2nd Presentation by Jorge L. Alvarez

 In the second round of presentations, three major topics were addressed: They were Gender Equality, Infrastructure, and Climate Change. These topics, which are all very controversial and newsworthy topics, have been bouncing around in public perception for a while now, but despite that, have not particularly been explained well. The presentations of my own group, and those of Groups One and Two have cleared things up.

Group 1: Gender Inequality [SPC 1017]

In the following presentation, a great deal was learned about the origin of gender equality, and the suffrage movements of the 1800-1900s. We saw how women gained the right to vote, and the circumstances around that. We also learned about the various forms that sexual harassment can take, and the perceptions that different cultures have on those forms of sexual harassment. It was shown that active listening may solve a few issues, in the sense that complaints will be heard, and hopefully addressed. The ruling of Roe vs Wade was also shown, where abortion was legalized, as well as the frankly barbaric law that would ban abortion, and create a number of problems and unwanted children. It’s a major issue, as those same women who wanted abortions now cannot go to a professional doctor to do it, and will likely continue to do abortions, just in far more dangeorus environements. Listening to the latter half of that presentation, especially as a man, is disturbing. That others would want to affect the lives of strangers so much for, what? A fancy placard that says ‘Pro-Life’ on it? It seems they don’t know just how expensive children are. And how much people struggle nowadays to provide for their children. The global birth rate has been steadily going down, as it becomes more and more fiscally detrimental to have more kids. It’s hard enough to provide for one kid, much less multiple.

Group 2: Climate Change [SPC 1017]

In this group’s presentation, we learned about the variety of factors that are contributing to the deterioration of Earth’s climate, which is slowly warming it up, and causing a variety of issues around the world. From the thinning of the ozone layer in the atmosphere to the melting of the ice caps. They’re all incredibly problematic issues that need to be resolved. 

One of the most terrible effects of climate change is the destruction of coral reefs around the world, as they bleach themselves to death. Another is the rising amount of seasonal allergies being produced as a knock-on effect of global warming. Really though, the most problematic effect is the rising sea levels, which wasn’t covered all that much in the presentation, but something I know quite a bit about, as I had researched it a few years ago. In low lying areas of the world, such as Florida, the Netherlands, and large portions of eastern Asia, the risk of rising sea levels is absurd, as most of the low lying areas in those countries are also incredibly populated. In fact, in Vietnam, an entire quarter of their population, 26% of their population, is at risk of sinking below the waves if rising sea levels are not addressed. The same applies to Florida. If the sea levels were to rise by 20 feet, which is not much at all on the global scale, not only would we lose most of our beaches, but Florida would sink almost entirely beneath the waves. Manhattan would become the new Venice, and levees would become even more commonplace than they already are. Which isn’t a good thing, they are stopgap measures. Climate Change is a major problem, and it’s only getting worse as people continue to squabble and deliberate and don’t take action. Not until it's too late.

Group 3: Infrastructure [SPC 1017]

Infrastructure is anything that can be considered the foundation or base of an organization or system. System can apply to anything from cities, to houses, to LEGO projects. It’s a very broad word that can be used in a variety of ways, but in the presentation by Group Three, it was used in the sense of societal and city infrastructure. Such as various forms of power generation, and their respective pros and cons, the different forms of transportation, and finally, the differences between US infrastructure and foreign infrastructure. We learned about the effects of corner cutting, as it was found that American roads and highways lasted less time than European variants. This also applies to many of our buildings and constructions as well. We learned a lot about how the costs of infrastructure can affect our day to day lives. The Kahoot game at the end was also a nice touch.