2012-05-17 More about TED videos

It was a cool comfortable night with a gentle breeze. It'd been two weeks since the last class and I guess we all missed our teacher and the class. 


When I arrived in class, Abbie was playing the guitar and singing those wonderful songs with us that she taught us two weeks ago. How lucky we are that we've got a great teacher who not only teaches with her whole heart but also has the talent for music with a beautiful voice! 


After the songs, we jumped back into the topics about the TED videos. Abbie helped us refresh our memories about those speakers' efforts and aims in the videos. We talked about two of the videos. The first one was " Follow the trail of mercury from Stephen Palumbi" and the other was  "Brian Skerry reveals ocean's glory and horror." 


Here are some quotes from the videos that help us think of the things around us more deeply:
(1) If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
(2) It smells like money!
(3) Pinch a minnow, hurt a whale.
(4) Ocean needs a place to grow from.
(5) The ocean's not a grocery store.
(6) It's never too late to...

Sometimes I have to admit that it brings more sadness when we learn more about the truths happening around us. However, it's like the quote that most of us know: it's never too late to do something to make a change even if the situation seems to be getting worse and worse. Maybe the idea in the movie "Pay it forward" is unrealistic, but what if we really start doing something from ourselves. I'm sure of the fact that the world is going to be different from the one when we do nothing.


After the break, George stepped onto the stage to continue his presentation that he didn't finish last time due to the lack of time. He was so well-prepared and provided us so much useful information about the environment and the endangered species. He told us that the causes of the endangerment are like habitat destruction, illegal hunting and trading, over fishing, and the introduction of new species. He also mentioned that it's a chain reaction when we lose some species. One species that goes extinct affects all of the other species in some way, so it's our duty to try our best to protect the endangered species. 


Jerry shared his idea that he believes that it's never too late to do something to help our planet. He gave us a great example that some of the rivers in Yi-Lan are well-reserved and protected from fishing and polluting. He also shared a story that his uncle took him to fish in the river when he was a kid. His uncle used the electricity to catch the fish before when it was still not against the law. However, after fish electrifying was prohibited and the government started to take some action to protect the rivers, the rivers started to revive and more and more fish can be seen now. We can start making a change from a small town then pass on to a bigger scale. Isn't it like the idea from the movie "Pay it forward?" 


At the end of the class, Jerry shared a wonderful legend about the ocean goddess "Lin, Moniang" aka "Mazu." What a great story to help us to put a perfect end for our class especially the topic was about the ocean!