Learning Target: researching your a Supreme Court issue with the objective of writing two editorials: point / counter point.
At the end of this blog, you will find your topics. Be patient. On Monday, I'll explain the research and writing aspect of this project.
What you should be able to do after completing this unit.
- Understand the opinion function of a newspaper and the various ways in which it is expressed.
- Develop a focus for writing and formulating an opinion.
- Organize evidence to support a position.
- Present evidence clearly and convincingly,
- Support and defend ideas and thoughts.
In class assignment:
Sample point / counterpoint editorials.
Please read the following point / counterpoint editorials on climate change. For each write 3 arguments the author uses to prove his point on the impact of climate change. (Send these along, marking con: 1....2....3... and pro: 1...2...3...Sample point / counterpoint editorials.
Make sure to use specific text from each of the editorials.
1) Guest column: Editorial right to blame humans for climate change
Con:
Denial, of course, seems easier than changing one's habits. Hopefully the prestigious sources and clear presentations provided will dampen them, especially those based on anecdotes or conspiracy theories.
Already important natural systems on which humans have depended for thousands of years are being disrupted.
There is fossil evidence of humans in Africa millions of years ago, but the first evidence of farming appeared about 10,000 years ago, in several places in the Middle East when climatic conditions were suitable.
Farming provided greater food production allowing new professions to develop with the new professionals being fed from farming rather than hunting and gathering.
With human inventiveness, farming became more and more efficient, allowing progressively greater percentages of the people to work in professions other than those providing food.
This arrangement has existed for only about 1 percent of human history.
The transitions to farming allowed major institutions of our cultures, cities, academies, churches, newspapers, the Internet and so on to develop.
If climate instabilities remove the practicality of farming, our culture and populations will collapse as many are starving.
This fear haunts many cognizant of the effects of high CO2 levels.
Having worked on several Kansas farms in my youth, I understand many of those who shop for their food being unaware of the uncertainties of farming, including choosing crop varieties to plant.
If the weather unfolds as expected, yields can be high.
But unexpectedly dry or wet conditions, or days too hot or nights too cold, can destroy yields, as can insects, hail, strong winds, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc., causing partial or complete loss of a season's work.
With ideal weather and mechanization, American farmers now typically feed more than 100 people each, allowing most people to specialize in different professions.
This happy situation characterizes the Neolithic period. This more predictable weather was a precious gift from nature.
But rampant burning of fossil fuel is replacing the Neolithic with the Anthropocene, with increasingly violent storms that seem a harbinger of what may be to come if we do not quickly reduce CO2 emissions.
The Neolithic period allowed increasingly specialized professionals to develop writing, religions, sciences, medicine, military, political and many other skills that now characterize our cultures.
Many have taken Neolithic conditions to be the default state for Earth, even though such conditions have not existed here except for the past 10,000 years, and they do not exist on any other known planet.
"So now what?" the editorial caption asks.
Our legendary American creativity, ingenuity and resources need to be focused on finding green energy for our requirements, which could be funded by only part of the billions of dollars annually subsidizing oil and coal production and transport.
Jay Huebner of Jacksonville is a research professor.
Guest column: Times-Union embraced misrepresentations of climate alarmists
A recent Florida Time-Union editorial quoted a National Academy of Sciences committee statement. in a report on climate change claiming that temperature increases in the 20th century were "very likely caused primarily by the emission of greenhouse gases from human activities."
In my opinion, and the opinion of hundreds of scientists and meteorologists, this statement was based on faulty science.
Pro: Editorial right to blame humans for climate change
It has been said that this decade was the warmest on record. But the "record" referred to the 150 years or so of actual temperature measurements taken at various locations around the world.
This period, beginning in about 1850, just happens to coincide with the end of the Little Ice Age.
We would expect a gradual increase in surface temperature during this period.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records indicate that the average temperature has only risen about 0.7 degrees Celsius over this 150 plus year period, whereas the peak temperature during the Little Ice Age was about 2 degrees C lower and the Medieval Warm Period was about 2 degrees C warmer than current temperatures.
It is important for each of us to understand the history of climate change, particularly for the last 10,000 years or so.
A book by Ian Plimer titled "Heaven and Earth, Global Warming — the Missing Science" is a good reference work.
Simplified, the studies tell us that there have been a number of previous ice ages and warming periods, beginning with the aforementioned Medieval Warm Period, the Roman Warm period, the Minoan Warm Period and more with their corresponding ice ages.
These occurred over periods of 1,000 to 1,500 years with mini cycles of warm and cold periods of about 25 to 40 years in length.
Temperatures during these warming periods have been as high as 5 to 7 degrees C higher than the current temperatures.
The latest warming period, the Medieval Warm Period, occurred from about 900 to 1300. This was followed with the Little Ice Age period ending in about 1850.
Written records document these warming and cooling periods with the prosperous living conditions described during the warm period and difficult living conditions likewise described during the Ice Age.
A warming trend generally occurred from 1850 until 1940, with a mini cold cycle from the late 1880s into about 1910 and a warming cycle in the 1920s and 1930s.
From 1940 until 1975, we experienced a mini cold cycle during which some current global warming proponents worried that we were going into a new ice age.
We again experienced a warming trend from 1976 until 1999 and have experienced a cooling trend for the last decade.
We are continually exposed to highly publicized misrepresentations followed by corrections hardly covered by the press.
One example was a statement by NASA in 2009 that nine of the 10 hottest years were in the last decade.
When called on this gross misrepresentation, NASA quietly recanted.
In fact, only one year in this decade, 2006, was in the top 10, the years being in the 1920s and 1930s and two in the 1950s.
Marvin Wicker is a retired environmental engineer from Orange Park.
Editorial selections for journalism
Period 3; Phil-voting rights
Dynesha- facebook
Summer-contraception
Khamphasong- contraception
Jaida- beards in prison
Morgan- voting rights
Nicole- facebook
Tahmir-beards in prison /
religious freedom
Nick-contraception
Concetta- beards in prison
Elaine-voting rights
Hannah-affirmative action
Katherine-affirmative
action
Sidney- voting rights
Angelica- beards in prison /
religious rights
Nadine-voting rights
Miricle-contraception
Diamond- facebook
Mazarita- beards in prison / religious
Mazarita- beards in prison / religious
Period 5
Duncan- abortion
Shelby- voting rights
Deon’e –abortion
Jackson- beards in prison/ religious
freedom
Heidi- Facebook
Nathaniel- beards in prison
Jacob- contraception
Lillian-affirmative action
Deja-voting rights
Samyra- voting rights
Betty-affirmative action
Nathan-beards in prison
Simon- contraception
Quinn-affirmative action
Lauryl-affirmative action
Jasmyn-voting rights
Michael- affirmative action
Phalyn- abortion
Enuma-beards in prison/ religious
freedom
Julia- contraception
Veronica- contraception
Ethan- voting rights
Alexis –contraception
Rachel- facebook
Molly-facebook
Mystique –voting rights
Tessa- contraception
Period 9
Alice –voting rights
Shantia- Facebook
Laura- contraception
Chloe-Facebook
Jerimiah –Beards in
Prison
Sevyion-beards in
prison
Shakeiya—beards in
prison
Joyce-Facebook
Maya-contraception
Taylor-beards in prison
Elizabeth-affirmative
action
Gina-voting rights
Adi-abortion
Aleigha-facebook
Claire-contraception
Darren-abortion
Clarissa-voting rights
Zach-contraception
Abram-affirmative
action
Brittany-Abortion
Emma-abortion
Alison-affirmative
action
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