Khorfakkan, Sharjah.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

The restoration of any ecosystem — that set of living organisms which live, thrive and interact with one another anywhere — may be tough as mismanagement of the environment the world over has become so real through decades.

Yet, there is still hope, particularly in the hands of the future generations even as it is important that everyone becomes aware and pro-active towards sustainable environment.

Heed the faith and mindset of Olga Potapova-Crighton, former Scottish Environment Protection Agency and British Antarctic Survey environmental regulator and senior environmental scientist: “Absolutely, just remember Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote: ‘Be the change we wish to see in the world.’ The action of each individual counts, and will lead to global awareness of the changes that are required.”

Crighton pointed out that proactive engagement is guaranteed to incur massive participations, including officials and business leaders in the position to “impose changes,” The former Environmental engineer and consultant in major engineering companies around the world, said sustainable environment is achievable if the mindset “believes that the change is possible, even though huge advances have been made in sustainability over recent years and more has to be done and these could be done; takes responsibility for making changes (from the personal, corporate and government spectra); advocates legislation when needed because “better accountability and transparency of environmental and social decisions can encourage the adoption of sustainable technologies and practices, from mandating renewables in the energy mix, making new developments cleaner and greener, to recycling.”

The current Heriot-Watt University Dubai-School of Engineering and Physical Sciences assistant professor has seen the progress in undergraduate and post-graduate students, since she transitioned to the UAE 10 years back, She  described their interest, knowledge and competence in biodiversity, climate change, deforestation and desertification, apart from renewable energy technology, environmental pact assessment, safety and sustainability, and recycling as an “impressive leap.” She was happy to note that globalisation has brought about diversity and multi-ethnicity inside and outside of classrooms and laboratories leading to the formation of “global citizens aware of complex global issues” such as the numerous damaged ecosystems.