Tournament: UMKC | Round: 1 | Opponent: Kansas | Judge:
Creating and adjusting environmental regulations relies on risk assessment to justify penalties and conditions for intervention, propping up elite perspectives on nature and ignoring that some groups are more vulnerable than others to environmental degradation.

Verchick, 1996, Harvard women’s law journal, lexis
Risk assessments, which
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"average" standards, "man is the measure of all things."
This human-centered rationality treats humanity as separate from nature, which paves the way for humans to use nature at their disposal as a mass of undifferentiated beings

Plumwood 02 Val: Australian Research Council Fellow at University of Sydney –002 Environmental Culture: The ecological crisis of reason Routledge nb p. 111-113
The centric parallel as a practical model Liberation movements have not provided a significant source
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ones that are respon¬sive to the other on their own terms.
Ecological thinkers and activists can try to counter radical exclusion (the first feature of
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, which we contest by promoting an understanding of nature’s amazing diversity. 2’
To counter the features of backgrounding and denial, ecological thinkers and green activists try
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such systematic changes is what political action for ecological sustainability is all about.
Constant usage and consumption of nature depletes nature – culminating in extinction.

Nhanenge 07 Jytte: Master of Arts at the development studies at the University of South Africa "Ecofeminism: Towards Integrating the concerns of women poor people and nature into development" http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/570/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1-http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/570/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1~.
Nature is by the economic individual perceived as being a heap of dead parts laying
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with one logical blunder: when nature dies, also humanity will perish.
Our Alternative is to embrace a model of reciprocal, active communication with the natural world so that we may become citizens of the land community.  This shift in knowledge production and methodology will allow us to surpass the bonds of parochialism.

Cheney, 2005, ethics and the environment, 10.2, 101-
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in terminology would be to radically rethink our notions of knowledge and truth.¶ 

Tournament: UMKC | Round: 1 | Opponent: Kansas | Judge:
XOs have the force of law and can effectively implement policy

Mayer 1 Kenneth, Professor of Political Science @ University of Wisconsin – Madison, With the Stroke of a Pen

These chronicles of presidential decisiveness and unilateral action are at odds with the prevailing scholarly
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lawmaking role is substantial, persistent, and in many cases disturbing."8
Executive orders increase presidential power

Risen 4 Clay, Managing editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, M.A. from the University of Chicago "The Power of the Pen: The Not-So-Secret Weapon of Congress-wary Presidents" The American Prospect, July 16, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_power_of_the_pen-http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_power_of_the_pen~

In the modern era, executive orders … from civil rights to labor relations to reproductive health.
Prez power solves India Pakistan, North Korea, Middle East nuclear wars

South China Morning Post 00 "Position of Weakness" 12-11-00, p. L/N
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A weak president with an unclear mandate is bad news for the rest of the
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the world needs the United States to use its power deftly and decisively.

Tournament: UMKC | Round: 1 | Opponent: Kansas | Judge:
Obama will win – majority of polling techniques – but it’s close

com/search_results/?sf_pubsys_story_byline=American%20Political%20Science%20Association%26link_location=top 9/19/12 8 Of 13 Election Forecasts Predict Obama Wins 2012 Popular Vote;

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Several forecast
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understanding national electoral processes and the dynamics at work in US presidential elections.
Wind power is unpopular

Weiss 12 (Gary, journalist and author, 2/22, Obama Alienates Absolutely Everyone on This One Issue, http://www.thestreet.com/print/story/11427579.html)
Environmentalists, meanwhile, are appalled that the Obama administration has given the green light
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heavily subsidized by tax breaks, has engendered stiff opposition from local communities.  
Romney will bomb Iran his first month in office

Kidd 12 (Dr. Billy, research psychologist and long-term political activist, June 14, ’Romney Strategist Prepare for War Against Iran,’ http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/foreign-policy/crisis-gaza/romney-strategists-prepare-war-against-iran-http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/foreign-policy/crisis-gaza/romney-strategists-prepare-war-against-iran)
The Emergency Committee for Israel is running an advertisement urging an immediate war with Iran
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execution of a million Iranians when Romney orders the bombing come next January.
Attacking Iran causes full-scale war with Russia

Conway January 17, 2012 Alvin Conway Author, blogger he cites Russia’s former ambassador to NATO and the Arab Times "Iranian Crisis: escalating series of troubling events sliding world towards war" http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/iranian-crisis-escalating-series-of-troubling-events-sliding-world-towards-war/-http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/iranian-crisis-escalating-series-of-troubling-events-sliding-world-towards-war/
Russian response could lead to WWIII: Russia would regard any military intervention linked to Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its own security, Moscow’s departing ambassador to NATO warned on Friday. "Iran is our neighbor," Dmitry Rogozin told reporters in Brussels. "And if Iran is involved in any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security." –Arab Times

That’s the only scenario for nuclear extinction

Bostrom 2002 Nick Bostrom Professor, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University"Existential Risks" Journal of Evolution and Technology, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2002). http://www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html-http://www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html
A much greater existential risk emerged with the build-up of nuclear arsenals in
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preludes to the existential risks that we will encounter in the 21st century.

Tournament: UMKC | Round: 1 | Opponent: Kansas | Judge: 

A. Uniqueness and Internal Link – Demand for rare-earth minerals is dwindling now but a surge will escalate U.S.-China trade tensions
Nasir 12 (Khaled, 3/19, China’s Rare-Earth Power-Play, http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/chinas_rare-earth_power_play.html~~%23ixzz22Fgt3dmg) 

The United States, Europe, and Japan have recently joined forces to challenge China’s
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companies look for ways to reduce or eliminate use of rare-earths.

B.  Links

    A new expansion in renewable energy will boost U.S. demand for China’s rare earth minerals
    Fridley 10 (David, staff scientist at the Energy Analysis Program at the Lawrence Berkeley National
    Laboratory, Nine Challenges of Alternative Energy, http://www.postcarbon.org/Reader/PCReader-Fridley-Alternatives.pdf) 

Because alternative energy today constitutes only a small fraction of total energy production, the
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earths, ostensibly to encourage investment within China of industries using the metals.

2. China’s protectionism will start a resource war
Schwartz 10 (Ariel, Senior Editor, 9/23, The New Resource Wars: What If China Stops Exporting Rare
Elements? FastCompany Innovations Magazine. http://www.fastcompany.com/1690821/the-newresource-
wars-what-happens-if-china-stops-exporting-rare-earth-elements)

Earlier this week, China halted all shipments of rare earth metals to Japan after
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that were supposed to help us transition away from reliance on unstable regimes.

C. Impact

US-China economic battles will cause
ICFI 10 (10/2 "The rising danger of a US-China Trade War" (International Conference on the Fourth International) 

These arguments are premised on the assumption that US pressure will compel China to back
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and Europe that culminated in the eruption of World War II in 

2. War with China will escalate globally in less than a day
Farrell 11 (Paul B., J.D., phD in psych, economics specialist, 2/8, Secret China war plan: trillions in U.S. debt, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/secret-china-war-plan-trillions-in-us-debt-2011-02-08?pagenumber=2) 

is this how WWIII starts? Between an aging America that loves war, won’t
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Bush Pentagon put it:  By 2020, warfare will define human life."

Tournament: UMKC | Round: 1 | Opponent: Kansas | Judge:
Agent Specification—1nc
A.   The affirmative doesnt specify their agent—they should
B. Vote Negative—all voters
1.Kills CP ground.  Lack of specification destroys our agent CP ground which is core negative ground. Also key to in depth education about the opportunity costs of the congress v. the court v. the executive and agencies.  This is critical civic education and is a key internal link to all their educational claims
2.  Crushes solvency debates—no in-depth solvency debates about the who, what, when, and hows of the plan.  Most important on this topic because energy policy is mess, the DOE, the NRC, EPA, and other agencies all fight for control and credit.
3. Lack of specifying is functional severance—allows them to say not us—allows them to jack our link grd to agency DA’s that is core topic ground and makes the plan a moving target. This jacks education and fairness and makes debate boring—leaves us with statism args.
4. Vote Neg on presumption—90% of solvency in specification of the plan

Elmore 80 

Richard Elmore, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 94, No. 4 (Winter, 1979-1980), pp. 601-616
The emergence of implementation as a subject for policy analysis coincides closely with the discovery
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theory, making it necessary to posit several alternative models of organization.7