Somewhere on the Mongolian plain, two small children are playing in a cozy yurt filled with brightly colored fabrics. Looking for a toy, the two-year-old boy grabs a fat, brightly painted porcelain Buddha.
"You can't play with God!" says the boy's wiser, older sister of four, snatching the statue and rescuing the Buddha.
Filmmaker Byambasuren Davaa later said this unscripted moment was the greatest gift she received while filming and directing "Cave of the Yellow Dog"-her movie that follows the daily life of a nomadic Mongolian family with three small children.
Davaa says the purpose of the film is to express reverence for nature and show the culture of the nomads, yet she invites each viewer to make their own interpretation. For me, the Buddha represents our divine relationship with nature.
There is an old joke from the seventies: "What did the Buddhist say to the guy at the hot dog stand?" Pause and reflect a calm inner smile before answering. "Make me one with Everything." In the age of "globalization," the central Buddhist philosophy of kindness to all creatures seems particularly germane. Much of our food comes from the same oceans. We all breathe the same air. And what's the most typically American food export? McDonald's golden arches.
The Earth is waking up to her abuses with a rising fever, and a powerful thirst. All the mercury and pesticides we've pumped and poured into her have made her out of balance. And if she isn't cooled down before she reaches 450 CO2 parts per million, she could go into a permanent coma. Will we shield her, or continue to treat the symptoms with dirty band-aids as the patient withers?
If you checked the numbers more than three years ago, get a copy of the latest National Geographic. The current statistics, which include a more refined analysis, look grim. All the science of climate change is documented there, thankfully, along with many of the solutions.
Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House when he was president. Ronald Reagan had them removed and launched a quiet assault on the environment by dropping regulations and appointing James Watt as his secretary of the Interior. Ah, the Reagan years. The evil empire. The eighties. The "Me" generation.
If only we'd set caps on consumption of nuclear and coal-fired power plants in the seventies and begun using wind and solar sources then. How much easier this would all be now.
Now, we have solid projections of how much solar, wind and bio energy we need to generate to stay at current emission levels according to the latest National Geographic, and the crucial next step would be making these technologies available to China and India. In any case we cannot start too soon, setting the right example and making up for lost time.
Wind and solar power are naturally immune to terrorism. Five times more people died in France in the heat wave of August 2003 than in the World Trade Center bombing.
Yet, it's the numbers we don't know that jolt me the most: How many years will it take us to regenerate the nearly extinct species in our food chain? How many dams should be dismantled? If we start today planting mangrove trees around tropical coastlines, how long before these coastlines are protected from the rising sea levels and tsunamis?
And who of those among you reading this column will be major actors in these goals toward change? Talented entrepreneurs will make the difference. The job markets are already open for college grads to work in research, analysis and business. Surf job openings at the World Resources Institute for example. The online news service Environmental News Network is hiring too.
Duke students are uniquely situated to design and market solutions. We have Engineers Without Borders already at work, and the new Global Health Initiative. And you. (Hopefully you are reading this out of more than morbid curiosity.) Many of you are brilliant, talented and persuasive. Add a good idea, vision and a dash of compassion and... voila!
Pseudoscientists like Bjorn Lomborg and Julian Simon who shamefully skew hard evidence with muddled language and distortions are the bad guys.
They are playing with God in my book. Their manipulations of facts and distortions of statistics and actual lies add ballast as we sail through this new science of priorities.
We all need to convert to cleaner energy, cut waste, conserve and act locally with our neighbors. All politics are local now. Both political parties need to hear this as they prepare their party platforms for the elections. We may not get their ear for another eight years.
Factor conservation into everything you do each day.
In the seventies (I've heard) a common slogan was, "Save water, shower with a friend." When the Buddhist asked the hot dog vendor for his change, the vendor smiled and said, "Change must come from within."
Chrystal Stefani is assistant to the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics. Her column runs every other Tuesday.
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