Final Paper Topics

This is a really tough decision because it is sort of vague and broad so it is tough to choose what interests me and what is appropriate/what will work. But I think I have two decent topics, both have very interesting content.

Aliens: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/life-beyond-earth.html
 I have always had a sort of weird infatuation with extraterrestrial life. The idea doesn't haunt me and I am not one to preach about it. As matter of fact, I don't care for the alien sighting shows, yet on occasions I find myself oddly stuck on the channel watching UFO freaks tell there stories. And as society bashes these psychos, it is very hard to debate the potential of life beyond humans in such a massive universe. It is a fascinating topic that is hard to even conceive and it will be difficult to find proof and hard evidence to hammer home my point.

Existence of God: http://www.leaderu.com/real/ri9403/evidence.html
Now this one I sort of pulled out of my first idea, with one, the other theory dies. This topic is a lot more controversial and it will be difficult to win over audiences, but it is also good persuasion material. It will also be hard to give actual proof just like the alien topic, so I might have to opt for a third, simpler idea, which I am open to, but I thought I would start big and figure out ideas from there.

Journal 10- Overpopulation Article

I found an excellent journal entry from JSTOR about the topic I am researching and arguing, overpopulation. It was an article written in Population and Environment (a science journal dealing with the environment) by J. Anthony Cassils in January 2004 entitled "Overpopulation, Sustainable Development, and Security: Developing an Integrated Strategy." Cassils did a fantastic job of introducing the issue and how as wonderful as medical advances have been to mankind, they have put the globe in a major crisis of exceeding sustainable restrictions the planet has. He argues strongly that all around the world, short sighted political agenda's have clouded the dire necessity to address the ever increasing population. In fact, he blames the countless groups entangled in politics for fostering population growth for altruistic gains and not seeing the consequences of exploding our population, ultimately leading to the implosion of the species. He showed how already the population is showing signs of instability, with depleting resources, massive famine, and malnutrition. He contends all governments must take control of their people and set up a division to responsibly harbor population growth in their boarders (including stricter immigrant limits). With all nations working on this, it will benefit the globe immensely. He feels the biggest problems will come form underdeveloped countries lacking government and where populations grow fastest and starvation kills most. So developed nations are suppose to set an example and lead the world in this curbing of a population explosion, yet special interest groups seem to deter overpopulation-fighters' goals. As great as he illustrates the need for response to help overpopulation, he also provides what he thinks what is the correct route to control the problem. He feels the surer path is similar to the Chinese governments implication of one child per couple legislation. He feels governments must remove incentives for families to have more children. I loved the article, I hope mine is as informational and powerful, but I do hope to provide more helpful and insightful solutions rather than this writing which is more used to highlight exigence. I will however definitely use his statistics to portray the global dilemma to audiences and I also plan to use the solutions he credited and I will also take his account of the inhibitors on overpopulation legislation and likely re-blame them in my paper as well.

Cassils, Anthony J. "Overpopulation, Sustainable Development, and Security: Developing an Integrated Strategy." Population and Enviornment 25.3 (2004): 171-94. JSTOR. Springer. Web. 5 Nov. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/27503878?&Search=yes&term=Overpopulation&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DOverpopulation%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26wc%3Don%26acc%3Don&item=13&ttl=10475&returnArticleService=showFullText>.