Write 6-8 pages, double-spaced, on one of the following topics
A) Many international environmental meetings, treaties, and negotiations have been troubled or outright stalled by the conflict between the United States and other countries. The US, until recently joined by Australia, says China, now the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, consumer of coal, creator of air pollution, etc, and a late developing country that has the opportunity of learning from the previous mistakes of others, ought to be a responsible environmental citizen now. China, on the other hand, still joined by many countries, argues that over half its people are still poor, there is little money available for environmental mitigation, and that it is not fair to make the Chinese people forego the benefits of prosperity in order to clean up the world for the Americans, who really dirtied the world earlier and still use much more energy, emit more greenhouse gases, and create more pollution per capita than does China. Who's right?
B) The hearth, or gaku galyr, is the heart of the Nuosu home. It is where people congregate around a fire to eat, drink, and talk; it is where the family meals are cooked; it is guarded by the spirits of the family ancestors. It also heats extremely inefficiently, using massive amounts of firewood cut in the forest to very little effect, and creates indoor air pollution that is documented to cause respiratory disease and eye problems.
So you are charged with designing a program to make heating and cooking less wasteful of resources, and a friend of yours in the School of Public Health is charged with a program to cut the incidence of respiratory diseases. How do the two of you go about this in a culturally sensitive way? Would you expect the Chinese government to design a similar, culturally sensitive and culturally appropriate program? Why or why not?