New lessons to me

March 23^rd is a special day. At 10 o’clock, I heard one of the most inspiring stories from Emily. At 8:30 pm, earth hour began.

From my environmental philosophy, I value the role of government more than other factors. I think government regulation is the most direct and effective way to change the society; I think it is too hard for an individual to make a difference especially under the government’s obstacle. However, I was totally shocked when I saw how much impact Emily has made on her campus. When Emily and her friends gathered together, they did not even know what they were going to with the trash, but they made everything happen. They prevent tons of objects from landfill; they make thousands of dollars from selling “trash”. I also saw that as long as the first person stands out and guide people, they are more than willing to participate in environmental protection projects. I have been overlooked the role of the public for so long that I underrated their how many powerful effects they could bring. I start to understand Emily’s bottom to top environmental philosophy. Then I questioned myself what I can do but have not done in environmental protection. I noticed that my actual actions have fallen far behind my environmental ideas. I felt exhausted after Emily’s presentation due to the huge shock it brought to my current philosophy. On the other hand, I also felt energetic, because her story made me confident about what I can do and made me notice that I need to start now.

I also gradually notice that I am more activism during these two months. I become more open-minded to hear voices expressing different approaches in environmental conservation. Simultaneously, I become less tolerant to hear opinions which are lack of environmental consciousness. At 8:30pm, our CELL group turned off our lights and went out to remind people of earth hour. I am glad to see people are willing to cooperate when we remind them. However, I saw many people on the internet arguing that households lighting does not consume much energy, but using candles do cause carbon dioxide emissions. They said turning of lights is not an earth hour, but an hour makes people feel good about themselves. One Chinese actor was even criticized for his photo with candles. I was shocked, second time in one day. I believe the initiator of the earth hour does not count on it to save energy, but to spread environmental consciousness to everybody that everyone can participate and every tiny thing can help change the world. I did hear that due to the setup of the turbine cannot easily change, the energy saved by turning off lights will lose anyway, but I am surprised that people are using this science to taunt those who want to contribute their effort to make a difference. As a result, I spent a night arguing with that random people over the internet about how to protect the environment. However, I quickly noticed that we were unable to convince each other, we both had firmly believed theory. This is another lesson to me.

Environmental conservation is a long way to go. Thank you for CELL program and my classmates for teaching me so much about everything so that I can develop my own understandings and philosophy so quickly. I hope one day I can be somebody who made a difference and made a impact on the society, on the environment, and maybe on you.

 

Chen