As we ate dinner overlooking the Huang River and the famous buildings of the Shanghai Financial District we talked about the symposium held earlier in the day. From 9 to 5 the Chinese and American participants of the What If program worked in groups sharing ideas on how China and the United States can collaborate on environmental protection and access to clean drinking water.
In the morning my group explored the following question, “What are the long term policies that have realistic chances to make significant gains in fighting environmental degradation?” There were a lot of great ideas shared. I offered the United State’s experience with the Energy Policy Act of 1992 as an example to learn from and expand on. This piece of legislation, among other things, created new standards for plumbing fixtures such as toilets, showerheads, and faucets. Water use in the United States greatly declined because of this.
One thing I was very excited to learn about on this trip is the emergence of NGO’s in China. There seems to be a paradigm shift in regard to how policy is influenced here. I am hopeful that NGO’s may provide a bridge in which the U.S. and China can work together. We discussed this a bit as well today, and I plan to explore it more in the future.
In the afternoon we worked on creating a curriculum for a website that would inform young professionals about global water issues. We had quite a brainstorming session and came up with a lot of great ideas. This is a very multidisciplinary group and we are learning a lot from one another, and each person has unique input.
Not a lot of pictures to share today. I did eat a duck foot during dinner, but I didn’t have my camera with me. Hope you are well.
-Bill
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
