Choose one organisation that has made a significant contribution to debate on the issue of climate change and critically assess the connection between its values and interests, its advocacy positions and its use of science. To what extent do you support its views?

NOTE: The organisation may be, for example: a business, corporation or industry body; a community-based environmental group or major environmental advocacy body; a political party, or; a research institute. In selecting an organisation, first establish that there is a sufficient information base on their charter, goals and environmental policies and positions. You should use a range of sources including: reference literature; organisational publications; web-based information; speeches by members of the organisation; media reports; submissions to public enquiries (where available) and, if desired; interviews undertaken by you with members of the organisation and/or with their opponents. In your report be sure to cover all parts of the topic.

Make sure you draw on the appropriate academic literature, including unit readings, follow essay style writing, use consistent and clear formatting, have a coherent structure for your argument and follow proper academic referencing, including in-text referencing and a bibliography at the end.

If in doubt check out the Sociology reference guide:
http://www.soc.mq.edu.au/referenceguide.html

Please submit your assignment as an electronic copy, through Turnitin (on iLearn).

Assignments are NOT accepted through email or in class. Late assignments will receive a 5% of overall grade penalty on the first day of being late, then 1% of subsequent days.

Extensions need to be sought via the Arts Faculty portal or via email, preferably before the due date and will be granted only when there is significant hardship or illness for at least 3 days or more, and you can provide certificates that show evidence of cause. This is university policy and will be applied consistently for fairness and equality.

the organisation

350.org http://350.org/

Now let’s look at how you can go about this assignment in more detail….

TOPIC: Choose one organisation (from the list below) that has made a significant contribution to debate on the issue of climate change and critically assess the connection between its values and interests, its advocacy positions and its use of science. To what extent do you support its views and why?

1. How do you choose an organisation? These are some of the considerations: how much material there is about this organisation and therefore how easy/hard it will be to find out its position on global warming and science. Which organisation and their values are you passionate about or familiar with?

2. Next you want to research the organisation and find out what their position is on global warming and climate change, what advocacy positions they have, where the organisation’s values are located on the values continuum we have been using throughout all the lectures, what interest does this organisation represent, and how they make use of relevant science? Do you support their views, on what basis? Critically asses the relationship between their values and their interests… do they serve a particular constituency which means their views are biased or constructed in a specific way, do they present ideas relating to climate change in a particular light because there are vested interests that compel them to do so?

.

NOTE: You should use a range of sources on your organisation including: their own website(s); reference literature via Google Scholar or the library; offline organisational publications; other web-based information; speeches by members of the organisation; media reports; submissions to public enquiries (where available). In your report be sure to cover all parts of the topic.

You should make use of all the resource we have given you in this unit: especially the core readings and recommended readings from the select list. These should be used to provide the conceptual underpinnings of your report: social construction, policy concepts, deep ecology, managerialism, conventional materialism, interdependency, sustainability, limits to growth, risk society. Many of these concepts would be relevant for your essay and it is your task to connect them with your organisation’s outlook, values, pronouncements etc. Not all these may be relevant, but some should be used both to demonstrate your learning in the unit and to complete your assignment better, going to a conceptual level that is deeper and richer than just skimming bits of information floating online.

Make sure you use good sources from the chosen organisation: information on their website, their own reference literature, organisational publications, media reports in which they feature prominently, submissions they have made to public enquiries etc. Make sure you have covered the organisation in good enough detail so you are certain of their values, interests, position on climate change.
• Plan your assignment, sketch your argument ahead
• If stuck, talk to someone about it, talking it through helps structure your ideas
• Make sure you edit it and look at it again before submitting, it’s best if you go back to it a number of times
• You can always email Niko, come to consult hours on Tue afternoon or talk to someone at the Teaching and Learning Centre to help you with your assignments
• If you are a non-native English speaker, please see the StudySkills people on campus for help!!
http://www.mq.edu.au/learningskills/
• There are several resources on essay writing on iLearn under ‘Web links’, please make use of these!

here is very important guide to get HD

HD High Distinction 85-100%
D Distinction 75-84%
CR Credit 65-74%
P Pass 50-64%
F Fail 0-49%

HD – Flawless overall presentation. Report provides excellent summary of chosen organisation’s contribution to international debate on global warming and climate change. The critical assessment component contains coherent analysis of the organisation’s values, interests, position and use of science and connections between these. Work of this calibre draws on independently researched material as well as unit concepts and readings and makes excellent critical insights into the organisation’s work.
Distinction – Very goods overall presentation. Report provides very good summary of chosen organisation’s contribution to international debate on climate change. The critical assessment component contains very good analysis of the organisation’s values, interests, position and use of science, with only one of these missing and only minor errors or inconsistencies. Work of this standard will show extensive familiarity with the provided unit material and there are some good critical insights into the organisation’s work.
Credit – Good overall presentation. Report provides good summary of at least 3 of the following 5: the chosen organisation’s contribution to international debate on climate change, critical assessment of the organisation’s values, its interest, position and use of science. There may be some errors and inconsistencies. There is evidence of understanding and familiarity with relevant unit themes. Critical insights may be limited but there is good level of accuracy, insight and clarity of analysis, coupled with good grammar and expression.
Work at the top of the category will show some evidence of complexity and subtlety. Work near the bottom of the category will be proficient at the least, though may be somewhat mechanical in its application.
Pass – Adequate overall presentation. Report provides a basic summary of at least 2 of the following 5: the chosen organisation’s contribution to international debate on climate change, critical assessment of the organisation’s values, its interest, position and use of science. Units themes and concepts may not be fully present but there should be familiarity with basic sources of information and demonstration of generic skills. Some evaluation is present, but could be much more thorough and integrated. Structure, grammar and expression are adequate.
Work at the top of the category will show general competence, while work at the bottom of the category could be improved by fuller content, response to criteria and consistency in applying generic skills.
Fail – Does not meet the basic criteria for a threshold pass or ignores assessment requirement or is incomplete. Fails to demonstrate more than one of all learning outcomes, shows little or not effort in engaging with the generic skills required and demonstrates no familiarity with relevant content of the unit. Poor grammar, structure, presentation. Shows significant failure in comprehension of the task.