Because so far this quarter there is no one dominating world-wide geographic topic, but several very interesting competing topics, the Course Paper this quarter will give you an option to select one topic from the following list below.
Geography is concerned with the movement and interaction of people, goods,
natural elements, and ideas across space. When writing about one of the seven
Course Paper topics, the focus must center on this core geographic idea.
CORPORATE GREED
 Income Inequality ( the growing income inequality gap that characterizes the US and global economy)
 Wealth Transfer (bailouts of banks and corporations) with tax dollars from working people people who
 Corporate Tax Breaks and Rising Profits (tax policy and relief designed by and for a rich and tiny minority, 
 while starving essential services --at all levels of government--for the majority)
DEBT
 National Debt (war spending, bank bailouts, tax-breaks for the rich)
 Predatory Lending by Banks
 Mortgage Crisis
 Student Loan Crisis
 Consumer Debt Crisis
Free trade is a system of trade policy that allows traders to trade across national boundaries without interference from the respective governments. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services.
Under a free trade policy, prices are a reflection of true supply and demand , and are the sole determinant of resource allocation . Free trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by artificial prices that may or may not reflect the true nature of supply and demand. These artificial prices are the result of protectionist trade policies, whereby governments intervene in the market through price adjustments and supply
1

restrictions. Such government interventions can increase as well as decrease the cost of goods and services to both consumers and producers.
Interventions include subsidies , taxes and tariffs , non-tariff barriers , such as regulatory legislation and quotas , and even inter-government managed trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central America Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA) (contrary to their formal titles) and any governmental market intervention resulting in artificial prices. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade]
 For almost 30 years, the West has concentrated on the religious, fundamentalist aspect of Iran's Islamic Republic.
 We have forgotten that Khomeini's revolution was also a declaration of independence from British and American control.
 Now, thanks to several different factors, Iran has suddenly reached a new level of power and influence.
 The sky-rocketing price of oil has put a lot of money into its pocket.
 The overthrow of Saddam Hussein by the US has swept Iran's local rival off the chessboard, and free elections in Iraq have brought the Shia majority to power.
 Iraq, weakened by the immense violence which has followed
Saddam's overthrow, now regards Shia Iran as the dominant partner in the relationship.
 Finally, after eight years of ineffectual government by the moderate reformist President Mohammed Khatami, Iran suddenly has an loud, idiosyncratic, fundamentalist president who cannot be ignored.
 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has gone back to Ayatollah
Khomeini's principles, and he wants to establish Iran's independence further by turning Iran into a nuclear power.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/5363098.stm]
International competition for petroleum is growing, in large part because rapidly rising standards of living in India and China are leading to a greater number of automobiles. India now has 5.4 million vehicles, up 500% in just 20 years. China has 34
2

million registered motor vehicles. In 2006, sales of personal autos rose 30% in China, to 5.8 million, and China's total vehicle sales reached 7.22 million. To put this into perspective, this is close to half the number of cars sold in the United States in 2007
(about 16 million). In 2003, China became the world's fourth-largest automobileproducing nation, behind only the U.S., Japan, and Germany. This increased competition alone is enough to push petroleum prices up. And they're going to go even higher. The cost of generating electricity with oil (and with natural gas) in the United
States has been rising sharply. Domestic electricity cost 20% more in 2006 (the most recent date for which data are available) than in 1995.
Poverty and migration. People in developing countries require resources and connections to engage in international migration. There is little direct link between poverty, economic development, population growth, social and political change on one hand and international migration on the other. Therefore poverty reduction is not in itself a migration-reducing strategy.
Conflicts, refugees, and migration. Violent conflicts produce displaced persons, migrants and refugees. People on the move may contribute both to conflict prevention and reconciliation and to sustained conflict. Most refugees do not have the resources to move beyond neighboring areas: they remain internally displaced or move across borders to first countries of asylum within their region. Aid to developing countries receiving large inflows of refugees is poverty-oriented to the extent that these are poor countries, but it is uncertain what effect such aid has in terms of reducing the number of people seeking asylum in developed countries. Furthermore, aid to neighboring countries may attract refugees from countries in war and crisis.
Migrants as a development resource. International liberalization has gone far with respect to movement of capital, goods and services, but not to labor mobility. Current international institutions provide little space or initiatives for negotiations on labor mobility and the flow of remittances. There is a pressing need to reinforce the view of migrants as a development resource. Remittances are double the size of aid and at least as well targeted at the poor. Migrant diasporas are engaged in transnational practices with direct effects on aid and development; developed countries recognize their dependence on immigrant labor; and policies on development aid, humanitarian relief, migration, and refugee protection are often internally inconsistent and occasionally mutually contradictory.
Aid and migration. Aid policies face a critical challenge to balance a focus on poverty reduction with mitigating the conditions that produce refugees, while also interacting constructively with migrant diasporas and their transnational practices. The current emphasis on aid selectivity tends to allocate development aid to the well performing countries and humanitarian assistance to the crisis countries and trouble spots.
3

However, development aid is more effective than humanitarian assistance in preventing violent conflicts, promoting reconciliation and democratization, and encouraging poverty-reducing development investments by migrant diasporas.
Technology is rapidly changing our world all the time. The pace of development and change has accelerated exponentially since the beginning of the 20th century and continues today, affecting many aspects of daily modern life.
Computers
Computers have changed many facets of modern life. From large mainframes that crunch numbers and help with scientific research, to your home desktop or laptop, computers are used by most industries and people. You can make your own movie or song, store your pictures and check your novel's spelling with the same machine. You can do your taxes, keep all your records safe and tidy, and communicate with people all around the world.
Internet
Over a billion people use the Internet to perform daily tasks more easily and quickly. If you are so inclined, in fact, you can do most of your everyday tasks online.
You can order most goods over the Internet and find items for sale you might have never heard of before. You can email, instant message or video chat with friends and family all over the world. You can work from home and learn about almost anything, all through the connective power of the Internet.
Transportation
One of main reasons consumer goods are cheap and available in developed countries is because of advances in transportation. You can eat food, wear clothes and play games all made in different, far-off countries because of planes, trucks, supertankers and roads that didn't exist a century ago. You can also travel to almost anywhere in the world in a day or two, instead of months. Everything is more accessible.
Medicine
Advances in medicine have allowed people to live longer and healthier lives.
Antibiotics and vaccines might have saved your life, and have definitely kept someone you know alive.
Cell Phones
People are more connected to each other than ever before, and a large part of that is related to the popularity of cell phones. Allowing for instant communication, cell phones have changed the way people do business (from anywhere) and meet up with friends (punctuality and making plans are not as necessary). Newer phones also allow you to access the Internet, play games and even record video.
4

The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CBS News/iStock Photo)
(CBS News) Perhaps the most dangerous fault line in the United States stretches from the northern part of California, up along the coast of Oregon and Washington, and into
Canadian waters. It's called Cascadia, and for a long time no one knew it was there.
It wasn't until the mid-1980s that geophysics recognized the fault line that existed just
40 miles offshore -- one frighteningly similar to the one which just erupted off the coast of Japan. It then took until 1995 before the state of Oregon incorporated specific provisions in its building code mandating protection against earthquakes. Many of the buildings now standing in the state were built before the provisions were adopted; the vast majority has not been retrofitted to improve safety.
If, as in the 9.0 magnitude event in Japan, one tectonic plate in Cascadia gets forced beneath another, it could result in a quake that reduces many of the buildings near the coast to rubble. It would take less than 30 minutes for the subsequent tsunami to reach shore.
The last major earthquake to hit in the region was in the year 1700 ; its effects could be felt all the way across the Pacific Ocean. With the region experiencing 41 quakes 8.0 magnitude or above over the past 10,000 years, geologists say it's a question of when - not if - the next one hits.
"We're overdue," warns geotechnical engineer Yumei Wang of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.
And for the most part, the region is unprepared. Japan has cutting-edge technology to deal with earthquakes, which is one of the reasons the terrible devastation from last week's quake wasn't even worse; the United States, by contrast, has done relatively little to prepare for a similar disaster. And with states and the federal government suffering serious budgetary woes, officials are not looking to spend money on infrastructure to project against earthquakes and tsunamis - a threat that may not seem urgent until it's too late.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, America's infrastructure warrants a grade of "D" overall . One in four of Oregon's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the report; in Washington, nearly 30 percent of bridges need repairs. Many of the dams in the area that protect urban areas are vulnerable.
The next Cascadia quake will "likely to be the greatest natural disaster that's ever impacted the United States," said Ian Maiden, chief scientist for Oregon Department of
Geology and Mineral Industries. Maiden put the odds of such a quake within the lifetimes of people living in the Pacific Northwest at 30 percent.
"It's an event that we have to plan for, and anything we want to see survive needs to be made resilient against such an event," he said.
5

Subduction Zone (Credit: California Emergency Management Agency)
The Cascadia
6

In Oregon, according to a 2007 study , nearly half the schools in the state face a high risk of collapse in a quake; low-lying coastal towns, meanwhile, have little to no protection against the tsunami that could result.
Complete Coverage: Disaster in Japan 
 Meltdown risk rising at Japanese nuclear plant 
 Nuclear meltdowns explained
"We are not even close to being well enough prepared," said Wang.
That isn't going to change anytime soon. To retrofit a major building against earthquakes can cost millions of dollars, and, as the Japan tragedy illustrated, offers no guarantees. The cost of retrofitting every building in Portland alone would run in the tens of billions of dollars.
Spending that sort of money is an extremely tall order even when the economy is doing well, and when states and the federal government are suffering serious budgetary woes, as they are today, it's nearly unimaginable.
Consider: Even in San Francisco, where building codes are more stringent and a 6.9 magnitude quake caused widespread devastation more than 20 years ago, more than
17,000 structures remain unprotected today .
In light of the economic realities, officials are focusing on education and creating safe zones. There have been exceptions, such as an effort in Portland to retrofit schools, but it's a deliberate process at best: It's more than a decade until Oregon law mandates that public safety buildings be retrofitted, and an a program to retrofit all the state's schools is not scheduled for completion until 2032.
"We know that we live in earthquake country," said John Schelling, Earthquake and
Tsunami Program Manager for Washington State Emergency Management. "We've been very proactive when it comes to trying to prepare our vulnerable coastal communities for this type of a threat."
That largely hasn't meant building sea walls and reinforcing buildings, however. Project Safe Haven , for example, is a "vertical evacuation" program to make sure there is safe space for coastal residents to get to in the event of a tsunami. One focus of the effort is to create artificial high ground where residents can go in the event a tsunami, through controlled burns to create safe areas and the erection of reinforced buildings.
Yet there is little money to implement the program, according to Schelling. And the meager money that goes to Washington State as part of the National Earthquake
Hazard Reduction program - about $100,000 per year - is now projected to be cut in half, he said.
In Oregon, Maiden said, much of the focus has also been on education. Yet the hundreds of thousands of dollars that fund the education effort each year, which comes
7

via a short-term term grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, is now threatened. The budget passed by the Republican-led House earlier this year cut funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by 21 percent and the U.S. Geological Survey by $27 million; lawmakers are now working on a compromise budget, and both sides agree some cuts to the overall budget are necessary.
If there's a silver lining in the tragedy in Japan, domestic earthquake experts say, it's the opportunity to focus public attention on the risk faced at home. The disaster could boost efforts to build a tsunami-proof structure in Oregon's Cannon Beach, for example
-- one that would be the first of its kind in North America. If nothing else, experts say, the Japan tragedy could prompt residents take a moment to consider that they are not immune from the same sort of devastation being felt on the other side of the ocean.
"We have a tremendous threat," Wang said. "The Japan earthquake is a tragic reminder of what the Pacific Northwest will one day experience. There's no getting out of it."
[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/15/national/main20043092.shtml]
Earthquakes commonly provide the earliest warning of volcanic unrest, and earthquake swarms immediately precede most volcanic eruptions. In the past few days there have been a series of small earthquakes around Mt. Rainier. While seismologists do not yet believe that this series of Earthquakes near Mt. Rainier are a direct predictor of an impeding volcanic eruption, most major volcanic activities is preceded by a series of Earthquakes. This is on a “Watch” status, not an “Alert” status.
Mount Rainier, a giant stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, is considered an active volcano with its last eruption in 1894. Rainier erupted over a dozen times in the last 2,600 years, with the largest eruption 2,200 years ago.
As an active volcano, Mount Rainier has many small high-frequency earthquakes, often occurring on a daily basis. Every month as many as five quakes are recorded near the mountain's summit. Small swarms of five to ten earthquakes, occurring over a few days, also occur often. Geologists say most of these earthquakes result from hot fluids circulating inside the mountain. Go to Recent Mount Rainier Earthquakes to get the latest seismic data about what's shaking on Rainier.
8

The purpose of the term paper is to demonstrate that you can apply ideas and concepts learned in this class to one of the seven topics of your choosing. The paper must include a statement of the issue(s) and analyze the issue(s) with the principles learned.
The paper should be typewritten, paginated, double-spaced, in Time font, size 12, 1inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right), and follow the outline shown below. There is no page limitation, but a good term paper may need 5 to 8 pages of narratives to provide in-depth analysis of a selected topic.
Start preparing the outline before the end of October.
A paper typically starts with a big picture and leads readers to the proposed solution. Make the headings clear and specific so that busy readers can scan the paper effectively. The following are general guidelines on organizing a paper.
It is a good idea to provide a summary at the beginning of the paper in order to have busy readers quickly grasp the main point.
A paper needs to provide readers with general background information of a particular issue in order to help them make their decision based on the understanding of facts. Show them enough evidence that you are an expert on the subject. Point out problems from your readers' perspective. Make sure that you do not digress from the main subject; do not pose problems for which you cannot provide solutions .
After explaining the background and problems, propose your solution.
Write a conclusion in order to wrap up the paper and enhance your readers' understanding.
9

Put the works cited at the end of your paper. Do not forget to put the information of hyperlinked sources for the reader who prints out your paper.
Other Tips: Visuals and Examples
Visuals and examples deepen the reader's understanding and make the paper more appealing and persuasive. Because many papers are published online and thus read on screen, it is important that the visuals are appealing to the reader who browses the Internet. Graphics
(charts, graphs, diagrams, and tables) increase readability, if used properly. Also consider using case studies and examples in addition to theoretical concepts and models.
10