All I have to say is I am glad I don't have to write the paper.  The instructor would not like my middle of the road (balanced) thoughts and opinions.

You take Al Gore's approach, then you take the "conservative" approach, cut it in half, conduct a little more research, and you have a more viable problem and possibly a solution.  Ok, maybe that is too simple but it is something close to this process without actually writing the paper.

Besides one of the things I have learned in my studies at my university, it's all about impressing the professor which may or may not apply in the real world or in practical application.

Most undergraduates and some graduates are young and have not experience the real world while I have the opportunity to experience both sides of the coin.  I can tell when the professor is being obtuse and when he/she is actually teaching me something that can be applied outside a collegiate environment.  If I feel the professor is being selfish and closed minded in either direction, I usually just drop the class or keep quiet in order to avoid a bad grade.  It is unfortunate that not all professors are open minded and perhaps accept student thoughts that may be outside their line of thinking when the college class room is the best environment to be "truly" open minded.  Like V stated, /politics off in the class room and anywhere else that politics do not belong.

Just blame the Evil Pharmaceutical companies in the quest for ever increasing profits pushed the healthcare reform bill through (cause more people will be able to get medicine) which increases the pollution of the lakes and rivers, changing the sex of all fish to female and removing all the males (actual news article this week). Which in turn is ingested by humans, resulting in all men being eliminated from the planet. So within six pages you will have blamed capitalism, Big Pharma and greedy corporations and all fish. On the plus side if your teacher is a liberal woman - you eliminate all men :D

Isn't "Save the planet" really mean, "Save Humanity"?

We are but a cancer on the planet’s body; continuously changing its cells into forms, not productive for the over all good of the planet, but to fit our own trivial needs and desires. Our selfish creations and our inefficient waste, only seeks to slowly poison humanity.

Worry not for the planet. The planet will use its antibodies, whether it is earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, volcanoes, and the like. It will fight to battle the parasitic disease, known as humanity, in order to digest that which was taken and heal itself in time.

The planet is how old?

Humanity is how old?

What will really be the first to die? 

What really needs to be saved?

Ultimately, humanity's fight is with itself. Its fight is to prolong its existence on a body that has finite resources and learn to harness and renew those resources.

Humanity's existence is only a tick on the clock of the Earth's lifetime.

Ask not what humans can do for the planet, but what humans can do for humanity. The planet cares not…

One must read papers with a critical eye.  Being ingrained in test and experimentation... I have caught many people who abused statistics to say whatever they want.  There was a demonstration back in college by a shock group that was anti-animal experimentation and they were handing out papers on mortality rates.. while alas that was 10 years ago and I don't have the paper anymore, I took it back to my engineering class and we took about 5 minutes and ripped it to shreds.  That said, anyone not trained in statistics could be easily misled.

It's about as confusing as the unemployment rate too between which is the right one, 17% or 10% ;)  It all depends on very specific definitions and what's accounted and not.

That all said, the human body is remarkably resistant to lots of things.  Do we need to study effects on the environmental population?  Surely yes.  Do we need to spend bazillions of dollars in cap and trade or going for a super 'green economy' before we truly understand where we're at now and where we're going?  Heck no.  Let's do a good study where we can get the data in the open and debated, THEN go plan and execute that plan.

Unlike healthcare... inadequate studies on what's actually wrong with the system, hence a 2,000+ page bill that no one really knows if it will help or not.  I would really expect that if some congressman is going to say that this healthcare bill will help the US, it should be easy for them to explain why.  I haven't heard anyone actually go right at that question and say why this is the right way and no other way is the right way. 

/politics off ;)

Hi Baby,   I know this is not very sexy but here it goes.

Don’t forget about the methane gas from cows. One dairy cow passes about 150 kilograms of gas per year.

Plus the decomposition of manure releases even more methane.

So want to save the planet? Go veggie

Caeky

I suggest going into a discussion of 'hard' v 'soft' sustainability theory and explore the issue of the degree of substitutability between natural and man-made capital in terms of well-being.

I suspect your teacher would give you a fail, but you'd ring my bell ;)

~S~ 

One of the biggest issues that mankind faces right now isnt from chopping down tree's.............its the myriad of man-made chemicals and compounds that havent been fully tested. V you would probably know more about that stuff with your background but some of the documentaries and papers I have read point to these chems/compounds being potentially pretty nasty. One doco was pointing to the decline in males being born and the decline in male fertility rates as a direct example. Did I just write your paper for you Caek ?

You could ignore the topic given and right 6 pages on "Who would win: Pirate or Ninja"

I'm sure they'll give you bonus points :D