Tournament: Berkeley | Round: 5 | Opponent: Harvard Westlake MO | Judge: Alex Carter
Going for the Oscar AC
Framework
I value morality. Epistemology is the only sound moral foundation because we have to understand how we get knowledge before we can evaluate if that knowledge is good or not. And, all moral knowledge is derived from experience
Schwartz:
The empirical support …reject the appearances here.

Thus, the standard is consequentialism. A couple more justifications

First, policymakers ought to use consequentialism.
Goodin Robert Goodin, fellow in philosophy, Australian National Defense University, THE UTILITARIAN RESPONSE, 1990, p. 141-2
My larger argument …general rules or conduct.

Second, the act-omission distinction doesn’t exist—every inaction is an action itself, so we’re equally responsible for omissions.
Rachels James Rachels. “Killing and Letting Die.” Encyclopedia of Ethics, 2nd edition, ed. Lawrence Becker and Charlotte Becker (New York: Routledge, 2001), vol. 2, pp. 947-50.
So what is …body very rapidly.

If there’s a risk of moral uncertainty, we should default to preventing extinction
Bostrom 12 Nick Bostrom ‘12, “The Concept of Existential Risk”, 2012, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford Martin School and Faculty of Philosophy http://www.existential-risk.org/concept.html
These reflections on…any existential catastrophe.
Plan
Contention 1 is biodiversity

Mining leads to a massive loss of biodiversity – empirically verified
Cultural Survival 03 “Ghana: Prevent Gold Mining in Forest Reserves,” March 2003, Cultural Survival
A chorus of …viable breeding population. 

Gold and diamond mining causes huge mercury release into the environment
Hilson 02 Gavin Hilson, teaches at Imperial College Center for Environmental Technology, “The Environmental Impact of Small-Scale Gold Mining in Ghana: Identifying Problems and Possible Solutions?,” The Geographical Journal, Vol. 168, No. 1 (Mar., 2002), pp. 57-72, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3451222
… overlooked in … not be consumed.

Mercury destroys biodiversity – caused the greatest mass extinction in history
Bishop 12 “Mercury caused mass extinctions, say scientists,” Adrian Bishop, 06 Jan 2012, http://www.earthtimes.org/pollution/mercury-caused-mass-extinctions-scientists/1744/
Mass extinctions during …here on Earth today." adds Beauchamp. 

These ecosystems are biodiversity hotspots
CEPF 10 Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Annual Portfolio Overview: Guinean Forests of West Africa Biodiversity Hotspot, March 2010
The Guinean Forests…small grants fund. 

Biodiversity loss in hotspots will cause extinction
Diner 94 Judge’s advocate general corps of the US army; David N.; Miltary Law Review
No species has… to the abyss.

Contention 2 is the Indigenous

Mining is decimating the indigenous people’s land and causing death. In fact, they are too scared to report any of the harms they are facing.
Paul Sarfo-Mensah 12, “Mining or Our Heritage? Indigenous Local People’s Views on Industrial Waste of Mines in Ghana,” Department of Religion and Human Values, University of Cape Coast, Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
The above demonstrates …rendered the “soil dead”. 

One member of the Ahafo Kensayi tribe near the mines, explains the helplessness of his people
Cited in “Mining or Our Heritage? Indigenous Local People’s Views on Industrial Waste of Mines in Ghana”
For instance, …we have our farms (Kwaku Agyapong, Ahafo Kenyasi, per comm.., 2010). 

The mining companies slaughter indigenous protesters and needlessly destroy their land
Paul Sarfo-Mensah 2, “Mining or Our Heritage? Indigenous Local People’s Views on Industrial Waste of Mines in Ghana,” Department of Religion and Human Values, University of Cape Coast, Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
The Environmental Impact … the mining companies.

Mining has caused income disparities- forcing indigenous to relocate from their land
Paul Sarfo-Mensah 3, “Mining or Our Heritage? Indigenous Local People’s Views on Industrial Waste of Mines in Ghana,” Department of Religion and Human Values, University of Cape Coast, Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
We found that …become too high (Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, 2009a).

Contention 3 is child labor

Tanzanian mining companies exploit children by luring them to mines and leaving them in a vicious cycle of danger – this is an independent impact
Human Rights Watch 13, “Tanzania: Hazardous Life of Child Gold Miners,” http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/08/28/tanzania-hazardous-life-child-gold-miners
(Dar Es Salaam) – Children as young as eight …to vulnerable populations.

Thus the plan: The governments of Ghana and Tanzania will prohibit mining by domestic and international companies in forest reserves

Only a complete prohibition can solve. It also generates eco-tourism
Boocock 02 Colin Noy Boocock, January 2002, “Environmental Impacts of Foreign Direct Investment in the Mining Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
In the light of the above, host… require further investigation. 

Because the plan creates eco-tourism, it preserves the forest reserves in the future
Langholz 96 “Ecotourism Impact on Independently Owned Nature Reserves in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa,” Yale Bulletin of Environmental Studies, Jeff Langholz, Cornell University, 1996
First, ecotourism provides …independent reserve model.
for the development of a young person’s personality.

Sorry for this carter but there’s gonna be some theory underviews

Underview 1: AFC
The neg must concede to the Aff paradigmatic approach to the round…
Underview 2: Converse
The neg must defend that resource extraction should be prioritized over environmental protection when the two are in conflict…

Tournament: NSD | Round: 1 | Opponent: - | Judge: -
The United States Federal Government will implement group reparations in the form of education, job training, housing, and income programs for  designed to improve socioeconomic conditions as well as provide economic capital by transferring money from white communities to black Americans. The United States Federal Government will implement group reparations in the form of education, job training, housing, and income programs for  designed to improve socioeconomic conditions as well as provide economic capital by transferring money from white communities to black Americans. I reserve the right to clarify. Feagin
“A Legal and Moral Basis for Reparations.” TIME Magazine. Joe Feagin. May 28, 2014.

The United States Federal Government will implement a Reparations Superfund. Berry ’14 clarifies the advocacy:
Mary Frances Berry, Former Chairwoman of US Commission on Civil Rights. Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History at UPenn. "We Need a 'Reparations Superfund'". New York Times. June 9, 2014.

The USFG ought to provide cash reparations for housing discrimination to black American WW2 veterans.

Tournament: CPS | Round: 2 | Opponent: Harker PR | Judge: Ilya Gaidarov
Part 1 is Interpretations
First, is AFC.
Part 2 is framework
The standard is consequentialism.
A. Consequences are relevant under any theory.  The only way that we know an action is good or bad is through its results.  The only way we know killing is bad because it results in death, otherwise we wouldn’t care. This means morality is epistemically inaccessible absent a consequentialist framework
B. All ethical theories devolve to ends, deontologists might care about us not using people as a means but that only matters because the end consequence is a person who has been used as a means.
C. The act-omission distinction doesn’t exist—every inaction is an action itself, so we’re equally responsible for omissions.
Rachels James Rachels. “Killing and Letting Die.” Encyclopedia of Ethics, 2nd edition, ed. Lawrence Becker and Charlotte Becker (New York: Routledge, 2001), vol. 2, pp. 947-50.

So what is the difference between causing and allowing? What real difference is marked
AND
die by running away, I may be moving my body very rapidly.

And prefer an interpretation where we implement a policy since anything else would exclude analysts’ opinions on what happens when we actually do these things. Also, consequentialism allows all potential end states to link in, encouraging more substantive rather than framework heavy debate.

And impacts to indigenous people come first under consequentialism.
First, is owning up to our mistakes
We have a responsibility to become active parts of the solution to the genocide against the Ogoni indigenous people of Nigeria; we have contributed to the problem.
Ogoni Bill of Rights 92 Ogoni Bill of Rights. PRESENTED TO THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF NIGERIA October, 1990 WITH AN APPEAL TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY by The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) December, 1991 Published by Saros International Publishers, 24 Aggrey Road, PO Box 193, Port Harcourt, Nigeria for The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) June 1992
The once beautiful Ogoni countryside is no more a source of fresh air and green
AND
NOTHING in return. Ogoni is being killed so that Nigeria can live.

We’re either parts of the solution or parts of the problem
Churchill 03 (Ward, Professor of American Indian Studies at University Colorado - Boulder. 2003, (On the Justice of Roosting Chic kens - Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance .and Criminality, pp. 79-83)
In light of the above, Americans are clearly faced with a choice. On
AND
-weakening institutions on their own terms, ultimately overpowering and discarding them.

And, role of the ballot: as an educator, it is your responsibility to make sure marginalized voices aren’t excluded from the discussion.  
White-Kaulauity
Teachers play a huge role as decision-maker, change agent, and as
AND
burden because we are accountable for the development of a young person’s personality.

Part 3 is the plan
First, is inherency:
Current West African environmental regulations are insufficient, companies can get away with anything – three warrants
Eaton 97 15 B.U. Int'l L. J. 261 (1997) Nigerian Tragedy, Environmental Regulation of Transnational Corporations, and the Human Right to a Healthy Environment, The; Eaton, Joshua P.
First, as with most legislation, Nigeria's regulations address current and future problematic behavior
AND
will not achieve the environmental objectives enunciated in the decree which created it.
The status quo allows corporations and the government to decimate the Ogoni living area
Adeola 01 Environmental Injustice and Human Rights Abuse: The States, MNCs, and Repression of Minority Groups in the World System, Francis O. Adeola, Department of Sociology University of New Orleans
While corporations the MNOCs and the military government are reaping the benefits of
AND
late Ken Saro-Wiwa (1998, 331-32) as:

Thus the plan: Emerging Western African governments should enforce expensive sanctions and prohibition of resource extraction rights on corporations that engage in resource extraction in or near areas inhabited by the Ogoni indigenous people as well as extend global environmental standards that prohibit actions that corporations are currently taking i.e. land degradation, oil and air pollution, killing of species, and hazardous waste dumping. I’ll clarify in cx.

Second, is solvency:
Imposing regulations solves
Adeola 2
To achieve global environmental justice, the same environmental standards applicable in core industrialized countries
AND
global environmental injustice and human rights problems remains a challenge to future research.
Expensive sanctions solve even better
Adeola 3
In order to ameliorate environmental injustice, ecocide (unlawful killings of species), politicide
AND
a “Global Superfund” under the umbrella of the U.N.

Policy implementation of a new law is key
Ogbodo 09 Ogbodo, Dr. S. Gozie (2009) "Environmental Protection in Nigeria: Two Decades After the Koko Incident," Annual Survey of International and Comparative Law: Vol. 15: Iss. 1, Article 2
We also assert (or contend) that the limited competence of the federating units
AND
react legislatively swiftly in order to protect the environmental sphere under their control.

Third is impacts:
Resource extraction is a tool to subjugate indigenous peoples – you can’t fight back so we’re going to devastate your land
Adeola 4 Environmental Injustice and Human Rights Abuse: The States, MNCs, and Repression of Minority Groups in the World System, Francis O. Adeola, Department of Sociology University of New Orleans
Among the recent cases of environmental injustice and human rights violations in the Third World
AND
, 2000b; Bullard 1990; Morrison 1976; Glazer and Glazer 1998).
Empirically, resource extraction has allowed for the extermination and relocation of the indigenous
Adeola 5
An examination of a wide range of regions from the Amazon Basin to northern Saskatchewan
AND
preservation of natural systems upon which their livelihood and survival rests.
They receive almost genocidal treatment and have a quality of life inferior to most others
Osaghae 96 Eghosa E. Osaghae. “Human Rights and Ethnic Conflict Management: The Case of Nigeria.” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1996), pp. 171-188

The Ogonis are a minority ethnic group in Rivers state who belong to the category
AND
' (Saro-Wiwa, 1992, pp. 93-96).
American companies are dehumanizing the Ogoni
Ogoni Bill of Rights 2
That multi-national oil companies, namely Shell (Dutch/British) and Chevron (American) has have severally and jointly devastated our environment and ecology, having flared gas in our villages for 33 years and caused oil spillages, blow-outs etc., and have dehumanized our people, denying them employment and those benefits which industrial organizations in Europe and America routinely contribute to their areas of operation.