Overview
You are an intern in the office of your member of the US House of Representatives, and
you have been charged with writing a position paper for the representative on climate change.
The representative, your supervisor, is a new member of the House Committee on Energy and
Commerce, which will be recommending a position and action on climate change, and your
paper will provide the necessary background for the representative to participate knowledgeably
in the discussions and evaluate possible legislative actions. Write a formal, well-reasoned,
grammatically correct, and fully annotated paper that presents both sides of the arguments
about climate change, draws conclusions about its importance and human contributions toward
it, and makes specific fully supported recommendations about actions that should be taken by
the US House of Representatives.
You should include in the paper:
- the natural variations in climate that impact and have impacted on climate;
- the impact of human activities on climate;
- the evidence for climate change;
- the potential consequences (political, economic, sociological) of climate
change, locally and globally;
- a reasoned evaluation of the seriousness of the concern about climate change;
- ways of mitigating the consequences;
- actions that have already been taken by the US or other countries, and their
success (or lack of success);
- recommendations about the position and specific actions the US government
can/should take
- supporting arguments for those positions/actions and responses to anticipated
opposition.
-conclude that the concern is either minimal or extremely
severe (or something in between), but your position(s) must be clearly supported by evidence,
not emotion or political leaning.