We are working closely with scientists, entrepreneurs and others in China to find balanced approaches that can reduce the threat of global warming while still supporting economic growth. This requires good ideas that will work and that the Chinese people will embrace in their everyday lives. To be effective, solutions must fit China and its culture and measurably improve the quality of life there.

One idea under consideration illustrates our approach. Scientists at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences want our help in piloting a new approach to farming in rural villages in China. In their model, farmers would stop using chemical fertilizers and pesticides and shift entirely to organic farming. They would shift from coal to other fuels, burning biofuel from straw and other crop waste and methane from organic waste. They would also tap into underground water and geothermal heat so they need less fuel for heating and cooling.

We are not sure yet whether this idea will work economically, but it offers enormous promise. Chinese farmers annually burn 600,000,000 tons of straw and crop waste in their fields just to clear it out of the way. If they can sell these waste products as fuel or use them instead of coal, they will help themselves and their families. They will also remove a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

We are focusing on other areas as well. One of our concerns is how to protect biodiversity in China by minimizing the damage from global warming. We have agreed to work with scientists from Chengdu in analyzing the effects of global warming on the Giant Panda and the red panda. We are discussing with them the need for biological corridors to help in the wild. We share with them a belief that we need significantly more research on how to reintroduce Giant Pandas and red pandas born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding into the wild. There is much that science does not yet know about how best to protect these beautiful creatures. As we look for balanced solutions, we also want to help science learn more about how to defend against the threat.

This work is important. We need others to join us in finding solutions and making them work for everyone's benefit.