GPHC 2019-2020

For this week’s blog, I read National Geographic’s article: “How to feed the world without destroying the planet”. This article explored the challenges of sustainably feeding a growing population which experts predict will reach 10 billion by 2050. Agriculture itself uses almost half of the world’s vegetated land, consumes 90 percent of all the water used by humanity and generates one-quarter of the annual global emissions that are causing global warming. What makes these numbers even more striking is that 12% of the world’s population still remains malnourished. In an interview, Richard Waite of the World Resources Institute (WRI) claims that ideally, to solve this issue we would need to increase the amount of produce per land area by at least 30 percent, stop cutting down trees, and reduce carbon emissions for food production by two-thirds. At the same time, poverty levels, pollution and negative environmental impacts of farming must decrease while natural habitats and freshwater res...

Jack Gross 10/29/2019 Response to "(10/21/19) Catalan update here. Sovereignty folks!" I picked this article because it was about something that I am personally connected with as I have a friend who lives in Barcelona and I thought that it would be nice to see what an outside news source would have to say and to see the differences between what she has had to say and what the news said. The article talks about how the Catalonian independence movement began a few years ago and resistance towards the independence movement began to gather in the form of a campaign by the Spanish Government. This campaign intended to "decapitate" the movement but has pretty much failed. Even with the resistance from the Government there have been a growing number of mobilizations through protests and civil disobedience by the people. However the independence movement has had many disadvantages. All of the news that I have been able to see here in the states has only talked about t...

The Economist has a unique ranking system for judging livability in the worlds cities. It is unique because it has cities at the top that you wouldn't normally think of as being very significant, with the exception of a few notable ones. These notable cities would be Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. They claim this is because overcrowding typically has a negative impact on the livability of a city, which is why you typically find medium sized cities doing the best in the rankings. They said that medium sized cities in wealthy countries are usually the ones that dominate the list. This makes me wonder why the US doesn't even have a city in the top 20. We are a very wealthy country, yet all of our cities are relatively worse compared to other countries. I wonder why that is? My answer is that since they take in many factors, around 30 to be exact, a couple of the factors will likely be much lower in the US. One of these will probably be education, because the US education system needs ...

I read “How to Return a Farm to the Wild—And Maybe Save the Planet” by Isabella Tree. I thought it was a fascinating piece about returning urban farmland to nature and allowing natural biological processes to happen and species to roam. What I found most interesting was how she talked about how difficult this process is for humans because we have to let go of control and let nature take over. This is paired, however, with a need to connect with nature, according to Tree. Thinking especially about urban cities, I can see how this is true. People want grass and trees and flowers in their yards, but they have to be perfectly manicured, and are chosen based on looks over nativity. The experiment that this article is about shows, however, that nature really does know what it is doing, and natural nature is much more healthy and lively than controlled nature.  Relinquishing control of something like nature is a strong choice, and I think it can relate to many other parts of life and...

The livability of cities; lists like these, measuring some metric that seemingly is impossible to view quantitatively but at the same time seems very quantitative, always interest me. Of course, something as broad as livability is far different from something such as highest crime rate; that can easily measured as 'criminal instances per 1000 people', for example. But livability must be based on numerous factors. Nowadays at least, organizations do a pretty good of combining different factors to give rankings that are supportable by evidence. This is particularly true from looking at the Economic Intelligence Unit's data on the most livable cities. Their index measures things such as public transport, economic well being, and other metrics that show how serviceable a city is to its inhabitants. This is why cities that routinely produce the most innovative products and companies and have the largest economies, such as New York City or Shanghai, do not make the list. Instead,...

A large portion of our population has reached 65 and older, as longevity in ones life is predominantly viewed as a positive it does bring along many socioeconomic issues. The main issues to an older globe population are as followed, the enormous  of money going towards caring for the elderly, maintaining a labor force, as well as structure pension systems.The more developed countries in the world have been aging for a while now so they are getting more acclimated to how to assess these issuesOn the other hand less- developed or developing countries are getting older before they are getting richer or strengthening their economy.Of the more developed countries the US is experiencing less of a problem than others due to the highly above average fertility rates among our immigrant population.Relating to that last sentence on another note, our immigrant population is whats stabilizing our population in a way, However that doesn’t mean we aren’t already experiencing backlash from the b...

I read the article on 'Season of Discontent: Protests Flare Around the World' With globalization, it seems that the way people interact with their government and how they might rebel has been influenced by the internet and modern globalization. The article likely touches on this, but due to people having access to seeing what life is in other nations and have another situation they can compare their own to and can observe their disparities relative to other countries. I think about how this is something that has to do with soft power significantly, especially when it comes to ideologies. Citizens that might be subjected to an authoritarian government might have a seed of unrest if they come into contact with cultural ideas of freedom that have permeated the borders from a democratic nation. It seems to be the case that it is much easier for people to recognize illegitimacy in their own government once they are exposed to what a legitimate government might look like. The U...

An article by CNBC shared information regarding the huge wealth gap not just in America but across the world. Included in this article was a chart to help individuals find where on a scale from -2-11 they would fall under. The chart shows that roughly 1.5 billion people live under the -2-2 range while only 2 people in the entire world can be ranked an 11. What shocked me most was looking at the income required to meet these ranges. In order to reach a 4 your family must have a net worth of at least $10,000, this level is recognized as possibly being able to afford a car but not yet afford a mortgage on a house. Levels -2 through 4 account for 4.5 billion people, that is over a half of the population of the entire world that does not make enough money to afford a home. In response to this many people, including millionaires, are bringing to question how much money is too much for a single person to have. I agree with the statement made by Mark Zuckerberg in response to Bernie Sanders...

I chose to read this article because I found it to be very pertinent in today’s society. It is undeniable that social media and the internet have played a huge role in our global society, however a large portion of the change is in social media and politics/government. As the article talks about, “fake news” is a term becoming more and more colloquial as it becomes a more often occurrence. There are many people who make a living off of doctoring photos and mastering photoshop in order to create images for the public to see that depict an inaccurate idea, or convey inaccurate information. While it is true that many developed and developing countries use social media in order to campaign, or advertise aspects of their government or people within them, there is so much that happens that has absolutely nothing to do with the truth of the government or political stances. There are articles written all over the place, making up stories about what the U.S president is doing, or what the rul...

While Yosemite's sequoias are well known as the ancient trees which populate Yosemite, Terry Tempest Williams urges each of us to listen in on their messages. Terry Williams speaks with an ex-lead biologist at Yosemite, Sue Beatty, who tells us her story. She talks on how she often would walk through the millennia old groves of Sequoias and listen in on what they were 'saying'. One day she imagined the big trees speaking to her, saying "We are suffering. We are dying. Can you hear us?" She saw the roots of the trees had been parked on, that the ground water was being diverted away, and that the great trees continued to grow despite their proximity to the road. Sue had a vision of restoration, and proposed an analysis of the grove. They gathered the info, which allowed them to begin work on improving the habitat of these great sequoias. It seemed that the main issue was that the trees could not breathe, the soul had packed around the roots, and the xylem and phloem...

Mia Stankowski GPHC Mr. Roddy 10/23/19 A Decline in the US's Soft Power https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-019-0227-8     The decline of soft power by the US began just after 9/11 with the Bush Doctrine which used unilateral decision making to overpower anyones thoughts of soft power. However just recently with the Trump presidency the US faced a significant drop in soft power due to his "America First" policy. However the idea of soft power is non-existant without hard power, in fact in the past couple decades the US has been using smart power which is the happy medium we seem to use a military force mixed with economics to get what we want. In another recent issue that pertains to this in a way, Russia has been trying out more soft power to subvert politics in the west (the US). 

Izabella Curtis Mr. Roddy GPHC 27 October 2019 Hong Kong Crisis         Hong Kong was a British colony up until 1997 when the United Kingdom gave the region to China with a treaty. This treaty agreed to let Hong Kong remain semiautonomous which basically means they would technically be apart of China but they will not use their form of government and will have separate markets and courts. These protests groups called the "umbrellas" are happening because there is a extradition bill that allows mainland China to ignore Hong Kong's legal system and punish public dissidents. This bill was suspended in June but the people in Hong Kong are still protesting because they want the bill to be formally withdrawn and they want to have expanded voting rights. Mainland China is very upset about this they are calling the Hong Kong Crisis an "internal affair".         #FightForHongKong! I honestly can't believe China is calling this giant protest...

The article I checked out was how to feed the world sustainably. This article mainly talks about how if we need everyone to have a healthy diet in 2050, we need to make some serious changes. If we want everyone to continue leading a normal life. It explains how agriculture uses half the worlds vegetative land, uses 90% of all water used by humans, and generates 1/4 of emissions that lead to global warming. And, the article says, 820 million are not fed because they can't afford food. As a solution, Waite says we need to do produce 30% more food in the same land area, stop deforestation, and cut down carbon emissions by food production by 2/3. He also says this all has to be done while reducing poverty levels and maintaining the levels and habitat loss. There are 22 "solutions" to this issue which address specific solution based on where you live. Some of the biggest solutions he found reduced food waste, switch the diets of high-meat consumers to partially plant-based foo...

Charlie McGill Mr. Roddy GPHC 10/28/2019 How the World Would Look in 2050 For this weeks blog, I read the Times article “Hello From the Year 2050. We Avoided the Worst of Climate Change — But Everything Is Different” by Bill McKibben. The article is an informative and entertaining read--I strongly recommend it--but I’m mixed on some of the predictions it makes and the future he claims will happen. The first prediction is that a democrat will win 2020, with a “green vote” coming out of the shadows and voting in favor of aggressive climate policy, such as The Green New Deal. I do not think this will happen. In the article the green vote romps President Trump because of a devastating storm that takes place in the weeks before the election. This is very unlikely to happen, and although I can picture a green vote influencing the election, I still believe that our current president will stay in power. Our culture hasn’t shifted to one where climate change is the main focus, and since...

I read The Sift's article about the recent rise in government usage of cyber-disinformation and discussion of how to combat it. It discussed the proliferation of the technique and pointed to a few examples of cyber disinformation and how they were identified as fake. It seems that as we become more interconnected through the internet, the influence of soft cyber power is growing substantially. Tools exist more than ever to spread a lie not just among your own community, but among the entire world. At the same time though, the ability to spread truth is much greater too. I respect what The Sift is doing spreading education on how to fact check online, because if people can avoid being deceived, the internet can be a massive tool for good. That said, there is definitely a lot of challenge in educating the masses on fact checking. It's definitely not an easy skill, especially when dealing with committed liars, and in order to effectively spread truth its necessary to teach every...

Bill McKibben’s article written as if it were from the year 2050 provides a well thought out glance at what the future of this planet might hold. McKibben very clearly illustrates an, although somewhat dark, relatively optimistic future. I strongly agree with the assumption that social activism will move companies and governments to address climate change head-on. Discounting the power that the wants of the general population have is a mistake I feel is often made in political and economic prediction pieces. Peter Zeihan often makes this mistake in his book "The Accidental Superpower". When he states that shale will be the main source of America's energy in the coming years, he is not properly accounting for the green movement that has been sweeping the nation. McKibben fully realizes the impact social advocation has on policy and economics as they relate to the environment. Just as plastic straws are disappearing from restaurants due to public outcry, so will the wides...

What Will the World Be Like in 2050? The article I read was called "How the World Would Look in 2050 if We Solved Climate Change", and it was by Bill McKibben. The article basically talked about all of the things that would be different in 2050 if the issue of climate change had been solved. Some of the things he mentioned that would change were that renewable energy would be the cheapest source of energy, that India would require people to drive electric cars or ride electric scooters in urban areas, and that there would be a new Ford E - 150 that would have replaced the F - 150. McKibben also talked about how the government would take more action to help end climate change in the US and all over the world by making alliances. Something the author mentioned in the article that I found particularly surprising was that since the world had started acting on climate change so late, there was permanent damage to the Earth that could've been prevented. Some things that chan...

John Mazziotti Mr. Roddy GPHC October 27th, 2019 “How Russia and China Are Planning to Exploit a Warming Planet” - Reflection Climate change is affecting today’s society like never before, hurdling hurricanes, wildfires, etc at our cities at higher rates than before. The melting ice in the Arctic is opening up a new door of territory to 3 major superpowers: Russia, the US, and China. The ice melting is a great opportunity for these countries to reign dominance over each other, and discover new access points for arctic oil drills. Russia and the US are contesting this territory because if one or the other gets a large portion of the arctic, they could be at one's doorstep. This is a conflict that will be very hard to solve due to the opportunity that the arctic holds for these countries. Like Antarctica, no country officially has any rule over the arctic, rather, they just have (scientific research) outposts set up that retain to their country. I don’t know of any current...

Justin Patera Mr. Roddy GPHC 10/27/19 Financial Ranking I think I would be a 5 based off of my family… not that that really matters. Did I realize that our global wealth was this unequal? Not nec necessarily but am I surprised? Not in the least. Buffett is right, our economies seem to be extremely good at rewarding those on top which is continuing to put those on the lower levels in worse and worse situations. Having said that, it’s great that people like him, Bill Gates and Zuccerborg have pledged a large sum of money to help those in lower brackets per say but I also find that kind of odd. They have so much money and it’s great that someone like Zuccerborg is giving away such a large amount but I’m not sure how many of the other people in that category of 9 or 10 would be willing to do the same. Our priority, especially now a days, seems to be pretty consistent with us, us, us. Sure these few people donate and provide to the poor however, there are so many others of whom ...

This week I read 'How to feed the world without destroying the planet.' It was about the connection we have with food in relation to global warming. One major point covered in the article was why we should cut down on our meat intake. I myself am not a vegetarian or vegan so I'm going to sound like such a hypocrite saying the following. Here are just a few reasons we should cut down on the amount of meat we eat:1. It uses a ridiculous amount of water (for the animals to drink and to grow the crops the animals are eating). 2. It takes a LOT of farmland to grow enough crops for the animals to eat. 3. Commercial fishing leads to the destruction of coral reefs and other forms of ocean life. 4. The raising of these animals generates as much greenhouse gas emissions as all cars, trucks, and automobiles combined. As Americans meat is major a part of our daily life and it comes with almost every meal. We eat around 270 pounds of meat in a year per person, whereas areas such as Bang...

Sarah Laskin Cyber Power PDF Summary/Analysis Cyber power is the newest form of power, and in general it is pretty new to our world. In the few short years it has been around, the Internet (and technology in general) has taken the world by storm. Now, messages can be sent in microseconds across the world, robots can be remotely controlled and you can tell your oven to preheat as you're coming home from the supermarket. But, while there are so many uses for individual consumers to utilize technology, there are so many more for governments and other organizations. Trade deals can be negotiated without having to be in the same country let alone the same room. Technology and research can be shared, and so can communications and military chatter. Social media is important to both the individuals and the governments and organizations. Facebook and Twitter are both used in at least 50 countries regularly, and both platforms are used for spreading of news and events quickly and ...

Callista Wilson Mr. Roddy Global Politics and Historical Contexts 27 October 2019 The article, One Country, Two Nationalities, discusses how people in Hong Kong are reacting to mainland China’s growing oversight through demonstrations, separation within the region, and a growing sense that being a Hong Konger and being Chinese may no longer be synonymous. It is explained that people within the city are becoming and less trusting of immigrants and tourists from the mainland, because they are causing work to become scarce, living prices to increase, and a threat to the consistency of Cantonese culture. Also, many Hong Kongers wish to isolate themselves from China’s undemocratic leadership, and strive for more autonomy, while others do not believe in acting against the police during protests, which has led to divisions within many families.      When reading this article, I found it interesting to think about how Hong Kong’s history as a British colony a...

Emily Routbort Mr. Roddy GPHC 27 October 2019 Are There Too Many Old People?      Studies show that there are too many people over the age of 65 and there are less 5 year olds in  comparison. This is viewed as bad because they are not working and are consuming. I read that many countries are having this problem and I viewed that the problem was partially due to the culture of the countries. For instance the one child policy in China created a large age gap and and uneven amount of age groups. I think that people are so involved in becoming successful and they grow old and "forget to have children." Children are so important because they are the next generation that will carry the world, but we can't have a large baby boomer era because that results in a large and uneven population of elderlies. Which is something that the US is struggling with now. While elderly people have so much knowledge and have value too many people, they are not contributing to ...

I read the article the FBI lost our son. It is about a boy named Billy Riley. In this article it is talking about a boy who was part of the FBI who was not a full time agent, did not get paid as much as the rest, and do not have protection for him. He had gone to Russia, and never came back. The FBI kept telling the boys parents what had happened, they said they did not know anything about his trip to Russia. The parents found the missing boy’s phone and found out that the FBI did know of his trip, and they must know what happened to him. Why would the FBI cover something like this up? He was very smart, he had begun to teach himself Arabic and Russian laguages and had converted to Islam. The missing boy, Billy got his bachelor’s degree in biology from Oakland University. They think he met a russian biologist on his trip, and the parents found his instagram account and messaged him. The russain biologist is important because it shows the FBI knew he was there, seeing as they knew he wa...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-protests/season-of-discontent-protests-flare-around-the-world-idUSKBN1X127J?utm_source=applenews My main reaction to this article is a mixture of shock and surprise. I knew that there were a lot of protests going on like Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon, and the Climate Strikes, but I had not idea that there were even more than that. The article mentions that social media allowed protestors to communicate quickly and also see how the other protests are doing, which I totally agree with. I can't go on social media without seeing at least one thing about one of the many different protests going on in the world right now. Perhaps it's been a chain reaction of different groups seeing these big protests in places like Hong Kong actually making some progress that's inspired people in other places such as Catalonia or South America to start protests themselves. Subsequently, with each new protest, another group with underlying frustrations ag...

Zoey Weinstein Mr. Roddy GPHC 10/26/19 How The Women-Only Facebook Group Minbar-Shat Helped Overthrow The Sudanese Government In 2015, a woman in Sudan suspected that her fiance was cheating on her right before their marriage. She posted a message on Facebook, in search of any evidence her husband was cheating and learned that another woman was married to him! This woman began a Facebook group called Minbar-Shat as an online female group of “cheater detectives.” This group grew into more than just a cheater catching group of women. It grew into a group that fought for female equality in Sudan. They protested against  “ morality laws ,” which were dictator Omar Al-Bashir’s most notorious laws put in place. These laws gave police the right to whip anyone who didn't dress according to their laws of “public decency.” Minbar-Shat soon became a token platform that helped hold men accountable for discriminating against women. They continued to protest against countless issue...

     I was interested in the article about Seattle's adaptations to help combat segregation in neighborhoods. It reminded me a lot of a separate article I've read about San Francisco and their similar situation. The city is very diverse, with the large majority of citizens being white (48%) or asian (33%). Because of the way their schools were becoming strongly segregated, the system for choosing schools was changed. It had originally used the regular system of a child going to whichever school was closest to their house or neighborhood. Now their system has changed to be far more inclusive- students can choose to attend any school they want to attend within the San Francisco Independent School District. The idea was meant to combat segregation, but in fact made it far worse. While San Francisco neighborhoods are now less segregated than ever, their schools are worse than they were in the 90s. The system is based off of a sort of lottery, parents make a list of the school...

Women Rising up in Sudan: Through a Facebook group a new wave of protest has emerged in Sudan; completely organized by women. It began in 2015 when a woman soon to be married suspected her fiancé of cheating on her. She posted a message on Facebook to see if she could get any information about her husband. Within hours of posting another women had commented that she was his wife, and thus the cheating mystery was solved. But this new Facebook group was just the beginning. It morphed from a group of women "catching cheaters" to a revolutionary wave of protesting. They became a key group un fighting for women's equality and became a support group for women all over Sudan. Women began fighting to change laws that allowed public violence and whipping if they didn't wear the right clothes or disobeyed male family members. In 2018 the situation escalated as protests continued, and government officials permitted use of tear gas and batons to disperse protesting crowds, som...

An example of realism power used in the World today would be the events happening in Syria today. The turkish and Russian Governments are deploying their poliece, military, and other sources of power and strength to forcibly remove the Kurds from the Russian-Syrian border. They need to do this because the Kurds want to take more land, yet its not theirs to begin with, so the Russian government doesnt like that. If the kurds dont surrender and leave the border, they will be killed. Realism power describes the role of the state, national interest, and military power in world politics. The event happening righ now is about military power, and wether or not this would be considered an abuse of it. Russia is deploying their military, and poliece forces in order to forcibly remove the kurds from the border.

A recent example of hard power used by a country would be whats going on in Syria today. Turkey used hard power to invade an area of Syria, home to the ethnic Kurds. Russia warned the Kurds to pull back from the Turkey-Syrian border, after a deal made between Ankara and Moskow. They threatened to crush them with the power of the Turkish army. There was a deal made on a Tuesday between turkey and Russia that will have Russian and Syrian forces brought to Syria to remove the Kurds and their arms from the border.  Peskov, a "spy" brought to Russia from Donald Trump, made comments about how Americans were encouraging the Kurds to hold their ground and keep fighting. Peskov said if the Kurds didn't stay at the border, per the agreement, the Russian Military would back off, leaving the Turks to fight the Turkish army, which wouldn't be in their favor. The Russian police recently went to Syria, where they would facilitate the removal of the Kurd forces. I think this i...

George Larach 10.15.19 GPHC Blog Power ISIS I will be analyzing the use of hard power in the conflict between the US and the Islamic State (IS) in 2014. Because the Islamic State was not prepared to negotiate and to employ soft power tactics, the US resorted to hard power in order to resolve the situation. The US organized an inter military coalition with 53 countries named the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR). They organized airstrikes against IS in mid 2014 and provided weapons, advisors, training, and supplies to Iraqi Security Forces and Syrian Democratic Forces. The bulk of CJTF-OIR's combat operations took the form of an air war against the Islamic State. The US was responsible for 75-80% of all airstrikes, while Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, Belgium and the Netherlands, among others, constituted the others 20-25%. It has been reported by CJTF-OIR themselves that over 80,000 IS members have been killed because of these a...

NATO in response to the Russia-Ukraine Conflict    Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, since then allied leaders have called on Russia to withdraw their forces from Crimea because of the illegitimacy and unpredictability. However Russia's allies aren't just focused on the invasion and annexation of Crimea, Russia has had a number of irregular military activity near NATO's borders. They've also done several things that do not comply with international norms such as their nerve agent attack on a UK intelligence and his daughter in 2018. In 2019 the NAC supported the US's decision to withdraw from the INF treaty due to the material breach Russia had. All of this worries Russia's allies seeing as they have had a line of irresponsible behavior, NATO is still figuring out how they will approach this in a logical manner. So far NATO has enhanced its deterrence and defense position and will continue to remain open to communication, in a sense they're try...

The United States and A fghanistan's War: Since 1999 the United States and  Afghanistan have been at war with one another. This was has been going on since 1999, which is about twenty years now. In 1999 the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1267. The point of this was to reaffirm  its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, t erritorial integrity and national unity of Afghanistan, and its respect for  Afghanistan’s cultural and historical heritage. This created the  al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee. This committee linked the two groups as terrorists and later imposed sanctions on their funding, travel, and arms shipments. According to the articles I read the United Nations followed al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden.  The United States wanted to remove the Taliban from control as they were hosting al-Qaeda terrorists and camps, who were the main suspects of the September 11 attacks. On September 11th, 2001...

1. UN Organization The UNHCR means Untied Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It is the part of the UN that deals with refugees, like what's happening is Greece. In Athens, Greece, a bunch of refugees have been finding their way over to the Greek Islands. Over 30,000 people are seeking shelter in Greece from Syria. Right now, the Greek Islands are housing thousands of people and they are way over the capacity. Greece is trying to figure out how to handle all of the people coming in. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1048312 2. Any IGO The World Trade Organization is an IGO obviously. So basically the "US Steel and Aluminum Products" has opened their doors for the public to come in a view their meetings at the request of Switzerland, the Eu, and Norway. The meeting with the parties are on the 4th and 5th of November 2019 and it is at the Headquarters in Geneva. The public session is due to start at 10 am on the 4th.  https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news19_e...