The Big Question for this Daytrek:

EXPLORING ISSUES

Every story has at least two sides. Your position on the environmental concerns that surround issues such as air and water quality, energy conservation, wildlife management, and land reclamation depend on many factors.

At the direction of your teacher, discuss with a partner, your class or reflect on your own ideas about the following statements and questions.

1. Your special interests influence your opinions. How might a flyflisherman, an ATV enthusiast and an avid golfer agree or disagree on some environmental issues?

2. The jobs of your parents or other relatives may give you insights or personal viewpoints about environmental concerns not shared by others. How might  the son or daughter of an oil field worker, coal miner, hardware store owner, rancher, outdoor outfitter, or wildlife biologist agree or disagree on environmental issues?

3. Your own experience will affect the positions you take. Can you recall a  memory of an experience where someone else’s actions regarding the enviroment caused you to have a negative reaction? Perhaps, you found a favorite picnic spot full of litter. Or maybe you visited a relative in a large city and noticed considerable air pollution. Think about how these experiences may have raised your level of concern over environmental issues.

4. The beliefs of people that you admire or trust will affect the positions you take. Do your parents have strong beliefs about things like throwing litter from a vehicle? Do you have a relative who emphasizes ethical hunting practices like never poaching? Think about any beliefs about the environment that you have been taught by others or have “inherited” from your family members.

MINING FOR INFORMATION

In Exploring Issues, you thought about your own “sides of the story.” Now you will two other perspectives, the Wyoming Mining Association and the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council. Explore each of these sites to look for information regarding perspectives about environmental issues that you agree or disagree with.

Find the Wyoming Mining Association at:

http://www.wma-minelife.com/index.html

First, to understand an organization’s perspective, it is important to understand it’s purpose.

At the page above, click on “Mission Statement” to learn more about the Association’s goals.

Then, continue to explore the site on your own but be sure to go to these two pages to discover more about the Association’s perspectives on environmental issues

http://www.wma-minelife.com/coal/coalhome.html

http://www.wma-minelife.com/recaward/recframe.htm

Find the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council at:

http://deq.state.wy.us/eqc/index.asp

To understand this organization’s perspective, read the “Mission Statement” on this page and then explore the site further.

At the direction of your teacher, with class partners brainstorm other agencies or organizations whose environmental perspectives may be accessible on the web. Search out these perspectives.

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What common ground do these various perspectives share? What seem to be the most significant points of disagreement? If you were to moderate a panel among representatives of these groups, what strategies would you use to bring about agreement or solutions? Where do you stand on the issues?

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