Welcome to APES!

Environmental "Would You Rather"

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Grab a partner and get ready to debate. You have 90 seconds per slide!

• Instructions for the Class:
• Point to the left for Option A.
• Point to the right for Option B.
• Tell your partner exactly WHY you made your choice!
• Ask a question about your partner's answer

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left): Wear the exact same outfit every single day for a full year to combat fast fashion waste.

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• Option B (Right): Only buy thrifted and second-hand items for the rest of your life (the thrifting does not get any new clothes; it is stuck in fashion of 2000).

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left): Never use air conditioning again (even in the dead of summer).

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• Option B (Right): Never use heating again (even in the freezing depths of winter).

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left): Live directly next door to an active nuclear power plant.

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• Option B (Right): Live directly next door to a massive municipal landfill.

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left): Have the power to instantly purify polluted water just by touching it.

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• Option B (Right): Have the power to instantly clean a city's air just by breathing.

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left): Travel 500 years into the past to see Earth completely untouched by modern industrialization.

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• Option B (Right): Travel 500 years into the future to see how human technology “adapts” to climate change and technology advances.

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left): Successfully clone and bring back the Woolly Mammoth to restore arctic ecosystems.

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• Option B (Right): Successfully clone and bring back the Tyrannosaurus Rex (good luck with containment).

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left): Drink water that has been chemically recycled and purified directly from a sewage treatment plant.

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• Option B (Right): Drink water straight from a natural, unpurified stream.

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left) Would you rather walk or bike everywhere you go (no cars or buses)

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• Option B (Right) never use single-use plastic again (no plastic wrappers, bottles, or takeout containers)

WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left) Would you rather give up chocolate forever

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• Option B (Right) give up coffee/caffeine forever due to climate change impacts on crops?

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WOULD YOU RATHER...

• Option A (Left): Give up streaming video services (TikTok, YouTube, Netflix) forever to reduce server farm energy use.

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• Option B (Right): Give up meat and dairy products forever to reduce global methane emissions.

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Check-in

• Let’s look at some class “data”

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• Which choice was the hardest for you to make?

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• Which question generated the most intense debate or disagreement between you and your partners? Why do you think that topic was so polarizing?

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• Did your partner say anything that actually changed your mind?

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Perspective

• The Mind-Changer: Did your partner give a reason for their choice that genuinely made you reconsider your own stance? What was it?
• The Split Room: Which question generated the most intense debate or disagreement between you and your partners? Why do you think that topic was so polarizing?
• The Outlier: Did you find yourself choosing the unpopular option for any of the rounds? What did that feel like?

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Policy

• Personal vs. Public: Was it easier to make choices that sacrificed your own personal comfort (like tech or outfits) or choices that impacted an entire community (like nuclear power plants vs. landfills)?
• The Mandate: If you had to pick one of these choices to become a mandatory federal law for every citizen tomorrow, which one do you think would do the most good for the planet? Which one would cause the most public outrage?
• The True Cost: For the tech vs. meat dilemma, do you think people truly realize the hidden environmental cost of their daily digital footprints compared to their diets?

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It’s all Perspective

• In environmental science, there is rarely a "perfect" choice—almost every solution has an environmental or economic drawback. How did this activity show that "solutions" always come with trade-offs?

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• What major topic are you most excited to actually learn the hard science behind this year? (e.g., how nuclear energy works, how waste is managed, or how ecosystems recover…).

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Welcome to AP Environmental Science!