Write a two page (1.5 spaced) environmental autobiography. Consider the answers to following questions:
Recall childhood experiences in outdoors that were of significance to you.
What kind of outdoor places were important you? At what ages?
What kind of animals were important to you? At what ages?
Did you have a favorite place? Describe the landscapes or objects that you identified as natural.
Who were/are your environmental educators?
If possible, go to the outdoor places that are meaningful to you to write your environmental autobiography.
Consider how your autobiography is informed by your linguistic and cultural background and familial histories. Some of you may be descended from people native to the Americas or descendants of more recent newcomers. Past generations have used and shaped the natural environment; often with very different goals and values from generations living today. In inquiring about the environments in which you live today, or your families’ environment, you might ask what natural resources sustained your families (or sustain you today). To what extent were their landscapes “natural” as distinct from human-made? To what extent were natural environments intact (as opposed to fragmented)? To what degree have the roles of race, ethnicity, class and/or gender played in your ancestor’s relationship with the environment? How do your personal values differ from the values of your ancestors?
