There are 7,440 miles between Shanghai, China and Rockville, Maryland in the United States.

When members of Roots & Shoots-Shanghai engaged in a videoconference with students in Rockville last month, none of those miles mattered.

Seven R&S-Shanghai members and eight Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students spent an hour and a half using remote communication equipment to discuss what they are doing to help stop climate change.

It was 8 p.m. in Rockville and 8 a.m. in Shanghai.

"What does your school do to conserve energy?" asked one MCPS student from her seat in a classroom at Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus.

"We have recycling in every classroom," said one of the young women in Shanghai.

The conversation was halting at first. The young women in Shanghai¿speaking in English¿struggled for the right word at times, conferring with one another quickly in Mandarin for translations.

The students weren't sure where to look or direct their voices. Small time delays in voice transmission caused a U.S. student to speak over one of the Chinese participants. Both teenagers giggled at their own confusion and urged the other to speak first.

It wasn't long though before the teens got used to the technical issues and overcame the language barrier. They offered one another energy-saving tips, discussed their respective nations' environmental policies and shared their fears about the future of global warming.

"Do you believe that we have a small window of time¿perhaps 10 years¿to turn things around for climate change?" one Chinese student asked.

A young man answered, simply, for the U.S. group: "Yes."

The U.S. students—who participated in the videoconference as part of the MCPS Green Schools Focus program and its High School Climate Challenge—told their new Chinese friends about CFLs and "green roofs."

The R&S-Shanghai members talked about their group's tree-planting and how each of them comes to school each day. They also informed the U.S. students that "hybrid" vehicles aren't widely available yet in China.

At one point in the conference, a R&S-Shanghai member got up out of her seat to hold in front of the camera a piece of paper with a website written on it. The U.S. student laughed at the situation, directing her to back up a bit so they could read the URL and scribble down the new resource.

"It was a wonderful night," said Jill Coutts, Science Resource teacher and head of the Academy of Technology, Environmental and Systems Sciences (TESS) at Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. "My students had a fantastic experience. I don't think they expected to learn so much, and they loved talking with the students from Shanghai."

The evening ended with a group photo and promises to email soon.

Do you want to connect globally? Roots & Shoots members can visit the "Roots & Shoots Around the World" forum on the brand-new Discussion Boards!