“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
“Innovations such as this will help broaden Canada’s mix of clean, reliable sources of electricity, … This technology will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build expertise in clean energy and help us move toward a greener future.” - Andy Scott
“By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.” - Thomas Merton
“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
“Trees are Earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.” - Rabindranath Tagore
“By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.” - Thomas Merton
“J’aime appuyer ma main sur le tronc d’un arbre devant lequel je passe, non pour m’assurer de l’existence de l’arbre - dont je ne doute pas - mais de la mienne.” - Christian Bobin
“Si vous planifiez pour un an, plantez une graine. Pour dix ans, plantez un arbre. Pour cent ans, éduquez le peuple.” - Kuang Chung
“And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” - William Shakespeare
I think about the future - a lot. I wonder where I will be in 10 years, and what the world will be like at that time. Will I have kids? Will they be biological or adopted? What kind of environment will they be growing up in? What country will I live in? Will I live the kind of life I have sworn myself to?
I am an environmental chemistry student. In environmental science classes, I am constantly reminded of the harsh reality the world as a whole faces. The doom that is the future of the human race is repeatedly told to me. I am informed of the problems - but rarely the solutions. It leaves me wondering, is there hope? In my chemistry classes, on the other hand, we face problems, and we find solutions.
“This reaction produces too much CO2!”
“I have modified it accordingly,”
If something is broken, it will be fixed. In the words of Ernst Schumacher, “Can it be done?…It must be done and therefore it shall be done.”# This kind of thinking gives me hope. Can we fix what we have broken? Well we MUST fix it, and therefore it shall be fixed. Rather than suffocating under the problems, they should be rectified. To use the cliché, “if there is a will, there is a way”.
I used to have nightmares about the future. I would imagine a barren planet where everyone fights for every scrap of food and fertile land. I imagined a return to our primitive and carnal urges, requiring bloodshed to become a regular part of life. While this has become the case in war-torn countries and regions, it should never become the “norm” - it should never be seen as acceptable or necessary. The human race has advanced so far in terms of integration, society and empathy that it would be a colossal mistake if we were to turn back the clock.
Nowadays, rather than having nightmares, I decide to trust in the human race. We have never died out no matter what the world threw at us - we have survived calamity upon calamity for millions of years. We have adapted accordingly, and as long as we do not wait till it is too late (assuming it is not already too late), we can make our planet a more sustainable place.
I believe that the biggest problem we face is that modern humans view themselves as distinct from nature. Instead of seeing themselves as one with the world, they view themselves as a separate entity - which creates a false belief that whatever happens to the world won’t hurt me. This needs to be changed.
As mammals, as living creatures, as people, we are one with our world. From ancient times, we have not always understood Mother Nature, but she has been respected. We may have been blessed with incredible brains and a sense of resilience that can only be imitated by insects, but we are still part of the environment. There is no “us and them”, it is simply “us”. The ecosystems involve us, tornados can kill us. We need to realise these facts.
My green dream is that in the very near future, it will become obvious to everyone that we are one with nature. There is no distinction between us and our environment. In an attempt to show this dream in a visual manner, I produced the attached photograph. I wanted to show a unification with the environment - human beings with nothing to hide them, nothing to shield them, in amongst nature and being comfortable with that.
While I know that we will not go off to live in forests and discard all our material possessions and objects, I did this just to show how beautiful man and nature combined are. I don’t want us to go back in time and become cavemen once more; I want everyone to find their niche in nature, in their environment, and connect to it. Only when we see the environment as part of who we are, who we will be, and what will become of us, can we truly move forward towards creating and maintaining a sustainable future.
Submitted to the UN
Photography: Elizabeth Tran
Visionary/Director/Writer: Chukwudum Odenigbo
Models: Chloe VanLandschoot, Efiba Essel-Koomson, Gabriella Nicolau, Nathan George, Tyler Henderson, Emily Nolan, Daniel Charbonneau, Chukwudum Odenigbo
Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
