Cambridge born and raised, 19 year old Lily Saporta-Tagiuri was awarded a Fulbright scholarship this summer to study and conduct research in China. Her project focuses on the Chinese awareness of the environmental repercussions that come along with modernization. After several years of studying the language, Lily was able to conduct her research in mandarin, and wrote her final paper in Chinese characters. She is currently in the process of translating her work into English. I had the pleasure of speaking with Lily about her research experience. Below is a short interview:

Q) Do you think the Chinese government is more or less concerned than the U.S. government about the state of it’s country’s natural resources and climate change?

A) This is a difficult call to make and it really depends on which aspect of environmental protocol you are looking at. Many of the Improvements China is making are similar to the US. However, China’s Development is often still charged as a definite and unrivaled threat to our environment, though the only area where the United States is more progressive is In terms of carbon emissions. The Chinese government is working hard to lower their carbon emissions though they have only recently begun to build with sustainability in mind and only recently had access to wide scale renovation. Many argue that the US already had their chance to experiment with coal and that it is a necessary step in development, but personally I do not think that is an excuse for pollution.

Carbon aside, China’s socialist government has much more power to completely reinvent the way energy is used in China and they have not been hesitant to use that power. A few examples of their heavy handed almost harsh measures are the three gorges damn project where they displaced thousands of families to capitalize on water power, or the one child policy where they firmly enforce a one child per family in cities to reduce the booming population.

Also, China is only allowing wind turbines with a yield of at least 1 megawatt to be installed, which excludes most other countries who only manufacture 700 kilowatt turbines. China’s drive for totalitarian economic control has raised the bar in the renewable energy market where they strive to be on top.

Q) Do you think the Chinese people are more or less concerned than U.S residents about the state of their country’s natural resources and climate change?

A) I think anyone who is aware of the state of the environment ANYWHERE is concerned. The difference is that the general population in China does not know about the state of the environment as extensively as an average city dweller does in the US. Though I am not sure that the people of the United States are all that concerned about the environment either. Any ignorance regarding the environment should be regarded as unacceptable, but an unaware American is much more of a drain on natural resources since our per capita consumption is far larger than China’s. Though they may be equally concerned the older generations of Chinese are more resourceful in their usage of material goods because they endured the communist rise to power during the cultural revolution where they barely had enough food to eat and had to scrounge for all of their few belongings.

Q) What was the biggest shock you discovered during your research?

A) I was shocked to discover that among the Chinese that I interviewed, whenever I asked whose responsibility the environmental crisis was,
they all said the government. Nobody considered it their own personal responsibility and they trusted that the government would be capable of handling it.

Q) What aspects of environmental action (if any) should the U.S. adopt from china’s example?

A) The citizens of China are more willing to adapt their way of life to make room for development whereas U.S. citizens are hesitant about anything that could jeopardize their comfort. People would go crazy over human rights if something like the one child policy were adopted here but desperate times call for desperate measures and sacrifices will undoubtedly have to be made.