Lloyd Raleigh Of Helia Environmental: 5 Things We Must Do To Inspire The Next Generation About Sustainability And The Environment
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Acknowledging the problems that climate change poses to our world, society, and ourselves.
As a 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 Lloyd Raleigh.
Lloyd Raleigh is one of the most innovative environmental planners and ecologists that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. He takes a pragmatic and insightful approach to habitat management challenges. Lloyd uses “common person” language to describe complex ecological research and stewardship practices and takes the necessary time to meet with stakeholders before, during and after the development of planning documents to assure that all points of view have been heard. Mr. Raleigh’s approach to developing management plans is commonsense and straightforward. After spending more than 35 years as a wildlife management professional, I wish that more ecologists and planners would adopt Lloyd’s approach to planning and habitat management!
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?
In my mid-twenties, I was working as a regional ecologist for a land trust living on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. After seven years of work, wanderlust beckoned. I gave the land trust notice, sold all my belongings except for what I could fit in a backpack, said goodbye to friends, and left for China. At this point, I saw myself as naïve and not having fully grown up yet. I was still exploring, seeking…something.
Back on the small island of Martha’s Vineyard, I was often introspective, wondering how we could address sustainability and environmental issues at a global level. That led to mixed results. On one hand, thinking like this just led to overwhelm and a sense of hopelessness, as the issues were so unfathomably broad. What could one person possibly do? On the other hand, I had a sense that issues such as global warming and the biodiversity crisis required solutions in addition to and beyond the ones we have been implementing. Einstein said “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” That made sense to me given the complex environmental issues we were facing as a planet.
Given his life experiences, I had a sense he was speaking from a place of wisdom.
On my travels, I met many teachers from dozens of countries, a wide variety of cultures, spiritual traditions, and scientific backgrounds. From one teacher in Nepal in particular, I learned meditation techniques that helped me to understand my mind and the world around me more deeply in a way that instilled confidence and a sense that “this is what it means to grow up.” I’m just talking basic, simple things that we can all do, no matter what our background, spiritual tradition, age, or background.
But that wasn’t all. I am grateful for the many people I met along that way that inspire me to this date with their insights, understanding, generosity, kindness, and fortitude, and take their lessons to heart. Thank you to all of you.
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?
The trigger was pulled quite early in my life and took years for the bullet to hit its target, so to speak. What I mean is that for much of my childhood, I was involved in outdoor activities with friends and family. Being outdoors was important for a number of reasons, some reasons I likely didn’t even consider back then.
First, just being outside is known to be calming and mind opening. The Japanese say “shinrin-yoko” which we translate as forest bathing. A few days in the outdoors can calm the busy thoughts of childhood. But even just a few moments is fine too. Some of my first memories as a child were playing in my sandbox with the ants and ant lions who lived there, climbing trees, and exploring my backyard and neighborhood.
Next, being outdoors showed me the interconnectedness of all life forms, the web of life. This is a key ecological concept, and as I grew older, I began to see the impacts of our actions on other species and the planet.
Also, nature was inspiring, didn’t judge me, and I was always a part of it. In grade school and beyond, nature was a refuge of sorts. Nature can also teach about fear, especially meeting wild creatures face to face.
So by the time I was in college, I was studying to become an ecologist.
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?
Inspire is such a beautiful word: in-spire. Breathing in the air around us. It’s a great word to show the connection between us and our environment. The inspiration can come from just being in nature, wherever that is. And if you care for nature, if you have compassion for animals, and if you want to help people, then as a young person, becoming an environmental leader can come naturally, though that inspiration.
So the lesson to young people is this:
Simply play in the creeks, fields, small corners of your neighborhoods, urban parks, and mountainsides, wherever you may live.
Have fun outdoors with your friends. Invent your own games and rules.
Explore the land and water around you, from the vast sky to a snow drop landing on your face.
Be comfortable being alone.
Relax.
Lay on the ground and watch the clouds above you.
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?
Welcome to the Free World is my example for both climate change and sustainability. Libraries and scientific institutions have shelves with books and research on climate change and its impacts on the world. I decided that writing a novel would add some spice to climate-related literature. Specifically, the plot focuses on a young man coming of age in the near future when climate change is disrupting the United States. In the novel, aquifers dry up for towns and cities and the dead pool scenario happens at the Hoover Dam, where water can no longer flow down the Colorado River to provide water to Arizona and California.
These climate-related impacts are all based on scientific research. In the news recently, they’re now projecting a dead pool scenario as a likely event, though when I started writing the book years ago, such a scenario seemed far-fetched. Where will the water come to irrigate our most valuable crops and to sustain tens of millions of people?
What happens, then, when major environmental changes such as this happen? Historically, during times of environmental shift, people are displaced, wage war, and move to greener pastures. In the United States, the greener pastures would be in the eastern, rainier states or, at a smaller scale, in the permaculture communities or a prepper’s land.
Welcome to the Free World shows this scenario, and climate change is one reason why young people are anxious and fearful about the future. This to me is the crux. At this point, we can address climate change and sustainability through a variety of physical action steps, most importantly reducing our carbon footprint. But these do not address what Einstein was talking about in terms of a change of consciousness. Our main issue will not be the warming itself, but the rate of warming and the environmental changes that are too fast for us to address. There’s a reason the Pentagon sees global warming as a risk to national security and a priority.
Can you share 3 lifestyle tweaks that the general public can do to be more sustainable or help address the climate change challenge?
As I mentioned, the main climate change issue will be: how do we adapt to rapid changes? I’d add: how can we adapt in a way that’s most compassionate, that minimizes suffering? Because we can prepare all we want, we can do the right things, but there’s no guarantee those steps will help us in the future when we are in the midst of a crisis.
In the midst of the climate crisis challenge, I believe these three things will be most important:
First is compassion. We’ve heard much lately about compassion burn-out amongst care givers, so a specific compassion — one that’s inexhaustible — is more helpful. Compassion is not something that someone either has or doesn’t have. We all have the ability to have inexhaustible compassion, one that’s grounded in a clear mind. What I mean by boundless compassion is that any situation, no matter how challenging, can be an opportunity for the expression of compassion. And this boundless compassion means that it’s not just compassion for your loved ones and friends, but everyone. Whoever you are with can become an object of your compassion. We are all interconnected, and nature teaches us this. In the midst of a crisis, compassion will be a primary lifestyle tool, if we wish to adapt to climate change while minimizing suffering.
Second is generosity. This goes hand in hand with compassion, but as our world changes and people are forced to move from their cities, states, and homelands, sharing what you have with others will be crucial. Without sharing, if people don’t have enough, they will either starve or fight to get what they need. With sharing, people may still starve, but they will die with an open heart, without regrets. We may think that the ones who will starve will likely not be in our country, but that will likely not be true. Your children’s children will be at risk of starvation as well. My wish is that this is not the case, and if they are hungry, they encounter a generous, kind person.
Human history shows that environmental change is inevitable, and we have never been in a situation where that change is so rapid on a global scale, with so many humans living in fixed areas with expensive real estate soon to be situated in the wrong locations. Today’s megacities and modern civilizations aren’t as resilient as mobile hunter gatherers, and there are already people living in the greener pastures you may wish to flee to.
Third, fearlessness is a lifestyle tweak that will be highly useful for the general public. Currently, entire industries are built around security systems, self defense, and self-preservation. The media teaches us to fear, and it’s a challenge not to be anxious and fearful about the future. By fearlessness, I don’t necessarily mean the absence of fear, but instead that we can befriend our anxiety and fear and see them as teachers. When they are seen in this way and examined, anxiety and fear no longer control us, and we can function in crisis situations, adapt, and live freely and simply with fewer needs.
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.
Thank you for your question. As a father, this question is very important to me.
I could mention five action steps that help to reduce your carbon footprint and help make the world more sustainable. Those steps are important. The key points with those are to make informed decisions, simplify your life, and take as many steps as you can without feeling overwhelmed or judgmental with yourself. A quick search on the internet will provide a long list of things. But doing those things will fall into place naturally if we have a strong foundation of what I’m about to mention.
One of the complaints we hear from today’s youth is that they are inheriting a planet from their parents and grandparents that will likely be far less hospitable for humans as a whole than it is today. As a parent, I want to acknowledge that we are handing the baton to our children in a precarious time, and need to support them. Acknowledging the problem and the situation is the first thing. Through our actions, we messed up, collectively speaking, and should take full responsibility for our actions. Not in a guilt kind of way, but it an empowering manner that can inspire.
If we don’t first acknowledge that there’s a problem and know the intricacies of the problem, then we are lost and cannot inspire.
When I was working for the Kashmiri Government in northern India, for example, a mountain village had lost its primary means of irrigating their crops. They’d constructed an aqueduct to transport some of the glacier melt water above them to their fields. But recently, the glacier began to melt at a much more rapid pace, and the flood waters washed away the aqueduct. The villagers needed months to rebuild a better system that would work with the floods. Now we know that our actions in developed countries can impact people far away, and melting Himalayan glaciers is just one effect that we can acknowledge.
I’d recommend that parents travel with their children. This can be within their country or outside their country, but the point is to expand your child’s ideas of the world and others. Travel can inspire in many ways, especially travel where children can interact with locals, nature, and wildlife. Immersion travel such as this can be mind altering, though doing it in an environmentally and socially responsible way is key. To do this, carbon used during travel can be offset, public transportation can be used, and any damaging, exploitative, or culture altering forms of travel can be avoided.
As an example of this, two years ago, I started a youtube channel with my daughter called Love the World (@lovetheworld). We recently traveled to Nepal and India and documented our experiences in compelling videos that can show people unique aspects of culture and nature. This travel leads to a love of animals and the environment as well as a deep understanding of people’s beliefs and cultures. Knowing that our experience is just one of nine billion, that everyone has their own opinions and ideas, and that we have the opportunity to accept them for who they are and not try to change them are important skill sets that will be vital to addressing the effects of climate change, especially with increased numbers of climate refugees, not just from abroad but also from within your own country.
So number two would be to travel in this way with your children and inspire them through love and understanding.
The third thing parents can do that is vital to engage children is conflict resolution.
How can this inspire?
Through knowing how to resolve conflicts, children’s self confidence can increase and through this strength, they will be well positioned to lead the next generations through the effects of the climate crisis. In essence, the climate crisis will create greater friction, stress, and potential for violence between people across the globe. With many people knowing how to resolve conflicts, such violence and stress can be reduced or even eliminated, despite challenging environmental and social conditions.
Developing conflict resolution skills in a child is a long-term gift to them, and to me, the best example I can come up with is one of resolving conflicts with my daughter in ways that teach her how to do the same with others. In such situations, I ask questions, seek to understand where she’s coming from, communicate my point of view and any issues I see. I don’t want to say this always works perfectly, but as a parent I do my best. Many tools and techniques of conflict resolution are out there, so I’d encourage anyone to search for what resonates with them.
One of the main issues future generations will face is rapidly-changing environmental conditions that place great stress on our modern civilizations. Examples of this are many and include rising sea levels and drying rivers. Just this past year, I passed by a barrier island in South Carolina where, decades ago, I stayed in a cabin to help sea turtles. That cabin is now destroyed, with its remains lapped by waves in the rising Atlantic. Many coastal cities are seeing greater storm water issues and may have streets below sea level within our children’s lifetimes. Famines and movement of people because of dwindling water resources in various parts of the world are predicted to become more prevalent.
With such rapid change, everyone will benefit from increased resilience, not just in our infrastructure and governance, but also in our hearts. Resiliency implies that we are able to adapt to change, even embrace change. In our short lives between birth and death, change and transformation is unceasing, yet fearing change can happen if our minds aren’t resilient. Resiliency comes from deep knowing and fearlessness as well as knowing that danger and change can also lead to opportunity and freedom.
The protagonist of Welcome to the Free World, Will Robin, displays resiliency as he experiences the brunt of the climate crisis first hand. He, in my mind, serves as an example for the next generations as they come of age in the midst of the climate crisis.
Fostering resilience in their children is therefore my fourth thing that parents can do to inspire the next generation and help them succeed.
Encouraging children to interact with nature, to be in nature, and to be outdoors is more vital than ever today. This counters excessive screen time, which can lead to depression, anxiety, and other mental and physical health issues. But that’s only the beginning. As I said earlier, being outdoors provides many benefits, and engenders a love for animals and the environment. The outdoors is a natural laboratory, a natural apothecary, a natural grocery store, a natural meditation temple, and a natural place to understand how the world works and develop confidence and fearlessness. Knowing the environment of your homeland can naturally inspire children to become more engaged in protecting it and helping their neighbors who they live next to and play with.
In our homeland, the Southern Appalachians, I work as an ecologist and have gone on dozens of hikes and adventures with my daughter, exploring our neck of the woods. Sometimes, we forage for morels, ramps, and other greens and search for salamanders in the creeks. We grow our own blueberries, pears, raspberries, figs, and vegetables using soil we carefully tend and enhance. We collect rainwater to water these plants and harvest the sun’s energy to power our home.
So my fifth thing is encouraging your child to know, understand, and love their local environment.
To summarize, five things parents should do to inspire their kids to be engaged in the environmental movement are:
- Acknowledging the problems that climate change poses to our world, society, and ourselves.
- Traveling with your children to develop an understanding and appreciation of a wide variety of cultures and environments.
- Modeling vital conflict resolution skills to instill confidence in your children
- Building resiliency in your child
- Encouraging your kid to know understand, and love their local 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?
As an owner of an environmental business, Helia Environmental LLC, I understand the need to be profitable in order to pay the bills, so to speak, but I am not seeking growth just for the sake of growth beyond meeting my needs. In terms of publically-traded corporations, however, the business model is different and shareholders typically look for companies to generate not only profits, but growing profits. This can pose social and environmental issues, if not carefully addressed.
That said, profits and sustainability can go hand-in-hand, and publically-traded corporations such as Vestas or First Solar create green energy from the wind and sun, respectively. Other companies such as Google or GreenGeeks webhosting use green energy to power their servers. But some companies may have a more challenging relationship with the environment, for example coal, Copper, or Cobalt mining companies, among others. Coal mining has destroyed mountaintops in West Virginia and polluted the air, Copper mining has killed fish and polluted drinking water in Tibet, and Cobalt mining has created toxic conditions and human rights issues in Africa. With such diverse companies, each has different opportunities to reduce their impact.
So where does the greatest opportunity for change lie?
With the business?
With the consumers?
With the government?
All three are needed as a system of healthy checks and balances. Businesses should respond actively to their customers, otherwise they will not profit. In the case of electric car production, for example, electric car manufacturers are shifting from harmful Cobalt to less harmful Manganese. In the case of coal, alternative energies are replacing them, because many want the change. But the issues are complex. Entire communities have depended on coal for generations as a source of income, and geopolitical issues exist. With copper mining in Tibet, companies are typically Chinese government-owned and have no stake in protecting the natural resources of Tibet. This is where consumers can demand that companies change where they source their copper. Businesses are learning that consumers can demand change, but when the change occurs, the businesses can often profit more, because they are offering a product that the people want. This can be seen in triple bottom line companies — people, planet, and profits — especially companies where shareholders vote in ways that show they want more than just one form of compensation.
This is quite a broad topic as companies can reduce energy consumption through conservation measure or green energy to save money, and in the future businesses that produce less carbon will be rewarded through various carbon trading or tax systems, depending on which laws are passed and what consumers are demanding. Through this, rainforests can be protected, and companies can profit more than companies that fall behind. Also corporations and companies can establish or alter their bylaws to reflect the values of their workers, clients, and customers.
Lastly, CEOs and other business leaders can lead through creating a corporate vision that is based on human values, preferably values they hold deep inside themselves. They can create pay structures in their companies that fairly reflect their work as well as the work of others and that therefore lead to more equitable societies. In general equitable societies are more stable and are less top heavy. Thus, equitability is extremely important in sustainability and the climate crisis.
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 am grateful to many people, but if I chose one person, it would be Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, whose teachings and wisdom have inspired me to become a better human and to understand how my mind works, so to speak. He also was the one who provided the knowledge to start examining the Einstein quote I’d mentioned: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” I know this is less of a story and more of a life long process, but it’s important to me.
When speaking about climate change, Chokyi Nyima said “I think everybody will care, if not for other reasons, then at least for his or her future descendants. This is about our own children, grandchildren and their sons and daughters.”
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. 🙂
As I value freedom, any movement would need to allow for this freedom to blossom. The movement would incorporate the natural goodness of humans that I’ve mentioned above. This natural goodness would serve as the baseline soil that would allow much to blossom. Thriving and being content as a person doesn’t mean we need to do anything in particular to help solve the climate crisis. The main damage that occurs to others and the planet come from when we aren’t content, when we crave something more, when we lack satisfaction, when we feel stuck. If we realize that all of us are free no matter what external events swirl around us, then the climate crisis will no longer be a crisis.
Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?
“Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.”
This quote is from the Dalai Lama, who understands the precarious climate crisis.
The quote is relevant to me because I’ve attempted in my own small way to embody that sense of universal responsibility every moment I can remember.
What is the best way for people to follow you on social media?
Thanks for asking. Here are three of the best ways to follow me. First, you can follow our father-daughter youtube channel that shows you some of the things I’m doing to inspire my daughter. My author youtube channel will debut its first video based on this interview. You can watch the video and support me as an indie author by subscribing to the channel, liking the video, and purchasing my novel through a wide variety of bookstores, if you’d like. In addition, you can follow me on Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, and Twitter.
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Thank you for having me at Authority Magazine!
Lloyd Raleigh Of Helia Environmental: 5 Things We Must Do To Inspire The Next Generation About… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.