Last night, the Berkeley chapter of SCB hosted Brian Williams, founder/executive director of the Red Panda Network. Brian started his NGO after doing Peace Corps (& then research) in Nepal and finding himself inspired by the “original” panda. I have to say, he was pretty inspiring. It was refreshing to have somebody come in and, rather than present lots of data slides on the science of conservation, talk about what he was doing to protect something he cared about. More importantly, he talked about why he wanted to do it. Which (obviously) is not to downplay the importance of science in our work, but if you’re going to talk about your work, at least show a little passion for it. Cute photos of a red panda pooping never hurt.

Brian does all of this in his spare time — he says 10 hours a week for the past 4 years, which you will quickly note adds up to about 1 year full time. He’s hoping to be able to switch to full time by the end of 2009. He says he gets money from his Adopt-a-Panda program about every other day. Which is to say: if you love something, you will know how to promote it. And if you know how to promote it well, it’s a lot easier to succeed.

In Orion Magazine, Randy Olson says it better than I: “Taking risks to protect the environment is not just about standing up in front of bulldozers in a forest. There is a courage needed for mass communication, too. You can stick with only the facts and figures, but they will never reach the heart of a mass movement. To truly motivate the nonacademic public, you have to take some chances, come down out of your head, and reach for the other organs of the body.”