- Climate change is a major issue for environmental sustainability as the Earth's climate has changed and is changing rapidly due to factors like increased CO2 emissions from human activities like fossil fuel use and deforestation. - Some of the key challenges related to addressing climate change are the continued growth of the human population and our increasing resource demands, the slow response of ecosystems to environmental changes, and the complexities of accurately measuring and attributing climate changes to human vs. natural causes. - Potential solutions include transitioning to more public and low-carbon transportation options, developing policies to minimize anthropogenic impacts through collaboration between policymakers and scientists, and consuming fewer and more sustainable resources by thinking critically about what we really need.

1. Environmental Sustainability
Evaluation of Paper 1: Fall 2012
William Sullivan, Bridgette Moen. Shimon Zimbovsky
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Cle~rly articulated· · Thesis s~atem~nt. PoorJydevelo~~d thesis;
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Introduction and
thesis thesis; clear and · . . . somewhat dear; orientation to paper
comp~lling o~ientation. orientation to weak or lacking.
,to y~Jllr i<ie~s, argument stated. .. ·
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de~rly describes how ·•.· S~Iutions ide~tified are Weak or missing
reade.rs q•11 play ar.ole in not all appropriatefor solutions; lack of detail;
~dd~essing at leastorie . . the challenge atharid; solutions are unfeasible.
ofthe challenges; . / ... missing some detail~. . .· ·..• . . ..
pro.videsthr~~specifk,, ab?utc()nc~~te, fe~sibJe (1~0 points)
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Total Points Possible: 20 points

2. Environmental Sustainability
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Professor: William Sullivan
Paper# 1
Changes today ·
There is no doubt whatsoever that climate change is a big issue when it comes to
sustainability discussions. The earth climate has changed, and is changing very fast. That's what
we read in newspapers, leam at school and see specialists talking about. The idea of climate
change have been spread all over the world, we even see people walking streets saying "This
summer was hotter than it used to b~r "This year rained much more thanthe regular average1
That's a global warming effect~ In our everyday life we are quite used to this relative new
concept. But, what causes these changes? How can we playa role helping society to overcome
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this new scenario? These are questions that usually. do not have clear answer. Some challenges
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have to be overcome, and solutions need to be discussed. ~C)..~ ~.(.(~<!.$ f
The first challen~ to all these modifications on earth is how hmnan population has
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dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide concentrations (greenhouse gases) are due primarily to fossil
fuel use, land use change and agriculture, main activities of countries today. N~n
has increased, ~ut also we have a bigger product demand as our life quality has changed.
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Although some nations are presenting decreasing birth rates, m~my others are iti fast it1crease,
and that is a trend to persist for some decades. IJV.Ur ~ ~ ~"-.L
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Another very important point is that ecosystems usually have a slow response to
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environmental changes. Not all changes that we have made in the environment are being felt by +V-t,.
eartl~Secosystem. Someofthese.changes will only have visible impact many years from now.
Oceans are a great example of that slow response. In the pastyears oceans temperature have
increased less than other ecosystems, but twice as much warming is expected for the future. This
slow response is also seen when corrective actions are implemented, the environment take some
time.to show a positive impact of these actions. That fact makes solutions planning very difficult
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to policy makers, as their actions may only have an impact several years from now.. c:P
The last great challenge that society has been facing is how to measure climate changes,
and how to know their real causes. Scientists are still working on how to properly quantify the
effects and causes of climate changes. Temperature, precipitation, insolation and others
parameters are connected to each other, and the relation of these parameters to pollution and
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human activities isn't that simple to be drawn by equations and graphs. In some regions we have
many data of climatologic stations, but we still haven't figure out how to interpret all these
information. In the other hand, some regions have very few data, so it is difficult to say how
climate used to be, and if it has changed. How to correlate human activities to climate changes is
also a big issue, we already have an idea of which activities are the most dangerous, but the way
how these activities are connected and depend of each other make this evaluation very complex.
Finally, although many doubts about climate changes still remain, there a r e =
evidence~ that it is real. We already got used to this new concept, but now we need to get used
to new attitudes in our daily life that can be solutions for many current problems. Transportation
is one main cause of global warming, as many transp01is use fossil fuel. One way of reducing
emissions is using public transportation, because busses and subways can transport many people

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with less energy than cars or motorcycles. Another action that may have an important role in this
new scenario isto make policy makers concern to envirorun(mtal changes and work with
scientists to develop ways to minimize anthropogenic impact on environment. However, what
should have the greater impact on climate changes solutions is how we consume. Everything we
buy directly or indirectly produce an enviromnental impact. We should pay attention in what we
consume and how mttch of it, simple as it may sound, we need to stop and think what we really
need. And, most important ·of all, we hav~ to change the consciousness that climate changes are a
bad issue but nothing can be done. Many things c~;m be solute on the future with a simple effort.
today.