A social issue I want to discuss is the racial issue in America. Discrimination of race, color, and ethnicity has been going on for centuries and I want to explore more of why race is still an issue in 2021. It fascinates me that the discrimination of race is still a thing because African Americans have already lived through the pain of slavery and segregation, why let them suffer more? Even in law enforcement, there is racial injustice through the legal system and of course police brutality. There are many court cases in which African Americans are the people first accuse just cause of their skin color and the stereotype that comes with it. Police brutality has been an issue for a long time but, from the recent issue of the George Floyd situation, people have been standing up against police brutality. The recent black lives matter protest in 2021 was the biggest protest in America ever. We need to keep pushing/standing for equality and justice for black lives and I want to research more ways to help push for that. There are many ways to help push for equality, including media coverage, newspapers, magazines, social media, protests, etc. Even in your schools, you can help by opening up clubs and expanding on ideas on how to expand the idea of justice and equality for African Americans. Overall, African American justice/equality needs to be pushed more because if not, racial discrimination will continue and will never be able to make progress.

A social issue that I find interesting is mental illness and depression within the united states. As time progresses in our current day society, there are often issues that still persist even with the rise of present improvements such as technological innovation. Depression is a prime example as people often find themselves with a negative state of mind or suicidal tendencies that may lead them to take severe risks and even self-harm. This issue impacts me deeply as I had dealt with issues with depression in the past and am currently being associated with individuals who seem to be having their own difficult circumstances. Thus, it’s important to me as someone who was once in their situation to help out in any way I possibly can, whether it could be mental support or even just simply someone to talk to. So when taking this issue into consideration, I hope to learn more about how to help out others who may be facing difficulties of their own as much as I possibly can. Even if the action may be small, it still helps create a big impact as I might be able to brighten up someone else’s life for the better. Another example of something I want to learn more about is methods to essentially create support groups for people dealing with depression. This is a pretty big issue as not everyone has access to therapy and help such as the suicide helpline don’t really help much as there are instances where they provide no aid or help whatsoever. Thus, it’s important for me to learn about it so that one day I could aid in support groups and individuals with mental illnesses more efficiently. After all, we live in an age where essentially anything is possible if we put our minds to it. So it’s up to us, the current generation, to help give a helping hand no matter what that could possibly be.

An issue that I find significant in today’s society is mental health. People are often suffering in silence when they are not feeling well mentally, and it’s ok to not be ok. Mental health is not something that should be put last, we tend to forget about our mental health when we are trying to focus on so many things at once. I  find this topic interesting because I’ve noticed that we as a society aren’t mindful of what people are going through on a daily basis. This issue has only gotten worse with the inclusion of the Covid-19 pandemic. Being at home for a long period of time quarantining has had a serious impact on the world. It changed most of us in the long run because we had to refrain from any social events and gatherings. To add onto that, many students today are very overwhelmed because of the pressure that is on them in school and the tremendous amount of work that they are given. Students tend to lose sleep getting work done because it’s difficult to mange your time when there is so much work to get done. I am interested in this topic because I want to shed light on the fact that so many people don’t give themselves enough time to make sure that their mental health is strong and steady. Having bad mental health can negatively affect you if not taken serious. Your mental health comes first before any piece of work or what you see others doing on social media. I want to know what others do to maintain good mental health and what can be done to keep this issue relevant.

According to the IPCC, net emissions must be reduced to zero in order to stabilize global temperatures. Any scenario that does not involve a reduction to zero, according to the research, will fail to prevent climate change. Because even little changes in the amount of CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere cause the Earth to react so strongly, emissions of these gases must be reduced until the entire system is returned to balance. All man-made greenhouse gases must be removed from the atmosphere through reduction efforts after natural and manufactured sinks, bringing the Earth’s net climatic balance to zero. Humanity would be carbon neutral in this manner, and global temperatures would stabilize.

Heat waves, droughts, catastrophic flooding, and wildfires are shattering world records and inflicting devastation across Europe, North America, China, and India, which account for 58 percent of global CO2 emissions. This interests me since architects and designers play such an important and distinct role in developing and influencing the built environment across the world. Right now, they have the choice of designing and building to a zero-carbon standard. Building operations account for approximately 40% of total global CO2 emissions. If the world wants to stay below the 1.5 degree Celsius carbon limit set forth in the 2015 Paris Agreement, we must set an example and decrease CO2 emissions in the built environment by 65 percent by 2030, with zero emissions by 2040.

I’d want to learn more about zero-carbon design. Architects, engineers, and other building industry professionals continue to follow current code standards. All new structures, major restorations, and developments should be planned to use no onsite fossil fuels (gas, oil, or propane) and be fully powered by on-site and/or new off-site renewable energy. As a consequence, more renewables will be able to assist decarbonize the power business and, as a result, the present building stock. Because of the creative and construction community, we now have the knowledge, standards, techniques, and technology to build zero-carbon buildings in all climates across the world.

A social issue that I find fascinating is the refugee crisis, not just in the Americas but additionally in Europe aswell. Fleeing one’s home in search of a better life or better opportunity elsewhere is not something knew and was and, today to a lesser extent, is still considered as one of the bravest and most heroic act one can do, especially to improve your own offspring’s life. Today we see and hear, as Americans, the migration crisis on our southern boarder every day, the inhumane treatment and the desperate acts taken by the pilgrims traveling all the way from South America. As a Pole, I additionally hear about the Syrian refugee crisis where nations are either taking refugees by the millions placing the nations into not only financial but a social crisis as well; or nations deciding to limit or even close their boarders entirely to the migrants. During today’s age where we are all already connected  through the internet, are able to see the events taking place, speak to the people experiencing these conflicts first hand, why do we speak so lowly about them, where as we speak highly of those the immigrants during the last century, especially as New Yorkers, we or the people we encounter are more likely immigrants ourselves or even first generation than not. Why does the United States want to erect a border wall on the Mexican border whereas on the Canadian border we have nothing but green grass? Why does the Italian navy intercept and turn away people barely floating upon planks of wood and dirt; and why do the Slavic nations close their borders entirely?

The topic that I’m writing about is about police brutality, the reason for this is because police in new york and police from other parts of the world have abused their power and authority. Furthermore people must know that they can stand up and defend themselves from police officers and hold them accountable for their actions in court. Also you see police misconduct all the time, it maybe be online or on tv or even in news articles, all of these medias cover and show police brutality and it’s a very bad thing that this has become common in our society. We need to start doing something about our system to further prevent things like this from happening, we need to make both officers and people understand that fighting with one another can lead to lack of trust when it might be needed the most or it might result in a big fight between police officers and civilians when they come into contact. Also fighting doesn’t solve any of our problems if anything it fuels the chaos and it results in even more crimes being committed we have to understand that we live in uncertain times and instead of ripping each other apart we need to come together and help each other out because we don’t know when this pandemic will end and even when it ends we need to be on the same page and stop police brutality to form trust in the people and police officers and also punish police officers who over step the over the line as well as civilians who cause trouble just for the fun of it.