This afternoon we met with staff & students from the Dept of Environnmental Science & Engineering (DESE)at Tsinghua University. This is the first dept establsihed in China dedicated to the research of environmental problems. (www.env.tsinghua.edu.cn) We had a great exchange of information about industrial waste, regulations and economic growth. China has seen such an incredible economic boom with industry in the past 15 years. But much like the U.S. in the 1960's, the emphasis seems to be on the economics and not on the environmental impact. Dr. George Wong Chog, one of our delegates from North Carolina, gave a powerful declaration as he does not want China to make the see environmental mistakes that we made prior to the Clean Water Act.
In the photo above are Professor Zhang Xiaojian from the DESE and our delgation leader, Dr. Mohamed Dahab from our meeting with the University faculty and students.
The discussion with the delegation seem to consistently come around to enforcement of regulation. There are government regulations on industrial disharge here, however enforcement seems to be a primary issue. There is a disconnect between the local officials and the central government.
BTW, I spoke to a student afterward and put a plug in for GA Tech for a studet looking to come to the states for Environmental Studies.
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