A January 1999 report from U.S. Embassy Beijing
Summary: The Chinese GLOBE environmental education program for high school students, begun under a 1995 Sino-American agreement, plans to reach thirty-six schools, and at least one in every Chinese province and autonomous region, by the end of 1999. These regional centers will train teachers and spread the GLOBE program to other schools in their areas. The China GLOBE program, which lost it generous sponsor Ameritech when that company left China, has received funding from MOBIL and now is looking for additional sponsors so that GLOBE program will not be limited to China’s wealthier provinces. End summary.
More Chinese schools are joining the GLOBE program,an international environmental education program that enables high school students worldwide to compare environmental measurements on the Internet. The China GLOBE program was born on October 18, 1995 when Xie Zhenhua, Administrator of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) of China signed a bilateral GlOBE program environmental education agreement with Ron Brown, the late U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The State Council approved the Globe Implementation Committee composed of officials from NEPA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Education Commission.
On the Earth Day, 1996, four schools in China, including the Experimental High School Attached to the Beijing Normal University became the first GLOBE schools in China. In October, 1996, eight schools scattered across China joined the GLOBE program. In April, 1997, Vice President Gore visited the GLOBE school at the Experimental School Attached to Beijing Normal University. By Earth Day, 1998, there were twenty-eight Chinese GLOBE schools. Another eight schools will become GLOBE school during 1999. By the close of 1999, each of the 32 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and cities directly under the central government will have at least one GLOBE school. These thirty-six GLOBE schools will be regional GLOBE Program centers responsible for training GLOBE teachers and organizing the local GLOBE program.
The China GLOBE Program Implementation Committee developed the second-phase plans for GLOBE program in China during October, 1998. These schools are responsible for financing their own participation in the Globe program, including the cost of procuring equipment and finding teachers qualified to teach in this environmental education program. According to Jia Feng, GLOBE country coordinator for China, China increase the number of GLOBE schools to one hundred over the next several years. Meeting this goal will be difficult, said Jia Feng, because of financial problems. The first group of fourteen self-funding schools will be included in this program in April, 1999.
In April, 1997, Vice President Gore visited the GLOBE school at the Experimental School Attached to Beijing Normal University. The students showed VP Gore their equipment they used to make atmospheric and pollution measurements and told him about their environmental field trips. The students also explained how they send their information by the Internet to the GLOBE center in the United States so that it can be shared with GLOBE schools worldwide. The VP Gore discussed environmental problems with the students for twenty minutes while many reporters crowded into the room. After the reporters left, the VP spent another half-hour discussing the environment with the students minus his accompanying cloud of reporters and dignitaries. Pictures of VP Gore’s visit to the GLOBE program at the Experimental School can be viewed at http://www.sepaeic.gov.cn/ceec/HTML/gore.htm on the Beijing Experimental High School web page. The text accompanying the photographs is in GB-encoded Chinese text.
Chinese government has very limited funds for investing in this program. The State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) donated several tens of thousands of renminbi (USD 1 equals 8.3 RMB) at the very beginning of the GLOBE program in China. Each of the 36 schools needs RMB 30,000 to cover the cost of computers, printers and environmental monitoring equipment. Each year, another RMB 10,000 in recurring costs for Internet connections, teacher training and other operating costs are funded by the school and the local Environmental Protection Bureau. The China GLOBE program has received generous donations from Ameritech of the United States. The corporation donated USD 135,000 to buy computers, printing machines and environmental monitoring equipment for the thirty-six schools included in the first phase of GLOBE Program. Ameritech withdrew from China in April, 1998, after being acquired by another company. The China GLOBE Program is trying to find a new sponsor. If Globe cannot find one, the schools included in the second phase of the GLOBE program will have to pay all the costs for their participation in the program. This would have the unfortunate effect of biasing the Globe program towards schools located in the wealthier regions of China.
Mobil Corporation contributed RMB 320,000 (USD 40,000) in 1998 to support the First China GLOBE Annual Conference and Fourth Training Workshop and participation of the Delegation of Chinese GLOBE Stars at the GLOBE Learning Expedition in Helsinki. Mobil has also decided to fund some China GLOBE program activities in 1999.
The China GLOBE Program webpage is on the server of the State Environmental Protection Administration at http://www.sepaeic.gov.cn/ceec/html/GLOBE1.htm
Additional background information on the Globe school visited by VP Gore is available in Chinese on the Experimental School webpage at http://www.sepaeic.gov.cn/ceec/school/chinese.htm
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