Our Global Footprint
By Astrid Jirka and Doug Reilly
"Education is important, but it must be an education that ensures we are not alienated from the resources upon which our survival depends." —Wangari Maathai
People all over the world are talking about it: Global Climate Change. And people everywhere are feeling its impact and realizing that what happens on one side of the planet is intimately connected to what happens somewhere far away. It's called our Global Footprint.
How much does our own pattern of living affect people in other countries due to the amount of resources we are consuming? How does the T-shirt you buy as a souvenir in Mexico drive labor practices in China? How does that banana in your smoothie impact the Amazon rainforest in Brazil? How does the pollution from cars in America harm the lives of fishing communities in Thailand?
Studying abroad is an ideal way to witness these global interconnections. It is also a way to connect people and ideas that can move humanity toward a more sustainable future. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, speaking on this subject at an annual conference for international educators in 2006, related a story of learning about "mottainai," a Japanese concept evoking a profound respect for resources. She said, "I have been trying to make people around the world aware of the mottainai spirit and how important it is to reduce, reuse, recycle, and, where we can, repair the Earth's resources. When we use resources, we must do so efficiently, and not waste. Our lives, and those of all the other species, depend on us doing this."
Those of us who study abroad are given a great gift. Blessed by a system that supports our desire to learn overseas, and with money in our pockets (whether our own or from financial aid), we set off into the world to expand our minds. Being among the world's 5% who have the opportunity to fly in an airplane, we arrive in cities and countrysides where we are again gifted by our hosts. They teach us, put us up in their homes, provide for our comfort, and help us acquire that which we are seeking.
In this section we hear from many authors who say that while studying abroad is an important opportunity to build bridges between communities and to explore the complex relationship between human culture and the environment, it is also an enormous privilege. They argue that given the gift of study abroad, we incur a responsibility to put our experiences and knowledge to work for a sustainable future. Realizing that we all share one interconnected global footprint will allow us to take the critical—and exciting—next step: joining our global neighbors in actively working to lessen our impact on the delicate ecosystems that sustain us.