There are six essay question options on this exam, and you are required to select and answer two of them in five-paragraph format (meaning five paragraphs per essay). Please create your own document to answer all three of your selected questions (and their associated numbers).  It is important that you provide answers with as much detail as possible in order to receive full credit.  It is expected that you will provide a deep and thorough analysis for each fact pattern.  Remember to draw upon things that you have learned regarding influences on green thinking such as worldviews and the precautionary principle in addition to our scientific foundations.  More detail is better than less. 

 

1. The town of Anut has been a fishing community for many generations. The town has come a long way from its inception when small teams would fish from dorys to modern day industrial commercial fishery with a massive fleet of high-tech boats that can plumb the ocean’s depths with long lines and deploy thousands of hooked lines at a time.  In recent years, improved fishing techniques have enabled fisherman to fish deeper and catch previously unknown species of fish that have become very popular in the marketplace. One such fish is the nilram, a silvery fish that averages four to five feet in length, and has a flaky white meat.  Catching nilram as a food fish has only been occurring for the past five years thanks to the availability of new equipment and techniques. In the current fishing season, fisherman noticed that they are catching almost no nilram on their lines. Typically when a fish population begins to decline, smaller (younger) individuals are caught but this is not the case with nilram.  It almost seems as if the entire population has disappeared over night. The Mayor of Anut has called upon you to come in and make an analysis with recommendations to a course of action.  In your report you must discuss how to define a sustainable fishery, the types of data and biological history required in order to make informed determinations about catch limits, your theory about why the nilram have suffered such an abrupt and instantaneous decline, and the recommendations you have for the fishing industry going forward.

 

2. You are the director of a small community watch group called Water Warriors. The primary source of water in your community comes from wells, but over the last several decades the water table has dropped due to overuse as a result of burgeoning agriculture and a few terrible drought years.   There is also contamination in the wells that is primarily the result of agriculture.  Many of the farms in the area are large monoculture farms that grow GMO corn.  The corn is desirable to the farmers due to its high fruiting rate, and ability to withstand large amounts of the pesticide Roundup. The governor of your state is entertaining a proposal by a private company (Burns Industries) to construct a desalination facility capable of processing billions of gallons of seawater per year.

The period for open comments to support or reject the idea is looming ahead, and you want to make sure that your community is aware of the issues.  To that end you have decided to draft a memo that details the pros and cons of using desalination to produce water resources, a conversation about the impacts of a privatized water supply, and any potential measures that could be taken to reduce the need for desalinization.  In addition, discuss the potential for making the water supply from wells safe for human consumption again in contrast to the desalinization plan.  You must also draft a list of questions you want to ask Burns Industries about all aspects of their proposed plan.

 

3. You live in the small community of Centralia Pennsylvania, and you recently received a note from the Federal government explaining that there are plans to begin a fracking operation in your area. Over 70% of the community gets their household water supply from wells, and the rest is supplied by near by Lake Noitullop and you are deeply concerned about how this will impact the integrity of the water supply.  In your notice it states that there will be a public hearing and comment period in three months.

In light of the facts disclosed in the letter, you have decided to research everything there is to know about fracking and compile it into a brief but concise memo to distribute throughout the community.  It is your gut feeling that this action needs to be opposed, but you want to be able to back up your opinion with solid research.

You also realize that in order to be convincing, you must be able to address and refute the reasons that the proponents of this action will give to support fracking.  It is important that people understand what ground water is, how it is influenced by (or influences) other water sources such as Lake Noitullop, and how fracking might impact these precious resources.  Good luck writing your memo, be convincing yet factual!

 

4. Captain Nostaw is an eco-activist and is in charge of a fleet of ships, the mission of which is to prevent harm and destruction to marine life (particularly marine mammals). In order to implement his mission Captain Nostaw routinely enters international waters to track down ships that are fishing illegally and make them stop, sometimes by use of force. Though he adheres to the rule that we don’t harm fellow humans, Captain Nostaw and his team are not averse to sinking ships, jamming or destroying fishing gear, and even using water hoses to blast other ships.

Captain Nostaw and his crew has been arrested many times for charges such as trespass and criminal damage to property. There is no question that crimes have been committed, but it is difficult to argue with the logic that not many people really want to see baby seals getting clubbed on the head. In many of Captain Nostaw’s campaigns the fishers are often violating laws. The question that logically follows is how reasonable it is to expect that we can stop people from breaking laws by breaking laws.

This past month Captain Nostaw and three of his crew members were arrested and taken to jail on the small island nation of Ocaba charged with trespass although at the time of engagement the ships in question were in international waters, destruction of property, and terrorism for sinking a small vessel that was hunting dolphins in coastal seas. According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) the dolphins that were being caught are endangered. The local laws of Ocaba define a terrorist as: “any act by a person or group of people intended to incite terror for the purpose of political gain”. The Ocabans are arguing that Captain Nostaw and his crew are intending to make them targets in the international community for perceived violation of CITES.

 

5. You are a biologist assigned to a task force by the United Nations to provide expert testimony on the matter of deep-sea mining. There is an area of interest off the coast of Tonga that mining companies from around the world have identified as a sizable reserve of precious metals needed in the production of technology.  The United Nations has convened a panel as a preemptive measure to determine whether a treaty would be warranted either to regulate or ban the mining outright.

The area in question partially encompasses a hydrothermal vent that houses some unique biodiversity and is an area of interest to scientific researchers.  Business interests that want to mine the area are quick to point out that they will being much needed jobs to Tongans and that this activity will help to bolster their economy.

Your task as a member of this committee is to identify the pros and cons of a mining operation in this region of the ocean, calculate risks associated with mining, cultivate a list of questions for the parties proposing the mining that might help your committee to further determine ecosystem impacts, and finally to determine what points should be addressed in a treaty OR whether a treaty should attempt a complete ban on the mining and why you think so.

 

6. You are the leader of the small but wealthy island nation Kamaaina, a popular tourist destination popular among scuba divers. The waters off Kamaaina feature a robust coral reef ecosystem worth millions of dollars in tourist revenue.  Recently the neighboring island of Ohana announced plans to clear-cut some of their coastal mangroves to establish fish farms because in recent years their annual catch has declined due to global overfishing.

Ohana is a poor nation with very few natural resources and no real goods for export, so by and large they are a subsistence society.  Your government is intensely concerned about the ecological impacts of removing mangroves, and pollution issues that may arise in relation to the fish farming operations.  Your concern over the potential negative impact to the delicate reef system has caused you to consider seeking arbitration through the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).

In order to start the process, you need to draft a memo to the members of your government so they can vote on whether to proceed with arbitration.  Your memo must address how the matter of territory is defined (what physical boundaries would be used to determine the exclusive economic zone of each sovereign as opposed to areas that are a global common) why mangroves are crucial habitat and discussion on the impacts of removing them, and a conversation about why fish farming may cause negative environmental impacts, or how fish farming might be conducted to minimize negative environmental impact.