Talia Casado Blog 2
A New Round of Presentations
This time around each group was to present on three social issues: Gender Inequality, Infrastructure and Climate Change. These are pressing issues and important things that everyone should be informed about. These three topics affect us all in some way, shape or form. We walk around everyday surrounded by infrastructure, feeling the effects of climate change, and dealing with different forms of gender inequality.
Gender Inequality
Let's begin with Group 3, Gender Inequality, which is the group I was assigned to. It was a very personal and important topic for me as a bisexual woman.
Gender Inequality is the social phenomenon in which men and women are not treated equally.
It is, unfortunately, prevalent in many spaces in our society so for the presentation it was broken down into different sections. We chose to talk about gender inequality when talking about the LGBTQIA+ community, sports, workspace, sexual harassment, health care and the history of gender inequality. There are things that everyone knows like the pay gap between men and women in the workplace that continues to be an issue in our current day. However, Group 3 touched on a lot more than just that. For example, there is a prejudice imbalance between gay men and lesbian women across the world that is directly tied to "toxic masculinity" or misogyny. Our group also talked about the stigma around men when they come forward and speak about being sexually assaulted. Often times, as a society, we tend to overlook men when they open up about their experiences with sexual harassment. We shrug it off because society views men as sex-hungry beings that must always want to engage in sexual activity. On top of this we also talk about the psychological effects gender inequality has on men and women. For example, women are more likely to experience anxiety or eating disorders and men tend to become alcoholics or commit suicide. This may all sound like we are not moving forward at all but don't worry there is a silver lining. Women in soccer were wildly underpaid compared to their male counterparts, even though they had higher ratings. There had been legal battles going on in recent years but as of recent, the U.S soccer team won and had a $24 million dollar settlement. As a result of this, both teams will now be paid equally. This might not settle all the problems within gender inequality but it is a step in the right direction. Here's to many more in the years to come...
Overall, I think Group 3 did a good job with covering most if not all aspects of gender inequality and kept the class engaged with polls and interesting slides and information.
Infrastructure
Next we're going to talk about Group 1 and their presentation about Infrastructure.
"Without Infrastructure - all those things our economy requires to function and that we take for granted - society as we know it would not exist"
They go on to tell us how U.S infrastructure is surprisingly not the best and in fact looked down on by the rest of the world. President Biden made a bill so that we could catch up to China's infrastructure. They also explain how the industrial revolution made us view infrastructure differently and pushed us to better the materials we were using when building. The pros and cons of U.S infrastructure were also covered. For example a pro is that it helps struggling communities to find opportunities but a con is that it causes global climate change to worsen over time. I found it interesting how they mentioned that American Infrastructure was recently was graded a C- and that is the highest ranking its gotten in 20 years. They go on to talk about infrastructure on a local level. On a local level it is often funded by state and local governments. FDOT or Florida Department of Transportation is mentioned and they explain that they oversee most of the infrastructure in Florida. But what is happening now or in the future? Covid greatly affected our progress with infrastructure because the huge economic loss causing us to delay a lot of projects. Ukraine has also taken a huge hit to their infrastructure since Russia invaded. Due to bombs and missiles, they have suffered $10 billion dollars in damage to their infrastructure. The future of Florida is also not looking for optimistic with our risk of flooding. We must look at sustainable infrastructure with the way that population is on average increasing by 81 million per year.
In my opinion, Group 1 had a great presentation. They explained a topic that not many of us know much about, tied it into something relatable by bringing it into local level, and gave us a look into the future. Their slides were consistent and very informative.
Climate Change
Last but not least is Group 2, presenting on a major issue that we should be paying much more attention to, Climate Change.
Group 2 begins their presentation by informing us about the impacts of climate change which include warming temperatures, changes in precipitation, increases in the frequency or intensity of some extreme weather events, and rising sea levels. This is incredibly important and affects us in our daily lives in more ways than one. We were explained the history of climate change starting with the late 1700s and forward till current day. They explained in great detail from 2000 till now, including any big events like The Kyoto Protocol and the Fourth National Climate Assessment. They go on to explain climate change adaptation which is when we alter our behavior, systems and/or way of life to protect our families, economies, and environment. It is crucial to understand that the more we reduce emissions right now, the easier it will be to adapt to the changes we can no longer avoid. They gave us examples of steps we can take to adapt to climate change like ensuring infrastructure can withstand more extreme weather. This is interesting because it ties into Group 1s presentation. America's perspective on climate change is interesting because 67% of US adults feel as though the federal government is not doing enough to reduce the effect of climate change. However, Republicans and Democrats can not come to an agreement since Republicans seem to think that global warming is a hoax. Something important to take away from their presentation is to finally come face to face with the fact that human-caused climate change is not a future event but something that is affecting us right now and we need to come together to fix it.
To tie it all up, Group 2 did a wonderful job not just explaining climate change and its effects but also showing us. They did a great job in tying it into last class's presentation of Infrastructure. It was crucial information and great slides.
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