GEOG, HWRS, LAS, PLG 461 Prof. M. Waterstone
Environmental and Resource Geography 621-1478
Spring 2013

TERM RESEARCH PROJECT

For this paper, I would like you to select one of the following international issues for analysis:

1. global climate change 2. access to water resources 3. food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition 4. dependence on fossil fuels 5. proliferating waste

Then utilizing your ingenuity and creativity, I’d like you investigate as many of the proposed framings of these issues as you can find. You should draw upon materials from the course and from class discussions, appropriate scholarly journals and the popular media, the internet, and any other resources you can identify. I would like you to find presentations of these issues from the most “radical” to the most “conservative,” and for each view I would then like you to put your critical thinking skills to work in order to:

1. identify the way each presentation frames the issue (including framing it as a non-problem or even as a positive phenomenon) 2. indicate the details of each presentation in terms of its approach to resolving the issue, or its assessment of it as a non-issue 3. assess the kinds of obstacles (e.g., economic, social, political) involved in implementing the resolution, and how, if at all, these might be overcome 4. evaluate the various approaches being suggested to deal with the issue you’ve selected, including the consequences of not dealing with it 5. describe how you would approach the issue (or not at all, if you can argue persuasively that it is not a