I have a dream, fresh air, pure water and brilliant sunshine we once owned.
I have a dream. The plants are growing healthily.
I still have a dream, to clean and to protect the island, Taiwan.


The way to success I go consorted by my family
Six years ago, at a press conference on youth policy, I spoke from my heart about my feelings for Taiwan and my sense of mission. I spoke of how these values continue to spur me on, telling me, “Over time, Ilha Formosa, the ‘beautiful island’, that the Dutch saw may gradually vanish from the face of the Pacific, her beauty, her richness no longer valued by the people of the world. You must shoulder the burden of environmental research and strive to find mediums to get the message out.” The scientific knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years, and the research into various fields and high-tech display techniques I’ve done have already started to lead me down the path, and know I have come to the point where study abroad is the necessary next step. I firmly believe successis just over the horizon.
When I was a child, I often helped my grandfather to repair the damage done to our fields by typhoons. On other occasions, talking with my father would give me a sense of the wonder of environmental science. As well as this, I had several teachers who, through what they taught about environmental change and atmospheric science, gave me an understanding of the importance of the global environment to the sustainability of human life. And so, through these experiences, I came to really understand that environmental research would play the vitally important role in the future. The observations and results I’ve found through my own research have shown to me that Asia’s rapid economic development has gradually begun to threaten the natural environment, with the drive for sustained growth aggravating environmental change. This is in contrast to in the developed nations of the West, where environmental planning, engineering techniques, and scientific research are comparatively advanced in relation to those in Taiwan. It is my hope that through research abroad, at an advanced academic facility, into environmental science will allow me to contribute to the finding of a balance between protecting the environment and maintaining economic growth in the future.


Why I come & how I can do
The mother of protecting environment, Rachel L. Carson, said about the concept of sustainable development in her book Silent Spring (1962), “man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth. Through all these new, imaginative, and creative approaches to the problem of sharing our earth with other creatures there runs a constant theme, the awareness that we are dealing with life—with living populations and all their pressures and counter-pressures, their surges and recessions.”The natural resources essential for mankind’s life on Earth are being threatened, with 60% of them around the world deteriorating or nearing exhaustion. This reflects a continuing and mortally threatening phenomenon of disappearance that may worsen much more in the future fifty years (UN, 2005).


The important issues
Although my homeland of Taiwan may not be particularly large, the increases in temperature here have been double what have been felt elsewhere. In areas where this has been most extreme, differences in rainfall have altered plant and animal growth rates, and affected the electronics industry and disease prevention. In addition, Taiwan is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, and her total CO2 output is just 1% of the world’s total, with the per capita average being one of the highest in the world, even higher than major European industrialized nations like France, the United Kingdom, and Germany. How can Taiwan work to establish itself as a nuclear-free state while still shoulder its international responsibility for reducing emissions? How can the nation put into effect policies of both sustainable growth and environmental risk evaluation and management? It is this area that the young scholars of today should dedicate themselves to.


I did in the period of college
Regarding my past studies, I especially favored to study environmental issues that human kind cared, consequently the results of research that I entrusted can influence or change the misconduct and the unfriendly misconception from people’s mind. During university, my advisor, professor and dean Dr. Yu Jia-Yuh, supervised my research project funded by National Science Council, to investigate the degree of impact and effect of climate change on the economy and environment of Taiwan, and to study how the factors of climate change influence our daily life. On the one hand, I quantified the impact of meteorological catastrophes on society; on the other, I learned that human and climate risk assessments play important roles in sustainable development. In recent years, the issue of safely using nuclear energy has been a matter of particular concern for most countries, particularly after a rise in terrorism in America and even in the United Kingdom, causing enormous introspection and thought about utilizing chemical weapons, nuclear bombs and nuclear power plants. Furthermore, with the numerous political and economic conflicts in Asia, I believe that there is a strong possibility that this same issue could rear its head in the region.


What happened in my Master
Therefore, during my studies at National Central University for a Master’s degree, I focused on evaluating Taiwan’s potential of being influenced by atmospheric long-range transportation of nuclear materials in the even of a serious nuclear catastrophe in neighboring countries. In the research I utilized a numerical model to simulate what kind of weather pattern would be most effective in transporting radioactive fallout to Taiwan and to quantify the cause and effect. In this research, I modified and identified the numerical model by simulating the 1986 meltdown at Chernobyl, and then built a set of emergency managing mechanism and a real-time atmospheric transport model, named NCU-MM5-HYSPLIT (Lin, 2000). I studied a series of research and international cooperation reports for experiences related this topic, including Atmospheric Transport Model Evaluation (ATMES) enforced by UN in 1987 and European Tracer Experience (ETEX) executed in 1994; other research into nuclear plant risk assessment which I studied included internal review reports and model evaluations regarding emergency management in Chernobyl Accident executed by Kaku and Trainer (1986), Hively (1988), Verver and De Leeuw (1992); environmental emergency managing mechanisms practiced by the WMO (2001) and United States Department of Energy (2002).
From my two years’ research for my Master’s degree,I have not only learned and been growing stage by stage, but have also been influenced by my advisor, professor and dean Dr. Lin Neng-Hui and my colleagues at the Cloud and Aerosol Laboratory who assisted me in graduate school. We hope this research can be the foundation of an East Asian environmental emergency managing mechanism for serious nuclear catastrophes. Having been inspired by my advisor, should I have the opportunity to study environmental risk assessment and environmental planning, I believe that I will be able to contribute greatly to helping Taiwan implement a sustainable development policy.


Why I come & how I can do
Talking with attendees of a lecture on environmental protection I once gave, I realized deeply that there is a gulf between the government and the people in terms of what they know of and anticipate from environmental protection. For many years now, the government has promoted the concept of “sustainable growth,” but is that only a local case? Is there a gap between the state of the natural environment and environmental control policies? Or are Taiwan’s concrete demands out of step with the needs for global development?
I have been a teaching assistant for a class called Environment and Hazard at National Central University, and as a lecturer for the Taiwan Environmental Protection Alliance after serving in the Navy Atmosphere Ocean Bureau, I went to many junior and senior high schools around the country to give a speech entitled “Protecting the Environment and Conserving Our Lifestyle” that promoted the concept of sustainable development. I understand that the strategic management mechanisms for environmental risk assessment have not reached their fullest development in Taiwan, as the country needs more researchers with backgrounds in environmental science to manage and implement these mechanisms. Thus, due to my interests and work experience, I want to and have to serve my country by helping develop a sustainable environment. I believe that my history of interdisciplinary research—which has trained me to work from an independent perspective with creativity and flexibility—and my active participation in volunteer youth conservation services—which taught me team work and problem solving—will serve me well as I seek to investigate these problems while studying abroad.
My future research will focus on these fields—assessment of simulating the impact of environmental hazards, environmental risk management and environmental change plans, discussing how global hazards influence local environmental change and impact industry, economics, and society. I will also study the building of evaluation systems for these and make suggestions for stronger policies and environmental plans. My study plan will follow four stages, as outlined below.
stages-1
In the early stages of my study, as has been suggested, I will focus on relevant classes and data collection, working to plan in detail my future research. Next, through reviewing previous theses and analyzing environmental risk management and evaluation policy platforms, I will seek to verify the selection of tools and methods I have chosen for my research.
stages-2
Then I will work on a case study of major disasters, analyzing environmental damage and risk evaluation along three lines—scene management, comparison of simulations, and suggested plans. Following this I will work on improving evaluation models and management policy platforms, and optimizing planning for environmental change, focused on three parts included the global ecocatastrophe, the indexical risk and the optimal planning.
stages-3
Then I will work with Taiwanese industry, government, and academia, researching disaster damage models and risk evaluation procedures most applicable to the trends found in Asia, and then work on revising management strategies and plans for environmental change.
stages-4
It is my sincere hope that through the support and guidance you have to offer me, I will be able to acquire the academic experience and English language skill to make this a reality, as well as contribute to making Taiwan a more multifaceted nation with more room for truly sustainable growth at an international level.


The future & the sincerely hope
To make the dream I stated six years ago reality will take knowledge, power, and courage. I will insist in the spirit of volunteer youth service as usual and participate in the environment of department in the local government and the non-governmental organization. After my graduate form university, on the one hand, I hope I can contribute my ability to the government and cooperate and interlink with environmental Organization between overseas and Taiwan. I hope that after completing my studies with you and returning to Taiwan, I will be able to work with government, industry, and academia to move Taiwan from contract IT manufacturing, which is a waste of both resources and ability, to tourism. This way we could make good use of our special situation as an island nation with rich natural resources to provide “green” services and make Taiwan a gateway to the Pacific. This way, Taiwan would avoid being marginalized further by the international community, and would provide an environment much better suited to human habitation.
“Science may not be perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got. It may not be able to guide people’s behavior down any given path, but it can make more paths available to us.” I sincerely hope to adhere to my above outlined schedule and follow in the footsteps of people like Richard Feynman and Carl Sagan, dedicating myself to popular science and to helping my country to execute the plans for environment and sustainable development. And also, I sincerely hope you will carefully consider my academic history, interests and ambition, and give me the opportunity to work with you.