Sustainability Context

Frank Ling (FL): What are some of the challenges at the interface of science and policy today?

Yuan Lee (YL): The development of renewable energy and efficiency will make contributions in coming years but the urgency of reducing carbon dioxide exceeds the development of science and technology. No single country alone can solve this problem. We will need to change our lifestyle in a drastic way.

FL: Scientists were recently surprised to find that CO2 emissions are rising faster than expected. Recently, you have come out in support of nuclear power. Why?

YL: Safety in plants is no longer a problem. The treatment and waste is. If the urgency for us is to reduce CO2, then nuclear power will be an important option.

FL: One of the gaps is between the social and physical sciences. Has anyone in Taiwan tried to address this gap?

YL: If you look at a Chinese painting, you find that everything in the painting is related to science. Look at this house. Energy and what we eat were all recycled. A hundred years, we were all a part of nature. So we can eat well without using so much energy! Today we waste so much energy.

FL: You have been involved with education reform. One of the concerns today is that there is not enough time to think. There is a lot of knowledge but not a lot of time to wonder about what it means. How do you strike a balance?

YL: We need enough knowledge to ask sophisticated questions. But schools today teach too much. We should learn so that we can do new things.

Click here for an earlier interview with Professor Lee on the chemistry of climate change.