i have a politics of the environment grad course for which i need to write a 15-20 page research paper. the paper is to be able to be somewhat specific in topic, and focus on how politics relates to the issue.

anyone have any suggestions? the proposal is due thursday and i'm still up in the air. a few ideas i brainstormed in order of interest:

-- loss of biodiversity/species (feel this is broad; need to narrow)
-- the current state of china
-- the deforestation or maintenance of forests in a specific area, say haiti or the dominican republic like jared diamond discusses in collapse, or maybe the amazon.
-- the united states and the kyoto protocol (not all that interested, for some reason)

ok, go.

i think the chinese one would be interesting to research and write. plus, its sort of a hot topic now, especially with the olympics coming up.

there's always ANWR. that would probably be pretty easy.

I'd suggest writing a nice piece on US water law. It's an interesting topic of increasing importance.

what's your favorite part of what you're studying? I'd also make it something with water, or with local politicians.
And in China it's interesting to see they have an organisation that locates (water) pollution and places it on the internet.
But I don't know if the politicians do anything with that.

groetjes,
Mirella

Sounds to me like not enough is being written on China.

How about a paper about how if the US joined Kyoto or made its own stricter environmental regulation laws it wouldn't matter anyway, because even more companies would go to third world countries where they have neither the laws, nor the desire to enforce them, because of the lift it will give their fledgling economy? Or you could always make your thesis the exact opposite if you want.

quote="invention"]i think the chinese one would be interesting to research and write. plus, its sort of a hot topic now, especially with the olympics coming up.[/quote]
yes, and as nick says above, it doesn't appear to get much coverage.


hadn't thought of that. hm. i suppose i could touch on biodiversity/species loss on that topic, yea? i'm not well-versed and it could be a good learning experience.


interesting concept: a sort of "what would happen if the u.s. joined kyoto?," i suppose?

another idea i had was the topic of environmentally sound practices when the rules are left to local versus federal (or along those lines).

loss of species and biodiversity, probably. or perhaps deforestation. those are what interests/riles me up the most.

do you know what web site?

I was just saying to my mom earlier that when China hosts the Olympics, it will be interesting to see if China gets more than they bargained for in world exposure.

it was on TV here, I will look if I can find it again.
Another interesting subject maybe the current hype about doing things 'environmentally neutral': people pay extra for polluting, like flying, and from the profits trees are planted. The stupid thing is those trees are usually planted in developing countries with not much rules and almost no pollution of their own and in forests. There was a documentary on TV here last week about whole families who lost their land and income because of these practices.

groetjes,
Mirella

P.S.: you could use Pearl Jam's example for this

I would definitely go with China but I'd be a little afraid of someone else in the class doing it. I guess if you do a good job it wouldn't matter.

it's a very small class ... but good point.

Also, I'd worry a little bit about having trouble finding real data since the Chinese government has been so strict about letting that stuff out, but there's probably enough stories and studies out recently. I'm sure you could do a lot about the the political situation in China and how it affects environmental regulation and progressive movements, etc.

I think that even if it was a large class, this wouldn't be a threat because the topic of China is so vast.

jared diamond's chapter on china in collapse is packed full of information, and the book i'm currently reading has some, too. i'm sure i could find enough.

This is a cool story: a hydro-electric dam that was just built in Iceland to power an aluminum smelter. The public went fucking nuts because it flooded a huge national park; and Icelanders are very passionate about their natural landscapes. Read more about it here:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/ ... udice-text

is this a poly sci class where you have to have a testable hypothesis? or a straight research paper? (sorry, i don't know what your grad program is- i feel like i remember you saying poly sci tho)

I have to do a policy paper for my poli sci class. I think I'm going to be talking about the evils of agricultural subsidies, but I think I'll focus primarily on corn based ethanol because its such an easy target.