“There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” —The Theory of Everything
What can we do for the ones we love, the things we care, and the goals we believe in?
I have been asking myself the question for all of my life. (20 lovely years.) From a very young age I developed interest towards societies and environments, how they run, how they interact, and how our wills and actions impact them.
The more I see, the more frustrated I get. On the pursuit of economic developments and well being of individuals, we have sacrificed the sustainability of the environments to a degree that is much more severe than we have ever thought of. Smog pollution during autumn and winter in East Asia has become a fatal threat to the health of billions of civilians.
In near decades there will hardly be fishing resources in the oceans due to oil leaks, plastic pollution and overfishing. Not to mention the deforestation in rainforest areas that leads to extinctions of species and fragility of lands under changing climate.
These facts are not in the interests of most people’s daily life. However, the fact that the environment is everything, if we want to live long on this planet its just the reason why no one (yeah, NO ONE!) should be excluded on sustainability issues. The more we care about sustainability, the more friendly we treat the environment, the better the place we are going to live in, not only for ourselves for the following decades, but also for our kids in the future. (I don’t know about you, but I plan to have a boy and a girl, and truly hope for them to live on a lovely planet.)
So what can we do?
No matter how young, immature, inexperienced or powerless we are being told that we are, that is not true. Once we start to try, one will be surprised that a small step from an individual could make such big difference to the world. I have been advocating for environmental issues since high school.
At the age of 19 with a group of talented university students and young designers, I have published a design magazine focusing on animal rights and environments, selling now all over my country—Taiwan—for more than 4000 volumes per issue, with more than 12 thousand fans on Facebook and 50 thousand post reach per week. That was just a beginning trial, from which I learnt that it always seems impossible, until it is done.
The question is never about being experienced, powerful or getting plenty of resources, but whether if we do want to become the changes we want to see in the world— and that is not hard at any rate, once we start it.
I hope to learn as much as possible in 2015 Global Landscape Forum, to become a better doer for all that I’m standing for, as a youth leader on environmental issues.
I’m Anne from Taiwan, and looking forward to making some good changes to the world with you all.
