Position Papers An important aspect of living in and working with complex systems, i.e., the natural environment, is that we (humans) have an impact and our decisions inevitably lead to making trade-offs. Sometimes these trade-offs are conscious and other times they are not. For example, the demand for avocados have grown substantially with various diet plans and general increasing popularity. This increase in demand has caused farmers in Central America to clear large areas of forest to plant vast avocado farms. This impacts local biodiversity and wildlife habit. Another example, in the pursuit of developing ‘green’ alternatives for electrical production, wind turbines have grown in popularity as vast areas across the United States have and continue to be developed into wind farms. While these wind farms do not directly use fossil fuels, migratory bats and birds are killed by the hundreds of thousands each year by the spinning blades. Additional critiques regarding the manufacturing costs and disposal costs of the turbines also call into question the ‘green’ designation for wind turbines. The above examples of avocado farming and wind turbines illustrate how decisions lead to consequences and demonstrate that trade-offs are unavoidable in most situations when engaging with environmental systems. Your assignment(s) is to research an environmental issue of your choosing. Then you have two options about how to approach this issue. You can do a pro – con comparison in which you list the various pros and cons but then discuss the science behind one or two points. Or you may talk about a specific impact and then discuss mitigation strategies. You can use scientific journals, news articles, magazines (i.e., Popular Science, National Geographic, Encyclopedias), websites of various environmental groups/companies. DO NOT use personal websites without any links to supporting data. In total you will submit two separate position papers on different topics. You are required to have at least two citations for each ‘side’ of the issue. I encourage the use of tables, bullet points, and figures. The goal of this assignment is for you to educate yourself about an issue, provide context for that issue, and effectively summarize and present the information. In the example above regarding wind turbines, the ‘context’ is that there are negative consequences of this ‘green’ energy source. Paper requirements; – Total text should be more 600 and less than 1000 words (not counting figures and tables). If it is 1001 words, I will not read it. – Standard margins and Times New Roman font size 12 – Descriptive title – Short introduction outlining what the paper is going to talk about – Bulk of the paper on the details of your topic(s) – just present the data, the science – Short conclusion – your assessment/interpretation, you have just finished present facts/figures/details – what do you see? What do you think? Have you changed you mind on this topic? What you put in your conclusion will vary depending on topic. – References – you MUST provide references for all the sources you used (Citations DO NOT count in page limit or word count). In-text references are required, with the full references included at the end of the paper, using GSA reference style. https://www.geosociety.org/documents/gsa/pubs/GSA_RefGuide_Examples.pdf There are a wide range of topics to choose from, I am more than happy to brainstorm and help you figure out a direction for your paper. Submission dates are as follows. Paper 1 is due Sunday night October 9th by 11:59 pm. Paper 2 is due Sunday night November 27th by 11:59 pm. Pro-tips I encourage you to narrow your focus. Trying to write < 1000 words about climate change, is particularly difficult.
