Thought for today

I think perhaps the most important lesson I've learned in this past year, both in an academic setting and through direct experience, is the three-pronged nature of sustainability. The California Student Sustainability Coalition explicitly describes its devotion to social, ecological, and economic sustainability - and I've come to see how those three prongs are interwoven into a single rope that can pull us into the future.

I realized just this morning that this idea has a very exciting implication for my own life. It means that any work I do in a particular thread of sustainability will be inevitably connected to the other two threads. For example, if I work on management and conservation of forest ecosystems to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change, I am also indirectly working on the sustainability of communities in the Maldives, the sustainability of economies in Ghana, and the sustainability of endangered polar bears.

Whatever I choose to do will be inextricably connected to the world around me. I can devote myself to a very specific issue without being ignorant  of the many other issues that plague the planet.

That's why I think everyone should want to be called an "environmentalist." Because in embracing the title "environmentalist," you're really embracing your connectedness to every network of problems and solutions on this planet. Every issue is an environmental issue, and every issue is connected in the rope of sustainability. This way of thinking allows me to place my work in a broader network. It's empowering. It's exciting to realize that if I pursue a career in science, I am in no way shutting myself out of social, cultural, and economic worlds.

Scott Stephens, the fire specialist who co-teaches a class that I'm taking got my pulse racing during a lecture he gave a couple of weeks ago. He was describing integrative fire management, and how specialists from different fields come together to decide what sort of fire regime will be implemented for a given region. Those specialists come from fields like soil science, endangered species preservation, national park tourism, agriculture, timber harvest, and more. Each is specialized in a given area, and each plays an important role in the group's ultimate decision about the future of the land. I think perhaps the reason I was so excited was that I realized I could someday be a part of a process like this - contributing my own unique perspective to something much bigger than myself.

I'm sure I'll look back on this thought and laugh at my idealism and youthful spirit - maybe even bordering on naivete. But I hope this serves as a reminder to my future self that whatever I choose to do with myself is what I am meant to do. There is nothing limiting about getting specific - as long as I remain aware of my place in the broader ecosystem of skills, perspectives, talents, and tasks.

The only way to build long-lasting sustainability is to combine our tiny individual threads into a tightly woven rope, and climb up together.