Reason for Hope

One of the most uplifting experiences of my education career happened to me recently. I spent six weeks of my summer helping to run a nature camp held by the National Zoo at its Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va. On a rainy day towards the end of the last week of camp, I was asked to come up with an activity on the spot to fill some time when the kids would normally have been out on a hike. Feeling as strongly as I do about amphibian conservation and the need to educate everyone about it, I decided to do an informal discussion with the kids about the global amphibian crisis. We sat down and I started talking about my amazing summer experience in Ecuador looking for frogs at Reserva las Gralarias and how 2008 was the Year of the Frog and why. Not wanting to make it into a dry lecture (ninth and tenth graders get enough of those), I decided to let the kids do some of the teaching themselves. I started asking questions and was immediately surprised by the amount of students who knew all about amphibian decline and even the chytrid fungus. Those who didn’t know listened intently and asked thought provoking questions.

At one point in the talk, one of the boys threw up their hands and dejectedly declared that it was pointless, we had done too much damage, there was no way to save them so why should he even try, caring just wasn’t enough! So often I hear this response from kids these days that have been so inundated by the doom and gloom of the environmental world and it sadly smothers their youthful passion. I remember how frustrating it was (and at times, still is) to be young and have to sit by and watch the world fall apart before you are “old enough” to do anything about it. This is one of the most depressing things to see in environmental education so I launched into action. I first impressed upon them that yes, things are in pretty bad shape, but that is even more reason to try, not less! It took countless individuals all making decisions on a daily basis to get the world to the place that it is now, so it will take individuals like you making better decisions in your everyday life to slow or reverse those effects. More than that, it takes only a few very passionate, dedicated people to get the ball rolling. The field of conservation is currently gaining momentum; it’s fashionable these days to be eco-friendly. The ball is rolling and with any luck it will gain enough speed to flatten the problems in its path.

I also spoke about all the work that is being done in an effort to conserve amphibian species. I mentioned RLG and the value of both private and publicly conserved land. I spoke about the amphibian ark program and the value of captive breeding. I touched on the beginning of skin peptide analysis on frogs in the hopes of breeding chytrid-resistant strains that could be released back into their native habitats. In short, I said, there is hope! The environment has been hit with a huge arsenal of weaponry over the years but the most damaging attack of all, the one that would put the nail into the coffin, is surely the lack of hope.

At the end of the talk, when the kids had run out of questions and I had run out of motivational jargon, they all stood and applauded. I was overjoyed by the obvious amount of passion and excitement that they had for amphibians, conservation, and the environment. These kids care deeply and they are the future of our society. They are my reason for hope.