The installation art "No Plastic" was exhibited in Beijing; The "ecological martial arts" were staged in Hangzhou; More than 20 mainstream media experienced Ningxia's first garden-style water reclaimed water plant up close; 100 of the most beautiful ecological environment volunteers gathered in Shandong 2023 June 5th Environment Day National Main Event...
5 June is World Environment Day. More than half a century after the festival of environmental protection and environmental issues, how has people's understanding of environmental issues changed? What contribution has China made to the world's environmental protection?
▲On November 12, 2022, Xie Zhenhua, Special Representative of President Xi Jinping and Special Envoy for Climate Change Affairs of China, delivered a keynote speech at the COP27 Ecological Civilization and Beautiful China Practice Side Meeting. (Photo from China News Agency)
From the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in the seventies to the current annual activities of governments on June 5, focusing on publicity and emphasizing the importance of protecting and improving the human environment, Environment Day has created modern environmental protection activities and constantly inspired people to think: What are the root causes of the worsening environmental problems? Among the representative views of Western academic circles, some have identified rapid population expansion as the number one cause; Some emphasize that world economic growth has pushed ecology into trouble; Some firmly believe that technological development is the culprit; Some are attributed to consumption and inappropriate lifestyles; Others believe that environmentalists create threats to limit social development.
Despite the different views, the common point is that people have realized that environmental protection issues are related to the future and destiny of human society, affect the different interests of various countries, and are a complex global issue involving multiple interests.
▲On November 13, 2021, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) closed, and the parties finalized the implementation rules of the Paris Agreement. (Photo courtesy of the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)
In the international political game, Western countries often use various environmental protection issues to restrict developing countries, especially China, such as accusing China of increasing its resource demand and carbon dioxide emissions significantly in the rapid development, and demanding that China accept the same emission reduction tasks as developed countries. The "environmental protection card" played by the European Union and the United States once made China very passive.
In the past decade, with the development of China's clean energy technology and the significant improvement of energy conservation and emission reduction, while maintaining rapid economic growth, the quality of the ecological environment has also continued to improve, and the carbon emission intensity has dropped significantly, and environmental protection has been elevated to the height of a community with a shared future for mankind. In terms of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth, China has become the world's "main force":
In October 2021, Nature magazine reported that many parts of China were quietly turning green in satellite imagery data transmitted back by NASA. From 2000 to 2017, the area of greenery on the planet increased by the size of an Amazon rainforest, of which 1/4 was attributed to China. Compared with the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China's forest coverage rate was only 8.6%, and now China's forest coverage rate has reached 23.04%;
According to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China's carbon dioxide emissions per 10,000 yuan of GDP fell continuously from 2017 to 2021, with the end of 2019 exceeding the 2020 climate action target ahead of schedule.
China's National Bureau of Statistics disclosed that China's carbon emission intensity per unit of GDP fell by 34.4%. In 2021, China's installed capacity of non-fossil energy power generation surpassed coal power for the first time, and the installed capacity of clean energy power generation ranked first in the world for many consecutive years.
China's Ministry of Environmental Protection reported that in the past ten years, the concentration of PM2.5 in key cities in China has dropped by 57%, and the proportion of water quality sections of surface water I to III in the country has increased by 23.8% to 87.9%, which is close to the level of developed countries. This set of publicly reported figures shows that China's environmental protection forces have been on the move for decades, albeit deficiencies; There are twists and turns; There is reflection; But by working harder, we have not only achieved outstanding results, but also created a beautiful and livable environment. Especially in the past ten years, the results have been even more impressive to the world.
"The sunrise river flowers are red and the fire is victorious, and the spring river water is as green as blue." Chinese's emphasis on the environment and ecology is deeply rooted in China's excellent traditional culture. From Xunzi's "When the grass and trees are prosperous, the axe will not enter the mountains and forests, will not die in its life, and will not grow endlessly." "You can see it.
▲The sculpture "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" outside the Forbidden City in Beijing conveys the natural aesthetic taste of Chinese culture. (Photo from China News Agency)
From ancient times to the present, the Chinese nation has been an "environment-friendly" nation. "Zhuangzi" believes that all things between man and nature should be harmonious and unified, and mutually beneficial and symbiotic. The ancient Chinese agricultural economic system determined that the ancients loved and feared nature, believing that any damage to nature would be eaten back to man himself, and that man could only survive by following the law of natural development.
Human beings are in nature, not on nature, the natural environment is the habitat shared by thousands of lives, environmental protection is not a bargain between politicians, take care of the environment with sincerity, always be in awe, and always maintain determination. (End)
Author/Wang Suning