Awareness and Action: How to Make Progress in our Community

RD
by Rebecca Dalise9 views·Updated May 26, 2021
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  1. I'm sure to many of you, the infographics here look
  2. familiar. I'm sure many of you myself included have posted
  3. something like this before they flood our timelines and while
  4. they are meant to be informative, some can be redundant,
  5. oversimplified or get lost in the feed among other posts.
  6. Nonetheless, they are spreading awareness about an issue.
  7. But how often do these get reposted without any critical
  8. thinking, reflection or action taken afterwards?
  9. Today we live in a culture of needing to prove
  10. how much we care about the world in one another.
  11. Done by posting infographics like these ones on instagram and
  12. twitter. And that's what somehow places you on the hierarchy
  13. of being a good person.
  14. Just by claiming that you care in this age of
  15. social media activism, in policing each other on our morals.
  16. We have created a disconnect between awareness in action.
  17. We shall passion for an important cause and then take
  18. our foot off the gas.
  19. We find others to blame town or school administrators, the
  20. U. S.
  21. Government or the people on the other side of the
  22. political aisle.
  23. And while that may help to hold the people accountable
  24. who are responsible for some of these issues, how will
  25. anything get done and how will we progress as a
  26. society if we expect others to do our dirty work
  27. for us, if we expect others to be responsible for
  28. change and we just get to sit back and watch.
  29. This is something that I was guilty of.
  30. When I began researching sustainable development and handover was investigating
  31. the factors that influence decision making regarding sustainability issues in
  32. my own community.
  33. And I was looking for roadblocks who or what was
  34. to blame for why an important issue like sustainability seem
  35. to be getting lost in budgeting and prioritization within our
  36. district. I was personally passionate about the issue.
  37. I believe that I care about the environment and push
  38. for sustainable progression, but instead of finding a way to
  39. pursue that, I was focusing on why it seemed like
  40. it wasn't happening already in and over.
  41. The answer is because of me, really, it's because of
  42. all of us.
  43. Once we decide to shift responsibility for change away from
  44. ourselves and on to a third party, we have lost
  45. our momentum to progress as a community.
  46. I didn't have this epiphany until I spoke with the
  47. sustainability Coordinator of and over Joyce those again, I had
  48. interviewed her looking for dirt and gossip, who is the
  49. evil villain in the dark trench, go to stomps on
  50. all the plans to bring sustainability into end.
  51. Over she assured me that it was not that cynical,
  52. that was not the case and presented me with a
  53. different idea to ponder instead the reaction of the people
  54. in our community to an issue idea or project directly
  55. influences if it will get past.
  56. In her own position, she named three main components that
  57. go into deciphering the future of a sustainable development project.
  58. The first is the planet.
  59. Obviously, how can we work with the planet and its
  60. resources and not against it?
  61. By depleting set resources in our development.
  62. This is evidently the most major component to environmentally sustainable
  63. development, because maintaining our resources is the only way to
  64. guarantee longevity for our community.
  65. But doing this can be costly, which leads us to
  66. the next component profit.
  67. How much will the project cost and will the benefits
  68. of the project to be worth the cost?
  69. Economic sustainability in a community is very important as well,
  70. but it can be unfortunately true at times.
  71. That's something that is cost effective can degrade the environment.
  72. And it is also true that something that will support
  73. the environment could potentially use a large sum of money.
  74. There's often risk benefit analysis done to determine if the
  75. project cost is worth it and to do that effectively,
  76. the issue's importance will be questioned.
  77. And that is where the final aspect comes into play
  78. and where we, as citizens of our community come into
  79. play as well.
  80. And that's people meaning how are people, how willing are
  81. people to invest in sustainability in our community and how
  82. important are these issues to them?
  83. Really, without that final aspect, there is no incentive to
  84. move forward with these projects, especially not for local government
  85. who is wanting to be re elected by those townspeople.
  86. I also spoke to to school committee members who reiterated
  87. this notion and they gave me a strong example of
  88. this project.
  89. Working in action at a town meeting, Joyce Yang sustainability
  90. coordinator proposed a community choice aggregation which would allow for
  91. townspeople to have a stake in the type of energy
  92. used in their homes, in their schools and in their
  93. businesses. The proposal passed because the Green advisory board of
  94. and over which is a coalition of townspeople who are
  95. really committed to sustainability was present at this meeting and
  96. vouch for the project's importance and advocated for its benefit
  97. to the community.
  98. This is a real example of people showing up for
  99. an issue that they're passionate about and it was that
  100. leading to its implementation and the end over community choice
  101. aggregation is implemented.
  102. Now, when I began my research, I never expected that
  103. it would turn into a journey of self reflection on
  104. my own presence in my community in its progression, I
  105. had fallen into the trap of only spreading awareness and
  106. not pursuing action on an issue that was important to
  107. me sustainability, I've become what I had often criticized someone
  108. willing to claim they care about an issue and using
  109. time and energy to blame people instead of using time
  110. and energy to find solutions to an issue, awareness and
  111. action must go hand in hand, and that is what
  112. my research has proved time and time again.
  113. Now I will pursue action on this issue that I
  114. have become aware of and which has become important to
  115. me after researching it so deeply I am challenging myself
  116. and I'm also challenging you all to reflect on how
  117. you approach the issues you're passionate about in the future.
  118. Does the work stop at awareness?
  119. Can anything be done to fix an issue even on
  120. a small scale?
  121. The reason I say, even on a small scale, because
  122. I am no way suggesting that I will tackle sustainable
  123. development and and overall on my own.
  124. And we are not individually responsible for every major issue
  125. in our society to be fixed.
  126. And there are times when the only action that will
  127. make significant change comes from someone in a high position,
  128. but we do need to work together to move forward.
  129. Our community depends on it, our future depends on it,
  130. and most importantly, our planet depends on it.
  131. Thank you.