2016-2017 AP Environmental Science - Summer Assignment

Welcome to AP Environmental Science! I’m looking forward to working with you next year and sharing my passion for learning about our environment with you. In order to cover all the material for APES before the AP exam next May and to set the tone for the class, you will need to complete some work during the summer. There will be certain times during the semester when you will also be expected to complete some independent study. Because I still want you to enjoy your summer, manage your time appropriately.

Be sure to enjoy nature over the summer –

Instead of driving, ride a bike or take a walk. Get wet in a downpour (not in a thunderstorm). Follow a stream to its headwaters. Follow a stream to its mouth. Speaking of water, where does yours come from? Watch an ant colony. Study the waves at the beach. Go into the marsh and smell decomposition at work. Watch the Discovery Channel. Figure out why dew forms on the grass at night, but not every night. Compare star counts at home vs. your vacation spot (required: lay on your back). Play around with Google Earth. Grow your favorite vegetable. Look at a big tree and determine where all that mass came from. Go fishing, go for a hike or go camping. Pretend that you have no electricity for an evening. Where does your electricity come from, and why does it matter? Camp out, even if it’s in your back yard. Pick berries. Use sunscreen regularly. Change your light bulbs to CFC’s. Compare your car’s interior to the greenhouse effect. Watch some birds or bats. Compare the color and ‘blinking’ patterns of different fireflies. Visit a farm, or at least the farmer’s market. Have a septic tank? How does it work? Tired of the phrase “going green?” Come up with another term. Buying organic food? Not buying organic food? Does it matter? At the pool? Figure out how many gallons of water it takes to fill the pool. 1 Assignment #1: Read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. This important book was instrumental in starting the modern environmental movement in Carson’s disclosure of the harm done by pesticides on our natural environment. Answer the following questions (adapted from E. Herman, University of Oregon). I am well aware that the answers to the questions to anything can be found online, so be sure that the answers are your own thoughts and words – academic dishonesty will incur serious penalties: 1. Carson’s first chapter explains the title of her book. Why is it called “Silent Spring”? 2. Why does she suggest that chemical insecticides and herbicides be called “biocides”? What idea is she expressing by using this word? Is Carson opposed to the use of all toxins; why or why not? 3. What is uniquely problematic about DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons? 4. How do toxins contribute to water pollution? 5. “In nature nothing exists alone” (p. 51). Why is this an important part of Carson’s critique? How would you characterize her view of the many relationships in nature: between human beings and their environments, between plants and animals, between water and earth? 6. What alternatives does Carson propose to the use of chemicals to control unwanted pests and plants? Do you think these alternatives make sense in the context of agribusiness? Explain. 7. Her description of chemical spraying suggests that moral dilemmas are involved in the use of toxins as well as technical problems of environmental management. What moral dilemma is Carson worried about? Do you share her view? Why or why not? 8. Carson’s discussion of Dutch Elm disease leads her to advocate “the conservation of variety.” What does she mean by this? 9. Why is runoff in rivers and the ocean such a serious problem? 10. What lessons does Carson extract from the stories about spraying for the gypsy moth and the fire ant? What was the role of local activists? Of government officials? Of the chemical industry? 11. Carson describes the kitchen and the garden as poisoned places. What particular implications do these observations have for women? Do you think Carson was aware of these? Explain. 12. What is Carson referring to when she writes that there is a “human price” for the use of toxins? Why is it so crucial that human beings begin to see themselves as an essential part of the natural world? Why did she believe that people resisted thinking about themselves in those terms? 13. Carson invokes the term “ecology” (p. 189) to describe “the web of life–or death...” What role does this concept play in her analysis? 14. Carson describes the possibility of genetic damage by environmental hazards as something new. She also discusses cellular damage caused by environmental carcinogens, an especially poignant example because Carson herself died of breast cancer. Do you think of these as novel, even controversial theories? Why or why not? 15. Carson defines the balance of nature at the beginning of chapter 15 on p. 246. Read her definition and explain its major features in your own words. 2 16. Do you agree that the project of controlling nature is arrogant, foolish, and dangerous, as Carson argues? Why or why not? 17. After reading Silent Spring, how would you characterize its author? Is she a science writer? An environmental activist? A philosopher? 18. How have things changed since the book was first published? 19. Are the issues raised by Ms. Carson still relevant today?

Assignment #2: Choose a second book from the following list (or you may choose another environmentally-relevant book – for suggestions, check out the Environmental Literacy Council’s Reading List at: http://enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1364.html) and evaluate the impact the book had on your personal world view. Include a description of your view before reading the book and your view after reading the book.

1. Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L Friedman, 2008. Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is “hot, flat, and crowded.” Already the Earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. 2. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben, 2010. Thinking that driving hybrid cars and taking shorter showers will restore the ice caps in the Arctic is unrealistic. We need a major overhaul of our infrastructure and our logic to even adapt on this New Earth we created. It's no longer enough to admit that global warming is real and to want to adjust a few things in our daily lives - we must realize that our daily lives are gone in the way we've known them. 3. The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World by Bjorn Lomborg, 2011. Things are getting better rather than worse, and most negative environmental indicators are connected to poverty, violence and bad government rather than consumption or wealth. Lomborg and his students found that things were getting better, and that many of the claims coming from environmental advocates were contradictory or tendentious, or simply shoddy. 4. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, 2007. A look at what would happen to Earth if humans ceased to exist. Not only does Weisman examine human made structures but he also is optimistic about the remaining lifeforms without human intervention. 5. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, 2006. Pollan approaches his mission not as an activist but as a naturalist: "The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world." All food, he points out, originates with plants, animals and fungi.

Please write your responses clearly. They can be typed or handwritten. However, they must be in your own words.

Assignment #3:

3 In late August (when revisions will be completed), print out the APES Syllabus - 2016-2017, read the syllabus and sign the last page. Bring a copy of the syllabus and the signed agreement to the first day of class. Also, download (and print if you choose) the APES Course Description and APES Course Overview from the College Board: https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-environmental-science

Have a great summer! Please feel free to e-mail ([email protected]) me if you have any questions.

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