Week 5 Final Paper

Policy Challenges Presented by Environmental Problems

 Write a paper that addresses each of the following: 
•Choose an environmental problem that interests you from the list below: â—¦Loss of biodiversity 
â—¦Clean water
â—¦Energy
â—¦Solid and hazardous waste 
â—¦Public land use 
 (Please note that climate change and air quality are not options for the Final Paper because students will write a short paper during Week Two which focuses on those policy areas.)

•Identify the most significant challenges facing policymakers in resolving, identifying, and/or dealing with this problem. Your paper should reflect the knowledge that you have gained from this course. 
•Describe two different perspectives that contribute to our understanding of the environmental challenge that you have identified by evaluating the values and ethics that have contributed to the manifestation of the environmental problem. 
•Provide a policy recommendation concerning what you believe to be the best way to address the environmental problem through the policy process. Please note that your paper must address your chosen issue from a domestic policy process perspective. If there is an international component to your recommendation, you must include it, though the focus of this analysis must be from a domestic (United States) perspective. Similarly, if your recommendation includes local (city, county, state or regional) components, you must include them.  
•Critically and objectively analyze your recommendation, by identifying both the benefits and the drawbacks, and by evaluating the expected effectiveness of the recommended policy to address the problem (including the social and political problems associated with it).  Please note that the paper must reflect an understanding of the legal environment and regulatory mechanism relevant to the policy area under consideration, as well as the important laws and institutions that have significantly affected the policy area of your choice.