GRE ISSUE TOPIC 10

Nations should pass laws to preserve any remaining wilderness areas in their
natural state, even if these areas could be developed for economic gain.
Write a response in which you discuss your views on the policy and explain
your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your
position, you should consider the possible consequences of implementing the
policy and explain how these consequences shape your position.

Nations must pass laws to protect the remaining wilderness areas on our
planet.
The invasive encroachment of humanity into the once pristine natural
environments of our planet has perched us on the verge of a massive
calamity. Continuous tracts of rainforests have been fragmented by
deforestation for wood and farming land. Thousands of species of flora and
fauna have already gone irreversibly extinct and thousands more are going
so every year. The biodiversity of our planet is scarcely comprehensible and
millions of species have yet to be discovered, but thousands are
unfortunately going extinct before they can.
Some early civilizations believed in the Gaia theory which proposed that our
planet was a single large organism in which all life forms played their part.
Modern scientific theories propose what is being called the web of life, to
explain the interconnected nature of the biosphere. Here each species
depends on other organisms to survive and thus none can survive in
isolation. Here the extinction of certain critical species can cause a rippling
tsunami of unforseeable changes in the web of life which could adversly
impact humanity.
Natural areas which have the potential for development and thus economic
gain must also be protected. Governments must consider the short term
nature of such economic gain and weigh it against the loss of our natural
diversity. Scientists predict that the worlds oil reserves will run out before
the next 50 years and other natural resources will be depleted over the
coming century. These natual reserves have formed over millenia and have

been almost completely exploited in the last two centuries. Thus once we
have used up our planets natural resources, hunanity will have to come up
with renewable methods to survive on this world or face extinction. It is
commonly accepted that we cannot survive without the support of other
species, yet we continue to destroy them. Unless we begin to preserve and
protect the remaing life with which we share this planet, humainty faces a
bleak furure. In fact it is our responsibility to protect these other species
since it is humanity which put them in harms way.
Nations and governments should also consider that even without developing
the remaining natural areas, it is still possible to get immense benefits from
such areas. Most of the drugs and medicines that we use to battle disease
and health problems were first discovered by the study of plants and
animals. It is even believed that a cure for cancer exists in the diverse fauna
of the rainforests. Thus by protecting the remaining natural areas of the
world we retain the hope many miraculous cures and solutions of the
problems of our world.
Another consideration is that the plants of our planet provide the oxygen
which we breathe, by the process of photosynthesis. Globalization and the
onset of the industrial age have increased the levels of CO2 in our
atmosphere leading to the Greenhouse effect and an increase in global
temperatures. Plants and trees use millions of tons of CO2 from the
atmosphere each year and thus help reduce global warming while providing
us with more pure oxygen to breathe! Thus by protecting natural areas we
are protecting the whole world and all the life on it.

GRE ARGUMENT TOPPIC 10

Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of
Tertia. Using an observation-centered approach to studying Tertian culture,
he concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an
entire village rather than by their own biological parents. Recently another
anthropologist, Dr. Karp, visited the group of islands that includes Tertia and
used the interview-centered method to study child-rearing practices. In the
interviews that Dr. Karp conducted with children living in this group of
islands, the children spent much more time talking about their biological
parents than about other adults in the village. Dr. Karp decided that Dr.
Field's conclusion about Tertian village culture must be invalid. Some
anthropologists recommend that to obtain accurate information on Tertian
child-rearing practices, future research on the subject should be conducted
via the interview-centered method.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be
answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument
on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to
these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

To evaluate whether an interview based method of study is favorable as

compared to a observation centered one, many factors must be considered.

Firstly, it is important to note that the study conducted by Dr. Field occurred
20 years prior to the one conducted by Dr.Karp. The condition and the
evolution of child rearing practices in Tertian culture must be evaluated. It is
strongly possible that in the 20 intervening years the influence of western
society could have spread to these isolated islands and thus, child rearing
practices focused on the biological parents may have become more
prevalent in the later study.
Secondly, child rearing practices may vary from island to island and thus
Dr.Karp studied a wider range of child rearing practices as compared to Dr.
Field. These studies can be more appropriately compared if Dr.Karp limited
his studies to only the island of Tertia so as to have the same sample as Dr.
Field.
A disadvantage to the interview based method of study is that it is greatly
dependant on the nature of the questions and on the attitue and inherent
beliefs of the interviewer. Thus if questions are leading or imply certain
conclusions then the results of such an interview are no longer as reliable. In
an interview based study, the language, society and culture the interviewer
come from can be of great importance. For example, if a caucasian from a
western society interviews people from a remote island which has limited
exposure to wester culture, the answers may not reflect the truth.
A disadvantage to the observation based study method is that the observer
may come to the wrong conclusion of what they are witessing. This is highly
possible, especially if the observer has no prior understanding of the culture
(s)he is studiying.
Thus a more academicaly sound method of studying the Tertian culture
would be to combine both methods to gain the benefits of each.