After consultation with your tutor, you will identify a general theme and problem that will serve as a focus for your research for your Assignment 3: Position Paper and Assignment 4: Case Study . You will set out a series of questions that will help guide the research and identify the Journal Entries that you will submit. You will need to be aware that there are at least four different areas you could focus on when formulating your research interest: (1) world view; (2) values and the environment; (3) ethics and obligations toward the environment; (4) policy principles. Since your final assignment pertains to a case study, ensure that you see how each of these areas pertains to the analysis of the case you choose.
Note, that the case you select should have relevance to issues covered in the course. In other words, you do not want to choose a topic that addresses only a technical issue (e.g., how best to manage a forest for maximum yield). A related topic, however, would be quite appropriate (e.g., an ethical evaluation of a particular forestry company’s policy on maximum sustainable yield of its forest licence areas).
This assignment should take no more than a page. These are the basic steps you should follow:
- Identify a general overall question pertaining to environmental thought or ethics that you want to pursue.
- Identify a policy issue that you want to research and on which you want to develop a position (e.g., air pollution, nuclear waste disposal sitings, overpopulation, sustainable development practices in the Third World, deforestation). Note that you should be fairly specific when identifying a policy issue, since it will help focus your research interest. It is helpful to choose an issue at some political level of relevance (i.e., local, regional, national or international). Perhaps choose a local issue that your community is dealing with, or, if you are more interested in wider issues, choose a national (e.g., forestry, east coast cod fisheries, water exporting policy) or an international policy issue (e.g., Kyoto Protocol, ozone layer depletion, United States’ and Canadian foreign aid policy).Explain the connection you see between your policy issue and the general question you have.
- Identify a maximum of three key concepts (e.g., intrinsic value, anthropocentrism, sustainability, animism, mechanism, hierarchy, land pyramid, etc.) that you think will be important to define and defend in making your case.You will be assessed on how clearly you articulate the problem and explain the connection between 1. and 2. Assessment will also involve how well you have identified key concepts and explained your reasons for identifying them.
P. S. I have uploaded a sample document just for idea. Please do not use the same topic or content.