The Road To Becoming An Environmentalist

Shahrukh Nasim

Shahrukh Nasim is a Business Analyst for the United States government, a writer and environmentalist. Shahrukh hopes to work towards the climate issue and help solve the energy crisis. He can be reached at shahrukhnasim@outlook.com or his social media @shahrukhnasim_ .

 


Day by day, the climate crisis is going further and after attending the United Nations Social Good Summit 2018, my mind has become even more environmentally conscious. In a panel consisting of Jayathma Wickramanayake (Youth Envoy for the Secretary-General), she had mentioned that this is the generation to curb climate change. It all clicked for me in that moment, this summit forever changed my perspective. We are running on a century old fossil fuel-based invention by either Nikola Tesla or Thomas Edison (according to whatever your energy philosophy is). Not only are we exhausting our non-renewable resources, we are destroying the environment in a rapid pace. These repercussions will affect our future generations and our grand children will have to face the side effects. All because of corporate greed and ignorance towards a rising issue.

In the second panel on the topic of climate change, Bollywood actress Dia Mirza and UN Director of the Environment Erik Solheim pointed out that the youth can solve the problem that the older generation has passed on. The topic revolved around as being eco-conscious as a lifestyle. This inspired me to walk towards becoming an environmentalist. This summit showed me that just because you have solar panels on top of your house, that does not make you fully environmentally friendly. It is a progressive lifestyle, in the role of an environmentalist. We have to be conscious in all sectors of life, which consists of what energy source you use, what you let go and consume, recycling or waste management, mode of transportation and even meat consumption (agricultural methane gas that gets trapped in the air.

This summit portrayed a prominent point towards living a lifestyle that supports mother earth. We must lead a sustainable lifestyle in order to incorporate and lead the world for better decisions. It starts with my own self and I aspire others to do the same. This is our world and as a traveler taking a long journey home, I am walking on the road to becoming an environmentalist.

 

 

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