The Abstract Versus the Concrete - Alese Cowardin

 For the majority of the semester, we have discussed the idea of the environment as abstract versus the idea of the environment as concrete. These perceptions play heavily into the rhetoric surrounding the environment, and we can clearly see the difference that rhetoric has on public action for the environment. Humans have a tendency to relate emotionally to the things surrounding them, which is why they are more affected by abstract arguments that convey the aesthetics of their surroundings. These aesthetics evoke feelings in us, which ultimately enhances our attention to how our own actions affect the aesthetic. Concrete perceptions, while beneficial to scientific studies on the exact effects of human behavior, do not carry the same depiction of the sublime that is found in the natural world. This is the exact reason why we are more drawn to writings of prose and poetry, which give rise to emotion through our own interpretations of its representation, than we are to concrete data that holds little to no personal analysis. The abstract holds beauty in its original presentation, which is ultimately something that the concrete will never be able to compete with.

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