During January 31 to February 17, 2017, I attended the YLP (Young Leaders Program: Environment and Sustainable Development), a short-term exchange program for nearly three weeks at the University of Sydney, Australia. The project focuses on Australia and the world's major challenges in environmental protection and sustainable development, such as Australian history and culture, sustainable energy resources, environmental and public health, and sustainable urban planning. The project aims to help students increase awareness of environmental protection and sustainable development, enhance intercultural awareness and develop leadership skills. We exchanged ideas with students from Tsinghua University, Fudan University and Jiao tong University, and teamed up to complete the group show.
During the exchange, we listened to the lectures of professors in various fields, and also visited the Calmsley Hills farm, the Botanical Gardens, the Sydney Olympic Park, the Blue Mountains, the Waradah Aboriginal Center and other places. How to control the number of grazing, how to carry out water management; the protection of wild vegetation in the botanical garden, the preservation of the seeds in the research room, the energy saving design of the Olympic Park building, the park's garbage disposal history and mangroves ... All of these gave me a deep impression, which offer insight into the characteristics of Australia's regional culture, environmental protection, sustainable development of the cutting-edge concept.
In classroom, learning atmosphere is more relaxed; lecturers pay more attention to students’ thinking and questions. This is probably the emphasis on the Western interactive teaching model, so no doubt the ability of students to independently find and solve the problem is well improved. Because students involved in the project is not limited to a certain specialty, we find that different majors in the environmental problems can indeed learn from each other, but also greatly broaden my horizons.
Dr. Gerry Bates, as a well-known professor in study of environmental law, gives us a brief introduction to the principles of sustainable development, the specific requirements of environmental law, the separation of powers in the legal system, the role of government and courts, how citizens exert their rights. It makes me to rethink environmental protection from a new point of view and realize that environment and sustainable development cannot be done with the power of one person or a non-governmental organization alone. The government and the whole country work together, then every citizen is involved in order to achieve the ultimate goal.
In the last week of the project, students need to use some of the knowledge involved in class to discuss solutions to a problem from five themes: biodiversity, energy, public health, waste, water. Our group focused on the energy problems of China and Australia today. After consulting the information and reading the relevant literature, we discuss the existing problems and causes, the design of the solution, and finally decide to launch a program to advocate the use of electric vehicles.
The final presentation invited Assoc. Prof. Bing Yu attended and served as judge. During the wonderful display, sixteen groups from various angles detailed the bright spots of environmental protection projects, such as wetland protection, biological invasion, water cycle system, mobile phone recycling program and so on.
In the life of Australia, I realized the cultural diversity and inclusiveness. The campus has teachers and students from all over the world. Wandering in the streets of Sydney, what I heard and saw is all-encompassing global cuisine, dazzling specialty shops, and colorful birds stop beside the feet. It’s coincides with the Chinese Lunar New Year, because a large number of Chinese immigrants and tourists, Sydney's streets are full of Chinese flavor, like red lanterns, New Year blessing, chicken ornaments ... In addition, we several people came to Melbourne during the weekend, to visit the University of Melbourne, taste the characteristics of the Melbourne city, feel the Chinese Lantern Festival in the Victoria Market, as well as the Great Ocean Road thought as a masterpiece of the nature.
