Current Events

from Hebron Review Spring 2022

Interviews

comfort them. Bruschi has a keen ability to communicate with humans without a single bark or noise. If he wants to go outside, he will simply walk and lay his head towards the door, waiting patiently for someone to let him out. He will pace by his bowl if he needs food, drawing enough attention to get fed.

My grandmother was my dog's favorite person; she was constantly spoiling him with treats and car rides around the town to get fresh air. No one besides Bruschi could tell, but she was very sick with cancer. Bruschi was drawn to her, there was a connection between those two like no other. He started to act weird and overprotective for months before she even knew she had cancer. He would follow her everywhere she went. He would sit at the window to see where she was, sensing her arrival minutes before she would drive in. Playing fetch and giving kisses was reserved for only her; their special bond was unbreakable. Bruschi will not play fetch nor give kisses because he doesn't have his person anymore.

Empathy & Joy

By Jakub Diakonowicz ’23

It all happened during spring break. I woke up not knowing what I’m going to do that day. I remember calling my friend and asking them to help me fight the boredom that day. All my Polish friends were in school so I was in my house all day. I was in the living room, watching “The Office” when Mom offered me to do voluntary work for Ukrainian refugees at the central train station. I said yes, not knowing what this experience would teach me. Right after my mom and I ate lunch we started driving toward the destination.

I was shocked but at the same amazed. This might sound very confusing, but it will all make sense. When I entered the central station, which was empty last time I was there, it was full of not only refugees with no home but also volunteers. So many people also were standing in line to register as one, and there was me too. The next time I went there there wasn’t a line anymore but a form for six hours of voluntary work, with which they had much fewer volunteers. I remember standing in that line constantly getting surrounded by a multitude of people; both refugees and Poles. Once I got my vest and my tag I headed to walk around the station showing I can help, but one thing before I continue you need to remember I speak little to no Russian, just English and Polish.

Luckily the first person that I helped was speaking English to me. She was asking for directions out of Warsaw by bus. I directed her to a station with transportation details. This was mainly my job just walking around the big station and directing people if needed help. I knew upstairs was intended as a sleep zone but I had access to it as a volunteer, therefore I went there. Once I got up I walked around and saw many types of people, rich and poor, sick and healthy. One kid came up to me “Ty gavarisz pa Ruski?” I panicked because it was Russian, but I have heard this before it meant if I speak Russian, sadly I said no, but little did I know that I got along with him while Polish is very similar to it. In short, the boy was asking If I could help him with a problem; the problem was a Polish refugee from Ukraine who didn’t have a place to stay (I didn’t know that then and to this day I’m not sure), and sat in the place where his mom was sitting because she went to the bathroom. I said “Przepraszam (Excuse me)” because I saw he used the Polish language on his phone, and explained the situation to him. Unfortunately, the grown man, with tears in his eyes, looked up at me and I assumed what I said before; he doesn’t have a place to stay. He said he has a train to catch the next day in the morning, and as he said that his mom came back, and luckily she spoke Polish so I explained the situation again. The woman was very nice and told me I can go and not to worry about it, so I left. I went back downstairs and for a bit, I was again just directing people.

“When I entered the central station, which was empty last time I was there, it was full of not only refugees with no home but also volunteers. So many people also were standing in line to register as one, and there was me too.”

After a while, I went to the store to buy some Kinder chocolate bars for the refugees. I handed them, the moment I exited the store I was handing them. I made a lot of people happy, I remember one of them shouting at me to get attention because I accidentally skipped them. I headed back downstairs but someone interrupted me beforehand. A Russian Lady yelled “Trzymaj”, a direct translation is ‘hold it!’ but Russian is a type of language in which it’s typical and not rude. I carried it and walked behind her into the pregnant and new mothers section. I didn’t know if I was allowed in there so I told the two young girls that were in front of the entrance that I’m just entering for a second and they nodded and laughed. Once I entered the section I saw multiple pregnant women and newborns, but one thing got my attention. A woman surrounded by two medics, I assumed she was giving birth because her body was beneath a blanket and a medic was under it. I still believe she was giving birth although my parents say it’s not likely.

This experience has taught me a lot about people, ways to help them in poor conditions. It also gave me perspective on empathy with other people. I learned about different cultures.

Roblox Scandal

By Jake Paderewski ’23

In November of 2021, one of the most profitable companies in the world filed a 1.6 million dollar lawsuit against a Youtube creator by the name of Ruben Sim. The company claimed that Sim made terrorist threats in October of 2021 to shut down the Roblox Developers Conference. The lawsuit described his activities as leading a “cybermob,” in which he would actively attempt to influence people to make terroristic, racist, and homophobic comments. Roblox also declares that Sim performed sexual acts through the platform. Having said this, the multi-million dollar company has no proof of any hate crime this alleged Youtuber has committed.

After filing the lawsuit, Sim uploaded the first of a three-part series defending his name. In the video, he explains why Roblox would try to sue him, as well as how many of the claims are misleading or outright lies. He told the viewer that yes, he did “troll” on Roblox, but it was an attempt to make people look in-depth at the platform. Like many others, he noticed lots of children being manipulated by older users. Many would use the children to build their hubs, but give the children none of the profit made from said creations. Along with free labor, an alarming amount of these people were preying on the children, having them send explicit photos or even attempt to meet up with them. Sim, wanting to protect the community, began to take action in an attempt to bring light to the situation.

Many of the other claims, such as the hate speech, was his fan base’s own doing. He banned many of his viewers who partook in the activities, as he openly shared his disapproval of their actions. The allegation stating that Sim performed sexual acts through the platform is also false. What he did was share with his viewers proof that one of Roblox’s social media managers, who often makes appearances in the company’s livestreams, ran a pornography blog. After this was revealed, Roblox went on to say that they “do not have any concern for what goes on outside of their platform.”

After receiving backlash from the public, Roblox has taken actions to stop these harmful behaviors from happening.

“Roblox Logo.” Roblox, https://blog.roblox.com/2017/01/introducing-our-next-generation-logo/. Accessed 14 May 2022.

More Than Just Warming

By Forest Pelletier ’23

Anthropogenic climate change and other human-caused ecological disturbances occurring around the world are often misunderstood. As a result of their complexity, and the sheer scale of their effect, they are often simplified to a couple of main points that can lead to people misunderstanding the weight they have on our planet and our species, as well as the difficulty of solving numerous problems without leaving holes in the solution or creating new problems. With this—and the recent release of the new IPCC report, which includes possible solutions to some of the most urgent issues—in mind, this paper comes as a tool to aid in strengthening your understanding of the issues at hand.

First, let's talk about greenhouse gasses and the effect of an increase in global temperatures. Carbon dioxide is often what makes the headlines, and for good reason. It is one of the multiple greenhouse gasses that is having its presence in the atmosphere dramatically increase. Now, what is the problem with greenhouse gasses? Greenhouse gasses absorb some of the thermal energy of the sun, rather than letting it reflect back into space. Generally this is a good thing, as it helps maintain livable temperatures. But as we produce vast amounts of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and methane at a much higher rate than what can be absorbed by living creatures, it causes an increase in the average global temperature. Currently, it is estimated that the average global temperature has increased by one-degree Celsius since 1880.

One degree may not seem like much, but there are many spikes, especially during heat waves like the record-breaking one in British Columbia in 2021, in which parts of the province reached 121 degrees Fahrenheit.

Beyond just a rise in temperature, there are many ways these emissions affect our environment. One very important example is a change in the weather. As our emissions grow, our weather becomes more severe and sporadic in a variety of ways such as more common droughts, rainfall that comes in bigger but less frequent storms, more tornadoes and hurricanes, more mudslides, and more wildfires. The change in temperature and weather along with our massive modifications of the land to suit our needs have had a massive impact on the other species that live on our planet, leading to a much faster rate of extinction of species, as well as a drop-in biodiversity. Not to mention that these are not all of the many ways we have caused this drop. Just to name a few others, we have large scale hunting and overfishing of certain species, the massive amount of pollutants and waste we put out that affects not only organisms' health but ours, and the massive amount of carbon dioxide the ocean takes in as carbonic acid, leading to a large increase in acidity which is hard to tolerate by many species. On top of all this, the increased temperature expands water molecules and causes faster melting of polar ice caps as well as glaciers. These two factors combine to form the rise in sea levels many people worry about. On top of all this, the loss of glaciers and lower snowfall means a dramatic decrease in the amount of water flowing down from the mountains and surrounding areas, which is the lifeline of many everyday people, farmers, and ecosystems.

So what needs to be done to lower our emissions? Well, there are many contributing factors to our emissions, like the creation of cement, and methane from animal farms. All of which require changes to our infrastructure and our habitats, especially those of us in countries like America where our consumption leads to a much higher footprint on an individual level. However, the blame for who should change falls on the organizations, communities, and governments that must cause a change in the large-scale action. The biggest stepping stone to solving the issue is lowering the emissions of the energy sector. The extraction, production, and transportation of energy produce the largest amount of greenhouse gasses and influence many of the other producers of greenhouse gasses. What's the way to lower these emissions? Making renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear, and others the dominant energy source. Good news! With advances in technology and production, it is cheaper than ever with the cost of solar energy going down by 85%, wind energy by 55%, and lithium batteries used in electric vehicles by 85% (Simon Lewis 2022). There are still problems, because of the methods of their energy production it is difficult to store energy produced to be used in times of need or at times of low production such as at night with solar panels. One way of doing so is with lithium batteries, the problem is lithium is not a common resource and if used on a mass scale for electric cars and the batteries for energy factories, we could very well run out of lithium on earth because of the mass amounts that would be needed for the factories. Currently, there is a steady progress of research and testing for alternative storage methods as well as alternative power sources like hydrogen, which uses electrolysis to create energy to power vehicles and could be a major clean energy vehicle given the right infrastructure and fine tuning of technology to allow for easy refill and efficient use of energy with low risk of issues.

This is all just the tip of the iceberg to the problems we face, and the solutions we may use in the future. As the issues from anthropogenic climate change become more and more obvious, it is important to be informed in order to better understand what is at stake and what can be done. The huge list of problems may be depressing to look at, but it is vital to not take on a view that we are doomed no matter what, as we still can fix this, and so we should hold onto hope in order to best combat the issue.

Work Cited IEA (2021), Net Zero by 2050, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050 , Full report: https:// iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/beceb956-0dcf-4d73-89fe-1310e3046d68/NetZeroby2050ARoadmapfortheGlobalEnergySector_CORR.pdf

Lewis, S. (2022, April 6). Scientists have just told us how to solve the climate crisis – will the world listen? . The Guardian. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/06/scientists-climatecrisis-ipcc-report

Lindsey, R., & Dahlman, L. (2021, March 15). Climate change: Global temperature. Climate Change: Global Temperature | NOAA Climate.gov. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.climate.gov/news-features/ understanding-climate/climate-change-globaltemperature#:~:text=The%20roughly%202%2Ddegree%20Fahrenheit,significant%20increase%20in%20accumulate d%20heat

National Highways. (2021, July 16). Net-zero highways. National Highways England. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://nationalhighways.co.uk/netzerohighways/

Surrealist Landscape of Sturtevant: "Divine Education" by Colby MacCheyne