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Hello everyone,

My name is Christian Belsaguy and I am currently an MDC Kendall campus student. I was born in Mexico and moved here to the United States with my mom. I went to International Studies Charter High School and graduated in 2020. I am a business administration major who is interested in one day becoming an executive for a company or a high-ranking manager for a technology-centered company like Apple or Amazon. Some of my favorite hobbies are playing football and producing music in my off time and submitting it on my Spotify artist account. I would like to live somewhere in Homestead or if I had to choose somewhere outside Florida it would probably be Tennessee. I really like being surrounded by nature and in Homestead, I'd love to have a lot of fields and have my own little farm. I think my favorite food has to be a good grilled steak. I'm also very much into Cuban food since my mom is Cuban and I was said with Cuban spices. I would define success in several different ways. For example, I think success career-wise is finding something you love doing, and having it pay out how you feel is worth it. But success in life to me is different, it's about finding and building relationships with good foundations and people that will stick around even when life gets hard. Having these people around and prioritizing love around your life from friends and significant others is how I define success, and I would say that's the only success that really ends up mattering, everything else is just material and of little significance.

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I think the MDC Library is the most promising research tool. In libraries, people of all income levels and backgrounds can easily find good information, use computers, or use any of the other services the library offers. Lifelong learning is available to people of all ages in this place. It is great to have the citation generator on our library website. If you are doing research for a paper, this is a helpful tool. Your paper's references can be kept in an electronic database. Whether you want a work cited page in APA citation format, MLA citation format, or any other style you wish, we can help you.

For my research, I chose to examine traffic in Miami. As a result of reckless driving and being distracted by their mobile devices, traffic jams are caused due to inefficient use of green lights and responsibilities. Due to the high frequency of traffic congestion across Miami over the past few years along with a corresponding drastic increase, this topic was very interesting to me. It feels as if one can see the changes in traffic throughout a regular day compared to before when traffic was not so congested.

Quintana, A. (2019, June 7). Miami among worst in nation for traffic congestion, study says. NBC 6 South Florida. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/miami-among-worst-in-nation-for-traffic-congestion/129189/#:~:text=region%20as%20well.-,The%20study%20shows%20Miami%20has%20the%2012th%20worst%20traffic%20congestion,economic%20capacity%20to%20its%20limits

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Quintana, A. (2019, June 7). Miami among worst in nation for traffic congestion, study says. NBC 6 South Florida. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/miami-among-worst-in-nation-for-traffic-congestion/129189/#:~:text=region%20as%20well.-,The%20study%20shows%20Miami%20has%20the%2012th%20worst%20traffic%20congestion,economic%20capacity%20to%20its%20limits.

Traffic in Florida has gone downhill, particularly in Miami, as shown in this article, which lists Miami at spot number 12 across the entire nation. This shows us that resources and funds need to be distributed differently in order to help tackle the issue. Normally, someone would need to know how bad traffic is here in Miami in order to decide to move to the city, and given the number of people that are moving to Florida and especially Miami, this is more important now than ever.

How to beat Miami traffic on your next vacation. Florida Toyota Rental. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://floridatoyotarental.com/beat-miami-traffic-next-vacation

Another problem with traffic in Miami is how the tourism sector of the city gets affected by traffic and causes people to find Miami to be dreadful. According to the article, Miamians lose around 125 hours a year to traffic. Miami is different in that you will need a good understanding of its tolls and street systems to be able to make your way around. If you are able to understand this then, for the most part, it alleviates traffic worries. Anyone who lives in Miami must know when and at what times it is smartest to start headed home or what expressways to avoid at certain hours of the day because of traffic jams.

Torres, J. (2022, April 5). How living in Miami affects your car. Urolube. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://www.urolube.com/how-miami-affects-your-car/

Lastly, this article covers the effects that Miami traffic has on a car. Due to the constant braking and accelerating damage to the car’s mechanics. Apparently, it takes a heavy toll on the car’s transmission and makes it more likely for your car to break down. Another thing to keep in mind is the effects that driving has on a person leading them to drive aggressively or recklessly causing accidents and cases of road rage.

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What did you think or feel about the action or concept before you engaged in the activity?

Throughout this current spring semester after writing many different types of short essays and doing project research I would have to say that the SP assignments were my personal favorite. I found them to be not only shorter than the lengthy CAS assignments but they still provided an educational task to do research and learn more about different problems in the world. CAS assignments had their pros, as well, as they allowed me to dig deeper into different subjects and gain a deeper understanding of what I was researching. Before completing the activity, especially at the beginning of the semester, I was, to say the least, skeptical, about whether or not these assignments were pointless or time-consuming. Fortunately, that was not the case.

What expectations, associations, or assumptions did you have about the concept or action before you completed the activity?

The main topics I focused on while doing the SP assignments were pollution and traffic in Miami. For SP2 I chose to dig deeper into how bad traffic in Miami is and all the negative effects that it has on the environment, people, and their vehicles. The constant braking and accelerating have terrible tolls on a person’s vehicle and as traffic gets worse people to get more aggressive and desperate so they start to drive recklessly and activate their road rage. As Miami’s population grows bigger from so many people moving down to the state and city, traffic congestion is only getting worse and there need to be solutions put in place in order to combat this.

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“The Story of Bottled Water”:

https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-bottled-water/

In 'The Story of Bottled Water' we learn what the lies behind bottled water are and how they deceive us as consumers. Tap water being clean because it comes from the tap is something we tend to believe. Water bottled in plastic bottles is dirty in reality, but the bottled water industry doesn't want us to drink regular tap water. Advertisers scare consumers by showing pictures of forests and mountains on the bottles, which fools us into believing that the beverage is safe. A logo showing trees and a lake is the one for Zephyrhills. It costs about 2000 times more to buy bottled water than tap water, and there is less regulation. As you can see throughout the video, a lot of emphases is placed on the need for the nation to change its attitude towards education, better health, and investing in renewable energies. We can just drink tap water instead of playing in the hands of bottled water companies. Whenever we are determining whether a solution is right, we have to consider its effects on people and to what extent it may impact the population in the long term.

“The Story of Cosmetics”:

https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-cosmetics/

After watching the video about “The Story of Cosmetics”, I learned more about some important facts that beforehand I only knew very little about. In spite of all the toxins these products are giving humanity, they are approved by the FDA. As the narrator explains in the video, the companies don't care whether their products contain toxic chemicals, they only care about making money. They use toxic oil-based chemicals to make their products. Those who market hair relaxers to children, and those who sell skin whitening creams are even worse. The ingredients in these toxic 21 products as well as the message they convey about what beauty is make them toxic from both perspectives.

Reflection:

A. I believe consumption relates to our roles and my own personal role as a global citizen because of the effects both economically and environmentally that my consumption has. When contributing to companies for the products they sell to us, we don’t even research the effects that it could have on the environment. It is important we become smarter so that instead of just buying from companies we also try to learn about their methods and if they test on animals or use toxic chemicals in the production of their products. We become smarter global citizens when we do not give in to the traps of corporations and consume products in a much wiser way as to not consume irrationally and unnecessarily.

B. After watching the videos “The Story of Stuff” series, I have been inspired to change my mentality and shopping habits after learning the misinformation that companies spread in order to influence consumers to shop for their items. It is an unfortunate reality that we are constantly lied to and an even sadder reality that we constantly allow ourselves to fall for those lies. I don't appreciate being lied to and so after watching how big corporations use unethical forms of testing their items as well as advertising them and abusing the consumer I’ve been inspired to go about my shopping trends more maturely and think twice about what I spend my money on as well as what can be more beneficial to us all.

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#1: Tidal Energy could be huge =

When wind turbines are placed on the seafloor, they create tidal power, a renewable energy form that has existed at the bottom of the sea. Why do we still have such a long way to go with this technology despite the planet is 70% water? Legal and environmental concerns surround ownership of underwater property in the United States. Due to the lack of a solid guarantee that tidal energy will make a profit or benefit consumers, investors are not enthusiastic about it. In countries like France, South Korea, Australia, and Canada, it is believed that all households can be powered by wind turbines placed at tidal ranges. The problem with them is that even though they have amazing power, they are usually installed in wealthy countries and cost excessive amounts of money.

Parker, L. (2021, May 3). Plastic pollution facts and information. Environment. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution

#2: Fighting Food Waste

There is a great deal of food waste around the world. A food sharing app called Olio has been developed by Tessa Clarke. According to Ammar Ebrahim (the reporter), one way to waste less food is by sharing. A third of the food that we eat goes to waste, according to the United States. Whether you are on a diet, moving, or bought too much food, the app allows you to share that food with your neighbors. Clarke states that "Half of all food waste occurs in the home.” With her app, Clarke hopes to reduce food waste. (Clarke) Over five years, OLIO has achieved over 5 million users and has been recognized by a number of institutions, including the United Nations who described OLIO as a "beacon" for the world, and Vivatech which dubbed it the "Next European Unicorn".

Fighting Food Waste. Solutions UÂ®. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://solutionsu.solutionsjournalism.org/stories/fighting-food-waste

Reflection:

By avoiding the purchase of overly large quantities of food that you will not eat, which will ultimately go bad, you can reduce food waste. By reducing food waste, everyone suffering from malnutrition worldwide could be fed. An eco-friendly world is possible. challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. As a system, the system must be changed. Our focus is to look at the big picture and the small details. The article illustrates this beautifully. Media outlets lack the advantage of observing instead of simply following what is being said, which is what journalism provides. When the media are involved, we cannot always be certain that what is being reported is true. We must realize that it is our responsibility to make wise choices. Food waste is a real issue that we as consumers in the United States never stop to think about because of the abundance of sometimes. You can recycle food by using a smartphone app or a community refrigerator to share it with others. Every day we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess. Other people tend to overlook the situation and exemplify the issue. It is important for all of us to start playing our roles in society and be smarter with our actions so that we can be more efficient with our food and resources.

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We say that reusing is a way for us to save our planet from plastic contamination, however not in any event, reusing is being done well. This video shows how reusing is done in Germany to demonstrate it is the "champion reusing country". They sort all their rubbish and plastic in various canisters. The correspondent goes out in the first part of the day with an expert to get the plastics and is shocked to perceive how much plastic there is in so a brief period. Whenever they observe things that don't have a place in the plastics, they reject the sack and leave it there. There are around 40-60% of misthrows in plastic packs and receptacles as indicated by an industry affiliation. They tracked down a lot of family things in one of the plastic receptacles that had a carriage, and a tent, from there, the sky is the limit and didn't get it. All things considered, they put a red sticker that was marked as missorted. Toward the finish of the shift, they gathered 5.3 huge loads of plastic, metal, and more in eight hours of work. In the wake of arranging the plastic, it is arranged by size and weight. In this video, I discovered that we must be cautious with what we put as plastic on the grounds that not all things are viewed as plastic so it doesn't get reused despite everything causing contamination.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDFBbxMDi1U

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Katz, D. (n.d.). The surprising solution to Ocean Plastic. David Katz: The surprising solution to ocean plastic | TED Talk. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/david_katz_the_surprising_solution_to_ocean_plastic

The Plastic Bank is David Katz's largest chain of stores for the rich and the poor, and everything in the store can be bought with plastic waste: medical insurance, power, Wi-Fi, school tuition, cell phone minutes, high-efficiency stoves, sustainably sourced cooking fuel, and they keep adding more things that people need but cannot afford. As streets, door-to-door, and business-to-business collectors earn a living in Haiti by distributing materials from street to street and business to business similar to community centers. Weighing the material and checking its quality takes place before the material is transferred to the collectors' accounts.

Robinson, M. (n.d.). Why climate change is a threat to human rights. Mary Robinson: Why climate change is a threat to human rights | TED Talk. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/mary_robinson_why_climate_change_is_a_threat_to_human_rights?referrer=playlist-why_climate_change_is_a_human&autoplay=true

In this ted talk, the speaker was focusing on how climate change is being a threat to human rights. During her presidency of Ireland, she didn't have to purchase real estate on the mainland of Europe because the island was below sea level, so her citizens could easily travel there. She studied climate change from a different perspective than a scientist or lawyer, looking at it from the perspective of its impact on the people. Her eyes were filled with images of polar bears and melting glaciers, so she could only imagine the effect this would have on our human rights. Rights to nutrition, infrastructure, shelter, health care, and education.

Reflection:

Since the 1970s, we have contributed to climate change becoming increasingly severe. People may not believe it is real and may think it is all a scam or a hoax. Then they complain about how things in our world are getting worse. Increasing the number of houses and buildings means destroying the habits of wild animals. In addition to creating pollution with gases, we are polluting our water by spilling chemicals into it and by chucking plastics into it, killing animals in the process. We really want to meet up to quit damaging our planet. Assuming we cooperate we can decrease the harm that we cause and people in the future can perceive how wonderful it is.