Shaping Current 139

Project Overview

In this project, you will select a major global issue to study. You’ll learn more about the history of your chosen issue, and explain how this history can inform how the issue is approached today. You’ll create a presentation to share your findings.

Competency

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:

Explain the role of history in shaping current circumstances

Scenario

You work for Agua Sin Fronteras (ASF, or “Water without Borders”), an international nonprofit committed to providing access to clean drinking water, improving sanitation facilities, and delivering health education programs around the globe.

Dr. Paige Turner, a historian, has asked ASF for help writing a policy brief for the United Nations (UN). Dr. Turner’s organization gives presentations about the history of current issues.

Since ASF has studied issues like climate change, pollution, and deforestation for a long time, she wants to collaborate. Your supervisor, Sue Edge, knows you’re interested in history and has asked you to work with Dr. Turner on the presentation.

Directions

During your first meeting, Dr. Turner was so impressed by your enthusiasm that she asked you to create part of the presentation for the United Nations.

Use the following directions to guide your historical analysis and develop your presentation.

Choose the issue that you want to investigate for your presentation. Select one issue from the following list to research: Climate changePollutionDeforestationResearch your issue.Read and analyze the resources about your chosen issue in the the Primary and Secondary Sources for United Nations Briefing document. These resources provide important historical context for current discussions about these issues that you’ll want to discuss in your presentation.Note: You can do some of your own research to add to the resources provided. If you decide to do so, make sure that you choose reliable sources.Present your issue. For this project, create 8–12 slides with speaker notes. To learn more about creating a presentation, refer to the Supporting Materials section. Remember to cite your sources.In your presentation, Dr. Turner has asked you to do the following: Describe your chosen issue.Describe your research approach. How did you analyze primary and secondary sources on the issue? What questions did you ask about the documents?How did you identify the facts to make your point? What did you learn from the documents about the history of your issue?Analyze your issue. What is the history of the issue? Describe the issue based on your analysis of the primary and secondary sources that you researched.How have historians described and interpreted this issue in the past? How has this changed over time? (Note: Be sure to discuss multiple perspectives and focus on how these perspectives changed over time.)How did various groups present the issue throughout history (including social, economic, and political interests)? Have these presentations changed or remained the same over time?Relate your issue to the present. How does the history of your issue relate to current circumstances?What are the similarities and differences between past and present?Explain how history informs current discussions about the topic. How could historical context and inquiry inform current discussion and future decisions about your issue? Historical context refers to the norms and values of a particular time in history. For example: Take the current issue of expanding voting rights to prisoners in the United States. When analyzing this issue, it’s important to consider the historical context of voting rights in this country. In 1865, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution gave African American men the right to vote. In 1920, women were given the right to vote by the 19th Amendment. Understanding this context can help inform your discussion of the issue. HIS 20020 Primary and Secondary Sources for United Nations Briefing
Climate Change
Primary Sources
Bush, George. “White House Statement on the Ministerial Conference on Atmospheric Pollution and
Climate Change November 7, 1989.” American Reference Library – Primary Source Documents 1. History
Reference Center
Clinton, William J. 2005. “Global Climate Change.” Vital Speeches Of The Day 72, no. 5: 154-158.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 1998. “Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.”
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. 2018. State of the Climate: Global Climate
Report January 2018.
Congressional Research Service The Library of Congress, Global Climate Change Treaty: Negotiations and
Related Issues, 97-1000 ENR, (November 21, 1997), ProQuest Congressional from the Shapiro Library
United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and
Sinks”, Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Updated April 16, 2018.
Secondary Sources
Bailey, Ronald. 1997. “Bill and Al’s global warming circus.” Forbes 160, no. 10: 346-354. Business Source
Ultimate, EBSCOhost from the Shapiro Library
Accessible Version
Curson, Peter. 2018. “Climate Change and Population Health.” Geodate 31, no. 2: 9. MasterFILE Premier,
EBSCOhost from the Shapiro Library
Maslin, Mark. “Climate Change and World Trade.” In The Sea in History – The Modern World, edited by
Rodger N.A.M and Buchet Christian, 680-92. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK; Rochester, NY, USA: Boydell and
Brewer, 2017. JSTOR from the Shapiro Library
“KP Introduction,” United Nations Climate Change, United Nations, updated 2018.
Glassberg, David. “Place, Memory, and Climate Change.” The Public Historian 36, no. 3 (2014): 17-30.
JSTOR from the Shapiro Library
Sabin, Paul. “”The Ultimate Environmental Dilemma”: Making a Place for Historians in the Climate
Change and Energy Debates.” Environmental History 15, no. 1 (2010): 76-93. JSTOR from the Shapiro
Library
Pollution
Primary Sources
Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine, Senate, Memorial for investigation of pollution of
rivers: Pollution of rivers, etc., S.doc.194, (March 17, 1898). ProQuest Congressional from the Shapiro
Library
U.S. District Court of the District of Montana, Tailing pipes at Colorado Smelting and Refining Co.,
Mountain View operation, 1906. Photograph. National Archives, Montana.
Johnson, Lyndon B. “602 Statement by the President in Response to Science Advisory Committee Report
on Pollution of Air, Soil, and Waters. November 6, 1965.” American Reference Library – Primary Source
Documents 1. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost from the Shapiro Library
Roosevelt, Franklin D. “31 Message to Congress on Water Pollution. February 16, 1939.” American
Reference Library – Primary Source Documents 1. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost from the Shapiro
Library
Global Environmental Monitoring, A Report of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment,
Stockholm 1972 (June 5-16, 1972).
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, The Paris Agreement, (2015).
Secondary Sources
Haward, Marcus. 2018. “Plastic Pollution of the World’s Seas and Oceans as a Contemporary Challenge
in Ocean Governance.” Nature Communications 9 (1): 667.
UN Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme, Towards a pollution-free
planet: Report of the Executive Director, UNEP/EA.3/25, (December 4-6, 2017).
Thorsheim, Peter. “Coal, Smoke, and History.” In Inventing Pollution: Coal, Smoke, and Culture in Britain
since 1800, 1-9. ATHENS: Ohio University Press, 2006. JSTOR from the Shapiro Library
“The Paris Agreement,” United Nations Climate Change, United Nations, updated July 3, 2018.
Otero-Pailos, Jorge. “Pollution.” In Bending the Future: Fifty Ideas for the Next Fifty Years of Historic
Preservation in the United States, edited by Page Max and Miller Marla R., 194-200. Amherst; Boston:
University of Massachusetts Press, 2016. JSTOR from the Shapiro Library
Deforestation
Primary Sources
Bariweni, P. A., and C. E. Andrew. 2017. “Land use/Land Cover Changes and Causes of Deforestation in
the Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.” Journal Of Applied Sciences & Environmental
Management 21, no. 6: 1063-1066. Environment Complete, EBSCOhost from the Shapiro Library
Gillis, Malcolm. 1996. “Tropical deforestation.” Vital Speeches Of The Day 62, no. 12: 373. MasterFILE
Premier, EBSCOhost from the Shapiro Library
Jusys, Tomas. 2018. “Changing patterns in deforestation avoidance by different protection types in the
Brazilian Amazon.” PLoS ONE 13, no. 4: 1-16. Academic Search Ultimate, EBSCOhost from the Shapiro
Library
Keppler, Joseph Ferdinand. Preserve your forests from destruction, and protect your country from
floods and drought. January 9 1884. Illustration chromolithograph. Library of Congress.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS. July-August 1948. “Forest
resources of the world.” Unasylva 2, no. 4.
Secondary Sources
Sample, Ian. 2012. “National: Dozens of rare Amazon animals heading for extinction as deforestation
takes toll: Years of clearing said to make demise inevitable: Losses so far only 20% of total doomed, says
study.(Guardian Home Pages).” The Guardian (London, England), 2012. Business Insights Global,
EBSCOhost from the Shapiro Library
“More logging, deforestation may better serve climate in some areas.” Space Daily, December 25, 2013.
General OneFile from the Shapiro Library
Williams, Michael. Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis, An Abridgment. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2006. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost from the Shapiro Library
Seymour, Frances, and Jonah Busch. “How to Stop Deforestation: Experience from Brazil and Beyond.” In
Why Forests? Why Now?: The Science, Economics, and Politics of Tropical Forests and Climate Change,
185-218. Brookings Institution Press, 2016. JSTOR from the Shapiro Library
McNeill, John R., and Mauro Agnoletti. “Where Is Environmental History Going?” Global Environment 7,
no. 2 (2014): 517-35. GALE Academic OneFile from the Shapiro Library
Bourgeon, Gérard, K. M. Nair, B. R. Ramesh, and Danny Lo Seen. “Consequences of Underestimating
Ancient Deforestation in South India for Global Assessments of Climatic Change.” Current Science 102,
no. 12 (2012): 1699-703. JSTOR from the Shapiro Library
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Seventy years of the FAO’s Global Forest
Resources Assessment: Historical overview and future prospects, (2018).