Author Patricia Mechael: 5 Things We Must Do To Inspire The Next Generation About Sustainability And The Environment
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Parents can start by becoming engaged by taking a whole family and household approach to sustainability and the environment. Modeling behavior is the best approach to encouraging positive social change. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It’s important to get young people to think about the impact of their actions on planetary health as early as possible.
As part of my series about what we must do to inspire the next generation about sustainability and the environment, I had the pleasure of interviewing Patricia Mechael.
Dr. Patricia (Patty) Mechael is a mom, writer, and public health specialist; whose works wrestle with the toughest public health and societal issues of our time, including the environment, responsible technology and AI, pandemic preparedness and mental health. Patty holds a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Master’s in Health Science in International Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She is the author of the middle grade fiction novel, The Antidotes: Pollution Solution (October 4, 2022), which she wrote with her 10-year old son (available for pre-order on Amazon).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I was born in Queens, NY and grew up in the suburban Northern New Jersey town of Verona- not to be confused with Verona, Italy- in a Coptic Orthodox Egyptian immigrant family with my two sisters- one older and one younger. My parents were both computer programmers in the finance sector in New York City. Growing up I was super shy and into math, science, and art. Every year growing up, we would spend the school year in the US and the summers in Egypt with our extended family.
Was there an “aha moment” or a specific trigger that made you decide you wanted to become a scientist or environmental leader? Can you share that story with us?
During high school at Oak Knoll School in Summit, NJ with the help of an amazing Biology teacher, Mrs. O’Dwyer and a fabulous Chemistry and Physics teacher, Dr. Gadebeku — I found my passion for science and leadership and led the school’s science club for several years. I also loved traveling and found myself doing a math and physics exchange program as a sophomore in The Soviet Union in 1989As an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University, I was an international relations pre-med student and discovered the field of international health, which combined my two passions in the most perfect way. Since then, I have had an amazing career in global health. It doesn’t take long when traveling in parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America and hear in the United States to see how much damage to the environment is perpetuating old and introducing new public health crises that know no borders. Our environmental footprint is wreaking havoc on entire animal and human ecosystems across continents and oceans leading to increased threat of pandemics from new and old diseases.
Is there a lesson you can take out of your own story that can exemplify what can inspire a young person to become an environmental leader?
Early in my career, I was teaching elementary school in Kenya and met an environmental specialist working with the United Nations on programs to measure and track deforestation. He showed me what the forest had looked like before and what it was like now. The forest had lost 80% of its trees. He said to me, “It took hundreds of years to grow these trees and a few hours to cut them down. If we can prevent one tree from being cut down and plant more, we can turn things around.” Through the inspiring efforts of incredible women like Wangari Maathai who founded the Green Belt Movement to plant trees, countries like Kenya are reversing the effects of deforestation. They have also put into place a zero plastic bag policy. It takes 1000 years for a plastic bag to be decomposed in a landfill. And the knock-on effects of plastics on public health are disastrous. We can take a more proactive approach to measuring and reducing our consumption of single use plastics. This is something that every young person can do. If we can get millions of young people to stop or significantly reduce single use plastics and countries to put in place supportive policies like Kenya, we can make a difference.
Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?
During the Covid-19 pandemic, my son and I collaborated on a middle grade fiction book called, The Antidotes: Pollution Solution. The book follows a group of kids who discover a corporate plastic-eating bacteria experiment gone wrong that starts to make fish and kids sick. They learn how to work together as a team to apply basic public health and science principles to document the extent of the problem, identify the solutions, and mobilize kids globally to apply the solutions. The main solution is to get kids to systematically consume less plastic (root problem) and test their water (consequence of the root problem) to make sure it is safe to drink. They develop a collaborative video game and social media campaign to engage kids in a fun way to become part of the solution.
Can you share 3 lifestyle tweaks that the general public can do to be more sustainable or help address the climate change challenge?
There is a saying, “That which is measured gets done.” We include a zero-plastic challenge at the end of the book to encourage kids and grown-ups, too, to measure how much plastic they use by counting the number of items each day and charting it out over time to see how low they can get in their plastic use. Three steps that they can take are: 1) Use reusable shopping bags; 2) Use reusable water bottles; and 3) Buy items that are not in plastic packaging- either non-packaged produce or products in paper or other non-plastic containers.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview: The youth-led climate strikes of September 2019 showed an impressive degree of activism and initiative by young people on behalf of climate change. This was great, and there is still plenty that needs to be done. In your opinion, what are 5 things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement? Please give a story or an example for each.
5 Things Parents Can Do to Inspire the Next Generation to Become Engaged in Sustainability and the Environmental Movement:
- Parents can start by becoming engaged by taking a whole family and household approach to sustainability and the environment. Modeling behavior is the best approach to encouraging positive social change. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It’s important to get young people to think about the impact of their actions on planetary health as early as possible. Parents can begin by examining current household activities that might be contributing to the unnecessary destruction of the planet with their kids. For some families, this can include taking a critical look at plastic use and waste for others it can mean finding approaches to transportation with lower environmental impact than driving cars like walking, biking, or taking public transportation. For me, I have prioritized reducing plastic used and waste; walking; and buying used clothes and furniture; and reading eBooks.
- Moving away from consumer culture. Less is more. For those of us who grew up in the 1980s, there was a big focus on more and bigger in the United States. For me, the culprit was clothes and shoes. In the past few years, I have taken a critical look at what I already have, what I need, and what I buy to identify areas that I can proactively use what I have and need, give away what I have and don’t need, and only buying what I need and where possible finding used options. It’s what I call, “no new stuff.” This is not always easy for young people. My son is a pack rat who is convinced that he will not remember his childhood if he does not keep his toys and books. Through a recent collection of household items for Afghan refugees, he decided that his toys and books could go to better use by Afghan kids who don’t have any toys and books. He loves the idea and image of Afghan kids playing and having fun with cars and trucks that brought him so much joy.
- Proactively engaging young people in youth-friendly environmental interventions or challenges like using a water filter instead of buying water in plastic bottles and seeing how long they can go without buying or drinking water from a plastic bottle. It takes 450 years to decompose one plastic bottle. Getting young people to measure and monitor this single product is a concrete way that they can significantly reduce the burden on the planet. This is something that we illustrate in The Antidotes: Pollution Solution. We also combine this with the public health activity of water quality testing, which is also an environmental concern as plastics are contaminating our water sources and our food. By testing the water, parents can also advocate with their kids for public investment in clean water.
- Talk about positive and negative environmental policies, practices, and politics. Young people are the leaders of today and tomorrow and the voters of the future. The current all-or-nothing approach to talking about climate change among adults is unfortunate as it creates confusion and does not allow for healthy debate about what is happening based on science and facts for young people. Young people believe science and facts. They believe in a healthy planet. They believe in public health. They believe in fair play. And they are very passionate in their defense. We need to harness that energy to engage them in leadership now. Parents can find ways to engage kids in bringing their voice and perspective to the issues they care about in fun and creative ways. For me as a mom, it was engaging my then 8-year-old son in collaborating on The Antidotes: Pollution Solution during the pandemic and talking about what kids his age could do now to help save the planet.
- It’s never too young to encourage young people to raise their voices on the issues that they care about. My activism began in the late 1980s for animal rights when the major makeup manufacturers were testing their products on animals. I was in high school and mobilized the Science Club to write letters to companies like L’Oreal and Revlon. Through activism, those practices are a thing of the past. No one talks about them anymore. I like to think that every letter contributed to that change. I’ve since taken on everything from women’s rights to gun violence to anti-war rallies. My son began his activism even earlier at age five, helping to make posters and participating in his first kid-friendly women’s rights rally alongside the Women’s March in 2017. He has since marched for science and the environment.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
I was recently having a conversation with someone, and we landed on the question- when did we decide that water should be consumed out of small plastic water bottles? And the answer that we came up with was when companies who made and sold water in small plastic water bottles convinced us that that was safer and more convenient than tap water. I think businesses can take a good long hard look at what they are doing that is having both a positive and a negative impact on the health of the planet and the health of people. We need more companies to focus on doing well by doing good. In my work in global health, there are a number of noteworthy companies that have rallied around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in meaningful ways. The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030. Companies are supporting business practices that factor in their environmental impact like Patagonia which facilitated clothes recycling or Johnson and Johnson which focuses on environmental responsibility in its personal care product manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. There are also many companies that are entirely environmentally-focused like Tesla and other clean energy solutions companies. What we need more of are policies like zero-plastic bags and bottles to get companies that are making those products to find alternative product lines that are more environment friendly. Or companies that do it on their own because it’s the right thing to do.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have been so fortunate throughout my life and career to have people who have cheered me on along the way. Here I would like to recognize the contribution that Dr. Barbara Gadegbeku, my high school Chemistry and Physics teacher, has had on my career. First, it was amazing to have a woman of color with a PhD to look up to. As a woman in science, we need as many role models as we can get. She was mine. If you can see it, you can be it. Second, while she was interviewing me for my letters of recommendation for college, she paused and said the words — it sounds like you might be interested in working with the World Health Organization (WHO). I didn’t know what that was then, and so much of my global health career has been in collaboration with the WHO and others like it. Finally, she was also a lot of fun and staged a teacher- student swap for the day, where I got to be her. Now talk about walking a day in someone else’s shoes. I have so much respect for our teachers. They played such a critical role in our lives and in the lives of our children, and we don’t give them the recognition, pay, and/or respect that they deserve.
You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I am public health through and through. It is a beautifully altruistic concept. In order for me to be safe and healthy, we all need to be safe and healthy. It is through individual and collective action that we can all live healthy lives in alignment with the WHO definition of health- a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing and not just the absence of disease. I believe that we each have a role to play in taking care of our own health, the health of our families, the health of our communities, the health of our states (or in my case of Washington, DC — districts), the health of our countries, and the health of our planet. The best local and global public health responses to the Covid-19 pandemic were those where everyone embraced the science and took responsibility and action. I am fortunate to be living in Washington, DC which has really followed the science and the numbers and communicated with the public in a clear transparent way.
Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?
Hands down, Margaret Mead’s quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” So much of my life and career in global health and digital health and now in my fiction writing has been about mobilizing collective action to address global problems. It takes time, effort, and a whole lot of patience- but change is happening.
What is the best way for people to follow you on social media?
Instagram: @theantidotesseries
Twitter: @PattyMechael
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-mechael-a696001/
Website: www.patriciamechael.com
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Author Patricia Mechael: 5 Things We Must Do To Inspire The Next Generation About Sustainability… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.