The topic I selected to research was Public Transportation. We've experienced a tremendous growth in population and automobiles on our roadways, but we still don't have any public transportation in our part of the county. Elected authorities have consistently sought and supported transit funding, and they continue to prioritize a transit plan for Northeast Dade, actively supporting a regional study and proposal for a "Lite Rail" on our FEC train tracks that would give a viable alternative to driving. The commissioner continues to work with the Florida Department of Transportation, as well as county and city Public Works departments, to expedite all road projects and improvements, including increasing Special Transportation Services (STS) for people with disabilities, Golden Passport free rides for seniors, and increased bus service where needed. (miamidade.gov)

Works Cited:

District 4 issues. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://www.miamidade.gov/global/government/commission/district04/district-4-issues.page

Last year, nearly every major transportation agency in the country suffered a drop in passenger, and Miami was no exception. In fact, the decline has been particularly pronounced, with a 25 percent loss since 2013. The mainstream narrative portrays public transportation as fundamentally inferior to driving, or places blame on newcomers to the transportation sector, such as Uber. However, those views are based on speculation and intuition rather than study.

The Commissioner organized a Workforce Housing workshop, is a member of the South Florida Regional Planning Council, which created an affordable housing policy, and actively promotes County and State plans to lower housing prices through government incentives and subsidies. Commissioner Sally Heyman mandated that any residential building proposals in the unincorporated District 4 region include "reduced prices" dwellings to help meet Miami-housing Dade's requirements. Until the end of 2006, four projects have been authorized.

According to University of Connecticut professor Norman Garrick, the advantages of public transportation greatly outweigh the disadvantages, thus gridlocked towns like Miami must cease constructing themselves as car-centric locations to live and work. Taking public transportation is less expensive and less stressful than driving. People who cannot afford to purchase a car can use public transportation. It minimizes pollutants while improving the aesthetics of cities.

 

CAS4 was also a big eye opener to me. I didn’t know much about the clothing industry and its bad practices. The popular clothing brand, SHEIN, is very cheap and appeals to young people who don’t know what goes into making these cheap clothing. SHEIN’s clothing has been proven to contain dangerous levels of lead and other harmful substances. These substances are harmful to employees, the environment, and consumers who purchase their clothing, whether new or used. They claim to be concerned about the environment, when they don’t do much at all do stop their environmental footprint. As a result of learning all of this, I won’t be buying from them any time soon. 

SP2 was a very helpful assignment for me. I didn’t know the amount of resources I had to my disposal until this assignment. I didn’t even know there was a MDC learning resources website that we could use for sources and helping us in writing. This assignment also reminded about the differences between the common writing formats like MLA and APA. I have been used to MLA for a while because a lot of professors I’ve had use it. The APA format was one that I wasn’t very used to, so it was informative learning more about it.

SP3 expanded on SP2 and using its resources affectively. I wrote about the flaws in the public transportation in Miami. Miami is a major city, and when you compare our public transportation system to other major cities, ours is very inconsistent. Almost everyone drives a car because it is a necessity in Miami. If we had a better metro system, people could rely on cars less which would create less traffic and less pollution from cars. I learned about more local problems in this activity and the affects our problems have on the environment.

CAS2 was another eye-opening assignment. I had no idea the effects of producing plastic had on the people who lived in those cities near the production. The first video was sad to watch because it gave light to the people who had firsthand experiences living in these plastic producing towns. The people would talk about how it affects their health and the people they have known who have been hospitalized because of dangerous chemicals. Imagine having to deal with that in your own hometown, it sounds terrible. It really broadened my perspective to how these big companies do not care for the people they are affecting. They are also hurting the environment with all these dangerous chemicals they are emitting in the air. Learning about this inspired me to be more cautious of what companies I support and knowing what goes into making these products. We as the consumers have the power to make a company change their actions by simply not buying their products.

In this video, it speaks about the dangers and detrimental effects that plastic has on towns and communities such as the one in this video, Houston Texas. Plastic not only pollutes our oceans, but the chemicals from these factories producing plastic, are affecting the health of the people living in these towns. There have been many health incidents and reports related to the chemicals from these factories, and the worst part about it is that the people in these towns don’t even know they are being exposed to these toxic chemicals. Imagine living somewhere your whole life and you didn’t even know the air you breathe was unhealthy. This video really sheds light on something that not a lot of people know about in the production of plastic and how it harms the people.

In this video, it talks about a solution to plastic pollution, it talks about a plastic bottle deposit system. Basically, if you deposit these plastic bottles in these machines, you get a little money back. This incentives people to recycle, even though we should already recycle. Some country’s already use this system, for example, Norway uses this system, and they recycle ninety-seven percent of their bottles. The state of Michigan has implemented this system and has increased their recycling rate by eighty-four percent. This just goes to show that this system really works and really gets people to recycle. If we were to use this system, it would mean less plastic pollution, more jobs, and fewer fossil fuels being used to produce our plastic.

A) Consumption relates to my role as a global citizen because it is accustomed in our society to consume. Big corporations have taken over and controlled what we consume. Most of the time these corporations do not have the best interest of the consumer, but of themselves to make the most money they can. Us as consumers must be cautious and watch what we consume and how we consume this stuff because we can not let these corporations control us. We have to speak out and make a change because if we don’t, the plastic and the pollution won’t change unless we do something it. These corporations don’t want to change because it makes them the most money, but we have to show that we want a change.

B) The Story of Stuff videos really inspired me to be more cautious and more aware of what I consume and how the production of these products affects people. It really opened my eyes to something I did not know about before. I knew plastic affected the environment and the oceans, but the production of it also affects the health of the people in these communities near these factories. I want to be more active and know what is happening in the production of these products we consume. We need to find more ethical ways of producing these products to lessen the pollution and stop these chemicals going into the air we breathe.

This article talks about how textbooks are so expensive and a potential solution to this problem. Instead of using traditional textbooks, Reedley College is educating educators to use free educational materials. According to a survey in the article, 53% of students avoided going to school full time due to the high expense of textbooks. Adults without a high school graduation are found in significant numbers in California countries such as Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare. Open educational resources, or OERs, are freely available online content with an open license. They are available in the form of eBooks or online platforms that enable students to take quizzes and complete assignments. Reedley College is on the verge of launching many degree programs with no textbook costs. (Panoo, 2021)

This article speaks about how special needs students have faced challenges in the college system and a solution to it. The number of participants in the University of Colorado's inclusion program has increased from three in its first year to 21 this year. Students with Down syndrome, autism, and other intellectual challenges are frequently denied admission to colleges. Colorado is one of the worst states in the US when it comes to providing post-secondary options for intellectually impaired persons, ranking 48th. The inclusion program substitutes entry examinations with a staff review, and once enrolled, it helps students grasp what is being taught in class, as well as navigate the big campus and participate in recreational and social events. (Kelley, 2021)

As a dual-enrollment student, I have a perspective from a high school student and college students’ point of view to an extent. The idea of replacing textbooks with open educational resources sounds like a great idea in my opinion. Even though I do not pay for textbooks, I see how expensive they and I could not afford them for sure. Tuition is already a lot of money, so having very expensive textbooks on top of that is just so expensive, especially for young people who often do not have much money. I believe if a student wants open educational resources, they can choose that and not pay money. If they want to buy a hard copy of a textbook or rent one, they should have that option open to them as well. The second article speaks about special needs students and their challenges in college. As someone who has met other students with special needs, they should not have any more challenges to get into college than a student with no special needs. A lot of students with special needs are as smart as the normal students or smarter. They just learn at a different pace a lot of the time. Colleges should definitely accommodate for them and open opportunities for these students to shine.

Panoo, A., 2021. Pricey textbooks holding Fresno college students back. Could this fix the problem? The Fresno Bee. Available at: <https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education-lab/article249864128.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker> [Accessed 30 January 2022].

Kelley debbie.kelley@gazette.com, Debbie (2021, February 16). Special-needs students are college-bound: UCCS graduates first class in May. Colorado Springs Gazette. Retrieved January 30, 2022, from https://gazette.com/premium/special-needs-students-are-college-bound-uccs-graduates-first-class/article_285a471c-33e6-11ea-b11e-d75f88d5740c.html?utm_source=Solutions%2BStory%2BTracker

In this Ted Talk, Susan Ruffo speaks about the ocean and how we can lower our footprint in the planet. She says we don’t have easy solutions to solve this problem, we must work hard to save our ocean. The ocean can be used as a powerful resource to help save us. The ocean is frequently portrayed as a climate change victim in need of human intervention. But, according to her, that thinking must change. Ruffo emphasizes the ocean's ready-made answers to the climate issue, from carbon storage to coastal community safety. With more than 80% of the ocean yet unexplored, there could be so many solutions we don’t even know about. (Ruffo)

Citation: Ruffo, S. (n.d.). The ocean's ingenious climate solutions. Susan Ruffo: The ocean's ingenious climate solutions | TED Talk. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_ruffo_the_ocean_s_ingenious_climate_solutions?language=en

 

In this Ted Talk, David Kats speaks about the detrimental effects of plastic being dumped in the ocean. Animals are being endangered, and potentially going extinct because of this. The Plastic Bank's ambitious ambition is to open a global chain of businesses where customers can buy everything from school supplies to cooking fuel in return for plastic waste, which is then sorted, shredded, and sold to companies who reuse "social plastic" in their products. He emphasizes about this step in the circular economy's completing the loop. He says, "Preventing Ocean plastic pollution could be humanity's most valuable chance” (Katz). If we come together to prevent the ocean, we could live a better and healthier life overall. Plastic in the ocean isn’t just affecting the animals, it’s affecting us and our earth.

Citation: Katz, D. (n.d.). The surprising solution to Ocean Plastic. David Katz: The surprising solution to ocean plastic | TED Talk. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/david_katz_the_surprising_solution_to_ocean_plastic

These Ted Talks are innovative because they try to give you solutions to these problems about our environment and how to help. They try to inspire you to make a change and try to help reduce your carbon footprint because of the detrimental effects. They both speak about how the plastic in the ocean is horrible for our environment. It endangers species and could lead to their extinction. This is harming our ecosystem and if we don’t stop, it could permanently harm it. I learned how eighty percent of our ocean is unexplored and how many solutions we could find by exploring it. If we recycle the plastic instead of dumping it, we can use it so much more efficiently in so many ways. This relates to my own experiences and community because I live in Miami, a city right next to the ocean. We as a city should be helping the most since we will be affected by it the most since we are so close to it. The actions I am inspired to take after learning about this is to take more part in my community to help clean and reduce plastic in the ocean. Yesterday I helped volunteer to pick up trash in Miami beach. It was a fun experience, and it feels rewarding to help out your community.