1Jakelinne Capella

Melissa Burggraaf
Jennifer Tanner
Philosophy 1250, Section 001
Reasoning and Rational Decision-Making
Spring 2016
TR 1-2:20, AAB 323
Professor: Dr. Jane Drexler
Main Premise - Our Generation Has a Moral Obligation to Improve Education,
the Economy and the Environment for Future Generations
Our generation has a moral obligation to improve educational opportunities, fix
and improve the economy in the United States and improve the environment for future
generations. It would be immoral and unfair to leave to future generations a world with
poor educational opportunities, a damaged economy so they do not have the
opportunity improve themselves financially and with a polluted environment so their
health and quality of life are lower than ours.
I. Education Premise - We Must Improve Education for Future Generations
by: Jakelinne Capella
email: jakiecaa@yahoo.com
Education one of the most important tools to be developed for future generations.
This is because an education, the ability to have learning and increase knowledge, is
indispensable to improving yourself individually and improving our country collectively.
Education is maybe the most important opportunity for future generations.
Because education is one of the most important areas to be developed for our
future generations, leaders in education and the parents should promote teaching and
learning of relevance for today's quickly realigning world. Providing the children with a
21st century education will give them opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge and
mindsets they need to be successful in college, career and life.
There is a set of four skills that experts say all kids will need to succeed, no
matter what field they go into.
Communication, students need to effectively communicate with others, orally,
spatially, gesturally, visually, and textually. Kids will need to know how to communicate
his/her ideas clearly in a written format. As the workplace becomes more global, work
initiatives will get done via email, blogging, instant messaging etc. Face to face
communication will be always important, but is becoming second to being able to
convey your concise ideas. Students who cannot put a sentence together will be left
behind.

Creativity, is one of the most critical skills for the next generation, but
researches indicates it is been declining significantly on global scale in the last 20
years. Creativity creates jobs, drives economic growth, provides answers to societal
needs, and also maximizes human potential. Creativity is related to the ability to dream,
take chances, and create the things we imagine these are the skills of entrepreneurs,
innovators and change makers.
Critical Thinking, students do not need just memorize concepts that will
promptly forget, but formulate ideas, understand and effectively analyze and evaluate
information, solve problems identifying and asking significant questions that clarify
various points of view and lead to better solutions, and reflect critically on learning
experiences and processes.
Collaboration, students are social beings that need to interact with each other in
both physical and virtual spaces with real and virtual partners globally. In today's global
economy, high-speed communications allow virtual teams to take on projects from
locations spread out across the globe, this includes the ability to communicate and work
with people from different racial, religious, ability, and ethnic groups.
Conclusion About Educational for Future Generations
In short, technology progress today comes faster than educational progress. It is
a priority for educational leaders and families encourage the changes our children need
to meet the challenges of the future. By keeping these strategies, the educational
leaders will be encouraging the development of future generations.
II. Economy Premise - We Must Improve the Economy for Future Generations
by: Melissa Burggraaf
email: creativitywithapen@gmail.com
We need to repair and secure our economy. Yes, the environment is important
and we can't live without oxygen. But what use is clean water when a society is in
shamble and people can't support themselves financially? We need to better and
stabilize our society today by repairing and securing our economy. That is our first step
because the economy in a society is the true support. If a society is economically fit,
they can then focus on educating the population and bettering the environment. If any
other steps are done first, the economy will worsen and it may be too late to fix. For this
argument, I will focus on the United States economy. This isn't to say that the US is the
entire world and is the only one worthy of being fixed. It's simpler to explain fixing an
economy when there's one society in mind. And if the US succeeds with improving their
society through their economy, other nations may follow and do the same.
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Many believe that a good economy will result in everyone in the society to be
rich. No more poor people or middle class and everyone driving Lamborghinis and
owning three mansions. That is definitely not the case when talking about a good
economy. In reality, a good economy means economic growth and a strong middle
class. For that to happen, we need to increase employment to create a strong middle
class that will support the economy. A working class is still required for a society
because someone has to do the work. That's not a bad thing. But to do that, we first
need to create jobs in the society. We can do that by supporting entrepreneurship that
will create working opportunities in the country. With more job opportunities, the smaller
the lower class will become, creating a secure middle class that can support the society
and economy.
On paper, social security sounds fantastic. An economic security citizens get if
they were to retire or become disabled. A pay-as-you-go system that many Americans
support. The problem with social security now is the long-term shortfall. Not only are we
spending way more than we should in supporting this system, but by the year 2033,
social security would only pay 75% of its promised benefits. We need to refine the idea
of 'social security' and better execute it. If we start from scratch and truly build up a
system that will support retirements and such, money will not be wasted and people in
the society will be supported. A way to improve it would be to increase index of inflation
in retirees. Even though many citizens don't like it, taxes should be raised in order to
support a better system. If taxes are raised by 1%, it could reduce the funding gap in
half. With a strong middle class and employment opportunities, paying more taxes
would hardly be noticed when looking at your paycheck.
In order to rebuild the economy of this society, we need to improve our finances
by putting money into more efficient resources and companies. One great example of
wasteful spending, is the amount of money put into NASA. Don't get me wrong, I think
studying the universe and exploring space is pretty cool and does contribute to science
improvements, but is it really necessary for NASA to receive over $18 billion a year?
Space technology may be expensive, but I think our society can hold off on sending
another telescope through the atmosphere. NASA's fund is just an example of how
unbalanced the US federal spending is. The space program isn't alone when it comes to
federal overspending. Our defenses, health care, and pensions receive the most when it
comes to federal spending and although they are all important, overspending is an
issue. Then we get to what does need more money. Education is only 3% of the annual
budget. Surely, we can cut some funding in half in order to help out those areas we truly
do need in order to flourish as a society.
Conclusion About Fixing the Economy for Future Generations
Fixing the economy is clearly not an easy thing we can do overnight. It requires
years of study, planning, and then executing. Money is such a tricky thing and has so
many factors that predicting the future is nearly impossible. But it is the first step we
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need to take if we want to fulfill our obligation to future generations. Repairing the
economy is the foundation of every society and is the building block that, if it isn't
repaired in time, will destroy the society for all no matter what else is fixed. Focusing on
a stronger middle class, better financing laws, and smarter investments will secure a
better future for our society.
III.

Environmental Premise - We Must Improve Air and Water Quality for Future
Generations.

by: Jennifer Tanner

email: Tanner.Jenni2131@gmail.com
Two of the most important legacies our generation has a moral obligation to
leave for future generations are clean air and clean water. This part of our paper
explores the places where air and water quality are bad and where they are good. Then
specific ideas are given about how and where air and water quality can be improved for
future generations.
Detecting Air Pollution
It is almost impossible to get air pollution measurements in many of the worlds
developing countries. This is because they do not have sensors to detect air pollution.
But it is important to get this information because epidemiologists, doctors and others
who study the causes of diseases and deaths, say air pollution contributes to millions of
deaths in the world every year. The air pollution that causes people and animals the
most disease and death is fine particles (called PM2.5), which are 2.5 micrometers or
smaller. This is about 1/10 the diameter of a human hair. The reason these fine
particles cause so much death and disease is, unlike bigger particles, they get past the
normal defenses in animals and humans, traveling very deep into the lungs where they
do great damage.
New Satellite Images Show World Air Pollution Levels
New satellites have been available in the last few years which can detect levels
of PM2.5 all over the world, even in places without ground sensors. Canadian
researchers started publishing the most accurate and comprehensive world maps of
PM2.5 available anywhere. (Environmental Health Perspectives). They created their
map using precise measurements from NASA satellite detection instruments along with
computer model information about vertical distribution of aerosols. Here is what their
map shows.
The Canadian scientists world air pollution map uses many measurements from
2010 to 2015, so it is very accurate and not just a few measurements that could be an
anomaly. (Global satellite-derived map of PM2.5 averaged over 2010-2015; Dalhousie
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University, Aaron van Donkelaar). This map shows that 80% of our world's population
lives in polluted air. We are talking about air pollution that is higher than the World
Health Organization standards of 10 micrograms per cubic meter. Compared with other
countries, levels of PM2.5 are pretty low in the U.S. But improvements could be made
here to. Air pollution was really bad here in Salt Lake City during the last few weeks
until it rained last weekend. As I scrolled through the Canadian images of the U.S., a
few times a year you could see really bad air pollution in Salt Lake City. Here is one of
these maps from last summer.

People arent the only cause of dangerous air pollution. The Canadian map
shows wind in northern Africa and Saudi Arabia in deserts causes massive amounts of
pollution. Its a good thing these are not highly populated areas. But the worst pollution
in the world is from power plants and factories in China and India which do not have
filters and just dump massive amounts of PM2.5 into the air. These PM2.5 particles
along with pollution from cars in the same places means millions of people in China and
India get sick and millions die each year from air pollution.

Proof

PM2.5
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Particles Cause Diseases and Death

Professor C. Arden Pope, PhD, an epidemiologist at Brigham Young University,
Provo, Utah is one of the world's leading experts on the health impacts of air pollution.
His work proves the connection between PM2.5 particles caused by people in cities and
its disastrous health effects on people. Prof. Pope explains that it is the PM2.5 particles
people breathe that causes health problems and death, and the source of PM2.5
particles in cities is people. The American Heart Association estimates that in the U.S.
PM2.5 particles cause about 60,000 deaths every year.
Ways to Reduce Air Pollution
A 2008 Harvard study suggested one of the best ways to stop pollution in large
cities in countries where there is massive air pollution would be to create a global green
tax on air pollution. This would give countries like China, India, the U.S. and other air
polluting countries an incentive to reduce their air pollution to more healthy levels. The
tax could be on goods and services so a country could not just decide to ignore it.
There are effective ways to install filters on factories and cars that remove most of the
PM2.5 particles. They arent that expensive. The U.S. has laws that require these
kinds of filters, otherwise our air pollution would be much worse. China and India could
do the same thing. The costs arent that high, but they dont want to spend the money.
The green tax would make it so they would want to spend the money. It would be
cheaper than paying for the filters says a U.S. News and World Report article. Here is
what air pollution often looks like in cities in China. This photo was taken on October
22, 2013 by a Reuters photographer of people riding through the air pollution in Daqing,
Heilongjiang province, China.

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The five U.S. cities with the highest levels or air pollution are all in California.
According to an August 22, 2015 USA Today, they are the following.
1.

Fresno-Madera, California.
Average year-round particle pollution: 18.1 ug/M3
People with asthma: 96,760
Population: 1,107,661
High ozone days per year: 68

2.

Bakersfield, California.
Average year-round particle pollution: 17.3 ug/M3
People with asthma: 75,406
Population: 864,124
High ozone days per year: 69.7

3.

Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, California.
Average year-round particle pollution: 17.0 ug/M3
People with asthma: 52,749
Population: 605,103
High ozone days per year: 82.7

4.

Modesto-Merced, California.
Average year-round particle pollution: 15.7 ug/M3
People with asthma: 69,027
Population: 788,719
High ozone days per year: 22.3

5.

Los Angeles-Long Beach, California.

Average year-round particle pollution: 15.1 ug/M3
People with asthma: 1,607,111
Population: 18,351,929
High ozone days per year: 117.7

Another way to reduce air pollution are to be sure older cars are properly
inspected. All of us have driven behind an older car or truck that has horrible exhaust
emissions. That is the number one cause of air pollution in Salt Lake City and most
U.S. cities. As older, inefficient, air polluting cars are junked or forced to comply with
emissions testing, the air will get a lot better.
The U.S. should be sure to enforce the Clean Air Act which was passed in 1970.
It set emissions rules for the amount of particles in the air. Its not enforced as much as
it should be. The U.S. should make air pollution standards even stricter than the Clean
Air Act now requires. But the U.S. alone cannot fix the problem of air pollution.
According to a September 14, 2014 article in the L.A. Times, one-third of the air
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pollution in Los Angeles, California is from China. And the air in Los Angeles is cleaner
than 74 of the largest cities in China. If you want to see the air pollution levels in the
world real time, just click on this link: http://aqicn.org/map/world/. The highest levels
are almost always in China, India and Mexico, but the U.S. has some high levels too.
The U.S. Causes 17% of World Air Pollution
Air pollution is a world problem. The U.S. should do better, but cannot solve the
problem alone. If the U.S. could somehow reduce all of its air pollution to zero, which is
impossible, that would only reduce world air pollution by about 17% according to the
Union of Concerned Scientists: Science for a Healthy Planet and Safer World. Here is
their chart.

There are ways we as individuals can reduce air pollution. Drive as little as
possible. Make laws against wood burning stoves. Wear warmer clothes instead of
turning up the heat. Recycle. Recycling reduces air pollution because less energy is
used to recycle than to create paper, metal and glass products from scratch. We should
support EPA air quality regulations.
Detecting Water Pollution
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Keeping water free from pollution or returning it to a pollution free state is critical
for humans, animals and plants. Even though lakes, rivers and streams on the earth
recycle naturally, they can become polluted from too many people, too many animals or
from mismanagement. Human causes of water pollution are much greater in most parts
of the world than animal caused pollution. Agricultural runoff with pesticides and
fertilizers, industrial waste and human waste and the major causes.

New Satellite Images Show World Water Pollution Levels

I found a fantastic article on world levels of water pollution in the September 30,
2010 article in Nature. It has the first satellite images which show the impact humans
have on lakes, rivers and streams on the entire planet. The world map in the article
shows pure water areas in blue, light blue and green. Polluted water areas and shown
in yellow, orange and red. The U.S. has in recent years done a lot to clean up its water
ways. That is true for Utah as well. About 50 years ago, Utah Lake was so polluted
from Geneva Steel Mill and farm animals that it was dangerous to swim in it. Now the
lake has been cleaned up. Geneva Steel is gone and laws stop people from keeping
farm animals by Utah Lake.

Causes of Water Pollution

Water pollution is all about amounts. No natural water in the world is like distilled
water. Distilled water is water that is evaporated, then condensed, to get pure water,
with absolutely nothing else in it. All water in nature has minerals and some pollution in
it. Animals in nature cause some water pollution. Natural fires, volcanoes and natural
river erosion all cause some water pollution. But a little bit is ok. Like I said, water
pollution is all about amounts. If you poured a cup of blue ink into a lake or a river the
ink would pretty quickly disappear. The blue ink would still be in the river, spread out so
much you couldnt see it. But if you pour gallons and gallons of blue ink into a river or
lake every minute of every day, the lake or river would turn blue from the ink and the
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water would be polluted. Plants, animals and humans would be harmed if they drank the
water.
The biggest water polluter is human waste. Billions of people live on our planet.
They all eat and drink and cause human waste every day. The most recent information
I could find on human waste is from the World Health Organizations website last
updated in 2013. WHO says 780 million people, which is about 11% of the world
population, don't have safe drinking water. 2.5 billion people, 40% of the world
population, don't have toilet sanitation facilities. WHO says unless something changes
by 2020 polluted water will kill 135 million people a year.
Fertilizers used by farmers go into the ground and over time get into lakes, rivers
and streams. Fertilizers pollute water and cause damage to plants, animals and people.
You might not think fertilizers would harm plants, but when too much fertilizer builds up it
can kill natural plants or cause unwanted one to grow too much. WHO says this is a
huge problem. In the U.S. 500,000 factories put pollution in rivers, lakes and streams.
There have been big improvements though, which is good. EPA regulations have made
it so about 88% of U.S. rivers, lakes and streams are clean now, compared with only
69% in 1972. Now we need the rest of the world where water pollution is a problem to
do the same thing.
Oil spills are a huge problem. But they are only a small fraction of the water
pollution in streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. The EPA says oil spills are about 12% of
the oil that goes into oceans.
Ways to Decrease Water Pollution
How can we stop water pollution? There are four major ways, awareness,
education, laws, and economics. Making people aware of water pollution is really the
first step. In the 1990s surfers in England became angry. They were getting sick from
surfing in water polluted with sewage. They started a group called Surfers Against
Sewage. They got the government in England to force companies to clean up the
water the use before it goes into rivers and streams. This shows awareness can make
a difference.
Laws against water pollution can make it hard for companies and factories to
pollute. But to work they have to be the same across state lines and in all countries.
One example of this kind of law is the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea. It was signed by more than 120 nations. Europe has a water-protection law
called The Water Directives. These directives include the 1976 Bathing Water
Directive, which was updated in 2006. Here in the U.S. we have the 1972 Clean Water
Act and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act. These laws should be updated to improve
water quality and stop pollution.
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Environmental experts say a good way to stop water pollution is by something

called The Polluter Pays principle. The person or business that causes water pollution
has to pay to clean it up. Oil tanker owner must take insurance to covers the cost of oil
spill cleanups. Then it is cheaper for them to make their ships safer and we will have
less oil spills and they will be cleaned up faster. Shoppers must have to pay for their
plastic grocery bags. This is a law now in Ireland. The Polluter Pays principle just
makes it more expensive to pollute than to make water clean.

We Must Leave a Legacy of Clean Water and Air for Future Generations
It will not be easy, but air and water quality can be improved for future
generations. Our group believes two of the most important legacies our generation
could leave for future generations are clean air and clean water. There are many ways
we can clean up our water and air, but the U.S. cannot do it alone. We should get all
other countries to help too. New satellite technology can show us where air and water
pollution is. This helps us know where we should make the most efforts to clean up
water and air. As the world population continues to grow, we have to have ways to get
air and water cleaner and to keep them that way. If we dont the future will not be
healthy for people, animals and plants.
Sources:
1.

What the Smoggiest Cities in the U.S. Can Do To Improve Air Quality, by Jihan Lee,
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/09/what-the-smoggiest-cities-in-the-u-scan-do-to-improve-air-quality/
Retrieved: February 12, 2016.

2.

C. Arden Pope; Xiping Xu; John D. Spengler; James H. Ware; Martha E. Fay; Benjamin
G. Ferris; Frank E. Speizer (December 9, 1993), An Association between Air
Pollution and Mortality in Six U.S. Cities. The New England Journal of Medicine
329 (24), http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM199312093292401 Retrieved:
February 13, 2016.

3.

Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease: An Update to the Scientific
Circular, Statement From the American Heart Association on Air Pollution, May 10,
2010, http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/121/21/2331
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/121/21/2331.full.pdf Retrieved: February 15, 2016.

4.

Mun S. Ho and Dale W. Jorgenson, Greening China, Market-based Policies for Airpollution Reduction and Control, October 2008,
http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/09/greening-china-market-solutions Retrieved:
February 16, 2016.

5.

Smog Solutions: A fix to China's pollution problem is expensive but worth it.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2015/01/17/china-can-fix-its-severepollution-problem Retrieved: February 16, 2016.
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6.

Chinese city of Harbin shrouded in smog as air pollution soars, The Telegraph,
October 22, 2013,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10396198/Chinese-city-ofHarbin-shrouded-in-smog-as-air-pollution-soars.html Retrieved: February 16, 2017.

7.

Michael B. Sauter, Sam Stebbins and Thomas C. Frohlich, The most polluted cities in
America, August 22, 2015
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/08/22/24-7-wall-st-most-pollutedcities/32130565/
Retrieved: February 16, 2016

8.

Beijing's smog makes Los Angeles air look good, L.A. Times, September 10, 2014,
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-la-smog-stats-20140910-story.html
Retrieved: February 17, 2016.

9.

Each Countrys Share of CO2 Emissions, Union of Concerned Scientists: Science for
a Healthy Planet and Safer World, February 4, 2016
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/each-countrysshare-of-co2.html#.VsTaufIrJhE
Retrieved: February 17, 2016.

10.

C.J. Vorosmarty, P.B. McIntyre, M.O. Gessner, D. Dudgeon, A. Prusevich, P. Green, S.

Glidden, S.E. Bunn, C.A. Sullivan, C. Reidy Liermann, and P.M. Davies, Global Threats
to Human Water Security and River Bio-diversity, Nature 467, 555-561 (30
September 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09440.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100929/full/467504a.html Retrieved: February 17,
2016.

11.

Chris Woodford, Water Pollution, An Introduction, last updated June 29, 2015,
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/waterpollution.html Retrieved: February 17, 2016.

12.

Water Pollution, Wikipedia, last updated, February 10, 2016,

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