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Meet Global Eyes Our Japanese Friends Work to Protect Our Global Environment I am Saeko Miyake, and I am a student at Kwansei Gakuin University in Hyogo, Japan. I have great interest in environmental problems, and I am acting on environmental problems by participating an organization called Global Eyes in Japan. During this summer of 1999, I was an intern with Greenaction in San Francisco to learn more about environmental activism, outreach, and the mission of the organization in order to share information about environmental work in Japan. Global Eyes Web Site http://www.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/clife/circle/global_eyes/index.htm Global Eyes Action There are currently three projects that are progressing. In addition, a new project called "paper project" that aims to reduce paper consumption is in the planning stage. 1) Education project We aim to make environmental problems known to citizens and give opportunity for people to begin their action. Japanese environmental education started recently in the curriculum but is still developing. Our environmental education promotes environmental awareness and organized action by the people. Traditionally people haven't been quick to act on environmental issues in Japan. Our project aims to get people more involved and active in environmental causes. Outcomes: increase networking When we held the first symposium, one of the people in the audience was a teacher of junior high school. The teacher invited us to hold a lecture in their school, and we held a lecture to about 400 students. At that time the number of members in Global Eyes was about 20. We wanted to recruit more members, so we cooperated with other student organizations such as development education groups and fieldwork groups. More students joined our organization as a result of this symposium. 2) Recycling project We held a recycling market at our campus in March. The recycling market is a program that encourages graduates to donate their used furniture, electric appliances and books to be reused by incoming freshmen. It aims to reduce the environmental impact of our campus life. We plan to spread our project throughout Sanda city. Also, at our University festival, we will sponsor a paper recycling fair that shows how paper is recycled. 3) Research project We are conducting research on the operation of our campus by calculating environmental impacts. We compute the consumption of electricity, gas and water, and amount of waste. It was started by an alumnus in 1998 and is still in progress. We will suggest how we can reduce the waste of the campus by presenting our research and recommendations. We aim to involve all of the students to act with us. This year, we will give priority to the amount of computer paper consumption on our campus. |
Who is Global Eyes? Global Eyes was established by Kwansei Gakuin University students who had great interests in environmental problems and who wanted to take action toward these problems in 1997. In December 1997, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Cop3) was held in Kyoto, Japan. We participated as observers at the Kyoto conference. Many non-governmental organizations argued that we are in critical situation and should take action to stop the climate change. We acted to have symposiums established for the purpose of getting citizens interested in global warming. After the Cop3, we continued to spread the information, not only on global warming but other environmental problems. Since 1999, freshmen students in Global Eyes started two new projects: the recycling market and the campus environment research project. The new students have acted positively by getting involved in environmental issues. Global Eyes Mission Think Globally, To solve the environmental problems, we promote people's action by networking people to people and organization to organization Act Locally We make environmental problems known to people. We establish and coordinate our campus group network. Global Eyes History 1997 May. Global Eyes was founded as research and action groups for climate change Aug. Global Eyes' members attended an AGBM conference that prepares for Cop3 in Germany Oct. The first symposium held at Kobe, Japan Nov. The second symposium held at Sanda, Japan Dec. We Joined Cop3 as observers 1998 June We started to prepare next environmental education project. Oct. We made networks between student groups in our campus. 1999 Feb. We conducted a lecture at Igawadani junior high school March Meeting with teachers at Kande junior high school about presenting a lecture. Global Eyes Future 1999 Oct. Paper remaking fair at University festival 1999 Dec. Lecture at Kande junior high school 2000 Mar. The second annual Recycling market |