I often ask myself why I chose to pursue a career in such a
depressing subject area. I could have
gone the doctor route – a worthy career that helps people and yields almost
immediate gratification. I could have
paid off my student loans by now had I chosen to be a financial
consultant. I could have been a CPA,
formed an LLC, or created an INC by now – all paths that would have possibly
been more lucrative and surely more optimistic than the path I have
chosen. No my friends, I chose the most
depressing career path of them all. I
chose to be an ENVIRONMENTALIST.
Everyday I wake up to depressing headlines, like the ones
last week:
“Nearly half the systems crucial to the planet compromised.”
Science Daily.
“It's Official: 2014 Was the hottest year on record.” NPR.
“Plan to save Monarch butterflies backfires.” Science Magazine.
And everyday I have to ask myself, “Why did I chose this
field?”
For me, it all began on long drives through the Georgia
countryside to and from soccer practice.
I was nine and angry. Every
Tuesday and Thursday my parents drove me on the back roads to get to a 6pm
soccer practice on the other side of the county, and every Tuesday and Thursday
I noticed more clear-cutting and more development than the week before. In the 90’s Henry County was one of the
fastest growing counties in the nation, and I was a nine-year-old who hated
change. Two years prior, at the ripe age
of seven, I was reported to have cried for a week when my parents sold our old
brown couch. Change was an unconscionable
travesty, a sin against humanity itself!
However, it was not just the change that upset me, but it
was something more. And it was that
something more that made me an environmentalist. In my nine-year-old mind, I had definitively concluded
that people did not know what was
best for nature. After years of playing
in my backyard, I had realized that nature was perfect and we only a small
part. Nature functioned fine without our
help. She was beautiful and perfect just
as God made her, curves and all. In
summary, I became an environmentalist, because I trusted nature more than I
trusted people.
Although I cannot speak for all environmentalists, I feel as
though many of us were likely shaped by similar motivations. What more is an environmentalist, than a
defendant in the trial of man versus nature?
We might be motivated by different issues, but somewhere we all
identified a problem in which man miscalculated his governance to the detriment
of his fellow man, to nature, or both.
And somewhere along the way we may have asked, “Does man know best?”
Although a depressing profession, the environmental profession
is filled with optimists. It has to
be. Waking up everyday to dire
environmental news requires patience, humility, and an optimistic spirit. Arguably some of us in this profession may
also be mild masochists as well.
However, I believe most of us our fueled on the small victories, the
hope of a better future – no matter how bleak the probability of its coming to fruition.
Admittedly, nere’ more is my ire conjured than at the site
of a clear-cut forest that is zoned for a subdivision development. My environmentalist soul is set afire and
somewhere inside me a gnashing of teeth occurs.
However, also inside me past the anger is hope. Getting past the anger is important, and
those of us who have chosen this field as a profession know this truth. Together we have to be hopeful and carry
each other. We will look to our
community of “believers” - our neighbors, our friends, and our colleagues – and
we will uplift one another on the many bad days, as well as the few good ones.
Being an environmentalist is not easy, but convincing others
to join our ranks is even harder. Being
an environmentalist means no longer being blissfully ignorant, or selectively
unaware of where our food comes from, our energy, and our water. It means admitting that we as a human species
are too prideful. It means acknowledging
that we were wrong. Who would enter a
profession that inflicts so much abuse on the ego? (Again, I reiterate that environmentalists
may be slightly masochistic.)
So how do we inspire new environmentalists?
I propose two small solutions, and I hope you will join with
me in the conversation to develop more. My
solutions: Make space for the
environmentalist’s revelation, and change our messaging. The environmentalist’s revelation is that moment
when a person realizes nature’s value and a human’s carelessness. This revelation stirs empathy and
action. However, a key component to
aiding this revelation also involves being present with nature. I propose that we take our neighbors and
friends, especially the ones who think we are strange, out on a walk in the
woods. Calling all weird plant ladies
and bird watchers everywhere! By sharing
our joys of nature with friends and neighbors we may be able to inspire the
environmentalist’s revelation in others.
Only by being with nature can we truly understand her. In nature we learn of her
perfection and her vulnerability. We
learn that she is what sustains us. In
fact, nature is all that is
sustaining us and all that ever has
sustained us. Nature is a gift, and we are the receivers. Let us not take this reality lightly.
An environmental conversion is a hard sell, but it is an
important one. And every day we, as
environmentalists, proselytize to the masses, hoping we can convince more to
join us. Many environmentalists take an
alarmist approach using calamitous environmental headlines and statistics to
motivate new converts. However, we are
opening a new chapter in environmentalism – a new chapter in which the world
has been irrevocably changed by our human hands – and I believe, it is time to
let our optimism spill over into our messaging.
Now, more than ever, we need more converts. We need more people caring about the future
of this planet, and we need to do so by giving people a reason to hope. Of course there is a time and place for the
alarmist approach. However, empowering,
optimistic messaging can also be the fuel of movements. We are optimists in this profession; let our
messaging begin to reflect our greatest hopes for the future of this world.
In closing I want to thank all my fellow environmentalists for
being with me on this journey. You are
the reason I stay in this profession.
Conviction alone can only fuel the soul so much. Community enables us to endure. And so to all of you I thank you. Working together we will weather the
depressing headlines and the small paychecks.
But most importantly, working together I sincerely believe we will make
a better world for the planet and ourselves.
Call me delusional, an idealist, and yes please call me an
optimist. Pessimism be damned!
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