Today, natural disasters are becoming more intense. Fires are more common. Floods are wiping out more land. Even earthquakes are expected to have a larger impact on humans today than those a thousand years ago. More people means a bigger disaster. Global Warming will continue to intensify these problems if change doesn't occur. The massive temperature changes caused by Global Warming will cause environments to become unstable, which will lead to the creation of natural disasters. Since a big enough change is unlikely to happen soon, proper preparations should be made for the inescapable. The schools of today are not safe enough for these natural disasters.
The recent earthquake drill is a perfect example. Several students were hiding at uncomfortable spots in classrooms that provided little protection from an actual earthquake. If something were to actually fall from the ceiling, the object would simply hit the student's desk, causing the desk to tip over with great force onto the student, and cause the student to receive large injuries. The point of hiding underneath the desk is to lessen the chance of being injured from a falling object, but in reality, the desk doesn't provide enough protection. The only solution to this problem is a complete change to the layout of schools.
Desks will be the first to change. The average students desk should be made out of only steel. Steel is a hard and strong metal alloy that will provide much more protection than the flimsy wooden desks. The ideal shape of the desk would be a complete box with one side cut out for leg space or the student's body if an emergency were to happen. All windows should also be eliminated to avoid injuries from shattered glass. The average classroom would become a concrete dome with only one air-tight door to ensure maximum protection. Tornadoes would not penetrate the building, fires will not go through the walls, and floods will not breach through. All plants should be taken out of schools to completely prevent the chance of a fire spreading.
These ideas may seem extreme on a school's budget, but governments can reduce spending on major projects such as wars. According to the article "World Military Spending," the estimated spending of the world on military purposes in 2012 was 1.756 trillion dollars. This money could have easily funded this plan if our governments would cooperate in peace. There should be no money limit for the safety of our future leaders. Other than this money issue, there is no other problem that I can imagine with this extremely beneficial plan.
I also agree that natural disasters have become a much bigger problem as of late and schools need to start preparing better. You're solutions are actually very insightful and could very well be the solution to protecting schools completely from natural disasters. In my opinion, however, we are probably way off from being able to accomplish such goals because of financial problems that schools are facing. Overall though, the solutions you provided are very interesting and we should really start looking into this topic.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated your voice on this topic as a large student the current classroom conditions do pose a real threat. During the drill It was a joke to be under the desk so I went and sat in the corner where truly in a disaster I could not be safe. Your suggestions for fixing the problem were very specific and I could see them making a serious difference so I enjoyed your opinions. On the other hand your ideas could prove to bring about a nightmarish dictatorship where the world we now could be completely changed but otherwise it was very enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI agree that schools should take better action and create new procedures for their natural disaster drills. I liked when you mentioned the desks in your argument and how we should change them because hiding under the desk for earthquake drills isn't the safest plan. Schools should create better natural disaster drills for their students and faculty members because the point of the drills is to save as much people as we can in case of an emergency happens.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see that someone is finally addressing this issue. However, I don't believe your plan of action is extreme enough. You didn't account for the possibility of an incoming astroid hitting the earth or an outbreak of a deadly plague such as Ebola.
ReplyDeleteVery creative.
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