There is no greater fight right now than the fight for a sustainable future, and for the past few years, I’ve been trying to figure out where I fit into it. My volunteer work is gratifying, but it wasn’t enough, so I did what I thought I’d never do: go back to school. Now I’m just a week or so away from finishing the first of twelve classes in a Master of Science in Sustainability and Environment at University of North Carolina, Greensboro (online and part time), and I’ve never felt more sure of my path forward.

I’ve been working my way through our foundational Sustainability course, learning about where we are now, where we have been, and where we could be in the future if, in the words of Dr. Ayana Johnson, we get it right. We’re in a tight spot, there’s no getting around that fact. Just five years out from the 2030 goal of dramatically reduced fossil fuel emissions so we can hold global warming to 1.5°C or less, we’re nowhere near where we should be. Developed nations continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and developing nations are quickly catching up as they race to enter the global economy. Plastic waste continues to grow despite it visibly choking our waterways and oceans, and knowing that microplastics in our own bodies, as well as the bodies of other animal species, are causing serious harm.

Perhaps most insidiously, American society is now marked by a fear and hatred of education, scientists, and science that make it nearly impossible for people on either side of the debate to have a rational, respectful conversation about our changing environment and what it could do to us if we do nothing. People and corporations with the most power and money have spent decades convincing us that the market knows best so they can continue to amass more power and more money; but a generation of neoliberal policies have only resulted in an ever-increasing wealth gap and unrelenting nonrenewable resource extraction, devastating our environment and the communities – human and otherwise – who live within and depend upon it.

But there are so many bright spots. In my Sustainable Solutions textbook by Richard Niesenbaum, I’ve learned about scientists and companies that are innovating products and systems that reduce our fossil fuel dependence, clean up our devastated soil and water, harness energy from the sun and the wind and flowing water and even from our own trash. We have the technology, of that there is no doubt. The challenge will be in shifting culture, convincing our fellow humans that nature is worth saving, that it is against our own best interest to take and take and take until there is nothing left for our children and their children. I can’t wait to learn more about how I can help make this shift happen as I continue my MSSE program and bring its lessons back to our community.