Week 10 Assignment – Critical Threats to the Global Environment
Critical Threats to the Global Environment
Overview
The United Nations has continued to retain you as a consultant for a
project that deals with climate and the environment. Most developed
countries see the dangers of releasing too much carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere and are committed to climate policies that attain a
carbon-free future in the next 30 years. They already see the
damaging effects that this gas alone is having on the living
conditions of crops, wildlife, and humans. As a result, many member
states are dissatisfied with the progress of the eight Millennium
Development Goals for international development that they
established in 2000. The member states see a substantial disconnect
between several issues that developed and developing countries
believe are priorities. For example, Burundi wants one of the
goals to focus on food security, while Austria is adamant that a major
global issue should be the negotiation of ceasefires in countries in the
midst of civil wars. The UN wants you to work from the list below and
prioritize two of the global community’s threats that it deems the most
serious to environmental stability.
Step 1
Select two threats. Listed below are eight issues that the UN feels
pose the most significant threats to global security. Some of these
apply to the Earth’s 7.7 billion people, while others are limited
primarily to developing countries. Regardless of where these threats
are concentrated, your job as a consultant is to identify two of them
that you consider the most critical to the globe’s population
1. Insufficient educational opportunities in developing countries.
2. A lack of access to technology.
Write a minimum of an 8 page persuasive paper about your two
threats.
Write an introduction paragraph of at least one-half page in length
identifying the two threats you have selected and the purpose of the
paper. Then, for the two threats you chose:
1. Identify the factors that make it such a serious risk to the global
environment that you would choose to present it to the UN.
2. Analyze the role that humans have played in aggravating this threat
to the Earth’s environment.
3. Suggest initiatives that the global community can take to mitigate
the worst effects of this environmental threat.
4. Write a conclusion paragraph of at least one-half page in length that
summarizes your impressions of these risks for global stability
In order to earn full credit, the answers to each of the three questions
must be at least two full pages long, making six pages. You must also
include the one-half page introduction and one- half page conclusion
at the beginning and end of the paper, adding up to one page of
content.
Finally, you must include a graph or table (see 5, below) that will be at
least one page in length.
The entire paper will be a minimum of eight pages long.
As part of your answer to any one of the questions, you must include a
graph, table or chart using quantifiable data that supports your
argument. You need only one graph for the entire
assignment, and although you may download this item from the
Internet, it may be no longer than one page in length. You must
comprehensively explain beneath the graph what the data
means. Otherwise, it will be of no use to the reader.