The most important weapon we have against climate change | Bijan Zayer, Ph.D. | TEDxTaftAvenue
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aCVXe-tc98 Video ID: 6aCVXe-tc98 ============================================================ Transcriber: Mark Sambrook Reviewer: Michael Nystrom Before I talk about the climate change, I’d like to share with you my personal story. I’m sitting not in my boss’s office, but in my boss’s boss’s office. This is the big guy who all the managers report to. He asked me: “Do you know why you never got a promotion?” This was the most frustrating part of my life. I always took pride in being on time and the quality I delivered. Always passed up for promotions. “Why?” I asked. That’s when he shared something with me that I never considered. You have an attitude problem. My heart dropped. It was like I was looking in the mirror for the first time and seeing something that I never realized before. At that moment, I had a choice. I could become defensive and say, “What attitude problem?” But deep down, I realized there is some truth to what he said. I was arrogant. I thought that since I was a good engineer, I didn’t want to collaborate with anybody. I took a deep breath. And said perhaps one of the most important sentences of my life. “How can I overcome?” My boss’s boss jumped up and actually hugged me, and said that this was a great start. And asked, “Would you be open for me to mentor you?” Not only was I open, I welcomed it. William James of Harvard University said, “Human beings can alter their life by altering their attitude.” And a huge part of it in any endeavor, success is attitude about it. Over the course of the next six months, I turned around my negative attitude and, as a result, became a different person. Three months into this transformation, I got that promotion I always wanted. My relationships improved. My work life transformed. I even started networking without putting people down. Today, I want to share with you three of the most important experiences that I had from that time. The interesting thing is that these lessons can apply to our personal life as well as to big global problems. Like climate change. It is not as bad as people say, or it is someone else's problem to fix the climate, but we can replace it with willingness. We all had a part in creating the problem. We all must take part in solutions. The first lesson: Be open and ready to change. Mahatma Gandhi famously said if you wish to see change in the world, and I will add, with our attitude change. I realized the reason I was getting passed up, I thought I was the best. When people came to me with their ideas, I shot them down. I wasn’t teachable. This applies to climate change. How often do we shut down ideas with thinking that this won’t work or it won’t have enough impact? How many new ideas would come to us if we came with a different attitude to consider those? People who are willing to solve these problems are ready to change and are finding all sorts of ... opportunities with a vegan diet, using fungi, to clean up the ocean, oil spills in the ocean, and using AI to prevent urban sprawl. Just a few examples. Second thing was, the lesson I learned was listen first, talk last. We never learn how to listen. They are thinking about what they are going to say. People love to hear themselves talk. I was one of these people. I was even worse. Because I decided why someone was wrong, and I wouldn’t give them a chance to express their wrong idea. I noticed that people do this often with their views about climate change. The truth is we are willing to listen to a lot of interesting ideas being developed by our new generation. In the University of San Diego, here in this university where I teach, a student initiative resulted in reusing, reducing and recycling, which caused a 75% reduction in waste generation. When we make a priority and understand sharing our thoughts, you will be blown away. And what we can do with others and understand others better. One great idea about these conversations, I was able to entertain thoughts instead of thinking about doomsday. What is not so easy is to have a positive mental attitude. It takes more than more energy to argue about why our planet is having problems rather than thinking about what we can do to heal our planet. Big or small, individual or collective, it becomes immensely important. A heck of a lot easier with a positive mental attitude. All over the world, people believe there are solutions. They are finding solutions in Europe. Farmers are grazing their sheep and goats in dense forests to reduce the possibilities of wildfire. In China, they are using AI to create greener cities. In Sweden, people are using wind power for cargoes rather than using fossil oil. All of these are possible. People are willing to consider them. The single most important thing I made was asking my boss: “How can I overcome this problem?” Since I learned how to cultivate a positive mental attitude, I have so much joy in my life. Next time you are lying in bed and having a hard time going to sleep, think about positive mental attitude and think about positive thoughts. Think about what will happen if this works out. You do get that promotion, and we do find a way to save our planet. Thank you. (Applause)