cnn ), peer reviewed literature H u m a n i t i e s

People & Earth’s Ecosystems
Your task for this week is to find an article that describes some issue that you are interested in that is
related to “people and Earth’s ecosystems”. This can be any kind of issue, challenge, or opportunity
related to the environment and/or society. It can be local, national, or global in scope. The article can
be from the popular press (NPR, New York Times, CNN), peer reviewed literature (Science,
Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science), or some other source that you consider
reputable.
Write a 500-750 word paper that answers following questions about your article. Well be
grading
the clarity of the writing so please proofread your paper. You will lose points for sloppy writing,
typos, grammatical errors, etc.
1. Describe the source of the article. This can be brief (a couple sentences) if the source is wellknown, e.g. popular press or a peer-reviewed journal. If the source is not well-known, e.g. a
blog or other online source, then you have to provide a more detailed justification for the
reliability of the source. For example, what are the credentials of the author and/or editors of
the source? What is their purpose for writing this article? What topics have they written
about?
2. Provide a 1-2 paragraph summary of your article. Summarize the main message or argument
of the article.
3. Write a paragraph that provides a clear assessment of your own biases about the topic of the
article. Based on your own worldview, are you likely to agree or disagree with the main
message or argument of the article? What is it about your own background or experience that
makes you feel this way?
4. Write a paragraph that provides some alternative hypotheses or explanations for some claim
made in the article. Basically, I want you to disagree with some part of the article. For
example, if the article discusses how rising temperatures are killing coral reefs, I want you to
come up with a different explanation for why coral reefs are dying or question whether they
are really as threatened as the article claims. If the article claims that GMOs are harmful to
society and environment, then I want you to challenge that claim. Note that you might have to
put your own beliefs aside for this exercise, and that is OK. Do your best to make your
alternative explanation plausible, but I realize that you aren’t experts yet, and so it’s OK if
your alternative explanation is not as convincing as the argument from the article.