If you assessed environmentalism in the Asian American community simply by the Asian American Environmental Symposium at the University of Southern California earlier today, you’d think Asian American environmentalists are pretty much all science wonks. Two of the four panels at the symposium were basically reports of scientific research, featuring presentations with sexy titles such as this one: “Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation in the Reaction of Biogenic Hydrocarbon and Ozone.”

Apparently, the organizations hosting the Symposium — Asian American Environmental Partnership, Southern California Chinese American Environmental Protection Association, and Korean American Environmental Professionals Association — draw most of its members from the scientific community. Unfortunately, because the general public is not particularly interested in biogenic hydrocarbon because they don’t know what biogenic hydrocarbon is, I think the Symposium had difficulty both attracting a more diverse group of attendees and holding the interests of the attendees who did attend.

That said, the Symposium also had an International Panel — including a presentation from Heal the Bay and some discussion about pollution in China and other growing economies in Asia — which had a somewhat broader appeal. And there was also the Leadership Panel — which I was on along with Dr. Paul Ong, UCLA professor of urban planning — which was probably the least wonky panel of all.

I — who took Metro to USC (proof right) — named my presentation “Merging grassroots action with online social networks,” though the talk became more about how to get people voluntarily involved and excited about your environmental cause, whether it’s your green business, nonprofit, student organization, or individual initiative. I might turn that into a post later, but for the most part, I focused on inciting voluntary, individual action.

Paul — whose amazing work I’ve been reading about since high school — then turned the conversation to collective action, in the form of larger environmental policies. His talk challenged Asian Americans to get involved in shaping policy — but also pointed out that at the moment, we know very little about the attitudes Asian Americans may have about environmental issues, let alone the level of involvement of Asian Americans with these issues. Paul emphasized the need for this sort of data to work from as we engage in policymaking. To that end, Paul said he and his students are working on a couple studies to get some of this data. I’m looking forward to hearing what emerges from that work –

The title of Paul’s talk — “Where Are Asian Americans in the Environmental Debate?” — was in fact a very apropos question to ask about the Symposium itself. Surely there are at least a few Asian Americans involved with environmental issues in business, policy, sociology, economics, social work, community organizing, the nonprofit sector, and other fields with ideas and knowledge to impart to a broader, and more eclectic audience of Asian Americans!

The Symposium website says everyone from MBA students to environmental justice groups “should attend” the event — yet the panels offered were really not very relevant to those two or many other groups. Unless the organizers plan to rename the event the Asian American Environmental SCIENCE Symposium, I think the task for the Symposium organizers in future years is to seek out and bring together a more diverse group of panels and panelists that represent a broader spectrum of Asian Americans. This, in turn, will give the individuals in all these “should attend” groups a reason TO attend and add to the larger discussion about the environment in the Asian American community.

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