ENGL&102 (Oldham): Adaptation

Impacts of Climate Change

• Resource wars
• Famine/Food shortages
• Refugees
• Economic/political turmoil

Military

Much of Parenti's article is devoted to miitary planning and theory. Any aspect of this would make a legitimate research topic, including but not limited to:

• Current conflicts (Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Philippines, Mexico, Yemen, elsewhere)
• Planning for future wars
• Planning for counterinsurgency or social upheaval caused by climate change
• Past wars, including both planning for them and how they actually turned out
• Any of the individuals (e.g. Anthony Zinni, James Woolsey) or groups (CNA, RAND Corporation, etc.) involved in the planning
• The military-industrial complex or any of its components (GE, Boeing, Lockheed, Blackwater, CCA, etc.)
• The military budget
• The effect of military planning on social policy (one way to think about this would be as a research project designed to test Parenti's claim that "planning too diligently for war can preclude peace")

Discrimination

Parenti predicts a rise in xenophobia and racism as a result of militaristic approaches to adaptation. These are both valid topics for a research paper, but so are other forms of discrimiation, including but not limited to:

• Sex
• Disability
• Sexual Orientation
• Religion
• Language
• Other

Surveillance/Repression

• The rise of the "security-industrial complex" (private prisons, private security firms and mercenary companies like Blackwater and DynCorp, etc.)
• The increase in surveillance throughout society, including
• proliferation of cameras monitoring our social environment
• monitoring/tracking individuals' behavior through technology (tracking online activity, cell phone use, purchasing habits, etc.)
• rise of social media and the culture of personal exposure
• erosion of the right to privacy (Fourth Amendment protections)
• History of repression in the US or other countries
• McCarthyism
• The FBI's attacks on activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Repression of union organizers in the early 20th century
• Nazi Germany, other fascist states

Immigration

• Policies on immigration at the federal, state or local level
• History of immigration to the US
• Immigration in other countries
• Other immigration-related topics

Religion

• Religious responses to climate change
• Religious fanaticism as a response to crisis, including "end-of-days cults"

Alternatives to Militarism

• International cooperation (UN, other international bodies and agreements)
• Wealth redistribution (existing policies, proposals)

Gale Ebooks

An extensive collection of encyclopedias and other sources with articles on a huge variety of subjects.

• Besides searching through the whole collection, try searching within one of their subcategories, such as History or Science, for more focused results. See the next two links for more options.

American History Reference Collection (GVRL)

This is actually part of Gale Ebooks, but searching here might help with more focused searches. For example, the Gale Encyclopedia of US Economic History would be useful for many of the topics listed, such as the labor movement, the Depression, etc.

• This link takes you through KCLS, not Shoreline. I have not been able to find the link to this resource through Shoreline's web page.

Social Issues Reference Collection (GVRL)

As with the American History Reference Collection, this is a subset of the Gale Ebooks that might help you focus your search.

• This link takes you through KCLS, not Shoreline. I have not been able to find the link to this resource through Shoreline's web page.

Biography in Context

Links to multiple biographical articles on well-known and not-so-well-known individuals.

Historical Statistics of the United States

Might be useful for more directed questions

Opposing Viewpoints in Context

Presents articles or excerpts from articles on various controversial topics, presenting differing views.

Understanding Katrina

In-depth articles by social scientists that examine the deeper issues and causes of the problems that arose during and after Katrina, not just from the storm itself but from the social structures that interacted with it to produce the disaster.

Natural Disasters from National Geographic Magazine

CDC Natural Disasters (US Centers for Disease Control)