After 36+ hours of transit (including 14 hours in the Singapore’s lovely Changi Airport), I’m back in Squamish, BC and re-immersing myself in “traditional” education (not that Quest University is all that traditional). It’s hard to believe we were in Borneo for two months; that time seems like a sort of wormhole in my day-to-day existence. It’s heartening to hear from my fellow students that they’re watching our videos (which are now posted online), and many of them (as well as a number of people I met in airports and on planes during the long journey home) are genuinely interested in talking about the issues and conservation projects we encountered while in Indonesia.
enjoying the snow in the tantalus mountains of Squamish, BC
I feel like I’m going to need some time to really process what I saw, experienced, and learned from our time abroad. But certainly one of the most important things I took away from the experience was hope. It is true that we experienced a lot of destruction but, as my group’s documentary (Perjalanan) discusses, we also met a lot of people who are working incredibly hard to turn things around. One of the things that struck me again and again while speaking with these individuals was the way that they never blamed anyone for the gross exploitation of their nation’s natural resources. When I asked what we, as North Americans, could do to help them in their struggle, I was never told “stop consuming,” or even “please consume a little less.” Instead of shifting the blame (however justified such a shift might be), these individuals were taking action, they were doing what they could.
Dr. Stan Lhota, working to save proboscis monkeys in the Bay of Balikpapan
So what can I do? What can we do? We can take local action and, like the many Indonesians our group met, address local problems head-on. But even if we are not asked to, we can also reduce our consumption of goods that require natural resources to produces (which, if we’re honest, is all goods). If you need convincing, check out Chris Jordan, an artist who paints a staggering picture of consumption in the United States.
mining between the city of Samarinda and the Wehea Forest, East Kalimantan
In my hybrid “physics/astronomy/climatology/geology” class yesterday we were discussing the formation of stars and of solar systems from giant clouds of cosmic gas. As it turns out, all stars, solar systems, and plants are formed roughly the same way, and there are hundreds of thousands of billions of them out there. From an astronomer’s point of view, Earth is nothing special. But I think we all feel differently… now we need to start acting like it.
what's at stake: the Wehea Forest (among many things... like the rest of the world)
This is, I think, my last blog for RYSE. It’s been awesome sharing my thoughts with all of you who cared to read them. Keep on caring/thinking/being outraged and doing things about it!
Jill Carlile grew up in Juneau, Alaska. She enjoys the ocean, the mountains, rain, and winter, and is interested in minimizing our negative impacts on each of these, as well as all other natural places and systems. Jill attends Quest University in British Columbia and is currently in East Kalimantan, Indonesia on the island of Borneo with an educational NGO called Ethical Expeditions. Along with seventeen other Quest students, she hopes to learn more about the various forces that threaten to completely deforest this island over the course of the two-month program.
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RYSE is the youth branch of RAN, Rainforest Action Network, which works to protect the Earth and support human rights through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.
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(I inadvertently rated this post a 1 when I meant a 10! ) You learned some amazing things these last 2 months! I’m comforted that you returned with hope. It would be easy to be discouraged by the issues you encountered, but that can be immobilizing. Recognizing that we make forward progress step by step, and that we gain momentum from the efforts of others we meet along the way – what an incredible lesson. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights over the last 2 months, Jill.