Be Creative -- and see systems, not isolated events

One of the beauties of living in the 21st century, especially as an Asian female, is the unprecedented freedom to be creative. I think being creative is one of the great gifts of being human, and I hope humanity will be able to use that gift well to make positive changes for our home -- earth.

Often, I hear a lot of people think isolated thoughts such as "I don't like this." Be creative and figure out why you don't like something, and make that lemon into lemonade.

As a child, I almost drowned, and hence, I was scared of going into deep water. Now I swim once a week to keep fit and as therapy for my feet and back. I also try to medicate while I swim and some of my most creative connections have occurred while swimming. These creative connections include everything from great test questions for my students to positive actions I can do for my community and our earth. Here is an example:

I noticed a lot of clogged traffic at all of our schools, especially during special events and practices. For the elementary school, we would walk to events, and I would offer to take other children with me to decrease traffic congestion, but parents were not always willing to have their children walk the 0.5 miles to school, especially in the rain and in the dark.

Now that my children are in middle and high school, it is more difficult to walk the 1.5 miles to school. Hence, to minimize traffic jams, minimize car emissions, and to build a community, I offer rides to all the kids I know from our neighborhood that are going the same way. For example, last night, there were three sets of band practices at the middle school. I knew that one of the kids in my neighborhood is in the same band as my younger daughter while another one is in a different band. I looked up the schedule and realized that I could offer a ride to one neighbor going there, and then in addition to picking up two children (mine and a neighbor's) at the middle school, I could offer another child a ride to the middle school for her band practice since her band practice begins right after my child's band practice ends. Hence, we were able to take two more cars off the road, and at the same time, get a chance to talk to more neighborhood children. :-)

Walking in the dark on a raining day

As I was walking back from dropping off my 10th grader at the bus stop this morning at 6:45 a.m., in the dark and in the rain, I saw a groundhog wobble past me in the semi-darkness, and I smiled.

It reminded me how walking is truly a solution that begets solutions. By walking instead of getting in my car:

• I don't have to spend time going to the gym. That decreases my carbon footprint and increases the time I can do other things -- like volunteer at our schools and for my county.
• I feel a connection to nature and hence, have improved spiritual health as well as physical health.
• I get to talk to my children one-on-one as I walk each to a different bus stop each morning (one is in high school and the other is in middle school).
• I get to see more of my neighbors, bringing about a greater sense of community.
• I get to rescue the worms that end up on the sidewalks during rain

Walking instead of getting in your car: increases one's spiritual health, physical health, and social well-being while saving money and time!

Finding Common Ground

I had a few wonderfully lazy days this summer. During one of them, my girls wanted to go to a book store as part of our errand running. We did not have to rush back anytime so we had a leisurely look in the book store. I picked up this very large coffee table book about our two poles called "The Spirit of the Polar Regions". It contained gorgeous pictures and educational text on our polar regions.

As I was looking through the book, an elderly gentleman began asking me questions about what I was reading. Hence began our conversation about the polar regions. I mentioned about the glacier melts, particularly in the arctic, and this elderly gentleman said, "Yes, but it has happened before." I agreed that periods of warming (and cooling) have occurred in the past before, but what I was concerned about is humans' role in climate change this time around.

That began a rapid change in his attitude toward me. He insisted on all the data and models that would argue against human-induced climate change. I asked this elderly gentleman about the fact that we have 35% more carbon dioxide than we had 150 years ago. Since carbon dioxide absorbs heat and since there is 35% more of it now than 150 years ago in our atmosphere, and since it is humans that have emitted literally more than a few million tons of carbon dioxide, wouldn't this suggest that human have played a role in our present climate change? This elderly gentleman told me in an agitated voice that carbon dioxide plays a minor role in our present climate change, and he knows because he is a physicist.

To this, I smiled and said that although I am a mere chemist, I have read some about climate change models, and see how complex the models are, and how interdependent and sensitive many of the variables are. He paused, looked me in the eye, and nodded.

So, we agree that there is a lot of data scientists have gathered and examined, and that there is uncertainty in both the data and the models? I looked him in the eye as I ask him this, and he nods.

Well, I have ben thinking about my effect on our environment from a practical and moralistic point lately, I told this elderly gentleman. I see that practically, burning fossil fuel has really not done this world much good -- all of the harm we have done to habitats through extraction, production, and spills to all the runoff we have due to our roads to the obesity-related problems we have due to our dependency on cars. And I have looked at it from the moralistic point of view -- do I have a right to use so much resource on our finite planet when I am a mere one in 6,800,000 people? This elderly gentleman's eye and mouth softened.

I went on to tell him how I have reduced my driving down to 4,000 miles per YEAR, and I feel better for walking and biking more, and have greater connections to my community for all the carpooling I have done. He stares at me for a moment, and then said "That I agree with."

At this point, my two daughters show up, and give me the "we are ready to go" look. The elderly gentleman sees my daughters and said to me with some sadness, "Oh, you did not come alone." As we said our good-byes, he told me that I reminded him of his daughter. (And I look nothing like him, so I was very pleased that he saw the inner me and not the outer me.)

This occurred a few months ago, but I have thought quite a bit about this. Part of the reason I think about this meeting is that this elderly gentleman is the first "scientist" I have met to disagree with the general scientific community's consensus that there is overwhelming evidence that our present climate change is largely human-induced. But the main reason I think about this encounter is that I was rather proud of myself for not getting emotional about his insistence on examining certain data and certain models, while ignoring others. That is a very unscientific thing to do, and my old self would have been just as unscientific by arguing for the models that made sense to me, while not listening to what he had to say, and how he was saying it. I would have forgotten to examine the larger picture and hence failed to meet him on common ground.

We must find common ground if we are to avoid greater environmental crisis. And the only way to find common ground is to listen to each other, agree to disagree on the things we cannot resolve, and then look at what are truly important to us --- such as justice and community and good health and family, and agree to work together toward the things we do find most precious in life.

Sharing resources from those who have more than enough with those who have too little

Where we are born is an accident of life.  Hence, I feel very blessed that I was born into a family that had the ability to get out of a poor situation (Rangoon, Burma) and born with a healthy body and decent brain functions.  I have felt guilt for portions of my life about the fact that so many people have so little and I have so much. 

But we must do more than throw money at the problem of inequality – it has to be done with behavioral changes and with great heart.  One organization that has had great success in breaking the poverty-high fertility cycle is Grupo Primavera, a Brazilian Charity that began by taking poor young girls in (in the spring of their lives as primavera means spring), feeding them, and educating them with skills they can use to become independent women.  Organizations like Grupo Primavera breaks the cycle of poverty-and-population increases by empowering women with better lives, and enabling women to have smaller, more stable families they can take care of.  One of the American women who were involved with Grupo Primavera, Judy, came back to the U.S. and began Educating Latin American Adolescents, Inc. (http://educatinglatinamerica.org/default.aspx) in order to continue to support such a great organization as Grupo Primavera. The creation of Educating Latin American Adolescents allowed Judy to sell the crafts (such as dolls and cross-stitched cards) that the girls make and send the money back to empower the girls to achieve more.

I met Judy at a craft store about seven years ago, and supported Grupo Primavera by buying their great cards and dolls the girls make, and then when I had enough cards and dolls as presents after several years, we discussed other options, and settled on the most effective method of contribution as money.  One of the ways we contributed money was to write a check for each of our two children’s birthdays to this wonderful organization, and ask others to contribute in lieu of a present.  We have had four birthday parties for our girls, asking that people contribute to Educating Latin America Adolescents, Inc./Grupo Primavera in place of presents.  I had hoped that others would want to do the same after learning about such great organizations (there are other worthy organizations as well).  A few parents have commented how wonderful an idea it is, but I have yet to see birthday parties as fundraisers for charities catch on. 

It seems to me that a sense of something larger than ourselves must be part of solutions that begets solutions. This is just one idea on how to be part of a larger whole.

The pictures above are those of the slums of Brazil and of my youngest daughter’s birthday party used to raise money for the children who live in such slums.

Minimize labels

I have been thinking about labels and how they get in the way of seeing the larger picture and being free to grow.  I have heard the word "environmentalist" used as a label to inspire to and I have seen people use that same word as a thing to put in the trash.    In the end, it does not matter what label we use for ourselves.  We all need clean water, fresh air, good food, and shelter as the basics of life, and love and community as the source for human growth.  So perhaps one solution that begets solutions is to get rid of labels.  Does it matter whether I am an Asian, an American, an Asian-American, an African-American, an Indian, an African, a European, a heterosexual, a homosexual, an environmentalist, or any other label we have for things that are not really relevant in terms of our humanity?

People, Planet, and Prosperity

The month of April was spent working on preparing a final report for our EPA "People, Planet, and Prosperity" project and preparing to take seven UMUC to EPA's National Sustainability Design Expo at the National Mall from April 18-20. The picture on the right shows six of my students in front of our poster at the EPA Expo.

It was an incredible experience and showed that people could get together online, work on a project together, and then come together face-to-face to celebrate and make more connections, all the while decreasing their ecological footprint on a daily basis.

I had students from northern York in England, San Antonio, Texas, and from various counties in Maryland meet in my home to prepare for the Expo, and then present together in front of the judges and the public on the National Mall.  Most of us had not met face-to-face before April 2009 although we had worked on this project for almost a year.  The fact that we could all come together using the Internet to work on a project on sustainability gives me hope that people can come together to work toward sustainability.

If you want to see the project my students worked on online, please visit http://www.umuc.edu/gogreen/

They did this project while serving in the military, working, raising children, taking care of aging parents, and going to school.  The fact that we can come together online and work toward a common problem -- how to make a lighter footprint on our earth -- while doing all the other things that regular people do in life, gives me hope.

Walking with your children

In a world where we tend to rush from one activity to the next, and then relax individually in our own room, I think walking is a solution for all of us to slow down and spend quality time with our loved ones.

My Clarissa still remembers how her mommy carried her on her back when she was four-years old while pushing her one-year old sister in a stroller the last mile of  a day out in the Nature Center in Birmingham, England.  Clarissa was really tired and could not walk anymore.  But after a few blocks, she got down and said she wanted to walk some more...

Now that Clarissa is 14-years old, she walks to pick up her almost 11-year old sister, Ashley, from school a few days each week. They often come home laughing and talking more than they would typically inside our house.

The other day, while walking home from school with Ashley in the rain, we picked up some lost worms from the sidewalk and put them on the grass.  Ashley said to me, "Mommy, Jessica told me that her mom stepped on two worms yesterday and she wished she would step on more!"  

I looked at Ashley and asked, "What did you say to her?"  

Ashley looked up at me, smiled, and said, "I told her my mom picks up the worms and puts them on the grass so they can live."

Solutions that beget Solutions

So many people I have talked to have felt overwhelmed by all the problems they hear about -- habitat destruction, poverty, wars, drugs, species extinction, floods, and so on.  We can feel helpless as individuals -- or we can begin with small steps towards solutions that beget solutions.

None of us can truly work toward any sustainable solutions without first feeling good about ourselves.  To me, solutions that beget solutions do help us feel good about ourselves, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  If you want to be part of something bigger than yourself, then please join in this discussion!

One solution that begets solutions we discussed on our "Think Globally, Act Locally: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" website (http://www.umuc.edu/gogreen/) is gardening.  The picture of me in my garden shows some tall ornamental grass, which hides several compost bins and piles.  I essentially compost everything from our kitchen that was once living, including the few used paper towels we have and some newspaper.  I don't compost meat as that would attract rodents. There are no smells and no one can find my compost without me having to walk them there.  My compost minimizes the need for garbage trucks to take my garbage each week, and minimizes my addition to greenhouse gas emissions from landfills.

So gardening and composting gets me outdoors and that lets me feel a part of something bigger than myself.  I see the cycle of plants come to life each season, hear the birds, see the bunnies, squirrels, foxes, snakes, and deer.  I get to eat fresh produce grown without chemicals in my backyard.  My favorite ones are the sweet peas eaten in the early morning hours while watering from the rain barrels.  I knock on my neighbors' doors to give them excess produce from my garden, and they bring me baked goods in return.  We talk and get to know each other better.

In addition to providing all the benefits discussed above, my garden uses carbon dioxide and provides oxygen, and gives me a fossil-fuel-free method of exercising.  And then because I need to use water for my garden, I buy rainbarrels, which then help to minimize runoff from my plot of land into the local streams and rivers.

My neighbors see my garden, and they decide to also grow vegetables and fruits, and landscape with native plants...If enough of us garden, we could have something like the Victory Garden movement during WWII!  Gardening -- a solution that begets solutions.

Another solution that begets solutions is walking.  Of course, I love to walk around my little garden, but I also walk from A to B in place of using the car to get from A to B.  I walk on cold winter days in the city, as well as in local parks to clear my head.  I walk along streets that have no sidewalk.  People sometimes ask me if that is dangerous.  I say "no, not really", but what I am thinking of is my former student, Tate, with his two wristbands, one on each wrist, that states:

No more excuses

We can give all kinds of excuses for not doing something we know we should do, but at some point, we must put our foot down and say:

"No more excuses!"

Walking allows you to talk to people and socialize as well as letting you breathe fresher air than in your car.  Of course, walking gives you exercise and decreases your mileage in your car, which decreases your carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions.  But it does even more.  The half-mile walk you took to get to the local school or to a friend's home becomes easy and you begin to take longer walks -- to the local soccer field, bakery, and library.  You invite friends to walk with you, and soon, more people in your neighborhood are walking.  You meet more neighbors during these walks, you loose some extra fat that you did not care for, and you are more focused in getting things done once you come back from your walk.  And of course, all this time, you are decreasing your mileage on your car, and so are your friends and neighbors, while feeling healthier mentally and physically.

If you have children or help take care of children, the benefits are even greater.  Walking is a great time to connect to children.  And not just to my own children, but also to the neighborhood children, who will share in our walks to school.  I benefit in the feeling of being part of something bigger than myself -- my community.  And my children not only have a greater sense of community, but also are closer to me, and get their daily exercise.  Walking -- a solution that begets solutions.

There are other solutions that beget solutions that I have been experimenting with.  Another one that certainly brings the need for "no more excuses" is biking.  I have two young children, and yes, I have heard all the excuses on why they shouldn't bike, but they do.

All of the solutions that beget solutions that I can think of provide me and my family with greater resilience, greater connections to our community and to natural cycles, better physical and spiritual health, and decrease our carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides emissions.  Please share your thoughts on solutions that beget solutions, and other solutions that beget solutions that you have experimented with or are thinking of trying.