I am one of those privileged people who has somehow managed to take three months off between jobs and travel around my home country visiting friends and family, new and old. Now, at the end of my trip I’m ready to head back to Beijing with no doubt in my mind as to why I have chosen to work in the development/green industry.
Recently, my fiancé kindly reminded me with a short, precise statement, how unglamorous and unprofitable my chosen career is:
“So not only do you work in one of the poorest paid professions, you are now basically volunteering as well?”
At times I do question why I bother, and wonder if I should just chuck it all in and get myself a truck drivers licence, go work in the mines in Western Australia and earn myself upwards of $150 000 a year.
But after spending time in places like Coral Bay, swim with Whale Sharks (see picture below), holding my best friends new born baby and wandering along the endless Australian beaches—some of which are thought to disappear by 2050 due to a predicted 5m rise in sea levels—I’m reminded why you care. Because it’s places like these and the next generation that will suffer at the hands of our continued degradation of the planet.
Australia is one of those countries that is so environmentally rich, it is overwhelming. As a population we love the outdoors more than any other country I have visited and it is a core part of our way of life. Yet there is so much apathy towards how our country and the world is being threatened by global warming. It’s really scary. This is not a unique situation and of course many other countries are the same.
So as I head back to China to work on developing a Green Career Program in Beijing—engaging young graduates in sustainable careers—I’m armed with a whole lot of motivation and inspiration, which I’m sure I’ll need.
Here are a few pics…
