How Anyone Can Become An Environmental “Hero”

By Shi Yue

Shi Yue, of the Jane Goodall Institute in China’s “Roots & Shoots” Program

BEIJING – When I was 15, some of my favorite things to read were about determined environmental groups, like Greenpeace.

They’d charge to the North Pole, for example, to fearlessly confront those causing the ice-caps to melt – and save the polar-bears.

Their mission felt more than noble and important, but even cool, romantic and heroic. I fantasized about wearing the cape of a super-hero, jumping aboard their fleet, pursuing environmental justice, then halting the harm that some “villain” was causing.

That was all just a fantasy, however, as I never realistically imagined myself doing such things. So, that fantasy slept inside me for years: never mentioned, nor ever forgotten.

Though, by then, I was quite environmentally conscious, without realizing it: I’d turn off the lights or the water, to avoid waste. But I didn’t connect this to “the environment.” It was more a code of values and behaviors learned from my parents, what you might call a “traditional wisdom” of the Chinese. Still, I never considered an actual career in environmental protection. Nor did I have any idea of how to enter such a field.

As university approaches, many young Chinese feel societal pressure, to study a more “serious” subject at university – to later get a “real” job, which pays well enough to cope with the rising cost of living in China. At Capital Normal University, though, I opted for a major that appealed to me: History. That said, I found myself drawn to Environmental History.

While I explored its origins in Europe, I learned that little has been written about of Environmental History in China, however and only a few studies have been done.

Then in 2010, one day on campus I heard that the Center for Environmental Education and Communications, an arm of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, was recruiting volunteers for one of its programs.

Among the Roots & Shoots activities in China is Environmental Education for Chinese youth. (Photo: http://www.jgichina.org/en/)

I saw this opportunity as if it were a gift from heaven. “If I want to know more about environmental history,” I told myself, “then I should enter the environmental circle – since I’m already a part of the history circle. Now, it’s time for me to become a spy.”

As I learned more about environmentalism in China, I didn’t know my “spy life” would actually last so long. At first, it was only monthly volunteer trainings. We would travel into the nature, to describe a tree, for example – and trace its journey to becoming a pencil. Or, we’d invent creative stories, such as a tiny water drop going home.

Through all these activities, I learned something important: environmental protection, and learning about it, can also be fun and bring happiness.

Two years of this would pass, and I barely noticed. As graduation approached, though, I had to decide on the first step of my career. I had two appealing opportunities before me: to become a book editor here – or teach Chinese in the Philippines.

But then I received an exciting offer from the China branch of the Jane Goodall Institute, a global advocate of wildlife research and environmental protection. Specifically, to work for its Roots & Shoots program, which promotes environmental education in some 130 countries.

I was sure that if I didn’t take this chance, I would be missing out on that dream from my youth – of joining “the fleet.” So, I grabbed it.

With Roots & Shoots, early on, my main responsibility was to support Chinese students with their own eco-friendly projects – and nurture their growth.

I saw passionate students, who have spent years recycling on campus. I saw brave students, who visit shark-slaughter houses to expose the cruelty behind cooking shark-fin soup – a rare and expensive delicacy in China. I saw caring students, who tend to organic gardens and strengthen the connection between humans and the earth.

Every time I spoke with these various students, I felt I should do my best to support them – and not let them down. I may not become that hero who travels the world by ship and saves polar bears, but I can become a hero, in this city, for these Chinese youth.

However, I also saw the other side of the coin. Compared with passion-driven students, their teachers, parents and others of the older generations are typically more benefit-driven. Sponsors of our activities always ask for the wider “impact,” instead of the deeper influence.

All this makes a project deviate from the way it really should be. I grew frustrated, so took a break to do some travelling. In Thailand and India, I visited NGOs that focus on environmental education, and admired their inner peace when facing similar problems. They always seemed tolerant, and tried their best to strike the balance.

I still remember the philosophy I learned from both: If you want to go against the wave, first you have to be brave enough to swim inside the wave.

I’m now back with Roots & Shoots. I don’t know if there will be a “happy ending” – for me, or for China, in terms of environmental protection. But I know this is a reinvigorated beginning. Like the hunter who set out to hunt the lion, in the end, I was tamed by the lion.

When I consider my own “story,” I see a valuable lesson to share. Just as I thought as a teen, and many young Chinese think today, to become an “environmentalist” is still a noble-but-not-me kind of job. But what my experience proves is that even a “normal” person like me – with no professional or educational background, who hasn’t personally seen or been harmed by any serious pollution, and who didn’t even have a clear goal or ideal in environmental protection before I entered this field – has gone on to choose environmentalist as my career.

Which means, other “normal” people can join us – without any prerequisites to do so

(Edited by Michael J. Jordan)