Problems facing society today in 2013

Amanda and I chose to present about climate changes.  We did a small powerpoint on the issue and discussed 5 concerns that the white house is dealing with. 

1. Building a more weather and climate resilient society
2. Maintaining weather and climate observation and forecasting capabilites
3. Climate change mitigation
4. Containing the rising costs of natural disasters
5. A revised climate research agenda

What I took from the research and the assignment is that climate changes are inevitable, especially with the way the world uses its resources.  Right now, to the Obama administration, jobs and economic growth is most important...which it is.  But is all of that going to matter when we are having storms like hurricane Sandy hitting us every month?  This topic just keeps getting put on the back burner.  It is something that needs to be addressed now.  Hopefully, throughout this next election in 2016 it will be a bigger concern.  Increased awareness is the most important thing for now...and establishing a more proactive approach versus a "rebuilding after the consequences" approach. 

End of Suburbia-review and reaction

The documentary "End of Suburbia"  was about how we have "peaked" at the amount of oil that the world has left to consume.  In this documentary it explored how we have come to this "peak", what has brought us to it, and what we are going to have to do about it. 

In summary, the movie discussed how Americans built houses away from the city and created a suburban life.  In this new way of life they were away from the hustle and bustle of the city, but it brought consequences...transportation was necessary.  This marked the greatest issue in conserving oil and the documentary even said, "put us in the wrong direction".  Subarbs wouldn't exist without cheap oil.  Eventually all of the transportation, and oil needed to support the suburban lifestyle has put us in a shortage of oil.  "Normal way of life has come to an end". 

Its no secret that the US depends on oil to survive.  The amount of energy we consume every day is astonishing.  I found this movie to be very educational, and informative.  I was shocked at some of the things that haven't been brought to our attention before, and the documentary posed a good question...why isn't the media informing us of this crisis that will eventually happen?!?  Oil will run out, what are we doing to change our lifestyles...and will it be enough? 

Here is a list of some of the key points that I picked out from the documentary:

• Natural gasses can't be extracted in amounts needed to replace oils.
• We have to grow electricity, or we can't grow our economy-old way of thinking.
• Buying and consuming was in our best interest-but not anymore.
• Walmarts have destroyed interdependency.
• Suburban destiny is a hopeless mess.
• We need to start preparing for a real problem -but how?
• No easy quick fixes to this crisis.
• New urbanism-a solution
• Suburbia will be the "slums of the future".

This documentary will probably be on my mind for a few days, and I might try to cut back on some energy spending...but then in a few weeks I will most likely forget about it and keep on with my normal life.  I'm sure that this is the case with most Americans and our lazy attitudes.  Sad but true.

Imagine changes society

Imagine changes society could make to the criminal justice system that would stop crime with out incarceration.

Here are my thoughts:

1: Teach children young about major consequences. In high school, there should be a type of class where kids have to learn about punishments for non-victim acts. If people really knew what the consequences were, and how prison might effect their role in society then perhaps they wouldn't commit them in the first place.

2. We need to look at other countries whose crime rates are lower, and also their incarceration rates are lower. What are they doing that we are not? What types of victimless crimes are punishable there? What are their prisons like?

3. Obviously people who have committed a horrific crime need to be "locked up". But what about the person that is caught once with an illegal drug? What good is prison doing for them? Why not have their punishment be acts of service? I suppose we do already have "community service", but maybe it's not enough.

An excerpt of an article in the NY Times reads:

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China's extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63.

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

There is little question that the high incarceration rate here has helped drive down crime, though there is debate about how much.

We are doing an okay job at keeping our crime rates low, but at what cost? Millions and millions of dollars!

Another article reads:

Many programs in other nations have preemptively reduced crime.

Based on the efforts of other nations, it is estimated that encouraging social development of children and families decreases crime and yields returns up to $7.16 for every $1 spent. In order to decrease crime by 10%, $228 additional tax dollars per family would need to be spent on incarceration compared to just a $32 dollar increase to help at-risk children complete school.

Other nations effectively use creative programs to decrease crime and recidivism

. Project Turnaround in New Zealand allows the offender, victim, and community representatives to attempt to come to terms with the crime committed and to create a plan of action for the offender to make amends to the victim and the community. Less than 10% of offenders are referred back to the court for not fulfilling the agreed-upon plan. This system received an International Community Justice Award in 2000 for "reducing reconviction rates while retaining public confidence."

Different philosophies are used in other nations in terms of prisoner treatment

. In Cuba, the emphasis is more on rehabilitation and a return to the community than on punishment or societal isolation. Prisoners are allowed to wear street clothes, earn a comparable income (to that of a free person who holds the same occupation), and are incarcerated in their home province no matter what their security level is. Additionally, prisoners become eligible for a conditional release program halfway through their sentence (for sentences of under five years), through which they work on farms or in factories with co-workers who are not informed of their prisoner status. Through this program, offenders are also able to visit their families at home (unsupervised) twice a month for three days at a time. Of those prisoners who participate in alternative programs such as the conditional release program, the recidivism rate is about 15%."

Or...why don't we just send all of our prisoners to an island? good plan.

2012 Election Insights on the Changing Dynamics of American Society.

      My topic is from this article.  The claim in this article is that the outcome of the 2012 election was heavily dependent on the topic of immigration.  It claims that "Latinos helped lift President Barack Obama to victory", and it did. 

      71 percent of the Latinos that voted, voted for President Obama.  Romney only received 27 percent of the Latino vote.  This is a huge drop for the Republicans.  In 2004 the Republican party had 44 percent of these votes.  The article claims that if "Romney had picked up even 35 percent of the Latino vote, Tuesday's election may have turned out differently".  In a survey 31 percent said they would be more likely to vote Republican if the party took a role in passing a bill with a pathway to citizenship. 

      This election has given the insight to the world that American society is changing.  The Latino culture is now playing a huge role in America's demographics.  It is proven through this election that they are making an impact on American Society.  Latino culture is part of America's "mixing bowl", and their ingredient in the bowl is only getting larger and more flavored. 

      Most Americans would agree that we have a problem on immigration, and that the immigration system is somewhat broken.  This article suggests that the Republicans need to take this as a priority, and make a solution if they are going to be able to get the majority of the Latino vote in the future.  "I don't know what the policy would look like, but we can't be afraid of the conversation," said Rep. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican. 

       "For the first time in U.S. history, the Latino vote can plausibly claim to be nationally decisive" Gary Segura, A Standford University professor.   I think that this is a wake up call for those Americans who wont open their eyes and realize that the Latino community is a part of American culture.  They need to acknowledge that Latinos do have a voice here, and that they have greatly impacted our society.  They are here to stay and obviously had a huge effect on the outcome of this election.