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Green and keen

By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-30 08:55

"By careful mentoring and positive reinforcement, we develop projects that show the students that they can have a positive effect on pollution, climate change, recycling things or improving areas in need," Zwisler says.

Australian Dermot O'Gorman, country representative for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), says the Chinese zeal for greening up their act makes the country a unique place to work on environmental projects.

"The energy in China at present is fantastic; there is real enthusiasm to address the environmental problems and to find practical solutions," O'Gorman says. "It is very exciting to be here at this time when the foundations are being laid for the future."

O'Gorman worked for WWF, which currently runs 40 projects in China, for 10 years before coming to Beijing in 2005.

"My experience with WWF is that China is very keen both to learn from other countries and also to share their successes with their neighbors," he says. He says he's found it easy to work with Chinese environmentalists because "scientific language is one thing that does cross well between different cultures".

American Anna Zimmermann, who came to China on a Fulbright Research Grant to study both Mandarin and environmental education, says working on ecological issues has the ability to serve as a cultural bridge.

"Working on the environment has been a really powerful way to meet more Chinese people with similar interests," she says.

Since last September, the 23-year-old has been working with Global Village of Beijing (GVB) to design exhibitions and programs for an environmental education center the organization plans to open in Beijing's Yanqing district.

While she often finds foreigners and Chinese share a common desire to protect the environment, they usually face different challenges in their home countries.

"In the United States, a lot of problems come from problems of high consumption - everyone's got a car, people live in big houses - but in China, a lot of the issues come from the monitoring of pollution from manufacturing and large-scale issues, such as the use of coal," Zimmermann says.

But, as Mendelsohn sums up, most foreigners working on environmental issues in China do so because they view them as global concerns. She says much of the country's pollution results from the demand for manufactured goods from their home countries.

"We cannot afford to think of this as 'China's problem'," she says. "This is not what 'they have done to their country'; this is the system we have collectively created."

(China Daily 06/30/2008 page10)

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