◆ Xu Xunlei
A
The rain in the valley is falling, the greenery is full, the spring and the scenery are bright, and everything grows. April 22, 2024 is the 55th "World Earth Day", and this year's global theme is "Global War Plastic", and China's theme is "Cherish the Earth, Harmonious Coexistence between Man and Nature".
April 22 is the second dragon day of the dragon month in the year of the dragon: the ancient Chinese corresponded to each earthly branch with the twelve zodiac signs, and this year is the year of the dragon in Jiachen, and the moon, the day, and the time are the dragon month, the dragon day, and the dragon time. The three "Year of the Dragon", the Dragon, the Moon, the Dragon, the Day, and the Dragon, are on April 10, April 22, and May 4 from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Earth Day is a festival specially set up for world environmental protection, and it is also the most influential environmental protection festival in the world, mobilizing the public to participate in the environmental protection movement and improving the earth's environment through green and low-carbon life. Today, the event has grown to 192 countries around the world, with hundreds of millions of people participating every year.
The "World Earth Day" event on April 22, 1970 was the first large-scale mass environmental protection activity in the history of mankind. As the beginning of modern environmental protection activities, it has promoted many Western countries to legislate for environmental protection. For example, the United States has successively issued regulations such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Animals Protection Act. This year's "World Earth Day" also contributed to the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and to a certain extent, contributed to the convening of the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, thus effectively promoting the development of the world's environmental protection cause.
Three years later, in 1973, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was announced, and Greenpeace, an international environmental organization, was founded, both of which undoubtedly contributed to Earth Day.
Protecting the planet, one heart and one mind. Let more people take care of the earth together, so that the environment can get better and better, and the earth will become more and more beautiful.
In Hangzhou, China, where I live, a number of themed events are held every year on Earth Day to inspire the public to care for Mother Earth and nature. "Xixi Wetland is the first national wetland park in China. Retaining such a wetland in the center of the city, where every inch of land is valuable, has become the city's 'green lung', which is itself a classic case of realizing the value of ecological products...... "On the day of World Earth Day, in Xixi Wetland, a week-long "World Earth Day" theme publicity activity was kicked off. During the event, focusing on the theme of "World Earth Day" and "Global War Plastic", the West Lake Scenic Area also held a unique "plastic for goods" activity.
On April 22, Earth Day, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China released the 2023 China Sea Level Communiqué. According to the communiqué, the rate of sea level rise along China's coast was 3.5 mm/year from 1980 to 2023, and 4.0 mm/year from 1993 to 2023, higher than the global average of 3.4 mm/year over the same period. In 2023, sea level along China's coast was 72 mm above the average average, the highest level since records began.
In 2023, the coastal sea levels of the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea will be 122 mm, 74 mm, 43 mm and 52 mm higher than normal, respectively, with the coastal sea level of the Bohai Rim reaching the highest since 1980 and the lowest coastal sea level of the Taiwan Strait in the past eight years.
In terms of impacts, in the past 40 years, the long-term cumulative effect of sea level rise has caused the squeezing of coastal ecosystems and the loss of tidal flats, affecting coastal groundwater resources, and the high sea level has increased the degree of storm surge, flooding in coastal cities and salty tide intrusion.
Sea level rise is an important indicator of climate change, and in the context of global warming, accelerating sea level rise will have a wide range of impacts on nature and people. This blue planet needs the blue sea to always be clean and blue.
When the sea level is rising, many of the mountains on the land are lowered and reclaimed into all kinds of so-called "high-standard terraces" to allow rice to fly up the mountains; if there is no water on the mountains, then expect rain from the sky every day?
B
One day later, April 23 is World Book Day.
Life is very short, and books stretch us out.
From April 23rd to 25th, the 3rd National Reading Conference was held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, with the theme of "Building a Scholarly Society and Sharing Modern Civilization".
In Hangzhou, there are many World Book Day activities that are kicking off. Libraries in Hangzhou have launched a series of activities and prepared more than 200 rich and diverse reading promotion activities for readers, including lectures, book fairs, poetry clubs, research studies, concerts, reading check-ins, city walk stamps, traditional culture and intangible cultural heritage experiences, and so on. These activities will be held in a combination of online and offline mode, inviting the public to share in the feast of reading.
Hangzhou Library has also joined hands with Boku Book City to bring a new benefit to reading lovers in Hangzhou - "one-click borrowing" service. Readers can choose their favorite books in stores such as Boku Book City, go through the borrowing procedures directly, and easily take the books home to read; "one-click borrowing" is to encourage more citizens to join the ranks of "convenient reading", so as to improve the "reading happiness index" and share the charm of reading.
At the Zhijiang Cultural Center, a cultural landmark, the "2024 West Lake 'Joy' Reading|Reading is a Way of Life, Make Research More Exciting" activity was held, allowing reading to happen naturally in a pleasant atmosphere in a rich way that can be heard, seen, smelled, touched and even tasted.
On the morning of April 23, the 2024 "Unpaid Blood Donation, Accompanied by Books" activity, jointly sponsored by the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission and other units, and undertaken by the Hangzhou Blood Donation Service Center and other units, was held in the No. 1 Gate Square of Hangzhou Library.
He is the vice president of the Chinese Film Literature Society, a member of the editorial board of "Poetry Magazine", and has served as the vice chairman of the Sixth Chinese Writers Association and the secretary and chairman of the party group of the Zhejiang Writers Association; he has published more than 40 literary monographs such as novels, prose collections, and poetry collections; and his works have won the National Book Award, the Lu Xun Literature Award, the Qu Yuan Poetry Award, the Golden Rooster Award, the Golden Eagle Award, the Huabiao Award, the Feitian Award, the Lily Award, and so on. The TV series "Deng Xiaoping at the Turning Point of History" and the novel "Lei Feng" won the National Spiritual Civilization "Five One Project" award.
The author is also fortunate to participate in this "most caring and passionate" public welfare activity.
C
When World Book Day meets Earth Day, what kind of sparks can collide? Ecological reading season, painting the dream of the earth, environmental protection books have received attention and recommendation, focusing on the concept of ecological and environmental protection, taking reading practice as a link, arming the mind of "sustainable development", constantly cultivating the awareness of being kind to nature, and building a community of life between man and nature.
The yearning for knowledge is the call for good books. There are a lot of books on natural geography and environmental protection published all over the world, and here are two books that are particularly recommended:
For adults, we especially recommend the new book "Atlas of Extreme Drought and Flood in China's Millennium Region" published by the China Map Society. This is an academic masterpiece compiled by the team of Professor Yang Yuda of the Institute of Chinese History and Geography of Fudan University for more than ten years, and the book was officially released on the occasion of World Earth Day.
The book is China's first national historical atlas of extreme drought and flood climate, which is part of the 14th Five-Year Plan for the publication of national key publications, focusing on extreme drought and flood disasters from 1000 to 2020 AD, collecting more than 120,000 pieces of data and drawing 433 thematic maps.
Located at the eastern tip of the Eurasian continent, China is affected by the Asian monsoon system for two-thirds of its land area, and 95% of its population lives in the monsoon region. Due to the large interannual variability of the seasonal distribution of precipitation, drought and flood disasters occur frequently, forming the type of natural disaster that is most harmful to China, causing an average annual economic loss of more than 200 billion yuan. The publication of the book provides important support for climate response, disaster prevention and mitigation, and science popularization.
For children, it is especially recommended to read the book "Confessions of the Earth: White Planet" (Hunan Science and Technology Publishing House, March 2022, 1st edition), which is the first ecological and environmental protection work created by the "Koi Youth" under the super popular Vision Media, which shocks the whole network, and is very consistent with the theme of "Global War Plastic" on this year's World Earth Day, which means that the earth will become a "white planet" when it is wrapped in plastic.
Plastic is everywhere in the soil, in the oceans, in the corners of the globe – 7 billion tonnes of plastic waste is already generated globally, and less than 10% of it is recycled, waiting for a "quick fix", while China produces about 400 million tonnes of plastic waste every year......
The awareness of "war plastic" and "green and low-carbon life" should "start from the baby".
D
The establishment of various festivals, the holding of rich activities, and the promotion of various kinds are all for the purpose of encouragement and promotion.
World Book Day is similar to Earth Day in that for the public, it is an expectation, a commitment, a reflection, a progress, and an action.
Believe in the power of good books, inherit the concept of environmental protection, and participate in the "Green Reading" action, so that we can encounter the most beautiful earth and nature again and again in the fragrance of books, and build a better future for the earth together!
(The author is a columnist for this newspaper and a special commentator for the Japan branch of the Hong Kong News Service)