{"id":4368,"date":"2014-08-10T14:43:56","date_gmt":"2014-08-10T14:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/?p=4368"},"modified":"2014-08-10T14:43:56","modified_gmt":"2014-08-10T14:43:56","slug":"meeting-with-ambassador-kwon-and-dr-kwak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/2014\/08\/10\/meeting-with-ambassador-kwon-and-dr-kwak\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting with Ambassador Kwon and Dr. Kwak"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had the unexpected pleasure of \u00a0having lunch together with both Ambassador \u00a0Kwon Byong Hyon and Dr. Kwak \u00a0Sang Soo at Future Forest \u00a0last Friday (August 8, 2014). They are two Koreans who have deeply inspired me with their model and their work. Ambassador Kwon works every day to raise funds to support efforts to plant trees in China and stop the spread of trees. He is \u00a0one of the very few who is deeply involved in government policy but also willing to think outside the box about the \u00a0need to create a new civilization in this age of \u00a0ecological crisis. He is far past the age that most successful people retire and take up their time with personal concerns.<\/p>\n

When we spoke at Minjok Sagwan High School, Ambassador Kwon started his remarks by apologizing to the high school students for\u00a0how he had \u00a0thoughtlessly \u00a0wasted resources throughout his life without a thought \u00a0for future generations. \u00a0I have never heard anyone one make \u00a0such an apology before, and, in fact, I have never made \u00a0that apology myself. I should, however, perhaps every time I meet someone younger. I was deeply \u00a0impressed and honored to be at the lunch with Ambassador Kwon–who has been a close supporter of Asia Institute.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kwak \u00a0has worked \u00a0ceaselessly with \u00a0Chinese (and people of other countries) to develop foodstuffs that allow poor people to feed themselves without damaging the \u00a0ecosystem. He \u00a0has made tremendous contributions—which most people do not know about— to the battle to \u00a0stop the spread of deserts in Northeast Asia. The spread of \u00a0deserts is \u00a0the greatest threat of our age and Dr. Kwak identified it early on.<\/p>\n

I would also like to draw \u00a0attention to someone not pictured here. That is Dr. Chen Minhao who passed away in 2009. Dr. Chen Minhao was a Chinese academic who fought endlessly for the cause of ecology in China in an age when few were interested. Although I did \u00a0not understand \u00a0what he was talking about when \u00a0he told \u00a0me \u00a0about his ideas back in 1991, I later came to understand that I had met another \u00a0remarkable spirit. I had the honor of translating his \u00a0thoughtful proposal for a Nobel Prize for ecology to \u00a0stand beside \u00a0that for economics. Do see my short \u00a0essay on Dr. Chen Minhao<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Emanuel<\/a>
Emanuel with Kwon Byong Hyon (center; former Korean ambassador to China and Chairman of Future Forest) and Kwak Sang Soo (senior researcher at Korea Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology on August 8, 2014 at Future Forest offices in Seoul.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the unexpected pleasure of \u00a0having lunch together with both Ambassador \u00a0Kwon Byong Hyon and Dr. Kwak \u00a0Sang Soo at Future Forest \u00a0last Friday (August 8, 2014). They are two Koreans who have deeply inspired me with their model and their work. Ambassador Kwon works every day to raise funds to support efforts to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9296425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29962],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-29962"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9296425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}