To complete the essay, you are required to write (using third-person language only) a
maximum five-page essay addressing the prompts below. You must use twelve-point font (Times
New-Roman is the most economical with space). You will need to put a lot of thought not only
into the content of the paper but also into the presentation of your response. Your essay needs to
be written in a single seamless narrative, without rephrasing the questions and without listing
answers in bullets. Draw on assigned readings and classroom lectures only. Do not use any other
sources.
Succeeding at this task means that you will want to employ an economy of words in
tightly constructed sentences and paragraphs. You should write in clear and concise language
that conveys only information that is relevant to the subject. In other words, avoid becoming
bogged down in minutiae, but provide the information necessary to show that you have a
comprehensive understanding of the reading materials. When you respond to the questions,
always think in terms of historical significance and draw on the course readings that cover the
period that you are asked to discuss. Organize your paragraphs thoughtfully, ensuring they
introduce a main point and remain focused on that point.
(Remember to follow the rules in the Grammar and Writing Style Guide. Retrieve it from your
class notebook and put it on your desk next to your computer before you begin.) Write this paper
as if you are writing to educate someone who has no familiarity with this topic or the course
readings. If you quote from one of the readings, either note the author’s name in the sentence or
the source title and page number in parenthesis at the end of the sentence. For example:
According to Donald Worster in The Wealth of Nature, “We have no full history of the word, but
its origins appear to lie in the concept of ‘sustained-yield.’” (Note that book titles are put in
italics not in quotation marks. Article and chapter titles are put in quotation marks. Additionally,
a quote within a quote, as “sustained-yield” appears here, is placed within single quotation
marks. This is the only reason for using single quotation marks.)
The prompt:
Some people maintain that science and technology (defined as machines and innovations,
and the systems to implement science and technology) can lead us down a sustainable path.
How since the 19th century has science and technology been used in an attempt to do this and
how has it also created challenges to sustainability? (Think about all the materials we’ve read
and the themes we’ve discussed since Jennifer Price. Think of the New Deal, dams, the
chemical age, old and new technologies, and more.)
Allowed Sources:
- Jennifer Price, Flight Maps: Adventures With nature in Modern America, chap 1Jennifer Price, Flight Maps: Adventures With nature in Modern America, chap 1
- Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, chaps 6 & 7.Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, chaps 6 & 7.
- Donald Worster, A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir, prologue.Donald Worster, A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir, prologue.
- Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, chaps 8-10Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, chaps 8-10
- Cyrenus Wheeler, “Sewers: Ancient and Modern,” (Cayuga County Hist. Soc.,Cyrenus Wheeler, “Sewers: Ancient and Modern,” (Cayuga County Hist. Soc., 1887)
- Anne Whiston Spirn, “Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted,” Uncommon Ground, 91-113
- Jared Orsi, “From Horicon to Hamburgers and Back Again: Ecology, Ideology, and Wildfowl Management, 1917-1935,” Environmental History Review 18 (Winter 1994): 19-40
- Worster, The Wealth of Nature, chap 6.
- Kevin Roose, “Sheep Lawn Mowers, and Other Go-Getters,” New York Times, November 2, 2011(Google the title to find on-line).
- Wesley Arden Dick, “When Dams Weren’t Damned: The Public Power Crusade and Visions of the Good Life in the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s,” Environmental Review 13 (Autumn-Winter 1989): 113-53.
- Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, chaps, 5 & 6, 145-213.
- Film: Cadillac Desert, episode 1.
- Lyndon B. Johnson, “Beautification,” Roderick Nash ed., American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History, 181-86.
- Rachel Carson, “Pesticides,” Nash, American Environmentalism, 191-94.
- President’s Science Advisory Committee, “Pollution,” Nash, American Environmentalism, 195-201.
- Paul Ehrlich, “Overpopulation,” Nash, American Environmentalism, 202-05.
- Barry Commoner, “Fundamental Causes of the Environmental Crisis,” Nash, American Environmentalism, 206-14.
- The Council on Environmental Quality, “The State of the Environment,” Nash, American Environmentalism, 215-26.
- Samuel P. Hays, “From Conservation to Environmentalism,” Nash, American Environmentalism, 144-52.
- Film: Gimme Green
- Andrew Kirk, “Appropriating Technology” The Whole Earth Catalog and Counterculture Environmental Politics,” Environmental History 6 (July 2001): 374-94.
- Mauricio Schoijet, “Limits to Growth and the Rise of Catastrophism,” Environmental History 4 (October 1999): 515-30.