Starting the Environmental Miracle

Korea is a mysterious country.
Once one of the poorest countries in the 1960s has achieved an economic
miracle, now chasing Canada as the 11^th largest
economy. Among some uplifting stories that I heard from my parents, my
favourite is the Gold Collection movement that saved the country out of the
Asian economic crisis in 1997. My mother donated her wedding ring and golden
charms – a common gift for the one-year celebration of the baby’s birth
– to the government while my father took a salary cut to help his company
to stay competitive in the exports scene. I would not have had the privilege
to grow up in Canada without the personal sacrifice that my parents
generational made for the country.

Our nature is also on
the brink of collapse, but we have not discovered the way to convince people
to share such burden. Dumping more scientific facts and jargons have only
frustrated people while the doom-and-gloom scenarios have turned people away
from the conversation. Now, the climate change is called with various
nicknames such as a hoax, cult, religion or conspiracy. Expressing love for
the environment is for the hippies. You could easily avoid the unwanted conversation
with the magic word called the environment.

What would be
the solution to our pressing issues against the climate change? Could
optimistic messages work since negative messages have been ineffective?
Don’t we turn ourselves too optimistic stories because we are surrounded by
negative news all the time? What about financial incentive because money
matters to all of us? How about using marketing techniques and social media?
Social marketing has been very effective in reducing alcohol consumption and
eliminating drug use. What about the community-level grassroots approach?
Farmers market had a decade of explosive growths. To my surprise, all of
these approaches have been experimented in the realm of climate change and
proven to be rather unsuccessful.

It seems like we are
running out of options. Then, what could be our next move? Nobody knows the
clear answer for this question, but we could certainly learn something from
the Gold Collection Movement. Neither the government nor organization was
able to save the country. It was the power of ordinary people who were
willing to make the sacrifice and share the burden that helped save the
nation from the verge of bankruptcy. Perhaps, we are waiting for the simple
nudge to start the environmental miracle.