Now, I’m not normally known as an eco-warrior, so it could have only been malice that inspired the NJ conservation posse to drag me out of my perfectly air-conditioned environment early last Saturday to spend the day with a bunch of Thai kids, all of them nuts about nature.
The geeks, 16 of them in total, were the finalists in this year’s Cathay Pacific Wilderness Experience competition. They were competing for the honour of representing Thailand as Environmental Ambassadors on an eco-safari in South Africa. This was once-in-a-lifetime, life-changing, world-saving stuff: I yawned, grabbed a carton of chocolate milk from the fridge and jumped into the car, still mad at the office bullies for forcing me to hang out with these ‘green’ geeks.
As I screeched into the Cathay Pacific cark park, burning rubber to a stop, the geeks were already there, knotted together in some kind of human chain; an interesting icebreaker game, I guessed. I was surprised they weren’t hugging trees. Anyway, as they got familiar with each other, I gulped down the last of the chocolate milk, threw the carton out of the window, burped some methane gas and went to join the ‘fun’.
Once untied, the geeks were split into three groups and assigned environmental issues. While they were sent off to different rooms to prepare their presentations, I was sent to the corner to read their applications – 16 essays and it wasn’t even 9am. Fortunately, I had an extra carton of iced coffee, and a sandwich, so I sat down for a read. I was shocked. They were good, all of them: well written, well argued, well thought-out and passionate. I was almost in tears by the last essay. Although they were dealing with the bleak old issue of climate change, these guys had drive and enthusiasm and offered positive suggestions. I started to look at the geeks in a different light.
The groups gave some stunning presentations on topics like waste, recycling and global warming. The geeks were becoming pretty cool but it was at the interviews in the afternoon where they showed their true colours. They were asked questions in English and Thai about the environment and what they would do to make things better in their own communities. They had solutions, they had answers; some of them even said they were prepared to die for the environment. While I was quickly becoming a geek myself, I thought that self-sacrifice was a bit ‘over’.
Anyway, if you think I was a bit emotional after reading their essays, you should have seen me by the end of the day. I was the new kid in the environment. I’d learnt the error of my ways. I drove home in second gear to save energy, singing “I Believe the Children Are Our Future”. I’d learnt that we can all do our own little bit to help the environment. As for me, I’ve adopted the slogan: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down,” to help save water. And, I’ll only switch on the fan tonight. Good night. Zzzzzzzz
