CHAPTER THREE From Dualisms to Dialogism: Hybridity in Discourse About the Natural World Tracy Marafiote University of Utah Emily Plec Western Oregon University In all ethical problems, we tnust consider the rules for community formation, hut in environmental disputes, we must additionally understand how the disputants con- struct their views of the natural or nonhuman worlds. One group will view nature as a warehouse of resources for human use, while an opposing group will view human beings as an untidy disturbance of natural history, a glitch in the earth's otherwise efficient ecosystem. Between such extremes, there are any number of conventional or idiosyncratic constructions of the person-planet relation. —Killingsworth 8c Palmer, 1992, p. 4 Scholars of environmental communication have fruitfully explored the ways in which civic discourses about environmental issues shape personal and public per- ceptions of those issues, reveal anthropocentric biases, frame the meaning of par- ticular events, and encourage (or discourage) human action (e.g., DeLuca, 1999; Opie & Elliot, 1996; Ulman, 1996). Such studies add much to our understanding of the complexity of the ideological and discursive formations that constitute pub- lic ways of communicating about the environment. We should also attend to the ways private, colloquial, or vernacular expressions of human-nature relationships reflect and shape knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, for it is these discourses that "gird and influence local cultures first" (Ono & Sloop, 1995, p. 20).' Peterson and 'A number of communication scholars have recently explored the concept of the vernacular with different emphases but with an abiding focus on the discourses that emerge from and appeal to every- day people (see, e.g., Hauser, 1995, 1999; Ono & Sloop, 1995, 1999) "within local communities" (Ono & Sloop, 1995, p. 20). To expand our understanding of these and other types of private or informal en- 49