Professor Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed

President – People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Today’s Date: 20 February 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Doves and Mynah. My Mynah bird lived with us for over 20 years (1972-1992) and one night it died in its cage. I am still depressed and remember it.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Places where doves made their nests. We usually stole their nestlings for rearing purpose. Still I am sorry for my misdeeds.

Now? No answer given

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

As already mentioned Doves are my favorite as well as Mynah. I still like to rear them at home though I know it is very unkind to do.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming and its effects. Last year Cyclone “Sidr” devastated heavily our Southern zone of Bangladesh. To face the challenge help of foreign countries is needed. People should be knowledgeable and brave and should be equipped with modern technology.

To mitigate such future problems people should be calm and use knowledge.

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Love all the creations on the earth and let them grow naturally. I advise not to harm insects, birds, animals for their natural living. Let us work unitedly for making a friendly and habitable environment for the birds and animals on the earth.

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Zenkei Blanche Hartman

Senior Dharma Teacher – San Francisco Zen Center

Today’s Date: 12 April 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

1) A bear in the garbage can near the bathroom I was in, in upper Yosemite Park.
2) The warm foot of a bluejay on my cheek as he took a piece of bread out of my hand as I was putting the bread in my mouth.
3) Lying under the stars watching the Perseid meteor shower when I was six.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, a hidden grotto with ferns and a waterfall maybe 10’ high in the woods ¼ mile behind my house.

Now? Yes a Zen Monastery / hot springs deep in the Santa Lucia mountains in Monterey County, California

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

Chimpanzees because they are so much like us. Dogs because they are so loyal and loving (especially Golden Retrievers and Border Collies).

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming
Water

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Please be very aware of your use of natural resources and all energy and water use and minimize your consumption for the benefit of all beings who share and will share the planet in the future.

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Nese Sevig

Project Manager – Active Tourism (Turkey)

Today’s Date: 16 June 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I grew up in Ankara, the 2nd biggest city of Turkey. There weren't many natural sites around where I grew up. However, every summer, we used to go to a village on the Black Sea where my family originates from. This is the place where I feel free. I had many different animals there: cats, dogs, cows, sheep and chickens. And most importantly, there was nobody to shout "do not walk on the grass!!" Perhaps that is why I always feel more free when I am there.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The Black Sea village where my family comes from.

Now? Anywhere with a forest and the sound of a river.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

Horses. They always cheer me up because they are strong and beautiful.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming generally, but more specifically for the future I suppose finding water will be very difficult. This might cause our end.

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Use the natural resources effectively and efficiently. We will not be able to have them once they are finished. So think twice before you act.

Martin Hirschnitz

Environmental Scientist - Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald / GoBi Research Project

Today’s Date: June 16, 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

There was no specific interaction having had the biggest impact. It was rather a process and a chain of events/emotions impacting me so that I found myself fond of nature and wanting to be one of its advocates. E.g. spending much time outside, having had a pet cat, affinity for hiking and spending my civil service (instead of joining the Army in Germany) in the intertidal zones of the Wadden sea working for its conservation.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Close to our backyard was a small forested creek in which I used to play, build dams, be a pirate etc.

Now? There are several favorite places - what links them is a feeling of remoteness, being by oneself, embraced by nature but not threatened.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

Again, there is no single favorite animal. It is more about the diversity including own affections and also disgust, fear and love etc. As a child my favorite living animal was the blue whale, my favourite extinct animal Brachiosaurus.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Good question! Well, the greatest environmental challenge of today as well as of tomorrow is our own attitude towards nature, our own greediness, never-ending desire to let economies grow, to achieve luxury and high income - scattered around those different threats like climate change, pollution, habitat destruction etc. are very important. But we have to focus on the driving forces. Most if not all of these "battles" have to be fought in human psychology, interactions, education and efficiency/sufficiency. Again, it's the knowledge-action-gap that must be overcome!

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Treat it as if it were your son or daughter - protect it, let it grow, pave the way for its development, assist it, love it and take care for it knowing that it also will be there for you one day...

Tim Kasser, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychology - Knox College

Today’s Date: May 30, 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I live on a small farm with (currently) a dog, cat, 7 chickens, 5 goats, 2 sheep and a donkey. We also have a 3 acre pond with lots of pond animals and birds and a few acres of woods that connect with several hundred acres of more woods, filled with the typical Illinois animals (deer, coyotes, raccoon, fox, turkey, etc.) Looking out my back window and seeing all this, interacting with the animals and learning their personalities, and the rhythm of life that comes from living in nature help to center me and keep me real.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

No. I grew up in suburbia and had no interest in the outdoors really.

Now? I love being in my woods. I take a hike there most mornings.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

I've had dogs almost my whole life, but for a few months here and there. I enjoy their intelligence and camaraderie. I also like how they are smarter than me with regards to certain things, and that keeps me humble. I also really appreciate my donkey, but I don't know that he is my "favorite."

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

For all the talk about global climate change, to me the massive extinction rates are far more scary for they have great ramifications for the environment and how niches of species can die off, etc.

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Think what your grandchildren's world is going to be like if we continue to consume like we are.

Herbert Haylock

Programme for Belize (www.pfbelize.org)

Today’s Date: May 12, 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

The biggest impact on my life has been taking care of 2 pet turtles along with my daughter for the past 2 years. Having this responsibility and making her become more aware of being responsible has had many emotional rewards

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

No - not during childhood.

Now? Australian Outback. It's my dream to go there and walkabout.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

Great White Shark and Bengal Tiger. I have simply always been fascinated by these two animals and would love to be able to see each someone in a real setting.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Our greatest challenge facing us now is ensuring we maintain harmony and balance with our environment. Our greatest future challenge is going to be making sure that we keep this equilibrium once we find it and determine what it is.

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

My advice would be 'To remember that we (as humans) are but one piece of a magical puzzle being spun here on earth and we should ensure that we make our piece fit snug and not be taking up more space than required in this puzzle called life.'

Caryn Corriere

Facilitator of Learning - Tifft Nature Preserve/Buffalo Museum of Science

Today’s Date: April 25, 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I can't pick just one, but I think just regularly being out in nature made a big difference. Lots of my memories of when I was younger involve being outside. I remember hiking at night in the Bankhead National Forest with my grandparents looking for "glowworms"(firefly larva) in a cave my grandfather discovered while camping one night.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I got to hang out a lot at Indiana Dune National Lakeshore and other spots along southern Lake Michigan and love those dunes. After moving around more as an adult, I really treasure those places, because I know that they are special places that not all kids get to grow up near and enjoy.

Now? I don't have a favorite, but it's pretty great that I get to work at a nature preserve 3 days a week. Anywhere near water is good for me, and I'm lucky to have Niagara Falls and Lakes Erie and Ontario really close to me now.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

I have two favorites- sea turtles and dragonflies.

When I was in college, I had to watch a movie for my oceanography class and chose sea turtles as my subject. I fell in love with the babies waddling out on the sand to their first swim in the water. I was lucky enough to see adults when I visited Hawaii.

Dragonflies are a new fascination and I can't explain why. I just get so excited to see them flying around and I’m learning a lot about them.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

I think the biggest challenge both now and in the future is the disconnect that humans have with the earth and how the basic things we need to survive are all natural and we so take them for granted. We need to reconnect and raise ecological literacy. How to do that I think is a huge challenge we need to tackle.

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Learn about it, realize we are completely connected to it and even if you don't love it, learn to appreciate it and share that with those younger generations. You and they can't love what you/they don't know about.

Anonymous

Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Irvine

Today’s Date: 23 April 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Chernobyl. When we were told we can't go outside to play. And can't drink milk. And can't eat spinach.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The wheat, rye, and barley fields outside my town.

Now? I go to the beach. But it does not feel like nature. Southern California is too commercial.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

All sorts of reptiles. Because they are not furry and because people don't tend to keep them as pets. At least not as much as cats and dogs, which I really don't like for that reason.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Food is a problem now and will be an even greater problem in the future. Agriculture, the way it is conventionally done, is just not sustainable.

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Pay more money for food. People need to push for a change in the way food is produced. And they have to be willing to pay for it.

Mark Duchamp

Iberica 2000 (www.iberica2000.org)

Today’s Date: 21 April 2008

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Having dogs and cats throughout my life.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Under water (skin diving)

Now? Mountain walking

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is and why?

I would tell you if I weren't worried that it may induce you or others to capture more of them to put them behind bars.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Overpopulation, now and in the future.

5. If you could give one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Get a vasectomy.