A History with Nature

What image comes to your mind when I mention "the environment?" Many people think of pristine forests, oceans, and mountains and charismatic animals like tigers, blue whales and polar bears. I read about all of these things as a child, in my Encyclopedia of Questions and Answers. I also read that global warming and pollution were growing issues that would get magnified in the years to come. As a kid, I found that a societal problem with no existing solution was difficult to imagine, if not foreboding. Concerned, I wrote my 3rd grade journal entries about how important it was to save water by turning off the faucet while brushing teeth.

Although I was well aware of my personal actions, I was also exposed to the greater effects of environmental destruction on society. For as long as I can remember, my parents took me back to China to visit relatives. Most memories were a blur, but the one thing that left a constant impression on me was the smog, as far as the eye could see. I remember the skies being cloudy all the time, in Guangzhou, in Beijing, in Hangzhou, and I often couldn't tell whether or not it was pollution or just plain old fog. Back in the United States, my mom would chastise me for not exercising, saying, "People back in China do aerobic fitness, and the air is so bad there!"

One particular memory struck me to the core. When I was 13 years old, my father took me and my little brother back to his hometown in China. Along with the squatty potties and the typical smog in the rural village, I noticed huge mounds of trash much taller than me, strewn about the countryside, and several stray mutts nosing around the Styrofoam takeout containers, looking for food.

Now, keep in mind that the Pixar film, WALL-E, had just been released in theaters and my family had gone to see it. The idea of trash filling dozens of abandoned cities had seemed like a faraway setting from a sci-fi dystopia, at least in our nice suburban neighborhood back in the States. However, upon seeing very similar conditions affecting my relatives and my dad's former neighbors, the experience left a devastating mark on my psyche. I lost my appetite for a week and couldn't eat more than a bite of any meal I was served. If it's one thing to travel and have your eyes opened to the suffering of others, it's a completely different thing to travel and understand where you come from, questioning why you have been given the resources and blessings you possess in this life. I couldn't stop thinking about these things. Even after we arrived at San Francisco International airport, even after loading our luggage into our car, after staring at the clear blue skies on the way home and collapsing on my couch from jet lag.

What did I do as a result of this knowledge? Become an environmentalist? I wasn't super interested in organic gardening, although I did grow my own beansprouts once. Growing up in my parents' home, I didn't think I had the choice to become vegetarian or vegan - after all, who could give up dim sum, lap chung, pig feet, or fish eyes? At the time, I was too timid to even consider going to protests. That's not who I am, I thought. I don't see people like me being angry and yelling in the streets. I get good grades, work hard, and listen to my parents. I didn't feel connected with any members in my community who shared the same concern for the environment. Social media was just beginning to take off, and my parents urged me to avoid talking to strangers on the Internet, so I did not think to seek out like-minded people outside my immediate network who invested in fixing climate change. Surrounded by high school peers, I had no idea what career I wanted to pursue, but out of the three professions available to Asian-Americans, it was probably doctor.

I write this blog post after raging wildfires have devastated Northern California. The wildfires, which raged across Mendocino County, destroyed 613,710 acres, claiming lives and damaging property. Just like last year, the smoke created a smoggy haze that drifted throughout even the city where I worked, and made the sun appear pink miles away. Unlike last year, this year's fires have been the largest ever recorded.

Climate change is not going to be a huge, deadly, global apocalyptic event. It will look like what is happening now - a global increase in temperature that results in a series of drastic weather deviations from the norm. It will occur more frequently. We're just getting used to it. And, it's easy to write off climate change as something that someone else's problem, which is precisely what makes it so difficult to fix. It is something that takes many people making a mighty sound to fix. I hope to pursue further education as a Nurse Practitioner and eventually conduct environmental health research, which I hope can provide valuable data to influence policy decisions in the years to come.

Environmentalist culture can be exclusive. Maybe we can't afford organic fruits and vegetables, or carry mason jars around all the time. Maybe we don't own a pair of Birkenstocks or elephant pants - I know I don't. And for the longest time, I felt out of place because I wasnt a part of this culture that's been built over the course of history.

However, caring about the environment should not be perceived as a lifestyle choice. It should be concern and advocacy in a series of policy decisions that best support the well being of the communities we live in. It should be civic engagement. Caring about the environment should not be a partisan issue that Republicans and Evangelicals in office naturally reject or deprioritze. It should be an investment in the future vitality of our communities, and practice of responsible stewardship over the blessings received in this life.

What comes to your mind when you think of the environment? I hope you still have a heart for polar bears and tigers. But, I'd also hope that you challenge your connotations about the environment and take it for what it is - the surroundings or conditions in which we all operate, where all our stories are told. I'd wish you would think of the food deserts that prevent lower-income folks from accessing fresh fruits and vegetables, let alone the organic kind. I'd wish you would think of indigenous people who were ushered out of their homelands to make space for National Parks. And I'd wish you would think of me - a child of immigrants and a stakeholder in all this, just as you are.

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Join me tomorrow, on September 8th, at the People's Climate March. Please message me privately for details!

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Sources: Under Construction