I don't mean climate change started in '88, but my awareness of the need to act in favor of our environment did. Climate change started long before, but has been accelerating at an alarming rate ever since. I was only 12, but it was still clear to me.
I remember doing my report on deforestation of the Rain Forest and sitting for countless hours in the library thumbing through text that was way over my head. But still, the take away was the same. We are screwing up our planet and it is going to harm us in the long run. I wanted to know more. And I wanted it to stop.
I guess you could say that's when the "environmentalist" in me was born. But I do feel it was there all along. And I hope it doesn't take some grim realization that "this is happening" for people to get on board and become environmental protectors too.
“The environment is in us, not outside of us. The trees are our lungs, the rivers our bloodstream. We are all interconnected, and what you do to the environment, ultimately you do to yourself.” - Ian Somerhalder