Alpha Sigma Phi - University of Washington

5 P assion is an amazing thing. It inspires people to do amazing things that can have ever-lasting and important meaning and impact on millions of people. People with passion change the world. Eric White is one of these people. He is a third-year UW environmental science major with an emphasis on wildlife conservation, and he is setting out to save the world. With his strong conviction and focus, he may very well join the ranks of other great wildlife conservationist such as Theodore Roosevelt; Aldo Leopold, who saved Amer- ica's first wilderness area; Mary Murie, who helped begin the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; Robert Marshall, who shaped the U.S. Forest Service; John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club; and Jane Goodall, renown for her work with chimpanzees, conservation, and animal welfare. With all of these environ- mental pioneers, change happened in the world because their lives were driven by an uncompromised, deep-seeded passion for the welfare of the environment. It's because they cared that something happened, and, as Theodore Roosevelt succinctly put it, "Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care." Eric White cares about the wilderness and his compassion for wildlife has notably been apparent since he was a young boy. "I have always loved animals and cared about their wellbeing since I was a kid," says Eric. "Animals are smarter than most people give them credit," continues Eric. "One of the things that humans lose perspective on is that we are an animal as well. We view our society as a pristine object, but we need to recognize that we are connected to nature and that the wellbeing of nature coincides with the wellbeing of humanity. Humans lose sight of the intel- ligence of animals. We forget that nature has been around for millions of years and that there has to be intelligence for wildlife to survive. I have taken a lot of classes that go off of the geolog- ical record. We view humans as important and unique, but based on the geological record, humans are newcomers and have only been on earth a short time. We lose perspective of what came before us. How can we, who have been here such a short time, because of our higher intelligence, justify our destruction of the earth? In reality, we might be less intelligent because, unlike the animal kingdom, we take less regard on how we hurt the earth and environment." "There is a big disconnect between environmentalists and the public," continues Eric. "I want to bridge that gap. I have taken communication classes to learn how to express what I think and say so that I will have a broader acceptance by those who hear me as an environmentalist. Much of the disconnect is that people don't understand that the welfare of the environment and their own wellbeing can work together harmoniously. People frequently think of environmentalists as radicals because of their policies and theories to help mitigate climate change as well as other drastic environmental threats. Environmentalists think there needs to be immediate radical change, but this doesn't bode well with the general public whose focus is on job security and economic development. I believe one solution to this serious impasse is ecotourism. Ecotourism is using the natural beauty of the landscape and the animals found within it to attract tourists. It creates jobs and services around the tourism. The profits you gain in ecotourism can be put back into important environmental needs such as renewable energy. There are many applications for the profits that ecotourism can generate. In the past 15 years, Rwanda has developed a conservation-based tourism around their gorillas in the wild. They have invested the profits from the tourism into their healthcare sector and now they actually have a single payer healthcare system. Rwanda is one of the most advanced countries on the African continent. This wouldn't have happened unless they started ecotourism. Their example and ability to get investors to bridge the gap between environ- mental concerns and the general public can be used everywhere. In California, their park system helps raise funds for the state to develop renewable energy. So, in retrospect, ecotourism can give economic security to people. When people understand how protecting the environment can lead to economic gain, they will want to protect the environment because the threat of loss of jobs is eliminated and the economy is expanded. Unfortunately, even though ecotourism has globally proven its potential and has been a model to many communities, it is still a hard sell in the U.S. because of the power of anti-environmental lobbyists, but change is happening slowly." "Environmental science as a major is new at many universities," explains Eric. "It has only been around for about 15 years. It became a major as academia repeatedly began to recognize the demise of the environment and realized that the general public was beginning to recognize the demise also. So, with the support of multiple environmentally aware corporations, including Seat- tle's REI, curriculum was developed and professional environ- mental scientists are now being trained to tackle the daunting issue of environment degradation." "This is my passion," says Eric. "I want to save the world. This is what drives me. I want to use the knowledge I am gaining By Jim Hammond '66 "Humankind must begin to learn that the life of an animal is in no way less precious than our own." ― Paul Oxton, Founder of the Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation

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