We are overloading the earth: Nobel laureate Yuan-Tseh Lee
Tainan, Taiwan, June 5, 2015
“2015 is a critical year for the future of mankind and global sustainable development,” Nobel Laureate Prof. Yuan-Tseh Lee who is also President Emeritus and Distinguished Research Fellow of Academia Sinica said on June 3 at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan.
Over 300 students packed the conference room as Lee talked about how can we obtain energy, water and food security for all in a time of changing climate.
He said, “We live on a finite planet where infinite growth is impossible…. For everyone to live well on a limited planet, we must transform development.”
“Population explosion and consumption explosion has overloaded the Earth with many dangers,” he added.
Climate change is the biggest problem we are facing and it cannot be solved by the scientific community, but by everybody, according to Lee.
He called for everyone to lead a sustainable way of living and said, “We need a global organization to tackle the pressing problems and a radical transformation of human society.”
In the 21st century, global consumption of resources grew by eight times, as population grew by four times, and per capital consumption doubled. In that process, as I mentioned, we have started overloaded the earth, according to Lee.
“Sunshine cannot recycle what we produce back to nature any longer,” he said.
He concluded that the solution to the climate change is to live a sustainable life with fewer resources, prevent excessive population growth, and arouse people’s awareness to social injustice.
Dr. Yuan Tseh Lee is the first Taiwanese Nobel Prize laureate, and a passionate scientist. He values the research talents in Taiwan, and believes scientific research is a never-ending learning process.
In 2006, he retired from the position of the President of Academia Sinica, and was then elected and currently serves as President of the International Council for Science (ICSU).
Dr. Lee’s renown research background includes studies of reaction dynamics, investigations of various primary photochemical processes, and the spectroscopy of ionic and molecular clusters, all of which has allowed him to have served as advisory board member on numerous national and international organizations, including US Department of Energy, Welch Foundation, Chief Advisor of the Science and Technology Advisory Group to the Prime Minister (Taiwan)…etc.
He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science, a foreign member of five different international Science Academies, a member of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, the Third World Academy of Sciences, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, an honorary member of the Japan Academy and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
In addition, he has received numerous awards and honors, including the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and ten other international award recognitions, along with receiving the Doctor Honoris Causa from forty universities around the world.
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“2015 is a critical year for the future of mankind and global sustainable development,” Nobel Laureate Prof. Yuan-Tseh Lee who is also President Emeritus and Distinguished Research Fellow of Academia Sinica said on June 3 at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan.
Over 300 students packed the conference room as Lee talked about how can we obtain energy, water and food security for all in a time of changing climate.
He said, “We live on a finite planet where infinite growth is impossible…. For everyone to live well on a limited planet, we must transform development.”
“Population explosion and consumption explosion has overloaded the Earth with many dangers,” he added.
Climate change is the biggest problem we are facing and it cannot be solved by the scientific community, but by everybody, according to Lee.
He called for everyone to lead a sustainable way of living and said, “We need a global organization to tackle the pressing problems and a radical transformation of human society.”
In the 21st century, global consumption of resources grew by eight times, as population grew by four times, and per capital consumption doubled. In that process, as I mentioned, we have started overloaded the earth, according to Lee.
“Sunshine cannot recycle what we produce back to nature any longer,” he said.
He concluded that the solution to the climate change is to live a sustainable life with fewer resources, prevent excessive population growth, and arouse people’s awareness to social injustice.
Dr. Yuan Tseh Lee is the first Taiwanese Nobel Prize laureate, and a passionate scientist. He values the research talents in Taiwan, and believes scientific research is a never-ending learning process.
In 2006, he retired from the position of the President of Academia Sinica, and was then elected and currently serves as President of the International Council for Science (ICSU).
Dr. Lee’s renown research background includes studies of reaction dynamics, investigations of various primary photochemical processes, and the spectroscopy of ionic and molecular clusters, all of which has allowed him to have served as advisory board member on numerous national and international organizations, including US Department of Energy, Welch Foundation, Chief Advisor of the Science and Technology Advisory Group to the Prime Minister (Taiwan)…etc.
He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science, a foreign member of five different international Science Academies, a member of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, the Third World Academy of Sciences, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, an honorary member of the Japan Academy and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
In addition, he has received numerous awards and honors, including the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and ten other international award recognitions, along with receiving the Doctor Honoris Causa from forty universities around the world.
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