Climate change consumption/waste/production

Description:
Its  a term paper for sociology. The goal is to write a detailed paper from a socialogical percpective on climate change, identify a group/people making a diffrence and what they could do to take thier efforts to the next level.

Here is the guidelines provides for the term paper:

There are so many amazing and challenging things going on in the world today. These days - and certainly for the past several years - global climate change and consumption/production/waste have been very much in the news.
? In this assignment you use your sociological imaginations and sociological knowledge of social change, social movements, and collective behaviour to examine, I suggest, either the SOCIAL-ENVIRONMENTAL issue of global climate change or production/consumption/waste. What hope is there for the future from a sociological perspective? (25%, minimum 2,000 words, check your course outline for the due date,time, and method of submission.)

At the risk of overstating the obvious, one last piece of very important advice: remember this is sociology, not psychology, sociobiology, or some other discipline which might interest you. The thinking you do should demonstrate an active sociological imagination, attempting to understand the real relations between people"s biographies and their real (including socially constructed) social/historical contexts. This is key.

If you need clarification on anything, please ask!
Now, more about the organization of the report…

A few words about these issues: We must investigate global climate change MITIGATION and ADAPTATION from a sociological framework. Mitigation because assuming human involvement makes objective sense and is wise.
It makes objective sense for two reasons:
1) objectively speaking, humans have had an enormous and undeniable impact on the geography and processes of planet Earth. Why should climate processes be immune from such impacts? And corroborating this line of thought, we have the unprecedented very rapid changes to climate. The question of human involvement, even in interaction with other forces, seems undeniable.
2) From a social constructionist (Thomas Theorem – “define a situation as real and it becomes real in its consequences”) perspective, treating human induced climate change AS REAL will likely result in far more positive consequences than if human induced climate change is treated as REALLY UNREAL whether we are concerned about mitigation or adaptation. This seems to be a "no brainer". The future of this planet may well depend on how we socially construct the reality of climate change – a massive cultural challenge!

In terms of consumption/production/waste, we hardly need any justification for worrying about the rate at which we are consuming our world’s resources (while finding ourselves caught on a production treadmill) and producing literally oceans-full of waste and environmentally degrading pollution.

With these backgrounds in mind, and given the enormity of the problems, it is also smart to begin to understand those problems in terms of more specifically related and perhaps more manageable "RED BUTTON ISSUES". For example, the “fast fashion” movement (where designs move from catwalk quickly in order to capture current fashion trends) is implicated in both climate change and consumption/ production/ waste.

For the paper, choose one or two (possibly related) red button issues. You NEED TO JUSTIFY (even if briefly in a couple of paragraphs) your examination of them from either the climate change or consumption/ production/ waste issues.

Within these red button issues, find CHAMPIONS who treat climate change or consumption/ production/ waste issues and their particular red button issues as REALLY REAL. For example, Lee Reid, Founder of SEEDS in Nelson, B.C., (http://www.seedsnelson.org/) definitely sees climate change as real and works brilliantly within the red button areas of urban agriculture and “Transition” economies. Study these folks’ methods and suggest why, from a sociological framework, they may succeed in their efforts. But also consider ways in which they could improve their work if they incorporated more sociological knowledge. Remember, too, that you will need to consider the challenge of RAPID SOCIAL CHANGE. There is a real sense of URGENCY here which sociology must be able to address. How can your champions, sociologically speaking, move people along more rapidly to address these challenges through their associated red button areas? These problems are not waiting for humanity to respond!