Nature & Environment for CAT RC, in 10 essays

Climate, ecology, animals and oceans appear as arguments about trade-offs and responsibility. These essays practise following a scientific case that also carries a moral or policy point.

Read them in order: they go from easiest to hardest. Answer the questions under each before moving on.

1. 1The Emu War and the Problem Soldiers Could Not ShootIn 1932 machine guns were sent against emus in Western Australia, and the birds won the first round. The story is usually told as comedy, yet it hides a real question about what kind of problem an army can solve.Medium · 1 min
2. 2The Statues of Rapa Nui and a Collapse That May Have Come from OutsideEaster Island became a warning about people who destroy their own world. New research asks whether the warning was aimed at the wrong culprit.Medium · 1 min
3. 3The Cane Toad Programme and the Beetles It MissedA species flourished in a new land, and some called that a success. The beetles it was brought to fight tell another story.Medium · 1 min
4. 4The Forest That Is One Tree and Is Slowly VanishingA Utah grove of aspen is counted as a single organism, and its size hides two questions that science has not fully answered.Medium · 2 min
5. 5The Cliff That Was Built: An RC Inspired by IIM IndoreA famous film showed lemmings marching to their deaths in 1958. The scene was staged, and the myth it fed says more about the audience than about the animal.Medium · 2 min
6. 6The Jevons Trap: The Hidden Cost of Doing BetterEfficiency can increase total consumption as lower costs drive higher demand, revealing why saving resources is harder than it seems.Medium · 5 min
7. 7When the Ice Remembers NothingExplore how melting polar caps are reshaping climate, coastlines, and civilisation in this powerful essay on global warming and Earth’s future.Medium · 5 min
8. 8The Mariana Trench and the Limits of KnowingThe Mariana Trench reveals the limits of human knowledge, where depth challenges perception, life defies extremity, and reality, exceeds conceptual frameworks.Medium · 5 min
9. 9Nature Does Not Speak. We Do.How does language shape our understanding of nature? Discover why animal behaviour, evolutionary biology and human perception are deeply intertwined.Medium · 6 min
10. 10The Cartography of HeatHow cities became climate systems. Inside the hidden science of urban heat, Local Climate Zones, and the future of sustainable cities.Medium · 6 min

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