Overview

As part of a research project started by Jeff Nichols, a history professor at Westminster College, I began to look at the environmental history of Moab. This research consisted of reading through the local Moab newspaper to find articles of environmental interest. Through this process of research I discovered that the level of interest surrounding environmental issues was far greater in Moab than that of places I had lived.

From this observation I began to question where the passion for environmental issues is born. There were obvious reasons why a person in Moab, Utah may care more about the environment than a person just north in Salt Lake City but I wanted to hear first hand from natives of the town what they thought had spurred their own interest in the surrounding natural environment.

After reading many newspapers and collecting names of people most prevalent to environmental issues in the Moab area I decided that the best way to really find out where the passion for environment was born was to conduct personal interviews with members of the Moab community. From National Park rangers to high school students to city officials I would interview them all to find out what makes them care, or not care, about the environment.

When this idea was born and began to take shape I started thinking about my own communities and how I have come to care about the environment. Growing up in a suburb of Chicago was a drastically different upbringing  than that of a child in Moab and yet I somehow found a love of the environment. Moving to Salt Lake City to go to college I noticed a dramatic difference in environmental concern from one city to the next. I became interested in not just Moab, but all cities ability to foster a care for the environment in its citizens.

This interest sparked the idea for a much larger project. Thinking long term I decided that rather than just focus on Moab as my area of interest I would expand the project to include many more cities and towns around the world. This project will take years of time and the research will be extensive but my hope is that by the end of the project I will have made clear distinctions as to what external things can bring a person to be passionate towards the environment and which things turn someone away from caring about environmental issues. Ideally this information could be used to help communities, businesses and schools understand and employ techniques that will raise environmentally conscious citizens.