Issue 5: Building a Better City

Review THE HORACE HORACE MANN MANN THE

Volume XXIV Issue 5 January 2015 Volume XXIV September 2014 Issue 6

BUILDING A BETTER CITY

SETTING GOALS FOR THE FUTURE

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Letter From the Editor

Review THE HORACE MANN

Ikaasa Suri

Editor-in-Chief

Lauren Futter Executive Editor

Jenna Barancik Laszlo Herwitz

Managing Design and Web Directors

Matthew Harpe Adam Resheff Brett Silverstein

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ello HM and Happy New Year! Entering 2015, on behalf of the entire Review staff, I am proud to announce that last year’s volume (Volume XXIII) was recently awarded the First Place with Special Merit Award and the Most Outstanding Private School General Magazine for 2014 by the American Scholastic Press Association. Congratulations to the entire publication on this phenomenal achievement! None of this would have been possible without last year’s senior team and Mr. Donadio’s never-ending passion for The Review.

The Review community should be enormously proud, as Lauren and I are, of the hard work and dedication you have put into this publication, regardless of whether or not you played a part in last year’s Volume. Still, I hope that this magazine has inspired in each of you a curiosity in contemporary global affairs that extends into the world beyond Horace Mann. I only hope that you find this global-mindedness just as gratifying as the family you have found here on this staff and the knowledge you will continue to gain as a writer, learner, and intellectual.

And now moving forward into the New Year, the Issue 5 Features section: a “Better City” topic that focuses on global goals and initiatives to establish in 2015. Our writers have spent weeks researching and drafting articles about some of the world’s most critical environmental and infrastructural issues ranging from climate change to the economic impact of reduced oil prices, greener building materials and healthcare in the 21st century. I cannot imagine a more relevant Features topic to encourage dialogue about the pressing global issues that are so frequently disregarded. What use are new goals without understanding the current geopolitical state of our planet? In addition, this Volume marks the first “In Review” article, where editors part of our exceptionally talented junior staff put together a piece highlighting some of 2014’s most influential events, groups, and movements.

The Review’s mission is to educate and engage a community of analytical thinkers and global citizens through thoughtful, fact-driven discourse. In doing so, we strive to raise awareness and bring forth perspectives on a wide range of issues that are often overlooked. I hope you feel, as I do, that the Features topic this issue fulfills that purpose.

Enjoy the Issue!

Managing Content Editors

Emily Kramer

Senior Editor - Domestic

Neil Ahlawat Senior Editor - International

Elizabeth Xiong

Senior Editor - Features

James Megibow Mitchell Troyanovsky Senior Editor - Economics

Alexander Newman Abigail Zuckerman Senior Editor - Science and Technology

Edmund Bannister Charles Cotton James McCarthy Harry Seavey Samantha Stern Senior Contibutors

Ben Alexander Daria Balaeskoul Maria Balaeskoul Gabriel Broshy Daniel Jin Cassandra K-J

Anna Kuritzkes Natasha Moolji Anne Rosenblatt Daniel Rosenblatt Peter Shamamian Eric Stein

Junior Editors

Miranda Bannister Evan Greene Ray Fishman Alex O’Neill

Matthew Parker Aditya Ram Spencer Slagowitz Evy Verbinnen

Associate Editors

Ikaasa Suri Editor-in-Chief

Volume XXIV

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Gregory Donadio Faculty Advisor The Horace Mann Review is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the American Scholastic Press Association, and the National Scholastic Press Association.

Opinions expressed in articles or illustrations are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board or of the Horace Mann School. For more information, please visit www.hmreview.org.

Table of Contents

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Nuclear Energy: A Brighter, Greener Future

Defending Police Officers Will Scherr

page 4

Sophie Maltby

Reevaluating Affirmative Action Calorie Counting Emma Forman

Yarden Hahn & Ankit Gupta

Ignoring the Signs: The Issues with New York’s New Speed Limit Teddy Kaplan

page 10

2014: In Review page 12 Daria Balaeskoul, Maria Balaeskoul, Gabe Broshy & Danny Jin

Superbugs Alexis Megibow

page 18

Catalonia: The Unfortunate Truth about Independence Daniel Rosenblatt

page 20

Uber: The App that Managed to Stir Up World-Wide Controversy Isabella Muti

page 26

A Papal Revolution Ella Feiner

FEATURES

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A New Approach Zarina Iman

page 42

Economic Stimulus: America versus the Eurozone Stephen Phillips

page 44

The Final Key for Japan Christopher Shaari

page 46

A Case for Fracking Natural Gas Aaron Montgomery

page 48

Google Siddharth Tripathi

page 50

Water Security: The Threat To Our Survival Eva Steinman

page 52

LinkNYC: The New Age of the Payphone

Health in a Hostile World Celestine Samaroo

page 40

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ECONOMICS

INTERNATIONAL

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The Drop of Oil Prices and Its Global Effects

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SCI-TECH

DOMESTIC

Olivia Silberstein

page 38

page 30

Ruthie Yankwitt

page 54

Building Green: NYC and Singapore Yarden Hahn & Ankit Gupta

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Neglected Infrastructure: Why We Should Care Lexi Kanter

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Defending Police Officers Will Scherr

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hey are not racists, criminals, greedy, or abusive. They are black, white, Asian, Latino, male, female, gay and straight, fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters, and they deserve respect. Police officers are grossly and unfairly mistreated. Everyday they leave the comforts of their homes to risk their lives and protect the citizens of our millions of communities. Just like any other profession in the world, there are bound to be employees of police departments around the country who do not have the skills that certain accomplished officers possess.

There are lawyers and bankers who take advantage of people, doctors who engage in malpractice, and politicians who are

corrupt. This by no means suggests that all lawyers, doctors, and bankers are criminals and should command zero respect, even if within a large community there are a few bad apples. The cost of having a corrupt or abusive police officer is undoubtedly tragic as it often leads to the harming of an individual’s wellbeing. That being said, it is important to take note that the law enforcement community, just like the law and medical community, is not filled with people who have nothing but the intentions to harm the community. There are bad people in this world, and it is unfortunate that some end up in the law enforcement community, which consists of 1.1 million members. However, just because there are

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a few police officers, who perhaps overstep their boundaries, does not give the right for certain members of a community to chant “Cops must die� and drop all respect for police officers. The irony of it all is that while these people are chanting threatening messages at the police, the officers are ensuring that even the certain protesters who intend on generating harmful activity towards these officers are able to enjoy the same safety that all Americans have.

As mayor of New York City, Bill DeBlasio has shown that it is easier to jump on the bandwagon of people who throw police officers under the bus than it is to stand up and support the men and women who risk their lives to keep our country

Domestic safe. When the mayor of the largest city in our nation stood in front of a sea of reporters and said that his son has to fear and “take special care” when he encounters a police officer, members of the New York Police Department immediately felt rejected and betrayed. While the Mayor has every right and may genuinely have this fear for his son, it was irresponsible and foolish for him to say this in front of reporters im-

ing the police. Despite the video evidence and police recounting the events, the mayor still did not have the spine to stand up for the police. Instead he created the notion that certain people can assault officers.

As a result Ismaaiyl Brinsley chose New York, not Baltimore (where he was from) or any other city that was closer, to stage his attacks. The Mayor had the opportunity to take a stance and bring a sense of

created by the lawmakers whether it be by arresting, ticketing, or fining anyone who disregards these principles. While it may seem unfair, the best way to avoid any tragic scenario with a police officer is to simply do as they say. No matter the race, religion, or gender, all conflict can be avoided by listening to an officers demands, and if an individual is truly innocent, than he or she should have no concern of being prov-

“It is the police officers’ job to enforce the law created by the lawmakers whether it be by arresting, ticketing, or fining anyone who disregards these principles.” mediately after the extremely controversial Eric Garner verdict. As the Mayor of our city and one who even has members of the Police Department shadowing he and his family safeguarding their safety, he should have supported the police department.

Without them, this city simply could not function. Furthermore, he should have acknowledged, especially when tensions were high between citizens and police, that police officers and their families sacrifice everything to keep the city safe. Instead, the Mayor’s failure to support the police at a vulnerable time created an atmosphere and climate that is threatening to officers.

His lack of support begged the notion that if the leading official of New York City cannot even support the police officers why should its citizens. It is extremely unjust for the Mayor, who directly benefits from police officers willing to jump in front of a bullet in order to protect him, not even to mention a single ounce of support for the Police Department. To that extent, it is shameful that it took the brutal assassination of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu for the Mayor to muster up some words of support for these officers and the Police Department as a whole.

Among many, the reason why Ismaaiyl Brinsley chose New York City as the sight of his “revenge” type of attack is because of the animosity in the atmosphere towards police officers that was fostered by the Mayor. When four individuals attacked police officers warranting their safety as they were protesting, the Mayor yet again stood in front of the cameras and labeled the incident as protesters allegedly attack-

tranquility to the city, but he missed that opportunity, and in the chaos and mess that New York City had turned into, Ismaaiyl Brinsley was lost in the mess and went undetected.

While protesting is important to our society and a vital part of our democracy, it is perhaps unfair to have the law enforcers as the center and principal focus. If the laws in practice make an individual feel uncomfortable or discriminated against then blaming the police officers is not the most beneficial course of action. The people who create the laws, the lawmakers, whether it be in Washington or in a local town or state, are the individuals who create the laws; not the law enforcers. It is the police officers’ job to enforce the law

en otherwise in court. As the city has seen countless number of times, Police officers risk their lives everyday to protect their neighbors and community, as they rushed up the burning twin towers to save any life they could, not thinking about race for a single second, diffusing bombs in times square, busting down doors of terrorists and drug lords, or convincing a suicidal person that their life does matter. These moments are just a few of the thousands of tasks police officers graciously, willingly, and selflessly perform. So while it is always an unbearable tragedy any time a life is lost whether it be unjust or just, it is important to maintain perspective, and always show respect for one an other as that is the only way our great nation can heal. HMR

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Reevaluating Affirmative Action

BY OLIVIA SILBERSTEIN

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ffirmative action is a policy or measure favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education. The implementation of affirmative action entails the setting of quotas and lowering of standards in an attempt to account for differences in opportunities, particularly among minorities or groups that are perceived as disadvantaged by society.

With affirmative action comes benefits and detriments. In particular, the guidelines of affirmative action inherently make ones’ achievements less valuable and hold the beneficiaries, generally students and employees, less accountable for their actions.

By lowering standards for test scores and grade point averages, for example, students targeted for such assistance only need to strive to meet the lower requirements and may not try to reach for their full potential. The better measure, then, for defining “merit” and establishing success should be individual achievement with standards that are consistently applied amongst everyone.

Groups targeted for affirmative action are based on many disadvantages, perceived

and real, and include distinctions for race, ethnicity, gender and sexual preference.

Advocates of affirmative action argue that the practice is morally justified because its goal is not to harm the majority, but rather to provide social justice for those who have been deprived of opportunity in the past.

Inequality within our nation is certainly prevalent. However, as well intentioned as this policy may be, affirmative action unfortunately reinforces the notion that minorities cannot succeed on their own merits. It goes against basic ideals of equality and fairness. It is important to recognize and fight against inequality of opportunity, but affirmative action is not the most efficient way to do so.

Affirmative action was in fact designed with constructive purposes. It is an outcome of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s that initially focused on improving opportunities for African Americans in employment and education. The policy was developed to correct decades of discrimination and to give disadvantaged minorities an educational boost. In 1961, President Kennedy was the first to use the term “affir-

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mative action” in an Executive Order that directed government contractors to take “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” The Executive Order also established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, now known as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 to outlaw school segregation and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 improved some aspects of life for African Americans. According to data from the National Center on Education Statistics, in 1965, however, only five percent of undergraduate students, one percent of law students, and two percent of medical students in the country were African American. Today the numbers are much different.

Statistics from 2007 show seventy percent of white high school graduates immediately enrolled in college, compared to fifty-six percent of the African Americans graduates and sixty-one percent of Hispanic graduates. Credit for this improvement undoubt-

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edly goes to affirmative action.

At the same time, in seeking to protect the rights of the racial minority, this practice has violated the rights of the majority and, more importantly, has perpetuated stereotypes and barriers directed at minority communities. Modern day affirmative action is no longer the right path; it is fighting racism with racism and only has a multiplying effect. As recently as April of 2014, in the Supreme Court case Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, it was decided that the right of Michigan’s citizens to ban race conscious admissions at the state’s colleges and universities was to be sustained. As Chief Justice Roberts said, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Peers and professors who believe that minority groups in higher education institutions are there because of their race and not as a result of merit and achievement may treat such minority groups differently. If a minority students can get into elite schools with a 3.2 gradepoint average, why should they push themselves to get a 4.0? Though some students

and employees are self-motivated, many, no matter the race or background, need an extra push or incentive to do their very best.

By setting lower standards for admission or hiring, we are lowering the goals that individuals set for themselves. We should be rewarding hard work, discipline, and achievement - not race.

Proponents of affirmative action often suggest that educational institutions must factor race into the admissions process because of differences in opportunity. Generally, individuals with higher socioeconomic status have more opportunities than those from working class backgrounds. Diversity in schools should be valued but not to the point where a school rejects a certain person based on his or her race. For example, there exist many white students who come from backgrounds of low income who are held to a higher standard in the admissions process due to their skin color and not necessarily on their merit or work ethic. This example reveals a large problem with quotas based on race; they often don’t account for socioeconomic factors. As David Frum, a renown political commentator writes,

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“Lyndon B. Johnson’s assumption that non-black Americans all enjoyed more or less equivalent opportunities ‘to learn and grow, to work and share in society, to develop their abilities’ seems poignantly out of date. A white skin may still correlate less with poverty than does a darker skin. But that skin alone long ago ceased to convey much in the way of privilege to the less affluent half of white America.”

Evidently there are still many problems with disparities between races in America. Affirmative action, however, is not the solution. Society as a whole should focus on how to help people rise to the highest standards of achievement, not to bend and lower standards for entire groups of people, some of whom may not even need or deserve an unfair advantage over the majority. In the end, we must face the reality that there are many divisions that face our society and put certain groups at a disadvantage. It is our job, then, to try to create a truly equal opportunity for all people within our nation, not to foster and perpetuate social barriers through affirmative action.

HMR

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Calorie Counting

Emma Forman

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n November 17th the FDA released new regulation regarding the display of calories for alcoholic beverages and food items. The calorie count will be displayed on the menu in restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets, and the program is set to begin next November. This display of calories is going to benefit the country in the long run and will help decrease obesity in America.

The calorie count of food will be on display in pizza parlors, movie theaters, vending machines, amusement parks, certain prepared food in super markets, and chain restaurants. The rules were set in order to address the obesity epidemic in America today. In addition to foods, the FDA is requiring restaurants to show the estimated number of calories in a type of drink.

This would mean that for all glasses of red wine the same amount of calories would be

posted. The same rules will apply to beers and spirits. The FDA believes that as many as one-third of the calories consumed by Americans come from outside their house, and many health experts believe that over time the increase in typical portion sizes and the use of processed ingredients are significant causes of health issues. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize how many calories they are consuming, and this can lead to overconsumption or a misconception of the healthiness of the food. The new display of calories could help people to make healthier and better educated decisions about what to drink and eat.

After years of fighting for nutritional value to be shown on menus, health regulators feel this is the first step of many in the fight for healthier living in America. Unfortunately, as of now, more than one third of adults in the US are obese, says the Center for Disease

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Control and Prevention. Margo Wootman of the Center for Science in the Public interest says, “Alcoholic beverages are a key contributor to the calories Americans are consuming, and most of the time when people have a drink they have absolutely no idea what its caloric impact is.” This statement makes complete sense, because when people go out they can drink a couple cans of soda or beer and never realize how many calories they are consuming. Her group began the calorie count fight over a decade ago for bottles and cans to show nutritional value.

Wootman also believes that this campaign is, “one of the most important public health and nutrition policies ever to be passed nationally.” This statement clearly reflects how important the new rules are to the country’s national health and safety.

Unfortunately, the new rules are going to face political and legal challenges from

Domestic some parts of the food industry, including grocery and convenience stores that sell prepared foods. Already, the National Grocers association has made its opinion heard with a statement that “Grocery stores are not chain restaurants, which is why Congress did not initially include them in the law. We are disappointed that the FDA’s final rules will capture grocery stores, and impose such a large and costly regulatory burden on our members.” Daren Bakst, a researcher in agricultural policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the rule was “a shocking power grab that ignored the plain language

public health. This is not the first time alcohol companies have put off regulation. In 2007, rules were proposed to make labeling necessary, but the Treasury never enacted them. Last year was the first time the optional regulation was put in place. The Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau said that beer, wine and spirits companies could use labels on their products to show serving size, servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat per serving.

The treasury assumed that the regulation would most likely be used for companies that want to show their products have low

Consumers deserve to know what foods they are putting into their bodies. of the law.” He said the FDA interpreted the law too broadly, saying that it was supposed to apply only to restaurants and stores. He believes that if Congress wanted the rules to cover prepared food establishments, they would have included them in the law. With attacks from outsiders, Senator Tom Harkin defends the new rules saying they “ clearly mirror congressional intent.” The goal of the new rules is to, “help to protect and strengthen access to healthy, nutritious foods for families around the country.”

Originally, the FDA decided to ignore alcohol when they proposed menu labeling in 2011.

The FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced that they decided to include it in the final rules in order to benefit public health and safety.

This in turn lead to a large protest from the beer, wine and spirits industry that claimed they were regulated by the Treasury department, not the FDA. The new rules aren’t meant to be burdensome to alcohol companies, but are enforced to ensure

calories or carbohydrates. The inclusion of alcoholic beverages in the new rules wasn’t only shocking for alcoholic beverages companies, it also shocked Marion Nestle, a professor in the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. Nestle says the new rules are, “much tighter than the original,” and he is “amazed.”

Nestle states, “It never occurred to me that alcohol would make it in.” The alcoholic cal-

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orie count is extremely important. People never assume that a large amount of calories can come from having one or two drinks.

The new rules will hopefully help decrease the amount of calories people are ingesting from beverages.

Some of the the biggest resistance has come from the pizza industry. Calorie count advocates are worried that pizza companies may divide the pizza into more slices since calories would be counted per slice. The companies also have issues with determining the calories for slices where consumers customize their own serving. Vending machine companies have also been putting up a fight, and the FDA has rewarded them with an extra year to get the calorie cards in place. The largest convenience store, 7/11, has found itself split between two sides. The company belongs to the National Restaurant Association, who supports the new regulations, as well as the National Association of Convenience Stores, which has promised to challenge the rules. In the end, 7/11 has rightfully sided with the National Restaurant Association because, “customers want to know the information menu-labeling provides.”

The new regulations, although for the benefit of the health of the US people, is causing a rift among many corporations. The rules must be put in place even if companies are putting up a fight. Consumers deserve to know what foods they are putting into their bodies, and they should have the power to make informed choices about their health.

HMR

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Ignoring the Signs: Teddy Kaplan

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or the past 50 years, New York City’s default speed limit has been 30 miles per hour. As part of the Vision Zero Project, an effort lead by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to eliminate all traffic deaths by 2024, de Blasio lowered the default speed limit to 25 MPH on November 7th in order to eliminate pedestrian and traffic deaths. It is important to note that this is just part of the plan to eliminate pedestrian deaths, but it is the first major decision made to date. While this initiative will reduce these deaths to some extent, this endeavor is a waste of money that could be spent elsewhere. It is attempting to solve a problem that is accident-based not speedbased; lowering the speed limit by 5 MPH will not prevent car-related deaths.

Over the past year, pedestrian fatalities have been reduced from 180 in 2013 to 132 in 2014, yet the new speed limit was introduced in early November of 2014. While the decrease in deaths is a staggering, the new speed limit has been in effect for a little less than two months. Thus, the new speed limit had little effect in reducing the traffic deaths that those numbers represent.

Instead, the twelve bills on traffic safety passed by the City Council as part of the

Vision Zero plan has been the main contributor in reducing these deaths. This includes Cooper’s Law, which “allows the city to suspend and revoke the license of a taxi or livery driver who kills or maims a pedestrian who has the right of way.” Bills like this are perfectly justified after the death of Cooper Stock, killed by a taxicab while it made a turn this past January. These bills, in effect for much of the year had a much bigger impact on reducing the traffic deaths, while the lowered speed limit does not. The New York Post reports that New York City will spend $500,000 constructing and installing 3,000 traffic signs. Not only is this a large amount of money to spend, but the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) states, “Excessive speed is a factor in about 25% of traffic fatalities in New York City. Overall, dangerous driver choices, such as speeding, failure to yield and improper turns, are primary cause factors in 70% of pedestrian fatalities.” The NYC DOT also states, “Pedestrians struck by vehicles traveling at 25 MPH are half as likely to die as those struck at 30 MPH.” So, the lower speed limit only can reduce half of the 25% of the traffic fatalities, meaning lowering the speed limit only reduces traffic

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deaths by 12.5%. Instead, the other methods without the $500,000 spent and without the harms that lowering the speed limit causes on communities can work more effectively and price efficiently. Ultimately, people drive at the pace of traffic. In New York City, this is quite frequently very slow, under 30 or even 25 MPH. Currently, there are progressive lights on various one-way avenues in Manhattan that are staggered to change at a rate of 30MPH. Thus, if drivers go at exactly 30 MPH, they miss fewer lights than they otherwise would. This staggering encourages drivers to travel at 30MPH. However, as a result of the new speed limit, two things could happen. First, if the progressive lights still change at a rate of 30 MPH, cars, moving at 25 MPH, will speed up to make the staggered lights.

Therefore, people will not abide by the lower speed limit. Second, if the City attempts to stagger the lights so that they changed at a rate of 25 MPH, the reconditioning could be time consuming and costly.

Instead of focusing on lowering the speed limit, de Blasio should focus on enforcing the other dozen bills the City Council passed to eliminate traffic deaths. De Blasio’s move to lower the speed limit is just

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The iSSUES with New York’s New Speed Limit one symbol of his overall time as the mayor of New York City, a bad time for the City.

Another prime example of the flaws of Bill de Blasio as mayor occured on November 12, when de Blasio showed up late to a memorial service remembering the victims of American Airlines Flight 587 that crashed at 9:16 a.m. on November 12, 2001.

On the anniversaries of the crash, the memorial has rung a bell at exactly 9:16 am, with the mayor in attendance. However, de Blasio showed up late to this meeting and missed the bell ring. He claimed, per the New York Times he was late because he “was not feeling well this morning,” had a “rough night,” and was feeling “sluggish.”

This is a great example of de Blasio’s tenure as mayor, irresponsible with bad decisions. Not being present at the exact time a bell rings is absolutely inexcusable, and he should most certainly not be citing a bad night’s sleep for his failure to arrive on time. Mayors must be responsible and lead by example, something de Blasio clear-

ly is not doing here. Miriam Estrella, who lost 5 family members on the flight, wrote an article in the Post in which she blasts de Blasio for being late, noting that in the past, Mayor Michael Bloomberg would be at the ceremony and it meant as much to the former mayor as it did to the relatives of the victims. However, upon arriving after the bell rang, de Blasio did not even apologize. When Estrella told de Blasio she felt she was disrespected, he simply responded, “We’re just trying our best.” This lame excuse of a bad night is absolutely disgraceful and his failure to attend such an important event comes back to his decision to lower the speed limit and other bad things he has done as mayor of New York City, downright terrible.

Another example of de Blasio’s flaws is his relationship with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). A good mayor is supposed to be on the same page as the police, like Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg were when changing New York

from a crime filled city to the city with a relatively low crime rate we know today. The New York Post reports that the NYPD has almost stopped work since the assassination of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. Criminal Court summonses and traffic violations are down 94% each, parking violations are down 92%, and overall arrests are down 66% between December 22 and December 28 compared to the same period last year. A police source says, “This is not a slowdown for slowdown’s sake. Cops are concerned, after the reaction from City Hall on the Garner case, about de Blasio not backing them.” The Police are supposed to be on the same side on the mayor with each department backing each other up. These statistics and the cops not being backed by de Blasio are very worrisome as the NYPD is needed to keep New York City safe.

Overall, de Blasio’s decision to lower the speed limit is reflective on the other bad decisions that he has made in his short time as the mayor of New York City. HMR

Instead of focusing on lowering the speed limit, de Blasio should focus on enforcing the other dozen bills the City Council passed to eliminate traffic deaths.

January 2015

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International

2014:

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International

in Review January 2015

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International

Annual Trends #Euromaidan #GayMarriage #ISIS #CyberSecurity

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hese hot topics occupied the front pages of newspapers, provoked many intense debates on social media, and changed the state of both domestic and world affairs. These issues have the potential to impact our lives for years to come.

For global politics, 2014 was a turbulent year. Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine threatened to upset recent peace in Europe. The rise of ISIS raised questions over whether Iraqi

terrorism was really extinguished by the Iraq War. Gay rights have made tremendous progress in the US, but many foreign nations still have laws that discriminate against gay couples. And finally, numerous prominent cyberattacks last year raised concerns over the safety of supposedly confidential information in our net-centric world.

Can Russia once again become a global hegemon? How

much influence can ISIS possibly attain in the ever-unstable Middle East? Will gay rights’ success domestically translate into increased international freedom for LGBT couples?

How can we control the expansion of global cyber warfare in 2015?

In the following articles, we will review these major news events of 2014 and discuss their implications for the future.

ISIS declares itself as an Islamic State in Fallujah

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Bitcoin exchange files for bankruptcy

International

Russia versus Ukraine: The Crimean Crisis

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ollowing the suspension of an agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, thousands of Ukrainians gathered in Kiev in November 2013, demanding closer integration with Europe.

The protests, later termed the “Euromaidan,” grew steadily over the subsequent months and escalated substantially when Ukrainian police violently clashed with protestors. By February 2014, the focus of the demonstrations shifted to government corruption – in particular, that of pro-Russian President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. The turmoil continued to escalate; Yanukovych was impeached and fled the country. Russia refused to recognize the newly formed Ukrainian government and sent troops into Crimea.

In a March 16 referendum, 97% of Crimean voters elected to join Russia, and Crimea was annexed by Russia the next day.

It is difficult to say for certain what Putin’s true motives are, but the annexation of Crimea was likely a strategic move for the formation of the Eurasian Union, a league of Eastern European countries that he hopes can one day be “a supranational force capable of becoming one of the poles of the modern world.” Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia have already joined the alliance.

However, Putin must convince Ukraine to join in order for the Eurasian Union to have significant international influence; the other countries are simply too weak, and Crimea was the first step to getting Ukraine aboard.

While Putin claims to want peace and order, his actions speak otherwise. The Kremlin is believed to have supplied Russian rebels in Ukraine with heavy weapons to create disorder. In addition, it has deployed tens of thousands of troops along its Ukrainian bor-

der (which have since been withdrawn) and allowed militants to freely enter Ukraine. By creating a territorial dispute with Ukraine, he slows Ukraine’s negotiations to join NATO and the EU. However, the new Ukrainian government has reiterated its desire for Russia to stay out of its domestic affairs. The US has done a good job of helping the government restore order and should continue its support until the situation improves.

The Eurasian Union was founded upon the principle of Eurasianism, a philosophy that is interpreted in different ways by many prospective members of the group. Putin’s idea of Eurasianism is best illustrated by the work of Russian political philosopher and writer Alexander Dugin, in which he describes Eurasianism as an ideology built on principles taken from Communism, Nazism, Ecologism, and Russian Traditionalism. His attitude toward the West is nothing short of hostile. But despite Putin’s expansionist policies and reckless meddling in Ukraine, his approval rating still stands at an outstanding 85%. The Russian people actually uphold Neo-Eurasianism.

It is troubling that Eurasian Union members will have such close contact with such a radical philosophy. The group’s formation will offset the recent progress post-Soviet nations have made in assimilation with the EU. In forming the Eurasian Union, Russia will drag along other members into its isolation. Russia will use the Eurasian Union as a vehicle to spread its brand of Eurasianism to its neighbors and dissuade them from working with the West. The Kremlin has used its oil monopoly to bully other countries into joining an alliance where they have very little to gain economically. Russia missed a

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chance to modernize its economy in the early 2000s, and now its oil is the only product that keeps it relevant. Quite simply, Russia does not manufacture products that other countries want to buy. Most nations have much more to gain by shifting toward the West, but their reliance on Russian oil prevents them from standing up to Putin.

While Putin’s power grab in Ukraine seems scary at first, the Eurasian Union simply does not have the strength to accomplish his goals. If nothing else, the Ukraine crisis showed that Russia is bent on becoming a superpower once again, but this aim is likely unachievable. Nonetheless, the re-division of Europe is a dangerous situation, and the incorporation of other post-Soviet countries in the Eurasian Union could lead to the loss of their independence. Putin’s only interest is to expand Russian hegemony, and he knows that having Ukraine join forces with the Eurasian Union would contribute immensely towards this goal. However, the West is aware of his attempts to disrupt social order in Ukraine, and the United States has provided sufficient support. The recent global drop in oil prices further complicates the situation. Europe has long been heavily reliant on Russian oil, but it is now unclear which oil-producing countries will survive the crisis. Russia’s oil industry is now the sole source of its influence, so the price drop has been especially harmful to the Russian economy, 70% of which is built on the oil industry. If the Kremlin loses out in the oil game, Putin’s dreams of empire would vanish almost immediately. Putin can try as much as he wants to recreate Soviet Russia, but times have changed, and Russia is no longer a hegemon.

Kiev sees its worst day of violence for almost 70 years.

January 2015

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Gay Marriage: The Struggle for Justice

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hrough the last five years, the progress of gay rights has endured mixed results in the US and internationally and remains a hot-button issue. Court decisions in the United States have caused many states to lift their bans on gay marriage. 2014, however, featured perhaps the most progress on the issue of any year. 19 states legalized gay marriage, now making it valid in a majority of states and for the large portion of the American population.

Furthermore, several anti-discrimination laws protecting members of the LGBT community were passed on the state and federal levels. President Obama signed a bill prohibiting LGBT discrimination for federal employment. Virginia passed a law applying to state employees, while Maryland passed on

for all employees.

Significant modifications in legislative policy occurred in large part due to changes in public opinion. 42% of those surveyed in a Pew Poll in 2010 supported gay marriage while 48% opposed it, compared to 54% and 39% respectively in the 2014 poll. The changes in the public’s beliefs on the issue, which have manifested itself for decades, are in part due to generational turnover. The poll also found that each later age group is significantly more in favor of gay marriage than the last, with 68% of Millennials supporting it compared to only 38% of the silent generation.

International progress on the issue of gay rights has been more mixed, with advances in some countries and the introduction of draconian policies in others. Just like the majority

of states in the US, several countries legalized same sex marriage during the year, including Scotland, Luxembourg, and Finland.

On the other hand, Uganda and then Nigeria established severe and oppressive laws toward members of the LGBT community during 2014. Early last year, Uganda passed a bill that condemned those who engage in same-sex relations to life in prison and punish those who condoned LGBT rights. While the country’s constitutional court overturned the law later in 2014, Nigerian officials enacted a similar but less intense edict that punishes homosexuals with up to 14 years in prison.

The issue of gay rights has endured mixed progress both in the US and abroad over the last year and remains a hot-button issue heading into 2015.

Cyber Security: A Year of Risky Business

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014 has undoubtedly shown us that hackers are a force to be dealt with. Over the past year, hacking has been brought to the forefront by a number of high profile incidents. The past year’s data breaches are demonstrative of a growing trend that, if uncurbed, will surely continue into 2015; hackers will continue to exploit the preexisting weaknesses of software systems, and cyber security experts will scramble to prevent confidential data from being compromised. The United States’ response, in particular, to the Sony hack of 2014, without question, marks a turning point in global cyber warfare.

One of the most prominent software vul-

nerabilities in 2014 was a security bug called Heartbleed. Resulting from improper cryptography coding throughout servers, Heartbleed gave hackers the opportunity to access the passwords of thousands of users on some of the internet’s most popular sites including, Yahoo!, Reddit, Tumblr, SoundCloud, and Pinterest. In addition, the bug was used in order to steal 900 social insurance numbers from the Canada Revenue Agency. The hacker behind this attack was a 19-year-old straight-A engineering student from Ontario, who turned himself in several days after the attack. Since hackers don’t fit any sort of profile and are able to remain largely anonymous,

November 20 :

South Carolina becomes the 35 state to legalize gay marriage

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it becomes nearly impossible for law enforcement to discern who is behind an attack and prevent such events from reoccurring.

This kind of confusion surrounding the perpetrators of a cyber attack was most prominent in the Sony hack of 2014. In its essence, the Sony hack consisted of the leaking of emails sent between top Sony officials, as well as a terrorist threat on cinemas planning to show The Interview, a political satire about a plot to kill North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. As a result, Sony in collaboration with leading US cinema groups pulled the movie from many theaters.

Consequently, the film received only a limited cinema release but quickly became available

December 15 :

2014 Sydney hostage crisis begins

International for online distribution. Though North Korea denied any involvement in the attack, the FBI ultimately concluded that North Korea was the perpetrator. Subsequently, on January 2nd, 2015, President Obama issued sanctions against top North Korean officials and companies, marking the first time that the US has punished a country for a cyber attack. If, indeed, North Korea is not responsible for the attack, these sanctions can have severe consequences as the DPRK threatens to expand its nuclear arsenal in retaliation. Nonetheless, the significance of these sanctions cannot be underplayed as they mark a turning point in global cyber warfare. In response to Sony’s pulling the film from many theaters, President Obama stated, “We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start im-

posing censorship here in the United States.”

Whether or not North Korea was behind the attack, President Obama’s words do ring true: In today’s internet-centered society, we live in a world where a dictator someplace has the capability, through cyber attacks, to impose censorship in the United States.

The most important step that the government, corporations, and software developers can take in order to curb cyber-attacks in the coming years would be to hire hackers themselves to discover system and software vulnerabilities before they are taken advantage of. Top tech companies, such as Google and Microsoft, already dole out large sums of money to “white hat” hackers who uncover hidden soft-ware bugs. This trend has led to the rise of companies like Bugcrowd, a startup

that has created a network of hackers hired to expose system vulnerabilities. The expansion of “white hat” hacker hiring in the future will certainly curb some concerning cyber attack trends as more and more hackers become motivated to use their skills for “good” rather than for “evil.” If cyber attacks are to ever be curbed, beneficial hacking must become just as lucrative as malicious hacking currently is.

2014 was certainly the “year of the breach,” with more data breaches than any previous year. Unfortunately, this does not come as a surprise in an increasingly digitalized world.

Moving forward, it is critical that the government and companies alike foster an environment in which skilled hackers are compelled to use their powers for good rather than for evil.

ISIS: The Trail of Terror

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uring his re-election campaign of 2012, President Obama told the public, “I said I’d end the war in Iraq. I ended it.” However, the war in Iraq is far from over. Although hundreds of covert operations and thousands of drone strikes have weakened al-Qaeda, they have not eliminated a global terrorist threat. Since separating from al-Qaeda, its parent-group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has risen to be the world’s most prominent terrorist group. Since February, ISIS has proved to be even more effective than al-Qaeda in brutally controlling the territory it has seized, instilling fear into the hearts of many throughout the world.

In addition to its self-sufficiency as a government-based organization, ISIS forges success through the region’s sectarian tensions amongst Shiites and Sunnis. Furthermore, ISIS garners much of its power from its oil assets that it maintains by holding Iraqi oil fields. Essentially, ISIS doesn’t behave just a like a Sunni terrorist organization, but also as a military and governmental force.

Since its split from al-Qaeda on February 3, 2014, the two terrorist groups have been vying for global jihadist leadership. ISIS’ violent expansion through Syria and Iraq that began in early May has thoroughly commanded the world’s attention as the most dangerous terrorist group. In May 2014, militants captured over 140 schoolboys in Syria, brainwashing them into jihadists of radical Islamic theology. Although young adults are a crucial fighting force in ISIS, creating a mil-

itary force was just the first step in creating such a caliphate.

On June 29, 2014, the group announced the creation of a so-called Islamic State or Caliphate, effectively erasing all state borders and proclaiming itself leader over the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims. At the same time, millions fled their homes, fearing the violence that ISIS imposed. In early June, the group seized control of a string of towns and villages along the Euphrates River and overran Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. ISIS, 800-strong, was able to take on more than 30,000 Iraqi American-trained troops, highlighting the radical militants’ effectiveness in over-running Iraq’s American trained security forces. Americans and world leaders were further disheartened, as the disturbance proved the lasting instability and incompetency of the new Iraqi government.

By August, ISIS was conducting what was essentially genocide on the Yazidi minority in Iraq. This was the turning point in the United States’ participation with the group itself. President Obama approved airstrikes and aid missions that dropped food and water to the stranded 30,000 people trapped in the barren mountains of Northern Iraq. As retaliation for these airstrikes, militants from ISIS released a video in late August that appeared to show the beheading of American journalist James Foley. After watching ISIS claim the lives of two more Americans, President Obama announced a more intensive air-campaign and Washington’s first direct

January 2015

military intervention. Though atrocious, ISIS used social media in an impactful way to grab the world’s attention. Through this means, the militant group has become a large magnet for both Westerners and younger generations of Jihadists. Perhaps, the US should utilize media similarly to effectively hinder ISIS. Already the group’s brutal tactics have been met with anger from citizens. If Western coalitions used social media as effectively as ISIS, in addition to undercutting its economic supply, ISIS would be much more vulnerable.

Though many lives have been lost to ISIS and the freedom of many compromised, 2014’s battle against ISIS was not marked by failure. On September 10, President Obama debuted his comprehensive strategy to combat ISIS. The US military and its allies have begun an immediate effort to equip the peshmerga, military forces of Iraqi Kurdistan, with the hope that better training and more weapons will allow the Iraqi army to capture the territory currently occupied by ISIS. Furthermore, there appears to be a natural limit to ISIS’ expansion. In fact, ISIS’ boasting about exercise in state-building may be coming to an end as living conditions deteriorate across the regions under ISIS’ control, exposing the shortcomings associated with a group that devotes much of its energy to combat.

The fact that the militant group is failing to deliver organized services in the areas it controls conjures up questions about the feasibility of ISIS’ long-term ambitions of reviving a 7th century Caliphate. HMR

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BY ALEXIS MEGIBOW

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edication is no substitute for infrastructure. In many countries, a lack of adequate plumbing has fostered extremely poor hygiene, which in turn has led to the over-prescription of antibiotics. When antibiotics are used as a prophylactic rather than a treatment for an individual who is already infected, bacteria have the chance to develop a resistance to the drugs. One bacterium that has an antibiotic-resistant gene, it can easily pass that gene to other bacteria. Eventually, this process creates bacteria that are resistant to many types of antibiotics, known as superbugs. Superbugs can be combatted through an international effort towards strengthening drug regulation and use of antibiotics.

Now that these superbugs exist, their spread is rapid and global. A cure for the diseases would most likely be temporary, as it is probable that the bugs would eventually build up a resistance to it. Nevertheless, it is imperative that we find some way to treat people who are infected because the number of deaths continues to grow exponentially. Diseases that are antibiotic-resistant are commonly spread through hospitals.

Hospitals are ideal environments for highly infectious bacteria due to the close proximity of patients and the heavy use of antibiotics, which lead to localized colonies.

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sanitation and medical care, developing countries, or even to individuals. American congresswoman and microbiologist Louise Slaughter stated that around fourfifths of the antibiotics used in America are given to livestock that are in perfect health in order to expedite the process of their growth. This is convenient because it makes the process more efficient and the meat considerably cheaper; however, the overuse of antibiotics allows for bacteria to become resistant in the animals and for those bacteria and diseases to spread to humans. The practice of giving antibiotics to With travel from country to country being so accessible and occurring so frequently, superbugs have spread around the world to almost every country. Generating a solution for this significant problem will require international collaboration and effort.

In India, tens of thousands of newborn babies are dying from superbugs, specifically through bacteria that have been passed to them from their mothers. Researchers say that in India and in countless other countries, high percentages of superbugs can be found in water, sewage, soil, and even animals. Ramanan Laxminarayan, the vice president for research and policy at the Public Health Foundation of India said, “In the absence of better san-

The Horace Mann Review | Vol. XXIV

healthy animals has proven to be extremely dangerous to those animals and to humans.

Former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill predicts that superbugs could end up costing the global economy $100 trillion by the year 2050. He said that without immediate action, the diseases would have a financial impact equivalent to losing the entire United Kingdom’s economic output every year. Countries that are most affected by the diseases could suffer severe economic damage. The predicted death toll from superbugs by 2050 is 10 million. Superbugs would be the leading cause of death in the world, surpassing cancer, which has a death toll of 8.2 million. The anticipated breakdown is that superbugs will cause almost 5 million deaths in Asia, 4 million deaths in Africa, 392,000 in South America, 390,000 deaths in Europe, 317,000 deaths in North America, and 22,000 in Oceania. O’Neill said, “This is a significant global problem, perhaps on the same dimension as climate change. Trying to solve it is a bit like climate change.” Although the cost of hindering superbugs would be great, it would still be less expensive than the cost of not solving the problem, similarly to the situation with climate change.

The best and most practical solution to the superbug epidemic would be a collec-

International

itation and hygiene, we are forced to rely heavily on antibiotics to reduce infections.

The result is that we are losing these drugs, and our newborns are already facing the consequences of untreatable sepsis.” More than 58,000 newborns died just last year in India from superbug infection, and the growing number could slow India’s efforts to improve India’s infant death rate (a third of the world’s infant deaths occur in India).

The evolution of this epidemic is not limited to countries that have inferior tive international effort towards stricter drug regulation and use. This would prevent the development of more antibiotic-resistant bacteria, as the primary means of development of superbugs is due to overuse of antibiotics. Current superbugs are resistant to many drugs but not all types of antibiotics. The solution is not to find a “cure” for superbugs entirely, but rather to allow for optimal circumstances in which doctors can find the right drug that works to help the patient and do everything possible to inhibit the evolution of the bacteria. To control the crisis, the best course of action would be to focus efforts in three areas. The first would be observation. Doctors must monitor the antibiotic-resistant bacteria to limit the spread of these organisms and help to efficiently and quickly

stop outbreaks. The second area of focus would be research and engineering. This would help to increase the lifespan and strength of current antibiotics and to create and improve existing methods for decreasing the rate at which bacteria become resistant. This also includes expanding and strengthening current efforts to weaken superbugs. Lastly, nations should refocus efforts towards the discovery of new antibiotics. Many companies in the past few years have halted their development of anti-infection drugs and antibiotics in order to focus on more profitable treatments (such as research for a cure for cancer or heart disease), but the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) as well as President Obama himself are recommending that work in the research field of antibiotic-resistant diseases be restored in order to satisfy an increasing unmet need. Implementing international efforts to restrict drug regulation coupled with individual nation’s executing the regulations and measures outlined above should keep the global crisis of superbugs under control. One county’s effort alone against superbugs will not make much progress. In order to truly solve the problem, international participation and combination of forces are required. HMR

January 2015

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CATALONIA

THE UNFORTUNATE TRUTH ABOUT INDEPENDENCE DANIEL ROSENBLATT

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CATALAN INDEPENDENCE IS ILLEGAL AND DANGEROUS.

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atalans, dressed in vibrant hues of yellow and red, filled the streets of Barcelona on September 11th to celebrate Catalan Nation Day. The holiday was created almost 130 years earlier in order to commemorate the defeat of Catalonia at the Siege of Barcelona during the War of Spanish Succession. But, like the past two years, this celebration had a political focus. The expression of Catalan pride now represented a larger movement: the push for Catalan independence.

This new political force has created much controversy in the past months, as the Spanish and Catalan governments debated the legality of the November 9th vote for independence. Despite strong objections from Madrid, including a demand by the Spanish Constitution Court for a halting of the vote, the Catalan government followed through, and in the end over 80% of Catalan voters supported independence. This vote held no official power, and the future of Catalonia remains unclear.

Catalonia, one of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities, is situated in the northeastern most region of Spain. Its capital, Barcelona, is the second largest city in Spain and has a population of 1.6 million. Meanwhile, Catalonia in its entirety hosts around 7.5 million, accounting for over 15% of the Spanish population. The region has a rich culture and is notable for its unique style of architecture. It is home to multiple UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the most

famous of which include the ancient Roman ruins in Tarragona and Antoni Gaudí’s and Lluís Domènech I Montaner’s works of architecture in the style of Modernisme, or Catalan Modernism. Spanish and Catalan, a language named for its origin in the region, are both spoken in the autonomous community, though Spanish is more prevalent in the urban centers and Catalan in the rural areas.

Today, the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia outlines the structure and powers of the government of the autonomous region, the Generalitat de Catalunya. This body is secondary to the federal government of Spain, the Cortes Generales, but the nation possesses one of the most decentralized government structures in Europe, allowing each individual community to preside over its internal affairs freely. Despite this relative freedom, a strong sense of Catalan nationalism has arisen over the past few centuries, and tensions between Madrid and the autonomous region grow each day.

In the past few decades, the Catalan people have frequently – and fervently – expressed secessionist sentiment, citing their unique culture and right to self-determination. Their enthusiasm for independence is truly notable, but unfortunately it does not make up for the fact that the independence of Catalonia would violate international law and would harm the political and economic environments of the autonomous

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“CATALONIA’S PROBLEMS WILL ONLY WORSEN WITH INDEPENDENCE” community itself, the nation of Spain, and Europe as a whole.

First, the simple idea of secession from Spain disregards the requirements set by international law. Advocates for Catalan independence often cite the rights to self-determination and sovereignty as the key to the rationale for independence. It is true, of course, that the United Nations supports these rights; its Charter recognizes the “principle of equal right and self-determination of peoples” as fundamental to the maintenance of a harmonious global community. However,

the document also places great importance on the “territorial integrity” of all states. The right of a nation to preserve its borders is significant in maintaining stability, and as such, only extreme cases qualify for bids for independence. The question then arises: What determines an exceptional case?

Over the course of its almost 70 year history the United Nations has established these guidelines. In 1970, the General Assembly passed the Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation

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Among States. This document requires states to ensure self-governance to all citizens, regardless of “race, creed or colour,” but in doing so, it makes it explicitly clear the document does not authorize “any action that would dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity” of any nation that does support equal rights and democratic values. This sentiment is echoed in the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which, though created for the purpose of promoting bids for sovereignty, designat-

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http://www.locabarcelona.com

ed the unnecessary interference with national unity as “incompatible” with United Nations’ values.

The United Nations has not been the only body to address this issue, though.

In 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the status of Quebec, a region seeking independence, by addressing both national and international law. The court’s ruling was two-fold. First, it noted that the international documents pertaining to the creation of new sovereign states all contain “parallel statements” to limit such a power in order to prevent an

infringement of territorial integrity. Second, in terms of Canada, it ruled that, as the nation represented the whole of the populous fairly, the bid for sovereignty was not justified by law.

While many Catalans would prefer an independent nation to fulfill their desire for a more official recognition of their distinct culture, their treatment within Spain simply does not constitute any form of oppression. Not only do they have the same civil and political rights as all other Spaniards, but as an autonomous region, the government of Catalonia has almost complete control over many aspects of life. These include civil law, tourism, education, and security, among many others; the regional government’s autonomy fully surpasses the definition of self-determination. Therefore, as the Catalan people have a democratic form of governance and do not suffer from oppression, their hope for secession fails to meet any standards of international law.

A recent example of successful independence that is often pointed to as precedent for Catalan independence is the case of Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, as the Albanian majority wanted to separate.

The International Court of Justice upheld and recognized this independence, and though controversy ensued, Kosovo is now accepted as a sovereign nation by most of the international community.

Drawing the connection between Kosovo and Catalonia and using the situation of Kosovo as justification for the legality of independence, though, is far-fetched and illogical. The independence of Kosovo was considered a “special case” because of the political chaos following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the extreme violence in the area, and, most importantly, the mass killings and ethnic cleansing. Kosovo was granted sovereignty because the oppression of ethnic and religious groups allowed the right to self-determination to override the territorial integrity of Serbia. While some Catalans feel underrepresented, Catalonia functions in a completely democratic manner within Spain, and there is certainly no genocide occurring. Therefore, one cannot make the parallel between Kosovo and Catalonia and must realize that there exists no extraordinary circumstances that would allow for a disregard of the territorial integrity of Spain.

Secession from Spain would also be

October 2014

extremely harmful to the economies of Catalonia, Spain, and the Eurozone. An independent Catalonia would not be able to support itself, would threaten the stability of the Spanish economy, and would soon become a burden to the European Union.

The current autonomous region of Catalonia has the largest GDP of all 17 communities, just ahead of Madrid. Often, proponents of independence use this statistic to argue that a Catalan country would thrive economically, especially having shed its ties with the rest of Spain.

The reality is, though, that the Catalan economy is unstable, and its precarious situation will only worsen with greater autonomy.

Upon further examination, we realize that Catalonia has the largest debt of all the autonomous communities in Spain.

It had approximately 25% debt to GDP, and the autonomous community actually holds 40% of the debt of the nation. Further, the deficit has increased in recent years. On top of this, in October 2012 the region’s Moody Credit Rating fell to the Ba3 level, described as a “substantial credit risk.” Meanwhile, the entire nation Spain rose to a Baa2, three higher than Catalonia. Finally, Catalonia currently has an unemployment rate of 22% and a growth rate of negative 1.3%. It is clear, then, that the GDP is deceiving; while Catalonia does have economic activity, the state of economy as a whole is precarious and moving in a dangerous direction.

Catalonia’s problems would only worsen with independence. First, we see that even the idea of independence frightens businesses and investors. From 2010 to 2013, 1060 corporations moved form Catalonia to Madrid, fearing the instability that the independence movement has caused. Further, the establishment of a new nation is not easy. It requires increased spending and bureaucratic shifts.

Catalonia would have to create and support armed forces, develop a national infrastructure that it would have complete authority over, establish diplomatic services at home and aboard, and take over the many services currently provided by Madrid. This transition would prove economically impossible for Catalonia, a territory that is already entrenched in debt.

Catalan independence would not just hurt the autonomous community itself. It would simultaneously damage the Span

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“CATALAN INDEPENDENCE SHOULD NOT BE ACHIEVED” ish economy and threaten the integrity of the Eurozone. First of all, in January 2014 Moody’s predicted that if Catalonia were to secede, investors would be discouraged by the uncertainty of the connectedness between Madrid and Barcelona and therefore withdraw from the Spanish economy as a whole. Secondly, the organization noted that 17% of Spain’s economic output is generated

by Catalonia, and a loss of this source of income would be devastating to the national economy. Finally, though, it is important to note that Catalonia and Spain maintain a high level of interdependence; Spain profits greatly from Catalonia’s large financial sector, while Catalonia relies on the national government for economic stability and safeguards, especially through bailout plans. Essentially, they need Spain. And Spain needs them.

The economic argument against secession extends past the dangers of Catalan instability. To understand how independence would affect Europe as a whole, one must analyze the recent trends of the

Catalan economy. The region currently holds around €50 billion debt, a number which has increased from €41 billion since just 2012. It has asked for multiple bailouts from the Spanish government, including a €5 billion request in 2012 and a €9 billion request in 2013. At the same time, since 1986, the European Union has provided €10 billion in EU structural funds to Catalonia, and almost 20% of that funding was acquired in the last 7 years. These alarming figures, combined with the aforementioned increased economic burden that independence would apply, speak to the eventual need for bailout measures to support an independent Catalan state. How does this instability directly affect Europe, though?

Many agree that Catalonia would likely join the European Union following independence, perhaps in an expedited reentry process. In April, a pro-independence group determined this move as “logical,” and the regional government has already complied with the EU regulations for years. However, once this entry

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into the European Union were obtained, the new nation would have the right to apply for a bailout plan and for further economic support. This would be a natural move considering its past of petitioning Spain and Europe for economic aid, but it would be an extremely unfair measure, as this individual autonomous community would suddenly rise to the same level as Spain itself and possibly receive economic benefits that other regions of Spain would not be granted. In this way, the creation of a new state within the European community would undermine the integrity of the established system of economic safeguards by opening the door to various benefits afforded to Catalonia because of its manipulation of political status.

On a political level, Catalan independence faces strong challenges as well. The first and most prominent of these is the illegality of the measure according to the Spanish Constitution. In 1978, following 39 years of the Franco dictatorship, the Spanish populous passed the current

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constitution in a referendum, and in this vote, 91% of Catalans approved the document. This constitution, which is less that 40 years old, bans the secession of autonomous communities. For this reason, politicians have suggested that Catalonia attempt to amend the document within the Spanish legislative body, the Cortes Generales; this approach is the only legal means of independence according to Spanish law.

Meanwhile, political problems within the Catalan government will only augment with increased power. According to EU study on Regional Variation in Quality of Government, the Catalan government is the worst in Spain in terms of corruption, effectiveness, and accountability. In fact, it is grouped among the least reliable regional governments in the entire continent and has a rating comparable to those of small communities in southern Italy. Following independence, corruption and nepotism would remain, transparency would not increase, and, with no oversight from a stable national government, the class divides that plague Catalonia would only widen. Barcelona, which is the economic and political capital of Catalonia and which holds half of the population, would have no city to rival or counter balance its influence. It would become the center of government focus, leading to a disregard for the concerns of farmers and laborers in the countryside and smaller towns. And finally, this government would have great difficulty interacting with its neighbor and most important trading partner, Spain, following a split. This could even turn Spain’s allied against the new country. As Joaquim Gay de Montellá, a prominent Spanish businessman, explained, independence would lead to “true isolation.”

A government that faces this many problems and lacks the necessary framework for establishing impendence should not run a nation.

On a final note, it is important to address the underlying reason that many feel the need for a ne sovereign nation:

culture. Catalan people believe that they posses a distinct history, culture, and language from eh rest of Spain. It is, of course, true that the Catalan people have their own language and celebrate many of their own holidays. They support different soccer teams, and they don’t allow bull fighting. They even have a different national symbol – a donkey. But at the same time, the Catalan people have a large amount in common with Spain.

They often eat similar cuisine and both have a passion for soccer, for example. In terms of history, the two were both settled by the Romans, and since then, have almost always been a part of the same political unit, including the Visigoth rule, the Moorish rule, and the Kingdom of Aragon and Castile. In modern day, 99% of Catalonia understand Spanish, while 94% understand Catalan, and 88.8% write Spanish, but less than 50% write Catalan.

The Catalan pride is vibrant and should not be dismissed, but the Catalan government already has complete authority to promote this culture, and it simply is not great enough a divide to justify political separation.

In the end, the relationship between Catalonia and the rest of Spain will remain a delicate one. We cannot ignore the fact that there are cultural differences that exist between the two. But, like the other autonomous communities, Catalonia must learn to accept the substantial political power it has been given and focus on the development and appreciation of its own culture, one that is extremely exciting and free to be emphasized within the region. In this way, the Catalan culture does not have to be threatened by outside forces. However, because of the reality of the political and economic system of both Catalonia and Spain, and because of the clear international guidelines on the matter, Catalan independence should not be achieved. It will hurt Catalonia, Spain, and Europe and destroy the established relationship of interdependence between the three political entities. HMR

October 2014

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THEY NEED SPAIN. SPAIN NEEDS THEM.

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Uber: The App That Managed to Stir Up World-Wide Controversy

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By Isabella Muti

n over 200 cities and more than 50 countries around the world, Uber has quickly taken over the transportation industry.

Founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, the app-based car service network has reached a value of $41.2 billion in record time, with a 126% increase in the past six months. It offers a convenient, quick, and relatively inexpensive form of transportation that can be ordered directly from your smartphone. Now, instead of having to drive their kids from place to place, parents can call an Uber to pick up their kids and easily track the car’s trip. The app also gives customers the ability to share and split rides with their friends simply by tapping a button. As Uber’s website boasts, it is “reliable,” “cashless”, and “convenient,” and as shown by the San Francisco-based company’s rapid global expansion, the ma-

jority of the world agrees.

Despite its many benefits and immense success, however, Uber has faced a lot of criticism from governments, taxi drivers, and civilians who question the company’s safety and customer privacy policies. In extreme cases, such as in Belgium, Spain, South Korea, India, and Thailand, the company’s operations have been banned. Many other places around the world, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Madrid, and Singapore, have placed limitations on Uber.

Reasons behind these measures vary, but it seems as though the majority of the complaints are coming from taxi companies who fear that Uber is becoming too strong a competitor.

In August, Uber introduced a new ride-sharing feature called UberPool, which allows riders to share cars and split the cost

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of the trip with other Uber users requesting a ride on a similar route. Governments worldwide have expressed concerns about this new aspect of Uber. Governments have also accused Uber of misleading costumers about its safety practices (such as incomplete driver background checks in the ride-share feature), in addition to the danger of riding with complete strangers. In Queensland, Australia, for example, Benjamin Walsh of the Taxi Council claimed, “Queensland taxi drivers undergo daily criminal checks, but ride-share drivers don’t. You simply don’t know who is behind the wheel.”

Similar apprehensions regarding the uncertain safety of the ride-sharing feature have caused governments in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the U.S. to take legal action. According to San Francisco District Attorney, George Gascon, “Uber

International has refused to comply with straightforward California laws that protect consumers form fraud and harm.” District attorneys accused Uber of violating certain California laws regarding licenses, inspection of taximeters, and passenger safety. California lawmakers have attempted to negotiate a settlement for Uber to change its unlawful policies with little success so far. Furthermore, lawmakers in New Jersey have recently passed legislation that regulates Uber and other ride-sharing apps, also in response to the concerns with driver background checks and passenger safety. An Uber representative commented, “In the U.S. alone, 18 jurisdictions have now adopted permanent regulatory frameworks for ridesharing, a transportation alternative that didn’t even exist 4 years ago.” These regulations show how the government is working to quickly adapt to this new transportation industry since apps like Uber have become so popular recently. Some governments, however, have put in place more extreme limitations on Uber. In early December, the French court made a decision to ban UberPOP, the French version of UberPool.

Not only has Uber’s ride-sharing feature become a large safety issue due to the lack of driver background checks, but individual drivers have also been accused of sexual assault and infringements on passenger privacy. The recent case of a woman who was allegedly raped by her Uber driver in New Delhi has received a lot of media attention, and Uber was ultimately banned in the Indian capital. The New Delhi police blamed Uber for this incident, and accused the company of inadequate background checks on drivers, a critique that Uber has repeatedly received. The New Delhi case was one of several incidents of sexual as-

sault related to Uber that have emerged in the past few weeks. In Boston, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Chicago, alleged victims of kidnapping and sexual assault have all attributed their attacks to Uber drivers.

As a result, Uber continues to face criticism from governments around the world for its “completely worthless” safety procedures and the “false sense of security” it gives its consumers.

Although there have been several legitimate instances of safety and privacy violations, the majority of governments’ concerns with Uber are a result of allegations from other taxi companies. These claims from traditional taxi companies are most likely made in attempt to limit Uber’s rapid development since Uber is taking so much of their business away. While customers and employees seem unanimously content with Uber services, the company has received attacks from other taxi and vehicle corporations that claim that Uber violates many government regulations. As of now, Uber is the clear leader in the industry relative to its main competitors Lyft, Sidecar, and Curb, with drivers in nearly twice as many cities.

The recent sexual assault charges, however, have caused Uber’s rivals to gain some business.

Uber poses a threat not only to its competitors, but also to local taxicab systems.

Taxi companies are trying to keep up by developing their own apps and exploring Uber alternatives. The taxicab system, however, is different in that taxi drivers work as contractors for small fleets rather than as individual employees for a large national corporation such as Uber. As a result, it is more complicated for traditional taxi companies to introduce new technologies to compete with Uber. According to Donna

Blythe-Shaw, a representative from the Boston Taxi Drivers Association, “The [taxicab] system was a mess and Uber has created an even bigger mess.” Uber has popularized a new transportation system that is much faster and easier for consumers, and traditional taxi operations are struggling to keep up.

Particularly in European cities, taxi companies and drivers have led protests against Uber due to the competition their business faces from the app. For example, black cab drivers blocked roads in London in protest: “Uber is just the latest and highest profile issue on which the taxi trade feels TfL [Transport for London] isn’t giving it fair representation,” explained one driver.

The general secretary of The London Taxi Drivers Association, who organized the protest, later commented, “[Uber is a] massive American monster that uses its financial muscle and army of lawyers to threaten, cajole and kowtow licensing authorities and regulators.” Taxi drivers all around the world share similar views against the company, claiming that Uber not only threatens their business, but also does not meet local transportation standards. Taxi driver strikes and protests have also taken place in Berlin, Milan, Paris, and Madrid.

Although Uber has received a lot of negative press recently, the company continues to thrive. In response to the criticisms of its safety and privacy policies, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has released statements explaining Uber’s dedication to improving passenger safety and becoming “smarter and more humble.” As Uber further expands into new cities, it will most likely continue to face backlash from governments and competitors, but it seems as though the benefits of the app outweigh the disadvantages. HMR

www.global-gateways.com

January 2015

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International

Ella Feiner

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ince Pope Francis’s inauguration, he has made many controversial statements that have generated media attention. This year, he has openly accepted the gay community into the church and shared his belief that evolution and the Big Bang are compatible with Catholic doctrine. As our society becomes more and more modern, religion must adapt, but for years the previous pope had staunchly stood firm in his beliefs. Pope Francis may be just the revolutionary the church needs to help regain constituents and popularity.

According to a study by the Pew Forum from 2007, nearly one third of Americans were raised as Catholics, while today less than one fourth identify as such. This statistic is troublesome for the church, and it doesn’t even account for the large number of Catholics immigrating into the US annually. Additionally, New York City just announced a plan to consolidate parishes across the city because there are a shrinking number of priests, financial struggles, and a declining population of Catholics getting married and baptized. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York City, wrote that “Some of our people will be sad, upset, critical and even angry…” Beautiful

old parishes, some founded in the 1920s, will be destroyed due to a lack of money.

Then there is the stigma from the clergy sex abuse scandals that still church’s ability to expand even though it has been years since the information was released. Reuters referred to this incident as “the scandal the Catholic Church cannot shake.” Pope Benedict XVI, the predecessor to Pope Francis, was in charge when the distressing news came out and he struggled to handle his constituents. The Catholic Church was clearly in dire need of a culture change by the time he vacated his position Pope Francis may be part of the solution to these problems. He marks many historical milestones as the first Jesuit, Latin American, and non-European pope in over 1,000 years. After Francis was chosen as pope after the surprising resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, he quickly began reforms and insisted that the church shift its focus to wider outreach, aiding “those who are most distant, who are forgotten, who are most in need of understanding, comfort and help.” Earlier this year, Pope Francis apologized to the public in a heartfelt manner, “I feel compelled to take personal responsibility for all the evil that some priests, many - many in number,

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[though] not in comparison to the totality - to assume personal responsibility and to ask forgiveness for the damage caused by the sexual abuse of the children.” He later added, “We don’t want to take a step back in dealing with this problem and the sanctions that must be imposed.”

The new pope has also addressed the issues of evolution and gay marriage, leading to some of his more controversial statements. In an interview after World Youth Day in Brazil, he questioned, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” On October 27th of this year, he gave a speech accepting that evolution and the Big Bang theory are true and can exist harmoniously with Catholic doctrine, stating that “God is not a divine being or a magician.” Additionally, Francis has married couples who had been living together ‘in sin’ and had children out of wedlock. One of these couples later proclaimed gratefully, “This Pope is marvelous… he is renewing the Church.”

Since this statement, he has continued to dominate the headlines and raised a lot of awareness about the Church.

This behavior is revolutionary for a pope. Historically, the papacy has been more careful not to redefine doctrine

International

due to the binding power of existing teachings. However, Pope Francis has expressed desire to revamp Catholic teachings in order to decrease tensions and acclimate the church to the changing social environment in the West. He plans to address issues such as marriage, divorce, abortion, and homosexuality. A formal start to this movement began a few weeks ago in Rome when a document was is-

The conflict surrounding this document has left the church teetering on an edge between two worlds. Old fashioned, conservative officials and orthodox members of the church do not agree with many of these recent reforms, but they represent a small minority of the Catholic population. Transforming the church has put it in a better position and made it more popular as the West becomes a more pro-

on serving the majority of the people.

In order to do what’s best for the church, Pope Francis needs to move it in a more progressive direction. Yes, it will be extremely upsetting for many dedicated constituents and could cause a greater split within the church. Nonetheless, in an age of increased secularism and institutional decline, it is imperative that some change be made within

“This Pope is marvelous… he is renewing the Church.” sued that, according to the New York gressive society. However, in the process Times, “suggested both a general shift of adjusting their beliefs they would be in the church’s attitude toward nonmar- betraying people who have contributed ital relationships and a specific change, their lives to the church during troubled admitting the divorced and remarried times, donated money, and struggled to to communion, that conflicts sharply live up to its teachings. This gives the with the church’s historic teaching on Pope a compelling reason to step back marriage’s indissolubility.” Although the from his controversial statements. Howlanguage in the document was eventually ever, Francis still needs to make these watered down with respect to old Catho- reforms because the number of orthodox lic doctrine, itc73a76f939a02d698b is clear that Pope Francis full.jpg Catholics in our society is shrinking and http://a.scpr.org/i/f74 802688a2e41/26354is putting in an effort to be progressive. the church needs to place a greater focus

October 2014

the church. In an attempt to please as many people as possible, Pope Francis should approach these vital topics in a less controversial way, focusing on issues that do not question doctrine such as annulments of marriages. He is making a good decision for the future of Catholicism by moving the Church in a direction that addresses the more important, pressing issues that could possibly break the church before they save it in order to find a long-term solution. HMR

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Features

Climate Change and Natural Disaster

By Celestine Samaroo 30

The Horace Mann Review | Vol. XXIV

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limate change threatens global health as our health care systems struggle to keep up with unpredictable climate fluctuations. In order to compensate for these climate fluctuations, we must protect and rebuild the foundational equipment for modern healthcare such as roadways and electrical and water systems. These new innovations require huge economic investments, but these funds are not accessible. Climate changes becomes a more serve issue with each passing day as heat waves and floods limit food production and water abundance and impact the basic needs of individuals.

Due to fluctuating climates, the amount and severity of heat waves has escalated and cases of heat related illnesses have consequently increased. Heat waves cause more individual casualties than any other weather form. They give rise to heat stroke, which caused over 400 deaths in the summer of 2010 in America. In addition, the combination of dry seasons and heat waves generates wildfires that negatively impact surrounding communities.

According to Climate Communication, climate warming was the main trigger for Russia’s record setting heat wave in 2010. In America, Colorado and Utah are exceptionally prone to wildfires, which destroy infrastructure and kill lives. As temperatures rise and heat waves occur, the amount of heat trapping gasses grows.

The international community has recently experienced extreme temperatures; in 2012, America’s hottest day reached 113 F. In order to aid individuals and reduce heat related mortality rates, we must provide safe places for them to stay during heat waves. Although current efforts such as recycling and limiting energy usage impede climate change, we must install more precautions to prevent future generations of heat waves and dry seasons.

Harmful air pollutants that contribute to climate change reduce the air quality and result in respiratory illnesses such as asthma and chronic lung. According to Climate Communication, 126

Features million American cities did not meet the air quality standards in 2008. Due to climate change, the amount of stagnant, warm air has increased and has resulted in higher levels of ground-level ozone, a harmful air pollutant. The ground-level ozone damages lung tissue and inflames airways. Thus, this pollutant increases an individual’s susceptibility to respiratory illnesses and infections and premature mortality rates. It can be concluded that climate change harms human lives and measures must be taken to prevent its impacts from worsening.

The number of droughts has increased due to climate change and has exacerbated water management. As the Earth warms, the rate of evaporation increases and causes droughts to occur. Greenhouse gas emissions significantly contribute to the recent increase in dry seasons because they restrict the abundance of water by increasing evaporation rates. Evaporation from soil and vegetation has increased in Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. This increase has reduced the availability of fresh food and water for individuals. Extreme weather events such as droughts can also lead to mental health issues such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. Droughts and other extreme weather conditions can interrupt health care services. Extreme weather changes such as droughts prompt dehydration and prompt people to experience physical illness.

Flooding also affects the physical and mental health of individuals. Climate change causes snow and ice to melt excessively at a rapid pace, and these conditions give rise to flooding. Flooding can potentially cause carbon monoxide poisoning by carrying traces from portable electrical generators that are used during and after these storms. Flooding also physically impacts health, since it can cause increase stomach and intestinal illness among evacuees.

Changes in climate increase the production of pathogens, which are transmitted through food, water, and ani-

mals. Since bacteria grow more rapidly in warmer weather rather than in cooler temperatures, high temperatures increase the amount of food borne diseases such as salmonella and result in gastrointestinal infections. If such diseases and infections are not treated properly, they can lead to death. Flooding and heavy rainfall overflow into sewage treatment plants and spread pathogens from there to other places. This overflow could contaminate freshwater sources and result in unhealthy, drinking water that causes illness. Runoff water can also contaminate food crops with feces and other pathogens and result in foodborne illnesses. In addition, flooding also increases water borne illnesses, since parasites such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, pathogens that cause gastrointestinal distress, are only present in contaminated water, which increases during floods. Heavy rainfall also causes a form of stomach inflammation called gastroenteritis, which can be caused by pathogens. Due to changing climates and extreme weather, water and food borne illnesses are on the rise. Animals and insects such as ticks also contribute to the spread of illness. As air temperatures increase, ticks travel northward and infect people on their journey. Thus, the number of reported Lyme disease cases has increased. Climate change alters our way of living by affecting our health.

New health care systems must be installed in order to prevent extreme weather conditions from disrupting our daily lives.

We should adjust our healthcare system in order to adapt to climate change and its impacts on human health. We should provide more emotional and physical support for those who are experiencing extreme weather conditions.

Climate change challenges our health care systems and forces us to reevaluate the precautions that we need to exercise in order to prepare for natural disasters.

Climate change has prompted environmental struggles that test both the physical and mental health of individuals. HMR

“Climate change challenges our health care systems and forces us to reevaluate the precautions that we need to exercise in order to prepare for natural disasters. ” January 2015

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Features

By Yarden Hahn

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decade. Reducing residential buildings’ carbon footprint is difficult because these buildings are dependent on large amounts of energy. Residential buildings constantly devour energy for heating, lighting, and charging electronics. New York City’s increasing consumption coincides with larger apartments’ growing need for energy. Due to a greater demand for energy and an absence of regulations regarding the amount of energy consumed, CO2 emissions are proliferating and are becoming harder to manage.

The Greener, Greater, Buildings Plan or GGBP, an initiative of the PlaNYC workforce, intends to create more energy efficient buildings in the City in order to reduce the City’s carbon footprint.

As said previously, this goal is hard to accomplish. To overcome this obstacle, the PlaNYC group has made the GGBP a long-term, 10-year, plan. The GGBP is a plan to build multiple energy efficient buildings throughout the City. In addition to constructing new buildings that will be more energy efficient, the GGBP also wants to and plans on improving energy efficiency in already existing residential buildings. The GGBP aims to execute this by providing architects and other people involved in construction work with information concerning energy efficiency. Greater access to this information will enable constructors to work together with the same objective of creating more energy efficient architecture. Although this aspiration may seem expensive, the PlaNYC group intends to take the most cost-efficient route. The GGBP has designed these buildings so that they are both environmentally and economically beneficial. According to the GGBP, these efforts will reduce New York City’s CO2 emissions by 5%, save

“Residential buildings have been the largest CO2 producers in the City and have accounted for around 40% of the City’s CO2 emissions over the past decade.” even more. Therefore, it is focusing on reducing CO2 emissions and improving the energy efficiency of residential buildings. Residential buildings have been the largest CO2 producers in the City and have accounted for around 40% of the City’s CO2 emissions over the past

7 billion dollars in construction, and create nearly 18,000 jobs over the next 10 years. By minimizing the City’s carbon footprint, saving money, and generating jobs, the GGBP reinforces New York City as a world leader in regard to economic growth and adaptability. HMR

January 2015

New York City

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ew York City, a city that has lead the world in economic growth, spearheads an emerging movement to reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency. The workforce PlaNYC, an initiative created by New York City, focuses on improving the City’s energy efficiency in order to ensure healthy future living conditions.

Since the 1970’s, New York City’s energy consumption has risen by 48%. The growing demand for and implementation of electricity throughout the City has contributed to this increase. As apartments have become larger and people have become more dependent on electronic devices such as computers, phones, refrigerators, and other household appliances, energy consumption has escalated.

The same problem is present in industrial sectors, where energy consumption has increased. This rise in energy consumption coincides with an escalation in energy production. However, energy production has increased at a faster rate than energy consumption. As a result, the rate of consumption has decreased. From 1985 to 2003 industrial energy consumption has increased by 12%, but this rise in consumption has coincided with a 60% rise in energy productivity. A decrease in the production of energy intensive products such as iron and steel contributed to the slower rate of energy consumption. As production moved from energy intensive products to light industry, which includes the production of smaller articles that are easy to transport such as clothing, shoes, and consumer products, energy consumption rates dropped.

The PlaNYC workforce has seen these statistics and the decrease in the rate of consumption, but is determined to decrease the City’s energy consumption

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Singapore

Features

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ince the turn of the century, Singapore has progressively addressed urbanization and energy efficiency in order to protect the environment. It has made new construction more energy efficient and has familiarized the country with the nature surrounding it. Incorporating nature into urban life is something that other nations should do in order to create a more sustainable environment. As the population of the world grows, we will need to minimize our usage of resources; energy efficient buildings will help dramatically.

Singapore is quickly becoming more environmentally responsible by building green buildings. A green building is resource efficient in nearly every aspect including design, construction, and maintenance. In Singapore there currently stand approximately 1,600 green buildings.

These buildings make up 21% of the total buildings in Singapore. Based off of estimations from the Singaporean Chamber of Industry and Commerce, this number will rise to 35% in the next five years and go over the 50% mark soon after. If Singapore continues on this track, it will hit the 80% mark by 2030. In order to accomplish this goal, the BCA intends on building new architecture, enforcing regulations, and improving existing structures.

The BCA is implementing these initiatives by exerting the Green Building Master Plan, a three-part plan that uses incentives to encourage buildings to be more energy efficient. The first part of the plan focuses on new construction and involves a system of regulations and incentives. This piece was established in 2005 and has been successful in raising ecological awareness and enabling people to make more informed decisions when constructing new buildings. In order to address existing buildings,

“The government invested $100 million in research dedicated to studying carbon storage, solar energy, green data centers, building energy efficiency as well as industry energy efficiency.” the BCA passed a second part of the Green Building Master Plan. Similar to the first part, the second part is a set of regulations and incentives. This part was key because over 30% of the consumed power in Singapore in 2012 was due to buildings and 50% of that was due to air conditioning.

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After conducting some research, Singapore found that it would be most effective to improve its current buildings by paying for the implementation of newer, greener air conditioning systems instead of making developers pay by themselves. Along with this, the set standards are not outrageous. They are more realistic and increase the odds that developers will upgrade their buildings. The third part of the Green Building Master Plan is not a set of regulations. Instead, it is a set of guidelines that concern Singapore’s green buildings over the next 5 to 10 years. This plan has helped Singapore make tremendous progress since the plan’s introduction in 2005. It also has a section devoted to occupant behavior. Singapore’s government wants to educate the public on how to save energy and be ecofriendly. Instead of viewing its growing population as the main factor responsible for resource shortages, Singapore is making its population the solution to a greener city.

In addition to the Master Plan, Singapore recently introduced a system where buildings get rated on their energy efficiency.

It is called the Green Mark and it, along with other generous incentives, encourages developers to be as efficient as possible.

Singapore has received considerable, governmental funding for new technologies that could be used to make green buildings more prevalent and more innovative. The government invested $100 million in research dedicated to studying carbon storage, solar energy, green data centers, building energy efficiency as well as industry energy efficiency. These are dubbed as the five roadmaps for this plan.

Some of these options seem more viable than others. For example, carbon storage is challenging due to Singapore’s finite space.

Despite these limitations, Singapore has

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gone forth with these plans and will conduct research on these topics to see how to make their country more energy efficient.

But Singapore is not only looking into being more energy efficient, it is also seeking ways in which to connect itself with the surrounding nature in order to make the

Features city look nicer and make buildings even more environmentally friendly. Two examples are the Parkroyal Hotel and the Jewel Changi airport. Developers are building these structures to ensure that as Singapore grows, the consequent development is sustainable. For the Parkroyal Hotel, the architects included a terrace on nearly every other floor with a garden that resembles a rainforest. Trees, vines, and other plants grow here, and even wood and other eco-friendly materials form the lobby’s interior. The hotel is efficient with water, lighting, and air-conditioning. It also has state of the art technology used to monitor levels of carbon dioxide. There is a system that harvests rainwater and helps the hotel to be more water efficient. As for lighting, the hotel has a multitude of sensors to ensure that energy is not being wasted. The airport is just as innovative and aesthetically pleasing as the hotel, and it acts as a tourist attraction. It is currently undergoing construction and will soon incorporate a transportation hub designed to resemble a rainforest. This transportation hub will include a waterfall as its centerpiece that will collect and reuse rainwater. At night it will be the backdrop for a light and sound show that diners can watch from overlooking restaurant terraces.

Without this incorporation of nature into an urban environment, it would be more difficult for a person to be aware of the environment around him or her. This is partly why architects are looking into this type of design for buildings like the Jewel Changi airport and Parkroyal Hotel.

Such design ties in with the Green Building Master Plan where the government wants to inform the public on the environment.

These movements make Singapore a more pleasing environment to live in. The architect behind the airport claims he would like it to be a tourist attraction because it will bring money into Singapore which will also help boost Singapore’s economy. I think that Singapore’s ideas regarding its future are ones that other nations should study because they are ecofriendly and unique. HMR

By Ankit Gupta

January 2015

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Features

NEGLECTED INFRASTRUCTURE: WHY WE SHOULD

LEXI Kanter

T

oday there is such internal conflict and division within the United States that it seems as if the nation is crumbling into utter dysfunction and disrepair. Alarmingly, this is a metaphor for not only the political and social unrest, but also the literal state of much of the nation’s infrastructure. Bridges are near collapse if not already falling apart, roads are crumbling, and airports and seaports are out of date. All major cities in America have infrastructure that is in need of immediate repair, but unfortunately, there has been no congressional action to fix the problem, what Steve Kroft of Sixty Minutes has called “just another example of the political paralysis in Washington.”

New York is arguably the greatest city

in the Unites States and one of the greatest cities in the world. However, much of the city’s essential infrastructure remains stuck in the 20th Century, unable to fulfill the needs of the growing population. Few can ignore the violent lurching of cars rolling over the potholes so numerous they are unavoidable. Roughly 43 percent of all roads in Manhattan are considered substandard, followed by Staten Island (40 percent), the Bronx (34 percent), Queens (31 percent) and Brooklyn (28 percent). The common solution to the crumbling roads tends to be a simple resurfacing. However, the roads need to be fully reconstructed on a much wider scale, according to former executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation

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Authority, Elliot Sander. This short-term strategy is not only ineffective, but also inefficient, as the longer the pavement lies without thorough improvement, the faster it deteriorates and the more costly it becomes to fix. A lack of long-term infrastructure solutions are common in New York, another example includes dilapidated, un-renovated buildings in LaGuardia Airport. As air travel infrastructure is especially important to tourism economies, the lack of an updates and renovations could be impeding advancement in the industry. There are even more issues lying out of daily public view. Many internal structures in New York have been operating continuously for over half a century, long past their intended life-

Features times. The average age of New York City’s 6,400 miles of sewage mains is approximately 84 years, for example. Its 6,800 miles of water mains are approximately 69 years old, and its 6,300 miles of gas mains are 56 years old. As a result, many of the city’s gas, steam, sewer and water lines are made of old and outmoded materials like unlined cast iron, making them highly susceptible to leaks and breaks.

The problems seen in New York are not isolated, but widespread, affecting many cities across the U.S. Currently, 70,000 bridges in America, one out of every nine, are considered to be structurally deficient. According to former secretary of transportation, Ray LaHood, this term is used to label potentially dangerous and need to be urgently replaced or dramatically repaired. Some key examples of the state of bridges in this country are in Pennsylvania where three hundred bridges become structurally deficient each year. There are more than 4,000 bridges in Pittsburg alone and over 20 percent of them are structurally deficient. Many of these bridges were built in the late 1920’s and 1930’s when cars were much lighter and traffic was less. Even then, most were only built to last 50 years, when, at this point, we have exceeded the “expiration date” by thirty to forty years. We have seen the consequences of bridges left in disrepair, some much younger than those in Pittsburg. For example, a 50-year-old I-35 bridge collapsed in Minnesota back

in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The Skagit River Bridge in Washington State, of around the same age collapsed last May. The problem of antiquated systems and crumbling bridges and roads isn’t just inconvenient and dangerous to American citizens, but also a serious problem for a nation trying to compete with other countries globally in 21st century markets. Despite America’s wealth and strength, we fail miserably in competing with the infrastructure in other nations worldwide. America's infrastructure has gotten worse, by comparison with other countries, over the past decade. The United States is now ranked 16th according to the World Economic Forum, behind Iceland, Spain, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates. The lack of a true high-speed rail system as seen across Europe and Asia is a continual embarrassment. America's fastest and most reliable line, the northeastern corridor's Acela, averages just 70 miles per hour between Washington and Boston. Contrastingly, the French TGV from Paris to Lyon runs at an average speed of 140mph and the even faster Japanese Shinkansen runs at speeds up to 200mph. American air travel is no better.

Air travel still relies on a ground-based tracking system from the 1950s, which forces planes to use inefficient routes in order to stay in contact with controllers.

The inaccuracies of this system result in controllers having to keep more distance

between air traffic to compensate, reducing the number of planes that can fly in the available space. The failure of the U.S. to keep up internationally has not gone unnoticed by many large companies such as GE, who complain that government inaction on the issue of infrastructure is hurting their ability to compete on a global scale and will continue to negatively impact the economy.

It is clear that the United States is falling behind in maintaining and upgrading its infrastructure, and total public spending on infrastructure has fallen steadily since the 1960s, now standing at 2.4% of GDP, it’s lowest level since 1947. Politicians of both parties seem to agree that something needs to be done about the state of infrastructure in the country but none are willing to take action. This is a prime example of the incompetence of congress and the absolute reluctance of politicians to do what is necessary instead of what they believe will advance their careers (because of the long-term nature of infrastructure investments, the results are typically not available for politicians to flaunt during reelections). The rehabilitation of America’s infrastructure will be neither easy nor inexpensive; however, it is critical that a solution is reached in Washington, in order for Americans to not only look forward to the destination, but to also once again enjoy the journey. HMR

Despite America’s wealth and strength, we fail miserably in competing with the infrastructure in other nations worldwide.

January 2015

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Nuclear Energy: A Brighter, Greener future

Sophie Maltby

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t this very point in time, we as a nation and as a world face a crossroad in choosing what form of energy to pursue as our dominant resource. It is universally agreed upon that we need to diversify our energy portfolio, but the discrepancy lies in how to do so. Of all the forms of energy that we can pursue: wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, hydropower, and the list goes the only form that presents a viable future as a form of consistent, clean, and efficient energy is nuclear.

Simply put, nuclear energy is created through the splitting of uranium atoms.

The fission of these atoms creates heat, which is then used to heat water and make steam. Fundamentally similar to the manner by which coal or diesel power plants function, the steam is used to power generators, which in turn produce electricity. The two main types of reactors in use today are the pressurized (PWR) and boiling (BWR) water reactors. In the pressurized water reactor the water is heated by the nuclear reactions, yet because the water is pressurized, it doesn’t

boil. The water in the reactor heats the water in the steam generator side, but it is on a different loop so they do not mix. In the boiling water reactor, the water comes to a boil due to the heat produced by nuclear fusion. The water from the reactor powers the turbine. In both systems, the water is reused.

Currently, 17% of the world’s total energy production comes from Nuclear Energy reactors; comparatively, only 15% of the United States’ energy comes from Nuclear, and in France Nuclear accounts for 75% of the country’s energy production.

The positive effects that Nuclear Energy presents are too large to ignore. It is the most powerful form of energy that still emits virtually no greenhouse gases in the reactor, and as opposed to low-power technologies like solar that might meet only local, residential, or office needs but cannot generate power for heavy manufacturing., nuclear energy can be used for industrial and commercial enterprises Nuclear Energy has been a known form of energy for hundreds of years, the first official use having been about two

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hundred years ago, and so compared to other newer forms of energy, it is more developed and market ready.

Still, reservations remain concerning the potential terrorist activity that could result from an increase of nuclear energy. The byproduct of the reaction is Uranium-233, a product known to create nuclear weapons. In the past, a large concern has been that terrorist will obtain this product in order to attack American soil. While there may have been a time when such a claim was legitimate, nuclear weapon proliferation from the Uranium 233 has since been made almost impossible.

New nuclear reactors are made such that the Uranium-233, produced as waste, cannot be made without also creating Uranium-232, a product whose powerful gamma rays would actually destroy the Uranium-233.

A principal argument made by those in opposition to Nuclear Energy is that the waste is difficult and unsafe to transport.

This is simply false. More than 20,000 containers of high-level waste and used

Features fuel having travelled safely over a total distance of 20 million miles without a single instance of a serious radioactive release.

Another solution to the concern would be to legalize Nuclear Reprocessing. Currently, waste produced by nuclear reactors is put into the ground to decay, whether in clay deposits or in the soon reopening Yucca Mountain The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository Project, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a deep geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and other high level radioactive waste. Since its start, the project has been controversial. Democrats argue that the we do not know enough about the long term effects of the facility, noting the possible disaster if the waste leaks into the water supply.

Republicans argue that we need a place to keep the waste, and Yucca Mountain is the only thing we have.

The use of the facility was halted in 2012 under the Obama Administration, but the newly Republican senate is working to opening it back up again. The fact is, whether or not Yucca Mountain is safe, it won’t be able to contain all of the waste

13.4% oF the world’s Enerthat is being cregy is already ated. If we can reprocess and renuclear cycle this nuclear ma-

terial, waste is only created at 3%, far less than not doing

so.

The problem is that much of this waste remains in the ground for millions, even billions of years. For example, Uranium-238 has a half-life, or the time it takes for half of the substance to decay and disintegrate, of 4.468 billion years.

Contra to this, the byproduct if the waste is reprocessed – Plutonium-239, has a half-life of 24,00 years, which, while still a long time, is not 4 billion years.

France, which gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, recycles its used fuel. More than a dozen other countries, including Great Britain, Russia and Japan, also reprocess and recy-

cle the nuclear material However, in the mid-1970s, then-President Jimmy Carter banned U.S. use of the technology on grounds that it would contribute to nuclear proliferation.

Now we’re seeing the results of that ill-advised ban. There are 2,410 metric tons of spent fuel stored at the Hatch and Vogtle nuclear plants in Georgia — and the amount is rising each year. Altogether, more than 62,500 tons is kept at nuclear plant sites across the U.S.. If not for the ban on recycling, valuable Uranium and Plutonium could be extracted and chemically reprocessed to make a mixed-oxide fuel for use in reactors to generate even larger amounts electricity.

Reprocessing is safe and reliable. Despite concerns that separated plutonium from recycling could wind up in the hands of rogue governments or terrorist groups, tight safeguards put in place and have prevented any diversion of the nuclear material for weapons production.

Even with the almost guarantee of safe production of Nuclear Energy, some are still

be able to contain any potential disaster.

A 2008 EPA study found that the world economy produces greenhouse emissions at the rate of 29 billion tons per year - some 900 tons per second - a rate still rising despite rhetoric and negotiation. Since then, the amount of greenhouse gases we as a world emit has only grown. An overwhelming majority of climate scientists, and an increasing cohort of world political leaders, agree that we must, by mid-century, cut global greenhouse emissions by a full 60% - even as world energy consumption triples. In the sheer scope and urgency of this challenge, we face nothing less than a global

concerned about the potential meltdowns of Nuclear Reactors. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukishima were all tragedies, but the International Community has been able to learn from the mistakes made in the past, and corporations in cooperation with national governments through the IAEA have been able to maximize Nuclear Energy production while ensuring the safety of its citizens. The nuclear reactors have been updated such that very little waste is actually capable of melting down.

Moreover, the reason those disasters were so catastrophic is because the governments were not well equipped enough to contain the damage. We have seen the effects of lingering radioactive waste, and we know that living in a society where one event of human error can trigger a domino effect, leading to lingering waste that still cause health defects generations late.

We have also learned from these mistakes and have made security system stronger so that, while the new technology makes it next to impossible for another nuclear disaster to occur in the US, we will also

emergency The only way we can realistically scale back our emissions of greenhouse gases is to turn to nuclear energy. It is the only form energy that has a ready market.

The costs are competitive and declining, where most other forms of energy have continually increasing expenses. The fuel will be available for many centuries, and longer if nuclear reprocessing if legalized.

Not taking advantage of all of the evident benefits of Nuclear Energy is simply not an option. Compared to other forms of energy, it is the only viable option.

Not only is wind energy less efficient, but also the rare earths being mined in China to create the turbines themselves are causing cancer. Solar energy is costly, and inefficient seeing as the sun is not always shining. Tidal energy is costly and known to disrupt aquatic life. We know that we have to move away from the unsustainable and carbon emitting fossil fuels that we currently use, and the only other options that are in the vernacular are ones that would never be suitable to serve as the future of energy. HMR

January 2015

Not taking advantage of all of the evident benefits of Nuclear Energy is simply not an option.

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Features

The Drop of Oil Prices and its Global Effects

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Features

ZACK GAYNOR

I

ndustry experts have projected that the price of oil will drop to around $30 a barrel from $116 in April of 2011. Oil provides an industry that many countries depend on for a majority of their GDP and jobs, and its price therefore have both significant geopolitical and economic ramifications,. The recent decline of those prices can destabilize the regions that are very reliant on them. Iran and Russia, for example, need oil prices to be above a certain price in order to not implode. Many international companies, including manufacturing and oil businesses,, also need the price to remain high in order to stay profitable. On the other hand, the price of oil dropping also provides many global benefits, especially to Western nations. Many terrorist organizations are supported by the export of oil, and reductions in price would decrease their funding and hinder their ability to support themselves. In addition, the cost of oil dictates gas prices and therefore drops in its price benefit gas consumers.

The oil market began to lose power in May of 2014 and has since depreciated in value by around 25% during that time. This is mainly due to two separate occurrences: America becoming more energy independent and China’s and Europe’s decreasing demand for oil, making major countries that import oil less dependent on either the industry or on its export market. This stresses relations not only between the government of a given oil reliant country and its people, but also between countries that trade oil with each other. This is because many countries become allies through trade, so lessening trade could greatly strain their relationships. Additionally, The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been trying to come up with a method to stabilize the prices of oil in order to insure its collective oil exporting futures.

Saudi Arabia quickly declined this because it called for the nation to give up market share in the oil exports. The proposal also provided them very little benefit for stabilization because their prices are said to stabilize at around $80 a barrel, while they take only about $6 to extract from the ground per barrel.

A major issue with the price of oil dropping at such a great rate is that it could cause different regions to become destabilized. The Middle East is a very troubling region because it is already unstable and is heavily reliant on the

oil trade. The price of oil needs to be around $136 a barrel, almost 70% higher then what it is currently, in order for the country to profit.

A large reason that Iran is having such issues with distributing its oil is that there are harsh sanctions in place from many of the participants of NATO in response to their impending nuclear program that prevent the nation from selling much of its oil to many western nations. The Iranian Government has accused the United States of manipulating oil prices in order to put Iran in a poor position in forming a nuclear disarmament agreement.

If Iran’s government fails to stabilize the oil prices, it will use this accusation to garner economic support from the west. While Iran is a special case because of this alleged pursuit of a nuclear weapons program that gives it special leverage in dealing with the west, many other major oil exporters like Venezuela, Nigeria, and Iraq have major issues due to these prices and poor relationships with the United States and could hence experience revolutions and power changes if the oil prices do not stabilize. Nations like these have an economic reliance on oil and many of the government’s supporters are either heads or employees of oil companies. This makes these governments and the economic stability of the nation heavily reliant on oil. Therefore, if oil prices continue to slump, it could hurt most people in those countries. Experts have predicted that if oil prices sink to $70 a barrel then there will be an uprising in Russia, and if the prices fall to around $30 then the same would occur in Iran.

Additionally, people seem to think that the United States’ economy will be helped by the decrease of oil prices because the country’s citizens will have more disposable income, however this in reality is not entirely true. This decrease in oil prices have hurt the Russian economy due to the nation’s reliance on the income oil brings because of sanctions imposed by the United States. This could also sound like a positive occurrence from the perspective of the United States, but its effects on the international economy make it detrimental.

Russia is a large trading partner with many European countries that are American allies.

This sudden decrease in oil prices and hit to the Russian economy have hence hurt our allies’ economies and subsequently the United States’. In early December, the Chicago Board

January 2015

Options Exchange Volatility Index, a measure of investor uncertainty, rose about 78% in the United States. Oil prices continued to fall after the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasted that they would not only continue their downward path, but also would “for some countries and companies make an already difficult situation even worse.”

While the energy industry is hurting right now, it seems to be also failing long term. The United States becoming more energy independent and China and Europe being less dependent on the oil industry will continue to hurt the export market. OPEC seems to be far less productive then it has ever been because of its inability to ask its members to give any thing up. This will continue to drain the market and hurt those involved in the trade and its export, and while the effects of this on the United States in the short term can be disputed, energy independence for the United States will help it in the long term. In summation, the oil trade market is losing strength, and it is time to move on from exporting it. HMR

“A major issue with the price of oil dropping at such a great rate is that it could cause different regions to become destabilized.”

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Economics

www.chathamhouse.org

A NEW APPROACH

How we can mitagate the economic impact of the international drug trade

By Zarina Iman

T

he abuse and trafficking of illegal drugs continues to be detrimental to the global economy. In 2007 alone the cost of drug abuse to the United State government was about 191 billion dollars. There are four basic reasons for the negative economic impact of drugs.

First, the abuse of drugs affects the mental and physical health of millions, leading to high-priced drug-related hospital visits. In 2007, drug-related healthcare

cost 11 billion of the 191 billion dollars spent by the U.S. Secondly, the manufacturing of drugs pollutes and destroys the environment, resulting in expensive cleanup procedures. Thirdly, drug-related crimes also cost governments, which must pay to prosecute and later incarcerate perpetrators. Finally, people involved with drugs are less likely to be contributing members of society, and thus they cause a loss of potential economic out-

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put. These outcomes can be prevented by educating youth, establishing recovery programs, offering options besides incarceration for drug-related crimes, and creating stronger communities.

Drugs affect the health of the abusers, as well as the health of those around them. The illegality of drugs and the consequences of drug abuse encourage users to embrace dangerous practices such as needle-sharing. Therefore,

Economics blood-borne viruses, such as HIV and Hepatitis C, are increasingly common among people who inject drugs. Of the 14 million people who inject drugs, 1.6 million are living with HIV, 7.2 million are living with hepatitis C, and 1.2 million are living with hepatitis B. Some of these people seek medical attention and receive expensive treatments that they cannot afford. This leaves government programs, or the hospitals themselves, to cover the cost. In addition, drugs can hinder one’s judgment and senses, causing an array of accidents that may involve people other than the impaired person.

Cocaine raises the risk of a car accident between two and ten times, while amphetamines increase the risk five to thirty times. The price of treating victims of these accidents is tremendous and could entirely be avoided. Furthermore, people exposed to drug addicts often need treatment for physical and psychological damage. For example, children exposed to drugs prenatally or at a young age are more likely to develop disorders that require special care, costing the family and society. The total value of health care for illicit drug abusers and those they encounter amounts to billions of dollars a year. These costs are entirely preventable and siphon off funding of more worthwhile projects.

Drug creation pollutes the environment, destroys land and causes costly deforestation. The disposal of waste caused by the manufacturing of drugs introduces contaminating substances into sewage. These substances then enter the groundwater and are filtered into the water supply in small doses. Furthermore, chemicals used to treat drug crops join runoff and contaminate water, damaging natural organisms in the environment. Individuals and governments then become responsible for the expensive cleanup that is needed to undo the harmful effects of drug production.

Additionally, in nations such as Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, the cultivation of crops for use in narcotics such as opium and cocoa has resulted in the deforestation of land and subsequent loss of the biodiversity of the area. The crops destroy vast areas of nutrient land that could potentially be used for agriculture.

Meanwhile, drug-related crimes force governments worldwide to prosecute and incarcerate perpetrators. This process is extremely expensive and entirely

avoidable. There are three major types of drug-related crime. The first is crimes that are committed by people under the influence of illicit substances. As previously stated, drugs impair a person’s judgment and can lead to irresponsible and illegal activity. A study conducted in Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines found that about 55 percent of convicts reported that they committed their offense under the influence of drugs. 19

Drugs are responsible for poor health, pollution, increased crime rates, and lack of productivity. By viewing this as an economic issue, concrete data that thoroughly proves that drugs are detrimental may urge lawmakers to push for reform. percent of those people said they would not have committed the crime if they had not taken any drugs. The second type of crime includes those that are committed to support one’s addiction; usually these involve robbery, burglary, or fraud. In the UK such crimes cost about 20 billion dollars annually. Thirdly, crimes related to narcotics commonly involve drug gangs. These crimes often involve disputes between rival drug cartels and are frequently violent. In 2013, according to Forbes, Mexico spent 173 billion dollars to fight against large drug cartels.

Drug-related crimes cost Australia about 3 billion dollars per year, while America spends 61 billion. These exorbitant costs are mostly the result of governments’ obligations to house people convicted of drug-related crimes. Overall, drug-related crimes prove waste public monies and shrink the economy.

Finally, the use of drugs results in a productivity drain that costs countries billions. Drug abusers are generally unfit for work and drug use reduces the number of people in a country’s workforce.

This loss can be measured through the

January 2015

loss of potential output or GDP. In 2011 the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime reported that labor non-participation, due to drugs, cost the U.S. 120 billion dollars or 0.9 percent of GDP. This outweighed all other drug expenses, accounting for 62 percent of money lost in drugs. Canada experienced a loss of 0.4 percent of GDP, higher than all other health-related costs.

Bringing an end to illegal drug trafficking and abuse will be a lengthy process, but there are many ways to move it along. Preventions programs that educate youth to make informed decisions will help ensure that future generations are less involved with drugs. Recovery programs can provide education, job training, housing and other services to prevent relapse. These people will then be ready and able to join the workforce.

Options for penalties beside prison for drug-related crimes also must be considered. This will lower the annual price of incarcerating perpetrators of drug-related crimes and will aid people in finding help for their addiction. Recently, the Bureau of Prisons budget doubled to about 7 billion dollars from 3.6 billion in 2000, in part related to increased enforcement with the war on drugs. To reduce the prison population, lawyers, such as Attorney General Eric Holder, are endorsing programs that channel perpetrators of low-level crime into recovery programs that cost significantly less than prisons and allow people to move forward. Lastly, governments must strengthen institutions in communities and provide programs that assist people in low-income areas who are at a higher risk of being involved in drugs. Institutions, such as libraries and schools, should provide a nurturing outlet, where people can better themselves and the community around them.

The abuse and trafficking of drugs is a global issue that affects everyone both socially and economically. Drugs are responsible for poor health, pollution, increased crime rates, and lack of productivity. By viewing this as an economic issue, and not just a social one, it is more likely that lawmakers can succeed in pushing for reform of the current system. To stop the international drug problem, every country has to become committed to and involved in fixing the problem. HMR

43

Economics

Economic Stimulus America versus the Eurozone

Stephen Phillips

T

44

o control the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis in the United States and help the economy through its recovery, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to near-zero levels and started aggressively buying back Treasury bonds. The object of this easy-money policy was to flood the market with cash in the hopes that it would increase borrowing and spending

and prop up equity markets.

In October 2014, Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen announced that the Fed’s bond buying, a major part of its stimulus program, would end that month. She and the members of the Federal Reserve board agreed that encouraging employment and spending numbers justified the removal of one aspect of the stimulus. However, the Fed

will keep interest rates artificially low for the near future, encouraging investment by making borrowing essentially free.

The Fed’s response to the US crisis is vastly different from the European Union’s reaction to its own financial meltdown.

Emergency EU fiscal policy, with Germany being the primary driver of change, called for austerity among member

The Horace Mann Review | Vol. XXIV

Economics

“US easy-money policies appear to have had significantly more success than have European austerity programs.” states. By cutting state spending, EU nations were supposed to balance their budgets and stabilize their economies. US easy-money policies appear to have had significantly more success than have European austerity programs. While some areas, like sluggish wage growth, continue to concern the Fed, US unemployment has steadily decreased and GDP has generally increased since the depths of the recession in 2009. Conversely, Europe has seen skyrocketing unemployment and nations struggling to keep their economies from contracting. The Federal Reserve’s policy clearly has been more effective in alleviating the economic issues of the United States than has been the policy of austerity demanded by the European authorities in solving Europe’s financial woes.

Between the summer of 2007 and the spring of 2009, housing prices in the United States declined severely. Standard and Poor’s 20-City Composite Home Price Index fell approximately 29.5% over that period. This loss in real estate value threatened to devastate the mortgage-related securities market, in which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Wall Street firms, and insurers were invested. This subprime mortgage crisis accompanied a wider collapse of the financial system in the US. The Federal Reserve took aggressive shortterm actions to prop up key financial sector firms during the fall months of 2008. The central bank provided a loan to JPMorgan Chase, which the investment bank used to purchase rapidly collapsing Bear Stearns, and extended credit to American International Group (AIG). AIG was a central provider of insurance for financial institutions, putting it directly in the crosshairs when the subprime mortgage crisis and ensuing loss of confidence in the market devastated firms’ balance sheets.

After providing emergency credit to prevent an even more catastrophic financial decline, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke turned to long-term strategies to revitalize the American economy.

The first was drastically lowering shortterm and long-term interest rates, which effectively made taking out loans free. The

central bank believed this tactic would encourage businesses and consumers to spend when they otherwise would not have the confidence to, thus unlocking cash that would otherwise sit unused in banks.

The second was a large bond-buying program, through which the Federal Reserve would purchase massive amounts of debt to inject cash into the economy and hopefully stimulate spending. At the height of the growth program in late 2012, the central bank bought $85 billion of bonds per month.

The institution of Fed stabilization and recovery actions was strongly correlated with improvements in the American economy.

The annual rate of US consumer spending hit its low point of $9.80 trillion in the second calendar quarter of 2009, but rebounded to $9.86 trillion in the fourth quarter and reached $10.17 trillion in the last quarter of 2010.

US gross domestic product (GDP) followed a similar trend, although it went through its worst declines earlier in the recession. GDP contracted 8.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 5.4% in the first quarter of 2009. The US recovery officially began in the third quarter of 2009, when GDP expanded by 1.3%.

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have both provided sizeable loans to EU countries in crisis. Greece, Ireland, and Portugal have all received loans of more than €75 billion; however, such money comes with austerity requirements. Greece promised to cut government spending by an amount equal to 1.5% of GDP. The Greek government’s budget was equal to 50.7% of GDP in 2009, according to the World Bank, the greatest share of any country in the world at that time. That number dropped to 49.3% in 2010. The Irish government promised to cut its budget by €6 billion in 2011.

Portugal lowered its defense spending and delayed the construction of new rail lines.

The reasoning behind EU and IMF austerity requirements is politically sound: many EU countries had bloated budgets that needed to be reined in. Eurozone politicians and economists believed that cutting government budgets would get rid of defi-

January 2015

cits and set ailing economies back on track.

However, the political ideology did not line up with the economic reality in Europe.

Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz wrote in The Guardian in late 2014, “Austerity has been an utter and unmitigated disaster, which has become increasingly apparent as European Union economies once again face stagnation, if not a triple-dip recession, with unemployment persisting at record highs and per capita real (inflation-adjusted) GDP in many countries remaining below pre-recession levels. In even the best-performing economies, such as Germany, growth since the 2008 crisis has been so slow that, in any other circumstance, it would be rated as dismal.”

Unemployment and GDP numbers in Europe’s molasses-slow recovery are indeed dismal. The Eurozone’s collective GDP grew at an annualized rate of only 0.2% in the second and third calendar quarters of 2014.

Germany, usually a driver of growth but now facing a recovery running out of steam, grew its GDP at only an annualized 0.1% in the third quarter after facing an annualized rate of contraction of 0.6% in the second quarter. Unemployment in the second, third, and fourth-largest Eurozone economies was dangerously high in mid-2014: France, 10.1%; Italy, 12.6%; Spain, 25.1% (a healthy economy has an unemployment rate in the mid-single digits). Youth unemployment, generally describing those between 16 and 29 who are actively seeking work, was a staggering 53.8% in October 2014. In other words, half of young people in Spain cannot find a job.

Fed stimulus policies have set the United States on the right track. GDP is growing at a healthy rate and consumer confidence has steadily increased. Stagnant wages and low workforce participation concern US economists, but solid hiring rates and falling unemployment are signs of a good recovery. The same cannot be said for Europe. Austerity policies there have starved Eurozone countries of capital, leading to a critically weak recovery and forcing the continent to live under the constant threat of slipping back into recession. HMR

45

Economics

THE FINAL KEY FOR JAPAN How the nation can continue the success of Prime Minister Abe’s economic policies

By Chris Shaari

J

apanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in 2012, winning the election after campaigning on the platform of Abenomics, a set of changes to economic policy aimed at bringing the Japanese economy out of a S that has plagued it since the 1990’s, a time commonly referred to as the “Lost Decade.”

Since then, the Nikkei 225 Stock Exchange has become nearly 85% stronger

and the yen has dropped 25% against the dollar. Although markets are stronger, the key to unlocking the success of Abenomics lies in an increase in wages that has yet to occur.

The economic principles of Abenomics are based on of a “three-arrow” approach. The term three-arrow comes from a Japanese folk tale that teaches that three sticks together are harder

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to break than one. These “arrows” are changes to monetary and fiscal policy, as well as structural reforms.

Shinzo Abe’s changes to monetary policy are based on monetary easing.

Monetary easing consists of the Japanese government putting pressure on the Central Bank to flood the market with cash. This has increased the amount of money in Japan’s economy in the past

Economics two years. Essentially, by increasing prices through creating more money, it is hoped that deflation will be broken and consumers will be encouraged to spend rather than save.

The change in fiscal policy consists of the Japanese government spending more to boost the economy. Spending goes towards welfare programs, servicing debt, and public works projects. Welfare programs are aimed at Japan’s aging population. Debt reduction seeks to reduce costs in the future. Public works spending is aimed at improving infrastructure, as well as providing facilities for the 2020 Olympics. Because of this increase in spending, the Japanese government required greater sources of income, so it increased the consumption tax to 8%. As a result of these changes in fiscal policy, it is hoped that the economy will be boosted and the Japanese government can reduce its reliance on debt.

The final arrow in Abenomics is structural reform. This arrow, in comparison to the short-term initial arrows, is meant to secure Japan’s long-term economic health. The structural reforms consist of five changes. The first is lowering the corporate tax with the hope of making business easier to do in Japan. The second is increasing female participation in labor to fix the labor shortage. The third is opening Japan to foreigners to increase diversity. The fourth is making Japan more appealing to tourists and increasing exports internationally. The fifth and final change is the lowering of regulations and barriers by opening free trade.

Equally important to an understanding of the economic principles behind

Abenomics is Shinzo Abe’s back-story. Abe was first elected prime minister in 2006, but lasted for only a year, dropping out because of health problems. He was reelected in December 2012 with a campaign based on the aforementioned economic policies - Abenomics. He argued that the only way for Japan to remain a world power was for its economy to beat the recession.

Abe argued that Japan needed to be relieved of the burden of the “Lost Decade”. During that time period, the nominal GDP was stagnant and ended up below zero at one point. Government debt had piled up as a result of heavy spending. Unemployment rates doubled and wages fell. More recently, the 2011 earthquake disaster resulted in a recession in 2012. Despite difficult times, Abe convinced the public that Abenomics would succeed. Even more recently, on December 14, 2014, Shinzo Abe called for a snap election and won, further cementing the support of the Japanese people.

Naohiko Baba, Chief Economist for Japan at Goldman Sachs, says “progress has been made on three main fronts: the Bank of Japan’s effective monetization of government debt, a positive reaction in financial markets and an invigorated job market.” One of the main catalysts for Japanese progress has been the Bank of Japan’s monetary easing, the first arrow in Abenomics. This is because deflation is the main reason Japan is in recession, and monetary easing allows for the fastest route to inflation. The job opening to applicant ratio has risen to 1.1%, likely the product of certain structural reforms in the third arrow of Abenom-

3.5% The Japanese unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the developed world.

January 2015

8%

The consumption tax following April 1 tax hike ics. It is important to note, though, that while more jobs are being created, incomes fall.

Falling incomes in Japan as a result of job creation brings us to the the essential part of Abenomics - increasing wages. The aforementioned consumption tax brought inflation to the economy, a huge step towards leaving the recession. In order to account for the inflation, Japanese businesses changed their base wages to real wages, wages adjusted for inflation. However, real wages in Japan did not keep up with the inflation caused by the consumption tax. If one were to disregard inflation, base wages rose slightly. Once real wages are calculated, wages fall 2.9%. Higher wages are important because higher wages yield higher consumption. Higher consumption grows businesses and therefore the economy. The key to rising wages, in light of the rise of the consumption tax, is time. As the inflationary effects of the consumption tax lighten, real wages shall increase.

In conclusion, Shinzo Abe is keeping his promise to the Japanese people by bringing Japan out of the recession that has plagued it for two decades. He is doing this through a series of three arrows - changes to monetary and fiscal policy, as well as structural reforms. Since his election in 2012, the Nikkei 225 Stock Exchange has become nearly 85% stronger and the yen has dropped 25% against the dollar. Unfortunately, this is one of the only signs of improvement for Japan.

The overarching theme behind economic reform in Japan remains reversing deflation. If Japan wants to reach a desirable rate of inflation, it’s most practical strategy would be to convince businesses to increase wages. By doing this, the Japanese people will consume more and the country can finally break a burden that has held it back for years. HMR

47

Science and Technology

www.harvardmagazine.com

I

n today’s world, natural resources are crucial in contributing to a nation’s economy and maintaining the well being of its citizens. As a result, large corporations have made businesses out of the extraction of these natural resources, such as natural gas. One form of this extraction is called hydraulic fracturing, or as it is most commonly called, fracking. Fracking is the process of drilling deep into the earth’s ground to release natural gas and oil embedded in the shale layer. The most common association with fracking is how bad it is for the environment. Without sufficient knowledge of the process, many people simply state that it is bad. However, the opposite is actually true. Not only is fracking for natural gas greatly benefiting the economy of America, but it is also a much more environmentally cleaner option as opposed to the mining of America’s other leading energy source, coal. Its benefits outweigh any possible environmental problems.

Hydraulic fracturing is a recent innovation that was established in 1999. The process of fracking is relatively simple. When a fracking site is picked, a drill is initially placed that digs deep into the ground until it reaches the shale layer, where it then digs

horizontally. The horizontal drilling is the revolutionary part about fracking. After the hole is dug and lined with steel and cement, chemicals, sand, and water are pushed down at an extreme pressure. Once the mixture reaches the shale layer, the pressure causes the rock to fracture, resulting in natural gas to be released, which then goes up to the surface, where it can be recovered.

The natural gas, such as methane, is then burned for energy.

Despite the struggle to export natural gas, fracking has greatly benefited the economy of America. Since 2005, the price of oil has only grown around 1.5%, and in the past seven months the price of oil has dropped nearly 50%. This drop of price is clearly a direct result of the fracking boom. Proof of this correlation can be seen by comparing America to Europe. Europe currently has a strong resistance to fracking, thus few wells have been drilled. As a result, their natural gas supply is far less than of that in America. Because of this, the price of natural gas and oil are much higher in European countries than in America. In fact, as of November, the price of oil per barrel in Europe was the equivalent of 79.44 USD, compared to America’s 65.94 USD. Moreover, fracking

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in America is significantly benefiting the domestic economy by slashing the price of oil. American consumers are now able to spend their money on other goods, thus, increasing the country’s overall GDP. While terrific for the economy, fracking has become a controversial topic regarding its effects on the environment. Since the process involves drilling deep into the ground, through the aquifers, the biggest concern has been about possible contamination of drinking water. This concern is largely sparked by reports of flammable tap water in areas near fracking sites, such as Weld County, Colorado, implying that natural gas contaminated the aquifers. The argument backing these reports surrounds the process of fracking itself. It is believed that after the shale layer is fissured, some natural gas will seep through rock and into the water supply. However, science isn’t even needed to counter this argument; it seems very unlikely that natural gas could travel through hundreds of feet of solid rock. Nonetheless, a recent study from September shows that the cause of the water contamination is not from the process of fracking itself, but rather well integrity. The study, which surveyed seven cases in Penn-

Science and Technology

A case for fracking natural gas Aaron Montgomery

sylvania and one in Texas where the water supply was contaminated by natural gasses, found no evidence of gas leakage as a result of the process of fracturing of shale rock. It concluded that in all cases, the lining of the wells, which is made up of cement or steel, was at fault. An initially improbable reason for the gas leakage eventually turned out to be scientifically proven false.

Another disputed environmental problem about fracking revolves around the leakage of natural gas above ground when it is being extracted. In 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that 1.2 million tons of methane of the 650 billion tons of natural gas extracted in 2012 was leaking out of the fracking wells. However, a 2013 study showed that only 957,000 tons of methane was seeping out. To reduce this leakage, new techniques required by the EPA have been put into place and the 2013 study found that these techniques are shown to be very effective. While fracking has some leakage of natural gasses, it is a positive sign that new techniques are working to minimize these leakages even more.

Despite the minor leakage problems of methane, fracking for natural gas is much safer for environment than coal mining.

Coal has been a leading source of energy in America for over 100 years. Even with the rise of fracking, which accounts for 25.4% of energy produced in America, coal still produces 21.5% of America’s energy. However, like fracking, coal mining has been accused of various environmental issues.

Unlike fracking, these allegations are completely true. The burning of coal results in twice the amount of carbon dioxide than the burning of natural gas. This is a staggering difference that sets apart the two and clearly makes natural gas the cleaner energy source. From 2005, when fracking really took off, to 2012, carbon dioxide emissions dropped approximately 12%. This decrease is a direct result of more fracking wells and less coalmines.Not only is fracking for natural gas more environmentally friendly than coal mining, but the process has much less of an effect on land as coal mining.

Since fracking involves a very small drill that digs underground, the land directly above the drill site is not greatly affected.

Although the small radius of the work site needs to be reserved for certain machinery, this is only temporary. Coal mining, on the other hand, completely destroys the land surrounding the mine. While some of the

January 2015

damage can be repaired over time, much of the damage to the land is irreversible, thus making it permanently infertile.

Fracking is not perfect. It is still not a sustainable energy, but until we enhance the production of solar and wind energy sources, fracking for natural gas is the best option. However, even with recent studies that have proven fracking is environmentally cleaner than coal mining and other fossil fuels, states such as New York have placed bans on it simply for the uncertainty of the health concerns. Fracking needs to be recognized as the future. Carbon dioxide emissions have gone down a significant amount, but in order for emissions to continue declining, more coal mines need to be shut down and more fracking wells need to be put in place. To address the leakage of gas from the wells into the water supply, the lining of wells must be made stronger.

The problem has an easy solution and fixing it will ease the controversy surrounding fracking. Hopefully, more studies will show that fracking for natural gas is the best option to help the environment, because currently it truly is. Perhaps sometime in the future, protesters will become supporters. HMR

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Science and Technology

Siddharth Tripathi

G

oogle is one of the world’s most dominant tech giants. It is run by one of the world’s prominent tech gurus, Larry Page. Miguel Helft, wrote in a recent article for Fortune magazine, that a joke is going around Google X; “a moonshot factory where Google is developing self-driving cars, high-altitude wind turbines, and a fleet stratospheric balloons to blanket the world with internet access”. The story is that a determined, “brainiac”, who works at Google X walked into Page’s office ready to boast about a new invention, that he came up with—a time machine.

As the scientist reached down to plug in the cord ready to start his presentation, Page “fires off a dismissive question: Why do you need to plug it in?”

This tale is told frequently around the

lab, by the aspiring whizzes at Google X, who are excited and ready to try to help come up with the next big gadget.

They want to display Page’s same ambition and visualization and they aspire to take the next leap in technology at Google. But besides being the greatest visionary of Google, Page is also a CEO and he has made decisions in order to push the “Google juggernaut forward”, all while molding it to satisfy his vision.

He has shifted the ranks of Google twice, has ended the dream of making it, for many products, all while trying to better and push his engineers and scientists to simply already existing products. Three years into Larry Page’s occupancy as Google CEO, Google seems as dominant and formidable as ever and is expanding all of its core businesses including You-

Tube, maps, Gmail, ad products, Google+, and Google Chrome, to a name a few, reaching every area of computing and software. It is the main competitor of other tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Yahoo. John Battelle, author of The Search, sums up Google’s dominance when he says, “I don’t think we’ve seen a company like Google in technology…it’s the whole package: the financial results, the reach in terms of what markets they touch, and the ambition”.

Google is as strong as ever, and is continuing to push the boundaries of what technology means in the present, by introducing technology that most people would have thought would be technology introduced in the future. By simplifying technology, Google, led by the wizard in Larry Page, is continuing to wield

Three years into Larry Page's occupancy as Google CEO, Google seems as dominant and formidable.

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Science and Technology its wand across the many areas of computing and programming. Google is successful and will continue to be, but imminent challenges await the tech giant, with the growth of many lesser-known tech companies. However, when dealing with these challenges, Google must be careful when asserting its dominance over other companies, and be sure not to abuse its power that its’ monopoly has established over the years.

The continued success of Google is indisputable. Google has grown by 20% each of the last three years., with revenue surpassing 16 billion in the last quarter What started as 37 billion in investable cash when Page started, has now become 62 billion in “cash and equivalents.” This has allowed Page to invest in other new and creative pathways, as well as his already successful core businesses.

There is no doubt or question that Google is extremely powerful and dominant, as one of the worlds leading tech giants. Recently, however, another issue has arisen. People are beginning to consider the question of whether or not Google has been abusing its power. Critics argue that the way Google is abusing its power is similar to the way Microsoft, in 1998, was accused of abusing its power as well. In 1996, Mr. Reback and Ms. Creighton, who were partners representing Netscape, an upcoming web browsing company, wrote a 222 “white paper”, arguing that Microsoft had been abusing its control of personal computer software, to suppress competition from Netscape, the new, “Internet insurgent”.

Shortly thereafter, Netscape had sent over their paper to the Justice Department, the head of the antitrust division, which then demanded an investigation. Microsoft, in its web browser, had “bundled a free Web browser into its Windows operating system — an added feature at no cost, surely a consumer benefit”. Hovever, this was deemed problematic and unfair by Netscape, because this free new web browser that Microsoft had bundled in for fee, would take consumers away from their new, upcoming web browser. In short, Netscape argued, along with additional evidence that “showed that it had bullied industry partners and had negotiated deals to try to thwart Netscape’s advance”.

The Economist reports that Google has 68% of online searches in America and more than 90% in Europe. Google’s

accusers claim that this is because it prefers its own services, which has proved to be difficult for advertisers to “manage [their] campaigns”, and presenting answers to questions directly on some of their search page, such as definitions, maps, and flight details, rather than directing users to other sites.

The Heartland Institute provides the analogy that an illusionist can make anyone believe anything “if they can misdirect their attention from what is really going on”. The article continues to argue that Google’s latest ruse is to try to sell (manipulate) the media that it is at its “peak” market frame, suggesting, “Google’s market position is fleeting and will only go down from here because fast-changing innovation and competition will naturally supplant it”. However, it goes on to say that Google wants people to buy that it is “peaking”, a smart misdirection, equivocating from the idea that it is abusing its market power, proliferating its dominance to other adjacent and upcoming sectors, thus giving blossoming competitors a slim chance to outcompete its (Google’s) services. The Heartland Institute continues that “Google’s unique data dominance ensures that Google can spot new market demand, or an emerging competitive threat, very early so it can buy the nascent competitor, hire their key people, or just copy/ steal the new product or service innovation”. Look to previous times when Google has utilized its dominance in attempt to get rid of or nullify up coming competitors. “Apple’s iPhone, iPad, & App Store” have all been nullified via Android, Maps, Play, Chromecast, & YouTube”, plus Facebook’s social network & sharing has been nullified via Google+”.

Recently, there has also been a lot of talk on how the European Parliament wants to vote on breaking up Google, in attempt to modify the way it functions and the way it follows the European unions rules. There are two reasons why the Europeans Parliament has this Googlephobia. First, parliament members are seeking to protect European companies that are lobbying against Google. Two examples are Axel Springer and Hubert Burda Media, which are both media companies. However, instead of parliament members bickering about successful and dominant American companies, they should ask themselves, why Europe does not have a tech

January 2015

giant that equals Google. The second reason they want to modify and regulate Google is a valid one, which many people fear as well, and that is the fear of Google’s breach of their privacy. As the Economist suggests, there should be default setting regarding privacy, and that companies looking for personal information should have to ask the user first for their permission. This is not a problem that is uniquely related to Google’s prominence, but is an issue with many companies.

Larry Page has increased Google’s technological prowess, and he will look to proliferate that to other sectors Google looks to take on in the near future.

Google is the only “ ecosystem in the world where: users and buyers can go for ~all information; publishers can go for ~all advertisers, readers, and viewers; and advertisers and sellers can go for ~all users and buyers”. This is why its dominance will last. The issue of Google abusing its power is a complex one. Yet, all complex problems require complex solutions, and not only the European Parliament, but the world, will have to discuss Google, but further, digital monopolies, to make sure that the power they hold is being used properly. When nations address this issue, they must remember to prioritize and protect their citizens and not companies. They must look at this issue through a clear lens, free of the murk of bias, because companies like Google are the future of further technological success HMR

Google's Worth

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Science and Technology

Water Security

The Threat to Our Survival

A

Eva Steinman

s the global population continues to grow at an exponential rate, natural resources are subject to increasing duress. Fresh water, which is vital for survival, is becoming scarce in areas all over the world, leaving 800 million people without access to clean water.

If one looked at the Earth from outer space, a crisis in clean water supply would be difficult for the average person to fathom. After all, approximately 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. However, approximately 97.5% of the Earth’s water supply is salt water, with only about 2.5% considered fresh. Nearly 70% of that 2.5% is frozen as glaciers, in distant or inhospitable places like Antarctica and Greenland.

The majority of the 30% balance is found in the soil or lies in deep underground aquifers that are not accessible to humans. Only a small portion of the fresh water supply is

located in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and other underground areas that are accessible.

Although this accessible fresh water is continuously replenished by rain and snow, the reality is that less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (which, in and of itself, represents a small fraction of the overall water supply) remains accessible to humans. Furthermore, this 1% is threatened by changing climate patterns and pollution. For example, as rain water and melted snow runs off of roofs and roads and into rivers, it picks up toxic chemicals, dirt, trash and dangerous disease-causing organisms, leading to contamination of fresh water. As one might suspect, unsanitary water is not a new issue. It has caused major health problems in past centuries. In the mid-1800s, a fetal contamination of surface waters in major North American cities, especially Chicago, caused the spread of typhoid, cholera and

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other diseases. In 1858, the River Thames in London became known as the “Year of the Great Stink” due to the amount of sewage and waste that was found in the river.

However, given a surge in global population, access to fresh water has taken on new urgency, and contamination of the water supply has become the world’s greatest health risk. Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) dimension the magnitude of this crisis.

In 2014, a staggering one-third of the global population lived in a country considered water deprived, with an estimated 1 out of 9 people lacking access to clean water. The crisis, as one might imagine, is most pronounced in third-world countries, where an estimated 70% of industrial waste is dumped into the water supply. In Africa, approximately 345 million people lack access to clean water. And the numbers are

Science and Technology also stunning in Asia where, when one includes Oceana, an astounding 392 million people are without reliable sources of clean water. Even in our own hemisphere, there are 32 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean without clean water. Add in another 10 million people in developed countries in North America, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand, and the total is approximately 780 million people. To put this figure in perspective, it is approximately 2.5 times the population of the United States.

Other estimates, such as one conducted by the World Water Council, put the figure even higher – at 1.1 billion people.

The result: an estimated 2.5 to 5 million people per year die due to unsafe drinking water and a lack of water sanitation, with approximately 99% of fatalities in developing countries. If this crisis continues over the course of the 21st century, even without accounting for global population growth, that would equate to 250 million to 500 million dead due to unsafe water. How can we put such large numbers into perspective?

According to one source, an estimated 160 million people died due to war since the turn of the 20th century. This, of course, includes military and civilian deaths from the two largest global conflicts ever – World War I and World War II. Incredibly, at this pace, death from inadequate water supply is 1.5-3.0 times as great as mortality from war.

This leaves humanity in a difficult spot with few easy answers. Our global population, at approximately 7 billion people, is expected to grow to between 8.3 and 10.9 billion by the year 2050. Yet the percentage of water that is fresh is astoundingly low and subject, as discussed, to contamination from both human and industrial sources.

Water, sanitation and hygiene improvements have the potential to prevent 9.1% of global disease and 6.3% of deaths. In fact, 80% of diseases in developing countries are caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.

Perhaps ironically, by some estimates approximately 66% of the world’s water is used for irrigation and agricultural purposes – in other words, to maintain and grow the world’s food supply (another obvious imperative). When used for irrigation, only about one-half of the water is ultimately reusable. In contrast, when water is used in industry (20% of total) or our homes (10%), approximately 90% is, thankfully, returned to the environment. The balance is lost to evaporation. Yet in certain regions, such as Asia, up to 90% of water might be used for irrigation.

Predictably, different countries have taken different approaches to this growing problem. The United States, in 1972, passed the landmark Clean Water Act, with the goal of restoring and maintaining the integrity of our nation’s water supply. The Act was subsequently amended and supplemented with the Safe Water Drinking Act (1974), which set standards for drinking water quality, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976), which governed the disposal of solid and hazardous waste. Water conservation today falls under the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency, which in addition to instituting pollution control programs that impact our waterways, streams, and wetlands, has imposed water efficiency requirements and supported cost-efficient irrigation to reduce actual water usage.

Yet the global picture remains more challenging. The United Nations has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve access to up to 2.5 billion people without access to clean water and basic sanitation. Among them was the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, which targeted halving the portion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water between 1990 and 2015. Substantial gains have been made in improving sources of drinking water (notwithstanding the 780 million who still lack access), yet much more modest gains were made in terms of sanitation.

With such staggering numbers of people still in jeopardy, we are left asking what the future holds. There will certainly be continued focus on improving the efficiency of water usage, particularly as it relates to irrigation. Whereas certain systems waste as much as 60% of the water pumped for irrigational use, Israel, as an example, supports each citizen with less than 500 cubic meters of intensive irrigation per year, wasting no water. Desalination (the removal of dissolved salts from water to produce fresh water from seawater) is also a growing solution, with 150 countries and more than 300 million people relying on desalinized water for some of their daily needs. However, such improvements and others, unless widely adopted, will amount to the proverbial “drop in the bucket.”

By 2025, it is possible that the people on our planet will have used 70% of the world’s water supply, leaving only 30% for the future. As a species, therefore, it is imperative that we urgently tackle this growing crisis HMR

January 2015

80% of diseases in developing countries caused by poor sanitation

2.5 Billion

people without clean water

99% of deaths in developing countries caused by lack of clean water

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Science and Technology

LINKNYC: THE NEW AGE OF THE PAYPH RUTHIE YANKWITT

B

eginning in 2015, New York City under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration will discontinue use of all but three pay phones. These remaining pay phones are located on West End Avenue, but these phones are existing as “superman pay phones”. West End Avenue has had a small number of the traditional phone booths survive. Thousands of new WiFi “hotspots” are going to place the old devices that many city officials see as obsolete and outdated. The “hotspots” seem to serve the city better as New York City changes to meet new technology standards. The plan, known as LinkNYC, is a component of de Blasio’s focus on solving an inequality issue throughout the five boroughs. Not everybody living in New York City has free or unlimited to access to Wifi, and these new

“hotspots” will bridge a gap for people in New York City. Although this plan would be a great addition to New York City, they should be weighed against the benefits of the pay phone, mainly emergency phone services. The city administrators are also facing concerns about privacy with the new system, and should have been more clear and specific in how they will protect privacy. Other concerns have been raised about the company that the city is planning to use for the project, because the city gave the project to one company. Although WiFi would be practical for the city, they should not necessarily be written off as more important than the pay phones, and ultimately replace them.

There should be a balance between the pay phones and the WiFi stations.

New York City is planning to install

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10,000 of these new Internet kiosks. Presently, there are only 8,400 pay phones.

The LinkNYC plan will basically remove the pay hones and replace them with WiFi hotspots that will provide access to the Internet within 150 feet of each station. These kiosks will also have free domestic calls when using a cell phone, a charging station for mobile devices, and access to directions to move around the city, as well as city services. During his term as mayor, de Blasio has strived to focus on inequality in New York City and try to create greater equality throughout all five boroughs.

WiFi is notoriously expensive, causing many people to not have access to the Internet. Many people use their phones to access the internet, but data charges are extremely expensive. Consistent use of

Science and Technology

“With respect to making calls and using the WiFi at all, nobody is being forced to use the stations. It is anyone’s choice to use the kiosk, he or she fully knowledgable of the consequences”

HONE the internet on a mobile device instead of being connected to a WiFi network will result in massive charges for data usage.

LinkNYC will not only provide large spaces where WiFi can be accessed for free, but it’s other services can also assist in decreasing inequality in New York City. Equality in any city is a very important idea, and can help stimulate a community where people feel equal to each other. There are so many ways in which New York City residents are not equal, and the inability to use the Internet regularly is one of them. The new stations will contribute to de Blasio’s focus on diminishing the many aspects of inequality and create equal opportunities for everyone in New York City.

Although this is something that not everybody has access to within the city,

how important is this Internet divide?

People use the internet for lots of different things, and some are not as important as others. Everything from social media to research for a project can be done with use of the Internet. The ability to access the Internet is a very important part of most New Yorker’s lives, and LinkNYC’s new WiFi stations will majorly assist in eliminating this divide in access to the Internet.

The pay phones are allegedly being replaced for practical reasons. Everybody uses WiFi, so new hotspots will be used with extreme frequency, and most people have cell phones, so pay phones are not used very often. However, the pay phones have the ability to call 911 in emergency situations. They were also used during Hurricane Sandy. If the power goes out, such as during a Hurricane or other serious storm, house phones are useless and cell phones cannot be charged. So throughout Sandy, people resorted to using these pay phones. The city has said that back up batteries would allow for 911 calls to be made for at least 24 hours after power went out. Even though the new WiFi hotspots would be useful for the city, they should not necessarily be seen immediately as more important than the pay phones. A balance between the pay phones and the WiFi stations would be preferable. Both have important uses for the city and provide access and services for the people who live in New York City.

There have been two main concerns presented about the new program, one of which is privacy. This concern seems to have been addressed, as the city said that it will “never share or sell any protected personal information” that was collected on the network when people access the Wifi. The city administrators response was not specific, and they should make a better effort to show that they will protect the privacy of people using the stations.

CityBridge, the company responsible for these new WiFi kiosks, will still have access to and will be able to use any information that was extracted anonymously

January 2015

from users in order to direct advertisements. Any phone calls made from the kiosk will be broadcast if the caller is not using headphones. People who wish to use these stations would have to rely on the city’s word that it will not violate an individual’s privacy. With respect to making calls and using the WiFi at all, nobody is being forced to use the stations. It is anyone’s choice to use the kiosk, he or she fully knowledgable of the consequences.

The other major concern surrounding LinkNYC is that the city should not be rushing this process to build the kiosks, and that city officials gave this project to only one company, which is CityBridge.

Letitia James, who is the city’s Public Advocate, expressed these concerns about the plan, and particularly criticized the city for rushing and entrusting the establishment of the program to one company.

The city defended its decision and process: it allowed competitive bidding for the project and noted that City Bridge was made up of several other companies.

There should be a balance between the hotspots and the pay phones, as both have practical uses in New York City. If these two things could coexist, it would provide the best possible outcome for the residents of New York City. There would be access to free Wifi which would assist in eliminating some of the inequality in NYC communities, while having pay phones within reach for emergencies and in emergency situations. The city administrators and officials have been criticized for giving this project to a single company, although this company was chosen based on competitive bidding. The privacy concerns were addressed by the city saying that they will not share or sell and private information obtained when people access the WiFi. The system is a good idea, but should be modified so that it does not eliminate all of the pay phones that could be used in emergency situations, and so that the privacy concerns are dealt with more seriously rather than addressed lightly by city administrators.

HMR

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