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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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