ESE 311 – WRITING ASSIGNMENT ONE – ERICH EISENHART – 02/09/2014
Dear grandmother,
After I asked you questions about your environmental concerns, political stance, hopes and outlooks, I used that information to write a blog post about your attitude toward the environment. All of my other classmates interviewed people that they know as well, and we all combined the gathered data in order to draw conclusions and establish trends about people, characteristics and environmental attitudes. Now that I have reviewed all of the collected data, I would like to tell you how your attitude compares to that of other people in your age bracket (60-80). Of the four people in this group, including you, half of the participants hold pessimistic views about the future of the biosphere. Only you responded that religion plays a role in your outlook. All of the respondents have obtained at least a college degree. You stood alone among the other respondents as the only female. One particular man from Urbana, IL shared your concerns about dysfunctional politicians and their role in degrading resource availability. He also felt, like you, that residents of the United States will fare better than those of less developed countries. Another man from Laguna Beach, CA mentioned as you did that pollution poses a significant threat to the health of human beings. However, he feels much more optimistically about the future of humanity than you do, referencing technology as a potential solution. Another man living in Chicago, IL expressed immense concern, as you did, about the growing level of air pollution our species now faces. He recognizes that this problem will persist into the future. Your concerns do not stand alone, grandmother, as this information shows that many other people your age think and feel similarly about the state of the world. This trend spans all age groups as well, as most people do not feel particularly optimistic about the future. Hopefully our species will have the audacity, brilliance and determination to help fix the problems we have caused, and in doing so heal the planet. Thank you for openly sharing your opinions, and I hope you have enjoyed this letter.
Love,
Erich
Dear Sarah Dawn,
Thank you for participating in the interview. Your responses fed into a larger collection of data gathered by my classmates from other interviewees. We collected specific facts about the people we interviewed in an attempt to draw conclusions and recognize trends. Based upon your age group (30-40), I would now like to share some quantitative and qualitative information based upon the data my classmates and I obtained. Of the eight members in your age bracket, only one reported optimistic feelings about the state of the environment, whereas five (you included) expressed neutral feelings and only two felt outright pessimistic. Only you and one other interviewee expressed that the spiritual influences your outlooks, while the rest of the group said it did not. Half of the group claimed a liberal stance, with three claiming a conservative stance and one claiming a moderate stance. Education differed most among all interviewees, with three finishing postgrad work, two finishing a bachelors, one solely completing high school and two claiming ‘other’ education completed. Most interviewees hold some different concerns about the environment than you do. For example, several people mentioned fossil fuels, energy security and global warming among their top three worries. However, almost every person holds at least one concern in common with you. They worry about food and commodity crops, pollution in the form of waste and nuclear toxicity, and access to clean air and water. These differences and similarities may lead to insights about ecological perspective, as you mentioned all of these issues, yet chose those that impacted your local environment. This may produce to insights about how to educate the public about these issues; by starting with local issues and expanding outwards towards larger issues all the while showing how each connects to the other. One particular lady interviewed voiced her concerns about global warming, fossil fuel usage and crops, noting that, “technically all three are hand-in-hand.” By making these connections, we might all learn how to solve local issues and thereby work our way towards solving state, nation and global issues simultaneously. Once again, I sincerely appreciate your participation in this project.
Be well,
Erich Eisenhart