"We have a moral responsibility to the most innocent victims of climate change: the poorest citizens of the world and those yet to be born" - Dr. Steven Chu
On May 2, I was able to attend a talk by Dr. Steven Chu, Chinese-American Nobel laureate in physics, and the 12th US Secretary of Energy under the Obama administration. It's been a while since I've attended a talk, but after a really good one, I feel so invigorated and kick myself in the ass for not going to more (especially free ones like this). This one was no exception.
One of the questions Dr. Chu got was on how scientists can be better advocates of policy related to their work. Dr. Chu's reply was to stay "steady at the helm". You've got to stick to your guns, explain your position, explain, explain, and explain again (without taking attacks too personally), and continue your quest for the truth. You put your work out there and hope that it will make the impact that it could-- or should. You stand by your work, and get the voices of the voters behind you. Ultimately, policy comes down to voter pressure so you gotta make 'em understand the facts so they can make the change happen.
Steady at the helm is a universal message, with science as a great example. The same goes for arguments on post-racism, reverse-racism, post-women's rights, the list goes on and on. There are always going to be those who say that facts and realities don't exist, but we have to outnumber and "outnoise" them.
The same day that Dr. Chu came to campus was the same day the Camarillo Spings fire started. As of now (5 days later) it is 80% contained and has gone through about 28,000 acres. Dayum. That's a lot of burned stuff, dontcha think? That may be a lot but it's still not enough to have a real solution based discussion on climate change. I've lived in SoCal all of my life and fire season used to start in the fall-- now it's starting in May?
Friends (well, Facebook ones at least) were posting pictures of the smoke they could see from home/ work/ wherever, with captions describing amazement and fear. One in particular was captioned "pray for rain". I admit that there are a million interpretations for that caption, but the first one I thought of was "pray for rain [cos I don't know any better than to ask God for help as we are helpless little humans]". I know, I know-- I'm cynical and mean. I go there first most of the time. The only clouds in the sky that day were clouds of smoke. There wasn't going to be any rain. Why pray for rain? Later I figured the caption could've referred to rain in general-- as in we need more rain so that fires like this aren't sparked in the spring. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and interpret it as the latter from now on.
As passionate as I may seem about politics and policy, I'm no expert. And based on this particular Facebook friend's profile page s/he posts 100% foods, activities, cats.... and 0% serious stuff. There is no political or religious information... Likes include Walmart and Stewie from Family Guy. Do you get where I'm going here? Do you see why "pray for rain" made me feel the way I did at the moment? It really seemed like the caption meant the first thing-- only God can save us now.... I know, I need to stop going there.
Either way, the intentions of praying for rain are good. It's not like the caption said "I Love wildfires!" or "burn it all!". But there's a part of me that feels like intentions aren't good enough. We can't just post a picture and hope for an outcome-- we need to make that change happen. There are things we can do to indirectly "make it rain". How about being more supportive of public safety workers? How about pressuring congress to adopt better energy policies? I guess what bothers me the most about the praying comment is how the burden is taken away from you and given to God, when really, like Dr. Chu said, change comes from the people. At the same time, I hate when people turn breaking news into political talking points. Apparently I hate when they bring prayer into it too.
I don't want the Camarillo Springs fire to just be another SoCal blaze. This fire impacted so many people I know. I grew up with a lot of people in Camarillo, and the ones that stayed are mostly the ones who have families now. And parents just seem to think differently than the childless, but that's another blog topic. Anyways, I want to see these people really think about the fire that could have so easily burned their lives down. I want them to think about why it happens (as complex as that may be), and to do something about it-- even if it only means spreading the word. Don't just leave it up to Congress alone-- they're a mess right now!
And I will continue on. Steady at the helm!
One of the questions Dr. Chu got was on how scientists can be better advocates of policy related to their work. Dr. Chu's reply was to stay "steady at the helm". You've got to stick to your guns, explain your position, explain, explain, and explain again (without taking attacks too personally), and continue your quest for the truth. You put your work out there and hope that it will make the impact that it could-- or should. You stand by your work, and get the voices of the voters behind you. Ultimately, policy comes down to voter pressure so you gotta make 'em understand the facts so they can make the change happen.
Steady at the helm is a universal message, with science as a great example. The same goes for arguments on post-racism, reverse-racism, post-women's rights, the list goes on and on. There are always going to be those who say that facts and realities don't exist, but we have to outnumber and "outnoise" them.
The same day that Dr. Chu came to campus was the same day the Camarillo Spings fire started. As of now (5 days later) it is 80% contained and has gone through about 28,000 acres. Dayum. That's a lot of burned stuff, dontcha think? That may be a lot but it's still not enough to have a real solution based discussion on climate change. I've lived in SoCal all of my life and fire season used to start in the fall-- now it's starting in May?
Friends (well, Facebook ones at least) were posting pictures of the smoke they could see from home/ work/ wherever, with captions describing amazement and fear. One in particular was captioned "pray for rain". I admit that there are a million interpretations for that caption, but the first one I thought of was "pray for rain [cos I don't know any better than to ask God for help as we are helpless little humans]". I know, I know-- I'm cynical and mean. I go there first most of the time. The only clouds in the sky that day were clouds of smoke. There wasn't going to be any rain. Why pray for rain? Later I figured the caption could've referred to rain in general-- as in we need more rain so that fires like this aren't sparked in the spring. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and interpret it as the latter from now on.
As passionate as I may seem about politics and policy, I'm no expert. And based on this particular Facebook friend's profile page s/he posts 100% foods, activities, cats.... and 0% serious stuff. There is no political or religious information... Likes include Walmart and Stewie from Family Guy. Do you get where I'm going here? Do you see why "pray for rain" made me feel the way I did at the moment? It really seemed like the caption meant the first thing-- only God can save us now.... I know, I need to stop going there.
Either way, the intentions of praying for rain are good. It's not like the caption said "I Love wildfires!" or "burn it all!". But there's a part of me that feels like intentions aren't good enough. We can't just post a picture and hope for an outcome-- we need to make that change happen. There are things we can do to indirectly "make it rain". How about being more supportive of public safety workers? How about pressuring congress to adopt better energy policies? I guess what bothers me the most about the praying comment is how the burden is taken away from you and given to God, when really, like Dr. Chu said, change comes from the people. At the same time, I hate when people turn breaking news into political talking points. Apparently I hate when they bring prayer into it too.
I don't want the Camarillo Springs fire to just be another SoCal blaze. This fire impacted so many people I know. I grew up with a lot of people in Camarillo, and the ones that stayed are mostly the ones who have families now. And parents just seem to think differently than the childless, but that's another blog topic. Anyways, I want to see these people really think about the fire that could have so easily burned their lives down. I want them to think about why it happens (as complex as that may be), and to do something about it-- even if it only means spreading the word. Don't just leave it up to Congress alone-- they're a mess right now!
And I will continue on. Steady at the helm!
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