I can't write essays!!!! How do you write the introduction?

[jenniferduran]

I need your help with writing my essay urgent. Writing is now hectic task for me. Last year I was writing essays twice a week or so, but this year I've got a total block - I still haven't handed in any work at all because I just can't start the essays, and I have five or so due in, and I know what I want to write in the middle, but it's the introduction paragraph I am having problems with...
The one I have been dribbling over all morning is to discuss the environmental impacts of mineral extraction, how would I start that one off? Please help me with some good intro writing tips.