Readings Posted

Essays on topics local and otherwise that will foster discussions of our Local Inquiry and Public Essay assignment have been posted to drop.io. Please note that some of these texts contain disturbing content:

• essay_boerner_follow_poop.pdf

• essay_boerner_our_town.pdf

• essay_distaso_when_urban.pdf

• essay_henson_scales_hostess.pdf

• essay_henson_scales_hostess_graphics.pdf

• essay_klosterman_crazy.pdf

• essay_kolbert_catastrophist.pdf

• essay_komanoff_whither_wind.pdf

• essay_malone_the_myth.pdf

• essay_orlean_lifelike.pdf

• essay_rabbit_briefs.pdf

Thomas Friedman's "The New Sputnik"

Thomas Friedman has a new column today in The New York Times that echoes his 2007 column on "The Power of Green" and should be helpful for those writing an Open Letter about climate change and China.  An excerpt from "The New Sputnik":

What do we know about necessity? It is the mother of invention. And when China decides it has to go green out of necessity, watch out. You will not just be buying your toys from China. You will buy your next electric car, solar panels, batteries and energy-efficiency software from China.

I believe this Chinese decision to go green is the 21st-century equivalent of the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik — the world’s first Earth-orbiting satellite. That launch stunned us, convinced President Eisenhower that the U.S. was falling behind in missile technology and spurred America to make massive investments in science, education, infrastructure and networking — one eventual byproduct of which was the Internet.

Readings Posted

Thomas P.M. Barnett's "Six Ways to Cool Down Over the Climate-Change Security Scare" as well as John M. Broder's "Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security" have been posted to drop.io.  We'll talk about both texts in class next week; either one can be used as a primary text in the Open Letter assignment.

Forum: Graeme Wood’s "Re-Engineering the Earth"

• Using notes from your critical reading, post a public comment of 50-100 words about Graeme Wood’s "Re-Engineering the Earth," which appeared in the July/August 2009 edition of The Atlantic. Update: also post a response to another writer.
  

• How to do this: Click "comments" below this post, then compose your comment in the box provided, select "Name/URL" under "Comment as," click "Preview" to proofread your comment, and finally click "Post Comment." Update: since we're practicing commenting on a public forum, rather than selecting a username from an account (such as Google) that might not reflect your real name, please provide at least your first initial and last name under "Name/URL."

• Think of this comment in terms of inquiry: you can question, analyze, interpret, respond, compare, contrast, or elaborate, but try not to engage in outright argument. The comment should also incorporate a paraphrase of, or quotation from, the text it's addressing. In constructing your comment, pay particular attention to the rhetorical situation: has the source text already been introduced? What kind of author tag seems most appropriate? Has another comment already addressed the substance of your comment?

Forum: Edward Wilson’s "Apocalypse Now"

• Using notes from your critical reading, post a public comment of 50-100 words about Edward Wilson’s "Apocalypse Now," which appeared in the September 2006 edition of The New Republic. Update: also post a response to another writer.
  

• How to do this: Click "comments" below this post, then compose your comment in the box provided, select "Name/URL" under "Comment as," click "Preview" to proofread your comment, and finally click "Post Comment." Update: since we're practicing commenting on a public forum, rather than selecting a username from an account (such as Google) that might not reflect your real name, please provide at least your first initial and last name under "Name/URL."

• Think of this comment in terms of inquiry: you can question, analyze, interpret, respond, compare, contrast, or elaborate, but try not to engage in outright argument. The comment should also incorporate a paraphrase of, or quotation from, the text it's addressing. In constructing your comment, pay particular attention to the rhetorical situation: has the source text already been introduced? What kind of author tag seems most appropriate? Has another comment already addressed the substance of your comment?

Readings Posted

Three readings that will become important to our upcoming Open Letter assignment have been posted to drop.io:

• Edward O. Wilson's "Apocalypse Now"

• Graeme Wood's "Re-Engineering the Earth"

• Bjørn Lomborg's "Mr. Gore, Your Solution to Global Warming Is Wrong"

Readings Posted

A few additional readings that become important to our upcoming Academic Summary assignment and our discussions in class this week have been posted to drop.io:

• "China’s Green Leap Forward" and “How Baoding, China Becomes the World’s First ‘Carbon Positive’ City,” by Peter Ford. There's also a graphic that accompanies these texts.

• "The Elusive Green Economy," by Joshua Green.

New Classroom Location + Reading Posted

• Remember that beginning tomorrow, Friday, August 28, our meeting location switches to Molecular and Radiological Biosciences 109, which features better classroom technology. The Molecular and Radiological Biosciences building lies south of the Chemistry and Microbiology buildings, along Lake Street. For directions, find building 76 on Colorado State's online map, or if that map takes too long to load, download a PDF map of the campus.

• Thomas Friedman's "The Power of Green" has been posted to drop.io. See our Academic Summary assignment handout for a preview of the work we'll do with that text beginning next week.

Syllabus + Readings + Academic Summary Assignment Posted

Our syllabus, three articles distributed in class today, and a handout on our upcoming Academic Summary assignment have been posted to drop.io:

• moreno_co150_policies.pdf

• reading_lydersen_scientists_pace.pdf

• reading_bbc_global_warming.pdf

• reading_pollan_why_bother.pdf

• summary_assignment.pdf

PHG pages 176 to 187 ("Responses to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change") have also been posted to drop.io.