Free Write for Research Idea

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Our environment is a very crucial factor to our wellbeing and productivity. As mentioned by Majora Carter, there are people that are out there living in a very polluted neighborhood where staying at home is safer than going outside for a healthy, fresh walk. This in turn increases obesity and that itself can be another health issue. I want to write about the issues we face with dirty and polluted air. There is so many factories and plants near us. In a busy city like New York, especially, the overcrowding of people and buildings and factories make it hard to find a place with clean air. the EPA rating of NYC is bad as there are factories visible from bridges and highways producing countless amounts of pollution both affecting humans and animals around us. Personally speaking, being a resident of Queens, I see plants around Astoria where day and night there is pollution. Going outside for clean air is possible, but mainly for a less crowded area. And we all know that finding a uncrowded area in NYC is not very common.

When I was younger, I had asthma. Neither was it serious, nor was it long-lasting, but it was present. I had to be on my pump for some time and I wasn’t the only one that had this problem. Now, asthma isn’t just from polluted air, but pollution is a major factor in one having asthma. We often see people stay at home during the winter and outside at the park and open fields during the summer time, but the numbers are decreasing in outdoor activities over the years. There are people that are afraid of the polluted air, and especially a place like Flushing has a lot of people wearing masks to stay safe from the pollution and unclean air. if the pollution problem isn’t dealt with, then the health and safety of the future generations do not look too good. There are people from all over the city that are unaware and take less precautions for their safety, but it shouldn’t be the job of ordinary citizens to have to wear a mask to go outside and enjoy a nice breeze. The environmental protection agencies and our lawmakers should do their best to lower the amount of pollution in our air or at least work towards lessening the numbers of factories and plants that are exposed to our local air.

All in all, the issue of polluted air is one of the top issues that are affecting our society and members within. This issue should be dealt with in order to create a safe environment for our people. Individual effort is definitely required as in lowering the number of public smoking areas. The other other pollution that I am seeing is to perhaps come up with a less polluting technology for our plants and factories so that we can still continue to harvest energy as well as keep the safety of our people as our first priority.

Majora Carter’s TED Talk

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Carter had to look at all the background histories and ongoing injustice to people from all social groups. She spoke about health, wealth, hygiene and many other social factors being effected by environmental injustice. She did research on the sites where there are more injustice. She researched on statistics related to poverty, shelter, access to clean air and resources. She targets South Bronx especially as grew up there and faced all sorts of injustice and hardships with many of them related to environmental injustice.

3.3. Applying Lenses

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Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

Jan 18

A massive 200 Billion Dollar Sea Wall, built around New York to protect it from rare storms, is a costly, foolish & environmentally unfriendly idea that, when needed, probably won’t work anyway. It will also look terrible. Sorry, you’ll just have to get your mops & buckets ready!

 

At this point of my research I’m still mostly confused but I got better at being more selective. Once I found my object it showed me some form of a path to move on. Since then the essay and it’s pieces started forming in my head.  Like you’ve already taught me, Professor: trying to establish parts of the essay and their purpose.

  1. It’d start with Donald Trumps tweet and the whole situation with Army Corps. This calls for resources: Army Corps study (6 alternatives, costs) – theoretical lens. It shows us Trumps lack of depth about the matter (not a sea wall, not $200).

Interim Report: https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Portals/37/docs/civilworks/projects/ny/coast/NYNJHAT/NYNJHAT%20Interim%20Report%20-%20Main%20Report%20Feb%202019.pdf?ver=2019-02-19-165223-023

I don’t know if I need the link for the Corps with all the other info or just the report:

https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Projects-in-New-York/New-York-New-Jersey-Harbor-Tributaries-Focus-Area-Feasibility-Study/

Information about suspending the study:      https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/nyregion/sea-wall-nyc.html

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-trump-halts-study-to-protect-nyc-20200226-6iiagimgcrdbfjehxnvh64la6y-story.html

2. It’d move to the response from the Riverkeeper (an environmental organization) and their press statement:

https://waterfrontalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/NYNJHATS_memo_2_27_20_Final.pdf

Riverkeeper had a plan of alternating Army Corps’ proposals to find the better working solutions for the city. In their study Army Corps didn’t address the problems of flooding, rising sea levels and sunny-day flooding, caused by high tides.

Looking at Trumps tweet through all of this we do understand that he may have a point calling it “costly” ($62 billion), “foolish” (the plan had flaws), and “environmentally unfriendly” (got a big point there).

The question rising is: what’s going to happen now if no alternative is available?

3. Trump is only addressing “rare storms” as a problem for NYC. He omits problems already existing for many New Yorkers: rising sea levels, sunny-day flooding. There is a great photo report:

https://ny.curbed.com/2017/10/12/16462790/queens-climate-change-jamaica-bay-flooding-photos

I’d use it as a critical lens to show that Trumps comment on using “mops and buckets” is really unfair and not offering much of a solution. What is going to happen to these people and their homes in the future? With sea levels rising what are their chances of staying at their current homes?

4. Pilkey, Orrin H., et al. Retreat from a Rising Sea: Hard Choices in an Age of Climate Change. Columbia University Press, 2016.

In this book the whole chapter: “New and Old Amsterdam: New York City and the Netherlands” is a source of all kid of information about NYC. I’d have to find the right lenses for the tweet.

They are offering the solution of moving away from the coasts, governmental buyouts, and turning the coasts into natural barriers.

5. At this point I don’t know if I have enough material or I still need to find something addressing “rare storms”. Do I need a resource about storms getting worse and coming more often?????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show & Tell

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https://www.youtube.c­­­o­­m/watch?v=Q6iK6DjV_iE

I am a big anime fan, so I decided to choose a recent film directed by Makoto Shinkai, one of my new favorite anime directors due to his extremely acclaimed and highly successful movie, “Your Name”. Makoto Shinkai’s newest movie, “Weathering with You, addresses themes of adolescent love and Japanese myths, while simultaneously exploring how we influence our environment.  The movie focuses on two broke teenagers: a runaway high school boy, Hodaka, and the “sunshine” girl, Hina. According to myth, a weather maiden appears once in a generation whose existence will cause endless rainfall in Japan. Hina, who can manipulate the weather by stopping rain to let the sunshine in, decides to partner with Hodaka and cash in on this ability by charging people money to pray the rain away. Turns out a lot of people want sunshine and so they’re able to start a small business of it. As you would expect, this causes serious complications when her abilities begin to get in the way of their relationship.

I chose to discuss this movie because “Weathering with You” is a giant allegory for how humans perceive and grapple with climate change. A central plot element is the rainstorm in Tokyo – and how weather affects, and can be affected by humans. Hina’s ability to affect the weather parallels to how humanity has an opportunity to avert the worst-case outcomes of climate change. Unfortunately, Hina struggles with her powers much the same way that contemporary society struggles with addressing climate change. Even with the ability to solve potential environmental catastrophes, it does require significant sacrifice. For Hina, she must sacrifice significant parts of her relationship with Hodaka in order to save Tokyo – a sacrifice that Hodaka is unwilling to take. The tension of doing what is best for society, versus doing what’s best for the couple more selfishly alludes to how society must choose between short-term selfishness and long-term selflessness in order to address climate change.

  1. This film takes inspiration from a Japanese folktale, are there any weather-related myths or stories that you grew up with?
  2. If one person had the ability to change the weather, what are some issues that might arise from that?
  3. Do you believe climate change is more dependent on individual consumer sacrifice, or a larger corporate-scale sacrifice?

 

 

Show and Tell:

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Due to the rapidly changing climate caused by anthropogenic factors we might have to face more viruses and pandemics in the future if global warming keeps ongoing. This is an 8 min video that shows why.

Post 3.4:

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RESEARCH QUESTION:
“What initiatives can be taken to deal with the issue of air pollution in Queens and what are the
challenges that may be faced while implementing them?”

ANNOTATION OF NEW SOURCE:

I found a new source by Robert Paehlke entitled “Bucolic Myths: Towards a More Urbanist
Environmentalism”. This source argues that the ideology of environmentalism can be applied in
urban development so as to mitigate the issue of air pollution. He further adds that air pollution
can be reduced through less travel and installment of pollution control devices. The source is
valid since the author points out the benefits that could be reaped by urban environmentalism. I could borrow his valid idea as an initiative that could be taken in Queens to help combat air pollution. One major that could be faced while implementing this initiative is a lack of support from the relevant authorities but this can always be resolved by explaining the concept to them in detail.

Paehlke, R. (1986). Bucolic Myths: Towards a More Urbanist Environmentalism. Centre for
Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto.

WORKING THESIS:

Application of environmentalism in urban development is one of the initiatives that can help
reduce air pollution in Queens.

ANYTHING ELSE:

So far, I’m still struggling with finding more sources since I changed my research question in
accordance with the instructor’s suggestions. I found one already and I believe I’ll be able to find
more along the way. I feel that there are definitely more initiatives to be considered in combating air pollution and hence may decide to change my working theses sometime later.

Post 3.3

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This source is not a scholarly article but is on that does have an authoritative feel to is because it is from the Guardian an English newspaper company. What makes it authoritative is when they write they also source where they get there information and you feel like they are a reliable source. The title is Ocean acidification can cause mass extinctions, fossils reveal. I actually enjoyed this article because they did a comparison between a meteoroid and the effects of carbon pollution . They do not really ask a question but they do address how the population that we are producing a slow rising and becoming very similar to the meteoroid that hit the Earth and caused mass extinction. However, now applying the question you asked I see how they could have added more details or linked there resources. I think I am going to stay clear from articles like this unless I feel that It would be very supportive for my question. I still have to find a focus question but I think it is going to be on the lines of living with or reversing the impacts of acidity in our oceans. I might even focus on a particular set of waters or different theories that some say that could help.

3.4 The new normal

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In my struggle searching sources for my research project I discover .” New York plastic ban , which went into effect on March 1st will not be enforced until at least May 15 due to the coronavirus outbreak” by Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

This catastrophic pandemic kills thousands of people , brings tears to almost everybody faces, separates kids from friends and exclude people from their social life.

Among all those things that the virus made , it didn’t stop from also touching the environment, especially the ocean , with the new normal of wearing mask and gloves , people are going crazy and don’t pay attention to they act throw them anywhere  .Could you imagine those living creatures in the ocean , they were already battled to survive with plastic bags , plastic straw and other debris , now the virus is bringing more plastic products in the ocean .

Those marine animals will mistakenly eat them for food as usual . Therefore, the research question could be ”can climate change be solved by a global pandemic”.

Week 15.2 | INDIVIDUAL VIDEO CONFERENCE

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Week 15.2 Goals

  • Receive feedback from the instructor on your research process
  • Set goals for completing and revising the final research project

 

Week 15.2 Activities:

  1. Schedule an Individual Conference Meeting
  2. Attend the Individual Conference Meeting

 

15.2.1 Schedule an Individual Conference Meeting

If you have not already done so, please schedule an individual conference meeting with me by clicking on this link. When you’ve done so, I’ll send you a Google Meet invitation for that time. Be sure to write down your conference time.

To prepare for your conference, please create/articulate at least three goals for revising/researching in the next week. We’ll go over these in our meeting.

 

15.2.2 Attend the Individual Conference Meeting

Attend the video meeting with me at the time you signed up for. Don’t forget to come in ready to tell me your goals for the next week!

 

Week 15.1 (MON, 5/11) | PEER REVIEW WORKSHOP

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Week 15.1 Goals

  • Give and receive critical feedback on the research process so far
  • Reflect on the feedback received
  • Set goals for final course completion

 

Week 15.1 Activities:

  1. Show & Tell Post: Kishan
  2. Watch: Intro video
  3. Read & Critique: your partner’s Annotated Bibliography draft
  4. Summarize: your feedback in an email to your partner & cc: me
  5. Reflect: on your feedback and goals in a separate email to me
  6. Attend: class meeting

 

15.1.1 Show & Tell Post: Kishan

This session’s show & tell post is from KISHAN, on forest fires! Head over and give it a read/listen, and leave a comment if you feel so inclined.

 

15.1.2 Watch: Intro Video (3 min)

 

15.1.3 Read & Critique: your partner’s Annotated Bibliography draft

Read your partner’s bibliography and offer specific, critical feedback that will help them revise their research. (I recommend you use track changes [Microsoft Word] or the Suggesting/Comments feature [Google Docs] to highlight specific sections, make comments, and/or give suggestions. Use the questions on this handout to guide you.

 

15.1.4 Summarize: your feedback in an email to your partner & cc: me

When you’re done, write a formal email to your partner that summarizes your main points of feedback (both positive and negative!). Include at least three examples of something working well and at least three constructive criticisms.

Make sure to cc: me on the email ([email protected]), so I receive it too. Be sure to attach your partner’s bibliography with your track changes/feedback, just like I do when I return your essays.

 

15.1.5 Reflect: on your feedback and goals in a separate email to me

Write a separate email just to me in which you reflect on your partner’s feedback to you.

  • What were the most helpful things to hear?
  • Did your perception of anything in your bibliography shift from listening to feedback?
  • What kind of revising and/or further research do you hope to accomplish in the next week before the final submission on Wednesday, May 20th.

 

15.1.6 NO VIRTUAL MEETING TONIGHT

In light of the fact that we have individual conferences this week—and to make the best use of your and my time—we won’t meet for a group call tonight. But please do make sure to sign up for a conference slot so we can talk about your research.