Conflicts between jobs and the environment:
Paper instructions:
What is our personal responsibility toward the natural world, toward what we term our natural resources? What power do we have to influence events? Of course, the word resources implies something to be used, yet how far do we go? Read about conflicts between jobs and the environment that have been prominent in this country. Does the need to preserve age-old redwood forests outweigh loggers’ needs for paychecks in California? Are fish in the Gulf of Mexico more important than jobs for the commercial fishermen living along that coast? Are offshore and deepwater drilling for oil more important than either the commercial fisheries industry or coastal tourism? Conflicts such as these are often settled in the courts. Read about one of these or a similar conflict, and, as you read, create a list of emotionally charged diction used by both sides. (Literature suggestions: Abbey’s “Eco Defense”, Dillard’s “The Present”, Huxley’s “Time and the Machine)