The 2013 film Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above (看見台灣) changed Angela Yeh’s (葉怡辰) life. The somber documentary about Taiwan’s ecology and over-development was a wake up call and a homecoming siren for Yeh. It inspired her to leave her job in Washington to work for a green foundation in Taiwan.
Yeh told the Taipei Times how she noticed in the ending credits that one of the sponsors was Delta Electronics Foundation in Taipei.
“It was at that moment that I decided to move back to Taiwan, and to hopefully contribute in some way to this island that I call home,” she said.
Photo courtesy of Angela Yeh
Yeh, a Taipei native, studied animal science at National Taiwan University, after which she went on to pursue graduate degrees at Yale and Oxford. Upon watching the film, she quit her stint at the US Secretary of Commerce and returned to Taipei to take a job with the Delta Electronics Foundation, the charitable arm of Taiwan’s largest power supply manufacturer which focuses on climate and energy, green buildings and environmental education.
Yeh currently serves as the climate and energy officer at the foundation. Having worked there for almost a year, Yeh keeps herself busy with writing op-eds for newspapers, as well as for the foundation’s low-carbon lifestyle blog.
One of her growing concerns is water shortages in Taiwan. Several cities have issued water rationing measures recently, and Internet searches show that these places are not alone in the fight against water shortages, she said.
Photo courtesy of Angela Yeh
Yeh is optimistic in her fight against global warming.
“I am hopeful, especially given all the momentum around climate change in the world,” she said.
Yeh added that she plans to attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year. Delta Electronics Foundation will also be hosting a number of events to raise environmental awareness.
According to Yeh, many scientists and academics around the world have come to the conclusion that climate change is not a technological or an economic problem, but a behavioral one. In an effort to raise public awareness, the foundation hosted an exhibition on water scarcity issues in Taipei, with the hope that it would ultimately affect behavioral change.
“It is a matter of raising awareness, and making the issues personal,” Yeh said. “As human beings, we tend to care more when we are personally affected.”
She added, “I believe that the young generation in Taiwan is thirsty for knowledge and thirsty for opportunities to make a difference. Making a difference for the environment might be a good place to start.”
Tips for going green:
According to Yeh, there are several steps people can do to conserve water:
■ Bath water is one of the items in Taiwan that consumes the most water-per-capita, so use less water in the bath and take shorter showers
■ Refrain from flushing home toilets more than you have to
■ Don’t leave the water running while shampooing your hair or brushing your teeth
■ Try to collect rain water to water your household plants
■ Use crops that need less water
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