GEO 101 World Human Geography
Discussions Spring 2011
Discussion 2: The Geography of an Environmental Disaster

Reading to Be Done Before This Discussion:

Bourne, Joel K.  2010.  Gulf oil spill: Is another deepwater disaster inevitable.  National Geographic. October.

Barcott, Bruce.  2010. Forlorn in the Bayou. National Geographic. October.

Examine the following online GIS applications

ESRI.  2010. Gulf of Mexico Interactive Social Media Map. http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/gulf-oil-spill-2010/

ESRI.  2010. Gulf of Mexico Interactive Timeline Map http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/gulf-oil-spill-2010/timeline-map.html  Also check out the Advanced Version

ESRI.  2010. Gulf of Mexico Economic Impact Map. http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/gulf-oil-spill-2010/economic-impact-map.html

Optional

The National Geographic Map of oil in the Gulf is also worth looking at.

Things to Bring to Discussion: Your own notes on the article and/or a print out.
Due in Discussion THIS Week: Answers to the questions below due at the beginning of class.
Due in Discussion NEXT Week: Answers to questions as usual, Essay 1
Concepts/Ideas/Places: thinking geographically, space, distribution, density, concentration, pattern, region, formal region, functional region, vernacular region, globalization, site, situation, location, remote sensing, GIS, maps, environment, diffusion, expansion diffusion, contagious diffusion, spatial interaction, distance decay, uniqueness, interconnection.

Essay 1 Assignment

Essay 1 Assignment: For your first essay you need to read the article and think about the geographical implications of the disaster in the gulf.  Then you should review the guidelines for Writing an A essay and the advice below.

Your essay should be 2-3 pages and 5 paragraphs and should explain how geographical thinking is useful for understanding the oil spill in the gulf.  To focus your essay, you should address the following question: 

What geographical concepts are most useful for analyzing the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico?

For this essay you should identify at least three concepts, or sets of related concepts, that you can use to provide insight into some aspect of the oil spill.  You will need to explain each concept before showing how it can be applied to assess the situation. In other words you will be arguing that geographical thinking is useful for understanding the oil spill and you will support this argument by explaining and applying three geographical concepts. To choose your concepts refer to the first chapter of your textbook and your lecture notes. (There is a convenient list of concepts at the top of this page, but you don't necessarily have to limit yourself to those.) You should certainly quote from this week's article and from your textbook. You may wish to discuss observations you make from the the maps.  If you do so, cite them. When you do be sure to cite your source as illustrated in the Guide to Citing Sources.

• Your essay must be typed (or word-processed), double spaced, in 12 pt font, stapled, and with 1 inch margins all around.  It should be between two and three pages in length.  Use a Times Roman Font or other similar font.  You must cite any direct quotes AND paraphrased ideas from the article or other sources as directed in Citing Sources in GEO 101.  Papers that do not properly cite sources will lose points. Essays must include:
  
  • an introductory paragraph that culminates in a clear thesis statement;
  • at least three supporting paragraphs that develop the points in the thesis statement;
  • a concise concluding paragraph that sums up your argument.
• For this essay you will be given two grades, one for content and argument, the other for format, spelling, punctuation, syntax, etc. Your total grade will be the total points from these two grades. For more details see “Writing an ‘A’ Essay” and “Grading Guide for Short Essays”.

Additional Tips for Writing this Essay

Concentrate on doing the following four things when writing this essay:

• write a strong thesis statement,
• make sure that you support your argument with evidence in the supporting paragraphs,
• make sure that you cite your sources,
• and write more than one draft of your paper.

Whatever you plan to argue, your essay must have a thesis statement, usually placed at the end of the introductory paragraph. Your thesis not only states your argument but outlines your entire paper by explaining why you believe the argument to be true. A thesis statement in a five paragraph essay is usually structured like this: [Argument] is true because of [reason 1], [reason 2], and [reason 3]. There are more subtle and sophisticated ways to do this, but sometimes being too subtle can unnecessarily mystify your reader. Your goal is not to surprise your reader, but to be as clear and direct as you can be.

The next thing to pay attention to is that your thesis statement connects with the rest of your essay by addressing each of the three supporting reasons from your thesis statement in the following supporting paragraphs in the order in which you introduce them. Be sure that you use topic sentences to remind your reader of your argument in each supporting paragraph. Quote or paraphrase evidence from the article to support each of your sub arguments and provide a proper citation. You do not need to and should not do extra research to write this paper. If you are not the kind of student who follows your professor's advice, you should at least be sure that you are still responding to the article assigned for this discussion and that you use credible sources. In many cases students who do additional research end up writing papers that drift off focus or that lack credibility because they have used poor quality sources from the Internet.. You should not cite lecture as a source of ideas. Most of what we have discussed will be found in your textbook in some form or another. Cite from the textbook. For more information on the 5 paragraph essay format and what makes a good essay see the Syllabus and “Writing an ‘A’ Essay”

Finally you should write more than one draft of your paper. Do not hand in your first draft. Read your paper over and evaluate it using the Grading Guide for Short Essays. Ideally, print it out and make corrections on the page. Make sure that you've fixed any typos and grammar problems. Then make sure that your paper makes sense and that you have supported your argument well. Fix the paper where needed and hand in your second or third draft. If you have trouble with any aspect of the paper do not hesitate to get help from your professor or from the Writing Center.

Context: In lecture and in your textbook readings for this week and part of next week we introduce a variety of geographic concepts that geographers commonly use to understand the world.  Among the most fundamental are place, location, distance, scale, and region.  We also examine processes of spatial interaction including diffusion and globalization.  We also look at the way that geogaphers use and represent the world using maps, GIS, and remote sensing.  This week you will have a chance to try out geographical thinking for yourself by applying many of these concepts to better understand the recent Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Thinking geographically about the oil spill, you'll better understand that the causes and consequences of the oil spill extend far beyond the epicenter. 

To prepare for Discussion: While it started on April 20th the BP oil spill grabbed headlines all throughout the summer of 2010.  Much of the media attention focused upon the drama at the site of the spill itself as BP attempted to cap the leaking well.  Yet there were also stories of lives and livelihoods potentially changed forever due to the loss of income from fishing, tourism, and the oil industry.  The location of the spill, off the coast of Louisiana near New Orleans added additional anxiety because of the region's experience with Hurricane Katrina a little less than five years before.  The articles you will read for this week provide an overview of the spill and the cleanup and also highlights some of the geographical issues involved. You have also been asked to look at a series of interactive maps of the BP oil spill.  These are simplified GIS applications that illustrate a variety of different aspects of the oils spill.   As you read and examine the maps see if you can make connections with what you have read in your textbook and heard in class. 

Questions to be Answered and Turned in at the Beginning of Class
Name:
Honor Code:  

1.  What is significant about the site of the oil spill?  How has it changed the situation of the gulf region?

2.  How might a discussion of globalization be relevant to the causes and consequences of the oil spill?

3.  How might the concept of scale be useful for better understanding the way the response to the oil spill was organized (or lack of organization)?

4.  Make three observations about the oil spill based upon the maps.  What are three things that the maps reveal about the oil spill?

5.  What is one question about the reading that you would like to raise during discussion?