So last class, the instructors invited a Tufts's alumna to
give us some insight into what she does. Laur Fisher currently works as the
Project Manager for the Climate CoLab, a project started by the MIT Center for
Collective Intelligence. She briefly talked about her struggles with creating
her self-designed major and finding the necessary resources related to
sustainability, something that I could really identify with, especially the
first year of my college career. But luckily, as I progress through my journey
at Tufts, I'm meeting more people, and finding more resources, something she
probably had a harder time with a decade earlier.
After watching her TEDx talk, I was shocked to find out that
Wikipedia, a website most professors deem unreliable, is almost as accurate as
an encyclopedia. On the other hand, Wikipedia covers hundreds of times more
topics than a set of encyclopedias. The collective knowledge of the world,
collaborating with each other, building upon each other's knowledge, through
millions of edits, was able to come together and create something wonderful.
This was amazing. Astounding. Almost magical. The Climate CoLab is based on
this principle. It connects people all around the world, all trying to make a
difference, protecting our world, and solving the greatest problem of this
generation.
I think one of the reasons it is so inspiring is because you
can see the results, the results of human collaboration. One reason why we
humans don't often take action to mitigate the global problem of climate change
is because many of the actions we accomplish today, take effect decades from
now. We might not even see a notable positive difference in this lifetime. Most
people don't think about the time after our life ends, except maybe in the
spiritual sense. It's hard to not think about ourselves. It's hard to picture
this world without us in it. The Climate CoLab doesn't necessarily show us the
results, per se, but it does show the global effort of changing our ways, of
making this world better. It shows that there are solutions. And some of them,
you could even see the immediate change.
Laur Fisher's talk has definitely made me think more about
approaching the climate issue from different angles. Extending from the above
thought, I started brainstorming more about donations, and how there should be
a more visual, or definitive proof that their money, is directly helping
"blank". There are a few organizations out there trying to do that,
like sending postcards of endangered species to supporters, but I wonder if I
could expand on this. Psychologically speaking, humans respond greatly to the
reward sensation. It's how we evolved. Sugar used to be scarce, so that's why
it taste sweet, sending pleasure signals to our brains, telling us to get more,
and more. I want to be able to combine these aspect to environmental issues.
I think this is something I could talk to Thomas French
about, the Assistant Director of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and
Wildlife and Director of the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.
He is coming to one of Tufts's Environmental Lunch and Learns to discuss the
difficulties about preserving unpopular species, specifically snakes. If we
could build a type of reward system, it might make the efforts of protecting
unpopular wildlife a little easier.
