Write on one of the following topics:

A) The field of environmental history has been based on the premise that environmental degradation in recent centuries stems from the profit motive in capitalism, which compels resource extractors and manufacturers to carry out their activities in the most profitable way, and thus requires them to cut costs wherever possible, making it impossible to guard resources or the environment. Examples are legion.

Judith Shapiro's Mao's War Against Nature challenges this view, showing how state socialism in the 20th century was just as destructive to the environment as was capitalism, though perhaps in different ways. You should consider the question of whether socialist environment-trashing and capitalist environment-trashing are identical results of high modernism, or if they are inevitable results of industry under any kind of ideology or political system, or if they each have their own unique characteristics dictated by the political and economic features of their respective systems. In doing so, it would probably help greatly to refer to James Scott's ideas (1998) about high modernism.

B) James Scott states, on pages 94-95 of Seeing Like a State, that "This belief that it was man's destiny to tame nature to suit his interests and preserve his safety is perhaps the keystone of high modernism." Using examples from Unit IV and, if you care to, from Unit V of the course, argue

• Whether or not this "keystone" in itself is sufficient to explain any of the environmental problems caused directly or indirectly by revolutionist or developmentalist policies of the PRC state since 1949, without referring to specifically socialist or Marxist beliefs, and
• Whether recent attention paid to environmental protection and environmental cleanup in polities and practices of the Chinese state indicate a move away from high modernism and toward some sort of post-High modernism or even post-modernism on the part of the Chinese state.

C) On pages 129-30 of Robert Weller's Discovering Nature (assigned for the next unit, but you might as well get ahead if you want to write on this topic), he quotes Chinese environmentalist Liang Congjie as saying "China's biggest problem...was the environmental ignorance of he peasantry, and thus it was crucial to offer educational programs."

This view is extremely common among Chinese intellectuals: the peasants are ignorant, backward, and superstitious, and it is the duty of the state and the intellectuals to educate them. Are the intellectuals missing something here, at least when the topic is the environment? What, exactly, are the peasants ignorant of? Is it possible that the intellectuals might learn something useful from the peasants (or the pastoralists or the upland farmers) as well?

Essays should be between 1500 and 2000 words in length, not counting bibliographic references. You may use any style (footnotes, endnotes, or embedded author and date) for references, as long as it is clear where you have gotten your information. Quotations should always be referenced, as should any information that is taken explicitly from a given source.