Assignment 1: Monitoring Our Home Planet

The Internet is a powerful tool that provides the ability to monitor natural phenomena and disasters that happen all over planet Earth.

In this assignment, you will research resources available on the Internet for monitoring natural phenomena including earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, global climate, and weather.

Based on your research, do the following:

• Identify a minimum of three different natural phenomena that are typically responsible for natural disasters. Analyze the potential impact of these disasters.
• Analyze how these phenomenon are monitored, or not, via the Internet. Critique available Web sites, which publicly display up-to-date monitored information related to each of the natural phenomena you have identified. Focus on the following aspects:
  • Geography
    • What parts of the world are potentially affected by these phenomena? Specifically identify the countries.
  • Resources
    • What kinds of resources are allocated toward monitoring these phenomena and why?
    • What types of Web resources monitor the phenomena and provide up-to-date information about them?
    • What kinds of technology are involved in monitoring the phenomena?
  • Politics
    • What political ramifications would this disaster-preparedness technology cause between more-developed countries and less-developed countries?
    • What kinds of issues could this technology cause between less-developed countries?
  • Economics
    • How would this technology directly impact the economies of those countries that have the technology versus those countries that do not?
    • Do you predict any indirect impacts? What current evidence supports your position?
  • Disaster Preparedness
    • What types of systems are in place in terms of disaster preparedness related to these monitored phenomena?
• Summarize your findings. Evaluate how this technology will impact the future of humanity, both positively and negatively. Be sure to consider the political and economic issues discussed in your future predictions.

Support your statements with examples. Use a minimum of six reliable references, two of which should be peer-reviewed articles.

Write a 7–8-page paper in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M5_A1.doc