants. Delay travel and stay home to protect yourself and others from COVID-19. If you do travel, follow all CDC recommendations before, during, and after travel.

U.S. citizens who choose to travel internationally should be aware that they may face unexpected challenges related to COVID-19 as they attempt return to the United States or attempt to travel from one overseas destination to another. If you choose to travel internationally, be sure to make contingency plans, as you may find yourself having to remain in a foreign country longer than originally planned.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Order, which took effect November 8, 2021, requiring all non-immigrant, non-citizen air travelers to the United States to be fully vaccinated and to provide proof of vaccination status prior to boarding an airplane to the United States remains in effect. Travelers should monitor the CDC website on international travel for the latest guidance regarding testing requirements.

Exceptions to the CDC Order requiring all air passengers to be fully vaccinated and to provide proof of vaccination status prior to boarding an airplane to the United States are extremely limited to the following groups:

children under 18

people medically unable to receive the vaccine

emergency travelers who do not have timely access to a vaccine

Humanitarian exemptions to the CDC order are granted on an extremely limited basis.

For additional information, please visit our FAQs for answers to questions about the requirement for proof of negative COVID-19 test or recovery from COVID-19 for all air passengers arriving in the United States.

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Starting on December 6, air travelers aged two and older, regardless of nationality or vaccination status, are required to show documentation of a negative viral test result taken within one day of the flight's departure to the United States before boarding. You must show your negative result to the airline before you board your flight.

# data[].attributes.headline
Too young to retire but too old to work 

# data[].attributes.subject
Too young to retire but too old to work 

# data[].attributes.body
Affirmative; People should try and hire older people before young ones because they have limited options.Instead, a solution is to keep positions open for older people who cant find jobs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Elaine Simons, a 61-year-old substitute art teacher in the Seattle, Washington area, was on a 10-month contract and hoping to settle into a more permanent role at the school where she was teaching when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US in March 2020.

Her school shut down for the remainder of the school year, with Simons having to pack up her classroom and learn to navigate the technology necessary to teach remotely. In June 2020, Simons was informed her teaching contract would not be renewed.

Some 5.7 million workers ages 55 or older lost their jobs in the US in March and April 2020, 15% of workers in an age demographic that has also experienced the vast majority of Covid-19 deaths. The unemployment rate for workers ages 65 and older hit a record rate of 7.5% in 2020.

Simons was able to find a summer teaching position but had to file for unemployment assistance before the fall 2020 school year began. Since then, she has switched back and forth between taking periods of substitute teaching jobs whenever they're available, and reverting to unemployment during periods where she's been unable to find work.

She found, despite claims of substitute teacher shortages, that longer term substitute contract positions weren't being offered, and older workers at higher risk for Covid-19 like herself aren't willing to take substitute gigs day by day, at various different schools without any compensation for quarantine if they catch or are exposed to Covid-19. Simons is fully vaccinated and boosted, but still worried about catching Covid-19 and exposing her elderly mother, whom she helps care for.

"Some like myself are too young to retire, so I'm still looking for that dream job, I want my permanent job. I want to be fully set for my pension and my social security," said Simons, who cannot afford to retire early because the social security benefits would be far too low to live on.

Even with unemployment, Simons has had to rely on food banks, food donations, and mutual aid with neighbors. She has tried to get ahead on bills in anticipation of receiving no income if her unemployment benefits expire and she's unable to obtain a new substitute contracting position, which has been more difficult as many employment resources offered to the unemployed, such as job counseling and training, have been limited during the pandemic.

"I'm sad that at almost 62 years old, I don't see the likelihood of getting employment at this point," added Simons. "It's really hard for people in my age bracket. I think that we're feeling undervalued. We're feeling missed. Nobody seems to care that we're also part of the high risk community."

The unemployment rate has tumbled dramatically since the height of the pandemic but older workers are still struggling to find work despite all the reports of worker shortages.

Jerry Jenkins, 63, of Lehigh Acres, Florida, lost his job at a manufacturing plant in 2021, where he had worked for seven years. With Florida's maximum unemployment benefits among the lowest in the US, at $275 a week, Jenkins was forced to cash in part of his retirement savings as he is still trying to find another job.

"I'm losing my retirement because no one will hire me. I can't even get anybody to answer my resumes," said Jenkins. "I've even tried to go back to some of the jobs I've had in my past to get rehired, but no one seems to be interested because I only have two or three years before retirement."

He expressed frustrations with the touting of falling unemployment rates, given he and millions of other workers aren't classified as '"in the labor force" in part due to expired unemployment benefits.

A June 2021 analysis by economists at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School found at least 1.7 million more older workers than expected retired due to the pandemic. The analysis encouraged policy solutions such as expanding Medicare eligibility to the age of 50, expanding social security benefits, and creating a department dedicated to older workers at the US Department of Labor.

Monique Morrisey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, explained there are differences among affected older workers, with 55 to 64 year olds who are not eligible for Medicare and in most cases are not yet receiving social security, and workers 65 and older who left the workforce. The issues facing late middle age workers are more worrisome, given their economic demographics.

"Among this younger group, the job losses are concentrated among non-college educated workers in lower paid jobs and are disproportionately also jobs that have high contact with the public," said Morrissey. "It's a lot harder to get another job when you're an older worker."

A survey published by AARP in May 2021 found 78% of workers ages 40 to 65 reported either seeing or experiencing age discrimination in the workplace, the highest level found by AARP since they began surveying the question in 2003. More than half of jobseekers over the age of 55 were classified as unemployed for longer than 27 weeks in early 2021.

As of October 2021, older workers were the furthest behind in employment recovery among age demographics.

Beverly Matozzo of Deptford, New Jersey, worked about 12 hours a week at a school cafeteria for seven years, but was laid off once the school year ended last summer and she hasn't been able to return as she is recovering from a knee injury and from Covid-19.

Matozzo, 73, filed for unemployment, but has yet to receive any compensation because the office that assisted in filing her claim made an error with her working dates and she hasn't been able to get the state unemployment agency to fix the problem and get her claim paid out. She has also been locked out of her account and still trying to resolve that issue.

"I have been told a thousand different things. All I want is my 17 weeks of unemployment, which is what I am owed," said Matozzo. "I've had to have three shots in my knee, walked with crutches for several weeks, and now I've just gotten over Covid. I just want to be with people. I enjoyed being around the kids, they make you feel alive and fun, so as soon as I can, I'm going back."

57-year-old Dawn Leeson of Springhill, Florida, ran a nonprofit after-school program before Covid-19 forced her to shut down the program in March 2020, and she contracted Covid around the same time as her son was hospitalized in New Orleans. She receives social security disability benefits, which aren't enough to survive on, and limits her options for new work.

"My job is still not available. I've looked a little bit even though I'm not ready to go into the workforce because of my fears of Covid. I'm high risk and so is my partner," said Leeson. "I know at this point I don't have a lot of options. Who is going to want someone who is disabled and 57?"

Leeson's unemployment benefits were cut off in September 2021 when federal extended unemployment benefits ended without any further extensions, after it took her months to start receiving benefits due to long delays and backlogs. She has gone from having zero debt to accumulating about $10,000 in credit card debt in order to make ends meet over the past several months.

"I barely leave my home, so I don't have gas and car expenses. We eat cheaply. I've lost 5lbs mainly by eating just a sandwich for dinner most nights," added Leeson. "I made it through the holidays, but I'm really scared about what comes next."
This article was written with the support of a journalism fellowship from the Gerontological Society of America, the Journalists Network on Generations and the RRF Foundation for Aging.

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Too young to retire but at risk for Covid, older Americans struggle to find work

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Elaine Simons, a 61-year-old substitute art teacher in the Seattle, Washington area, was on a 10-month contract and hoping to settle into a more permanent role at the school where she was teaching when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US in March 2020.

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owning a monkey can have a lot of problems but you can learn more if you research the pros and cons of having one before buying one.

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Taking on a pet monkey is not like caring for most other pets. A well-cared-for monkey can generally live to be anywhere from 20 to 40 years old, and it will need your full commitment throughout its entire life. Sweet babies grow up into difficult adult monkeys and do not generally make good pets.

We break down the challenges that come with keeping a pet monkey, including behavioral, medical, and legal issues you may encounter.

The Challenges of Raising a Monkey

Monkeys do not grow up and mature as human children do. They are, in essence, permanent toddlers. Pet monkeys also might not take well to new people in your life, including spouses and children, and they make it hard to get away for vacations. Plus, finding a new home for a pet monkey is extremely difficult and psychologically hard on the monkey.

Furthermore, a monkey needs a large amount of social interaction. A pet monkey deprived of your time and attention will likely develop not only severe behavioral problems, such as screaming and biting but also psychological issues that can be difficult to remedy.

Legal Issues

Primates, such as monkeys, might be illegal to keep as pets where you live. And if a monkey is legal to own, permits still might be required. Sometimes permit holders are subject to home inspections to ensure proper facilities and care are being provided.

Moreover, homeowner policies might require additional liability coverage, or some insurance companies might cancel your policy altogether if they find out you have a monkey. However, not having insurance puts you at risk if your monkey bites someone.

Medical Issues

A wide range of diseases can be passed between monkeys and humans. (These are called zoonotic diseases and can be quite serious.) But finding a veterinarian near you who is able and willing to treat a primate can be challenging.

In addition, it can be difficult to keep a captive monkey healthy. For instance, monkeys often require specialized diets that can be expensive and time-consuming to prepare. Diabetes is common in pet monkeys due to the poor diets many owners feed them. This is just one disease that requires constant monitoring by you and your vet.

Behavioral Problems

A sweet, dependent baby monkey will eventually grow up to become the wild animal it was meant to be. Raising a monkey around humans won't change its wild nature, and pet monkeys will never truly become domesticated. In fact, depriving a pet monkey of normal social relationships with other monkeys can create behavioral problems and neuroses.

Pet monkeys often have a tendency to bite (and they have 32 teeth to deliver these nasty bites). While some monkeys are gentle, some are very aggressive. However, even the gentlest monkeys are unpredictable and might turn aggressive on anyone, including the person to whom they are the closest, especially during and after puberty.

Housing Pet Monkeys

Monkeys need a large, secure enclosure, which can be expensive to construct. They should spend time outdoors if possible. And they must be provided with a wide variety of ever-changing toys and exercise equipment to keep them challenged, or they will suffer from boredom. Some states require certain types of enclosures to fulfill permit regulations, but you should always have a place to secure your monkey to keep it and the public safe.

Moreover, monkeys are not clean and tidy. Most can't be effectively toilet trained. Many young monkeys can be diapered or at least partly toilet trained, but that ability is often lost at maturity. Plus, they might engage in distasteful activities involving their feces and urine (such as throwing it and painting with it). Aside from the toileting messes, pet monkeys also can be extremely mischievous and destructive, especially when they're bored.

The Bottom Line

Overall, monkeys are not good pets. Yes, some can be quite sweet for a time. But the reality is monkeys are capable of causing too much harm and need too much care and attention to thrive in a human household. These issues are equally as important when it comes to apes ( chimpanzees, orangutans, and gibbons). In short, non-human primates and human beings make poor housemates.

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It is not easy to take care of a pet monkey. Learn why one might not make the kind of cuddly pet you imagined.

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Affirmative: There are many homeless, and non-homeless people who are abusing opioids and all they need is help, and to solve this, we should add mental health workers in rehabs, homeless shelters with obvious unwell patients etc. As well as opioid medications should be supplied to them

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The Colorado Department of Human Services, Office of Behavioral Health contracts with 17 community mental health centers (CMHCs) for the provision of mental health treatment services to individuals and families who are low-income or not covered by insurance throughout Colorado. CMHCs are statutorily mandated to provide: (1) inpatient; (2) outpatient; (3) partial hospitalization; (4) emergency; and (5) consultative and educational services (C.R.S. §27.66.101). CMHCs provide these and other services through a variety of individual programs that are tailored to the specific needs of their communities.

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Community mental health centers | Colorado Department of Human Services

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The Colorado Department of Human Services, Office of Behavioral Health contracts with 17 community mental health centers (CMHCs) for the provision of mental health treatment services to individuals and families who are low-income or not covered by insurance throughout Colorado. CMHCs are statutorily…

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The future of transport: driving change in the next 10 years

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The future of transport: driving change in the next 10 years

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The way people are using transportation is damaging the earth, therefore a solution is more eco-friendly public transportation.

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Transporting people and goods is the largest contributor to UK carbon emissions, responsible for . In the US too, transportation is the second-largest source of (after power generation) and accounts for 70% of all domestic oil consumption.

The transition to is also accelerating rapidly, with electric vehicles set to be the cars of our now and immediate future. Sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be by 2030 in the UK, with £1.3bn ($1.5bn) UK government funding to support smart charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. New York has also announced that sales of nearly all gas- and diesel-powered cars and trucks in the state will be banned by 2035. The state says it will be spending about $1bn (£0.8bn) across all types of zero-emissions vehicles over the next 5 years.

Petroleum was first discovered in 1859, but our reliance on this fossil fuel must end to effectively tackle . Alternative renewable energy sources will continue to be investigated and implemented to fuel our transport. Electric battery-powered cars are currently in pole position in the fuel race.

There are currently 107 hydrogen fuelling stations in the US, most of which are in California as that's where almost all fuel cell vehicles are currently. However, the US government's goal is for there to be 200 hydrogen stations in California by 2025, with a total of 1000 envisioned by 2030. Once refuelling stations are then added in other states, the number of fuel cell vehicles will grow across the country. ¹

The UK government's fund has already funded three self-driving pilot projects: DRIVEN, a trial fleet of fully autonomous vehicles in urban and inter-urban areas that will culminate in autonomous journeys in Oxford and London; RoboPilot, creating autonomous driving for an electric delivery van that could be adapted to buses and larger trucks; and, StreetWise, a demonstration of the technology, safety validation, insurance and service models for autonomous personal mobility to replace the urban commuter car.

In the US, Ford, Argo AI and Walmart are collaborating on a delivery service located in Austin, Miami and Washington. The service will use Ford's self-driving vehicles paired with Argo AI's self-driving system technology. According to executives, delivery capacity is projected to expand over time.

Elon Musk called his open-sourced idea for a train system "a cross between a Concorde, railgun and an air hockey table". By 2030, could be whisking people and freight from London to Edinburgh in 45 minutes, or between New York and Washington DC in just 30 minutes. Reaching speeds of up to 670 miles per hour, the futuristic pods in Virgin Hyperloop are powered by electromagnets that push them through a vacuum tube, which eliminates the air resistance experienced by other modes of transport.

The UK government's is investing £125 million to develop greener ways to fly, including all-electric short haul aircraft, drone deliveries and autonomous flight technologies.

Perhaps we really will soon be zipping through the skies above our homes in electric plane pods.
Sources

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The future of transport: driving change in the next 10 years

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This next decade transport will be revolutionised with radical new inventions powered by renewable energy, in response to the twin concerns of pollution and congestion.

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Affrmtive
There have been many incident's  to racial unequity globey. Therefor a soultion is invest in distressed, racially segregated communities with money.

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Affirmative
While the global economic losses from conflict reached a staggering $1.04 trillion, just $21.8 billion was spent on trying to maintian peace paired with peace building actitives in schools