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For Release April 4, 2000; 11:00 PM PDT PLANETWORK Announces Keynote Address by Sheri Liao, Chinese Environmentalist and Founder of Global Village Beijing San Francisco-- Executive Co-director Elizabeth Thompson today announced the selection of one of PLANETWORK's keynote speakers for the May 12-14 conference on information technology and global ecology. Sheri Xiaoyi Liao, founder and president of Global Village Beijing, a Chinese non-profit organization, will speak on "Chinese Civil Society Development and the Environmental Movement." Liao, born and raised in Sichuan, China, has a BA in Philosophy from Sichuan University and an MA from Zhongshan University. Liao subsequently worked as a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences before coming to the United States as a visiting scholar for North Carolina State University's Center for International Environmental Politics. In 1996, Liao founded Global Village Beijing (GVB), a leading non-profit in China's small but growing environmental movement, whose mission is to educate the Chinese people about sustainable development. In addition to organizing grass roots community environmental initiatives, including China's first-ever recycling campaign, GVB produces "Time for Environment," the only independently produced environmental TV program broadcast nationally in China. "In China, the people believe that environmental protection is solely the responsibility of the government," says Liao. "We hope that in educating the Chinese people about ecological issues, we can begin to show them that all people can be protectors of the environment." Liao is one of China's most well-known environmental activists and her work has been featured in the US on CNN, NBC Nightly News, Reuters and in TIME magazine. President Clinton met with Liao on his 1998 visit to China in order to highlight the role of environmental leaders in China. As China, with a population of 1.3 billion, continues to grow and develop economically, it could have a devastating effect on the global environment if it follows the same consumption trajectory of the United States. By participating in PLANETWORK, Liao hopes both to share her successes and to find American information technology and business professionals who want to support her vision for sustainable development in China. "This conference is the first of its kind in the world," says Jim Fournier, one of the PLANETWORK founders and co-director. "We want to create a forum to showcase how digital tools are already being used to help the environment and to inspire new scientific collaborations and sustainable business projects. We're thrilled to have Sheri Liao as a collaborator in this effort." For a complete listing of speakers, forums, and a conference schedule, see the PLANETWORK website at www.planetworkers.com.For more information, contact Planetwork at 415-436-0123 (voicemail), 415-621-7790 (fax), or register online at www.planetworkers.com. Planetwork is a project of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), a California 501c3 non-profit organization.
Cate Gable |