Tuesday, May 6, 2008

1987 2009


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/photo/2009/01/16/2008033894

PHOTO CAPTION: American expat Dan Bloom displays a fried egg that looks like the face of a smiley in front of a breakfast shop in Chiayi City in southern Taiwan. Bloom found the egg in his plate when eating at a breakfast store in Chiayi but was only joking when he told a photographer who snapped this photo that he planned to auction the egg on eBay because he said the egg can make people laugh in this sad, tragic world, but he was only kidding. He never auctioned it off. In fact, he ate it after the photo was taken

.Jan 16, 2009

PHOTO: by YU HSUEH-LAN, Liberty Times/TAIPEI TIMES


An interview with Wang Suya, a
"Dot Earth" blog commentator from Inner Mongolia, who has lived in Japan since 1987. [She is of Mongolian, Chinese and European ancestry. Wang Suya was born in Inner Mongolia of China and grew up in Inner Mongolia. Her father is a
native Mongolian, while her mother's father comes from a mixture of European
and Chinese ethnicity.]

video link here with Wang Suya speaking:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/your-dot-meet-the-neighbors/#comment-37630

[conducted by Danny Bloom, American freelance writer based in Taiwan]

Webposted: May 10, 2008


DANNY BLOOM: Reading your many comments at the New York Times blog
called DOT EARTH, it appears that you are very concerned about climate
change and global warming.
You often post comments in English on Dot Earth, even though you are
from China -- Inner Mongolia -- and have lived
in Japan now for many years, since 1987.

Why are you so concerned and worried about
climate change? What inspired you to speak out so often at Dot Earth
and make your feelings and opionions know to many readers in the West?

WANG SUYA: My major at university was in the computer field, and I am
currently working as a systerm engineer for a well-known Japanese
company. Aboout 4 or 5 years ago. I felt that I wanted to get involved
in something meaningful outside my work -- in terms of life, the world
-- so I began to look around on the Internet. First, I came across
the website for the International Solar Energy Society, and
I wrote to them to ask if I could do some work for them but they said
there were no positions at that time that were open for me.

Many scientists and researchers are working with NGOs and contributing
their ideas to green issues, so I decided to follow this path, too. I
found a univeristy
near my home here in Japan where they was a night class. I told the
professor that I want to learn more about solar energy, and he told me
there were two fields -- solar electricity PV and solar thermal
energy.
He himself was researching solar thermal energy, so I asked if he
could take me on as a student for a master's degree, but he said that
since I already had an M.A., it would be better to take me on as a
research assistant and that is what we did.
At the same time as this, I wanted to promote renewable energy, so I became
a member of the international solar energy society, and received a
renewable energy newsletter by email every week.

In order to improve my English so that I could communicate with people
around the world by email about these issues, I began studying with an
American English teacher here in Japan once a week. As part of our
lessons, we studied New York Times
science articles and BBC news arcticles about the envrioment. From my
reading, I learned more about climate
change problems and I knew that global warming was becoming more and
more serious.

When I found the Dot Earth blog written by Andrew Revkin, a science
reporter at the Times, I felt that his blog would be a good place to
me to read up on the issues and make my own comments in the blog and
communicate with people around the world. It became my weapon to fight
against global warming. I hope for world peace, I feel sorry for
people who have to live in poverty in manyh nations of the world, and
I hope all people can be happy in life.
These ideas inspired me
to contine to post my comments at Dot Earth.

QUESTION: You are from Inner Mongolia in China. When did you come to Japan, and
what do you do in Japan? Do you often travel back to Mongolia, or is
most of your time now spent in Japan?

WANG SUYA: I came to Japan in 1987, and I studied Japanese only at
first for three months. Then I entered Kyoto University and studied
at the Tsuda Lab as a research student for one year.
During this year, I prepared for my graduate studies examination, and after half
a year, I took the grad school exam with Japanese students. I passed
and started my M.A. studies in the information science department at
Kyoto university. However, after a year of hard work and studying in a
foreign country, with new surroundings, I felt tired and decided to go
back home to rest and come back later to Japan to continue my studies.
In 1992, I graduated from Kyoto Univerisity
and started working at Sumimoto Electric Industires as a system
engineer. It's still my day job.


QUESTION: Do you feel that the public in Japan is concerned about climate
change and global warming? Are the people in Japan worried about these
issues?

WANG SUYA: Yes, I think that Japanese people are concerned about
climate change and global warming. Japansese
TV often shows programs about these issues, and the Japanese are easy
inflenced by TV. Many scientists here that I contact say they are also
worried about climate change, but the people in general, the general
public of Japan, I am not so sure.



QUESTION: Do you feel that the people in China are concerned about climate
change and global warming? Are they worried about the future of
climate change in China?

WANG SUYA: No, I do not feel that the people in China are concerned
about climate change and global warming.
For them, money comes first, making money.

QUESTION: How did you find the Dot Earth Blog at the New York Times website?
Did someone introduce you to the website? Or did you find it by
yourself? And what motivates you to comment, almost daily, on Andrew
Revkin's blog -- and in English, too!

WANG SUYA: Actually, I found DOT EARTH online by myself. You know, I
want to fight against global warming for the world
and for human beings. I want to be meaninful myself to the world and
to other human beings, so this motivates me to write comments almost
daily on Mr Revkin's blog.

QUESTION: Now it is 2008. What do you do think the future will look like on
Planet Earth in 2050? Will people be more concerned with global
warming then, or less concerned, in your opinion? And do you feel that
human beings will conquer the problems connected with climate change
and global warming in the future? How will they do this?

WANG SUYA: I think future people will more concerned about global
warming, because they
have to do it, global warming will become more serious. Altough, I am write
comments on Dot Earth and think that I am fighting against global warming, I feel
half and half human being will conquer or will not conquer the problem. Seeing the situation
now, people just talking so much and action less, although earth like our whole human being
home, but coming to mandatory greenhouse gas emission, everyone want to escape. If people
continure like this situation, the earth will not be saved.

QUESTION: How do you feel about the problem of overpopulation on the planet
Earth? Can the Earth support 10 billion people one day, or maybe even
15 billion? Is there any good way to solve the overpopulation problem?
Or is this problem beyond our control?

WANG SUYA: I am very concerned about the overpopulation problem, I think it
is very important issue.
Now the Earth's population is almost 6.7 billion, but still over 2 billion people are living at under $2 per day.
When the population arrives at 10 billion or 15 billion, I do not think Earth can support
them. We have to control the population problem now, and let every woman give both to only
one child or at most just two.

QUESTION: In your everyday life in Japan, how do you try to live a "green"
life and reduce your carbon footprint?

WANG SUYA: This is a good question. I asked my husband to stop driving me two extra train stations every day, so this saves is some gas mileage every month. I also bought an electricity switch for my company computer
to save electricity. I have also joined my company's eco-family activity to input
our electricity, gas, water, gasoline bill every month. These are my small private, personal steps to be more green here in Japan.

QUESTION: You are very interested in solar power as an energy source for cars
and homes. Please tell me more about your interest in solar power?

WANG SUYA: Now I am designing something using solar thermal energy for a
regeneration cooling system.
This will be my PHD course's objective. I want to get a PHD.

DANNY BLOOM: Is there anything else you want to say in English to
readers in the West?

WANG SUYA: Yes. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to be
interviewed by email this way. I want to say this: The Earth is round.
Every country's greenhouse gas emissions will impact everybody else
around the world..
Please Western countries, help the developing countries get out from
poverty and help them
go to low carbon, green economies. These will benefit both the West
and the East, the world world!

==============================
==============================



Here are some samples of some of Wang Suya's comments at the Dot Earth
blog, run by Andrew Revkin, science reporter at the New York Times.


On May 3, 2008, she wrote:

"Now I am on travel [here in Japan where it is Golden Week vacation
week], whole day play make me tired to read all posts. But I know this
thread is important for overpopulation problem. Steven Earl Salmony
are doing hard job to express his thinking. You are the professional
than any of us. Many of us support you. Say what you want to say
loudly. They will not waste, your saying express our what we want to
say. I am very agree your opinions. You are my teacher and inspire me
to fight against overpopulation, overcomsuption, overproduction and
world bad leaders. Keep going Steven Earl Salmony and others. I am
sorry that I will sleep, a few days maybe not show up. Hope everyone
in our Dot Earth family, fight,fight,fight."

NOTE: To see the actual post, go here:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/cia-chief-lists-population-as-a-top-concern/#comment-31977



"It is true that coal companies have to do their business, but they
have to fit the age. If they do not do this, they will failure in the
future. Yesterday, in Japanese TV, it was showing a news that is UMA's
officialdom come to Japan want to find new business. Although their
county got wealth from oil now, they realize that oil age will go, new
age will come. They said that they are interesting in Japanese solar
energy technology. Is that is good news? The businesses which are bad
to enviroment should realize that their businesses will failure by
human being's awareness on environmental problems."

LINK:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/striking-back-at-big-coal-on-video/#comment-807

On April 9, 2008, she commented at Dot Earth:

"I see this kind of reef as too many population in the world then make
too many waste. These waste no way to processed then throw into sea.
They just make sea more ugly and do not let people feel it is
beautiful nature....
I am scared that until one day earth full of garbege on the land in
the ocean. Earth hold too many population, too many waste. Even fish
are happy with it, but people full bad feeling. It is not our earth
original style, it is not nature."