Article January 21, 2002 Issue

New Zealander calls for individual commitment to the environment

By Glen Lauder

IN A WONDERFUL LINE in the screenplay of The Lord of the Rings, which was shot in New Zealand, the brave hobbit is told, "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

Those words brought into focus meetings I had last month with environmental groups in Japan. There, as in my home country, I found brave individuals moved by environmental issues in their country or neighborhood, perhaps to speak out for the conservation of a last remaining coastal wetland, or to spend weekends replanting local species to grow a place for lost wildlife to return to. I was moved to find in even so densely populated and busy a country as Japan that care for the environment springs from the same spirit I find in my neck of the woods—individuals with an eye for the tiny things of nature and a heart to care for them.

The global scale of environmental issues—climate change, biodiversity loss, natural resource depletion in rich and poor countries, and waste—may sometimes seem too big for any of us. There is a need for profound change in the way societies use resources and care for the other living things that share the planet. But where does one begin? Can we really make a contribution?