The evolution of an environmentalist

The standard, stereotypical depiction of a modern-day environmentalist conjures images of a liberal upbringing; the offspring of 1960's flower children steeped in anti-establishment revolutionary thought.

While this fiction might bring comfort to those who refuse to accept responsibility for mankind's irresponsible stewardship of our natural resources, it is a fiction, nonetheless.

I was raised in a Republican household, and my dad was somewhere between "active" and "staunch", depending upon how much he trusted the babbling buffoons of the day. Looking back, I'm pretty sure he was disgusted with the whole lot, regardless of party affiliation, but there was no way in hell he was going to side with the hippies, so...

But at his core, he was a hard sciences guy. He was an aeronautical engineer by trade, working on the nuts and bolts of rocketry. But he also dabbled in civil engineering from time to time, designing the occasional bridge or drainage system at the request of the local government. And if you came across one of those nifty glass-case-enclosed scale models of a proposed hospital or housing development, it was probably one of his creations.

I believe it was his affinity for the civil side of engineering which eventually triggered his environmental awareness, and his understanding of the volatile and toxic nature of chemical compounds associated with aeronautics led him to the (correct) conclusion that the disposition of industrial (and residential) wastes was quite possibly the most important issue of our age.

During the time of his "transformation" into an environmentalist, he attempted (with moderate success) to bring me along with him. I listened a lot and tried not to ask too many stupid questions. But even the stupid questions brought a gleam to his eye, and out would come a hydrology text or a sketch pad.

It was while he was auditing a course on solid waste management at N.C. State that he first caught whiff of a problem with his memory recall. By the time his professor acknowledged his raised hand, he had forgotten the question he wanted to ask. Embarassed, he tried to pass it off by saying, "Nevermind, you already answered my question." Within a few years, Alzheimer's had robbed him of the ability to even do that much, and a few years after that, he was gone.

But his environmental awareness lives on, in me.

While I don't possess his grasp of science, I do have a voice, and I am determined to raise awareness in others. This is not just an academic conundrum to be hashed out by scientists and engineers, it affects each and every one of us, and (even more so) our progeny. We owe it to them to make sure the air they breathe and the water they drink will be clean and safe, and we're failing in that task miserably. It's time to change.