On a bright and early Saturday morning, Harvard’s Geological Lecture hall was filled with energetic and eager faces ready to learn. With a great program ahead, the seats were filled with people with thoughtful questions and an open mind ready to take on any challenges to help fight climate change.
The first speaker, Zeyneb Magavi introduced herself as a mom and told us she’d be telling us a story. Magavi’s story is truly inspirational because it showed the audience that in a situation where we can so easily get frustrated and angry, the right path towards alliance is one made through a willingness to listen. She told us that human relationships and communication is the foundation of everything, how we choose to represent ourselves has a major impact on the outcome of the situation. An interesting fact that I learned was that methane that is released is 87% more lethal than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years.
The keynote speaker, Tom Wessels focused his lecture on the principles of sustainability and increasing energy efficiency through self-organization and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Wessels explained that self-organization was the key for ecosystems to become more sustainable and resilient. Self-organization occurs everywhere, for example, the human body is a great system that performs self-organization. Each cell has a specialized purpose, and each of these parts is tightly integrated to help the human body function efficiently. Wessels also spoke on the Second Law of Thermodynamics and expresses the importance of the flow of energy. As energy gets passed on, the quality will continue to become less useful. His overall lecture was to explain how to use energy efficiently. He explained that certain ecological interactions are energy insufficient, for example, invasive species. Wessels claimed that invasive species are incredibly dangerous because it eradicates the species living in those existing ecosystems. He took the Chestnut Tree as an example, in 1904 they were flourishing near East of Mississippi. However, it took only 30 years of an invasive fungus to eradicate the most of the Chestnut Tree species. Another interaction Wessels explained as energy insufficient is competition among different species. Nature urges species to become the most efficient as possible. Therefore different species in competition living in a coexisting ecosystem may prey at different times of the day. This leads to a more energy efficient way of living.
The panelists who spoke on the practices of eco-restoration told their own story of the importance behind their work and how we as individuals can make that same change. Anamarija Frankie’s work on oysters taught me that creating a organic and natural habitat for organisms will be more successful. Maggie Booz spoke about the importance of keeping our trees alive and in well condition. Trees are valuable species, they are cooling, provides habitat, oxygen, removes carbon from the atmosphere, and as Booz claims and I completely agree, they are beautiful. In Booz’s lecture, she showed us an inspirational change in a small action she took just because she simply wanted to. Kannan Thiru’s presentation on Easte Farm brings to anyone’s attention that we are the power and we can make change happen. By getting permitted to take an abandoned space to create a beautiful garden that also brings the community together, Thiru showed the audience the true meaning behind understanding our impact. Another takeaway from his presentation was that we can’t just tell someone to do something in hopes they will understand, but also provide them with the information and tools to do so.
In a world filled with so many different people, we must all come together to change what we know now as the future. The change we want to see is in our hands, and the practices we follow are important as well. All the speakers were truly inspiring role models for being an activists whether locally or on a global scale.
Jia Huang, Volunteer