Chapter Eight: Afforable and Clean Energy

Welcome back to Economics! Previously, we shared our thoughts on whether college was worth our time and money while using the principles we learned in class. But, as of right now, we just finished a book that goes by the name of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist by Kate Raworth. It mostly explained the history of economics and how it has changed over time. At first, we read the first three chapters by ourselves, but about a week later, we did an activity where we divided into four different groups, each read a chapter, and presented our take-aways with the class. But once our Action Project was announced, we were asked to write an additional eighth chapter to Raworth’s book while following our guiding question, “how do we view the economic world?”

Noun Project, Work From Home Outline, Nikita Kozin (2020)

The additional chapter to Raworth’s book would be about affordable and clean energy. In Raworth's book, she explained that “EARTH, which is life giving—so respect its boundaries Far from floating against a white background, the economy exists within the biosphere—that delicate living zone of Earth’s land, waters, and atmosphere. And it continually draws in energy and matter from Earth’s materials and living systems, while expelling waste heat and matter back out into it. Everything that is produced—from clay bricks to Lego blocks, websites to construction sites, liver pâté to patio furniture, single cream to double glazing—depends upon this throughflow of energy and matter, from biomass and fossil fuels to metal ores and minerals.” In other words, affordable and clean energy is something that should be sustainable but reliable, not for the rich or the poor, it is well-deserved for everyone. According to UNEP, "three billion people rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating." So, when we use those types of fuels such as charcoal, for cooking, it increases indoor air pollution, which is responsible for killing four million people every year.

Reflecting on my research, I came to the conclusion that renewable energy sources are powerful and that it is very important for the future generations of the world. And if we continue to invest in renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and thermal power, then by 2030, there will be universal access to reliable energy services. 

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Works cited:

“Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy,” United Nations Development Programme, 2020. https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-7-affordable-and-clean-energy.html

“Icons And Photos For Everything,” Noun Project, 2020. https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=energy+saving&i=929080

“Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist,” Kate Raworth, 2017. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YbD2-9_jhNHhRInxmcHJFdTXWZhPSYaa/view

"Mom, I'm chatbot-ing!"

What's up?! Welcome back to Computer Science! Previously, we discussed the basics of Python using the specifics of print and input functions and did an Action Project that revolved around that. But as of right now, we are digging a bit deeper into that and mainly focusing on the if statements which are when you only want specific things to happen when coding.

So, the mission of this Action Project is to create a chatbot about a topic of our choosing. If you're wondering what a chatbot is, it's a computer program that is designed to imitate a human conversation. Anyways, we are supposed to make one using “if” statements, user input, and randomness to create a chatbot.

 

In conclusion, this project was cool and efficient. It didn't take me long to complete it, but I believe I did fine on it. If I could change anything, I would change the "simple" questions that I asked, but at the time, I wanted to play it safe. I guess that's not a terrible thing, but I would still change it if I could.

What is the meaning of life?

Hi! Welcome back to Journalism! Recently, we have been discussing the importance of photography and how every photo that is taken can be worth one thousand words. We've studied many different photographs from the earlier years including Windblown Jackie (by Ron Gallela), Migrant Mother (by Dorthea Lange), and V-J Day in Time Square (by Alfred Eisenstaedt). Last week, we each uploaded photos that we have taken to observe how much aperture and focus we had in them. So, the mission for our Action Project is to find or take a photo of something/someone and interview them to get a little insight into what they think the meaning of life is while also following our guided questions:

"What are the essential skills, values, and concepts of photojournalism?"

"How do you lend voice and eyes to your interviewee?"

S.S., Original Photograph (2020)

S.S., Black & White Filtered Photograph (2020)

My photos are more subjective than objective because they were based on my own observations and interests. I captured this moment between my Mom and my Pap-Pap, in front of his house, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I took this picture on a chilly October night, from the front seat of the car. We had already said our goodbyes and were headed back to our hotel when I noticed I left my AirPods in my Pap-Pap’s house. I was exhausted so, my Mom went back upstairs to retrieve them, while I waited in the car. My Pap-Pap always greets us at the door with a smile so even though we had just said goodbye he came back out and hugged my Mom again. The combination of the lighting on Pap-Pap’s porch and the night sky made me want to take a picture so I pulled out my phone to capture the moment. I tried to take the picture of them hugging, but my camera was too late, and this image was the end result. Having missed the hug I almost deleted the picture but kept it because I thought it was cute and sweet. 

I took the picture with my iPhone 11 the camera works very well especially, at night. However, I was surprised by how well the picture came out because it was really dark outside. I was sure that the lights from Pap-Pap’s living room and porch would have created a glare, but it did not. Instead, the light allowed the photo to have a smaller aperture because very little light came through the darkness. I admit that the lights are what immediately catches folk’s attention, but I was focused on my Mom and Pap-Pap and their moment together. More specifically, my Mom was my focus because she rarely takes pictures and I wanted to capture that moment for her. 

"What is the meaning of life? And why do you believe that?"

My Mom is a live-in-the-present type of person, so I was not sure how she would answer this question. She answered, "to me the meaning of life is to live. So every day I aim to live lovingly, vulnerably, empathetically, and listen intently. A younger version of myself spent too much time searching for meaning. Today I choose not to search for meaning and simply acknowledge and appreciate the people, feelings, things, and places that are meaningful to me. I’ve learned that assigning value to things and/or attaching meaning to people drains me. So, I live a life that drives me and I believe it is working in my favor because I’ve never felt closer to myself than I do today." 

I was not surprised by my Mom’s answer because she says variations of this to me all the time. However, seeing her words in print really resonated with me because I really understood what my Mom meant. When I was younger, I was always searching for something to make me feel whole; a friend, social acceptance, or the meaning of something profound like life. But as I got older and a little more mature, I noticed that I was the one assigning meaning to things, people, and places. My Mom is right because when I was constantly searching but never finding what I was looking for, I felt drained and lost. So, I am going to take a page out of my Mom’s book and live in the moment and expand my thinking about the meaning of my life. 

After the mini interview with my Mom, I started to think about what is meaningful to me. Capturing moments and expressing myself through images is so important to me because pictures say things that words cannot express. I’m so moved by photos and would love for my passion to be my career, but I’m learning that being a photojournalist is hard. 

Last week, our instructor told us the story about photographer Kevin Carter. Carter’s photo titled, Starving Child and Vulture depicted a vulture staring at an emaciated Sudanese child. Once the photo was published, it created such controversy. Carter received a lot of hatred and threats because the public was angry that he did not help the child. Carter became so distraught that he committed suicide. However, the public did not know that, due to the rampant disease, Carter was not allowed to touch the child. Prior to learning about Kevin Carter, I was ignorant about the consequences of a photo. Carter’s story revealed to me the unknown challenges that photojournalists can encounter. 

In conclusion, this unit has also given me a lot of insight into how to make my photos better by using important things like aperture/shutter-time and focus. I plan to learn more about photography and eventually turn my passion into a career. I am not sure if I’ll become a photojournalist because a career in journalism requires me to take non-biased objective photos. And this unit taught me that I prefer subjective photography, like the picture of my Mom and Pap-Pap over objective photos. Overall this AP was really cool because I gained a new perspective on life, learned more about perspective in photography, and feel very confident about a career in photography.