李 遠 哲

Y. T. Lee
(https://www.itsfun.com.tw)
“沒有太多時間了”

Congratulations Letter From Dr. Yuan T. Lee

    Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry
      Former President of Taiwan Academia Sinica
                                         NATEA Honorary Council Member                                      

“We do not have much time left ” 

 Y.T. LEE 

Heartiest congratulations, NATEA, on your 30^th anniversary! 

Established in March 1991, with a major aim to promote technological knowledge and its applications and to provide management training opportunities for Taiwanese American and community at large, NATEA has been quite successful. Today, with more than 3000 membership, engaging in various high level activities, and especially, with a group of young leadership, NATEA seems to have a bright future ahead of us. 

However, looking forward, we cannot neglect the fact that we are facing serious problems concerning the survival of humanity on earth. In the past fifty years, explosion in human population and per capita consumption, we have changed the relationship between the humanity and nature. We are changing the atmosphere. With the increase of greenhouse gases, there is more energy coming in than going out, and the temperature of the surface of the earth is continuing to rise. Our efforts to keep the temperature rise to within 2 ℃ of that of pre-industrial era, is apparently falling way behind. For many of us, 2 to 3 degree temperature rise still seem quite tolerable. However, with the accumulation of enormous amount of energy on the surface of the earth, the consequent climate change and extreme weather events, such as heat wave, hurricane, flood and forest fire, will seriously threaten the survival of humanity on earth. 

Our generation has not done well, and time is running out fast. If we fail to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by 40 to 50 percent in the next ten years, the game will be over. 

We need to work together with tremendous efforts. If we were to be fortunate enough to get together again after the 40^th anniversary of NATEA, I hope we will be in the position to celebrate the arrival of a new era of the humanity on earth.

2021-10-4