IHSS C2021-22

  Ethan Zweig Mr. Roddy  IHSS January 24, 2022 Concrete is used to build our bridges, sidewalks, and buildings. It’s known as the material that is building our world however, it is the same one destroying it. Concrete is responsible for 8% of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere globally. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a new type of concrete that is made from waste from originally used concrete and carbon dioxide pulled from the air. The researchers suggest that with further development, this type of concrete could be carbon neutral or carbon negative. Concrete’s carbon problem is well known even by the concrete industry, which has been searching for new ways to reduce the environmental impacts. After reading this article I did some extra research and couldn’t find any other articles talking about this. Apparently this new concrete is a small project in Japan and isn’t really known at all in the United States. If this became more known to the...

 Imaar Chauthani Mr. Roddy IHSS January 24, 2022 Global Warming     Global warming is not a problem that has just started recently. It is a problem that started many years ago, but the reactions of the actions are occuring now. Global warming is a problem across the globe, it is basically a warming of the temprature of the entire Earth!  Generating electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas causes a large chunk of global emissions is one of the many causes of global warming. Some others are, manufactering goods, cutting down forests, and alot more. One effect is hotter temprature. Almost all land areas are having more hot days and heat waves. 2020 was one of the hottest years ever. Higher temperatures increase heat-related illnesses and can make it more difficult to work and move around. Wildfires start more easily and spread more rapidly when conditions are hotter. Another effect is More severe storms. Changes in temperature...

Claire thacker  Mr. Roddy  IHSS 24 January 2021  Blog  In October of 2021, the UN declared that access to a clean environment was a human right. The only problem with this is that our environment is already quite polluted and unclean. It’s difficult to create a clean environment when the pollution doesn’t stop. Many countries around the world make a lot of their money from practices that aren’t the best for our environment. The US for example makes a lot of money a year through the oil and gas industry. Burning fossil fuels is one of the leading causes of pollution and climate change. Over the past 40 years, the rate at which the world is warming is 0.32 F° which is almost double what it used to be 0.14 F° a year. This has a huge effect on the planet as well as us. It’s difficult to think of one solution since there are so many different problems each with its own details. People tend to stray away from thinking of climate change since it’s such a big problem now, on...

       I had never once thought that there are people in the world arguing against free parking, something that I always there was not enough of. Enter Donald Shoup-- distinguished economist, professor, and the author of a hefty book titled  The High Cost of Free Parking. According to Shoup, free parking is a menace to society for a number of reasons (enough to fill up a 750 paged-book). For one thing, free parking does not give money back to the developments that are effected by the cars.  Shoup believes being that curbside parking spaces take up a lot of driving space on roads and also provide lots of opportunity for "vehicle musical chairs." Getting rid of free parking would get rid of the curbside cars obstructing the urban aesthetic, improve air quality, and provide money for beautification, local repairs, free Wi-Fi, and other additions to businesses.           Though Shoup does make valid points, I could see the ab...

Wyatt Quillin Mr. Roddy IHSS 21 January 2022 The Problems of Pollution       Probably the most pressing problem our society faces today is pollution. We've built our society on coal-burning and we can't just take it away immediately without suffering consequences. Instead, we can slowly implement ways to lessen the effects of pollution and eventually remove it from our worldly equation. In our discussion, there were a couple different problems that were brought up, from pollution in cities and shipping channels to plastics in the ocean. Vehicles cause an immense amount of pollution, and cities are affected negatively because they are so full of people and, in turn, cars. A solution that I researched was the concept of "super trees". This is something that the Houston Health Department and local non-profits have teamed up to orchestrate. The idea of 'super trees' is to plant large amounts of trees that meet certain criteria in terms of carbon sequestration, wat...

Noor Qureshi Mr. Roddy IHSS 23 January 2021 Inequity in Fresh Food Quality      The article I read talked about an issue rising in lower-income areas. A study from the University of Houston found that poorer people are more likely to get foodborne diseases because of their lack of access to fresh produce. The root of the problem has to do with the economy and their way of distributing the costs of organic and non-organic foods. Organic foods tend to be more pricey than the fruits and vegetables grown using pesticides and have been genetically modified. However, the system is reasonable, because it takes a lot more time, money, and effort to grow real produce as opposed to the ones made superficially. When using pesticides, farmers don't have to worry about looking after the plants 24/7, because insects will automatically be driven away, and if the food is genetically modified you'll already have that big, ripe, red (and very fake) strawberry in half the time. So, the cost...

 Bernardo Guerra Mr. Roddy I.H.S.S June 21, 2022 IHSS HW: Reflection Blog Bernardo Concrete Pollution This article covers a solution to pollution created by concrete. Around 8 percent of global C02 emissions come from concrete production, this makes concrete production one of the largest C02 producers in the world. But two researchers at the University of Tokyo have just developed a new form of concrete that "is made using waste from previously used concrete and Carbon Dioxide being pulled from the air". This concrete can be made just purely by reusing demolished concrete. This has the possibility of reducing significant amounts of C02 emissions and C02 that is already in the atmosphere. The only issue with this new form of concrete is the cost. One of the obvious inconveniences with climate change today is large companies prioritizing profit over the long-term wellbeing of the global environment. This could play a huge factor in whether this new form of concrete is actually ...

 Trash in the Ocean                       Every year there is more than 24 trillion pounds of trash dumped into the ocean. The article I read explains how many people are focussing on trying to get trash out of the ocean rather than stopping trash from getting into the ocean. I think the best way to deal with this issue is by spreading awareness and taking action on the fact that we need to stop creating so much trash in the ocean. The issue of focusing so much on taking trash from the ocean is that there is already so much trash that it would be impossible and unrealistic to take it all out. Another issue is that once we get all the trash out of the ocean, what will we do with it? Most of it will end up in landfills. If we're not focusing on the trash getting put into the ocean, then the purpose of cleaning the ocean won't be helpful. Something the government can do to help with this issue is not allowing big compani...

  Gustavo Alvarez  IHSS  Mr. Roddy  1/20/2022  When I read the article it started to make me think about the possibilities that could happen with the idea of eliminating free lane parking. While I agree with the idea of trying to eliminate lane parking, the way that Shoup, the “founder” of this movement, wants to handle it, is bad. Shoup claims that if we raise the prices of lane parking into almost unaffordable amounts, most people will not be able to park in lanes and instead would use public transportation. While at first glance this might seem like a good idea, all it would do is further make the lower class have a harder time with money while the upper class will still be largely unaffected. He did however have other ideas where he planned to put parking meters in UT in order to decrease the amount of parking at the university.  Even though Shoup himself may have had some not very thoughtful ideas, his followers, Shoupistas, had better ideas. The best ...

Aiden Cunningham Mr. Roddy IHSS 20 January 2022 Our Impending Issues     Many of the issues ranged in various categories, from climate-based issues like carbon in the  atmosphere and the need for a cleaner, more natural environment, to society-based issues like distrust  in the government and the growing amount of trash in the ocean. I think that if issues like these  continue without being solved, it may result in a forced change in our ways, most of which we will not  like. Starting off by addressing the more climate and natural-based issues, where we as a society are  making changes to the earth and its processes, I think that the many movements to help get this  problem under control are and have the potential to make a huge impact on the current climate trend,  but even with all the passion and drive of the ones who are fighting, there are still too many of us that  just don’t care or don’t want to think about it that...

 Isa Pedersen Mr. Roddy IHSS 19 January 2022 Concrete made of Pollution     Concrete is almost everywhere, its used in buildings, sidewalks, roads, and more. Concrete is also a huge factor in global warming. Concrete is responsible for 8% of all the carbon emissions in the world. Scientists in Japan have found a way to turn recycled materials, including left over concrete in land fills, and by taking carbon dioxide from the air, and turning it into a concrete like material. They hope by 2025 to have a solid plan of action to make this material more accessible and available to use instead of concrete. After doing some outside research, I have found that this is a very small project right now, almost no one has reported on it. Right now the Japanese government has not said anything about this material or anything related to it. The American government has also not made any action in regards to this issue. The damage done by concrete seems to be very unspoken, I myself ...

 Oscar Rawson IHSS Mr. Roddy 1/19/22 COP26: The Most Important Climate Summit     In November of 2021, Scotland held one of the most important climate talks to date. This talk focused on helping individual nations make commitments to their climate goals. India joined the world's other leading carbon emitters in pledging to reach net-zero emissions. Over 200 countries attended the summit, under the single goal of fighting climate change. The main purpose of the meeting was to re-examine the goals established by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris agreement's goals set the bar at minimizing global warming to 2C by the turn of the century. COP26 has set a more ambitious goal: 1.5C. The 1.5C goal requires nearly all of the world's countries to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In reaching net-zero, countries are still allowed to produce carbon emissions, but they must be covered by their carbon absorption. This also encourages limits on the production and use o...