{"id":21920,"date":"2019-05-01T04:36:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T04:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=21920"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:47:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:47:23","slug":"amidst-this-climate-crisis-i-found-hope-from-halfway-across-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/21920\/amidst-this-climate-crisis-i-found-hope-from-halfway-across-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Amidst this climate crisis, I found hope from halfway across the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

All it took was determination and initiative<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Fridays

Nanticha Ocharoenchai leading the\u00a0Youth Strike 4 Climate in Bangkok (March\u00a02019)<\/p><\/div>\n

It was three days into my editorial internship at\u00a0Bangkok Post<\/a>, where I was free to write about anything I wished to, be it the city\u2019s wild nightlife scene or its complicated LGBTQ laws. Despite all the creative freedom, my mind always turned back to the environment. In the position to write for Thailand\u2019s largest English-language newspaper, I felt that I finally had the power to make not only a positive but also massive impact through my words.<\/p>\n

So I set off to understand and tackle one of the city\u2019s big environmental issues: the lack of public green space. After roughly 15 minutes on Google, I learned that\u00a0Bangkok\u2019s residents have only about 3.3 square meters of green space per person<\/a>, compared to New York City\u2019s 23.1 square meters. I also found that Thailand is the\u00a0world\u2019s sixth biggest contributor to ocean waste<\/a>, which comes as no surprise considering how many plastic bags we seem to need for one banana fritter.<\/p>\n

\"Plastics

Greenpeace volunteers conduct a beach cleanup and plastic brand audit activity at Wonnapa beach, Chon Buri province, Thailand<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I knew there were bigger reasons for why it takes me an hour to get to a park (twice the physical size of New York City, Bangkok has just maybe five places you could call a park), and why more shopping malls are built and more trees are cut. So I dug deeper to learn about why the problem exists and why it persists\u200a\u2014\u200aand the deeper I dug, the pit grew darker.<\/p>\n

Having previously interned at Greenpeace, I knew the extent of our current environmental problems and that the idea of fixing them all at once seems impossible. I was once a hopeful young girl who\u2019d walk to class and be choked by the thick exhaust fumes of the city\u2019s public buses and think, \u201cWow, this incredibly sucks, but I can change it.\u201d But I became a bitter teenager who embraced the mentality of \u201cWhy should I care? No one else does.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I sat in the canteen later that day, an older colleague joined me for lunch. He went on to ask me, \u201cWhat do you want to do in the future? Do you want to change the world, or do you want to get rich?\u201d I replied, \u201cChange the world, of course. That\u2019s why I\u2019m here.\u201d To which he replied, \u201cDon\u2019t. Make things easy for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to stay hopeful in such a hopeless place, where there\u2019s\u00a0black smog in the air<\/a> and plastic trash in the river. It\u2019s hard to believe you can create change when no one else does. It\u2019s hard to fight for all that\u2019s left when what you see is all that\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

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As the bad news from my research and the fluorescent lights in the office drained the life out of me, I tried to distract myself by flicking through my Instagram. And there he was on my feed, young Dutch\u00a0Boyan Slat<\/a>, and his goal to save the environment. Halfway across the world, like a knight in shining armor sent from the internet, this young man with a dream had brought mine back to life.<\/p>\n

Though Slat\u2019s invention didn\u2019t work out as he had planned, it had worked out in ways it wasn\u2019t meant to. It might not have entirely rid the waters of garbage, but it did free my mind of cynicism and defeatism. Simply by having the determination and taking the initiative, he inspired many ambitious others who just needed a little push and drive to become the change they wanted to see.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

Perhaps it was after one of my environmental science field trips in high school\u200a\u2014\u200aand maybe when my teacher told me I was his favorite\u200a\u2014\u200athat I first became aware of my passion for writing about nature. I am now a Greenpeace volunteer and activist, just like he was. I never realized the impact he had on me, until one particular day in the\u00a0backyard of a primary school<\/a>\u00a0outside of Bangkok, when it hit me just how much impact I had on others. In one hour of working with a bunch of kids, I was able to turn them around from screaming and running away at the sight of worms and convince them what insanely cute, fun, squiggly creatures they were seeing. By the end of that one hour, these youngsters were\u00a0begging\u00a0<\/em>for more worms to touch and play with. And in that one hour teaching them the importance of fertile soil and the beauty of organic vegetables, it became clear that I have become the change I wanted to see. It became clear that I had created hope in the form of these little humans just as my teacher had done for me, and that, in turn, gave me hope.<\/p>\n

\"'We

Students in Bangkok learning how to prepare soil and seeds in order to promote gardening as a way to build a healthy, safe, and more sustainable food\u00a0system.<\/p><\/div>\n

Back at work, I managed to finish the\u00a0article about Bangkok\u2019s lack of green space<\/a>. Instead of the despairing and tragic tale it initially started as, the story ended up as one of persistence, faith and aspiration. With just a spark of optimism from foreign faces who make change happen, I was able to recognize them around me and see from a fresh perspective. It allowed me to discover and write about hopeful people\u200a\u2014\u200alike the Thai female landscape architect I interviewed, who, against all odds, designed\u00a0Bangkok\u2019s first park in 30 years<\/a>\u00a0to mitigate urban climate change\u200a\u2014\u200ato inspire more hopeful people and become one myself.<\/p>\n

Turning a few kids around to love and adore squiggly worms didn\u2019t help me reduce global temperatures or prevent sea level rise overnight, but it was a change. I made them think and I made them love, and it was only possible because someone else had shown me how. Those kids, with their bright smiles and curious questions and delightful awe and hopeful squeals, will go on to tell their parents, then their friends, then their friends\u2019 friends, about organic fertilizers and free-range chickens\u200a\u2014\u200aand maybe one day change the world.<\/p>\n

We have every reason to keep believing, and we have every reason to keep fighting. As long as the last drop of water remains, we have no reason to stand and watch our house burn.<\/p>\n

Nanticha Ocharoenchai is a writer and Greenpeace activist from Thailand.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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