Questions 1 - 13 are worth 8 points each; please answer any twelve of these questions, for a total of 96 points. Your response to Question 14 is mandatory and worth 4 points, yielding a grand total of 100 points. Good luck!

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1. Does Thoreau consider wildness and culture to be wholly incompatible, or can the two be reconciled? If they can be reconciled, how? If they cannot, why not? Consider what light Thoreau's comments on the difference between mythology and literature on pp. 231-236 of "Walking" shed on these questions.

2. What does Thoreau mean by "Beautiful Knowledge" (p. 239)? What makes this kind of knowledge "beautiful," and why does it so often go unrecognized? How does it benefit us, and where and how can we obtain it?

3. What is a “savage name” (p. 237)? How do Thoreau's claims about naming practices support his larger argument about what human freedom truly is?

4. In "A Near View of the High Sierra," Muir criticizes the artistic conventions of his day. What is Muir's complaint?

5. According to Muir, the view from the summit of Mount Ritter offers an important insight into the true nature of "creation." Briefly explain: what is this insight, and what are its implications for human religion or spirituality?

6. How, according to Leopold, can a proper understanding of "biotic interactions between people and land" (p. 205) improve our understanding of human history? What lessons about humanity's true role in nature does Leopold hope we will draw from such an improved understanding?

7. Explain the metaphor with which Leopold ends "The Land Ethic": "We are remodeling the Alhambra with a steam-shovel, and are proud of our yardage. We shall hardly relinquish the shovel, which after all has many good points, but we are in need of gentler and more objective criteria for its successful use" (p. 226). What are the "gentler and more objective criteria" Leopold is referring to, and how can we figure out what they are?

8. Given Carson's remarks, in Chapter 2 of Silent Spring, on the complex relations among industry, government agencies at various levels (state, federal, local), scientists of various kinds and in various positions (from ecologists working in the field to "regulatory entomologists" (p. 11) in state and federal agencies), and the public, how should we assign blame for—and responsibility for avoiding—public health disasters of the sort she describes in Chapter 7?

9. How does Carson's advocacy, in Chapter 7 of Silent Spring, of such beetle-control measures as the introduction of Tiphia wasps and milky disease as “means that [represent] no threat whatever to other forms of life” (p. 79) mesh with her general view on the introduction of invasive species, expressed in Chapter 2? What is the underlying logic here?

10. Explain the reasoning of Judge Gabrielle McDonald in her December 1979 ruling denying the temporary injunction sought by attorney Linda McKeever Bullard in Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management Corp. What, in her view, was insufficient about the efforts of Linda Bullard and her husband, sociologist/anthropologist Robert D. Bullard (author of the piece we read in class, "Neighborhoods 'Zoned' for Garbage"), to document that environmental racism was taking place in Northwood Manor? What, if anything, could the Bullards have done to overcome Judge McDonald's objections?

11. In cases of suspected environmental injustice, why can it sometimes be difficult to prove “causality,” according to Susan Cutter (namely to prove that “racism, economic inequality, and economic segmentation” truly are “the root cause of environmental inequalities,” p. 117)? What methods does Cutter recommend that environmental-justice researchers use in order to overcome these difficulties?

12. Why, according to Singer, is “the limit of sentience ... the only defensible boundary of concern for the interests of others” (p. 9)?

13. Singer distinguishes carefully between the general claim that it is wrong to make others suffer and the more specific claim that it is wrong to kill (the “‘sanctity of life’ view,” p. 17). While Singer endorses the former, he is ambivalent about the latter. Why?

14. Please certify that you are submitting this answer on behalf of your entire group by listing the names of every group member, including your own. Mark your own with (S) to indicate that you are the group's secretary. Example:

Mary M. Q. Contrary
John J. Jingleheimer Schmidt
Little Bo Peep (S)