Mattius Rischard
Volume 5
Chapter Description
Our sense of place not only affects our perspective, but also the way in which we represent our home to others. It is vital that students learn to write about spaces that civically engage them on a personal level. The structural elements of the built environment that contribute to pollution, dilapidated housing, food and housing insecurity, and natural catastrophe are often ignored in favor of focusing on the violent results of these problems; yet, from downtown arboretums to rooftop hydroponics, undergraduates have sought to argue for compelling solutions through an urban ecology lens for environmental justice. Urban ecology promotes resilient and sustainable urban spaces where humans and nature coexist. When argued in the right way, it can help decrease air and water pollution while enabling new methods of food production, more efficient transportation, and improved housing. This chapter offers students a method of activist writing for building urban environmental justice arguments in genres of papers often expected of college writing courses, such as the personal narrative and the rhetorical analysis. It also gives examples of what environmental rhetoric can look like in the city by highlighting thematic patterns in student essays.
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