User:Emblanx/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1

 * Environmental Issues in Africa
 * This article spotlights some of the most pressing environmental issues on the continent. The overview is a bit short, but it does give a roadmap for what the rest of the article covers. However, the real issues with the article start as soon as it gets into content. There is an obvious lack of consideration for the impact of colonial and neo-colonial structures on African environmental conditions and the article is teeming with racist assumptions, such as blaming air pollution on "primitive farming methods" while failing to mention oil production. Many of the sources in the article are biased, for example, a line in that article claims that issues related to agricultural productivity on the continent are caused by a lack of widespread fertilizer use is sourced from the website of a trade association of fertilizer producers. The article also fails to account for geographic and political differences across the continent, either taking country-specific evidence and universalizing it across the continent or taking global phenomena and applying it to the continent without accounting for how issues are experienced on the African continent specifically. Overall, I thought the article had a decent structure that I could work within, but it needs a lot of improvement content-wise.
 * Health Effects Institute: Interactive Database - East Africa. Health Effects Institute. (2023, January 11).  Health Effects Institute. 2022. The State of Air Quality and Health Impacts in Africa. A Report from the State of Global Air Initiative. Boston, MA: Health Effects Institute.
 * Mansour, N. (2023, November 14). Why plastic? Africa’s contribution to the global plastic policymaking processes. African Wildlife Foundation.

Option 2

 * Elizabeth Mpofu
 * I thought this article was a great start for a biography of Mpofu, but I thought it could use more information. The lead section was clear and hit all the key points, and the rest of the information was contained in a section called "activism." The article could be developed into complete sections rather than the bulk of information being contained in that one section. I also thought for readers who are not already familiar with her and her work it would be helpful to add more background about La Vía Campesina and the agroecology movement. All of the sources included were objective and credible. However, when I read through the sources that were linked, I found a lot more relevant information that could have been included in the article but wasn't. The article currently leaves off some of her key roles and accomplishments.


 * UN Food and Agriculture Organization- Voices for change: Elizabeth Mpofu, General Coordinator, La Via Campesina
 * United Nations. (n.d.). Ms. Elizabeth Mpofu | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations.

Option 3

 * Reforestation in Nigeria Content-wise, I thought the article had a strong overview of the political history of reforestation efforts, and it provided a clear timeline of the history of deforestation and reforestation and described the key individuals and institutions involved. The article contained very sparse context about environmental issues in Nigeria broadly or in the Niger Delta, which they reference multiple times as a key site of deforestation and biodiversity loss. The "Environmental Context" section explained the concept of environmental context but failed to adequately explain the environmental context of Nigeria, simply stating its location and that it has a tropical climate. While there was one citation that was missing a link, the article overall was well-sourced mostly from peer-reviewed scholarly articles or government reports. Overall, I thought this article was provided well-researched foundation and contained information that got to the heart of some of the different political and environmental dimensions of the topic but struggled to put together a well-structured overview, especially for readers who may not come in with background knowledge about Nigerian environmental issues.
 * Mojeed, A. (2022, November 10). Nigeria launches new tree-planting initiative against climate change. Premium Times Nigeria.
 * Abiodun, B.J., Salami, A.T., Matthew, O.J. et al. Potential impacts of afforestation on climate change and extreme events in Nigeria. Clim Dyn 41, 277–293 (2013).

Option 4

 * Environmental movement in South Africa
 * The article provides a helpful overview of the history of the environmental movement in South Africa and includes a very thorough and detailed timeline of major events for the environmental movement 1918-present. The article only includes a lead section and a timeline section, and I think the content would be easier for readers to understand if more sections were added. The timeline includes events and the groups involved in those events but does not get into dynamics, conflicts, or collaborations within the movement. It does not clearly differentiate between traditional conservation led by colonizers and justice-oriented environmental movements, and doing so would make the article much clearer. The article could also use more information on present-day environmental movements. It includes some great images of demonstrations from recent years but does not address the groups involved in those and what they are advocating for. Throughout, the article is missing sources (both sources that don't have links and paragraphs that have no sources at all).
 * Jacklyn Cock (2004) Connecting the red, brown and green: The environmental justice movement in South Africa
 * Carl Death (2014) Environmental Movements, Climate Change, and Consumption in South Africa, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40:6, 1215-1234, DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2014.964494

Option 5

 * Melaku Worede
 * This article gets the basic overview of Worede's life correct but fails to situate his work in the context of agronomy and policy that governs farming practices globally. It also completely omits any mention of the famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s, a key event that shaped the direction of his career. All the sources included appear credible and the links work, but there are only 4 of them for the entire article. Many claims are not cited and some of those that are appear to contradict the source material. Images of him and the seed banks could be added. I also thought the article would be easier to read if it was more clearly divided into sections. From the content already included, I think the following structure would make the most sense:
 * -Early Life and Education.
 * -Career
 * -Recognition
 * -Notable Works
 * Tansey, Geoff. "Agricultural Biodiversity - Ethiopia's Wealth." Appropriate Technology, vol. 35, no. 1, 2008, pp. 11-14. ProQuest.
 * University of Cape Town. (2014, September 24). Smallholder farmers pave the way for food security. UCT News.