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The Case for Universal Healthcare: Overcoming Economic and Political Barriers
By Liam Commons. In order for any society to function, it is imperative that a basic standard of health is maintained. Beyond this, it comes down to basic human decency and allowing everyone to have a sense of comfort in knowing that if they get sick, then they will be taken care of, no matter Continue reading
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Building Community Support for LGBTQ+ Youth
By Kelley Trowbridge. In 7th grade, I came out to my friends and family. In 7th grade, Nadia, a student at an Indiana middle school, did the same. But I was the lucky one. Because in 7th grade I had friends to support me, a sister to guide me, and teachers who were kind to Continue reading
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Should Pharmaceutical Advertising be Legal? The Ethics of American Healthcare
By Steven Zhang. Should Pharmaceutical Advertising be Legal? The ethical implications of Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising (DTCPA) have long been subjects of discussion, involving arguments over influence on patient choices, the balance between information and manipulation, and the impact on healthcare costs. But it seems that, at least in the United States, pharmaceutical advertisements are a Continue reading
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Ethical and Environmental Concerns of Tourism: Mitigating Impact on Indigenous Communities
By Dylan Yu. Without a doubt, the increase in global demand for international tourism can be attributed to the indigenous influence over an area. Globally, 44 countries rely on tourism as their main source of revenue, many being island nations such as New Zealand and the Bahamas [1]. It is undeniable that indigenous influence plays Continue reading
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Obesity in Pacific Island Nations: Tackling the Public Health Epidemic
By Isaac Bauliah. Pacific Islanders refers to anyone living on islands from the Philippians to Hawaii. With the rise of globalism, traditional “healthy” foods on these islands, ranging from fresh fish to root vegetables, have become more expensive while more processed food and soft drinks such as spam (popular meat) and soda have become cheaper Continue reading
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Carbon Impact of Celebrity Private Jets
By Ethan Bingemann. Private air travel—much like taking a personal car instead of public transportation—is much more expensive and environmentally damaging. Private planes are 14 times more polluting per person than commercial air travel [1]. Additionally, private jets cost anywhere from 2000-11,000 dollars per hour [2] as compared to an average of 80-110 dollars per Continue reading
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Is Animal Testing Ethical? The Case for Humane Experimentation
By Alina Khan. Nearly all medications and treatment methods created today have been through some level of animal testing. Simply put, animal testing is the use of animals in order to conduct research and testing for a specific idea in a set time frame or area (Marinescu & Comam, 2010). The use of animals has Continue reading
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How Local Governments can Embrace Sustainability: The Case for Infill Development
By Steven Zhang. In 2021, transportation accounted for 27% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States [1]. This is compared to only 19% in The Netherlands [2], or 15% in Japan [3]. A significant portion of this discrepancy can be attributed to urban planning policies in the United States. Studies have consistently shown an Continue reading
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Structural Barriers to Reducing Maternal Mortality in the United States
By Beatriz Machado Lacerda. Having children is supposed to be the miracle of life, but for too many people, it’s a death sentence. Maternal mortality is a significant issue in the US, taking hundreds of lives a year. However, for every other developed country, it is a minor, almost negligible problem. Something in our country Continue reading
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Establishing a Framework for Sustainable Urbanization
By Lukas Kraft. The negative effects of climate change and global warming are daunting and while many may flee from the challenge, we as a collective human race simply cannot. It is not a sustainable, smart, or long-term beneficial gain to ignore climate change. To meet the climate target set by the UN and the Continue reading
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Reducing Waste and Littering in National Parks: Solutions and Ecological Impact
By Dylan Yu. Each year, more than 300 million people visit the national parks, producing a total of more than 100 million pounds of trash. Initiatives to increase the accessibility of waste disposal have shown potential to reduce the amount of waste. Data shows that when people are within 10 feet of the receptacle, the Continue reading
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Fallacies to Avoid when Evaluating ChatGPT in Education
By Steven Zhang. With the introduction of ChatGPT, questions over academic dishonesty have become a common cause for concern within the educational community, as repeated demonstrations have shown that it is capable of replicating human work. An example of this is shown in the findings by Dr. David Kiping at Columbia University, in which ChatGPT Continue reading
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Implications of Generative AI on Information and Media
By Ethan Bingemann. Investment in artificial intelligence has been on the rise since 2013 with a peak in 2021 with 72 billion dollars invested in the technology [1]. With market value of around 276 billion dollars [2]. This investment has unsurprisingly been paired with a huge step in the functionality of AI technology. AI has Continue reading
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Equitable Solutions for Alleviating the Issue of Cocaine Production in Colombia
By Vedh Ramesh. Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine by far — in 2004, Colombia was responsible for 80% of the world’s cocaine production.1 In 2012, cocaine made up 0.2% of Colombia’s total GDP, or almost US$750 million.2 The UNODC “estimates that 63,660 of the country’s households were involved in the cultivation of Continue reading
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Addressing Food Insecurity in the Syrian Civil War
By Vedh Ramesh. The Syrian Civil War has devastated the lives of millions of Syrian civilians. Their lives have been uprooted, their friends and family members killed, and many are left destitute, relying on food from humanitarian causes. A nation that used to be self-sufficient in terms of food production (before the war, agriculture was Continue reading
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Providing Drought Relief in Madagascar
By Dylan Yu. The drought within Madagascar has proven to be a major issue as it decimates the agricultural industry of the country which Madagascar relies heavily on. Data shows about 80 percent of the population, or 24 million people is involved in the industry. Despite Madagascar’s extremely arable land as well as it’s beyond Continue reading
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Addressing Food Shortages Induced by Climate Change
By Vedh Ramesh. Climate change is an extremely pressing issue, with far-ranging effects that will irreparably harm this planet and everyone living on it — however, not everyone is affected equally, with developing nations disproportionately affected. According to the World Bank, “[a]bout 80% of the global population most at risk from crop failures and hunger Continue reading
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A Small-Scale Demonstration of Risk Avoidance Behaviors in a Novel Zero-Sum Game Scenario
By Steven Zhang, Daniel Cardwell. Abstract: Human behavior shows a preference for minimizing loss when presented with probabilistically distinct choices. An example of this is that, when presented with the choice of either a 100% chance of receiving $5 or an 80% chance of receiving $6, the former is almost universally preferred, despite the choices Continue reading
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The Role and Stigma Against ChatGPT in Academia
By Steven Zhang. ChatGPT presents two complementary ways in which it can provide assistance to students in an academic setting: the ability to hasten the mundane and nonproductive aspects of the educational process, and to augment the aspects of curriculum that require the student to engage in productive thought. Of the former, the implications of Continue reading
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Ecological Impacts of Waste Ballast Water Discharge
By Steven Zhang, Henry Wang. Ballast is a method to maintain stability in a ship, especially in oil tankers, by adding weight in the form of liquid. Departing oil ships are loaded with oil. But when returning, they must be loaded with water to replace the lost weight in oil, so as to prevent the Continue reading
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Confronting Corruption in the Sports Industry
By Vedh Ramesh. Corruption in the sports industry has been an issue since time immemorial. Evidence has been found of bribery in wrestling competitions in Ancient Greece two millennia ago,1 and allegations of bribery and match-fixing plagued the original Olympic Games.2 More recently, a UNODC report estimated the illegal sports betting market to be between Continue reading
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Ozone Hole Increases to Near-Record Size
Recently, the ozone hole above Antarctica has ballooned to a near-record size. Copernicus, the ESA’s Earth observation program, found that the ozone hole has increased in size to over ten million square miles — over three times the size of Brazil. Is this something to be worried about? Continue reading
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Balancing the Environmental Effects of Livestock Production
By Ethan Bingemann. Livestock is a crucial industry for many developing nations and has a huge effect on the world economy. More than 6 million animals are killed every minute, with a total of 70 billion killed every year. Livestock is a terribly inefficient use of our planet’s resources and is very harmful to the Continue reading
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Improving Access to Medical Technology in Developing Countries
By Ethan Bingemann. Access to medical technology is a major issue across the world. According to WHO reports, half the world’s population goes without basic healthcare needs met. Many countries around the world do not have educated individuals or equipment to support their citizens’ healthcare needs. The UN has established universal health coverage as fundamental Continue reading
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Stabilising UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Post-Brexit
By Vedh Ramesh. On 23 June 2016, the citizens of the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) by a vote of 51.9% to 48.1%, authorizing the UK to leave the organization, having joined its predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973.1 It took until 31 January 2020 for the UK to officially Continue reading
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Developing Disaster-Resistant Public Infrastructure
By Dylan Yu. As the world continues to modernize, it becomes more crucial for us to establish safe and reliable infrastructure for our society. Infrastructure not only improves the well-being of those within a respective but helps connect us through better transportation and stronger interconnected economies. Furthermore, the lack of soft infrastructure like education and Continue reading
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Water Scarcity and Sustainable Water Management
By Dylan Yu. Water is a necessary resource [1]. As of today, about 650 million people, or a tenth of the population don’t have access to clean drinking water. These figures become bleak when we consider the death toll: about 3.5 million people die due to inadequate water, sanitation, or hygiene. Water scarcity is a Continue reading
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Addressing Safe and Ethical Development of AI
By Ethan Bingemann. The best way of preventing misinformation, or “fake new,” from being spread by AI is holding news sources accountable and promoting fact checking in media. AI deepfakes are not incredibly realistic at their current stage. Going forward, it is imperative that consumers be more critical of the news sources they consume. This, Continue reading
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How to Measure a Country’s Success: Alternatives to GDP
By Ethan Bingemann. GDP is a largely criticized metric for measuring a nation’s output and “success”. This is because GDP is a misleading measure of national wealth and wellbeing. It is calculated by adding private consumption, investment, government spending, and net exports (exports-imports). Due to the nature of this equation, there is essentially no discernable Continue reading
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Increasing Access to Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities
By Ethan Bingemann. There are an estimated 2.5 billion people globally in need of some form of assistive technology (AT). This figure is set to increase by an additional 1 billion people as global life expectancies increase and current populations age. Currently, about one in ten people in need of AT have access to what Continue reading
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Tackling the Increasing Prevalence of Youth Crime in the London Metropolitan Area
By Vedh Ramesh. Between April of 2021 and March of 2022, ONS1 statistics revealed that roughly 48,200 offences involving “a knife or sharp instrument” were reported, and during that same time span, 261 homicides utilizing those tools were reported, meaning that 43.9% of all homicides during that time period were committed using these instruments.2 “Knife Continue reading
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The International Climate Movement: Past and Present
By Lukas Kraft. Climate change is a global problem that has been fiercely debated in international, national, and local level politics for its massive potential ramifications on the world’s ecosystems and human populations. Before 1962, the climate crisis was little debated and discussed in the public eye. This changed with the publication of author Rachel Continue reading
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