Scottsdale Community College improves the quality of life in our communities by providing challenging, supportive, and distinctive learning experiences. We are committed to offering high quality, collaborative, affordable, and accessible opportunities that enable learners to achieve lifelong educational, professional, and personal goals.
Scottsdale Community College English Department
ii Two Waters Review Student Essays from Summer 2017 – Spring 2019 Volume 1, Issue 4
iii
Cover image: “TWR Cover 1.4” by Matthew Bloom is a mashup of a drawing of a robot by bamenny (https://pixabay.com/illustrations/robot flower technology future 1214536/) with a photograph of a car in the desert by Stephan Weyer (https://pixabay.com/photos/desert africa-namibia-1913130/), both from Pixabay, and this derivative work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Maricopa and Scottsdale Community College logos are copyright reserved. Volume 1, Issue 4 September 2019
All student works collected here are copyright © 2019 by their respective authors. Licenses for publication in Two Waters Review by the English Department of Scottsdale Community College are on file at the college.
iv Table of Contents Cleaning Up the Mess 1….Harrison Christensen – "The Green New Deal: How We Can Overcome Our Biggest Challenge" 9….Matthew Cummings – "Artificial Intelligence: Costs and Benefits of Associations with Human Cognitive Functions" 23….Hunter Frye – "Vaping: A Guide for the Underaged" 30….Valeria Galindo – "The Prescription Drug Epidemic" 35….Ethan Jackson – "The Geopolitics of Space Exploration" 45….Jean Paul Klein – "Climate Change: The Real Terrorist" 61….Sydney Norris – "Ocean Pollution and Marine Wildlife" 70….Matt Rulli – "Solving the Space Debris Crisis: How One Generation's Trash Became Another's Tragedy" 93….James Schafnit – "Honor for Blood: Pakistan's Patriarchy" 104…. Cicely Winder – "Slavery on Thai Fishing Ships"
This is not the first time a deal to help reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases(GHGs) has been introduced. Previously there has been the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement in 2015. The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty signed to help reduce GHGs. The Kyoto protocol did not put an emphasis on job creation or renewable energy like the GND but the Kyoto
1 Harrison Christensen 29 April 2019
The Green New Deal: How We Can Overcome Our Biggest Challenge
“Climate Action: An Opportunity the Global Economy Cannot Afford to Pass Up,” which was published in the Brown Journal of World Affairs, reports that “welfare losses (the value of lost life) due to pollution are estimated at $4.6 trillion per year—the equivalent of 6.2 percent of global economic output.” These numbers are clearly staggering and detrimental to an economy. Recent new ideas on how to slow the effects of climate change are being addressed by the Green New Deal (GND) which was written by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ed Markey. The GND is a stimulus program that aims to address climate change. The new deal incorporates Franklin D. Roosevelt's economic ideas from his New Deal following World War II, but with a more modern approach including renewable energy and resource efficiency. This is why the United States Government should strive to come to an agreement on a Green New Deal. A green new deal will allow the U.S. to be less dependent on foreign oil, reduce the severity of natural disasters, and help create more jobs than the number of jobs that are lost. The long term benefits and money the Green New Deal would save are well worth the cost when compared to the amount of money spent on importing oil.
The Green New Deal will also help spur economic growth by taxing the ultra wealthy to finance training and jobs programs in the renewable energy industry.
A public debate on how climate change will affect us in the future is being discussed, but the facts are the impact of these changes are already being felt. Felipe Calderon, author of the article
“How the U.S. Can Eliminate Dependence on Foreign Oil by 2020”, reports that “our cost for foreign oil, approximately $1 billion per day in January 2012, slows our economy and wreaks havoc with our balance of payments.” Lewis goes on later to provide some eye opening statistics on exactly how much oil the U.S. is using. It is estimated that 19.1 million barrels of oil are consumed daily while roughly 9.4 million barrels are imported everyday, a little over five and a half million from the Middle East. Importing so much oil requires that the U.S. have a military force nearby in order to protect our interest in that oil. The most relevant example of this is the United States relationship with Saudi Arabia. This is a country that is a totalitarian absolute monarchy with Islamist lines, where the King is both the head of state and government. Our relationship with Saudi is built on
2 Protocol was successful in reducing GHGs. Jason Maderer, writer of the article “Does Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Hurt Economic Growth?”, states that “The Protocol’s impacts on those more economically advanced nations may have caused their per capita gross domestic product growth to decline by an average of between 1 and 2 percentage points annually in the years following 2005.” Maderer found that this was based on short term analysis. It is very possible that the small economic dip would be only temporary while the climate benefits would be longer lasting. The United States did not sign this treaty when it was presented. The U.S. did sign the Paris Agreement in 2015. This deal dealt with again the emissions of GHGs, adaptation, and finance. This deal was cut short for the U.S. when President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the agreement on June 1, 2017. The GND has some of the same goals as the other two deals above, but it also looks at the creation of more jobs, resource efficiency, and renewable energy.
The United States has been greatly dependent on foreign oil since the early 1970’s, this dependence on oil from another country dictates our foreign policy and our relationships with those countries, particularly those in the middle east. We are tied up with Middle Eastern Regimes based solely on the fact that they have oil. This is no cheap expense as Michael Lewis, writer of the article
The increased number of natural disasters has cost the United States billions of dollars. On June 1st, 2017, President Trump announced that the United States would withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris Climate Agreement was an agreement between The United Nations to ultimately begin to lower the emissions of greenhouse gases. Christina Nunez, writer of the article “Greenhouse gases, explained”, states that “atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are now higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years, primarily because humans have released them into the air by burning fossil fuels. The gases absorb solar energy and keep heat close to Earth's surface, rather than letting it escape into space. That trapping of heat is known as the greenhouse effect.” It is the greenhouse effect that is causing glaciers to melt, sea levels to rise, and the global temperature to increase. These factors in turn lead to devastating weather. “Weather related climate events across the globe in 2017 caused total losses of $320 billion, making this past
The severity as well as the number of natural disasters have been growing in recent years.
3 one simple condition, we provide them with weaponry in exchange for oil. In a recent article for Times Magazine writer W.J. Hennigan states that “The (Trump) Administration says that the Saudis are currently pursuing more than $114 billion in military hardware.” Members of Congress have called to stop future sales with Saudi following the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who lives in the United States. “Turkish officials say that Khashoggi was ambushed by Saudi agents, killed, and his body dismembered” (Hennigan). The United Nations estimates over 10,000 people have been killed over three years in the Saudi’s fight against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, more than half of the 10,000 people killed are civilians, and millions of others are at risk of famine from extreme food scarcity. The United States has been providing the Saudi’s with firepower for a war that has taken a large amount of innocent lives all on the basis of getting oil. The United States’ dependence on foreign oil forces us to do business with countries that do not share the same moral values as us and have terrible human rights abuse.
4 year the costliest ever in terms of weather disasters” (Calderon). It is also estimated that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit the U.S. and the Caribbean, will cost in the range of $150 $200 billion dollars. These weather related events are crushing to economies and make it hard to move forward.
The GND could serve as a step in the right direction for the U.S. when it comes to cutting back greenhouse gases. The Green New Deal has put forth ideas that will have positive effects on our climate and will help create jobs. One goal is bringing down greenhouse gas emissions in the United States to net zero by 2030. This goal has many people worried because it will eliminate all fossil fuel related jobs. This is a perhaps the hardest task to tackle when it comes to the GND but it can nonetheless be achieved. Jeremy Brecher author of “18 Strategies for a Green New Deal: How to Make the Climate Mobilization Work” states that nearly 20 million workers could be available to work jobs that help protect our environment. Brecher however emphasizes that “ways are required to match these workers to the employment sectors where they are needed. At the same time, the jobs have to be matched to the needs of the workers.” Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal following World War II faced a similar challenge in finding work for those who became unemployed. This job was taken care of by the War Labor Board, who would recruit workers to specific regions and jobs to work. The government took responsibility of educating the workers on the job as well as taking care of child care and housing. Senators Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey, and Jeff Merkley have presented the “Clean Energy Worker Just Transition Act;” this bill lays out a pathway to help communities and workers transition from the GND. This bill offers unemployment insurance, health care, and pensions for up to 3 years. It also provides job training and living expenses for up to 4 years. The bill looks to target coal miners first before moving to other energy sectors. Communities and individuals who are affected by new climate protection laws will need to be targeted by programs such as the Clean Energy Worker Just Transition Act who will help fund job education, health care,
5 and living for those workers and their families.
Many of those who are opposed to a Green New Deal say that the costs will be far too much which they believe make the goals unattainable. If you take a closer look at the GND one can see that these costs can easily be offset. In John Barrasso’s Congressional Digest, Senator John Thune of South Dakota calls the GND a “wishlist” and said “it (GND) would devastate our economy and be paid for on the backs of working families in this country. The Green New Deal would be a very bad deal for the American people.” Senator Thune is not wrong that the cost will no doubt be large but he fails to realize that an economy free of any fossil fuels will be significantly cheaper than the current fossil fuel economy. Thune also does not take into consideration the amount of money that recent natural disasters have cost the U.S. Economy. It is estimated that hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit parts of the Caribbean and the U.S., cost between $150-$200 billion. Not only will the GND reduce the number of severe disasters in the future it also controls pollution. In the U.S. alone investment in pollution control has returned $200 billion every year since 1980 which adds up to $6 trillion total (Calderon). Thune also says that it will “be paid for on the backs of working families.” Jeremy Brecher author of 18 Strategies for a Green New Deal: How to Make the Climate Mobilization Work” states that “The GND will use the financial benefits of fossil free energy, the ill-gotten gains of the wealthy, and the wealth of the fossil fuel industry itself to ensure that ordinary Americans are far better off as a result of the transition to climate safety.” Others are also oppose to the Green New Deal because they do not want higher taxes to the wealthiest people. Taxing the wealthy will help pay for green projects and create better jobs for the working class, causing a redistribution of wealth. Jeffrey Dorfman, a professor of economics at the University of Georgia, writer of the article “Income Redistribution Does Not Boost Economic Growth” believes that advocates for redistributing wealth fail to consider where the money will
6 come from. Professor Dorfman claims that “the money was raised in taxes, the money was borrowed from an American, or the money was borrowed from abroad. The fact that the money came from someplace is the key because for the government to have money to hand out it must first take it from somebody.” First, to answer the question of where the money comes from was answered by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in an interview with 60 minutes. When asked to give an exact proposal Ocasio-Cortez suggests “you know, let’s say, from zero to $75,000 may be 10 percent or 15 percent, et cetera, but once you get to, like, the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn’t mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate.” Ocasio Cortez believes that those who are making the most money are the ones who should be contributing the most through taxes. There is one flaw that professor Dorfman seems to fail to understand, and that is exactly how wealth redistribution works. In the article written by Dorfman he says “for the government to have money to hand out it must first take it from somebody;” this is misleading in the fact that government won’t be “handing out” money to those with less money. The higher taxes imposed on those with the most wealth will be used to help pay for many green projects that help create better jobs with higher pay for those in the working class. By taxing the wealthiest among us a redistribution of wealth will occur, benefitting the vast majority of Climatecitizens.change is arguably the biggest issue facing the world today. It is an issue that needs to be acted upon as soon as possible. Climate change not only destroys our economy but it destroys the place we call home, planet Earth. If no action is taken the lives of millions are at risk due to the increased severity of natural disasters. The United States Government should feel obligated to come to an agreement on a Green New Deal, because when it comes to saving our planet there is no price tag. This is not a matter of money but a matter of morality.
Brecher, Jeremy. “18 Strategies for a Green New Deal: How to Make the Climate Mobilization Work.” Labor Network for Sustainability, 2019, www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/18
Brown Journal of World Affairs, vol. 24, no. 2, Spring/Summer 2018 2018, pp. 39–53. EBSCOhost
7 Works Cited Barrasso, Honorable John. “And Cons Green New Deal: Should Congress Pass a Resolution Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal?”
Congressional Digest, vol. 98, no. 4, Apr. 2019, p. 15. EBSCOhost search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=135491231&site=ehost, live.
CNBC, 4 Jan. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/01/04/alexandria ocasio cortez floats wealth tax to-pay-for green-new-deal.html.
'GreenDiChristopher,db=aph&AN=131613714&site=ehostezproxy.scottsdalecc.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&,live.Tom.“AlexandriaOcasio-CortezFloats70%TaxonWealthytoPayforNewDeal'.”
Dorfman, Jeffrey. “Income Redistribution Does Not Boost Economic Growth.” Forbes, 8 May 2016, Crashers.Lewis,2018,Hennigan,not-boost-economic-www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreydorfman/2016/05/08/income-redistribution-does-growth/#11e3341d7d21W.J.“U.S.SaudiRelationshipBuiltonOil,Weapons,Lobbying.”Time,18Oct.time.com/5428669/saudi-arabiamilitary-relationship/.Michael."HowtheU.S.CanEliminateDependenceonForeignOilby2020."Money25Jan.2018.08Apr.2019<https://www.moneycrashers.com/us-dependence-
strategies for-a-green-new-deal-how-to make the climate mobilization work/ CALDERÓN, FELIPE. “Climate Action: An Opportunity the Global Economy Cannot Afford to Pass Up.”
kyoto-protocol1700992/
www.futurity.org/emissions-economic-growth
8 foreign oil/>. Nunez, Christina. “Greenhouse Gases, Explained.” Greenhouse Gases Facts and Information, National Geographic, 1 Mar. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalMaderer,warming/greenhouse-gases/.Jason.“DoesCutting
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Hurt Economic Growth?” Futurity, 12 Mar. 2018,
9 Artificial Intelligence: Costs and Benefits of Associations with Human Cognitive Function Matthew Cummings 16 April 2019
Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2008 The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad spectrum of research and speculation with a singular unifying goal: to recreate human cognitive abilities in man made systems. One of the original definitions of computer-based artificial intelligence was coined by John McCarthy in 1955, where he describes it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines that have the ability to achieve goals like humans do” (as cited in McClelland, 2017). Since then the field of artificial intelligence has made massive advances, prompting widespread speculation at its potential applications. AI’s applications are becoming increasingly integral to the normal function of everyday life with companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook utilizing AI to increase the functionality and productivity of their users’ experience. With such a powerful effect on the way humans operate in such a short span of time, it is becoming more and more crucial to take a closer look at what AI is, what it is capable of, and how humanity can best control its effects. Most of the recent and major advances in the field of AI have occurred in branches of AI which derive the neural architecture and processes from human cognition. However, although the fundamental idea behind artificial intelligence is to recreate human cognitive abilities in man made systems, perfectly recreating human cognition may produce unsafe or undesirable AI systems, making beneficial coexistence between AI and society a remote possibility. To achieve human like cognitive functions, researchers have taken a variety of approaches.
Guoyin Wang (2018) notes, in his article “DGCC: A Case for Integration of Brain Cognition and Intelligence Computation”, that some functions of the human brain are very difficult to recreate
By far the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.
10
Artificial Intelligence is currently capable of a multitude of functions, ranging from humanlike functions like voice recognition and locomotion to more computer-efficient functions like data analysis and pattern recognition. AI has surpassed human capability in numerous singular and narrowly defined tasks. However, for all the advancements of current AI, its abilities have still not yet matched the general level of intelligence displayed by the human mind. As such, the entirety of AI systems and research can be defined under the term Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI). With the foundational idea of AI being to recreate human intelligence in artificial platforms, current research has yet to realize the definition to its fullest extent. This next milestone in AI is referred to as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), where AI is capable of performing any mental task at least as well as that of the average human. The final level of AI, or Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI),
11 with AI. Conversely, Wang explains that some functions, such as logic and mathematical functions, are much more compatible with AI architecture than the human brain. The first major advances in AI were in logical applications, which are relatively easy to implement in a binary environment. This sub branch of AI is generally referred to as Symbolic AI which explicitly defined problems and subjects for AI to decipher in its code. In contrast, to mitigate issues in emulating certain human processes in Symbolic AI, researchers began to look towards different research methodologies. This movement yielded the idea of sub-symbolic systems, which process problems without the need for definite variables. Bhatia (2017) describes sub symbolic systems as systems that make up the majority of the AI that the general public interfaces with every day, including machine learning, neural network, and deep learning systems. In reference to this sub category of AI, Hassabis, Kumaran, Summerfield, & Botvinick (2017) state that “[s]ome key AI advances have been inspired by neuroscience and psychology, reinforcement learning and deep learning being prime examples” (as cited in Lieder & Griffiths, 2019). That is to say that the sub-symbolic method of AI more closely resembles the way the human brain performs a given cognitive process.
The idea of AGI and ASI are theoretical capabilities of AI which allow researchers to hypothesize the potential outcomes and directions for the field of artificial intelligence. At these levels of AI the potential for unknown outcomes and danger becomes exponentially greater without proper regulations on AI research practices. The distinction between how an AI platform performs its cognitive process plays a crucial role in the transparency and safety of AI system implementations. The ability to produce safe AI lies in understanding how it functions and being able to accurately predict the outcomes prior to implementation. Currently, the understanding of human cognition has many gaps, and as such, its implementation into AI constructs creates a degree of uncertainty in the outcome of the AI’s behavior. Because of the potential capacity of artificial systems and the differing perspectives, the debate to define the boundaries for safe AI has become just as perplexing to researchers as the creation of human level AI. In his book Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Max Tegmark (2018) describes the intelligence explosion, often times referred to as the singularity, and the possible futures that could result from it. By citing the recent advancements and current research methodologies, Tegmark explains how the creation of AGI could impact the world in positive ways if AI remains docile enough to remain loyal to its creators. It could also take a destructive turn if the AI decides to take control of its own destiny. The underlying idea that Tegmark continually refers to is that with the successful creation of AGI, the system would feasibly be capable of exponential recursive improvement of its own systems which would only be inhibited by the laws of physics. If this singularity of AI occurs, Tegmark proposes that control of the AI system would be impossible, and the only possibility of control would have been preventative measures to ensure a docile demeanor. This perspective provides researchers with a thoughtfully prepared view of the possible futures of the human race, should AGI be achieved. While the discussion of future possibilities resulting from AGI can be helpful in the proper research
12 would be capable of surpassing the collective cognitive capabilities of the human race as a whole.
13 of current AI, it may also be helpful to understand how negligent fictional depictions can also lead to obstructive outcomes in the advancement of AI. Much of the general perception of what AI is can be attributed to media from science-fiction entertainment and could have a negative impact on the design of safe AI systems. The Royal Society (2018) warns that, for the safe implementation of AI, it is important to properly guide general perception by stating, “[f]alse expectations can mean that a sector is allowed to grow without further intervention by governments. . . . As a result, a sector might grow slowly, reducing potential benefit.
Or, it might grow fast, but in ways that are not aligned with social values, or in ways that lead to a bubble that will cause harm when it bursts”. One of the first depictions of AI in fiction dates back to an article written by Samuel Butler in 1863 titled Darwin among the Machines. This apocalyptic view saw robotic entities as a force capable of taking over or wiping out the human race. While this is not the first example of inanimate objects being imbued with human-like intelligence, it is one of the first to imply a human-constructed consciousness. According to Brundage & Hwang (2018) in a Y Combinator interview, despite the recent insurgence of AI into mainstream applications and into most people’s daily lives, many people think of AI as a human-like machine capable of everything from benevolent servitude to maniacal domination. This effect could be due to entertainment’s portrayal of AI. Blockbuster cinematic depictions like Terminator, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Westworld, and The Matrix explore the apocalyptic perspective. Others show AI under a more positive light with depictions like Data from Star Trek or TARS and CASE from Interstellar. While most depictions in media tend to focus on the more surface-level and fantastical elements of AI, the representations have a powerful effect on the way the general public perceives AI and can hinder progress by serving as a false rubric for how to approach safe AI systems.
The safety of an AI system ultimately relies on researcher’s ability to adequately explain the process of how the AI reached its conclusions in order to accurately predict the behavioral outcome
Dr. Crowder proposes that human cognitive abilities are a very wide spectrum and perhaps not the best model to create AI on. Charles F Stevens (2011), an American neurobiologist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, explains that to completely recreate the human mind, computer programmers would have to recreate human irrationality in their programs. This proposes a paradoxical relationship between AGI and safe implementation. True human-like AGI would have to be capable of unexplainable and irrational thought processes similar to the current understanding of human thought mechanisms. Unfortunately this would put researchers at a disadvantage in being able to accurately predict an acceptably safe and trustworthy AGI system. Current AI systems, capable of only narrow human-like abilities, are already powerful enough to be dangerous if used for the wrong purposes, according to Crowder (2019).
14 of the system. During a phone interview, I spoke with Dr. James Crowder (personal communication, 2019) to investigate the safety concerns researchers face in developing AI systems. Dr. Crowder, an AI researcher with over 20 years of experience, responded, Real artificial intelligence can't be predictable. When DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] keeps telling me they want systems that can learn and think and reason like people, my first response is, you don't know some of the people I know then. Do you want it to learn and think and reason like Stephen Hawking or Charles Manson? They're both people[,] but they learn to think really differently.
For AI systems to be beneficial to humanity they must not only be functionally optimized but also be created and used with societal and economic implications in mind. A functionally optimal AI system must utilize algorithms which make the best use of resources while also accounting for bias in the software. One example where biological cognition can improve AI systems was found in a neurological study conducted by Xie et. al. (2016), where the group found evidence to suggest that computation in biological brain function could be defined by the simple
15 algorithm N = 2^i-1. Xie et. al. describe it as a “wiring logic that illustrates how neural networks go from specific to general”, meaning as the types of information (i) increase, the number of neural connections (N) increase exponentially. Such improvements in the interdisciplinary knowledge between neuroscience and AI allow researchers in AI to more confidently and efficiently implement future neural networks. Despite the recent advancements in understanding the physical mechanisms of brain function, human-like AI systems still face other obstacles that reduce their potential for beneficial use In real world applications, creating intentional barriers or removing functionality in an AI’s programming is sometimes necessary to favorably achieve goals. Whittaker (2019) describes the OpenAI text generator as an AI system capable of comprehensive and convincing human-like continuations of text, given a prompt to follow. Because of the AI’s ability to compile and construct coherent responses, Whittaker applauded the company who decided to restrict the project’s functionality for fear of the potential abuses in “generating fake news, impersonating people, or automating abusive or spam comments on social media”. Unfortunately, current regulatory standards do not require this kind of restraint in releasing AI systems, and not all companies will be so cautious in their approach to ethical AI systems. The potential for unfavorable outcomes would only multiply in trusting an emulated human AGI or ASI system to utilize these abilities morally. For AI to remain beneficial in real world applications, AI must be able to co exist with society. Many AI systems like autonomous driving, medical diagnosis, and financial tools are already in widespread application with relatively low negative impact on society. Self driving vehicles have been able to integrate into society with decidedly more benefits than not. Max Tegmark (2017) explains this by stating that “[b]ecause almost all crashes are caused by human error, it’s widely believed that AI powered self driving cars can eliminate at least 90% of road deaths”. However, Erdélyi & Goldsmith (2018) note that many of the uses of AI technologies are, “already becoming
16 hazardous”. Imperfect AI applications can produce “discriminatory biases” and highly efficient AI can increase security breaches with pattern recognition applications. Erdélyi & Goldsmith posit further “[s]ome instantiations of AI are ethically questionable (e.g., child like sex bots (Strikwerda 2017)), potentially dangerous (e.g., autonomous kill decisions by machines), or raise broader systemic challenges (e.g., labor displacement through AI, impugnment of existing ethical, legal, and social paradigms).” Currently most of the negative effects resulting from AI arise from the possibility for individuals, organizations, or governments to utilize the powerful abilities of ASI systems in unethical practices. At the core of this concern is the fear that a human like intelligence would be capable of the nefarious use of powerful technologies. Should AI achieve a true human-like AGI or ASI level of intelligence, the uncertainty and threat of misuse would only be exacerbated. True human intelligence is a cacophony of impulses, mechanisms, and imperfections. mental illness, negative emotions, destructive behavior, and reproductive drive are just a few processes that define how humans interact with their surroundings. According to Preidt (2018), in recent years, research has demonstrated that the physical and chemical makeup of the brain plays a critical role in the potential for “psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism”. These problems may never occur in the hardware of an AI system, meaning the mild chemical imbalances that affect mood would have to be artificially emulated. This modification, if done incorrectly, could further increase the possibility for unintended behaviors in the AI’s cognitive process. The modification could also work perfectly, potentially creating cognitive disorders in the AI as well as an ethical dilemma. AI with reproductive drive would be capable of recursive reproduction of its own software as fast as downloading a YouTube video. While the research of human cognition in AI could be potentially insightful to psychological sciences, the negative effects could outweigh any possible benefits.
17
Even the quest alone, to create human-like AI, could be dangerous when unexplainable cognitive mechanisms display unintended behaviors. In the field of AI, some researchers refer to this phenomena of unintended behaviors in AI systems as specification gaming. Krakovna (2018) describes “[o]ne interesting type of unintended behavior is finding a way to game the specified objective: generating a solution that literally satisfies the stated objective but fails to solve the problem according to the human designer’s intent”. In one such case a Global Hawk UAV crashed due to unforeseen consequences of its programming. Woods (2006) explains that, in this situation, [l]iteral mindedness creates the risk that a system can’t tell if its model of the world is the world it is actually in (Wiener, 1950). As a result, the system will do the right thing [in the sense that the actions are appropriate given its model of the world], when it is in a different world [producing quite unintended and potentially harmful effects]. In pursuing human cognitive function, AI systems will sometimes circumvent the programmer’s intended process to achieve the goal. While not inherently negative, if the process is absolutely goal oriented, the results can be catastrophic. Furthermore, in hypothetical AGI or ASI systems, Barrat (2015) describes how some scenarios might unfold, writing: A powerful AI system tasked with ensuring your safety might imprison you at home. If you asked for happiness, it might hook you up to a life support and ceaselessly stimulate your brain's pleasure centers. If you don't provide the AI with a very big library of preferred behaviors or an ironclad means for it to deduce what behavior you prefer, you'll be stuck with whatever it comes up with. And since it's a highly complex system, you may never understand it well enough to make sure you've got it right The severity of these unintended consequences may be avoidable to some degree with fully explainable AI systems.
In the event that the understanding of human cognitive processes and the recreation of human-like AI becomes explainable to the point of safe implementation of AGI systems, humanity would be faced with the new problem of how to coexist with a new sentient being. Theoretical AGI or ASI is the type of AI that fictional representations generally explore and that most people think of when AI is mentioned. If AI should achieve a certain level of intelligence and self awareness it would be entitled to certain rights and protections. Max Tegmark (2018) describes how humanity might be forced to decide between allowing the AI freedom with hopes of continued service, or otherwise become slavers. Newly sentient AI constructs may call on the courts to force the removal of certain docility programming traits citing an oppression of civil liberties. Tegmark describes a total of twelve AI aftermath scenarios, of which only four leave humans in control of their society. Computer programming is a tool to solve problems. While AI is a powerful tool, the negative implications of AGI and ASI place a clear barrier on the level of usable and safe AI. However, with a better understanding of human cognition and artificial systems, the event horizon of the AI singularity may yet become traversable.
18
AI research directed towards emulating human intelligence has already displayed a remarkable ability to produce highly beneficial results in various applications. Improvements in the interdisciplinary knowledge between AI and neurological sciences have proven the scientific benefits that AI research presents, with respect to human cognitive function. However, as AI computational models improve towards achieving more multifaceted and adaptive capabilities, the dangers for misuse and unforeseen outcomes increase. Implementing an AI system without careful regard to the ramifications of potential misuse and the system’s ability to operate as intended could lead to disastrous consequences. As it stands, the application for adding more complex human psychological mechanisms to this predicament appears to provide only further convolution in researchers’ ability to adequately explain the process by which an AI system achieves it goal. By and
19 large, the field of AI research provides an unprecedented possibility for the improvement of humanity’s problem-solving capabilities. With proper research direction and understanding, in conjunction with setting proper expectations in general AI perception to ensure proper regulation, the future of AI research may acquire a reasonable degree of certainty and safety. To produce the beneficial outcomes it is suggested that the varying perceived undesirable and unpredictable traits exhibited in humans be excluded in AI systems. Compounding the issues researchers face with human-like AI are the ethical issues they face with defining AI consciousness and the subsequent quandary of sentient AI treatment and coexistence. Until such a time that the applications of human-like AI are more clearly defined, more analysis is needed to consider the costs and benefits. To develop AI that is both safe and beneficial to humanity, AI systems must be controlled and understandable and as such should avoid perfectly recreating human consciousness.
Difference Between Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning. Retrieved March 14, 2019, from https://medium.com/iotforall/the-difference between artificial intelligence-machinelearning-and-deep-learning-3aa67bff5991
Barrat, J. (2015). Four basic drives, Our final invention: Artificial intelligence and the end of the human era (p. 96). New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martins Griffin.
Krakovna, V. (2018, June 05). Specification gaming examples in AI. Retrieved April 12, 2019, from https://vkrakovna.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/specification gaming examples in ai/ Lieder, F., & Griffiths, T. L. (2019). Resource-rational analysis: Understanding human cognition as the optimal use of limited computational resources. Behavioral and Brain Sciences,1-85. McClelland,doi:10.1017/s0140525x1900061xC.(2017,December04).The
20 References
Bhatia, R. (2017, December 27). Understanding the difference between Symbolic AI & Non Symbolic AI. Retrieved April 12, 2019, ai/https://www.analyticsindiamag.com/understanding-fromdifference-symbolic-ai-non-symbolicButler, S. (1863, June 13). Darwin among the Machines. The Press Crowder, J. (2019, March 18th). Phone interview. Crowder, J. (2014). Psychological Constructs for AI Systems: The Information Continuum. presented at International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Las Vegas, 2014. Las Vegas, NV Erdélyi, O. J., & Goldsmith, J. (2018). Regulating Artificial Intelligence. Proceedings of the 2018 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society - AIES 18. doi:10.1145/3278721.3278731
built a text generator so good, it's considered too dangerous to release. Retrieved March 14, 2019, from https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/17/openai-text generator-dangerous/ Woods, David. (2006). Chapter 11 On People and Computers in JCSs at Work. Xie, K., Fox, G. E., Liu, J., Lyu, C., Lee, J. C., Kuang, H., . . . Tsien, J. Z. (2016). Brain Computation Is Organized via Power-of-Two-Based Permutation Logic. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 10 Retrieved April 12, 2019, from doi:10.3389/fnsys.2016.00095 Y Combinator (2018, April 25). A.I. Policy and Public Perception - Miles Brundage and Tim Hwang [Video file]. Retrieved April 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be0NSfPRoWg#action=sharefrom
Preidt, R. (2018, December 13). New Brain Research Sheds Light on Mental Illness. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20181213/new brain research-sheds-light on-mental illness Royal Society, The. (2018, December 11th). Portrayals and perceptions of AI and why they matter. Retrieved April 12, 2019, from https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/ainarratives/AI narratives-workshop-findings.pdf
21
Life 3.0: Being human in the age of artificial intelligence. London: Penguin Books. Wang, G. (2018). DGCC: A Case for Integration of Brain Cognition and Intelligence Computation. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW). Whittaker,doi:10.1109/icdmw.2018.00076Z.(2019,February17).OpenAI
Stevens, Charles F. (2011) "What is the brain basis of intelligence?" PLoS Biology, 9, 6, Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Retrieved March 14, 2019, from Tegmark,d=7eda4369com.ezproxy.scottsdalecc.edu/apps/doc/A260873425/OVIC?u=mcc_sctsd&sid=OVIC&xihttps://link-galegroup-M.(2018).
Yudkowsky, E. (2008). Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk. Retrieved April 13, 2019, from https://intelligence.org/files/AIPosNegFactor.pdf
22
Fad trends are a major aspect of teenage culture. However, these trends have come to include an insidious force known as vaping. Vaping is a term used to describe the inhaling of the vaporous products produced by any type of e-cigarette (Richter). Since the industry’s birth in 2003, the usage of e-cigarettes has grown more popular, sparking attention especially amongst teens. Much like cigarettes were once a popular trend, vape products are now recognized as nothing more than a fad; the truth is, both cigarettes and their modern counterparts carry an unacknowledged contract that ensnares will-be addicted teens. Although the FDA has taken counteractive action through informative campaigns focused on highlighting the risks of vaping in order to prevent the further spreading of this drug dependence, teens need to be guided to realize that vapes are not a substance that simply dissipates once its trend dies. Nowadays, vaping is a term that youth are all too familiar with. This is in part due to the ecigarette industry’s specifically targeting a younger, underaged audience with tactics such as colorful/appealing packaging, sweet scents, and a generally more addictive product (Blankley). In 2018, The National Cancer Institute shared the results of a trial study focused on the comparative levels of nicotine in a single JUUL pod in relation to that of a cigarette. The group had discovered that “The median concentration of cotinine, a molecule that is formed during the breakdown of nicotine, in the participants’ urine samples was more than 50% higher than the urinary cotinine levels reported in a previous study of youth tobacco smoking” (“Vaping Pods Produces High Nicotine Levels in Young Users”). Nicotine is recognized as the substance that makes cigarettes so addictive and destructive. Now, a single vape pen pod has a drastically increased nicotine concentration than that of a cigarette, thus heightening the chemical’s effects, too. As the vaping
23 Hunter Frye 26 March 2019
Vaping: A Guide for the Underaged
The FDA has campaigned against companies such as JUUL through programs like “The Real Cost,” which are anti-vaporizer advertisements that serve to try to educate and warn potential underaged users (Bowden). Although these programs, such as the FDA’s advertisement campaign, help to combat the vaping industry, it still can not fully overpower e-cigarette business’ influence on teens. To combat the growing issue of underaged vaping, the FDA has set in motion counteractive measures focusing on the harsh realities that come with vaping. The FDA’s chief prevention program, “The Real Cost,” had originally focused itself on preventing underaged cigarette smoking before soon refocusing on e-cigarettes, due the drug’s rampant presence. Beginning in 2014 and continuing on to today, “The Real Cost” is tactfully placed “... where teens spend most of their time—online and in school” (“The Real Cost Campaign”). However, the FDA is aware that this campaign has only done so much to decrease teen vaping rates. In fact, the CDC marked that the
24 industry has grown, its substance and marketing tactics have changed as well. The epitome of the industry is JUUL, which occupies about 73% of the e-cigarette market (Couronne). Within that company lies the sleek, subtle, and modern JUUL vape pen, which has even been adjusted to charge in computer USB ports, thus making it all the more accessible and attractive. The pens are small enough to hide in a pocket and do not produce vapor like other vape pens do, making vaping far easier to hide and use than it would have been with another drug substance, such as LSD. Not only are JUULs purposefully designed to fit modern taste, but they have been advertised in sources such as Vice Magazine, which targets a teenage audience (Chaykowski). JUUL, a company that dominates the majority of the vaping industry, has been effectively marketing to underaged audiences ever since its initial launch in 2015, and thus translates to a majority of the vaping industry being targeted towards an underaged audience (Chaykowski). Judging off of how successful JUUL’s product and name is, there may very well be room for a safe assumption that a decent amount of the company’s revenue is from an underaged audience (that supposedly does not exist, according to the company).
In order to help the FDA in preventing vape addiction in teens, youth should be taught to recognize that vaporizers are a legitimate drug and not just a fad. Greta Frontero, an 18 year-old writer for her school paper, shares her insights on how her classmates had reacted towards reports of vaping causing lung cancer: “A few weeks ago there was a whole thing going around that it
25 underaged vaping population has increased by 78% as of November, 2018 (Cullen, et. al). This massive jump means that the vaping industry has taken a stronger hold on teens than it ever has, growing to become a true epidemic. In previous years, the FDA’s marking underaged useage of ecigarettes as an epidemic was scoffed at and seen as blown out of proportion, but now it has become a reality. The FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, has come to recognize this and has grown more direct about pushing back against the vaping industry. In late 2018, the FDA warned companies such as JUUL that there will be penalty for continuing to subliminally market to minors through sweet-flavored products and extensive advertising (Blankley). But, considering the skyrocketing numbers recorded that November, even the FDA’s threats have not done enough to phase the vaping issue. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has realized that it would take something more to weaken these companies, and thus revealed to want a much more direct attack on the industry to combat youth vaping addiction while speaking at a public hearing, Gottlieb stated that “If the youth use continues to rise, and we see significant increases in use in 2019, on top of the dramatic rise in 2018, the entire category will face an existential threat” (Bowden). With this outright attack on e cigarette companies, the FDA has made America aware that its original campaigns have not done enough to persuade teens away from the temptation of vaping. Although prevention programs, such as “The Real Cost,” give some leeway towards decreasing underaged e cigarette useage, the issue of youth nicotine addiction has become far more serious than expected. The FDA, alongside its counteractive campaigns, has taken a bold step towards confronting the nationwide vaping problem by directly threatening to pull the plug on the e-cigarette industry as a whole.
26 caused lung cancer. And for probably, like, a day people were like, ‘I’m going to stop doing it!’ ...And then that quickly faded. I don’t think anyone’s all that concerned” (Barshad). Initially, Frontero’s student peers feared that vaping did hold some serious implications; however, the reality of the vape’s true nature was quickly drowned out by the phenomenon of its appealing trend. If teens could come to see that JUULs, and vaping products in general, are legitimate drugs and not simply a plaything, then they would ideally realize that the choice to vape holds a much greater weight in consequence than that of a typical trend. For example, introducing nicotine into the adolescent growing brain stunts memory retention and leads to problems with one’s behavior (Barrington Trimis, Leventhal). Although the FDA has come to the forefront of counteractive campaigning, there is an aspect in which the organization simply cannot reach with informative ads alone. That aspect, one which is more deeply rooted in the teenaged individual, is the pressure to follow trend. If the idea of vaping being nothing more than a trend can be changed to accurately represent the reality of these legitimate drugs, then this understanding can help to change the minds of the many youth that have chosen to pursue this massive trend. In a sense, this widespread vaping issue reflects that of its predecessor, the cigarette. Throughout the mid-to late 1900’s, kids were encouraged to smoke cigarettes because, due to no one really knowing or caring about the implications of smoking, smoking was seen as a harmless trend. However, although vaping is viewed in a similar, nonchalant sense now, modern society is better equipped to handle and counter the harmful effects of vapes. A sense of trusting union and honesty can be formed through former drug addict talks, open discussions, or awareness on social media the idea is that teens will come to see how insidious the vaping trend is. Yet, the best means to reach this audience is through the same means that JUUL and other vaping companies do, and that is through social media ads. In order to promote awareness of the risks of vaping, more straightforward and blunt social media statements are needed in order to get the intended message across, due to how frequently used and easily accessible these apps and
27 websites are. Therefore, by changing the perspective on e cigarettes from a lighthearted fad to an addictive substance, teens will recognize that making the choice to vape is weighed with the much heavier consequence of one’s future against that of temporal peer approval, and thus be more likely to stop the addiction before it can even start.
Overall, teenage audiences need to be educated in what vaping truly is and understand that the consequences do not simply die out when the trend does. The vaping industry has made subtle, yet effective, strides towards marketing a large aspect of its product to an underage audience; the FDA has come to recognize and openly criticize this abuse of power, directly threatening the industry with consequences for its duplicitous and ruthless manipulation of the youth. However, despite the fact that the FDA is trying to help combat the influence that the vaping industry holds over teens, the issue of miscommunication and ignorance amongst teens is an even greater negative influence that leads to the decision to vape. To combat this, teens must be personally made aware of the fact that, although a popular trend now, the effects that vaping has on the body are permanent, regardless of the individual. Weakening, and eventually ending, this trend mindset towards vaping is crucial in maintaining both the lives and well-beings of youth who have fallen victim to drug addiction through the vape industry. Much like the cigarette has been phased out of popularity by the knowledge of its great risk, maybe someday the e cigarette will follow suit and transform itself into a trend that is centered around fighting the drug addiction, rather than inspiring it.
Barshad,2019.Amos.
Couronne,earlywww.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2018/11/16/the2018,-disturbing-focus-of-juuls-marketingcampaigns/#688f38ac14f9.Accessed23Feb.2019.Ivan.“JUUL:e-CigaretteDominatestheMarket-andFearsofParents.”
“The Juul Is Too Cool.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/style/the juul is too cool.html. Accessed 20 March
Blankley,2019.Bethany.
“Could FDA Crackdown on Vaping Flavors Jeopardize the Industry?”
28 Works Cited Barrington Trimis, Jessica L., and Leventhal, Adam M. “Adolescents’ Use of “Pod Mod” E-Cigarettes — Urgent Concerns.” The New England Journal of Medicine vol. 379, 2018, pp. 1099 1012. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1805758. Accessed 27 March
Watchdog, Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, 5 Dec. 2018, www.watchdog.org/national/could-fda crackdown-on-vaping-flavors-jeopardize-the industry/article_cebb8e18-f800 11e8 993e 67554e2f426c.html. Accessed 25 Feb. 2019. Bowden, John. “FDA Threatens to Pull e-Cigarettes off the Market.” The Hill, The Hill, 19 Jan. 2019, thehill.com/policy/healthcare/426140 fda threatens to-pull-e-cigarettes off the market citing possible. Accessed 25 Feb. 2019. Chaykowski, Kathleen. “The Disturbing Focus Of Juul's Early Marketing Campaigns.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 16 Nov.
Medical Xpress - Medical Research Advances and Health News, Medical Xpress, 3 Oct. 2018, medicalxpress.com/news/2018 10-juul-e-cigarette-dominates-marketand parents.html. Accessed 24 Feb. 2019. Cullen, Karen A., et. al. “Notes from the Field: Use of Electronic Cigarettes and Any Tobacco
29
“HistoricalAccessedhttps://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a5.htm?s_cid=mm6745a5_w.1277.27March2019.TimelineofElectronicCigarettes.”
Product Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011 2018.”
CDC: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) vol. 67 ver. 45, 2018, pp., 1276
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, 5 Oct. 2018, www.cancer.gov/news events/cancer currents blog/2018/youth-vaping-high-nicotine-levels. Accessed Feb. 6 2019.
CASAA, Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association, 18 Oct. 2018, www.casaa.org/historical timeline-of-electronic cigarettes/. Accessed 27 March 2019. Richter, Linda. “What Is Vaping?” Expert Views: E Cigarettes, Center on Addiction, 1 Oct. 2018, “VapingAccessedwww.centeronaddiction.org/e-cigarettes/recreational-vaping/what-vaping.27March2019.PodsProduceHighNicotineLevelsinYoungUsers.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an opioid-related death happens every 19 minutes; this means 160 deaths per day and 1,120 a week. This is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States and has surpassed the deaths related to heroin and cocaine combined. This issue can be traced back to drug dealers and to medical professionals who abuse their power. Although the problem of opioids and the abuse of prescription drugs has been a huge problem with disastrous results, a solution to this widespread issue is made up of two steps: stopping use before it starts and intervening and rehabilitating drug users. Over the past 15 years, the usage of prescription drugs has skyrocketed at an alarming rate. The history of the opioid epidemic began in the late 1990s when several new pain relievers were introduced into the medical market. These drugs were assured to not be addictive and said to have no negative result on their patients. After hearing this, doctors began to avidly prescribe these drugs, thinking that there would be no consequences (“Opioid Overdose Crisis” 1). Almost 10 years later, in 2005, opioids started becoming a huge problem. According to the article “National Drug Control Policy and Prescription Drug Abuse: Facts and Fallacies" by Dr. Laxmaiah Manchikanti, who is an American Board certified anesthesiologist, over a time span of 10 years, the number of Americans who were abusing prescription drugs went up from 6.2 to 15.2 million (402). There are several different causes that are responsible for these staggering numbers. Two of these are connected specifically to the practices of doctor shopping and the issues of drug theft. The most common method for acquiring these drugs is through doctor shopping. The Journal of the American Dental Association defines “doctor shopping” as “going from 1 physician’s ... office to another and obtaining multiple prescriptions for opioids or other controlled substances for the same symptom” (Keith et.
30 Valeria Galindo ENG 101/ENH 111
The Prescription Drug Epidemic
31 al. 266). Another cause is drug theft. This is a practice that is becoming extremely common. As stated in "National Drug Control Policy and Prescription Drug Abuse: Facts and Fallacies”, this includes prescription forgery, altering prescriptions, stealing blank prescription pads, or calling pharmacies for prescriptions pretending to be a physician (Manchikanti 411). This involves theft from pharmacies, homes, and relatives who have the prescribed drugs. If the issues of doctor shopping and drug theft are not stopped, the usage of prescription drugs will continue to rise at an alarmingTherate.consequences of the abuse of prescription drugs are heart-breaking and this is an issue that is more extensive than most realize. In "National Drug Control Policy and Prescription Drug Abuse: Facts and Fallacies”, it is explained that the National Survey on Drug Use and Heath is an annual survey that provides statistics about the use of drugs in the United States. In their 2005 survey, it was discovered that 19.7 million Americans, or 18.1% of the population, were currently using and abusing drugs (402). These numbers are completely shocking, and to put it in perspective, this means that 2 out of 10 people are using drugs. Now, fourteen years later, in 2019, the numbers only continue to rise. The use of opioids is not limited to any age, gender, or race. People of all ages are abusing prescription drugs and there is no clear-cut demographic. Although, this seems to be the biggest problem in relation to teenagers. Dr. Manchikanti states that “next to marijuana, prescription medications are the most commonly used drugs among teens to get high” (404). Teens are seemingly beginning to turn away from drugs such as nicotine and marijuana and turning to prescription drugs to get high. This can become a huge issue because the teenage years is when the brain is still developing and when addictions start to formulate. According to the article “National Drug Control Policy and Prescription Drug Abuse: Facts and Fallacies”, a staggering 840,000 teenagers from ages 12 17 reported current abuse of prescription drugs, and during 2005, a total of 2.1 million teens had an experience in using opioids (Manchikanti 404). The trends have changed over a span of 10 years
32 as more drugs have become available and are more lethal. This problem does not have an easy solution and requires a joint effort to resolve. In trying to create a solution to the problem of opioid abuse, there are two steps. These steps include stopping use before it starts and intervening and rehabilitating drug users. One way that has been implemented to stop this before it starts is with a prescription monitoring program, or PMP. According to the American Dental Association, these programs collect and distribute data about the different prescriptions with a database consisting of the patient’s name, date of birth, sex, address, name of the drugs, and more important information (Keith et. al. 266). With this program, prescribers have the ability to check the history of their patients and will be informed if the patient has been doctor shopping. In one case researched by the American Dental Association, there was a 55 year-old woman who had medical history of temporomandibular joint pain and had gone through several surgeries in the past. After looking her name up in the system, it was brought to the physician’s attention that she had received 151 prescriptions of which 97 were opioids. With the help of the PMP, they found that she had been registered under two different names and had two addresses in different states. Once this is brought to the attention of the doctor, they can take action to put a stop to the abuse. As reported by Dr. David Keith, BDS, FDRSC, DMD, “action includes a discussion with the patient and primary care physician, resulting in referral to a program that evaluates and treats substance use disorder” (Keith et. al. 268). The PMP and rehabilitating drug users go hand in hand. This is one of the most important solutions because it does not directly stop the use of opioids, but it helps those who have struggled with it and ensures that they get help. As mentioned by the “National Drug Control Policy and Prescription Drug Abuse”, there is a budget of $3 billion of federal funds to intervene in drug abuse (Manchikanti 412). With the help of the government and several other organizations, the number of people abusing opioids has slowly gone down and more people have become educated about the topic.
33 The issue of the abuse of opioids has created a health crisis that is out of control. Health care and law enforcement agencies were not prepared to handle this unforeseen epidemic that is affecting a broad range of Americans. Researchers and doctors have been on the lookout to find the best way to solve this issue and did through two steps: stopping use before it starts and intervening and rehabilitating drug users. Addiction to prescription drugs is one of the most serious problems now and is taking the lives of thousands a year. It is only through strict enforcement and education that this outbreak will be solved.
Keith, David A., et. al. “The Prescription Monitoring Program Data.” The Journal of the American Dental Association, vol. 149, no. 4, 2018, pp. 266 272., Print. Manchikanti, Laxmaiah. “National Drug Control Policy and Prescription Drug Abuse: Facts and Fallacies.” Pain Physician Journal, vol. 10: 399 424, 2007, pp. 400 424. “Opioid Overdose Crisis.” National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDA, 22 Jan. 2019, www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis.
34 Works Cited “CDC Grand Rounds: Prescription Drug Overdoses - a U.S. Epidemic.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 Jan. 2012, www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6101a3.htm.
35 Ethan Jackson 5 May 2019
The Geopolitics of Space Exploration
Humans have long sought to explore beyond the reaches of the earth’s gravity. In 1957, that goal was achieved when the Soviet satellite Sputnik became the first man-made object to orbit the earth. Countless rockets, probes, and satellites have been sent into space since that day, and now some are talking of building the first permanent settlement on Mars or the moon. Either would be a daunting challenge from an engineering perspective alone, but technology is not the only barrier. The exploration and development of space is laden with geopolitical issues, which will have to eventually be resolved to ensure the stable expansion of humanity into the solar system. Most of these problems can be identified through examining the values and actions of the parties most active in outer space affairs in the present. All things considered, humanity has made significant steps towards worldwide unification since the launch of Sputnik. Nevertheless, nationalist and other selfserving goals remain a major motivator for much of human activity in space. Tensions exist between the common interest and the specific interests of nations in regards to the use and exploration of space, many of which could create legal, diplomatic, or environmental dilemmas in the future. Since the end of the so-called “Space Race” of the 1950’s and 60’s, human activity in outer space has been characterized by peace and cooperation. International law and organizations support this attitude towards space exploration. The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) is the branch of the United Nations that handles all international legal matters regarding outer space. The committee was founded in 1958, near the height of the Space Race, and was permanently established a year later. According to COPUOS’s official website, concern that space would develop into another battleground for the Cold War superpowers was one of the main motivations behind its formation (COPUOS History). Therefore, it is unsurprising that the foremost
36 goal of COPUOS is to champion the values of non-aggression, equality, and mutual supportiveness in space among COPUOS’snations.central treaty is the Outer Space Treaty (OST), which forms the backbone of international space law and policy. An expansion of an earlier resolution made in 1963, its 17 articles establish key rights, obligations, and restrictions for its member nations. Militarization issues are dealt with explicitly in Article IV. It bans the placement of nuclear armaments and other weapons of mass destruction in outer space, and also forbids all military activity on moons and planets aside from the earth (4). Significantly, it makes no mention of military projects that are not weapons of mass destruction nor located on an extraterrestrial body, so by implication these are legal. Although this may seem counter to COPUOS’s emphasis on peace, it was probably written this way to still allow for spy satellites, which are not weapons and have uses outside of conflict. While reconnaissance satellites are generally accepted, other national security programs have come much closer to outright aggression. One such example is the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), announced in 1983 by sitting U.S. president Ronald Reagan. According to the U.S Department of State, “The heart of the SDI program was a plan to develop a space based missile defense system that could protect the country from large-scale nuclear attack” (“Strategic Defense Initiative”). It would utilize satellite-mounted weaponry to intercept and destroy any intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and their payloads. SDI received backlash around the world for its blatant, almost contemptuous disregard of diplomatic efforts at disarmament. James W. Chamberlin, who was working with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency when Reagan proposed the initiative, said in an interview, “SDI was contrary to several agreements. It was a serious threat to the ABM [Antiballistic Missile] Treaty, as well as the [Outer Space Treaty]” (Kennedy). The core objective of the SDI, to place missile-destroying weapons in orbit, would have likely violated Article IV of the OST. In addition, the program’s unprecedented reveal, at a time when the United States and the
37 Soviet Union were negotiating nuclear de-escalation, soured foreign relations and likely stalled the resolution of the Cold War. Military conduct in outer space is not the only point of contention between international law and national interests; another is the issue of ownership of extraterrestrial objects. COPUOS expressed its stance in Article II of the OST. It simply reads, “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means” (4). This is the briefest article in the OST, despite the importance of the concept it addresses. Its wording is vague enough, in fact, some groups have passed legal documents manipulating the article for their own interests.
The Bogotá Declaration, an international bill authored and signed in 1976 by several nations along the equator, attempted to assert territorial rights to geostationary orbital positions. Dan St. John, a law student specializing in space, describes the essential argument used: To get around the Outer Space Treaty’s declaration that outer space is not subject to national appropriation, the Bogotá Declaration categorized the geostationary orbit (“GEO”) as a natural resource, not a region of space. [...] By categorizing this orbit as a resource, these states could call on the [indisputable] principle that states have absolute control over their natural resources. The document also contained a rebuttal of Article II of the OST, claiming that the existing legal framework implicitly favored developed nations over developing ones. Despite the compelling points it made, the declaration was never acknowledged by the United Nations for two reasons.
Since the UN operates on a basis of national consensus, the handful of countries backing the Bogotá Declaration were overshadowed by the vast majority of nations protecting their own interests.
Furthermore, St. John notes that orbital positions are held by an international body and allocated based on the importance of their intended use. He writes that this should stop nations from
38 undeservedly snatching all of the GEO slots. The Bogotá Declaration failed, because while it sought to address a perceived unfairness in international law, its proposed reform would have been even more unfair. It amounted to a power grab by the signatory states. Still, its concerns about weaknesses in existing space law were not ignored by the international community. Recognizing the need to elaborate on ownership rights, in 1979 COPUOS drafted a treaty known as the Moon Agreement. It contains detailed provisions on topics the Outer Space Treaty only covered passingly. Article II of the OST is expanded upon in the first half of Article 11 of the Moon Agreement. One part reads, “Neither the surface nor the subsurface of the moon, nor any part thereof or natural resources in place, shall become property of any [person or group]” (31). Also, in the agreement the phrase “the moon” serves as an umbrella term for all celestial bodies in the solar system, meaning that the previous passage effectively bans ownership of any natural object in space, as well as the harvesting of any resources. This provides much stronger legal protection than any previous legislation. However, the agreement was mostly a dud; only 18 countries have formally accepted its obligations, and none of them have a major presence in space. Mark Williamson explains the treaty’s lack of support: “Whereas signatories to the OST accepted its rejection of sovereignty, the direct and specific language of the Moon Agreement seems to have been a bridge too far” (166). Unlike the OST, the Moon Agreement would have unambiguously outlawed space mining and other potential sources of wealth. Thus, many nations were adverse to it, including those trying to foster the emerging private space industry. In 2015, the U.S. passed a bill called the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, also known as the SPACE act, which a few experts believe is a violation of international space law. The act aims to encourage commercial activity in space and permits companies to mine asteroids and other space objects for profit. Gbenga Oduntan, a professor of law at the University of Kent, is especially outspoken against its validity. He makes two distinct legal objections in his article, “Who
Taken together, the legal dilemmas created by the Strategic Defense Initiative, the Bogotá Declaration, and the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act point to an underlying weakness in space law. Indeed, the problem is with international legislature as a whole. Because COPUOS is a voluntary agreement between nations, it cannot force a country to subscribe to any treaties, nor can it effectively punish members for breaking their obligations. Since nations have diverse interests, especially concerning the use of outer space, generally the only way a treaty gains widespread acceptance is if it covers utterly uncontroversial topics or if its provisions are so basic as to barely restrain states from doing what they desire. The OST is an example of the latter case; if it were written too forcefully, it most likely would have ended up like the Moon Agreement. This is not the only reason for the OST’s lack of detail, however. The treaty was written over half a century ago in 1967, during a time when spaceflight was just beginning to develop, and a few immediately pressing concerns related to the Cold War outweighed long-term considerations. Still, that it has not been updated since then shows a disconcerting lack of enthusiasm in regulating space. If a
39 owns space? US asteroid-mining act is dangerous and potentially illegal.” He writes that the SPACE act is grounded solely in national law, but, he argues, “Simply relying on US legislation and policy to justify the plans is obviously insufficient,” and “Space exploration is a universal activity and therefore requires international regulation.” Secondly, he cites Article I of the OST, which states that all activities in outer space “shall be carried out to the benefit of and the interest of all countries” (qtd in Oduntan). He claims this prohibits the corporate exploitation of asteroids, since such operations only benefit the company performing them. Oduntan’s first point, that the United States did not appropriately consult international law, is definitely valid; his other point is a little more subjective. Just as the SPACE act takes liberties in its interpretation of the OST, he presents Article I as slightly more limiting than an unbiased reading would perhaps suggest. Nonetheless, his main criticisms of the bill, namely that it is self serving and of shaky legal status, are still accurate.
40 comprehensive solution is not found, irreparable damage could be done not only to international relations but also to outer space itself. The environmental sanctity of outer space is a critical factor in all spacefaring ventures. For the purposes of preservation, the solar system can be divided into two categories: Earth’s orbital environment and the environments of nearby moons and planets. Both are associated with different risks, though the greater threat is the man-made space debris orbiting the earth. At the start of 2019, there were an estimated 34,000 objects in orbit larger than ten centimeters, and an additional 900,000 objects between one and ten centimeters (“Space Debris by the Numbers”). Because objects in orbit travel far above the speed of sound, even collisions with tiny pieces of debris can seriously damage rockets and satellites. According to the European Space Agency, The consequences of meteoroid and debris impacts on spacecraft can range from small surface pits due to micrometre size impactors and clear-hole penetrations for millimetre size objects, to mission-critical damage for projectiles larger than 1 cm. [...] Any impact of a 10 cm catalogue object on a spacecraft or orbital stage will most likely entail a catastrophic disintegration of the target (“Hypervelocity Impacts”). Unfortunately, the dangers of collisions do not end there. In 1978, scientist Donald Kessler realized that as the number of satellites in orbit increases, so does the probability of a satellite hitting another object and being smashed apart. Kessler proposed that once the earth’s orbit reaches a certain object density, any major collision will result in a domino effect where the resulting fragments from the collision destroy other large bodies, producing even more debris – the process continues until the entire orbit is reduced to a cloud of debris fragments (2637). Not only would this scenario destroy every satellite in its path, it would render the entire area inacce ssible to spacecraft, possibly for centuries until most of the debris are worn away.
41
While the risk of orbital debris has long been acknowledged by the space community, the preservation of the environments of celestial bodies, particularly those of the moon and Mars, is often overlooked. As with issues of environmental preservation on Earth, debates about the merit of protecting these environments are often opinionated and contentious. For instance, while the majority of those who have written about extraterrestrial environments favor some sort of effort to preserve them, libertarian thinkers Walter Block and J. H. Huebert disagree. In a journal for University of Memphis Law Review, they denounce the application of conservationist principles to space, claiming that “there is simply no legitimate philosophical or pragmatic argument” in support of such actions (290). But while the debate on the sanctity of the moon and other planets is active, it has not reached the engineers and mission planners at the forefront of exploring outer space. In the late 2000’s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration purposely crashed a large spacecraft into the moon so astronomers could study the resulting dust cloud for traces of water. (“Crashlanding on the Moon.”) Although it was lauded by some as a cost-efficient way to analyze the moon’s composition, others would surely find punching a crater in the moon and scattering detritus on its surface, when less destructive methods exist, to be objectionable. Mars’s environment faces similar issues, though it has not been traveled to as extensively as the moon.
There exist numerous social obstacles, stemming from diverse and sometimes conflicting ideologies, that impede the way forward for exploration and development of the solar system. One such problem is the militarization of space. It was established relatively early in the Space Age that explicit warfare or weaponization should be forbidden, and international peace should be promoted to the greatest extent feasible. Regardless, this status quo has been challenged by nations multiple times, most memorably by the Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980’s. Another issue is about private property and ownership of objects in space. The consensus of international law appears to disallow ownership claims, but there is some confusion as to what extent. Depending on how the
42 issue is resolved, it could make or break private entrepreneurship in outer space. Finally, there is an ongoing struggle to balance the protection of the space environment and further development of space assets. These challenges are all difficult and nuanced, and unlike technological problems involve a larger subset of people than just engineers and astronomers. For the best possible future outcome, the ethics of spacefaring organizations will have to evolve alongside their capabilities.
43 Works Cited: Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/
“Crashlanding on the Moon” NASA Science, 28 July 2006, https://science.nasa.gov/sciencenews/science at-nasa/2006/28jul_crashlanding/. Accessed 5 May 2019.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, vol. 83, no. A6, 1 June 1978, pp. 2637 46, doi:10.1029/JA083iA06p02637
The Conversation, 25 November 2015, https://theconversation.com/who-owns space-usasteroid-mining-act is-dangerous-and-potentially-illegal 51073. Accessed 30 Apr. 2019.
“Space Debris by the Numbers.” European Space Agency, Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbershttps://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/.Accessed4May2019.
spacelaw/treaties/moon agreement.html. Accessed 14 Apr. 2019.
“COPUOS History.” United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ ourwork/copuos/history.html. Accessed 15 Apr. 2019.
Oduntan, Gbenga. “Who owns space? US asteroid-mining act is dangerous and potentially illegal”
Huebert, J. H. and Walter Block. “Space Environmentalism, Property Rights, and the Law.”
University of Memphis Law Review, vol. 37, 12 January 2007, pp. 281 309. “Hypervelocity Impacts and Protecting Spacecraft.” European Space Agency, Kessler,Kennedy,nd_protecting_spacecrafthttps://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Hypervelocity_impacts_a.Accessed5May2019.CharlesS.,andJamesWChamberlin.TheAssociationForDiplomaticStudiesandTraining,19Feb.1997,www.adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Chamberlin,%20James%20W.toc.Accessed28Apr.2019.DonaldJ.,andBurtonG.Cour-Palais.“Collisionfrequencyofartificialsatellites:Thecreationofadebrisbelt.”
St. John, Dan. “The Bogotá Declaration and the Curious Case of Geostationary Orbit.” Denver Journal of International Law and Policy, 31 January 2013, http://djilp.org/3494/the-bogotadeclaration-and-the-curious-case-of-geostationary-orbit/.
“Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), 1983.” U.S. Department of State Archive, 2001 2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/rd/104253.htm.
“Status of International Agreements relating to activities in outer space as at 1 January 2019.” United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, spacelaw/treatystatus/AC105_C2_2019_CRP03E.pdf.www.unoosa.org/documents/pdf/Accessed16Apr.2019.
Accessed 30 Apr. 2019.
Accessed 28 Apr. 2019. Williamson, Mark. Space: The Fragile Frontier. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2006. United Nations Treaties and Principles on Outer Space. United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, 2002, http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/publications/STSPACE11E.pdf. Accessed 4 May 2019.
44
Since the 1960’s, experts have noticed that climate change tremendously complicates our physiological health by introducing and amplifying pathogens and limiting our resources of food and water. Antonella Rossati, an Italian infectious disease specialist, reveals in her article that “Statistical Models…estimate the global burden of some infectious diseases as a result of climate change.
Climate Change: The Real Terrorist
Imagine a hypothetical dystopian scenario where your child suffers an incurable lethal virus that eats their insides out. While you must hear their constant cries and watch their skin rot, you also question when their suffering will end. Despite this, your community must continuously migrate in a scorching barren wasteland to avoid the countless, daily destructive hurricanes, whilst feeding on perished food to avoid starvation. With no other transportation but walking, every step is a burden, and what remains of the homes and cities are the ruins and rubble of the countless fires, hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes that ravaged them. While this horrific world is often conveyed in mass media, this is certainly our near-future if our humanitarian contributions to climate change or our political decisions to prevent overpopulation are not taken seriously. In fact, whilst climate change is defined as the broad range of global phenomena created predominately by burning fossil fuels (NASA) such as extreme weather events (sea level rising or ocean acidification), global warming is the long-term warming of the planet due to fossil-fuel emissions. These two terms are interchangeably expressed throughout the concerns of climate change, and while some disbelieve that human activities contribute to climate change, multiple studies have proven otherwise. In fact, our exponential human activities not only cause climate change, but they also indirectly threaten our existence and violate the United Nations’ Human Right Declaration by impacting our physiological and psychological health and denying us a safe home.
45 Jean Paul Klein May 7, 2019
46 According to the models, by 2030, 10% more diarrheal diseases are expected, affecting primarily the young children,” before adding, “If global temperatures increase by 2 – 3C, as it is expected to, the population at risk for malaria could [also] increase by 3% – 5%.” Indeed, climate change favours the environments set for water-borne or air-borne pathogens. More specifically, pathogens such as cholera can easily become prevalent in regions where floods caused by climate change have occurred, and pathogens such as influenza can prevail in humid environments during cold seasons. Additionally, the specialist states, “Higher temperatures may also facilitate the introduction of new pathogens,” and increase the likelihood emergence of new pathogens through natural disasters such as flooding, droughts and hurricanes. This occurs because organisms, which are able to easily divide at a remarkable rate, can also mutate significantly to a point that our immune system is no longer able to combat and resist against infections. At the same time, the consequences of climate change do not limit themselves to the increasing abundance and introduction of pathogens or pathological vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks, other scenarios such as contaminated and/or acidified water sources and starvation and/or malnutrition are also current consequences of climate change. Anil Kumar Misra, director of the geological department and Ph.D graduate from Sikkim University, India, asserts that climate change has severely reduced water resources and agricultural production: Studies (de Wit and Stankiewicz, 2006, Anthony Nyong, 2005) predict that by the year 2050 the rainfall in Sub Saharan Africa could drop by 10%, which will cause a major water shortage. This 10% decrease in precipitation would reduce drainage by 17% and the regions which are receiving 500 600 mm/year rainfall will experience a reduction by 50 30% respectively in the surface drainage. Misra recognises that African and Middle Eastern countries as well as China and India are the most affected ones. Indeed, the sum population of these regions represent approximately 60% (United Nations) of the global population. Along with the expected extreme high death rate in these
47 developing countries in the years to come, victims will also suffer starvation, and/or malnutrition. Thus, the consequences of climate change can strike our physiological health through pathological means and nutritional means. Nevertheless, the effects of climate change do not restrict themselves to affecting human physiological health, but they also influence our psychological health and behaviour. Indeed, researchers have identified that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and human aggression have indirectly become prevalent mental and behavioural results due to climate change. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines PTSD as a stress/traumatic disorder that is triggered by exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violation. Symptoms of this disorder include re-experiencing traumatic events, avoidance of thoughts, feelings, memories of the traumatic event, negative cognitions and aroused moods (APA). For instance, Elisabeth Rataj, a medical evidence-based (EBM) researcher from the University Hospital of Dresden, Germany, confirms in her article that climate-change induced-PTSD has increased by 0.2 – 53% across 10 different studies in various developing countries that have endured natural disasters, in her extensive scientific literature analysis. Indeed, while developing countries such as Vietnam and Nicaragua do not contribute to climate change as much as developed countries, these former countries experience the consequences of climate change the most. They are unable to adapt to the effects of climate change, which leads to a major prevalence of climate change induced-PTSD. On the other hand, this PTSD is rare among North American and European citizens because many North American and European countries have the financial advantages to adapt to the consequences of climate change.
Furthermore, Craig A. Anderson – professor and director of the department of psychology in Iowa State University and Ph. D graduate from Stanford University – and Matt DeLisi (2011) reveal in their article, “Implications of Global Climate Change for Violence Developed and Developing Countries” that “uncomfortably warm temperatures (relative to comfortable temperature) increased
48 participants’ feelings of anger and hostility…Even when such factors [poverty, unemployment, age distribution, culture] are controlled,” For example, the psychologists demonstrate in their statistical analyses that for every 1F (0.56C) increase, an average of 79 murders/assaults result per 100,000 people. Moreover, they also conduct another statistical analysis by implementing factors such as temperature, year, and prison to distinguish the exact correlation between the temperature increase and the number of murders/assault per 100,000. On average, for every 1F increase (0.56C), an additional total of people killed was found at 4.15 per 100,000 people (Anderson). This discovery is fundamental in predicting how perilous social interactions and day-to day activities will become in the near-future. As the psychologists explain, the central explanation for this correlation is the fact that people become easily irritated in uncomfortable environments. This “crankiness” could disadvantage businesses, academic environments, social occupations, and possibly political decisions, which are crucial to the planet’s fate. Thus, not only will we suffer nutritional restrictions and more dangerous diseases, but as time moves on, we can expect to live in a more perilous atmosphere.
Although the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights accentuates that humans are allowed residence in (Article 3) and to return to their country (Article 13), the consequences of climate change cannot guarantee these provisions. Before the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1988, the United States suffered one of the costliest and deadliest summers that same year: the 1988 - 1989 North American Drought bears its name from its significant death toll (5,000 - 10,000) (Karas) and expenses ($7.5 billion) (NOAA), while the Yellowstone Fires of 1988 blazed approximately 683,000 acres (Whipple). Since the organisation’s creation, the IPCC has recorded tens of thousands of destroyed homes from the multiple natural disasters that occurred throughout the years, most notably hurricanes Maria, Harvey (2017) and Katrina (2014), which left tens of thousands of individuals homeless. Sarah Zhang, author of “Will People Return to Houston After Hurricane Harvey?” in The Atlantic, points out the consequences
Ken Belson, author of “Paradise Threatened: Fiji’s War Against Climate Change” in New York Times, narrates his first-hand experience of the threat in the Fijian islands: “The country now faces major environmental challenges…Rising sea levels has led to the erosion of Fiji’s coastal areas, and the intrusion of saltwater has destroyed farmland and forced residents to move to safer grounds.” This problem is detrimental especially when the United Nations cites that the Fijian Islands and the Solomon islands have a total population of approximately 919,000 and 635,000 respectively. If the inhabitants are to survive their islands’ submersion, this could cause an extreme migration flux towards a greater country such as Australia or the United States, which could cause matters to spiral by way of civil disputes, crimes, unhygienic conditions, violence, pollution and transmission of illnesses. As Article 13 states in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country,” but these immigrants cannot return home when their country is flooded. Dr. Alexander Alvarez, professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice of Northern Arizona University stated that the International Organization for Migrations (IOM) expects 200 million people to be on the move by 2050. In fact, this immigration also violates Article 9: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.” That being said, the consequences of climate change force populations to emigrate against
However, while these two reports indicate the gravity of the consequences, they only report two natural disasters among hundreds of unreported ones. Indeed, other territories such as the Fiji Islands or the Solomon Islands are currently on the verge of extinction due to the rising water levels.
49 after hurricane Harvey, “Even when the water is gone, Houston will not be as it was.” In another instance, Pam Wright, author of “Puerto Rico's Hurricane Maria Mass Migration Confirmed by New Census Bureau Data” on The Weather Channel, confirms that after Hurricane Maria, “an estimated 129,848 people left Puerto Rico between July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018, a 14 percent drop [in their population]” whilst Nevada and Idaho were the “fastest growing states” in the country (2.1%).
50 their will. To aggravate the situation, these catastrophes have wreaked havoc across agricultural lands, water sources and have even killed thousands. The reports by Wright and Belson also demonstrate the vulnerability of these respective developing countries. While these developing countries endure the worst of spiraling effects, they also lack the financial means to combat these environmental and political consequences. Thus, our human activities indirectly prevent others from securing a safe home through the occurrences of natural disasters. Since its first mentioning, the topic of climate change has been met with two extremely complex and opposing viewpoints. On one end of the population spectrum, it is believed that human activities heavily influence climate change and emit more greenhouse gases than our natural environments, and on the other, it is believed that climate change is primarily caused by natural events. In a 2017 interview on CNBC, the current American Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, for example, supports the latter claim, “No, most likely, the primary control knob [to control the Earth’s temperature and climate] is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in.” Still, Perry makes a hasty generalisation by failing to support his claim with relevant evidence. He seems to believe that oceans emit more greenhouse gases than our fossil-fueled emissions despite admitting that humans contribute to climate change. The problem is that this claim also opposes the extreme, measured environmental changes (temperatures, sea level rising) in recent years, documented by reliable scientific organisations such as the IPCC, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Arctic Climate Change Assessment (ACCA). The IPCC, for example, states in the Summary of their Fifth Assessment Report (AR5): “The evidence for human influence on the climate system has grown since the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).” More specifically, they strengthen their claims by revealing that greenhouse gases emissions have increased by 78% from 1970 to 2010 from fossil fuel and industrial processes. Additionally, Perry uses another hasty generalization in the interview when he states that science is not “settled.” In other words, Perry
51 seems to be suspicious of the science. While it is suspected that numerous scientists manipulate their data, the credibility of the scientists, the repetition and the accuracy of these measurements, and the locations of published scientific data are among numerous factors that determine the reliability of the scientific data. In this case, the IPCC is not only a supporter of the former claim among numerous others, but its roster also compromises over 800 lead authors and review editors from over 1,000 contributors (Union of Concerned Scientists). Thus, while Rick Perry does not support the evidence provided by the IPCC, and instead claims that climate change is induced by natural events, he also states his scepticism against science. However, the IPCC does demonstrate a substantial amount of evidence to prove that humans are majorly affecting our planet’s health, which will inflict severe physical and psychological damage to our health and security.
Still, there are multiple possibilities to ameliorate this overwhelming situation. In fact, the American Institute of Physics (AIP), a corporation founded in 1931 by leading physicists, notes that scientists began to observe the effects of climate change since the 19th century. Over time, this issue became a political debate, though it was not until 1979 that the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) organised the First World Climate Conference. Six years later, the Montreal Protocol was established in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which contributed to the depletion of the Antarctic ozone layer. Until today, scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians, humanitarians and environmentalists, architects, economists, historians are proposing to extend educational opportunities and to optimise kitchen appliance administration to improve our health, social interactions, moods and more importantly, our environment, among other solutions. By kitchen appliance administration, studies have demonstrated that refrigerators are the major appliances in our kitchen that contributes to climate change. While they have evolved from a luxury to a normality in our homes, they are not the stemming issue to this climate change situation. In fact, it is the technological advancement and scientific discoveries that led industries to exponentially
52 produce items to facilitate our lives since the Industrial Revolution. In turn, this led to greater access to comfort and safety, healthier lives, greater life spans and thus, an increasing birth rate, which finally resulted in the stemming issue of overpopulation. That being said, it is imperative that our societies must control their birth rate to facilitate the resolution of the upcoming climatic disasters.
Paul Hawken, an American environmentalist, entrepreneur and author, proposes countless solutions to improving our atmosphere and reducing the consequences of climate change and global warming in his book, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (2017). The environmentalist strongly recommends that education should not be gender specific in any country. He believes that girls should be scholastically educated since childhood. Before revealing the countless benefits to this unusual claim, he supports it by revealing the results of a demographic analytical research, published by Science, and by mentioning other credible experts such as the Brookings Institution, a social scientific and economic research group founded in 1916, Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel Laureate and a women’s education activist, a 2010 economic study and a 2013 study. The entrepreneur contends, “Women with more years of education have fewer, healthier children and actively manage their reproductive health.” He lists the numerous benefits that educating females in school could emerge by 2050, such as a large population reduction (-843 million), an economic growth, a decrease in maternal and infantile mortality, a “lower incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria,” an agricultural activity and nourishment improvement, and finally a greater resistance against natural disasters that results in less “injured, displaced, or killed,” among other civil and cultural benefits. This implementation could also reduce the emission of 59.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050 (Hawken). On the contrary, there are several, economic, nutritional and cultural obstacles that countries that do not educate their women, face. Yemeni families for example may not have the means to finance their daughter’s education as these children are born to serve and feed their families. Some of these countries may lack adequate transportation
Furthermore, Paul Hawken believes the most crucial convention that we should adopt is refrigeration management. He confirms that refrigerators and air conditioners contain chemical refrigerants such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that “warm the atmosphere... one thousand to nine thousand greater than that of carbon dioxide.” In fact, these chemical refrigerants are substituents to the scientifically-proven refrigerants (chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)) that depleted the Antarctic ozone layer after the introduction of aerosols. Despite the Montreal Protocol (1987), the Paris Agreement (2015) and the Kigali Agreement (2019), Hawken states that refrigerants must be “disposed of effectively,” before recommending to “increase the refrigeration efficiency in appliances...lower the demand/use of appliances and...production of refrigerants” on his website. These refrigerants, Hawkens advises, can be “reused” or recycled into other chemically and environmentally-friendly usages This adaptation offers essential solutions that could benefit our atmosphere by the year 2050 such as the reduction of 89.74 gigatons of carbon dioxide, and the significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (Hawken). Conversely, this adaptation is oppressively burdensome on a practical level. The limited use of refrigeration for
53 systems, schools, teacher quality and instruction materials. Despite these financial and nutritional challenges, this solution is more achievable than Hawken’s managerial solution. The remaining obstacle, however, is related to cultural traditions, for example, in Saudi Arabia. As Hawken demonstrates the countless benefits to scholastically educating women, these traditions must be abolished. His list of benefits clearly indicates that educating women could greatly diminish the effects of climate change and ultimately, global warming. In this time of history, global warming is an imminent global phenomenon that threatens our human existence. It is preferable to save one’s lives, then to hold your cultural and political values when faced against the disastrous natural disasters that could wipe out a large portion of the population in a matter of days. Thus, women must be educated in order to combat global warming.
According to Hawken, the management of refrigeration would cost over $902.8 billion, a sum that any country is unwillingly prepared to finance. The limited usage of air conditioner could also cause distress, anxiety, and heat strokes among other issues in populations as global warming is occurring. And, as the population increases by over 150,000 people per day (Worldometers), so will the demand for refrigerants. That being said, if we are to survive as a human species in the long run, refrigeration must be managed to prevent the worst disasters to appear. While Hawken’s proposed solutions could improve the worst climatic effects of climate change, they are not the key solutions that could save the threatening human existence. Research suggests that our planet is beginning to experience a situation of overpopulation as the consequences of climate change all boil down to the increasing population size (Bennett). It is reasonable to believe that individuals naturally desire comfort, food and water, clothes and warmth to name a few of the essential factors in our quotidian. However, the fulfillment of these essentials spends our planet’s resources, and as the population increases exponentially, so does our resource expenditures. Nonetheless, experts must contribute to controlling the exponential birth rate through political policies, the manufacture and promotion of contraceptive techniques and medication, the implementation of sexual education and counseling. In 1979 for example, the Chinese government imposed the one-child policy for thirty-six years. Although this policy has introduced mental, psychological, social, demographic, and economic complications, it also resulted in the prevention of 250 - 300 million people as well as the increased wealth and freedom of the government (Hesketh,
54 example, can be uncomfortable for many as refrigerators play crucial roles to storing our food fresh. Unless people are willing to finish their meals, millions of tons of food could be thrown away, which could also contribute to pollution. This managerial solution would also require families to learn new methods of cooking and manners to preserve food for as long as possible to limit pollution rates. This is not to mention that the financial implications to manage refrigeration are gargantuan.
55 2005). One issue with this policy was that female babies were discriminated to male babies. This led to, as Hesketh observes, “[The increased] kidnapping and trafficking of women for marriage and... sex workers, [as well as a] rise in... sexually transmitted diseases.” To combat this situation, governments enforce security measurements and avoid discrimination to prevent prostitution and depression among men due to loneliness. Moreover, Mohammed Karamouzian, Medical Ph.D graduate, University of British Columbia, Canada, reveals how the combination of an exemplary family planning implementation, the social and cultural norms, the mentality of families, and political decisions has decreased “[t]he total fertility rate...from 6.5 in 1960 to 1.6 in 2012” in Iran. Although current legislative decisions are promoting families to increase their families, such as the restriction of contraception and the outlawing of abortions, this policy resulted in the increase literacy rate of adult men and women and school enrollment, modernization of technology, reduction of water scarcity and increase agricultural production (Larsen, 2005). That being said, China and Iran are prime examples to demonstrate the many benefits that result if birth control and family planning are emphasised in our societies. As time progresses, these policies must be implemented to prevent the worse climatic consequences our populations could face. To conclude, studies have confirmed how climate change affects our physiological and psychological health as well as our security. In reality however, today’s climate change effects are the consequences of previous human activities. If our political decisions and human contributions do not promote global sustainability, we can only expect to endure a similar death toll like the Black Death as the consequences of climate change will worsen. While environmentalists such as Paul Hawken are currently proposing solutions such as refrigeration management to heal our planet, these solutions often require tremendous amounts of effort to make a habit. They do not resolve the consequences of climate change but only prolong them. Therefore, we must focus our attention to prevent overpopulation by limiting the exponential birth rate with policies, laws, fines set by our
56 governments. Additionally, other simpler actions such as recycling aluminum cans, throwing away trash into trash bags, avoiding products (plastic for example) which could harm our ecosystems, reusing water bottles, cycling more and driving less, and even donating untouched food to disadvantaged ones are among the list of countless other solutions that could slightly improve our disastrous climatic situation.
57 Works Cited Alvarez, Alexander. “Unstable Ground: Climate Change, Conflict, and Genocide.” Genocide Awareness Week. Genocide Awareness Week, 17 Apr. 2019, Scottsdale, Scottsdale Community College. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
Bennett, Jack. “Overpopulation Is the Problem.” BioScience, Oxford University Press, 1 Feb. 2007, academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/57/2/101/228107. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. Hawken, Paul. Drawdown: the Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. Penguin Books, 2018. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. Hesketh, Therese, et al. “The Effect of China's One Child Family Policy after 25 Years.” Google Scholar, The New England Journal of Medicine, 15 Sept. DJrLwQ9oC39IKbB2mpcQMhUjmwjtbANgkKWCIimtBOO2tN2UKPyW6VoRr8WeztAZ5LD0RfJb6qC7www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmhpr051833?casa_token=EYMR8ClgexQAAAAA:ea02005,.AccessedMay3rd,2019.
Anderson, Craig A., and Matt DeLisi. “Implications of global climate change for violence in developed and developing countries.” ResearchGate, The Psychology of Social Conflict and Aggression, New York: Psychology Press, January hange_for_Violence_in_Developed_and_Developing_Countrieshttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/242623056_Implications_of_Global_Climate_C2011..AccessedMay3rd,2019. APA. “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” 2013. PDF file. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
Belson, Ken. “Paradise Threatened: Fiji's War Against Climate Change.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/travel/fiji-globalwarming.html. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
American Institute of Physics. “The Discovery of Global Warming Timeline (Milestones).” Global Warming Timeline, Feb. 2019, history.aip.org/climate/timeline.htm. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2009. A Review of the HHS Family Planning Program: Mission, Management, and Measurement of Results. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved May 2nd, 2019.
et al. “Iran's Shift in Family Planning Policies: Concerns and Challenges.” US National Library of Medicine, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, 2 Sept. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4204741/. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. Karas, David. “As Much of US Swelters, Here Are 5 Worst Heat Waves of Past 30 Years.” The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 11 July 2011, www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0711/As much-of-US swelters here are-5-worst heat waves-of-past 30 years/Summer 1988. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
Larsen, Janet. “The Swinging Pendulum of Population Policy in Iran.” Earth Policy Institute, Rutgers University, 25 June 2014, www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2014/update124. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. Misra, Anil Kumar. “Climate Change and Challenges of Water and Food Security.” International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment, Elsevier, June 2014, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221260901400020X. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. NASA. “What's in a Name? Weather, Global Warming and Climate Change.” NASA, 8 Apr. 2019, climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming/. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
58
Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). “Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Summary for Policy Makers.” IPCC, IPCC, 30 Sept. www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf2013,. Accessed May 3rd, Karamouzian,2019.Mohammad,
Union of Concerned Scientists. “The IPCC: Who Are They and Why Do Their Climate Reports Matter?” Union of Concerned Scientists , 11 Oct. 2018, www.ucsusa.org/globalwarming/science-and-impacts/science/ipcc-backgrounder.html. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. United Nations. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations, www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
59
Whipple, Dan. “Yellowstone Ablaze: The Fires of 1988.” WyoHistory.org, University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources, 27 June 2015, www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/yellowstoneablaze fires 1988. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. Wright, Pam. “Puerto Rico's Hurricane Maria Mass Migration Confirmed by New Census Bureau Data.” The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel, 20 Dec. 2018,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. “The Drought of 1988 and Beyond.” 1988. PDF file. Rataj, Elisabeth, et al. “Extreme Weather Events in Developing Countries and Related Injuries and Mental Health Disorders - a Systematic Review.” BMC Public Health, BioMed Central, 29 Sept. 2016, bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889 016 3692 7. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. Rossati, Antonella. “Global Warming and Its Health Impact.” Int J Occup Environ Med (The IJOEM), The International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Jan. 2017, www.theijoem.com/ijoem/index.php/ijoem/article/view/963/806.
Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder. “Rick Perry: Climate Change Caused By 'Ocean Waters'.” Youtube, commentary by Sam Seder, 22 June 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXBSj0ljrw. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
12 20-puerto-rico migration-new-york-population-maria census. Accessed May 3rd, 2019. Zhang, Sarah. “Will People Return to Houston After Hurricane Harvey?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 3 Sept. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/09/will-peoplereturn to-houston-after hurricane harvey/538719/. Accessed May 3rd, 2019.
60 weather.com/news/news/2018
61 Sydney Norris 03 May 2019
There is a tremendous amount of pollution swimming in the ocean, and as ocean pollution continues to rapidly grow, the weight of all pollution in the ocean will surpass the weight of all combined marine species in the sea. The ocean is a vital ecosystem that an extraordinary amount of marine wildlife depends on, and pollution is significantly destroying it, while the marine species are taking the toll. Additionally, the ocean is home to nearly ninety-four percent of earth’s living species. However, with ocean pollution increasing considerably, it is estimated that nearly 250 million tons of plastic will end up in the ocean within the next six years. Ultimately, pollution is profoundly impacting marine wildlife, leading to approximately 2,270 marine species that are endangered or facing extinction. The ocean is drowning in extreme amounts of pollution, consequently threatening marine wildlife and demanding immediate action to reduce the damage and save marine species.
A substantial amount of waste infests the ocean every year, and roughly eighty percent of ocean pollution is caused by human activity such as oil spills, fertilizers, sewage disposal, and deadly chemicals that damage environments and diminish oxygen supply. For example, The World Wildlife Fund, a conservation organization committed to ending the degradation of the planet’s natural
The oceans cover more than seventy percent of the earth’s surface. The greatest source of oxygen comes from the ocean’s environments such as phytoplankton and marine algae. Additionally, nearly fifty to eighty five percent of oxygen that makes up the earth’s atmosphere is derived from the ocean. Moreover, garbage is constantly filtering into the ocean through different means and harmfully impacting its environments by threatening the ecosystem itself and therefore causing potential diminishment of oxygen the ocean supplies naturally.
Ocean Pollution and Marine Wildlife
Weis emphasizes the toxicity of oil and the deadly chemicals that spread in the ocean from oil spills. Due to the immiscibility of oil and water, the oil and chemicals cause suffocation and contamination
62 environments, expands on fertilizers in their article “Ocean Pollution is a Global Threat,” stating that Fertilizer runoff from farms and lawns is a huge problem for coastal areas. The extra nutrients cause eutrophication—flourishing of algal blooms that deplete the water's dissolved oxygen and suffocate other marine life. Eutrophication has created enormous dead zones in several parts of the world, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Baltic Sea. The WWF evaluates the significant effect that fertilizers have on the ocean and its environments from excess run off. Due to this, fertilizers and other pesticides associated with fertilizers such as DDT and PCBs create reduction among the ocean’s phytoplankton and marine algal blooms that result in oxygen deficiency. Highlighting this factor of pollution caused by human activity, the WWF also note that the ocean is in possession of extreme dead zones as a dangerous effect from such pollutants.Another destructive factor of pollution infesting the ocean is oil and related deadly chemicals that result from oil spills. Judith S. Weis, an expert on marine biology, describes the deadly components of oil affecting the condition of the ocean in her book Marine Pollution: What Everyone Needs to Know by explaining that Oil is a complex combination of various hydrocarbons (carbon-based compounds with hydrogen atoms attached). […] Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are major toxic components of oil. There are thousands of different compounds in this group; the larger molecules (with more rings) are less soluble in water, more soluble in fats, and tend to be more carcinogenic (cancer causing), mutagenic (causing genetic mutations), or teratogenic (causing embryonic malformations). (64)
63 of the ocean’s environments and therefore cause oxygen to decrease. Additionally, the dangerous chemicals related to oil are often fatal and lethal to marine wildlife by increasing risk of serious illness, unnatural alterations in genes, and developmental defects.
Plastic is undoubtedly the element of pollution that is most predominant in the ocean and causing serious harm to many marine species. In his article “Plastic Pollution Affects Sea Life Throughout the Ocean,” director of the preventing ocean plastics project, Simon Reddy, explains
Thomas Hayden, a marine biologist and biological oceanography expert, highlights in his periodical “Trashing the Oceans” one of the five garbage patches floating in the ocean. According to Hayden, “The [North Pacific subtropical high] is the eye of a circle of currents thousands of miles wide called the North Pacific gyre. The high's weak winds and sluggish currents naturally collect flotsam, earning it the unfortunate nickname of the "Eastern Garbage Patch." Similar wind and current patterns exist in all the major oceans, and all presumably suffer from similar contamination” (58).
Furthermore, due to the growing issue of pollution that is fiercely entering the ocean in many ways, it is creating garbage patches that are harmfully impacting the ocean’s environments.
Hayden stresses that trash is constantly collecting in heaps within this area of the ocean; however, there are four more of these areas similarly being affected. As a result, marine environments experience poisoning and deterioration from the heaping piles of concentrated garbage.
The extreme amount of pollution in the ocean and its range of factors are certainly taking a detrimental toll on marine environments that naturally produce oxygen. In addition, the loss of oxygen creates a fatal environment for marine wildlife to suffocate. However, the range of pollutants only begins to touch the surface of the damage within the ocean. Not only are the environments suffering, but the marine wildlife is facing severe risks as well. Diving deeper, the marine wildlife is catastrophically being affected, consequently losing their lives to pollution invading their home every day, and the major culprit to this increasing devastation is plastic.
Firstly, marine wildlife are encountering plastic through entanglement, referring to plastic and debris enveloping, entrapping, and constricting marine species. According to Sarah C. Gall and Richard C. Thompson, experts in marine biology and ecology research, their article “The Impact of Debris on Marine Wildlife” explains that of 700 marine species that have encountered debris, roughly ninety-two percent were encounters of entanglement involving plastic, and almost twenty percent of those marine species are endangered or threatened with it (170). Gall and Thompson show how significant of an issue plastic entanglement can be when just floating in the ocean.
“Plastics in the Marine Environment,” stating Entanglement has now been reported for 344 species, including 100% of marine turtles, 67% of seals, 31% of whales, and 25% of seabirds, as well as 89 species of fish and 92 species of invertebrates. […] Hazards of entanglement include bodily harm, such as injury to
64 that “[…] at least 800 species worldwide are affected by marine debris, and as much as 80 percent of that litter is plastic. It is estimated that up to 13 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean each year—the equivalent of a rubbish or garbage truck load’s worth every minute.” Reddy gives a distressing insight to how much plastic is in the ocean and the severity of the issue on marine wildlife. Plastic is constantly infesting the ocean and the rate is rising excessively. Additionally, the war between plastic and marine wildlife is causing detrimental harm throughout marine populations and taking many casualties. There is an immense amount of plastic swimming among marine species and therefore causing the wildlife to encounter the lethal component of pollution invading their home through three common ways.
Marine species face this entanglement risk at any moment and have no strategy of avoiding it due to its extremity. Moreover, entanglement affects an abundance of marine species and causes serious injuries in the process. To elaborate, Kara L. Law, an oceanographer and chief scientist of the Sea Education Association, illustrates the extent of the damage of plastic entanglement in her article
65 dermal tissue; interference with growth, potentially causing deformations; and restricted movement affecting swimming, feeding, and the ability to escape predators. These hazards might ultimately result in drowning, starvation, or predation of individuals. Multiple studies have demonstrated death caused by entanglement. (205) Law emphasizes the extreme risks that result from entanglement and stresses the fatal impacts it has on marine wildlife. Despite marine wildlife struggling to unravel from the entrapment of plastic, thousands fall victim to plastic entanglement. Thus leaving marine wildlife to swim in an ocean crowded with traps of floating plastic.
Secondly, marine species are mistaking millions of tons of plastic for sources of nutrition through ingestion that ultimately proves to viciously impact marine wildlife. To illustrate the devastation of ingestion among marine wildlife, Law explains […] plastic ingestion has now been documented for 233 marine species, including 100% of marine turtles, 36% of seals, 59% of whales, and 59% of seabirds, as well as 92 species of fish and 6 species of invertebrates. Ingested debris may have a variety of consequences for the consuming organism. […] Large volumes of debris have been hypothesized to reduce storage capacity in the stomach and to cause false satiation, leading to a reduced appetite, and they have also been shown to cause obstruction of the gut. The ingested debris can cause internal injury, such as a perforated gut, ulcerative lesions, or gastric rupture, potentially leading to death. (205) Law describes how so often plastic is found in the bellies of marine wildlife, weakening their overall condition and consequently shortening their lifespans. When marine species ingest plastic, it becomes increasingly harmful to their health and their ability to eat other prey. Additionally, with the amount of plastic invading the ocean, the rate of ingestion among marine wildlife will continue to grow as plastic continues to mimic other sea creatures.
66
Law’s article “Plastics in the Marine Environment,” one of the major pieces of plastic pollution that pose a dangerous threat to marine wildlife through interaction is fishing gear and fishing nets. Law explains that fishing gear and nets have been shown to cause tissue damage and breakage when marine species interact and swim with such pollution. Additionally, Law also notes that much of plastic debris causes damage to coral ecosystems in the process of marine wildlife interaction.
According to
Lastly, marine wildlife is constantly encountering plastic through interaction. Although interaction is similar to entanglement, interaction differs from entanglement because it includes confrontations with plastic that does not involve entangling or trapping contact.
Ultimately, Law further explains that this can lead to suffocation due to plastic contact among marine species and within environments (205). It is inevitable for marine wildlife to interact with plastic pollution, and as they do, marine species unknowingly destroy their habitats and themselves just through plastic contact. Furthermore, marine wildlife face harmful threats as plastic interaction increases the probability of oxygen depletion throughout marine environments due to the settlement of plastic debris within them.
Overall, ocean pollution, notoriously plastic, is constantly swimming among marine wildlife and poses severe threats and cause detrimental effects. Marine environments and the wildlife that are supported through them depend on the ocean entirely. As the ocean continues to transform into earths largest and deepest dumpster, the marine environments and wildlife are enduring the destruction. Ultimately, this demands for immediate action to be taken to clean up the ocean and reduce the damage so marine wildlife can swim and thrive in an ocean free of trash.
As ocean pollution proves to be a deadly issue, it is imperative to understand what small steps individuals can do that result in a powerful difference. In her book Marine Pollution: What Everyone Needs to Know, Judith S. Weis explains the little actions individuals can do that make a great impact for the sake of the ocean and marine wildlife. First, Weis describes the actions that can be
67 taken in order to reduce run-off of fertilizers and pesticides. To prevent eutrophication, Weis encourages individuals to plant grass, trees, or shrubs in vacant areas such as open fields, front or back yards, and areas near coastlines to catch run-off and erosion in their roots. Secondly, on the subject of garbage, Weis explains that it is important to be conscious about waste and how it is disposed. Weis stresses the significance of recycling and reusable materials. Weis also highlights that the less garbage that is produced, the less of a chance it has to end up in the ocean. Furthermore, Weis emphasizes the minimization of the carbon footprint by saving energy. Lastly, Weis notes that knowing the proper and safe way to dispose of toxic chemicals such as oil, batteries, electronics, and pharmaceutical drugs has a significant impact on the likelihood of the deadly chemicals ending up in the ocean (232). Understanding the factors contributing to the increasing threats on the ocean is greatly important. By doing so, the small differences and actions that can easily be taken among individuals significantly lowers the potential damage of pollution in the future. Moreover, the recognition that ocean pollution presents the fatal outcome of devastation to the ecosystem itself and marine wildlife is critical because the steps that can greatly reverse the damage are undeniablyFurthermore,simple.because the worst element of pollution is plastic, it is crucial to considerably clean up the amount of it that is invading the ocean and harming marine wildlife. Boyan Slat, the CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup, explains in his interview “Combatting Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans” his revolutionary creation that will relieve the ocean of plastic pollution, primarily focusing on the great pacific garbage patch, stating that We proposed to deploy a fleet of artificial coastlines where there are no coastlines and basically using the natural ocean currents in our advantage by deploying these very long, U shaped floating barriers that would first concentrate the plastic before we would take it out
Unfortunately, populations, species, and environments that support life under water will continue to die out entirely at a rapid rate if pollution continues to infest the ocean. Individuals must take action to clean up the ocean through methods such as recycling, reusing materials, saving energy, planting, and proper disposal of chemicals to reduce pollution entirely. It is crucial to understand the damaging effects of ocean pollution in order to prevent further damage and protect marine environments and wildlife that are in desperate need of it.
68 and models show that with fleets of sixty of these cleanup systems, we should be able to clean up half the great pacific garbage patch every five years (Sachs). Slat stresses the significance of eliminating plastic because once it filters into the ocean; it often accumulates into large floating piles of garbage. However, with the help of this device, reducing the rate of plastic polluting the ocean will diminish slowly, but effectively. Additionally, this also illustrates how pervasive of a problem plastic pollution is because it will still take an extended amount of time to clean up. Despite the amount of time that will have to be devoted to this particular project, this is a monumental step for marine wildlife and the ocean. The extreme amount of pollution inhabiting the ocean is dangerously affecting marine ecosystems and its wildlife by killing thousands of marine species persistently. The severity of pollution invading the ocean is leading to the diminishment of marine ecosystems by suffocating and destroying them, resulting in oxygen depletion. Correspondingly, marine wildlife is suffering tremendously as species endure the collapse of the ecosystem they depend on completely.
Hayden, Thomas. “Trashing the Oceans.” News & World Report, vol. 133, no.17, Nov. 2002, pp. 58. Law, Kara L. “Plastics in the Marine Environment.” Annual Review of Marine Science, 7 Sept. 2016, pp. 205 229.
Reddy, Simon. “Plastic Pollution Affects Sea Life Throughout the Ocean.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, 14 Sept. 2018. Sachs, Goldman, director. “Boyan Slat: Combatting Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Apr. 2018.
Weis, Judith S. Marine Pollution : What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press, 2015. World Wildlife Fund. "Ocean Pollution Is a Global Threat." Pollution, edited by Debra A. Miller, Greenhaven Press, Opposing Viewpoints in Context, 2012.
69 Works Cited Gall, Sarah C, and Thompson, Richard C. “The Impact of Debris on Marine Life.” NeuroImage, Academic Press, 15 Mar. 2015, pp. 170 179.
70 Solving the Space Debris Crisis: How One Generation’s Trash Became Another’s Tragedy Matt Rulli
71 Abstract
Keywords: space debris, space trash, space waste, active-removal, low earth orbit debris
This paper examines the history and proliferation of the space debris problem and attempts to analyze the proposed solutions for cleaning up the environments of low, middle, and geostationary earth orbits. Since the beginnings of human spaceflight in the late 1950’s, the deposition of waste materials like spent rocket stages and assorted mission debris has reached a crisis point. Damage to operating communications and global positioning navigation satellites, not to mention the hazard posed to crewed spacecraft like the International Space Station, from impacting high energy orbital debris represents a clear and present danger to current and future space operations as well as people on the ground. Mitigation and collision avoidance are simply not effective enough for a sustainable future in space, and this paper serves to offer a comparative analysis of the proposed solutions and a recommendation for action based on currently available data.
The modern word “disaster” comes from the Latin dis meaning ‘bad’ and aster meaning ‘star’ because the ancients believed that “shooting stars” were signals of troubled times ahead, and they might not have been too far off the mark. The continuously increasing threat posed by space debris to human safety and the global communication and navigation infrastructures has reached a critical point and requires immediate remedial action. Attempts to mitigate further deposition of waste in orbit around the planet have been ineffectual at best, and without stricter international oversight, humanity’s utilization of low earth orbit may be rather short-lived.
Mitigation alone is simply a continuation of the same “band-aid on a bullet-wound” approach to problem-solving that allowed the current crisis to develop in the first place, making active removal of the debris the only viable course of action. Additionally, while there may not be any singular system capable of resolving the issue in its entirety, it is without a doubt that a sustainable future in space will only be possible with a well-funded international partnership dedicated to correcting the problem.
Goals
72
Solving the Space Debris Crisis: How One Generation’s Trash Became Another’s Tragedy
The goals of this paper are to discuss the history of human spaceflight and the negligent attitude regarding waste that led to the current crisis state. Additionally, this article will examine in detail the current methods of tracking orbital space debris as well as analyze and compare the proposed solutions to the problem. Once the analysis is complete, a final recommendation for remedial action will be presented for the reader's consideration followed by a summary of the article’s findings.
73 Background Definition
History Since the late 1950’s, human beings have been traveling to and operating in the areas of low, middle, and geostationary earth orbits. Back then, to us, space was an expanse of emptiness sprinkled with mystery and wonder. Every rocket launch was newsworthy, every mission was a fascinating adventure, and it captured the imaginations of an entire generation. However, little did we know that with every one of those launches, we were laying a minefield of headaches and worry for ourselves and our future in space. According to a report from the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, after the initial Mercury missions in the early 1960’s, the odds of an orbital debris collision with the Gemini 8 spacecraft (piloted by none other than Neil Armstrong) were 2.3 x 10-9 (or a .0000000023% probability) during its 10.7 hour orbital flight (Hall, 2014). Ten years later, in 1976, it was estimated that that probability had jumped to a 1.3% probability of a collision, which equates to roughly one impact every 77 years (Hall, 2014). Data from the same report suggests that by the end of 1997, the odds that a piece of space debris coming within the space shuttle’s
According to the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), the definition of orbital debris is, “…any man made object which is non-functional with no reasonable expectation of assuming or resuming its intended function, or any other function for which it is or can be expected to be authorized, including fragments and parts thereof.” (Schildknecht, 2007). While that may sound relatively benign considering the incomprehensible vastness of space, the area of Low Earth Orbit (LEO), or the environment immediately surrounding our home planet, is becoming increasingly cluttered with these artifacts. Even something so small and seemingly innocuous as a frozen paint chip can become a remarkable hazard if it collides with a functional spacecraft in orbit, not to mention a threat to the lives of those brave individuals who dare to live and work in space.
74 maneuvering area during a 9.7-day flight in orbit had a probability of 86%. Additionally, the likelihood that an onboard window would need to be replaced upon returning to Earth was 60% for every space shuttle mission (at a low cost to the American taxpayer of $50,000 per window).
Physics – Putting Velocity in Perspective
It can be difficult to fully comprehend the velocities of high-energy orbital debris as there is nothing in our day-to day lives that moves even remotely close to the speeds being discussed in this article. Even the speed of a high powered rifle bullet is relatively slow by comparison. The first step in really understanding the destructive power of space debris is to understand energy. Simply put, the larger an object is, the more energy is required to put that object into motion. Once that object is moving, Newton’s Laws of Motion dictate that it will remain in motion until another force acts upon it. When it comes to objects in flight within the atmosphere, atmospheric drag, or rather friction between the object and the air it’s moving through, causes the object to lose energy and fall back down to the ground. However, once an object has been put into orbit where there is a negligible atmospheric drag effect, that object could stay in orbit for hundreds or even thousands of
In July of 1962, the first commercial communications satellite, Telstar 1, was launched into orbit to supplement communications between ground stations that were beyond each other’s line of sight. Since that launch, there have been upwards of 4,900 launches and over 6,600 satellites placed into orbit about the Earth, and every single one has deposited its small share of debris to the cloud. Of those satellites, more than half are still in orbit while only about a third (roughly 1,300) remain active and controllable (Gupta et al., 2018). While this may not seem like a staggeringly large number of objects, considering the average size of a satellite is about that of a minivan and moving at speeds that can be difficult to fathom, even one collision (and the subsequent cloud of debris that would result) could mark the beginning of an unrecoverable situation.
75 years, and it could do so without losing much of its initial energy. So how fast are these bits of trash really going?Imagine an Olympic shooting competition where a woman is standing on the firing line ready to “take her shot” at a gold medal. She looks down her sights and sees the target blur as she focuses on the crosshairs. A slow exhale escapes her lips as her finger settles over the trigger and begins to squeeze. Then, bang! The hammer falls onto the cartridge's primer throwing sparks into the grains of gunpowder. As the powder ignites, the resultant gas expands and creates overwhelming pressure inside the chamber. The pressure builds forcing the chunk of lead in its path through the barrel where it continues gathering speed before making its repercussive exit. The moment the projectile leaves the muzzle, it is traversing a distance of 990 meters for every one second of time that elapses. To put that into perspective, the bullet is traveling at about 2,214 miles per hour as it leaves the barrel of the gun (which is about thirty-four times faster than you’re allowed to drive on the average American highway). That speed is about three times slower than the slowest pieces of orbital debris while the fastest pieces can exceed that velocity by over eighteen times. So how much damage can something traveling that fast possibly do if it hits something?
Below is a chart that details the relative magnitudes of energy associated with an impact at the speeds with which we’re discussing. As you can see, a small object traveling at high velocity could have a devastating effect on something as fragile as a solar panel and high-resolution camera laden weather satellite. The possibilities are terrifying to imagine when considering the result of an impact on a crewed spacecraft which makes the need for urgent remedial action only more pressing.
Proliferation Between the first launches in the middle of the 20th century and today, there have been three major collision incidents in space resulting in tremendous amounts of space debris being produced and almost 300 other less severe incidents. The earliest and possibly the most disastrous of those is
The next significant instance occurred in 2007 when the Chinese government targeted and destroyed one of their own weather satellites using an Anti Satellite (ASAT) missile system. The strike was designed to test the feasibility of destroying an enemy satellite in orbit; a feat often considered to be as difficult as “shooting a bullet with a bullet” considering the relative velocities involved. After the satellite’s destruction, which produced thousands of individual debris pieces, it was estimated that 15% of existing space debris at the time was a result of that single event (Carns, 2017). Fortunately, the subsequent international outcry of protest for polluting one of the most heavily traveled regions of LEO led to a significant decrease in the testing of shrapnel-based ASAT weapons.The third, and probably most famous, incident of space debris deposition was in 2009 when a non-operational Russian communications satellite (Cosmos 2251) collided with and rendered inoperable an American communications satellite (Iridium 33). A report conducted in 2010 states that the majority of the resulting debris cloud is still in orbit today, and the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) in the United States estimates that over 1,600 pieces of debris larger than 10cm2 continue to pose a threat (Wang, 2010). The same report suggests that 70% of the remaining debris will fall through the region where the ISS maintains its orbit by the year 2030. This scattered debris
76 the explosion of the STEP II upper rocket stage fuel tank that was left in orbit after its separation from the launch payload. The tank had a relatively small quantity (roughly 10kg) of hydrazine rocket propellant remaining when the stage was separated, and pressure build-up from solar heating caused the fuel to ignite (Carns, 2017). When the stage exploded, it produced an estimated 700 pieces of mid to large sized pieces of debris that will remain in orbit for decades to come (Carns, 2017). While this incident signaled a need for change in the policies regarding how spent rocket stages were dealt with post-launch, it would only mark the beginning in a long succession of disastrous events.
77 will pose a very serious hazard to not only the station itself but also the international crew of astronauts and cosmonauts who live onboard. An additional factor that compounds the existing problem is the issue of satellite disintegration. As older satellites fail and become unresponsive, their orbits gradually begin to decay. While this can take decades or even hundreds of years, it wouldn’t be much of a problem if they were to stay together as one whole piece that can be easily tracked and avoided, but that is seldom the case for satellites that spend more than a few decades in orbit. Atmospheric drag, micrometeorite impacts, and vibration damage eventually cause larger space objects like satellites to break apart into ever smaller, but equally dangerous, pieces increasing the overall amount of debris. Tracking the Problem
Current Tracking Capabilities
There are currently numerous systems and methods in use to track and catalog orbital debris. One of the most common methods is computer-aided optical sensors, such as those used by the U.S. Space Command, where large pieces of space debris can be identified and tracked (Bakhtigaraev, 2015). Another system that is in wide use by several government space organizations is ground-based radar detection systems such as such as the inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) and the single range Doppler interferometry (SRDI) projects (Schildknecht, 2007) These types of observation and tracking methods are capable of spotting and cataloging objects as small as 10cm2 (roughly the size of a softball), and the technology is continuously improving to track smaller and smaller objects (Li, 2014). Often times simple maneuvers out of the debris path can be conducted to avoid what might be a potentially deadly threat. The more precisely those objects can be cataloged and tracked means more time to plan those maneuvers and continue the mission as planned.
Tracking Limitations Other tracking systems such as Lockheed’s Space Fence system, which is set to become operational sometime in 2021, offer ever improving means of tracking smaller and smaller pieces of debris at ever-greater distances, but being able to see more debris alone doesn’t solve the problem(Lockheed, 2018). Unfortunately, as it stands now, we are currently only capable of tracking objects larger than 10cm2, and while these pose the greatest threat from impact damage, the threat of smaller debris cannot be discounted, especially since the numbers of small particles far exceed those of the larger objects.
Current Estimates According to the NASA’s official website, there are currently over 500,000 pieces of orbital debris roughly the size of a marble or larger (NASA, 2018). According to the same data source, there are about 15,000 objects larger than 10cm2 that are currently cataloged and tracked by various U.S. space agencies. The European Space Agency (ESA) published a report in 2017 that indicates that there are upwards of 29,000 debris objects larger than 10cm2, more than 670,000 pieces larger than 1cm2, and over 170 million individual pieces of debris larger than 1mm2 currently in the areas between low earth and geosynchronous earth orbit (ESA). However, due to the limits of groundbased observations and radar, it is not currently possible to actively track objects smaller than 10cm2,
78 In addition to ground-based tracking capabilities, there are numerous projects underway to expand space-based tracking systems as well. Systems like optical cameras and laser based radar (LADAR) mounted on spaceborne vehicles have been proposed as options for more precise observation of debris. These systems might also allow for better planning of avoidance maneuvers for especially sensitive space based telescopes such as the Hubble (which has suffered several impacts such as the one pictured below).
Solutions
Future Projections Kessler Syndrome is the term that has been coined to describe a catastrophic cascade of collisions that would essentially make it impossible to sustain an operational constellation of satellites in LEO without a massive cleanup initiative being undertaken. It begins with a relatively small piece of debris (let’s say the size of a baseball) left over from one of the earliest crewed missions of the 1960’s. The object is traveling at a velocity almost ten times the speed of a modern military rifle bullet, and it collides with a non-operational satellite tumbling in low earth orbit. As the object impacts the old satellite, it shatters the main body of the spacecraft and sends new debris flying in all directions. So, what was once a single piece of debris is now hundreds of all shapes, sizes, and speeds ready to go off and do some damage of their own. As the cloud of debris travels around the planet, it eventually comes in contact with another satellite and annihilates it like a blast from a shotgun. As the cloud of debris grows and spreads, a cascading effect begins to snowball out of control until the region of low earth orbit is nothing short of a shooting gallery. As far-fetched as it may sound, it may have already begun. As stated earlier, the incident involving the collision of two whole satellites in 2009 may have been the spark that ignites the wildfire of a situation we are no longer able to control.
Every year, millions of dollars are spent, and hundreds of person-hours are consumed by the planning and execution of collision avoidance maneuvers for both satellites and the International Space Station (ISS). This practice is clearly prudent for crew safety reasons, but it is only a matter of
79 but Lockheed’s Space Fence system is expected to decrease that size when the project becomes operational.
Mitigation vs. Active-Removal
Proposed Active Removal Solutions
80 time until collision avoidance becomes an impossibility with the current rate of debris accumulation.
The following is a list of short summaries detailing various systems designed for the active removal of space debris from the orbital environment. The list is by no means comprehensive but is rather representative of the four main categories of systems that could serve as potential solutions. Aero-drag. The first category is based on the concept of increasing an object’s area-to mass ratio enough for light pressure (the physical influence sunlight has on an object in space) and atmospheric drag (friction caused by the interaction of materials with the upper-atmosphere) to cause the object’s orbit to decay (fall back to Earth). Various iterations of this idea have been developed such as the aero drag foam system, a project proposed by a team from the Royal Institute of Technology. The method essentially relies on launching a satellite system into orbit, closing the distance between the satellite and target debris, and then attaching a device to it. Once activated, the device will deploy a
One incident in 2015 forced the crew of the ISS to evacuate the station and seek shelter inside the Soyuz crew capsule because a cataloged piece of space debris was expected to come dangerously close to the station. The debris passed the station without inflicting any damage, but considering the debris was identified as a piece of a Soviet weather satellite originally launched in 1979, it only demonstrates the longevity of the threat and a perpetuation of the problem through lack of corrective action (O’Gara, 2015). That incident also marked the fourth time the ISS crew was forced to evacuate due to a potential space debris collision (O’Gara, 2015). While this practice of moving the space station to avoid collisions is becoming a more regular problem, as the cloud of debris continues to grow, it’s only a matter of time before avoidance isn’t an option. There may not be enough time to react, or they might not see the object coming at all. Either way, the possible results are terrifying. Actively removing the debris from orbit is the only way of preserving the orbital environment and ensuring the safety of those who brave the unknown wilderness of space.
Nets and claws. Many of the proposed systems involve the use of large nets that can be fired from a satellite in close proximity to a piece of debris. Once captured, the satellite conducts a deorbiting maneuver, and both satellite and debris burn up in the atmosphere (NASA, 2018).
81 bubble of foam material to act as a sort of parachute. As the object’s surface area increases, the influence of light pressure and atmospheric drag become more pronounced and eventually cause the object to slow and fall back to Earth (Guerra, 2017). Once the object hits the thicker portion of the atmosphere, it will either burn up (like the satellite debris pictured above), or it will more than likely fall into the vast oceans. While this idea has much in the way of promise for removing large pieces of debris like nonoperational satellites or spent rocket stages, the cost of launching and maintaining new satellites to conduct debris removal operations is unlikely to be favored by those nation states that will be asked to foot the bill. Until a more cost effective method for putting vehicles into orbit is commercially available for companies that would like to operate satellites, this solution stands out as one of the less likely to be endorsed in the short term.
Aero-gels. Another system, proposed specifically for the collection of very small pieces of space debris, involves using aerogel materials. Similar to a ballistics gel, these materials are excellent at absorbing energy from impacting projectiles and are currently being explored for the development of improved shielding. The method could also be employed on a larger scale for the active collection of debris by maneuvering through known clouds of small particulate objects. The idea for using aerogels was first tested in 1995 on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF – pictured above) experiment where two panels of aerogel material were installed and later collected for analysis after over 5 years in orbit (Colombel, 2013). If scaled up, this system could be utilized to essentially “sweep” large areas of orbit over time, but again the limitations imposed by cost remain a significant hindrance to the taking of action.
Lights and Lasers. This concept system uses laser pulses or focused sunlight to cause a piece of space trash’s orbit to decay prematurely. Laser ablation (burning away of material) is a process by which a small portion of space debris material is ablated, or “zapped” with a high powered laser, either from the ground or a space based system in orbit. As the laser turns part of the material into an ionized gas, the ejected gas acts as a form of micro-propulsion causing the debris to fall into a decaying orbit where it will ultimately burn up due to air friction (Shuangyan). Configuring an aircraft with such systems is one of the more common proposals, or, if powerful enough, even ground-based lasers could be utilized to effectively remove small to-medium sized pieces of debris. Another light-based system that essentially works off of the same principle as the laser concept is a parabolic solar mirror system that utilizes concentrated sunlight to ablate space debris materials into a decaying orbit. While this may not sound quite as “cool” as blasting space trash with a laser, its functionality is based on a very simple design which is also relatively light weight (Sandu, 2018). These two factors make it a significantly less expensive option than some of those others mentioned above. However, space based systems have their drawbacks as well. The most significant
Another method that has been suggested within this category is sending a very large ship into LEO and collecting pieces of debris by opening and closing the ships cargo hatch, much akin to Pacman eating dots. The idea was first mentioned by Elon Musk, the CEO of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX, 2016), during a presentation on a new concept rocket known colloquially as the Big <expletive> Rocket, or BFR. Unfortunately, to date, there has not been any new information published about this concept as the BFR project is still currently under development.
82 Often the simplest solution is the most likely to be successful; however in this case, again the limitation falls to the cost of launching new satellites. Not to mention intentionally causing those satellites to burn up after a single large item is collected.
Analysis
Findings
Unfortunately, there is no singular system capable of removing all the different types and sizes of space debris currently in orbit. The reality of the matter is that it will take a combination of several active-removal systems and a multinational partnership of space organizations to effectively eliminate the threat that space debris poses to current and future space operations.
83 of which is the fact that any anti orbital debris system placed is inherently at risk of being struck by a piece of the very debris it was sent to bring down.
There is no question or debate that the threat exists; there is simply a lack of motivation to pay for its resolution. Based on the analysis of current methods proposed by numerous spacefaring organizations and governments, it becomes apparent that the most cost-effective solution is also the most likely to receive the necessary funding. Given this likelihood, a ground or aircraft based laser ablation system provides the best solution to the problem with currently available technology.
Conclusion
The risk to operating spacecraft and the lives of those who work around them by space debris is extremely evident. The problem has developed to a point where millions of dollars are spent avoiding collisions every year, and at the increasing rate of material deposition in orbit, it is a most certainly unsustainable. The only hope for alleviation of the threat is to raise public awareness, increase research funding for active removal systems, and impose stricter regulations on how space organizations handle mission waste. International cooperation has taken humanity far into the vast ocean of space, but only through continued partnerships can the security of future operations beyond our planet be ensured. One could even say that continued negligence of the problem spells nothing short of a disaster.
84 References
Bakhtigaraev, N. S., Levkina, P. A., Chazov, V. V.. (2015, March 30). Empirical Model of Motion of Space Debris in the Geostationary Region, Solar System Research. 2016, Volume 15, No. 2, p130 135 Black, S., Butt, Y.. (2010). The Growing Threat of Space Debris, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Volume 66, Issue 2 Carns, M.G.. (2017, Dec). Consent Not Required: Making the Case That Consent is Not Required Under Customary International Law for Removal of Outer Space Debris Smaller Than 10cm^2, Air Force Law Review. Volume 77, p173 232 Colombel, P., Duffours, L., Durin, C., Woignier, T.. (2013). Aerogels Materials as Space Debris Collectors, Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, Volume 2013, Article 484153, 6p Dobritsa, D. B.. (2014, May). A Method for Calculating the Resistance of Spacecraft Design Elements under the Action of Space Debris Particles, Cosmic Research. Vol. 52, Issue 3, p229 234 ESA. (2017). Space Debris: The ESA Approach, European Space Agency (ESA) website, Retrieved from https://download.esa.int/esoc/downloads/BR-336_Space_Debris_WEB.pdf Guerra, G., Muresan, A.C., Nordqvist, K.G., Brissaud, A., Naciri, N., Luo, L.. (2017, June). Active Space Debris Removal System. INCAS BULLETIN, Volume 9, Issue 2 Gupta, B., Roy, R. S., (2018). Sustainability of Outer Space: Facing the Challenge of Space Debris, Environmental Policy and Law, Volume 48, Issue 1, p3-7 Hall, L. (2014). The History of Space Debris, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Scholarly Commons: Space Traffic Management Conference, 19
Sandu, C., Brasoveanu, D., Silivestru, V., Vizitiu, G., Filipescu B., Sandu, R. C.. (2018). A ThermalSolar System for De-Orbiting of Space Debris, INCAS Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 1, p27 38 Schildknecht, T. (2007). Optical Surveys for Orbital Space Debris. Astronomy & Astrophysics Review, Volume 14(1), 41 111. DOI:10.1007/s00159 006 0003-9 Shuangyan, S., Xing, J., Chang, H. (2014) Cleaning Space Debris with a Space Based Laser System, Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, Volume 27, Issue 4, p805 811
85 Li, N., Xu, Y., Basset, G., Fitz Coy, N. G. (2014, Mar). Tracking the Trajectory of Space Debris in Close Proximity via a Vision-Based Method, Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Volume 27, Issue Lockheed2 Martin Corporation. (2018). How to Keep Space Safe, Lockheed Martin website, Retrieved from https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/space-fence.html
Wang, T. (2010) Analysis of Debris from the Collision of the Cosmos 2251 and the Iridium 33 Satellites, Science & Global Security, 18:87 lhttp://scienceandglobalsecurity.org/archive/2010/06/analysis_of_debris_from_the_co.htm118
NASA. (2018). Space Debris and Human Spacecraft, National Aeronautics and Space Administration website, Retrieved O’Gara,https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.htmlfromE..(2015).InternationalSpaceStationEvacuatedDuetoRussianDebris, Newsweek Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/iss close-passnasainternational-space stationissspacesoyuz-602152
Elements under the Action of Space Debris Particles, Cosmic Research Vol. 52, Issue 3, p229 234 Dmitri Borisovich Dobritsa is a Candidate of Technical Sciences for the Lavochkin Scientific Research and Production Association and specializes in the mechanical physics of high energy ballistics. This highly technical article begins with a discussion on the difficulty of developing models to support the design of anti-meteorite protections and goes on to cite the many potential risks of
Black, S., Butt, Y.. (2010). The Growing Threat of Space Debris. Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Volume 66, Issue 2 Samuel Black, a research associate at the Henry L. Stinson Center and former research assistant as the Center for Defense Information, along with Yousef Butt, a staff scientist in the High-Energy Astrophysics Division at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, authored this article on the growing threat of space debris. The paper begins with a brief overview of the vulnerability of satellites to the threat of space debris. The introduction also discusses the possibility of not knowing whether satellite damage was the result of debris or an intentional act, adding to the political ramifications of the problem. The main body of the paper talks about two primary reasons for the proliferation of the problem. The first of which being the production and testing of high-velocity antisatellite weapons, and the second being a lack of international communication on a sustainable plan for operating in low earth orbit. The article concludes by touching on the political climate surrounding the problem of space debris as well as the existing and planned international agreements implemented to alleviate the threat. This is an excellent article that will provide strong evidence in favor of my paper’s argument for the necessity of urgent action. Dobritsa, D. B.. (2014, May). A Method for Calculating the Resistance of Spacecraft Design
Annotated Bibliography
86
87 high-energy debris impacting thin-walled spaceborne systems. The bulk of this article consists of a comparative analysis of the existing space debris impact models and the means of improving them. The paper then discusses methods of evaluating and mitigating the risk of impact from high-energy debris and improving the survivability of spacecraft materials. The paper concludes with a final argument for the need for improvement both for modeling but also for protective materials. This article offers supporting pieces of evidence for the argument that there will need to be more than one singular method of addressing the space debris problem (which will serve as my papers ultimate Guerra,argument).G., Muresan, A.C., Nordqvist, K.G., Brissaud, A., Naciri, N., Luo, L. (2017, June). Active Space Debris Removal System. INCAS BULLETIN, Volume 9, Issue 2
This article was authored by a team of researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering in Stockholm, Sweden. This paper ultimately serves as a proposal for an active space debris removal system that employs the use of natural aerodynamic drag to cause the orbits of large space junk to decay more quickly. The paper begins with a brief description of what space debris is and how it came to be a problem followed with a short description of the team’s goals. The next section details the overall mission strategy and phases followed by another section which examines the components of the satellite system itself. The paper then explains the orbital mechanics involved in achieving an intercept orbit, the deployment of the system, and the subsequent decay orbit achieved by employment of a foam aero-drag device. A detailed discussion of the selected rocket engine’s performance specifications and intended employment is the next topic, and the main body of the article ends with several cost estimates. The paper concludes with an assessment of the system’s reliability and a final summary of the proposed removal system overall.
Dr. Thierry Woignier, PhD, the Director of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research’s Institut National de Physique (INP) in Marseille, France, was the lead author on this report on the effectiveness and functionality of aerogel materials as space debris shielding. The paper begins with a detailed explanation of the chemistry involved in the production of the gel materials as well as their characteristics given certain chemical changes. The report then discusses how these chemical changes can affect the longevity and impact resistance of these materials. A discussion on the placement of two aerogel panels aboard the International Space Station follows, and a report based on the impacts sustained over the experiment period closes the main body of the article. The paper ultimately concludes by endorsing aerogel materials as an ideal candidate for use in collecting extremely small particles of space debris both on manned spacecraft and on unmanned orbital assets. Carns, M.G.. (2017, Dec). Consent Not Required: Making the Case That Consent is Not Required Under Customary International Law for Removal of Outer Space Debris Smaller Than 10cm^2, Air Force Law Review. Volume 77, p173 232
Major Marc G. Carns is a Judge Advocate with the United States Air Force and serves as the Chief of Cyber Special Programs Law with the 24th Air Force JFHQ Command at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. This report begins with a brief description of the history of space debris and the laws developed relating to space and the mitigation of the space debris. The paper then goes on to make an appeal to the reader based on presented evidence that mitigation efforts alone are not sufficient to thwart the problem long term. The author then discusses the difference between
88
Colombel, P., Duffours, L., Durin, C., Woignier, T.. (2013, August). Aerogels Materials as Space Debris Collectors, Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, Volume 2013, Article 484153, 6p
Bakhtigaraev, N. S., Levkina, P. A., Chazov, V. V.. (2015, March 30). Empirical Model of Motion of Space Debris in the Geostationary Region, Solar System Research. 2016, Volume 15, No. 2, p130 135 This report was authored by a team of scientists from the Institute of Astronomy at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Sternberg Astronomical Institute at Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia. The article is based on a continuing program that observes, catalogues, and tracks the orbital trajectory and velocity of space debris specifically in the geostationary region of earth orbit (generally orbits that are higher than those considered to be “low earth orbit”) based at the Terskol Peak Observatory. The report begins with a description of the observations made and the goal of generating a workable model for tracking smaller and smaller objects. The main body of the report discusses the variability of area to-mass ratios of the debris and how their orbits are affected by a variety of factors such as light pressure and spin. The paper finally concludes with a summary of the report’s general findings and notes that additional observations and studies are required to better understand the influence of light pressure and spin on an object’s orbit. This article provides
89 mitigation and active debris removal followed by the argument that nation-states must take immediate action in order to preserve present and future spaceborne assets. The report goes on to explain the current political climate regarding the issue and the difficulties of enacting meaningful resolutions through international laws and treaties. The paper concludes with a discussion on space debris as a national security threat, and then makes a final appeal to government officials in the United States to set an example, as a global leader in space exploration, by taking immediate measures to alleviate the threat space debris poses to future space operations of all nations. This article gives useful insight regarding the legal and geopolitical nature of the problem and reinforces the arguments for global cooperation and immediate action.
Biswanath Gupta is a Research Scholar at the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law at the Indian Institute of Technology along with Rajrupa Sinha Roy who is also an Assistant Professor of Law at Adamas University in Kolkata. This article gives an interesting summary of the international laws in place that govern the use of outer space and our neighboring celestial bodies and how those laws deal with the growing problem of space debris. The paper begins with a brief history of space exploration and the deposition of space debris into low earth orbit. Following is a detailed discussion on the legal issues surrounding space debris and the problems that have occurred with even reaching an internationally agreed upon definition of what space debris is. The article goes on to discuss methods by which an international agreement might be reached through a continuation of the committees who enacted the five original international space treaties. The conclusion gives a short summary of the threats to continued space activities and advocates for organization of the international community to work on agreements to minimize space waste. Sandu, C., Brasoveanu, D., Silivestru, V., Vizitiu, G., Filipescu B., Sandu, R. C.. (2018). A ThermalSolar System for De-Orbiting of Space Debris, INCAS Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 1, p27 38
Constantin Sandu, PhD is a Project Manager for the National Research and Development Institute for Gas Turbines and the Industrial Application of Turboengines. This article serves as a proposal for a space-based system that concentrates sunlight onto orbital space debris through a series of parabolic mirrors causing their orbit to decay and fall back to Earth. The article begins with an
90 insight into the processes and capabilities of tracking small sized debris at ever greater distances and how that information can be useful in satellite avoidance or removal of space debris particles. Gupta, B., Roy, R. S., (2018). Sustainability of Outer Space: Facing the Challenge of Space Debris, Environmental Policy and Law, Volume 48, Issue 1, p3-7
91 introduction on what space debris is and classifies it into three distinct categories by size. The main body of the paper describes the components of the system as well as its planned implementation and operation. The paper goes on to describe the most effective materials for the mirrors based on their reflectivity and offers a plethora of diagrams and illustrations for the readers convenience. The article concludes with a very brief summary of the proposals findings and the steps involved in the implementation of the system. This article provides a good example of a proposed system that could be used to remove high-energy orbital space debris for relatively low cost. Li, N., Xu, Y., Basset, G., Fitz-Coy, N. G. (2014, Mar). Tracking the Trajectory of Space Debris in Close Proximity via a Vision-Based Method, Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Volume 27, Issue 2 A team of researchers and associate professors from the University of Central Florida developed this proposal for a for an onboard vision-based debris tracking system that could support the planning of evasive maneuvers of an at risk satellite. The paper begins with a statistical overview of the problem and details the variety of ways by which the international community currently tracks and monitors space debris. The paper goes on to enumerate the limitations of current tracking methods that are based at ground stations in turn making a case for the necessity of onboard tracking system development. The main body of the article is a highly technical read on the process of coordinating two satellites in orbit to use optical equipment as a means of triangulating the position of potentially hazardous space debris. The article goes on to detail the mathematical formulas the system will use to control the orbits of the two satellites and the tracking and logging of individual pieces of debris. Following is a highly detailed accounting of two modeled simulations complete with graphs and charts as visual aids. The paper concludes with a discussion on the limitations of the system as being a function of the limits of the associated cameras, and then an overview of the project along with the
Thomas Schildknecht is a Swiss astronomer who serves as the deputy director of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern and the director of the Zimmerwald Observatory. This report is a very well-structured survey of the issue of space debris and begins with a detailed explanation of what space debris is, where it comes from, and why it’s a problem for human space operations. The paper continues by discussing the methods of observation and tracking of space debris as well as the limits of ground-based optical telescopes for such operations. The paper then gives short summary of the U.S. organizations tasked with monitoring known space debris and the then current estimates.
Following is a short discussion on the European Space Agency’s efforts in observation and tracking of orbital space debris. The article concludes with a summary of the general topic and the numerous optical observation methods mentioned throughout the report. This paper, while a little dated, is still highly relevant to the subject today, and serves to iterate that the problem is not only known, but that it has been known for well over a decade. It will also serve as evidence that the problem has not only existed but that it has compounded and gotten worse by a significant magnitude since this report was originally published.
92 main technical challenges of the system. This is an excellent example of a reasonable solution that will probably not gain much traction simply because of the cost of launching and coordinating two separate satellite systems. Moreover, the system is not active-removal capable so its function is ultimately limited to tracking only and monitoring only, making it a very expensive option with not a lot of long term benefit. Schildknecht, T. (2007). Optical Surveys for Orbital Space Debris Astronomy & Astrophysics Review, Volume 14(1), 41 111. doi:10.1007/s00159 006 0003-9
Or how about being raped as a punishment for being a rape victim? These graphic atrocities I have described to you are a very real and archaic problem still occurring in the modern world of Pakistan today, and are more popularly known as crimes of honor or honor crimes. Honor crimes are generally defined as a crime committed against a member of the same family unit or community with the intention of restoring the loss of honor to the family or community by punishing victim publicly and violently. These types of crimes are 99% of the time directed at women for the sole purpose of promoting fear, control, and power over the fairer sex (Hussain et al). The most common types of punishable offenses that qualify as being an afront against honor include, everything related to controlling a woman’s sexuality, violating the concept of the typical Pakistani Islamic family unit and its virtue, religious renouncement, and general embarrassment brought upon a family. The belief is that the act of publicly punishing the person that has brought shame or dishonor upon the family, that it will restore the honor to the family from within the community. However, it is also important to note that honor crimes are not a new fad, they have been loosely traced all the way back to the time of Ancient Rome and early Aztec and Inca civilizations (“Honor Killing”). Although this sort of brutal act of domination may seem contextually appropriate for an ancient civilization, we are not in an ancient society nor do we live by the standards of days past. In today’s modern society we have rights, more specifically we have human rights as defined by the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights. The Pakistani patriarchal oppression of its citizens with the use of honor crimes is a
Honor For Blood: Pakistan’s Patriarchy
93 James 04/07/2019Schafnit
Some people consider marriage to be a brutality all on its own, but could you imagine a scenario in the modern world where the act of getting married incurs the wrath of public execution?
94 violation of those human rights because of the denial of a fair trial process, the destruction of choice in founding a family unit, and the wide spread use of cruel and unusual punishment. The human right, as outlined in article 11 of the United Nations Declaration of human rights, for the right to a fair trial and guarantee of defense is being taken for granted in a major way in Pakistan. This is due to the implementation of Caste Panchayats. A Caste Panchayat is an informal governing body that runs parallel with, but unendorsed by the official state law, and is used to “self regulate” problems with in a community (Baxi). However, these Caste Panchayats have a medieval structure and patriarchal logic to them. For instance, the typical Caste Panchayat version of a trial involves an accuser stepping forward with a claim against a member of the community for which the Caste Panchayat has domain. After the claim is made to the Caste Panchayat it is known that the accused will suffer punishment at the hands of the victim of her wrong doing or by the accuser himself (Baxi). The lack of due process and ability to defend yourself against an accusation from within your own community, via due trial process, is not only criminally negligent, according to Pakistan’s state law and constitution, it is also morally reprehensible and an obvious violation of article 11 of the Human Rights Declaration. To make matters worse the intensity for which the punishments are handed out also go unregulated. Some of the most common types of honor crimes committed against people found to be guilty by Caste Panchayat are beatings, acid burns, revenge rapes, brutalization, and lynching (Kanchan, Tanuj, et al.). To summarize, all three common branches of the judicial system that we associate with a fair trial process here in America are being violated. The ‘judge’ is the accuser, the ‘jury’ is a patriarchal “honor for blood” group known as Caste Panchayat, and finally the ‘executioner’ is anyone needing to reclaim some honor (Chesler). Giving control to members of the community has ultimately caused the human rights of the people for which they were intended to protect become askew. This has been found to be true in the
95 absence of a fair trial processed as I had pointed out, but has also extended even further into a male dominant need for control over the family unit as a whole. Much like the right to a fair trial, this complex issue of honor crimes and the patriarchal ruling forces located within Pakistan have created another violation in human rights as outline by the United Nations Declarations of Human Rights article 16. This article states that Men and women are entitled to equal rights with respect to founding marriage, family, and if necessary, the equal right to dissolution of marriage (“Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”). Unfortunately, Pakistani cultural practices are antiquated in a sense that arranged marriages are still prevalent to this day and are considered to be the business of the Caste Panchayats; thus they are enforced by these brutal communal regimes (Baxi). It has been reported in the International Research Journal of Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Studies that one of the leading causes for a crime committed in the name of honor to result in the death of the victim is when a young woman marries a man for the virtue of love against the families predetermined plans for her (Hussain et al). Not only does this obviously violate article 16 of the Human Rights Declaration directly, it also is a signal that the Caste Panchayat system has been cultivated in such a way as to control the reproductive power of the society by denying the peoples within it the choice of family or procreation outside what has been chosen for them. The situation could also turn much more complicated than just being murdered for making your own marriage choices. In Baxi’s research of legal precedence of Pakistan, she discovered that it is possible for a young woman to be charged with her own rape if she were to have pre-marital sex, even if she has already married a man that was not of her arranged marriage (Baxi). She would go on to explain that “A consensual sexual relationship in a marriage of choice can be converted into a Zina offence by establishing that a marriage of choice is invalid… then produces unchaste women, sullies their reputations, imprisons them and makes 'rehabilitation' a near impossibility… sexual intercourse outside marriage has become a cognizable offence.” (Baxi). Not
Amnesty International has reported cases where victims of honor crimes were “brutally beaten to death with bricks” right on the courthouse steps of the second largest city in Pakistan (Qadri). This type of brazen effort to make a public display serves no other purpose than to attempt to exert control and empower the Islamic male ego (Hussain et al). Boosting the male Islamic ego through these brutalities has become the norm in the crimes of honor situation. However satisfying it may be, it is a prime example of why the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights includes article 5, which states, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” (“Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”). It has also been reported that in the case of Humaria Mehmood vs the State of Pakistan that Humaria, a 30 yr old woman married to Mahmood Butt, was kidnapped by local officials and returned to her father against her will, because
96 only are Pakistani women not allowed to choose whom they marry, they are also liable to be incriminated for any deviation outside of what has been predetermined for them by their respective families and communities. Take for example a Pakistani woman named Usma, she was imprisoned for more than a year because she attempted to divorce her husband whom had been having an affair (Constable). The imprisonment has been a coordinated effort by her parents, husband, and Caste Panchayat. Usma said “My parents say it is shameful for me to want a divorce, they say it will ruin their reputation and that no one will marry me if I am second-hand. I don't want to go home. I don't want to get remarried. I just want to be free."(Constable). This is a major violation of the sanctity of marriage, and the right to establish and found a family unit without oppression or retribution as stated in article 16 of the Declaration of Human Rights. This minimalization of the peoples of Pakistan has been enforced through the power of fear that has an alarmingly loud presence due to the sheer force of violence and cruelty that is used to secure the power structure.
The alarming nature of punishments surrounding honor crimes in Pakistan is more often than not cruel and inhumane, which is a signifying characteristic of a violation of human rights .
Pratiksha Baxi, author of Legacies of Common Law: ‘Crimes of Honour’ in India and Pakistan, has quoted Rhotak Haryana, the inspector general of police in Pakistan as saying “Caste (panchayat) has played an important role in village life.”, he would also go on to explain that he thought, “'that the state hadn’t any business meddling in their (caste panchayats) activities.”(Baxi). I can respect that he has a certain nationalism founded in the tradition of village life, and that the idea of having the government in your business is unsettling to an extent. However, being the inspector general for police, Haryana must be well aware of the Constitution of Pakistan of which he is sworn to uphold.
97 she married a man by choice as opposed to following her arranged marriage obligation (Baxi). Cruel and unusual punishment can come in many forms, it does not always have to be so obvious as a brutality. Rather, sometimes degrading treatment can come in the form of being returned home to your father against your will, in an effort to prevent you from living the life you have chosen for yourself. All in all the use of cruel and degrading punishments as noted in article 5 of the Declaration of Human Rights is always prevalent when it comes to honor crimes. The cruel and unusual punishments implemented by the Caste Panchayat and the troubled cultural patriarchy are not always brutal but are always about exercising control over the community and minimalizing the people, thus violating the human right bestowed upon all peoples.
Establishing the premise of and comprising the argument of honor crimes as an afront to human rights has been seemingly smooth to this point. The western culture mixed with the very modern era we live in makes it easier for you to agree with me thus far. However, I want to offer an unpopular view point that is more relevant to the community I have been analyzing thus far.
To make the magnitude of the insolence to which this particular situation deserves, take note of some of my favorite passages of the first chapter of the Pakistani constitution; Article 25 section 1
“All citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of law.”, Article 10A “Right to a fair trial”, and Article 12 “Protection from retrospective punishment”.(“The
Constitution of Pakistan: Chapter 1”). I would venture to argue that by allowing members of the community such as Mr. Haryana to continue to operate under his belief of caste panchayat that he is directly negatively impacting the possibility of a fair trial process, which is due to the citizens of Pakistan by way of the constitution. Furthermore, that his position of power is a form of cruel and unusual punishment, in the way that his beliefs are being unwillingly bestowed upon the people he is entrusted with serving. How can a Man in such a powerful position have such views as to where he is in agreement, either directly or indirectly, with the violation of human rights as outlined by the United Nations? These types of questions and challenges to the status quo are what we need to keep in the backs of our minds as we try to search for solutions.
98
The major catalysts for honor crimes in Pakistan seem to be derived from a lack of a moral narrative between social and judicial issues and much like a teenager that has been unsupervised for too long, they are going to get into trouble. The parents in this context would be the state government of Pakistan and the teenagers would be the localized patriarchal community leaders that form Caste Panchayat. The state government of Pakistan at its core is trying its best to correct the course that has caused these Caste Panchayats to come about, however, in the post-colonial state of Pakistan, the Islamisation of criminal laws by the Caste Panchayats has grown much faster than the government has (Baxi). So how do we correct this action? The solution to Pakistan’s violations of human rights will come in the form of judicial reform, social activism, and the criminalization and replacement of Caste Panchayat. Strengthening the Pakistani government is a key to finding a solution to these flagrant abuses of human rights. Pakistan passed a new law in 2016 that was directly targeted at stopping honor crimes. The initiative was sparked by the death of a young woman named Qandeel Baloh who was an activist in the community for women’s rights and a social media star (Kelly and Saifi). The act itself is called the “Criminal Law (amendment) (Offences in the name or pretext of Honour) Act,
activism.Creating
99 2016.” (Kelly and Saifi). Through some analysis I have determined that this law has already begun to produce data to show its effectiveness. In a report made in 2014 by Mustafa Qadri of Amnesty International titled “Shocking: Surge of Honor Killings in Pakistan” it was reported that between 900 and 1000 honor crimes were being perpetrated each year in Pakistan (Qadri). However, since the law had passed be unanimous decision in 2016, CNN reports that only 300 honor crimes were reported for all of 2016 (Kelly and Saifi). This estimated 67% 70% decrease in honor crimes shows that with support from the state centralized government, the proper laws can be enforced and have a positive effect all across Pakistan. The prime minister of Pakistan has also been quoted as saying “Women are the most essential part of our society and I believe in their empowerment.” (Kelly and Saifi). The alignment of the new law passing and the shift in attitude from the leaders of Pakistan will be the strength of this methodology in restoring human rights to Pakistan. The only weakness I can see of this is that the government is slow, and its reach is limited by its resources. It is not a top down only problem though, as we have discussed the root of the problem lies in old ideas embedded within communities; for example, Caste Panchayat. So how do we start to make changes on a local level that will meet the government’s efforts somewhere in the middle? The answer, social localized human rights advocacy groups and supplying education to those that would commit transgressions against human rights via honor crimes is a steadfast way to implement a positive change from the inside out. Take for instance the first record of an all-women’s council as reported by USA Today. This all women’s council was formed specifically to counter the Caste Panchayat, founded by Pakistani woman Tabassum Adnan (Inayat). Formed in 2013 the sisters council acts on behalf of women to prevent honor crimes from running rampant through out areas which are under full control of the Caste Panchayat (Inayat). This is wildly important as Caste Panchayats are exclusively comprised of males, and only serve to continue the patriarchy that they
100 themselves have built. This type of defiance of social norms can have a significant impact on the surrounding communities by leading as an example. The movement Adnan started is having an effect on the area. In the years since she has started this sisters council she claims to have helped over 1000 women from persecution of the Caste Panchayat. Despite the progress she is making I would say the weakness in this type of intervention of cultural behaviors is that the violations of human rights that she aims to dismantle are deeply embedded in the society she is so desperately fighting to change, and at any moment the tension could erupt in violence as the old ways clash with new. However, since achieving great success in her area, I believe the strength of this type of movement is that the Pakistani government is now morally aligned with the work Adnan is doing in the community. Having an ally as powerful as the government is always a good boost of momentum.The most effective way to rid Pakistan of the injustice beholden by honor crimes and restore the human right narrative, the Caste Panchayat must be outlawed by prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and replaced with state law enforcement. The centralized judicial system of Pakistan is creating the change in the law that will give the newly established law enforcement the power they need to protect the citizens equally. This will give hope to the citizens that the government is looking out for them instead of not being able to reach them. Even Tahira Abdullah, a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, has her own doubts that the government can supply adequate protection to its people. She was quoted in the USA Today article titled “Pakistani Women form Council to Prevent More Honor Killings” as saying that “the existing laws are not being implemented properly.”, and that “Until Caste Panchayats are abolished by law, Pakistan will not see an end to honor killings and other barbaric violent crimes,”(Inayat). Additionally the people of Pakistan have already spoken on a communal level by having brave women like Adnan creating change from within the communities themselves. These two existing forces of change happening
The significance of creating changes in Pakistan are far reaching and something that everybody can see importance in, as human rights are universal. Even if we live in the ‘best country in the world’ and don’t have too much to worry about, on the other side of the world these men and women are brutalized for things that we take for granted every day. What if your grandmother was never able to found a family with your grandfather because it was not approved? You would even exist here today to be reading this paper of mine, and that would be a real travesty. This type of honor crimes are not the kind that can be swept under the rug with a couple doses of apathy, a beer, and a new episode of Game of Thrones. These are real people being belittled and massacred by the thousand! Only our support of their government and continued support of Pakistani women’s suffrage can we really make a change and bring equality to all peoples of the world so that one day even the rural people of Pakistan can have their own beer and episode of Game of Thrones in peace and free from persecution.
101 with in the government and the community combined with the replacement of Caste Panchayat will surely be the catalyst needed to establish permanent change. The strength in my proposal is that I am uniting the coexisting forces from both socio-political ends of the spectrum, the highest government office and the rural social activist, and providing a solution to fill the gap in the middle in the form of providing localized state officials in suburban and rural areas; whilst removing the source of much of the human rights scourge that comes from Caste Panchayat. However, to accomplish this it will take a massive amount of resources and support from groups such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, and similar organizations. In conclusion, it is more than possible to restore the rights of a fair trial, founding a family unit, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment by implementing a system of state law enforcement to replace the abusers currently in power at a local level.
102 Works Cited Baxi, Pratiksha, et al. “Legacies of Common Law: ‘Crimes of Honour’ in India and Pakistan.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 7, Oct. 2006, p. 1239. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/01436590600933404. Chen, Kelly, and Sophia Saifi. "Pakistan passes milestone law for women." CNN. 08 Oct. 2016. Cable News Network. 13 Apr. 2019 <https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/06/asia/pakistan anti-honor-killing law/index.html>. Chesler, Phyllis. “Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?” Middle East Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 2, Spring 2009, pp. 61 69. Constable,db=aph&AN=37198489&sitezproxy.scottsdalecc.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&EBSCOhost,e=ehostlive.Pamela.“InPakistan,WomenPayThePriceof'Honor'.”
The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 May 2000, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/05/08/in pakistan women-pay-the price-of-honor/0a37735d 0f7e 4cf1 b230 2743e89a13af/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.194d26d61eb0. Hussain, Mazher & Aftab, Hussain & , Gillani & Fatima, Almas & Ahmad, Saeed. (2016). “Honor Killing in Pakistan: Socio Legal Implications from Mid- 1990s to the Dawn of 21 st Century A Critical Analysis.” International Research Journal of Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Studies, Volume-II, Issue II , March 2016, Page No. 18 31, Scholar Publications, Karimganj, Assam, India, 788711. Inayat, Naila. "Pakistani women form council to prevent more honor killings." USA Today. 16 June 2016. Gannett Satellite Information Network. 20 Mar. honor-<https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/16/pakistani-2019women-council-killings/85975036/>.
“The Constitution of Pakistan: Chapter 1” Chapter 1: "Fundamental Rights" of Part II: "Fundamental Rights and Principles of Policy". 12 Apr. <http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/part2.ch1.html>.2019
Kanchan, Tanuj, et al. “Honor Killing: Where Pride Defeats Reason.” Science & Engineering Ethics, vol. 22, no. 6, Dec. 2016, pp. 1861 1862. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s11948 015 9694 5. Qadri, Mustafa. "SHOCKING: Surge of Honor Killings in Pakistan." Amnesty International USA. 02 July 2014. 13 Apr. 2019 <https://www.amnestyusa.org/shocking surge of-honorkillings in-pakistan/>.
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html.
103
Slavery on Thai Fishing Ships
Migrants are often convinced into crossing the border with promises of well-paying work not in the fishing industry, then are put on boats once they arrive. They then receive either low or no
104 Cicely Winder 8 May 2018
Forced fishing has become a growing issue in Thailand within the past few years, increased by a demand for cheap seafood and a limited ability to find willing workers. The fishing industry is massive in Thailand, with jobs related to fishing and aquaculture currently providing employment to millions. In 2008 41.3 percent of jobs related to the fishing industry were in Thailand, which is a number largely influenced by the country’s location, with its long coastline and plentiful fishing grounds (Fischman 230). A total of 85.5 percent fishing laborers and fish farmers worldwide lived in Asia as of that time (Fischman 230). This has left a large portion of the world reliant on Thailand to produce seafood and has left Thailand very dependent on the fishing industry for its revenue from exports. These factors all contribute to the fishing industry in Thailand becoming a breeding ground for human trafficking in recent years. And indeed, human trafficking is abundant in the seafood sector, with the 2015 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons report finding instances of fishing related human trafficking in more than 40 countries (Verité 3). Out of those 40 countries, Thailand continues to be one its worst contributors. Because of many detractors, including exhausting work conditions and unreliable pay, many local Thai men are reluctant to work in the fishing industry, leaving it with a 10,000-job labor shortage in 2011 (Sylwester 427). To compensate for this gap, men and boys are migrated from nearby countries, notably Cambodia and Laos. They are then tricked or coerced into working on fishing ships, often in harsh working conditions for up to years at a time (Fischman 230). Unfortunately, it can be all too easy for captors to trick hopeful migrants into these "jobs.”
Fish boat owners take full advantage of these trafficked men and have found ways to keep them from changing employers while giving them little to no pay. Although recent changes to Thailand's legislation were made with the mission of lowering instances of trafficking, not only have they been ineffective, but they may have given slave owners a new way to keep hold of their captives. A "pink card" government registration scheme was introduced in 2014 with the purpose of lowering the number of undocumented migrants working in Thailand, but, in fact, it has caused more problems than it solved. Under this new system, workers must acquire permission of their employer to change jobs, which only gives boat owners a new way to keep workers trapped on their ships (Human Rights Watch). This scheme also often results in lower pay for these men; to work around laws that guarantee worker's a minimum wage, employees are simply made to sign documents agreeing to a lower wage and receiving paychecks only every six months on average (Verité 13). These factors add up to creating an environment that works in the employer's favor and against the worker, which leaves these migrants even more vulnerable to their captor's will.
105 compensation for their work for up to years at a time (Siciliano). The living conditions that these men are kept in amount to abuse, as does their lack of fair pay, and this issue is more prevalent than ever. The combination of these conditions has created multiple human rights violations that require urgent attention. Forced fishing in Thailand is a human rights violation because the men and boys trafficked have their rights to free choice of work and equal pay, freedom of movement, and life and security forcibly taken from them while working in inhumane conditions.
Boat owners also have other, more physical, means of keeping workers captive. It's nearly impossible to escape a boat while in the middle of the sea, so boats are kept from harbor anywhere from months to years at a time (Siciliano). Other larger cargo vessels will meet the smaller fishing boats at sea to exchange fish cargo for food and supplies, which is what allows these boats to stay
So, what has allowed this issue to remain so prevalent? One of the sadly simple explanations is a response to supply and demand. The worldwide demand for cheap fish is continually growing, with the US alone importing 34 billion in seafood in 2015 (Siciliano). As one of the primary exporters of seafood internationally, Thailand is one of the countries under the most pressure. To meet global demand, illegal overfishing near shorelines has meant that boats are pushed further and further from shore to find fish. The further the boats are pushed from shore, the longer the amount of time they are kept out at sea, and the greater the costs to fish boat owners (Sylwester). This causes fish boat owners to look for cheaper and cheaper labor to offset those greater costs.
106 out at sea for such a long time (Fischman 231). It's easy to keep men trapped when there's nowhere but empty water to escape to. If, despite these odds, a worker attempts to escape, the consequences are immediate and cruel. Many of the testimonies from rescued victims show the heartbreaking conditions these men are kept in. According to one rescued victim, "My boss used bad words toward me, beat me, forced me to do hard work, and threatened me that if I braved to run, he would shoot me … It was not safe" (qtd. in Fischman 227).
Physical abuse and threats to safety are unfortunately not uncommon, and boat captains have very little regard for their crews’ safety. Not only are beatings a regular occurrence, but even murder is commonplace on the high seas. An estimated fifty-nine percent of forty-nine surveyed rescued victims had witnessed a murder in a study conducted by the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (Fischman 231). These numbers reveal a depressing truth about the harsh realities these crew members face; the captains do not care if they survive. According to one former fishermen, "Fishermen could die anytime, but the captains would not care. If they die, they will just be thrown away" (qtd. in McDowell, et al.). So, captives not only face government red tape, years stuck at sea, and little to no pay, but they must be in constant fear for their lives as well.
Fish boat owners seeking lower labor costs are not the only primary contributors to the problem, as they are not the only ones seeking to make a profit off slave labor. A lack of legislation regarding fishing vessels, as well as local government corruption, has made it easier for fish boat owners looking for cheap labor to evade the law. The previously mentioned "pink card" registration scheme has not only made it easier for slave boat owners to hold on to their captors, but other efforts made by the local government to curb forced fishing have been inept as well. A program was introduced by the Thai government in 2014 to search boats, and check with workers when boats came to shore, to look for evidence of forced fishing. To date, the program has yet to report a single found instance of forced fishing (Human Rights Watch). This inability may very well be influenced by the fact that evidence has been found of Thai police, as well as immigration officers, profiting from human trafficking (The Enviromental Justice Foundation).
To the perpetrators, trafficking migrant workers from other countries is often viewed as a necessary due to increasing costs and difficulties in finding local workers. As boats must be kept out at ocean for longer periods of time because of overfishing, not only do fish boat owners see a need to reduce costs, but they also have a harder time finding willing workers. Also, because of the large international demand for cheap seafood, even more pressure has been put on boat captains to find ever cheaper work, which is another reason they prefer migrant workers. This demand in no way justifies the horrendous treatment the migrant men and boys are treated to. A need for cheap labor does not justify paying well below minimum wage received up to six months late, tricking men into jobs that were not what they were promised or forcing them to exist in conditions that threaten their physicalForcedsafety. fishing in Thailand is a globally prominent issue and, while there have been steps made by both local and international governments to curb slavery on fishing boats, it is still a very real and active problem. Victims are being held against their will and forced to work in untenable
107
108 conditions on these fishing fleets, which are still the main exporters for fish internationally. Forced fishing is not just a case of poor working conditions, it is a case of multiple human rights violations, making this a problem that must be addressed in a more aggressive and logical manner. Therefore, this pressure must come from the countries who are creating the demand for Thailand's seafood exports.In recent years, there has been international pressure put on Thailand to increase its regulation of fishing vessels, namely from the United States and the European Union (EU). Thailand has been placed on a "yellow card" card warning, which means it could face a ban on exporting food to the EU. In addition, Thailand was placed by the United States on the Tier 2 watchlist in its most recent Trafficking in Persons report (Human Rights Watch). Being placed on Tier 2 means that perpetrators charged with human trafficking will face harsher penalties, with especially harsh penalties for any who are deemed to be affiliated with an "organized criminal group" (IOM 6). The downside to these reactions is that they remain only as threats; harsher penalties from the United States for human trafficking don't mean much if no one is caught, and so far, the "yellow card" warning has only managed to convince local government to make superficial changes that have not successfully helped the problem. As previously stated, the local Thailand government has made changes to their legislation in response to international pressure, which on the surface appeared at first to help. However, even with the issue of local government corruption, which has led to laws that work against the victims instead of for them, and despite evidence that local changes have not made an impact on forced fishing, local authorities have been trying to convince international governments and retailers that the problem has been resolved. Mongkol Sukchareonkana, affiliated with Thailand's National Fisheries Association, has been quoted stating, "In the past, we used illegal labor ... But now, things have changed completely" (qtd. in Human Rights Watch). Sadly, this is not the case.
The global pressure already put on Thailand has not been enough to create a meaningful change, and now other steps should be considered to help stop slavery on fishing ships. The pressure must be increased, and more regulations must come from the countries importing seafood from Thailand. Seafood is Thailand's primary export by far, and if threats from international parties to ban imports have not convinced local government to make meaningful change, a ban may.
109
Granted, a ban on the globe's primary seafood exporter would likely cause an outcry from citizens when the prices of seafood were raised, and it would put additional pressure on food retailers. If that's not possible, in lieu of a full ban, the US and EU should place stricter regulations on the food retailers purchasing imported food from Thailand. This would likely be difficult to enforce, but if more money is also allocated to investigations into evidence of forced fishing, it would be more likely to be effective. However difficult it may be to attack a such a pervasive problem, forced fishing is modern slavery, and fish caught on modern-day slave ships feed billions globally. This is a global problem, and all countries involved must take responsibility and keep taking further action until a real change has been made.
Migration (IOM). Trafficking of Fishermen in Thailand. 14 Jan. 2011, McDowell,/docs/thailand/Trafficking-of-www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/activities/countriesFishermen-Thailand.pdf.Robin,Mendoza,Martha,andMarieMason."HumanTraffickingCaught on the High Seas." The Epoch Times, Jul 28, 2015, pp. A1, A6 A7, ProQuest, s2443 ezproxyscottsdalecc proquestcom.ezproxy.scottsdalecc.edu/docview/1797275583?accountid=227.edu.ezproxy.scottsdalecc.edu/login?url=https://searchSutton, Trevor and Siciliano, Avery. “Seafood Slavery.” Center for American Progress, 15 Dec. 2016, www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2016/12/15/295088 /seafoodslavery/. Sylwester, Joanna G. "Fishers of Men: The Neglected Effects of Environmental Depletion on Labor Trafficking in the Thai Fishing Industry." Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, vol. 23, no. 2, Apr. 2014, pp. 423 459. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.scottsdalecc.edu:2443/login?
of the Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015 on Forced Labor in the Thai Fishing Industry." Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, vol. 24, no. 1, Winter 2017, pp. 227 252. EBSCOhost, login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=122997355ezproxy.scottsdalecc.edu:2443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/&site=ehostlive. Human Rights Watch. “Thailand: Forced Labor, Trafficking Persist in Fishing Fleets.” Human Rights Watch, 23 Jan. 2018, www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/23/thailand forced-labor-trafficking
110 Works Cited The Environmental Justice Foundation. Sold to the Sea – Human Trafficking in Thailand’s Fishing Industry. Humanity United, Mar. 2013, un-act.org/publication/view/sold-sea-humanFischman,trafficking-thailands-fishing-industry/.Katharine."AdriftintheSea:TheImpact
Internationalpersist-fishing-fleets.Organizationfor
host-url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=96267184&site=elive.
111
Verité. Recruitment Practices and Migrant Labor Conditions in Nestlé’s Thai Shrimp Supply Chain: An Examination of Forced Labor and other Human Rights Risks Endemic to the Thai Seafood Sector. Nov. 2016, www.verite.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11
/NestleReport-ThaiShrimp_preparedby-Verite.pdf.
JaredReviewers:Aragona, Ph.D. Matthew Bloom, M.A.
Two Waters Review was founded in order to showcase the exceptional work our students produce in first-year composition. To qualify for publication, an essay must be formal, eloquent, researchbased, and consistent with a standard citation style. The only changes made by the reviewers were with the purpose of formatting the text for publication.
112
The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) is an EEO/AA institution and an equal opportunity employer of protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or national origin. A lack of English language skills will not be a barrier to admission and participation in the career and technical education programs of the District.
The Maricopa County Community College District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability or age in its programs or activities. For Title IX/504 concerns, call the following number to reach the appointed coordinator: (480) 731 8499. For additional information, as well as a listing of all coordinators within the Maricopa College system, visit http://www.maricopa.edu/non discrimination
