The students and professors of Asia University had a deep discussion about global climate changes with Dr. Elinor Ostrom.
Dr. Ostrom, a 2009 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, came to Taiwan this week. To help the students and professors of AU to realize the crisis of climate changes, the president of AU, Dr. Jing-Pha Tsai, led some of them to Taipei to have a deep discussion with Dr. Ostrom. In the meeting, Dr. Ostrom pointed out that public affairs are not only the responsibility of the government, but also an issue for all citizens to be concerned about. She also said that to improve the service efficiency, the government could outsource some works, including education, garbage treatment, and sewer management to private companies. Also, the citizens could take some responsibility of improving the environment in their daily life.
Dr. Ostrom is seventy-seven years old now. The purpose of her visit this time was to observe the economic development of Taiwan. She has found some difficulties which Taiwan has suffered in the process of development. When talking about the global climate change, she said “there is no need to wait for a worldwide solution to tackle global warming and that local and regional actions are just as necessary as policies made at the international and national levels.”
Dr. Tsai said that it is very important for Taiwan to think about the issue of climate changes, because there are so many natural disasters in Taiwan, such as earthquakes, typhoons and floods. He further mentioned that small climate changes sometimes will cause big disasters and damages, so people should get ready to face this issue all the time.
Dr. Ostrom said if everyone wants to do something to improve environment problems, they can start it on simple things, like reducing driving, turning the air-conditioner off when leaving, sharing transportations with others, etc. Although these are simple changes for people, they are useful ways to reduce global carbon emissions.
In the discussion, the students and professors learned a lot from Dr. Ostrom. And the most important is that all the participants realized the importance of environment protection.
