I’m constantly searching for news that will give me hope for a Monday. Lately, I’ve found it in the posts on “Wait But Why?”. It’s changing my life. The latest series of articles (on Tesla Motors and Space X) have given me a naive, college-freshman-level of hope about the state of the world. Definitely enough to get through your average Monday.
Call me a dreamer, but I find hope in positive environmental change.
It started in college. Granted, for me, college happened in Boulder, Colorado. It’s sort of a ‘positive environmental change’ mecca.
We launched all kinds of campaigns. Environmental campaigns, eradication-of-world-hunger campaigns, Earth Day campaigns, stop-cutting-down-the-rainforest campaigns, pay-more-attention-to-my-campaign campaigns, etc. LOVED campaigns.
I became the collegiate vice president of the Colorado public interest research groups. We stormed a college department when they were accused of firing one of my most sensational professors (LOVED storming things!). At office hours, we discussed political solutions to environmental problems. I talked to small groups of like-minded people (which is the best way imaginable to believe you are having an impact on things).
I loved school.
It ended.
After that, hope for environmental change got more complicated.
I started work. In the world at large, I talked to different types of people. The craziest thing happened: I started to see their point of view. I was able to have a rational conversation with a political conservative. Sometimes I even agreed with them. The amount of waste produced by an airplane flight broke my heart a little less each time. I stopped refusing to buy coffee in plastic cups…because it was easy and I was tired and I didn’t want to carry around some big, dumb cup all day. Around age 25, I started eating meat again. I was growing up and walking on the level ground of environmental mediocrity.
In most respects, I am more environmentally conscious than most people I know. I don’t buy plastic water bottles…much. I almost always refuse plastic shopping bags. But somewhere along the way, I lost the big picture. I am not trying to change the world anymore, I’m merely trying to live in it.
Enter Elon Musk.
He’s a super hero. A real life Tony Stark. When I started reading the backstory of Tesla motors, I felt something welling up in me that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Passion. This is a hope for the future. If you need some too, read the article…read the article…read the article.
Will give you some hope for an otherwise pretty average Monday.
Thanks for the banner photo: Photo by Thomas Lambert