Nature - autonomous learning

essays and exam questions 251‘Biology is destiny’. Assess this assertion from the perspective of either a feministgeographer or an anti-racist geographer.‘Certain biological differences exist among humans and are themselves in realitysocially meaningless’ (Wade 2002: 43). Using examples, explain how certainbiological differences among people become socially significant.‘When someone . . . has the power to . . . say “this is what culture is” . . . and tomake that meaning stick . . . then culture, as an incredibly powerful idea, is madereal, as real as any other exercise of power’ (Mitchell 2000: 76). Would Mitchell’sstatement be valid if you substituted the word ‘nature’ for ‘culture’?‘The value of nature relies on the fact that it is not human’ (Adams 1996: 101).Discuss.Imagine you were one of the following: a deep ecologist; a researcher on theHuman Genome Project; a farmer growing GM foods. How would you evaluatethe following proposition: ‘Nature knows best’?How natural are ‘natural hazards’?How realistic is the environmental knowledge produced by physical geographers?Explain the ways in which the concept of nature has functioned as one of thefollowing: an ideology; a hegemonic idea; as part of a discourse. In your answerdiscuss the relevant theoretical framework/s and illustrate your arguments.Can one base an ethical code on the idea of ‘natural needs’?Do physical geographers ‘cut nature at the joints’? Or do they, rather, contrive theirsubject matter?On what grounds can we trust the environmental knowledge produced by physicalgeographers?Offer a critical analysis of the way nature is framed morally in one of the followingfilms: Jurassic Park, The Hulk, Gattaca, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Frankenstein,Gorillas in the Mist, Planet of the Apes.