DRAT 2: I.M.O.'s

This topic submitted by Brian, Jason, Maggie, Randy, Ryan on 2/23/03. [ Rivers Team: Brian, Jason, Maggie, Randy, Ryan-Section: Blaisdell/Wolfe]

Introduction
The problem our group (henceforth dubbed the I.M.O.Õs: Intellectual Masturbators Overdrive) is addressing is a problem that has plagued our species for too long. This problem is the lack of emotional/spiritual connection we have to the cycles of Earth and the increasingly obtuse ecological understanding humans have in regards to the ÒnaturalÓ world. In order to circumvent the larger cultures constant barrage of attacks on individuals and systems that attempt to increase environmental consciousness our group intends to write a set of narratives. These narratives will be written with the intention of raising the environmental consciousness of the reader.
Our hypothesis is that the narrative format is a strong platform for increasing the environmental awareness of people. Since these texts will be written from a perspective other than the readers, the reader will be forced to empathize and identify with whomever the author marks as the protagonist of the story. If this works, the set of narratives will then also act as mechanisms that increase environmental understanding and empathy. We will study whether our narratives effect oneÕs environmental consciousness by using surveys (see Appendix A) that gauge oneÕs environmentalism. We will have each subject fill out the survey twice, once before they read our narratives and once after; we will analyze the change between these two surveys to see if our stories had any effect.
Our group plans to accomplish the task of both expanding our environmental understanding and create a body of work that acts as a road map leading to environmental empathy for a reader. Though this seems quite optimistic, our group feels that it is still worth attempting. Utilizing the venue of story-telling and our creative talents, our group will at least expand our ability to emulate differing creatures and empathize with organisms of all kind. This study seems extremely relevant because of its difficult task of creating narratives which have the ability to change how one feels and/or thinks about nature.
This project is clearly one of an interdisciplinary nature. Through the use of narrative forms (humanities), incorporation of societal impacts(social systems), and use of bio-diversity studies (natural systems), we will be intertwining and incorporating multiple fields of study into one, more comprehensive, look at the issue at hand. We will be able to use not only the different aspects of each disciplinary approach bu will also be able to use the process of interdisciplinary learning we have been educated in so well in our last year and a half of study, that so aptly prepared us for this capstone experience.
Along with the idea of fostering greater spiritual connectedness with the ÒnaturalÓ world around us, we will attempt to use in some cases a mythnocentric writing style that will allow both us, as writers and readers of our stories to connect with and understand the nature-humanity relationship in a mythical and more unconscious way. Through the use of a mythos centered writing style, we will be able to foster a deeper, more visceral understanding of the issue; an understanding that can not be verbalized through the typical rationalistic and logical approach that is at the center of most Western thought.

Relevance of Our Research Question
Environmentalism and increasing environmental consciousness has been around for a very long time. Very few have ever claimed to have found a way to integrate the ÒhumanÓ world and the ÒnaturalÓ world and those who have, have yet to see their ideas come to fruition.
Below is a list of related sources or sources that have inspired us to some degree to address this problem in the manner we have chosen.

Bass, Rick. ÒOn Wilderness and Wallace StegnerÓ. The Amicus Journal (Spring 1997).
This article responds to the question of whether nature or wilderness has any intrinsic value; that is value outside of providing natural resources. This piece is very important because it provides empirical evidence using psychology and sociology to concretely respond that, yes, the wilderness does have intrinsic value.

Brooks, Bruce. The Red Wasteland: A Personal Selection of Writings about Nature. New York: Library Of Congress, 1998.
This reader is a compilation of writings from a collection of authors who are concerned with raising environmental consciousness. This reader contains authors like Rachel Carson, Italo Calvino and J.H. Fabre. This book contains a lot of useful examples of how to write a scientifically significant fictional narrative.

Byrnes, Patricia. Environmental Pioneers. Oliver Press, 1998.
Byrnes writes a holistic summary of the American environmental movement. The book focuses on eight major environmental figures. It provides a large portion of information about environmental psychology and anthropological studies are used to juxtapose results in America with other cultures.

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962.
CarsonÕs monumental text, Silent Spring, has inspired many to rethink and revise how they feel about the environment and how they treat it. Rachel Carson was a visionary for the environmental movement early on and was at the forefront of causing many early environmental changes. Her use of narrative-style intertwined with scientific reasoning influenced many readers.

Clark, John. The Anarchist Moment: Reflections on Culture, Nature & Power. (MontrŽal: Black Rose Books, 1984). "What is Social Ecology?". Our Generation, 1992.
An anarchist perspective is one often overlooked within an environmental discourse. Our group reference this book because in order to have a truly well-rounded narrative style, we need to include more than just conservative and liberal environmentalism. This article provides many facts and statistics and shows the significance any form of systemic economy has on an ecological system.

Commoner, Barry. The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology. New York: Knopf, 1971.
This book offers a distinct look at the interconnectedness of nature, man and technology. Commoner examines what he calls the ÒTechnological ProblemÓ with man. This book is especially important in understanding how to weave a believable narrative about an environmentally and human friendly world.

Commoner, Barry. Energy and Human Welfare: The Social Costs of Power Production Vol 1. New York: Knopf, 1975.
Another Commoner book, Energy and Human Welfare provides statistics and data about how much energy is gained from damming and the effects it has on both the humanÕs surroundings and the ecosystemÕs health.

Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists & the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill & Wang, 1983.
This amazing text gives a beautiful linear history of how the environment has been effected by the different forms of civilization. This text grants our group more knowledge about differing perspectives and adds a much needed dynamic to our narratives.

Devall, Bill, and George Sessions. Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered. Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith Books, 1982.
Devall is a classic ecology writer who has a way of causing dissonance in any reader. He writes in his book Deep Ecology about how one should live in harmony with nature. He lays down a firm thesis about why, how and when humans should live as a part of nature rather than apart from nature.

Diamond, Irene, and Gloria Orenstein, eds. Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990.
These three authors convincingly argue for a complete annihilation of the current lens the dominant culture view nature through. The three argue that women have been oppressed for thousands of years and that because of many matriarchal religionsÕ focus on nature, nature has been oppressed as well. This text will aid us in writing from an ecofeministÕs perspective if we so choose.

Fort, Bruce. (1998). ÒAmerican Slave NarrativesÓ. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html
This website had references to numerous slave narratives from American history. Our group felt it necessary to look at how other authors in the past have used narratives as a transformative venue so that we may refine our skills at mimicking their efforts (in relation to environmental empathy).

Gaudet, Marcia. (1999). ÒGaines' Fifteen Narrators: Narrative Styles and Storytelling Technique in A Gathering of Old MenÓ. http://www.crt.state.la.us/folklife/main_misc_gaines_old_men.html.
This useful article by Gaudet espouses the numerous styles an author could use when writing a narrative text. Although somewhat longwinded, the articleÕs fifteen styles are extremely relevant.

Gilliam, Harold. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Bay: The Struggle to Save San Francisco Bay. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1969.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Bay is an excellent piece of environmental writing that describes the struggles that thousands of people went through in order to save a dying ecosystem. This text is an imperative piece of evidence for our study, showing that nature does have value and that we are apart of it.

Hippolyte, Michael. (1995). ÒNonlinear Writing StylesÓ, http://users.rcn.com/mash.interport/nonlin.html.
This website was used by our group to develop our ability to write a non-linear narrative. We feel that in order to portray the differing consciousnesses that our narratives will tap into, we will need to test out diverse writing styles.

Manes, Christopher. Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990.
ManesÕ book outlines the history of radical environmentalism across the globe. His book focuses on the goals of such groups and how they go about reaching those goals. This book contains many useful facts and grants us a view into a perspective we may write about.

Rossiter, Marsha. (2002). ÒNarrative and Stories in Adult Teaching and LearningÓ. http://ericacve.org/docgen.asp?tbl=digests&ID=126.
Narratives have always held a strong grip on educators according to this website. This site is another web-based program to encourage the use of narratives in certain settings (in this case an educational setting). Our group found this useful because of its considerate support for the use of narratives as a means of shifting paradigms.

Wong, Paul T. P. (2001). ÒTransformative narrative therapyÓ. http://www.meaning.ca/articles/presidents_column/Transformative_narrative_therapy_sept02.htm.
Paul Wong is a psychologist who has written many texts revolving around the idea of narrative as a transformative agent in therapy sessions. This website reviews and discusses some of the efforts that Wong endorses. Our group found this to be quite intriguing and illuminate some of the possibilities of the narrative style.

Our research relates to a much larger issue than just writing fictional narratives or scientific study; the larger questions that we hope to address throughout our study are as follows: How can story-telling be used to foster a higher level of environmental consciousness? To what degree can humans be expected to empathize with species so dissimilar than themselves?
These questions will all be investigated throughout our research and, hopefully, some answers will be reached. This study relates to a vast body of study and disciplines, although the core theoretical foundation will be environmentalism/environmental ethics, nature psychology, and literary theory.

Interdisciplinarity Approach (cultural, social, scientific perspectives)
As part of a truly interdisciplinary course, our project must connect with multiple fields of study as well as integrate them together to foster the goalÕs of our group study.
By using the fictional narrative as our exploration tool, we can use its form to seek out and integrate the ways in which various ideas, concepts, and disciplines come into play in different contexts relating to a single problem. Although a great deal of fiction writing deals with multiple facets of a variety of problems, it is often done unconsciously as part of a human experience involving numerous complex systems. In contrast, our fictional narratives will be written with a particular problem in mind as a foundation. Our stories will be written in a purposeful way to not only include, but explore and investigate the relations and interconnectedness between multiple facets of the nature-humanity relationship.
We will be able to incorporate a natural systems aspect into our narratives by taking into account the bio-diversity of the creek as well as the relationships between the variety of organisms that live in and around it (i.e.: the food chain: a king fisher eating fish and the fish eating caddis flies etc). We will incorporate the relationships and bio-diversity of the four mile creek ecosystem into the narrative tales we write in order to cultivate a more empathetic understanding of the creek and its inhabitants.
Along with the idea of fostering greater spiritual connectedness with the ÒnaturalÓ world around us, we will attempt to use in some cases a mythnocentric writing style that will allow both us, as writers and readers of our stories to connect with and understand the nature-humanity relationship in a mythical and more unconscious way. Through the use of a mythos centered writing style, we will be able to foster a deeper, more visceral understanding of the issue; an understanding that can not be verbalized through the typical rationalistic and logical approach that is at the center of most Western thought. We will attempt to push our tiny, undergraduate, logic-bound brains to new levels of mythic understanding of the ecological world that surrounds us and that we are a part of.

Specific Research Design
In order to come to any informed conclusions on whether our study has truly addressed the proposed issues, our group will need to have a complex understanding of the body of water that acts as the setting for our narratives. To develop this comprehension, our group plans to go on hikes near Four-Mile creek to gather ideas and images that will aid in inspiring both our writing and our environmental awareness.
One study our group must complete is a biodiversity study. This research will be done in order to study the different types of organisms present in the ecosystem, so that when writing about the creek, we will have the ability to intelligently describe the ecosystem present. Our plan to discover the different types of fish is to take out a shock-stick to the creek and travel along the creek while stopping to shock the fish and tally up the different forms of organisms. We must also scan the area for insects and fungus and what plant life exists along the creek as well.
After all of this data is gathered and all of our research is done, our group will then begin to write narratives. Each story will contain a unique analysis of activities or events in the life of its authorÕs protagonist.
Once all the narratives are written, we then have all the materials needed to perform our study. We plan to then go out with surveys that will gauge oneÕs environmental consciousness by asking questions about how they view the environment and to what degree they feel a connection to the ÒnaturalÓ world around them (see Appendix A). After we have our subjects fill out our surveys, we will go to the same subjects and have the subjects read our narratives. After our narratives have been read, the subject will fill out the same questionnaire. Our group will then analyze the data gathered, via the surveys, and see how the subjectsÕ stated their environmental awareness had changed, if at all.

Materials And Methods
The materials we, the I.M.O.Õs will use throughout our project include the fish-shocker, nets, buckets, a pad of paper and writing utensils, lost of creativity, the aforementioned books and a computer. The fish-shocker will be used to send electric currents through the body of the precious fishes. After they have been successfully electrocuted to a point of paralysis, we will use our net to swipe their soft bodies from the water. Once in our net, we will place them in the bucket that will be filled with water because we would hate to see the fishes we have just fried via electricity to lack the ability to breath, being that the I.M.O.Õs are a nice group of individuals. Finally we will record the fishesÕ species using our handy pad of paper and writing utensil.
After studying the fishes and performing our research on people who live in the Four-Mile Creek area, we will begin writing our narratives from the perspectives that our groups chooses. We will also need the surveys and the subjects to fill out the surveys and read our narrativesÉso in that sense our subjects are materials. I think that covers it.
Our research team plans on interacting in a very fluid manner. Although we have delineated roles to members of the I.M.O. team, if a member wishes to perform different tasks, we have come to a consensus that these changes would be allowed. The roles of specific group members are that each member is responsible for at least one narrative written from a perspective unique to an organism (taking into account societal factors for humans). Also, all members are required to attend the research that sends us out to the Four-Mile Creek area. The I.M.O. team is a team and will perform all research as a group.
The statistics we will use in our scientific analysis are those gathered from the census taken on what sorts of organisms live in the Four-Mile Creek area. These will more than likely just be a chart of the different organisms and how they fit into the Four-Mile CreekÕs circle of life. We will also use StatView to analyze our data gathered from the surveys. We will use the statistical analysis programs provided with the StatView software.

Timeline For The I.M.O.Õs projectÉ
Dear Chris & Muriel,
After the I.M.O.Õs had a discussion, we feel this is not an overly optimistic timeline. We are sorry you feel this way. We are five half-way intelligent and self-motivated individuals. We feel this timeline best illuminates the dates that we will go about performing our study. If the few changes made here do not suite what you see as ÒprobableÓ, please feel free to give specific/clear advice. Otherwise, trust that we will carry out this study in the aforementioned manner in the below-mentioned way; thank you.
Sincerely,
The I.M.O.Õs
Feb. 12th Ð Typing ÒProposalÓ
Mar.3rd -Mar. 5th Ð Go out to Four-Mile Creek and take inventory of organisms present
Mar. 10th -Mar. 15th Ð Research and attempt to piece together life cycle of Four-Mile Creek.
Mar. 20th -Apr. 15th Ð Type up ÒcreativeÓ narratives of chosen organisms and gather data using surveys (see Appendix A).

Appendix A
Survey (ONLY A DRAFT!!!)
Circle the number that best correlates to how you feel/think.
Strongly Disagree Not Sure Strongly Agree
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1). People pollute the world too muchÉ
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2). There should be more legislation curbing humanÕs from pollutingÉ
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

3). Species other than humanÕs have worth besides as resourcesÉ
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4). I am an environmentally conscious personÉ
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5). I am generally concerned about the environmentÉ
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5). The environment plays an active part in my daily lifeÉ
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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