Dr. Stough’s wonderful presentation

“Parachutists”

It was our first lesson of this training course today when we returned to classroom after graduation from college for such a long time. Unexpectedly, it showered us a heavy rain on the way in the morning. Most of us had no preparation and someone even joked about this unexpected rain, “It’s a big surprise that American people also have rains.” Armed with umbrellas we walked along to our class. Contrasting with galloping cars, our umbrella team looked more attractive.
The first lesson, “Climate, Energy, Environment, Society and Climate Change Interactions”, was presented by Dr. Roger Stough, Vice President for Research & Economic Development of George Mason University. He considered that the interaction among climate, energy, environment and economy is a complex system integrating natural law and economic law, as well as the human and social interaction. The science and institution jointly played an important role in addressing sustainable development and environment impact. Besides scienctific effect, institutional factors in the “rules of game” are also crucial in the system. Dr. Roger Stough highlighted institutional classification, characteristics and impact on the system, and he also compared institutional arrangement between US and Europe.
Everyone enjoyed these macroeconomic aspects in the intelligible presentation of Dr. Stough, thanks to some Chinese explanations by Director Ge. It was a perfect beginning of this course with active atmosphere and heated discussion.