Assignment Two

Due Date: REVISED SCHEDULE (FIRST-DAY SYLLABUS NOT ACCURATE)
Peer Review: REVISED SCHEDULE (FIRST-DAY SYLLABUS NOT ACCURATE)

Length: minimum five pages

Assignment Goal

The goal of this assignment is to explain how "wealth" interacts with "climate change" by focusing on how money affected different people and group's responses to Hurricane Katrina.

Question

How does having or not having money affect the way individuals, governments, and corporations responded to Hurricane Katrina?

Assignment Description

This assignment will ask you to answer the main question of the assignment by doing research. To answer this question, students must do the following things:

1. Students must use Zeitoun as one of their examples to show how wealth does or does affect how one responds to climate change. Students can argue that wealth played a role in Zeitoun's experience in whatever they want - they are encouraged to see the issue as "complex" rather than simple.

2. Students must research on the experience of those in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and the experience of those in the Superdome during and after the storm. Students must be able to cite credible sources on what happened to people who were not able to leave the storm due to lack of money.

3. Students must research on the response of the US government to the storm. They need to find out what kind of damage the storm did, how the US reacted to the storm, and how much money the US spent. The purpose of finding out this information is to be able to write a credible paragraph that explains whether or not money affected how the US prepared for and responded to the storm.

NOTE: There are three levels to US government: the local (New Orleans the city), the state (Louisiana), and the federal (the Washington DC executive branch).

Each of these three sections doesn't have to be more than 1-2 pages, but they will all correspond to the thesis statement the student will develop. The thesis will sum up what the student believes about the importance of wealth and the meaning of wealth to our understanding of the Hurricane and its aftermath.

Resources

Students will consult the LaGuardia library website on Zeitoun.

Here are some links to that site on:

getting started

disaster preparedness

Hurricane Katrina

race and racism

storm aftermath

lower 9th ward, etc


Conclusion Questions

What can we learn about the importance of money when confronting climate change from Hurricane Katrina? Is there something more valuable than money when one confronts catastrophic natural disasters?

Thesis Statement Template

Having or not having wealth was important to how different people experienced Hurricane Katrina because ___________________________. One the one hand, ___________. On the other hand, ___________. Wealth allowed ____________, but also______________. Alternatively, even some without money ______________, although________________. [Play with this as you see fit] [Cite specific examples without getting bogged down into explaining all the details in your intro/thesis].

Introduction

Being with a story, not with a general statement. Slide the story into your thesis. [Select a story that fits your essay, or illustrates a point you plan to make]