For this assignment, you are to write a short essay which analyzes the causes and solutions of the recent bushfire crisis in Australia (this refers primarily but not exclusively to the situation in Victoria and New South Wales between November 2019 and January 2020; you may also reference subsequent fires in 2020 and 2021). 

In doing so, you will also need to provide your reader with some background on the situation. You do not need to discuss ALL the possible causes and solutions for the fires, but you should include more than one cause, and more than one solution. Your diagnosed causes and proposed solutions should span more than one spatial and temporal scale. Your causes and solutions should be well-coupled—meaning, your proposed solutions should respond directly to the causes you have identified, and be similarly scaled. Your causes/solutions may be partial—in other words, you are not expected to solve the entirety of the situation in the span of one essay. In your essay, you should provide significant supporting evidence for why you are advocating for your proposed solutions. You should also mention at least one other proposed course of action discussed in the news that you did not choose, and why it is a less-good course of action in your opinion (with supporting evidence). Finally, the connections between your essay and themes of the course should be evident. As always, please see the instructor if you have any questions about the assignment. 

References: You should use several (at least five) credible sources in making your case.  These will include news articles, but should also include at least two academic journal articles. You may include research on other cases and contexts which are comparable to the situation in significant respects, research which helps us to understand some part of the social and natural systems affected by the fires, and/or research on earlier fires in Australia which sheds some light on possible causes, etc.

Deadline: Feb 27th at Midnight. Essays received after this date may incur late deductions. You are welcome to consult classmates for feedback on a rough draft of your essay. 

Citations: Your citation format must be consistent and professionally polished, but you are not obligated to use a specific citation format as long as your citations give appropriate credit to your resources and contain enough information that a reader could easily find the same original source material that you used. If you do not have a preferred citation format, you should consider looking up and using APA citation format.

Length: There is no specific maximum or minimum length requirement for this paper. In the past, most students have found it takes five or so double-spaced pages to complete this type of assignment. Students who tend toward economy of space may find as little as four double-spaced pages sufficient. If your paper is shorter than this, consider whether you have fully answered all aspects of the assignment. If your paper approaches ten or more pages, consider self-editing and/or narrowing the scope of your response.

Grading: The maximum possible grade on this paper is 20 points. Partial (quarter or half) points will be awarded where appropriate. The breakdown is as follows: 

4- Essay advances clear central argument(s)

4- Point(s) substantiated with appropriate, sufficient, well-referenced evidence

2- Essay includes all assignment components detailed in prompt

2- Factual information/understanding is accurate

2- Essay demonstrates independent thought (synthesis/analysis rather than restating others’ points)

1- Essay acknowledges tradeoffs/shades of gray/complexity/nuance and/or counter-arguments, etc.

1- Essay uses news sources

1- Essay uses academic references (comparative cases, different scales, historical context, or similar)

1- Information is correctly cited

1- Essay uses clear language and correct spelling and English grammar

1- Essay weaves in course concepts 

Please double-check your own essay across these criteria before handing it in! 

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