Reading

None. Use authoritative resources found online.

Media

None. Use authoritative resources found online.

Introduction

In Activity 4.1 I wrote, “Often, environmental policy is conflated with politics. However, that is not always the case.” Yet policy at the federal level can become a political pawn with executive-order based “rollbacks,” withheld funding, perpetually NOT filling a high-ranking agency vacancy, and many other political tools. Politically motived changes in environmental policy can be grounded in special interest groups being catered to for favors or votes, or simply perception of the public.

In this activity I would like for you to review the Activity 4.1 blog of one of your peers in this class. The idea is to identify an environmental policy they wrote about and research any recent changes that have been made due to actions by the US Executive Branch of our government. Write a note to the author of that page explaining, with factual information and references, about the recent changes. (Recent being the last year.)

This is a self-graded blog activity on someone else’s blog.

Module Objectives Achieved

You will be able to…

MO 4.1. Use the vocabulary of env sci. in written communication (7. #vocab Course; 2. #commskills Core)

MO 4.2. Apply critical thinking skills. (7. #think Course; 1 #critthink Core)

MO 4.4. Assess the effectiveness of environmental policy (1. #critthink Core)

Task

1. Browse through your peer’s blogs, Activity 4.1. (See class home page under the Class Blog List).

2. Identify one of the policies they wrote about.

3. Research any recent changes that have been made due to actions by the US Federal Government’s Executive Branch.

4. Write a reply/comment on your peer’s blog (if their comments are not open for comment, then you will need to move to another student’s blog.)

The comment should:

a) Identify the environmental policy to which you are referring.

b) Explain the change in that environmental policy to include what action(s) the Executive Branch has made. (There is no minimum word count but be sure you explicitly demonstrate your new knowledge.)

c) Outline your perspective on the identified change to include its potential effectiveness. (There is no minimum word count but be sure you explicitly demonstrate your new knowledge.)

d) Include a source from where you learned about the change.

5. Post it to their comments on their Activity 4.1 blog page.

6. Copy the URL of the page you posted it to so you can submit that as part of your declaration.

Criteria

Your declaration for this activity will read:

My comments to my peer are on their blog at this web site (include the URL).
The policy on their page that I addressed was about (fill in the blank).
I posted recent (within the last year) and factual information about a change in the above policy.
I posted my personal perspective on that change to include potential effectiveness [without being derogatory toward individuals, this is your opinion/perspective about the change, not the people who made it/them].
I have a complete source for my above posting.
I have read my posting out loud twice and there are no writing errors.

Resources

The White House. (n.d.). Our government: The Executive Branch. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/the-executive-branch/