Essays

This assignment is very flexible, and I am completely open to your ideas for how to approach it. However, in the interest of getting started and providing a rough blueprint, I offer the following instructions.

Select an environmental health issue related to the modules we've just covered and that might be found in the newspaper, internet, or other popular media. Describe the risks of exposure, the resulting risks to health and the environment, and the possible controls available. For this environmental health issue, describe the different positions taken by politicians, scientists, and average folks. Finally, state your opinions on this issue, and try to support it with your knowledge of environmental health.

The essay should be about 900 words long (about 3 double-spaced pages of writing). I will grade on the basis of:

1. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation.   
2. How well you describe the technical aspects of the risks.
3. How well you describe the range of positions on a particular issue.
4. How well you defend your conclusions.  For this assignment, I care much more 
    about the strength of your arguments than about the conclusion itself.   Many 
    environmental health issues have a wide range of supportable positions.

Possible topics include:

1.	Are air quality standards too strict?
2.	Is the water supply safe?
3.	Are nuclear power plants a major risk?
4.	Was Erin Brokavich right?
5.	Is there really a hole in the ozone layer?
6.	Is there really a greenhouse effect?
7.	Is bioterrorism the biggest environmental risk we face?
8.	Does racism play a role in hazardous waste management?
9.	What are the biggest risks to our food supply?
10.          Are we spending too much money on wastewater treatment facilities? 

There are many more possibilities, but I want you to be creative with it! You may wish, for example, to team up with a classmate and write a paper in which you take opposing positions. The resulting paper would have to be 6 double-spaced pages (for 2 students), but sometimes the work goes faster and more effectively with this approach.

Be sure to have me approve your topic before you proceed! I'm pretty flexible, and sometimes I can advise you in a way to make the assignment easier and more effective.