Let’s Play a Game! Let’s Play, ‘Catch an Illegal Immigrant!”

The oh-so-endearing campus of University of Texas at Austin planned a game for students to participate in this Wednesday. The fabulously named student group, the Young Conservatives of Texas (a title that really encompasses everything I’m attracted to in a student group!*) thinks that by playing a game called “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” they will be the leaders to “spark a campus-wide discussion about the issue of illegal immigration, and how it affects our everyday lives.” The game, simply, is to look out for students walking around campus on Wednesday wearing a shirt or sign that says “illegal immigrant”, capture them, and take them to the recruiting table for the Young Conservatives of Texas where they will receive a $25 gift card. For….something. An unspecified $25 gift card. So not only are these students planning a game that is, in my opinion, one of the most fucked up and childish things to do when targeting a very real issue, they are also monetarily rewarding the student body for their participation in this fucked up and childish “game”. And on top of that, the game does not address the issue they stated they wanted to spark discussion about in any sort of intellectual or creative manner whatsoever. How does capturing human beings and trading them in for money educate anyone on your campus as to how illegal immigration “affects our everyday lives?” And who says "gift card" without saying where it's even for, anyway?

Despite the fact that over 150 people said (via Facebook) that they would be participating in the game, the game has gotten enough of an overwhelmingly negative response, with outrage from the school and politicians included, that my second article announces the cancelation of the game. 

Just another reason as to why we should use all of Texas as just one giant solar panel to produce enough energy for the entire world. And why CASCADIA NOW!

*I do hope the sarcasm is obvious here and my classmates do not think I’m interested in joining the Young Conservatives of Texas.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/higher-education/young-conservatives-of-texas-to-stage-catch-an-immigrant-game-on-university-of-texas-campus/2013/11/18/dfbfab98-508c-11e3-9ee6-2580086d8254_story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/18/illegal-immigrant-game-texas-austin_n_4297838.html

Trouble in the Amazon

                   

The Amazon rainforest covers more than 2 million square miles of the Amazon Basin. Connecting nine countries: including Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, the Amazon accounts for more than half of our planet’s rainforests.  Preserving this forest is essential for fighting global warming and protecting many endangered species.

            13% of the rainforest covers more than half of Peru and laws have been established on preserving this crucial natural resource. Today, illegal logging is in full swing and will soon become destructive to the Earth’s environment if nothing is changed. About 80% of Peru’s logging exports to the United States are illegal. Even with these new laws for protecting the land, many officials and industries are incredibly corrupt. Secret lumber farms spring up deep in the jungle and if a government official stumbles upon it, most of the time they are bribed to look the other way. The States and Australia have banned illegal lumber but it is not enough without a stand by the authorities of Peru.

            This is the kind of situation where I’d like to hope humanity would settle in. Though, I can understand how some of these “corrupted” Peruvian officials become “corrupted”. If one man turned in a major illegal industry the judge may still even pass them off as clean and he could lose his job. Instead of that hassle he could lie and earn upwards to $5,000. It’s just the matter that in the long run it affects everyone on this planet. 

Read about it.

Hey, who turned out the lights??

A tourist attraction in Puerto Rico known as the glowing lagoon has suddenly gone dark!!!! This lagoon lies on the northeast side of the island but what many are baffled about is what is causing this lagoon to go dark. What causes the glow is bioluminescent organisms in the water. A few of the hypostasis for the lac in shine is of the cutting down of the mangrove trees to clear out more paths in the forest, but it is more likely caused by the building of a new sewage and water plant near buy. They believe the excess water flowing into the “bay”, as it is also known is disrupting the life cycle by caring excess water and pollution into the water. What I find to be so interesting is how buy humans modernizing how many other beautiful things in the world are going to be lost or destroyed in the proses, and what job is it for us as humans to protect these wonders of our world.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/puerto-rico-bioluminescent-lagoon_n_4304522.html?utm_hp_ref=green

China's New Plan to Tackle Air Pollution

Beijing, in an attempt to reduce the amount of pollution in the air, has come up with a new plan to reduce the number of conventional cars on the road and to add more hybrid and electric vehicles.  The local government has said that they will reduce the number of license plates it issues over the next four years by 40 percent, to 150,000 a year by 2017. They will also slowly increase the number of plates reserved for electric and hybrid vehicles to 40 percent of the total by the end of four years.

Chinese officials have tried other tactics to improve the air in Beijing in the past. During the 2008 Olympics, all factories around the city were shut down and in October, local authorities said they would ban half the city's cars when serious pollution was expected.

While this attempt is noble and should help limit future pollution, because Beijing's air has been bad for so long, this will not be enough to fix the pollution problem entirely. "The city is surrounded by smoke-belching factories, its streets are choked by a growing number of cars and it sits on a plain that is surrounded by hills that trap pollution." To reduce the smog that blankets the city, China will need to restrict emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and other airborne pollutants from surrounding areas, and it will have to cut down on outdoor fires used for cooking. Most importantly, China will have to rethink how it powers itself because zero-emisson vehicles need electricity and most of China's power is generated by burning coal.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/opinion/beijings-car-problem.html?ref=airpollution

Slowdown in Carbon Emissions Worldwide, but Coal Burning Continues to Grow

The top U.N. climate diplomat on Monday told the coal industry it should leave most of the world's remaining coal reserves in the ground and start investing in renewable energy sources.

Speaking at a coal summit on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference in Warsaw, Christiana Figueres said the coal industry needs to change radically to help reduce the carbon emissions that scientists say are warming the planet.

"The world is rising to meet the climate challenge as risks of inaction mount, and it is in your best interest to make coal part of the solution," Figueres said.

“Let me be clear from the outset that my joining you today is neither a tacit approval of coal use, nor is it a call for the immediate disappearance of coal,” Ms. Figueres said. “But I am here to say that coal must change rapidly and dramatically for everyone’s sake.”

She cited a “business continuation risk” for the coal industry if it does not play a larger role in finding ways to limit emissions.

One option would be to capture emissions of carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants and inject them into deep underground formations, but development of that technology, known as carbon capture and storage, has received little support from the industry or from governments. 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/science/slowdown-in-carbon-emissions-worldwide-but-coal-burning-continues-to-grow.html?_r=0