Environmental Science

Discuss: a minimum of 250 words (main post) and two scholarly sources. Replies should be no less than 75 words each. (Note: References do not apply towards the word count).

Q. What are acceptable sources of information for my responses?

A. The primary source of answers comes from the course Read and Attend sections. I consider a source as scholarly and academic if it is published in an edited book (not a textbook), in a peer-reviewed publication, in an academic journal, or by a university press. Most web sources will not meet the criteria for a scholarly source.

Note: Academic journals are located in the University Library (CLICK HERE) online, or through Google Scholar.

Wikipedia is not credible and must be avoided. Other sources such as study.com and coursehero practice plagiarism and are to be avoided. Newspapers and magazines are not scholarly sources and do not count as a source.

Citing a source does not give license to copy word-for-word or verbatim, which is still plagiarism. You must paraphrase the information in your own words. Plagiarism may result in zero points for the entire unit assignment and/or course failure.

Introduction: The Biblical book of Genesis is pretty clear on the fact that humans have dominion over all of the Earth. On one hand, White (1967) argued that Western biblical tradition (Judaism and Christianity) was at the root of the environmental crisis simply because humans are the master of and not part of the environment (God’s creation). On the other hand, an argument could be made that “to subdue the Earth” actually connects us to nature (the rest of creation) (Santmire 1991). Eastern religious traditions, for instance, believe that humans are indeed part of nature as do traditional Native American Indian practices.

Discussion: Research*, identify and discuss a human-induced environmental issue either on a global scale, on a national scale, or on a local scale. (The environmental issue is one that is caused by humans and not by nature).

* I highly recommend research through EBSCO (Bethel Library) for scholarly and academic sources.

* Be sure not to repeat sources already cited by me or another student.

Santmire, H. P. (1991). The Genesis creation narratives revisited: Themes for a global age. Interpretation: A Journal For Bible and Theology, 45(4); 366-379. Retrieved from: http://journals.sagepub.com.

White, L., Jr. (1967). The historical roots of our ecological crisis. Science, 155(3767): 1203-1207.