Thursday, January 31, 2013

Essay 1

Hi all -- here (below) are your options for Essay 1, due February 13. Please respond to just one of the questions. Further instructions for the assignment are contained in the course syllabus.

Question 1

I'd like you to choose an item that you're in regular contact with -- eg a food or beverage item, an article of clothing, an electronic device, etc. Your task is to produce a thorough "lifecycle assessment" of your chosen item. We'll talk about what this means in class. As a guide, see the excerpt from John Ryan and Alan Durning, "Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things," available in the Content section of our Blackboard site.

Question 2

I’d like you to revisit the Ecological Footprints exercise that you completed for class. Try three things for me. First, recalculate your footprint based on the life you lead in Washington DC. Next, calculate your Washington DC footprint as though you have adopted every environmentally-friendly lifestyle change that the calculator allows. Finally, complete the same exercise in one of the calculator’s other countries. 

What do you learn? What does this exercise suggest about the possibilities and / or the limitations of individual action as a response to unsustainable patterns of social organization?

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