High-tech Snooping Threatens Our Privacy :: Free Argumentative Essays

High-tech Snooping Threatens Our Privacy The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution states: The right of the people to be secure in their person's houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The Fourth Amendment values privacy in the home and protects people's privacy from unlawful search and invasion. This topic interests me because I am concerned about the recent use of thermal imaging and the ways it could be used to invade the average citizen's privacy. Thermal imaging devices allows police to view heat as a visible light image. When police use this technique as a means of gathering evidence before a warrant is obtained, it can be said to violate our guaranteed Fourth Amendment rights under the Constitution. In the recent Supreme Court case, Kyllo v. United Sates, "the Supreme Court held that police use of a thermal imaging device to scan a suspect's residence violated his right under the Fourth Amendment. The decision had reversed a federal appeals court ruling finding the scan lawful" (Is warrantless?). In the case cited, police suspected Kyllo was growing marijuana in his home. They used a thermal imaging device from across the street to scan Kyllo's home to see if the level of heat escaping from it was consistent with high-intensity lights used to grow marijuana indoors. The result of the scan showed that portions of Kyllo's home were relatively hot compared to the rest of his home. Using the result of the scan, as well as other information, police obtained a warrant to search Kyllo's home, and found a marijuana-growing operation in their search. When the trial court refused to suppress the evidence, Kyllo appealed to the federal court and challenged the legality of the search, saying a search warrant should have been obtained prior to using the thermal imaging device. Law-enforcement officials argued that a warrant was not required before a using technological surveillance device that merely records information about a home that is exposed to public view. The federal appeals court affirmed the trial court's decision, finding that Kyllo had no subjective expectation of privacy because he did not try to conceal the heat escaping from his home. Even if he had, the appeals court said, there was no objectively reasonable expectation of privacy because the thermal imager did not expose any intimate details of Kyllo's life, only vague hot spots on his home's exterior.

Mitigating Global Warming Essay

Change in global climate became a widely accepted social problem in the last two decades. However, in those early days, controversies existed about the certainty of global warming; while scientist and environmentalist pointed out that the world was getting hotter due to the increasing release of greenhouse gases and other human activities, multinational corporations and some national governments refuted such claims, under the guise that there were no sufficient scientific evidence to support such claims (McCright and Dunlap, 2000). Fortunately or unfortunately, recent scientific evidences point, irrefutably, to the fact that the world is indeed getting dangerously hotter. The Stanford SOLAR Center defines global warming as the ‘gradual increase in planet wide temperatures, while McCright and Dunlap (2000) defines it as ‘discernable increase in mean global temperature resulting from the release of greenhouse gases produced by human activities’ (p. 499). Whichever way global warming is defined, the apparent truth, as has been voiced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U. S National Research Council, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and countless other bodies and research institutions, is that the globe is hotter than it has ever been in history and if nothing urgent is done, serious danger looms. The Problem In the early days when stories about a warming earth was first heard, there were several counterclaims and numerous challenges to scientist to prove that the earth was indeed getting hotter. In recent times, however, it is clear that the issue of global warming has passed that stage. There are now countless irrefutable evidences from both government and private interests to show that there is indeed a problem at hand. The Stanford SOLAR Center points out that it is certain now that the earth is presently the hottest it has been in at least 400years and possibly even over the last 2,000years. It has been shown that the mean global surface temperature has increased by an estimated 0. 5-1. 0 °F (0. 3-0. 6 °C) within the last century alone and this is documented as the largest temperature rise in surface temperature over the last 1,000years. The IPCC (2007a) also states that eleven of the last twelve years (1995-2006) rank among the twelve hottest years since record of global surface temperature started in 1850. They also stated that from 1900 to 2005, precipitation increased significantly in the eastern parts of the North and South America, Northern Europe and Northern and Central Asia and that the most significant increases were experienced from 1970 onward. To buttress this stand, the body pointed out that in the last fifty years, cold days and cold nights have been significantly infrequent, while hot days and hot nights have become more frequent. The frequency and intensity of heat waves and heavy precipitation events over land areas have increased globally, especially since 1975. Further, there is irrefutable evidence that the average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the last half of the 20th century were the highest observable in any fifty year period over the last 500years and possibly the highest in the last 1300 years. All these hard facts point to the same conclusion; the earth is getting hotter, faster than any time in history and the trend does not look like it is ready to reverse. We have a grave global problem on our hands, which require urgent and drastic steps. The Causes Before recommendations can be made about how to go about mitigating this Herculean problem, it is pertinent to first provide a brief overview of the causes of this problem. In most studies and reports, the release of greenhouse gases (e. g. , carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons and their substitutes, methane, nitrous oxide, etc. ) have been severally indicted as the primary cause of the problem. It is important to know that these gases, especially carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide, are natural components of the atmosphere. These gases reabsorb the heat reflected from the earth surface, regulating Earth’s temperature, which is essential for life. However, since the industrial revolution of the 1700s, these gases have been released into the atmosphere in higher than normal concentration, thus offsetting the normal balance. Carbon dioxide is released from burning fossil fuels and other industrial activities, while deforestation and increasing land use, causes more nitrogen oxide gases to be released into the atmosphere. The increasing concentration of the gases in the atmosphere trap heat radiated from the earth, preventing additional thermal radiation from leaving the earth and thus excessively increasing the temperature of the earth’s surface (Global Warming, 2008; IPCC, 2007a; IPCC, 2007b). Another factor that has been indicted in the cause of global warming is solar variability; changes in the heating capacity of the sun. Studies on the sun activities have shown that the sun exhibit slight variation in activity. Although, this has been named as one of the factors responsible for global warming, there exists consensus that the role of solar variability, if present at all, is very minimal. Solar irradiance measured over the last 30 years has shown changes of only a few tenths in solar activity, and this depends essentially on the solar 11-year cycle. The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), in this regard, states that â€Å"The Sun is once again less bright as we approach solar minimum, yet global warming continues. Eventually, we are left with greenhouse emission as the primary cause of global warming. Why We Must Act Now That the earth is warming up might sound far fetched to many, however, the report the global warming is already having its toll on, not just the environment, but also on plants and animal lives, will drive the point home. The IPCC reports that changes in snow, ice frozen ground can be attributed to global warming. Ice melting has caused sea levels to increase continually, with the resultant flooding experienced in several parts of the globe. The reduction in snow and ice cover over mountains and frozen ground and reportedly increased the number and size of glacial lakes, increased ground instability in mountain and other permafrost regions and led to changes in some Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems. Changes in algal, plankton and fish abundance can be linked to increasing water temperatures as well as related changes in ice cover, salinity, oxygen levels and circulation. And these are just a tip of the iceberg, of the results and pending results of global warming. To make matters worst, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that â€Å"with current climate change mitigation policies and related sustainable development practices, global greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow over the next few decades† (IPCC, 2007a p. 4). The implication is that something better and more drastic needs to be done to curtail global warming. Recommendations The IPCC states rightly that a wide variety of national policies and instruments are available for the nation to create the right incentive for mitigation action. Since the primary and most significant cause of global warming has been identified to be greenhouse gas emission, several policy instruments exist to curb emission of the gases, at least to reduce the emission to reasonable limits. Government must set stringent regulations and standards for greenhouse gas emission. Large and small corporations must be enticed or forced (whichever is appropriate) to obey these regulations on gas emission. Taxes and charges can also be used to control gas emission. For example, setting a higher price for carbon emission will drive large corporations to look for more cost effective ways of disposing their waste or stay within their gas emission limits. Another modern way of reducing gas emission is through gas tradable permits. Companies that can efficiently manage their gas emission below their limits could sell such gas emission points to other corporations. Government can also provide incentives, such as subsidies and tax credits to companies that develop more efficient and better technologies of managing gas emission. This could drive large corporations to spend more on R&D as it concerns gas emission management. Governments might also enter into mutual agreement with industries, though it is reported that the majority of such agreements have not yielded any significant gas emission reduction, it should be hoped that better understanding between both parties created through such agreements would eventually pay off. Automobiles and other individual items also add to the greenhouse gas build up in the atmosphere, therefore, increased information campaigns about the dangers of global warming would increase awareness in the populace. This could help influence behavioral changes, such as increasing preferences for items that do not negatively impact the environment e. g. fuel economy cars. The impact of such changes might be difficult to measure, however any step, instrument or policies that could reduce greenhouse gas emission in whatever level or degree should be welcomed. Bibliography Global Warming (2008). Stanford SOLAR Center. Available at http://solar-center. stanford. edu/sun-on-earth/glob-warm. html (Mar 14, 2008). Goddard Institute for Space Studies (1999). Link Between Solar Cycle and Climate is Blowin’ in the Wind. NASA: New York N. Y. Available at http://www. giss. nasa. gov/research/news/19990408/ (Mar 14, 2008). Human Impacts on Climate (2003). American Geophysical Union. Available at http://www. agu. org/sci_soc/policy/positions/climate_change. shtml (Mar 14, 2008). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] (2007a). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O. R. Davidson, P. R. Bosch, R. Dave, L. A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] (2007b). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O. R. Davidson, P. R. Bosch, R. Dave, L. A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. McCright, M Aaron and Riley E. Dunlap (2000). Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of the Conservative Movement’s Counter-Claims. Social Problems, 47(4): pp. 499-522.

Cómo obtener copia certificado de nacimiento en EE.UU.

El certificado de nacimiento en Estados Unidos es un documento que prueba que la persona es ciudadana de ese paà ­s. Se utiliza como evidencia para sacar el pasaporte americano y otros documentos legales como, por ejemplo, la tarjeta del Seguro Social, la licencia de manejar o para probar identidad para casarse. La necesidad de obtener una copia và ¡lida del certificado de nacimiento puede surgir tanto a los ciudadanos que se encuentran dentro de Estados Unidos como a aquellas personas que nacieron aquà ­ pero viven en otro paà ­s y quieren tramitar su pasaporte americano en una oficina consular u otro trà ¡mite. Es posible que se requiera obtener la apostilla de la Haya para utilizar en otro paà ­s el certificado de nacimiento en EE.UU. -excluyendo gestiones en el consulado americano. En este artà ­culo se informa sobre cuà ¡les son las caracterà ­sticas de una copia và ¡lida del certificado de nacimiento, quà © no puede ser utilizado en su sustitucià ³n, cà ³mo solicitar una copia y quà © problemas pueden surgir. Ademà ¡s, se explica las diferencias entre un certificado de nacimiento y un reporte consular de nacimiento en el exterior. Caracterà ­sticas del certificado de nacimiento en EE.UU. Desde 2011, el Departamento de Estado pide que los certificados de nacimiento, que se conocen en inglà ©s como birth certificates, contengan los nombres completos del padre y de la madre. Salvo en los casos en los que sà ³lo cuente con un progenitor reconocido, pero tambià ©n deberà ¡ figurar el nombre completo. Ademà ¡s, deberà ¡n constar el nombre completo del recià ©n nacido, su sexo y la fecha de nacimiento y el lugar. Es muy comà ºn que, asimismo, los certificados de nacimiento incluyan la hora de nacimiento, si fue un parto mà ºltiple con gemelos, trillizos, etc, el lugar de residencia de los padres y el lugar y fecha de nacimiento del padre y de la madre. En la mayorà ­a de los estados, los certificados de nacimiento tienen un nà ºmero de registro formado por 11 dà ­gitos. Los 3 primeros corresponden al estado de nacimiento. Asà ­, en el caso de California es el 104, en el de Texas, el 142 y el de Nueva York el 131 excepto en la ciudad de NY, que se utiliza el 156. Finalmente, el documento deberà ¡ tener un sello levantado, impreso o multicolor de la autoridad que lo emite, que deberà ¡ ser el estado, el condado o la ciudad, dependiendo de las leyes del estado en las que tuvo lugar el nacimiento. Ademà ¡s deberà ¡ estar firmado por el encargado del registro y constar la fecha del certificado. Bajo ninguna circunstancia puede utilizarse para asuntos legales el certificado entregado a los padres por el hospital en el que tuvo lugar el nacimiento y en el que frecuentemente aparecen las huellas del pie o las dactilares del bebà ©. Ese papel es solamente un recuerdo. Cà ³mo se solicita un certificado de nacimiento en EE.UU. El gobierno federal no emite este tipo de documentacià ³n. Hay que solicitarla en el estado o territorio de Estados Unidos, como por ejemplo, Puerto Rico, en el que tuvo lugar el nacimiento. Aquà ­ està ¡n las direcciones para contactar con la que se necesite. En general se permite enviar la peticià ³n a una direccià ³n de correo fà ­sica o incluso se puede solicitar el certificado por internet. Hay que pagar una pequeà ±a cuota y, dependiendo de los estados, se permite realizar el abono con una tarjeta de crà ©dito, dà ©bito, chequera de los Estados Unidos. Algunos estados permiten que se solicite una tramitacià ³n exprà ©s. En todo caso, hay que permitir unos dà ­as porque todos los certificados deben notarizarse. Ademà ¡s, existen empresas privadas autorizadas para colaborar en los trà ¡mites como por ejemplo Vitalcheck y usbirthcertificate. Problemas que pueden surgir con el certificado de nacimiento Un problema que se puede plantear es que certificado de nacimiento contenga algà ºn dato errà ³neo como, por ejemplo, el nombre o el apellido està ¡ mal deletreado, se equivocaron en la fecha de nacimiento o incluso en el sexo. En este caso es necesario comunicarse con la Oficina de rà ©cords vitales del estado en la que tuvo lugar el nacimiento y seguir sus instrucciones para corregir el error. Cada estado exige requisitos distintos, por lo que no es posible informar sobre quà © hacer para cada caso particular. Otro problema que puede surgir es que, por la razà ³n que sea, no es posible encontrar el certificado de nacimiento. En estos casos, es posible probar la ciudadanà ­a Americana con documentacià ³n secundaria, como por ejemplo el Certificado retrasado de nacimiento o la Carta de falta de rà ©cord. Subrayar que nunca jamà ¡s sirve como prueba de la ciudadanà ­a americana la tarjeta del Nà ºmero de la Seguridad Social, la tarjeta de votante o la de haberse licenciado tras prestar servicio en cualquiera de las ramas del Ejà ©rcito americano (Marines, Aire, Tierra, Mar o Guardia Nacional). Otro problema es que, en la actualidad, algunos condados en el sur de Texas niegan el certificado de nacimiento a los nià ±os nacidos allà ­ pero cuyos padres son indocumentados. En este caso se recomienda contactar con un abogado o una organizacià ³n de defensa de los derechos de los migrantes con experiencia en este problema. Finalmente, se està ¡n dando casos en los que personas nacidas en Estados Unidos no pueden obtener el pasaporte estadounidense o renovarlo porque el Departamento de Estado desconfà ­a sobre la autenticidad del certificado de nacimiento. Este tipo de problemas puede darse por distintas razones, por ejemplo, cuando el nacimiento tuvo lugar en la vivienda de la madre y se tardà ³ en registrar oficialmente. En estos casos, es necesario probar la ciudadanà ­a estadounidense recurriendo a un conjunto de documentos como el certificado de bautismo, rà ©cords de escuela y de trabajo, declaraciones juradas, etc. Certificado de nacimiento y Reporte consular de nacimiento El certificado de nacimiento en EE.UU. es un documento diferente al Reporte Consular de Nacimiento en el extranjero, que deben solicitar las personas que son ciudadanas americanas a pesar de haber nacido en el extranjero porque su padre, su madre o ambos son estadounidenses. Estos documentos no los emiten ni las Embajadas ni los Consulados, sino que si se quiere obtener una copia debe contactarse con el Departamento de Estado en Washington. Otros certificados vitales: fallecimiento, matrimonio o divorcio Las oficinas de los estados que emiten los certificados de nacimiento tambià ©n suministran los de fallecimiento, matrimonio o divorcio. Si necesita obtenerlos siempre pueda contactar con ellas por correo o por telà ©fono. Para buscar los datos de la oficina que corresponde ponga en su navegador el internet el nombre del estado donde solicita el rà ©cord y aà ±ada, entre comillas, vital record office. Puntos clave El certificado de nacimiento en EE.UU. prueba la ciudadanà ­a estadounidenseEl certificado del hospital no tiene ningà ºn valor legalSon và ¡lidos los certificados emitidos, firmados y sellados por una autoridadPuede solicitarse a una empresa privada la obtencià ³n de un certificado vital Este artà ­culo es informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal para ningà ºn caso concreto.