Unit 7 – Inspired to Protect

Lesson A – A Podcast about the Environment

Interviewer: This is Lucy Ringmer with Green It Up, a weekly discussion of environmental
issues. I’m really excited about this week’s podcast because I get to interview not one, but two
amazing scientists, both of whom are also National Geographic Explorers. First up is marine
biologist and educator Tierney Thys. She’s written books, made films, given a TED Talk, and
even gotten her pilot’s license. I’m also joined by Kenny Broad, an anthropologist, university
professor, and experienced diver. Welcome to you both. It’s an honor to have you on my show.

I’ve been hearing and reading about the idea of environmental fatigue recently. I’m sure you’re
familiar with this idea. We hear so many news stories about the environment and the problems it
has. And as we hear them again and again, those stories affect us less and less, don’t they? And
this can cause people to stop caring about the environment or, perhaps more importantly, to stop
trying to fix the problems. So my first question is why do you think environmental fatigue is
becoming an issue? Kenny?

Kenny Broad: So, I think there’s a lot of different explanations for what some people have
called “environmental fatigue.” In some ways, it’s not a scientific question in my mind; it’s a
cultural question, or a question of how we perceive things, how we perceive the world, how we
perceive the risks. You wake up in the morning, and there’s a lot of things to worry about, right?
I’ve got to get, you know, I’ve got to get cleaned up and go to work. Some of us have to get our
kids ready and get to work. I’ve got to pay the rent. I’ve got to make sure that there’s food in the
refrigerator, and my car’s not working. So we can only worry about so many things in one day.
We have sort of a limited capacity of things that we can keep track of, and so things that are
further away in time, or further away in space, we tend not to worry about as much. So some of
the issues like climate change, or using up our water supplies, or overfishing, they’re out of sight,
out of mind. They’re very slow sorts of problems. So it sort of makes sense that they’re not, you
know, they’re not the first thing that we wake up to feel like we have to deal with.

Interviewer: And do you think environmental fatigue is a problem, Tierney?

Tierney Thys: I think there is, um, I think there is a lot of environmental fatigue today, and that
is a concern because we are affecting the environment negatively, and we can’t just be apathetic.
We need to care about the environment, and when every day we hear more and more bad news.
You feel kind of paralyzed. “What can I do? There’s just too many problems.” And that can
cause people to turn inward and do nothing, and that’s the concern.

Interviewer: OK, but we can do something about it, can’t we? Kenny, how can we inspire
people to get over their environmental fatigue and do something about the issues we’re facing?
Kenny Broad: As a scientist, we’re trained to worry about facts, but I think you can look around
the world and see that facts aren’t what influence people, necessarily. We’re driven by the
emotional parts of our brain, and I think as scientists, we need to think about communicating as
much as we have to think about doing our science. It’s not an information deficit. It’s a
motivation deficit. How do you motivate people? How do you inspire them to make not just a
behavioral change one time, like turning off the lights, but multiple changes, and be consistent
over time? You inspire people through their emotions, not just the analytic part of their brains,
not just giving them statistics, but showing them pictures, showing them videos, letting them sort
of see how science is done, but in a way that’s exciting. There’s a lot of joy and passion by the
scientists, and I think we need to share that with the people who are getting the information.

Interviewer: Tierney? What about you?

Tierney Thys: I think there are a number of ways that we can inspire people to care about the
environment. One is to get people outside, and seeing for themselves the beauty and the wonder.
I think it’s also really important to show people the challenges and the impacts that we’re having
on the natural world. But most importantly, I think we need to share stories about people who are
helping lessen our footprint on the natural resources of the world and inspiring motivational
stories of people doing good conservation work.

Interviewer: My final question for you both: are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future,
and why?

Tierney Thys: I do remain optimistic. As a marine biologist, I see that the ocean has incredible
resilience, and it can rebound if we give it a break. So we can put in marine-protected areas, and
increase the diversity, as well as the numbers of fishes, by, in some cases, 400 percent. We can
rebuild areas; we can regrow coral. We can train local people, work with local people, and give
them resources so that they can train their kids to look after their own backyard.

Kenny Broad: I guess it’s the kids that give me hope for the future, and I’m counting on them
because it’s going to be their world. I just hope that some of the adults pay enough attention,
because the kids get it, but the adults who tend to be more worried about money don’t seem to
want to sacrifice for the future generations.

Interviewer: Tierney Thys and Kenny Broad, thank you both very much.

Exercise D – page 127

1.

Kenny Broad: You wake up in the morning, and there’s a lot of things to worry about, right?
I’ve got to get, you know, I’ve got to get cleaned up and go to work. Some of us have to get our
kids ready and get to work. I’ve got to pay the rent. I’ve got to make sure that there’s food in the
refrigerator, and my car’s not working. So we can only worry about so many things in one day.
We have sort of a limited capacity of things that we can keep track of, and so things that are
further away in time, or further away in space, we tend not to worry about as much. So some of
the issues like climate change, or using up our water supplies, or overfishing, they’re out of sight,
out of mind. They’re very slow, sorts of problems. So it sort of makes sense that they’re not, you
know, they’re not the first thing that we wake up to feel like we have to deal with.

Narrator: Why does Kenny Broad say “I’ve got to make sure that there’s food in the
refrigerator”?

2.

Kenny Broad: As a scientist, we’re trained to worry about facts, but I think you can look around
the world and see that facts aren’t what influence people, necessarily. We’re driven by the
emotional parts of our brain, and I think as scientists, we need to think about communicating as
much as we have to think about doing our science. It’s not an information deficit. It’s a
motivation deficit. How do you motivate people? How do you inspire them to make not just a
behavioral change one time, like turning off the lights, but multiple changes, and be consistent
over time? You inspire people through their emotions, not just the analytic part of their brains,
not just giving them statistics, but showing them pictures, showing them videos, letting them sort
of see how science is done, but in a way that’s exciting.

Narrator: Why does Kenny Broad say “I think as scientists, we need to think about
communicating as much as we have to think about doing our science”?

3.

Tierney Thys: I think there are a number of ways that we can inspire people to care about the
environment. One is to get people outside, and seeing for themselves the beauty and the wonder.
I think it’s also really important to show people the challenges and the impacts that we’re having
on the natural world. But most importantly, I think we need to share stories about people who are
helping lessen our footprint on the natural resources of the world and inspiring motivational
stories of people doing good conservation work.

Narrator: Why does Tierney Thys say “I think we need to share stories about people who are
helping lessen our footprint on the natural resources of the world”?

4.

Tierney Thys: I do remain optimistic. As a marine biologist, I see that the ocean has incredible
resilience, and it can rebound if we give it a break. So we can put in marine-protected areas, and
increase the diversity, as well as the numbers of fishes, by, in some cases, 400 percent. We can
rebuild areas; we can regrow coral. We can train local people, work with local people, and give
them resources so that they can train their kids to look after their own backyard.

Narrator: Why does Tierney Thys say “We can train local people, work with local people, and
give them resources so that they can train their kids to look after their own backyard”?

Lesson B – A Talk about the Environment

Host: Hello, everyone, and welcome to this month’s free evening lecture. Thank you all for
coming out on such a cold night. As I’m sure you’ve all seen from our library newsletter, our
guest speaker this evening is Anders Solberg. Anders is a writer, filmmaker, and environmental
activist. He’s in town to attend a documentary film festival but has kindly agreed to give one of
our library lectures while he’s here. I’m sure you’re all as excited as I am to hear what he has to
say.

Anders Solberg: Thank you for the warm welcome. It’s a pleasure to be here. Over the last few
months, the news about the environment hasn’t been very good, has it? We’ve had the hottest
ever temperatures in the south, record-breaking rainfall along the coast, food crops failing
because of drought in central regions, oceans running out of fish, species going extinct. With all
of this bad news, it’s easy to feel discouraged, isn’t it? It’s easy to feel that our actions don’t
matter and to give in to environmental fatigue. Why bother recycling, you might ask, if your
neighbor does nothing, if businesspeople continue to make products that cause pollution, and if
politicians deny climate change is happening?

It’s pretty depressing, right? Well, maybe not. You see, my goal today is to give you hope for the
future of our environment, and I’ll do that by talking about some activists, some leaders, some
scientists, some inventors, some businesspeople who are not just going to change the world, in
my view, but might also save the world. Who are these incredible people? They’re kids. Yes,
kids! I’ll introduce you to some of them, shall I?

First we have Madhav Rajaram Subrahmanyam. As a young child, he learned that tigers were
endangered. So he got together with a group of his friends and began raising money. He shined
shoes, delivered packages, wrote poems, sang in the streets, sold merchandise, and even made
people visiting his home pay a toll! He was just 13 years old. In just a couple of years, he and his
friends raised thousands of dollars to protect tigers. More and more people in India are becoming
aware of the importance of conservation, and kids like Madhav are part of the reason for that. A
pretty amazing young man, isn’t he?

Next, meet Hannah Alper from Toronto, Canada. Hannah started blogging about the
environment when she was just nine years old. She’s 13 in this picture, incidentally. She wanted
to share her views and inspire others to take action, and she’s definitely done that. She’s been
featured on television and in newspaper articles, her blog posts are widely available online, and
she regularly gives public presentations. Hannah’s big idea is simple: lots of little things can add
up to something big. In other words, even small actions can save the environment. I was lucky
enough to see Hannah give a talk recently, and I can tell you that I came away from her
presentation with a restored sense of hope and optimism. My own daughter was inspired by her,
too.

Moving on, there’s Nikita Rafikov from the United States, who was just 11 when he came up
with a pretty bright idea. Nikita had learned about something called G-F-P, which stands for
green fluorescent protein. This is a kind of protein that is found in some marine organisms. We
call these organisms bioluminescent, meaning they produce their own light. Nikita developed a
way to add this protein into windows, which means that in the future, it might be possible for
homes to have light without using electricity. And we all know how we generate electricity can
have a big impact on the environment, don’t we?

And finally, there’s Adeline Tiffanie Suwana from Indonesia. When she was 12 years old,
Adeline formed a group called Sahabat Alam, meaning “Friends of Nature.” This group now has
thousands of members—many of whom are kids—throughout Indonesia. Adeline and her group
try to educate people about the environment, but they don’t just talk about saving the planet.
They take action, too, such as planting trees, helping coral reefs, protecting species, and cleaning
up the environment. One of my favorite things that Adeline and her friends have set up is a
project that provides clean electricity—from water power, a renewable energy source—to rural
villages in Indonesia. And I’m not the only person who’s impressed with Adeline: she’s received
awards from the United Nations, too. Another incredible and inspiring young woman, wouldn’t
you agree?

There are many other kids I could tell you about—and thousands of adults, too, of course. I don’t
want to say that there is no crisis: Clearly, the environment could be in better condition, but
instead of pessimism, I want you to feel optimism. Because my belief is that children like these
give us hope for the future, and I hope you feel the same way. Thank you very much