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Assignments/Researched Essay/WLLN

WLLN #3

Posted by John Suquinagua (He) on

After finishing college, students would be excited, ready to pursue their dream jobs, spend time with family if it was hard to do before and many more things. However, they soon realized about something that has been with them ever since they began college, debt. They could have possibly gained around 20,000 or maybe even 40,000 in debt, it being dependent on their situation. This debt that students are having is called student loan debt, it’s when they use up loans which then leads to them having to pay back the loaner, the ones who gave them the loans. The main reason why some students use loans is because they need a lot of money in order to pay for college. It varies depending on the school the student goes to, their major and whether or not they gained enough credits to gain their diploma. They would need to make sure to pay back the debt which will take a long while to there being reports of some after 10 or so years out of college still paying it off. With that said, student loan debt should not be around because not only does it affect the students once they graduate, but it even affects them during school.

With student loan debt usually being something dealt with after college is done, doesn’t mean it does not fill in the heads of the students during college. This would then impact things for students in college, that being their grades. There have been some studies done to show this, an example being with the Montana University System (MUS), they used the school to gain data to check their theory. Their theory being that student performance is affected by what they choose to help them get into colleges. Their discovery was that students do perform better when they don’t use loans, it’s shown in their GPA (College Financing Choices and Academic Performance). Another instance was when they used the Ohio State University’s 2014 National Student Financial Wellness Study, this would have them see the financial situation and other ones. This would then reveal to them that GPAs are lowered down and even how long it takes to gain the degrees since they require credits but failing classes means that won’t be given to the students (Student Loans, Academic Performance, and Degree Completion). With debt having an effect on grades of the students, with that evidence it does how it has its toll on there. With their GPAs low it can also mean they could gain more debt since they need to enter more classes to get credits but to do that they need money. Now having gone through all of that in college, they still have to actually deal with it front and center once they graduate which already has some effect on them. 

Having now made it out of college, students are now having to confront the debt they had made due to the loans they picked up. This debt would have some repercussions on their lives now being adults. Examples being they can be stressed out while paying over the debt. It’s shown with how people in debt are said to stay in jobs that they would rather not be, not see family, start a family (The Psychological Toll of Student Debt). Now having stress alongside there, they aren’t even able to safely know what will happen to them financially. This instance was shown with James Rudert, with him having graduated from college, he wanted to go and help in a non profit organization that helps disabled veterans. However, he has debt to pay off which then adds to him wanting to help out. It had him do both in order to pay off the debt but it’s shown he wasn’t able to get a house and doesn’t know what the future holds financially speaking (Few graduates working in public service have received expected break on loans). With all of that, the effects once they leave college can be being stressed out due to circumstances they are in like jobs or even not being able to do stuff they wanted to do. 

Student loan debt is something many students should have to deal with due to the effects it can cause on them in and out of college. Their own grades and even reaching to get their degree can be impacted. Their grades would be lowered down and it takes awhile for them to get their degrees meaning they have to spend more money to attend classes. Once they are out of college they then have to deal with the debt now. This can severely affect their mental health with having to put hold of things they like and be in jobs they probably wouldn’t even like to have. Having all of that, student loan debt should not be around because it only gets worse with how now the world has to deal with trying to fix the economy and dealing with inflation.

Citation

Stoddard Christiana, Urban Carly and Schmeiser D. Maximilian, “College Financing Choices 

and Academic Performance” Gale Power Search, Gale Power Search, Fall 2018,

https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T002&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=28&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=25&docId=GALE%7CA571516712&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZAHJ-MOD1&prodId=GPS&pageNum=2&contentSet=GALE%7CA571516712&searchId=R1&userGroupName=nysl_me_71_gca&inPS=true

Eric Facer, “Student Loans, Academic Performance, Degree Completion”, Weber, Weber,

https://www.weber.edu/wsuimages/goddard/ECON/research/Facer%20-%20Student%20Loans%2C%20Academic%20Performance%2C%20and%20Degree%20Completion.pdf

J Geiman “The Psychological Toll Student Debt” The Center Law and Social Policy, The Center Law and Social Policy, 8 October 2021

https://www.clasp.org/blog/psychological-toll-student-debt/

Svrluga, Susan. “Few graduates working in public service have received expected break on loans.” Washington Post, 26 Sept. 2018. Gale Academic OneFile

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A555804339/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=4b33241b

Researched Essay/Researched Essay

Researched Essay

Posted by Jia Yi Karen Li (She/Her) on

Climate Change is the long-term shifts in global average temperature and weather patterns. It is caused by human activities, primarily coming from the usage of fossil fuels, coal, gas and oil. Marked by human activity, this geological era is called the Anthropocene. In the Anthropocene, climate change has melted glaciers, plant and animal habitats are changing and flowers are blooming earlier which can lead to rising sea levels, less ice caps and harsher heatwaves, according to NASA. Climate change affects everyone, especially those who are in poverty. Poverty is not just lacking money, it is being too poor to afford basic needs like shelter, food and clothing. Roughly 30% of the population, or 93.6 million people, in the United States live in poverty. About 9.2% of the world, or 689 million people, live in extreme poverty of less than $1.90 per day. This is lower than the International Poverty Line of $2.15, set by the United Nations. According to the World Bank, half of the world’s poor are located in just 5 countries, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia. Closer to home, New York City has a 17.3% poverty rate, which is roughly 1.5 million people, according to the Census Bureau. All of these people are in danger of the consequences of climate change and they often do not have the resources to help them from extreme weather, diseases caused by climate change, and etc. However, they are not the ones responsible for climate change. Those who are in poverty are more affected by climate change than those in higher economic classes despite contributing the least to climate change.

Those who are in higher economic classes contribute more towards carbon emissions and global warming. Many of the climate issues come from the top one percent, which are those that make more than half a million dollars in the United States. A study done by the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom found that the wealthiest ten percent consumed more than 20 times  the energy than the poorest ten percent in any area. This is most clearly outlined in billionaires in the United States. For example, according to the World Inequality Lab, Jeff Bezos’s 11 minute flight to space caused more carbon emissions than any one of the world’s poorest billion people. Stefan Gössling, a professor at Linnaeus University in Sweden, calculates that Bill Gates’s 59 flights in 2019 had generated more than 1,600 tons of greenhouse gasses. This is roughly the amount of gas produced by 105 Americans. World Inequality Lab research shows that top emitters would have to reduce their carbon footprints by 87% while the bottom half can actually increase their consumption by 3% in order to reach the Paris Agreement’s stretch goal. This extends further than just the United States as 10% of flights from France were private jets. These planes generated as much carbon dioxide in 4 hours as any average European Union citizen does in a year. On the other hand, in one of the poorest nations, an average person in Nigeria uses half as much electricity in a year as a High-Definition television. The lifestyles of the wealthy are the most polluting along with the power that they hold. This power is setting the expectations of consumption that others, most often those who are in the middle to lower classes, try to aspire to and recreate. This poses many climate issues as this causes more incentives to do things that generate a lot of greenhouse gasses in order to feel luxurious while disregarding how harmful it is. 

Those in poverty face many health risks that the rich can simply avoid. An example of this would be during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many of those who could not evacuate were the elderly, disabled and the poor. In fact, private security guards were flown into New Orleans in order to protect the wealthiest neighborhoods. Many of these communities can continue to survive with protection they can buy but those that cannot afford it lose their homes. This does not mean that they only lose their shelter, they also can lose many prized possessions and memories as well as their communities as many would need to move away. They can end up losing most of their identity and culture. The wealthy can purchase bunkers, even during fire. Dante Vicino, a Vivo’s Group executive that turns ex-military bunkers into livable bunkers stated that while you could smell the smoke in the air, those in the bunkers weren’t able to tell. Climate change can also affect crop production, which can affect the livelihood of those who rely on farming to make money. It also affects food production because there has been a decrease in the production of corn, which is fed to many livestock. This drives the price of meat up as the increase in the costs of corn. Those in poverty already have a difficult time to get food but as climate change affects growing conditions, it makes it even harder for some to afford and find food. According to Columbia Climate School, if the temperature rises by 4.5 degrees celsius by 2090, more than 9,000 people would die from extreme heat. The increased heat and precipitation also leads to higher risks to viruses as mosquitoes would be around longer, which could lead to the spread of Zika, West Nile, and Lyme disease into new territories. Those who can afford it can simply have highly-trained medical professionals care for them when they get sick, but many cannot afford to see a doctor to get treated even in the most severe conditions. Many simply cannot afford to live with the extreme costs that climate change causes. 

Climate change heavily affects those in poverty however, they are not the ones who are primarily contributing to it. As the BBC states “The top 1% were responsible for 15% of emissions, nearly twice as much as the world’s poorest 50%, who were responsible for just 7% and will feel the brunt of climate impacts despite bearing the least responsibility for causing them.” Climate change affects everyone and the poorest cannot shoulder the burden that the rich create while the rich can continue living and doing however they please.

CITATION:

20, Renee Cho |June, et al. “How Climate Change Impacts the Economy.” State of the Planet, 20 June 2019, https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2019/06/20/climate-change-economy-impacts/#:~:text=Drought%20will%20make%20water%20more,production%2C%20energy%20transport%20and%20insurance.

Climate Changes Health: Vulnerable Populations, https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/climate-change/vulnerable-populations.

“The Effects of Climate Change.” NASA, NASA, 11 Nov. 2022, https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/#:~:text=Changes%20to%20Earth’s%20climate%20driven,plants%20and%20trees%20are%20blooming.

“The Facts: How Climate Change Affects People Living in Poverty.” Mercy Corps, 12 Oct. 2022, https://www.mercycorps.org/blog/climate-change-poverty#:~:text=Floods%20and%20droughts%20brought%20on,change%20in%20the%2021st%20century.

“Half of the World’s Poor Live in Just 5 Countries.” World Bank Blogs, https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/half-world-s-poor-live-just-5-countries.

Harrabin, Roger. “Climate Change: The Rich Are to Blame, International Study Finds.” BBC News, BBC, 16 Mar. 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51906530.

Hasell, Joe, et al. “Poverty.” Our World in Data, 17 Oct. 2022, https://ourworldindata.org/poverty.

“How the Rich Are Driving Climate Change.” BBC Future, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211025-climate-how-to-make-the-rich-pay-for-their-carbon-emissions.

Kuchler, Hannah. “Super-Rich Fortify against Climate Change and Health Risks.” Subscribe to Read | Financial Times, Financial Times, 13 Nov. 2020, https://www.ft.com/content/79781c20-051d-41c4-bd2c-31ceffb763e8.

Peer, Andrea. “Global Poverty: Facts, Faqs, and How to Help.” World Vision, 23 Aug. 2021, https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-poverty-facts.

“The Population of Poverty USA.” Poverty Facts, https://www.povertyusa.org/facts.

Powers, Benjamin. “How the Wealthy Insulate Themselves from the Worst Impacts of Climate Change.” Medium, Age of Awareness, 9 June 2017, https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/how-the-wealthy-insulate-themselves-from-the-worst-impacts-of-climate-change-605df41dbefd.

Roston, Eric, et al. “How Wealth Inequality Powers Climate Change.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 24 Mar. 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-wealth-carbon-emissions-inequality-powers-world-climate/?leadSource=uverify+wall.U.S. Census Bureau Quickfacts: New York City, New York; United States. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newyorkcitynewyork,US/PST045221.

Digital Receipt #4/WLLN Draft/Digital Receipt #4/WLLN Draft

WLLN Draft/Digital Receipt # 4

Posted by Jia Yi Karen Li (She/Her) on

On April 9th, 2019, I had emailed a girl I had never met before and will be spending 4 weeks under the same roof. This was part of the German-American Exchange Program that I had signed up for 6 months prior. I was filled with dread as sending the email meant that there was no backing out, or else I would disappoint everyone. I was nervous that I would be an outcast as I had no friends going on this trip and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make any friends due to my social anxiety. I had gone through forums, websites and even asked my therapist on how I was going to deal with my time there but nothing had really eased my nerves. 

Fastfoward to August 15th and I was now boarding my plane. After 4 months of constant messages between me and my partner, Emily, I would be finally meeting her in person. To say nervous was an understatement. I was nauseous, shaking, dropping things, and stuttering constantly when speaking to others. After my total 9 hours in the air, with one layover in Iceland, I had finally met Emily in person. As soon as I saw her, I felt all my worries wash away as I had realized that while I might not have known the other exchange students or partners, I had known her. I was not going to be completely alone because I had already made a friend while I was counting down the days and stressing over every small thing about my trip. 

This, however, was not the end of my worries as on the very first day, I had overslept and woke up at 2pm. I felt so embarrassed as the weeks prior to coming to Germany, I had tried to fix my sleeping habit. We barely made it to the museums that she and her family had wanted to take us to and I was so worried that I had just destroyed the plans that she had made. This made me spiral into a whole other set of issues I felt was going to ruin my time in Germany. 

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