Environmental/global issues?

C

chacharlie

Member
Today i found out my finals for science, lit, and global studies are going to be a project based on a global issue ofour choice. we have to write a persuasive speech about our topic and present it to a bunch of people. i want to choose something lesser known/interesting, i dont want to do a project on the same things that people hear about every day. the only ones ive come up with so far are japanese people hunting whales, and the giant plastic gyre in the pacific ocean.

to sum it all up: does this vast pool of knowledge have any suggestions for an interesting environmental topic? muchos gracias for anything helpful. thanks!
 
the media needs to stop calling it global warming, stop yelling about hybrids and let me drive my truck... and fuck granola eating hippies that get all up in my face.
 
investigate the staggering amount of shitty cologne and cigarette smoke pouring out of eastern europe.
 
overpopulation is obviously the biggest problem and is probably played out as a topic.

It would be interesting to go into depth about the environmental devastation being caused by the industrialization of many developing countries and the creation of a massive consumer class outside of the traditional first world.
 
uneven and combined developement (look it up)-

basically how the first world exploits the third world resources to their benefit and this causes massive illegal immigration and migration from the southern hemisphere to the northern, percieved overpopulation (the world really isn't that overpopulated right now, the first world just uses all of the resources), human rights abuses (exploitation of third world labor) , and environmental destruction (seen in all developing countries) I wrote a 25 pager on this and it was really interesting and eye opening, it is a truth that more people should realize.

Coal mining in appalachia- how coal slurry has been pumped underground and is now breaking through into the water supply of the residents and people are dying and getting cancer... not very talked about. You could just write about how coal is the dirtiest fuel and write about all the downfalls of it... air pollution, water pollution (through coal slurry), ect.
 
I got a good topic!

Write about yellowstone national park and how it is in reality a huge volcano. If it erupts (some scientists say it can be at any time) then it would send the earth hurling into a ice age, thus killing mankind, but at the same time eliminating global warming.

I saw it on discovery...
 
theres the issue with americans largest national park and how the climate change is affecting the weather, thus affecting vegetation, and causing many animals like grizzly bears to be ready for endagerment, and i think a lot of people don't know that.
a lot of common animals that no one talks about are ready for that list.chimpanzee's too due to deforestation in the african jungle, which the wood is actually exported to north america. a lot of infant animals aren't making it past their first year anymore.lemurs amungst other animals in madagascar.
aside from that, you should raise awareness on the rights of corporations as individuals in society and how a corporation's duty is it's bottom line about anything else, therefore an employee not fullfilling the duty of the company, no matter how wrong it is, the employee could lose their job and etc.
a lot of 'green' companies aren't as good as they say they are.you can look into how efficient your local recycling program is.consider addressing what people can do to help global causes because a lot of people don't know how and won't do anything. a lot of people feel helpless or ashamed because of ass mongers like the ones above me who don't give a fuck, who frankly should be lynched. there's more than just recycling.
but anyways it's just a project so i don't know how much you care.

hippies smoke pot too, ps.
 
that was an entertaining and informative mock-umentary (despite its low budget and piss-poor acting).

There are hundreds of topics to choose from, there are a large number of indicators as predicted by scientists which show and prove the impacts of climate change, including insect migration, shifting ocean currents and rising ocean levels, shifting permafrost, more frequent (and less predictable) extreme weather (landslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, etc...), recent extinctions, soil erosion, and more.

If you want a few decent articles PM me and I will point you in the right direction (the reading is a little heavy mind you, it's from a 2nd year Uni course on climate change)
 
I couldn't agree more, and no matter how much people think the whole global warming and animals on the brink of extinction is nonsense and played out obviously havent opened their eyes and looked at our world. We should keep pushing this on people!!
 
The effects of the current system of roads and suburbia on the environment. Sounds lame, but its a good topic. It will make you very pissed off. Basically, before the 30s, all roads were laid out in a grid, favoring pedestrians, then the roads became all about the car. They wind and have cul-de-sacs. people have to drive to get anywhere. It increases pollution from the massive amounts of driving. Zoning plays a large role as everything is separated from each other.

I could go on forever. If you want more info, I wrote a 12 page research paper on it. I can help you out.
 
Well, I will throw a few random ideas that I have gotten from my environmental science class.

-Global climate change is causing winter to start later and end earlier in many areas which is effecting a lot of species such as bears, migratory birds, and fish. Bears hibernate for shorter periods of time and have messed up their diets, migratory birds are having to travel to different places, and many fish are dying off because of the climate change.

-You could research the effects of Damming the Colorado River. Although I am not sure if you need something that is a global issue. But, the Colorado River is fed primarily through the melting of the snowpack, but the snowpack is reducing because of global climate change.

-The Three Gorges Dam in China is a very interesting subject. It is the worlds largest hydroelectric powerstation and has had a ton of environmental consequences. You could talk about the general consequences of building dams such as sedimentation, disruption of fish migration, etc. You could also talk about the benefits, such as the clean energy it provides, the ability to control flooding, etc. Then you could talk specifically about the Three Gorges Dam and how it displaced about 1 1/4 million people and destroyed a lot of agricultural and cultural sites. Also the dam lead to the extinction of a species of dolphin and is impacting other fish species. There is a lot of information on this topic and it is fairly interesting.

-Of course you could always do a paper on the global population

That's all that I could think of... I know theres a TON of topics you could choose from... I'll try and think of some more.
 
if that topic interests you, read Jane Jacob's "Death and Life of Great America Cities". Brilliant stuff about how the city morphology has changed as a result of the urban planners focus on cars. She wrote it in 1969 too...very interesting lady.

As for the thread topic, write about how the current state of unregulated mass consumerism isn't sustainable in the long run. You could ask why there is no requirement for businesses to consider the entire lifecycle of a product in the design or fabrication processes, which is leading to retarded amounts of unnecessary waste (both in terms of garbage, and the over consumption of virgin resources). 99% of the shit we buy, we will throw out in less then 6 months. Shouldn't we pay more attention on what happens to all that 'stuff' piling up?

I think that would be a fresh/interesting take on those issues you mentioned. For a more detailed picture of that perspective, check out the online video "The Story of Stuff". I bet you'll enjoy it.
 
this is a really interesting topic. the entire issue of smart growth vs. urban sprawl is something that affects development all over the world.
something else you could look at are human triggered earthquakes, which can result from anything from mining to geothermal energy production to oil extraction.
another idea, which is a less explored aspect of the "played out" global warming phenomenon is look at the circulation of heat through the atlantic ocean and how it affects global climate. there is a TON of historical data on this and a lot of speculation as to what is going to happen in the future.
water availability and quality is another big topic that has always been an issue, but is now becoming more prevalent in developing countries
 
Something super important and not well known is that 90% of coral reef in the ocean is dead, and the other 10% is diminishing due to deforestation. If this remaining 10% is killed then we can pretty much say goodbye to the majority of life in the ocean, and subsequently an enormous amount of life above the ocean.
 
yes... dams- they're all over the place, and although hydropower is a healthy alternative because of the lack of air pollution it produces, its super controversial because of the process of daming a river and the effects on the fish populations, etc. ties in with water polution.

also, if you want another idea for a controversial topic- nuclear power. the air pollution is non-existant, but the byproducts are horrible. Plus there's the global fear of a terrorist attack on them, blah blah blah...

sustainable agriculture- its becoming a huge ordeal. organic or not, vegetarian or not... pesticides are becoming a huge controversy. do some research, and that could be a really interesting speech.

if you want a global issue that's not environmental- world genocides. tibet, sudan, etc. there's the big thing in africa with child soldiers as well. so many people are focused on solely the holocaust. however, there are many current genocides today that aren't getting attention.
 
This thread is fucking depressing.

Theres just an endless list of horrible things going on in the world... whether it be involving the environment or human life or both.

The world sucks balls.
 
wow lots of good ideas. thanks y'all! unfortunately, i didnt turn in my project proposal so he assigned me a topic. i am now doing the effects of farming fish. oh well, not bad. not great, but not bad.
 
yeah, you could've gotten much worse. any type of fish in particular or just fish farming in general? there was a really interesting talk at my school last semester on salmon farming. crazy stuff
 
I recommend everybody read this book. Its sitting in my room right now. she wrote that in the midst of the modernism movement and it was not looked very highly upon by many architects and planners. Look at Le Corbusier's contemporary city. It was based on a bunch of highways and huge skyscrapers.

If you really want all the answers especially in relation to today, Andres Duany's Suburban Nation is a very good book. It was pretty much my hand book for my paper.

I forget the author, but its a book called Crabgrass Frontier. check that out too.
 
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