Tales of Tenth Grade

With all of the news stations talking mostly about the negatives of COVID-19, I thought it would be good to share some other good news! The major positive to social distancing is the positive effect on the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. With all of these busses, cars, trains, etc. which are constantly in use, there is a lot of negative emissions coming from them. The amount of CO2 in the air is on a fast slope upwards since the 1950s and now, this curve has the opportunity to level out! According to the Seattle Times, "China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter followed by the U.S., saw at the height of its economic shutdown during the pandemic an estimated 25 percent drop in emissions...." This is a substantial drop in emissions in the world's greatest contributor to global warming. Similarly, in Seattle, there has also been a dramatic drop in emissions. However, this is not enough to actually flatten the curve. The Seattle Times also states that "Even ...

     As more time passes, the more it seems that COVID-19 is the only thing going on in the world right now. At least, if you were to look at any news feed right now, it would look that way. Every single article is somehow related to the virus. But obviously thats not the only thing happening that's worthy of having an article written about, for an example, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Obran has recently been given rule indefinatly, which the EU has done very little to stop. But that story isn't making headlines, despite it being an important event for the future of democracy in the nation.      So is it a problem that its become more difficult to find other news? Maybe. The thing is, the coronavirus should be at the top of the news right now, because the scale of the pandemic cannot be understated. Right now, there are predictions that as many as 240,000 Americans could die from the disease. There are rarely events in news that affect so many peop...

          On March 25, news broke out that the last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade was discovered, per Sean Coughlan of BBC news. This person was identified as Matilda McCrear, who lived until 1940.            Previously, Redoshi Smith was found to be the last survivor slave by Hannah Durkin at Newcastle University. Smith was a slave captured in Africa and brought over to the U.S. She died in 1937.           For more information on McCrear, it was stated that she died in Selma, Alabama, in January of 1940. Family members of McCrear did not even know about this. Her grandson, 83-year-old Johnny Crear, claims he didn't know about his grandmother's history. Crear was actually in Selma once where he witnessed violence against civil rights marchers. The protesters were addressed by Dr. Martin Luther King.            Here is what Crear had to say about his discov...