■Interviewed Subject: Shin-Cheng Yeh ,

    Dean of NKNU Graduate Institute of

    Environmental Education

■Date: 1/29/2007 3pm~4pm

■Recordings:Amy,  Sandy, Amada

■English Name: Shin-Cheng Yeh

■Sex: Male

■Education:

    Taiwan Business Council for Sustainable Development Project

    Advisor and Manual Author

Environmental Scouts Interview Pre-meeting Photography by: Environmental Scouts

Date: 1/29/2007 1pm~2:50pm

I.The questions we discussed last week have been summarized here:

A.What subjects do you usually teach?

B.What started you on the subject of global warming?

C.If the amount of greenhouse gases continues to rise, what dangers might we see?

D.To let everyone understand this topic, you've held an activity; can you tell us about it?

E.While you were promoting this activity, what thoughts did u have, or what were some difficulties you met?

F.To let everyone understand this topic easily, you've written a book "What do we do about global warming?" Can you tell us about the process of writing this book, and some of the ways you did it?

G.Do you have any special methods of accomplishing environmental protection in everyday life?

H.Besides the above, what else can elementary students do?

III.     Getting Ready: After distributing t he jobs, we got the equipment ready, and led Professor Yeh into his seat. Jacky, Henrry decorated the site, Coco,  Amada prepared drinks, and after the interview ended we gave the professor a Bin Jiang Elementary School phone card to thank him for his guidance.

■What subjects do you usually teach?

The most important subject is environmental science. Also, sciences in the area of environmental science, like air, water, land, resources, other related topics, and research on the subject of sustainable development.

■What started you on the subject of global warming?

The main reason is that Feb. 16^th, 2005 was the day the Kyoto Protocol was put into action. However, before this, many scholars, experts, and people from environmental groups were already concerned about this topic. Since I am also in the environmental education area, I started on it too. I also felt that in Taiwan, we need more people like children and grownups to care about global warming and global changes. A lot of people in the world care about this problem, so I think we need to emphasize the spread of this knowledge.

■If the amount of greenhouse gases continues to rise, what dangers might we see?

Sea levels will rise, and much more may happen, but most importantly the climate will become abnormal, with extreme temperatures, and ecosystems will change fundamentally. Animals and plants will change, and new diseases may develop, so for the whole ecosystem, there will be a fundamental effect. What we can be sure of now is that many experts predict polar bears to become extinct within the next few decades, and other similar situations.

■To let everyone understand this topic, you've held some activities; can you tell us about it?

I've held many activities, but the two important ones were: the Ford Environmental Award- Cool Earth activity, which after some elementary schools entered, I discovered that most students were quite unfamiliar with this topic. However the activity did successfully let the students and teachers notice the importance of this topic, and also attracted the media. I think it had important promotional meaning. The second activity was held in Taipei City- the webpage design contest and essay contest on reduction of greenhouse gases. Taipei City should be the part of the country with the most children that care about this topic. They were actually quite creative, and what they knew about the greenhouse effect was pretty interesting. I think we should hold more activities like this, and let more children join and understand this topic.  

■While you were promoting this activity, what thoughts did u have, or what were some difficulties you met?

The most difficult thing was, Taiwan's focus on this topic isn't enough, so sometimes we needed to use a lot of time to explain to people what was going on. However, I think that under normal circumstances everyone should know about it. The other difficulty was that students and teachers are very busy, so sometimes the children don't have time to join our activities. These activities become extra burdens for students. The thing I remember the most is, we met a difficulty. We held the activity with the EPA, and they sent official documents to every elementary school, but most schools didn't really pay attention to the documents, because they weren't from the Ministry of Education. We really wanted to hold a meaningful activity, and this was a problem.

■To let everyone understand this topic easily, you've written a book "What do we do about global warming?" Can you tell us about the process of writing this book, and some of the ways you did it?

This book was written because the Kaoshiung City government invited me to do an experiment, and we collected a lot of information. I did this with some of my students. In the course of writing this book I noticed that Taiwan's research and devotion to this subject was in fact very limited. We had to take most of the information from foreign sites. This was a very important realization for me. Because we had set the books reader level for elementary of junior high school students, we used lively ways to write it. This was also because my students were younger, so their creativity was useful. It was actually quite a pleasurable experience.

■Do you have any special methods of accomplishing environmental protection in everyday life?

I don't think that there are any special methods or ways, but more importantly, it's a basic attitude. With the right attitude you will know what to do when the time comes. Live simpler. With the correct attitude, you will think before you buy something, before you eat a big meal. Letting things become simpler is the right way.

■Besides the above, what else can elementary students do?

Elementary students can do a lot; buy less clothing, eat simpler, turn off the lights, avoid buying unnecessary things.

This was our first interview, so everyone was a bit nervous, but after distributing the jobs, we quickly calmed down.

We really thank Professor Yeh. He was very nice, wasn't too serious, and gave very complete answers to our questions. Besides this, he also told us a lot about the greenhouse effect so we could learn more. Most importantly, we finally understood that the best way to reduce the greenhouse effect was by changing our daily attitudes. On this, we need to really reflect on, and try our best to accomplish.

 ( Thoughts: Environmental Scout-Regina )