"Civic engagement refers to the active participation of individuals or groups in their communities, whether it be at the local, national, or international level, in order to address public concerns and promote the well-being of society. It can take many forms, including volunteering, voting, organizing, advocating, and speaking out on social and political issues."
-Source: ChatGPT
"Civic engagement, broad set of practices and attitudes of involvement in social and political life that converge to increase the health of a democratic society."
-Source: Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/topic/civic-engagement)
- Identify your own definition of civic engagement.
I think civic engagement means participating in something that benefits their community in some way. This community can be their own small neighborhood, a country, or an entire world. It can be something as small as speaking about a social issue with a family member.
Climate Change
In my community, we feel that climate change is a phenomenon that's currently happening and is affecting not just our small communities but the world. In this case, the community I'm referring to is the United States. What I've been noticing these past few years are strange weather patterns and steadily rising temperatures in the summer. According to Abudu, Wesseh, & Lin, " ...the USA, during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP26, was seen as the second-largest carbon emitter Hornsey et al. (2018) and “climate change-prodigality”: USA abandoned PA for four years (2017–2020)" (2022). The U.S. is one of the biggest factors causing climate change because it's one of the largest countries in the world. It is thanks to humans that world is warming exceedingly fast.
What's the cause?
The increase of CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) is the culprit. What causes CO2? Transportation such as cars, clearing of land for agriculture, heating, and much more. Out of all of these, transportation is the largest cause of CO2 because of the burning of fossil fuels.
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| This graph shows the rising temperatures regardless of the heat from the sun. The sun isn't the culprit in Earth's rising temperatures |
How does this directly affect me?
Temperatures have broken heat records in the past few summers. The extreme hot temperatures have posed a danger risk to the community. The use of air conditioning is a must at this point. Because of this, the entire neighborhood and even the state is at risk of a blackout from the excess use of electricity. This perhaps affect people with physical disabilities the most as it can be very challenging to relocate outside of the house. There are probably many other issues that also arises. At the end of the day, this problem squeezes out every last bit of energy and money from the everyone.
Why did I choose this issue?
It poses a danger to life on Earth and I mean ALL life on Earth which means including the animals. I find it depressing to think of the possibility of all the beautiful nature and its animals dying out in the future. After all, they were all here before us humans.
This issue also greatly affects the oceans and its marine animals. If the ocean life were to die off, everything else would too. The ocean is like a heat sink that absorbs around 90% of the heat from CO2; it is the main savior in helping us cool down. The downside is that ocean has a limit. It cannot absorb the heat forever, and it eventually it will reach a boiling point. The ocean will become one giant cooking pot with all the animals in that pot. It's not exactly the ocean water itself that absorbs the heat but certain wildlife within the ocean that does that job. Without them, it's over for everyone else.
Personal Statements
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