I could be Superman, but I don’t want the responsibility

As is already well known, I love geoengineering. When I decide to talk about geographical concepts, it is one of my favorite to soapbox on. So when I see an opportunity to bring it up, I do. (If you don’t actually know how I feel about is, go ahead and look at my previous post over it. It’s the one with the word “Geoengineering” in the title. Sorry, I’ll try to be less sassy from now on.) Another friend of mine (as opposed to the one in my previous post. Yeah! I have more than one friend. Take that, parents!) and I were talking about negative externalities, and I saw my chance to enlighten another person. After finishing my diatribe, I was shocked with what he said. He told me he was glad that I was paying attention to this kind of stuff, because he had no idea about it. I was like David Keith, telling others about the dangers of geoengineering (if you haven’t seen that TED Talk yet, I highly recommend it. Again, it’s in the post with “Geoengineering in the title). Most importantly, I was becoming the change I wanted to see in the world. I was becoming my own Superman, or possibly Batman, since he’s cooler. Regardless, I was the person in my friend group that could make a difference. They are all cool guys and gals, my friends, and they aren’t against the trying to improve the world. I would argue that they all are actively for improving the world. But, as most of my friends and I are strong Christians, saving the environment was not necessarily on our minds. This has changed thanks to my picking geography as my major, and taking several meteorological, climatological, and environmental classes. It still isn’t, frankly, something I consider important, at least not in the same way as other people might view it. I want the environment to be safe so people can be safe. There are seven plus billion people on the Earth, and I consider each of them important, but I am only one man.

I help out with the food pantry at my church. That feeds about 10 families regularly. On one hand, it is great that the hungry of Manhattan are being fed. On the other hand, I have done next to nothing to truly stop world hunger. What am I to do?  What is the director of the Flint Hills Breadbasket to do, when there are homeless and hungry in Topeka, Lawrence, Wichita, KCK? There is simply too much to do. Have I shattered your hope yet? Well, I haven’t shattered mine. I’m not saying I can plant a forest by myself, but I am uniquely qualified to change the world around me in ways that no one else, including me, could imagine.

I have already mentioned that I am religious. I am also interested in going to grad school, with climate or atmospheric science being a possible point of emphasis. I’m starting to sound like a smaller, albeit taller and male, Katharine Hayhoe. And like Dr. Hayhoe, this puts me in a unique position. I am in no way trying to compare my body knowledge and grasp of understanding with hers, but like her, I can communicate with in-groups that other science oriented people may not be able to enter into. It’s not because I am some gifted writer or great orator or spectacular word-smith (I am not any of these things). It is merely because I have the knowledge I have learned, and am an excepted member of my friend group. They listen to me and what I have to say because I have earned it, because I share the same basic beliefs and ideologies that they do. The science and the facts haven’t changed, just who is presenting them. The response, however, can be radically different.
All of us are uniquely qualified to make an impact wherever we are. And the most wonderful, beautiful part of this is that, just as are qualifications are unique, so too are our impacts. I personally enjoy gaining knowledge and sharing it. That’s why I want to be a professor. But nothing is going to happen if we have a bunch of smart people (the only dumb people are those who support geoengineering) sitting around teaching others. And some people aren’t really comfortable doing that. They want to go out and do something. These go-getters are great as well. The world needs them just as much as the mobilizers who can inform them of what changes are needed. Combined, it is easy to see how just one person can make a difference.

P.S. I love my parents, and I know they support me in all that I do
P.P.S. And I love being able to start sentences with conjunctions. Suck it, English grammar rules