Why Not Me? My Climate Journey from Vietnam

I have never been an animal lover nor that one gardening kid nor did I experience some grand calling that I must devote my whole life to protecting the planet. I am not the outspoken person who stands up and tells everyone that they must live more responsibly. I do feel embarrassed from time to time when my brother laughs at me for refusing to take plastic bags from the convenience store, “What are you doing that for? The environment?” I shrank a little when my teacher commented that my essay about Columbian environmentalists' human rights being violated sounds more like it is talking about the rights of animals instead - “off-topic” basically. To sum up, I am a normal person.

This might seem odd to many of you. But for context, I am from a developing country, where the people are still very fixated on just making a living and hoping for their kids to have a better life than they did, the schools only brush over the topic of climate change if it actually does exist in the curriculum, and the governments have more matter on their hand than climate change. Barely anyone in my family, who lives in a rural area, has ever heard of the climate change notion. They turn off their light, use little water, buy groceries locally all to save money, nothing more than that. So, you know where I am coming from.

Now, reflecting on it, I have no idea why I chose this path. There is certainly a small flame that lit up and started swaying aggressively gently in me whenever I read about all kinds of pollution in 6th grade though. Other than that, there is not much. But after sitting for 30 minutes, face cupped in my warm hands, perhaps it’s because I like looking at the stars; sitting alone in the park, looking into nowhere while my hair is having its time with the wind; staring blankly from the bus’s window as it drives past Switzerland’s many meadows and snow-white mountain tops. It sounds good. It feels good - the sensation of taking in a full breath of fresh cold air, hands tucking inside the pockets, letting your eyes rest for a while no matter what kind of day, hearing nothing but the rustle of leaves and suddenly you feel it. You feel something.

Maybe. . . that is what I want to protect. The sensation when I don’t feel anything anymore, or when I know that I might have accidentally breathed in an existential crisis.

P.S. Just some afterthoughts from my existential crisis: Humanity is nothing but a component in the system of the Earth, in the system of the galaxy. We so often think we are the center, and that our society is so complex, but the truth is the opposite. Nothing couldn’t care less, everything will go on just as fine without us and our society. So, while I’m here, why not try to be as useful to the environment - the true system that governs the world- as the other animals are, or at least try to hide the faults of my own kind? Are we the only species that are born useless?

The question that I ask myself is not why, but why not?

Flooding in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Chitose Suzuki / AP