Developing Your PowerPoint: Part Three, Structure
Rhetorical Situation:
Doug Tallamy’s presentation Planting Forward appeals to the environmentally conscious but also rings the bell for action at the individual level for issues of ecosystem rebuilding, the importance of creating favorable conditions for wilding, and tactical, practical, actionable takeaways for planting native trees.
It is delivered virtually by Tallamy on behalf of the Monarch Research project, a non-profit, nature conservation organization based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, focused on ‘restoring the Monarch Butterfly and replenishing native pollinator-friendly habitats’.
Proposition:
If we replant Eastern Iowa (and beyond) with the right trees, we will create highly favorable natural habitat conditions for the Monarch Butterfly to return and for the environment to not just survive, but thrive.
Audience:
Tallamy’s introduction by Monarch Project Co-Founder and CEO Clark McLeod frames the audience as ‘the thousands of Linn County (Iowa) residents who are planting native trees this season through our planting forward program’.
It is localized to the Cedar Rapids area within Iowa, and those interested in contributing or currently participating in the Monarch Research Project.
In the context of the video’s distribution and use online, the audience broadens to anyone interested in taking the insights of the program and applying them locally to their area.
Exigence:
In August 2020, Linn County Iowa experienced a catastrophic tornado which wiped out over 775,000 trees.
The Planting Forward program proposes to use this opportunity to strategically replant Eastern Iowa with more favorable trees towards developing a more thriving natural habitat, particularly for insects.
Tallamy’s presentation builds upon the large-scale community rebuilding efforts to fund and plant tens of thousands of new trees.
Tallamy periodically pauses to take us out of the presentation and answer the rhetorical question of what his point is, which serves as a way to reinforce what he is trying to say, but also repeats it for emphasis.
Tallamy positions his presentation withn the broader historical context of national parks and preservation: “Leave it as it is” (Teddy Roosevelt in reference to The Grand Canyon").
He offers several explanations for ecological collapse - logging, tilling, draining, grazing, paving or otherwise developed land, we have straightened our rivers and dammed them, polluted our skies and changed our climate, drained our aquifers, introduced more than 3300 species of plants from other continents, and frames such practices as morally wrong and extremely consequential.
Motivation of Speaker:
Tallamy opens by explaining that he is here today to explain why this rebuilding work is so important, why we need these trees, why we need the animals these trees support, which trees are best, and what individuals can do as part of the restoration project.
Tallamy explains that nature is built from millions of animal and plant-based interactions, and that disruptions in those interactions often lead to disastrous outcomes.
He focuses specifically on the interactions between birds, seeds and how new trees get planted (in particular this attributed to birds having bad memories for where they bury acorns), and also offers many examples of the relationships between insects and birds.
”It is not an option to watch the life around us disappear” - frames ecological problems as a pox delivered by humans upon the planet.
But the presentation is framed as a cure for that pox, comprised of small efforts by large amounts of people which will deliver enormous physical, psychological and environmental benefits
Tallamy channels entomologist E.O. Wilson in saying that ‘human life depends upon insects’.
If insects were to disappear, the biosphere and human food chain would collapse.
Tallamy appeals to the logical impulses of human dependency upon the immediate local environment for life from plants and animals, and frames it within a larger academic conversation of land ethics.
We have to find ways for nature to thrive in human-dominated environments, especially privately-owned property.
Provides evidence for where to start and which natural groups are most important - flowering plants and their pollinators, and the means by which energy is moved from plants to animals (caterpillars).
Tallamy stresses the enormous importance of caterpillars in the energy transfer between plants and animals (ie birds rear their young on insects), and the large scale of them required in order to support intergenerational bird development.
Plant-choice matters! Needs to be supportive of sustaining caterpillars.
Tallamy’s Calls to Action:
We have to shrink the lawn (more than 40 million acres nationwide), replant 20 million acres and create a homegrown national park
Build a personal relationship with nature at your own pace
Keystone plants are essential: Being strategic and thoughtful about what gets planted for the area where you live (native plants but which ones are contributing most), not all trees are equal - oaks are very important
Keystone plants only work where there are few lights, reduce light pollution - major cause of insect decline
Advocates for motion sensors, yellow LED bulbs
We must allow caterpillars to complete their development by layering the landscape, put pants around the trees
Tallamy’s Emotional Appeals to a Moral Good
We have come to think of nature as optional
We’ve assumed that humans and nature cannot co-exist
We have left earth stewardship to a few experts rather than seeing it as an individual responsibility
Shrink the problem down to something manageable for each of us
”You are nature’s best hope”
Logical Outline:
Provide localized motivation and situate it within a broader ecological context
Include detailed quantitative insight into the importance of insects to natural habitats and their implications for humans
Explanation for what’s required to rebuild ecosystems and the role of flowering plants
The importance of caterpillars for bridging the gap between plant and animal diets
Call to action for planting keystone plants and the motivation to plant the right plants in the best places
Call to action for changes in individualized behavior
Structure (Contrast of Emotional Appeal Supported by Analytical Insight):
Uses Duarte’s chronological and cause-effect structures to build from recent past to near future, positioned within framework of inaction and consequence
Context and establishment of problem, supported with historical quotes (Open)
Introduction of solution, supported by practical examples (Supporting points)
Where to take action and how to get specific, supported with data (Supporting points)
Insight into bridging behavior between plant and animal, supported by detailed analysis (Strengthening the point)
How to take action, supported by specific recommendations (Visualizing the message)
When to take action, supported by distilled practical applications (Close
Other Observations
Informal but confident and authoritative style
Basic typography and design but effective impactful use of images of insects and plants
Uses almost 90 slides in 23 minutes, moves from textual analysis to quick cuts between several images of different animal breeds to emphasize his points about scale
Common through line of manageable actionability of stewardship and the emotional appeal to a moral good for the environment
Frequently leans on an argument against inaction and the consequences of not changing existing behavior
On a related note, a few years ago I was fortunate to work with Nancy Duarte, where she gifted me a signed copy of her book Resonate, from which our reading this week is taken. Her message then is still a powerful one today.
