earthchartercommunitiesnetwork.org

How heartening it is to read that a movement has been kindled in China that seeks to inspire individuals to work towards a sustainable Beijing--a goal that most people would consider so daunting as to be insuperable. However, Margaret Mead's famous quote comes to mind to allay such reservations: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

Stephanie B. Tansey, who recently published her first book "Recovery of the Heart," told China.org.cn in an exclusive interview how Chinese people can create sustainable urban environments and at the same time reconnect with nature.

I am greatly encouraged by the stories of these nine Beijingers. As an American educated in a Beijing primary school during the mid- to late 1950s who returned to teach at what was then the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute #1 (now the Beijing Foreign Studies University) at the tail end of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1970s, did doctoral dissertation research at Suzhou University for a year in the mid-1980s, and who spends a few months in China most years with her Chinese husband and family, I have some idea of the daunting obstacles facing those who would work towards sustainability in China, as well as some of the possibilities for harnessing the Chinese people's energies and determination towards these ends. This personal background makes me particularly impressed by what all these Beijing citizens exhibit: a straightforward honesty and a willingness to look the tremendous obstacles in the eye and persist nonetheless in "doing the right thing" no matter what.