A historical narrative and explanation of an environmental problem that has affected you and/or your hometown in some way. This could be any number of things, but think specifically about something that has happened, or is happening now, in or near where you live or grew up. You will then use the course material and one outside academic source to place the problem in its regional/national/global context; discuss who is affected most by the problem; and explain what kinds of efforts have been undertaken, if any, to address the problem.

This essay must be a historical narrative and explanation of an environmental problem (ecosystem devastation, pollution or health problem, climate change concern, or something similar) that has affected you and/or your hometown in some way. Think specifically about something that has happened, or is happening now, in or near where you live or grew up. You will then use the course material and at least one outside academic source to do the following in this order:

1. Discuss the origins of the problem locally and within a national and/or global context. 

2. Discuss who has been affected most by the problem

3. Explain what kinds of efforts have been undertaken to address the problem and how effective these actions have been. Are/were the actions taken equitable? Are/were they sufficient?

The objective of this assignment is for you to deepen your comprehension of the course material up to this point and be able to bring together the material from the midterm with the most recent material on environmental ideas and environmentalisms. This essay is also a way for you to make this class more personal: we all depend on our environment in all kinds of ways. This is an opportunity for you to engage with environmental ideas and understand better how recent history makes our contemporary moment. Moreover, the essay is good preparation for your final essay.

You will be expected to use course material (lecture and/or readings) to write this essay, but you are also expected to use at least one outside academic source that has not been assigned in this course. Jstor and Academic Search Complete are good databases for questions of environmental politics. This outside source needs to deal directly with or relate to your environmental problem. It might be that your source deals with the very specific local problem you chose, or its wider regional or global context. It always helps if the source specifically addresses the problem and how people have sought to resolve or mitigate it. Look for this kind of source(s) first. However, if you do not find one because no research has been done on it, you may use another that examines the general context/causality of your problem at a regional/national/international level. If you find little directly related to your chosen environmental problem, you must choose to select another problem easier to research. You may decide to complement your academic source with additional sources such as newspaper or journalistic/media reports or interviews you conduct with family or friends. These will likely strengthen your essay, but they are not to replace the academic source.

To cite lecture, course readings, and your outside source(s) in the text, you must use parenthetical references of author and page numbers. For example, (Guha, 123-5) or (Martinez Alier, 27). You do need to provide a full bibliography at the end for all outside sources you use.

ESSAY Requirement/ Lectures slides/ Supporting readings are all here.