Finish 2 assignments
Assignment #1
I use an acronym for this class- WASSEEM-. Water, Air, Soil, Species. Ecosystem, Energy and Minerals.
It is an easy way to remember and comprehend the critical elements of life the atmosphere (air) hyrdosphere (water), lithosphere (terrain) and biosphere (ecosytem) provide. Humans need WASSEEM to survive, but we damage and destroy it in the process of living our daily lives.
Download the WASSEEM Worksheet from the assignments for this week on the class website. Notice the worksheet asks you to identify why each resource is important AND how humans impact each of them. These are critical life resources that are essential to life on earth. Not just humans, but all living things.
NOTE: If you are having issues manipulating the matrix I have created, simply list each WASSEEM resource and under it, list why is important to life and how humans impact it.
For this assignment, don’t give obvious answers like ” humans will die without water”, or if we don’t have oxygen, we can’t breathe”. Put some thought into the assignment and think harder about the importance of each element of WASSEEM to all living things, not just humans.
Think about the Sustainability Triangle- how human actions affect the economy, the environment and human equity. If we don’t have clean air for instance, what are the negative consequences financially as an example?
Assignment #2
Watch the ORIGINAL Video the Lorax shown in the resource links for this week. It covers a number of environmental resource depletion and waste issues.
ASSIGNMENT: Create a LIST of environmental resource or pollution issues from the video. You should be able to easily come up with at least 6 or 7 issues.
Once you have done that, write a three page double spaced paper relating the movie, the Lorax to Santa Clara County or another large metropolitan area(I am Chinese) you are familiar with. This can be anywhere in the world.
Questions:
- Do you see any similarities? What are they? Explain in detail.
- What environmental, social and economic challenges were caused? Be sure to cover all three. What problems do they cause?
- How specifically could we live a more sustainable and biocentric lifestyle?
- What lessons does the video, The Lorax teach us? Give a DETAILED answer and connect your answer to a theory or principle covered in this class thus far.