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 ...