The epidemic in 2020 has caused the economic level of various countries in the world to plummet, and the mainland has become the only country in the world to achieve positive economic growth in 2020, which shows that the current economic level of the mainland cannot be underestimated.
In addition, the mainland has achieved a moderately prosperous situation in all respects in 2020, will basically realize socialist modernization by 2035, and will build the mainland into a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, and harmonious modern socialist country by the middle of this century.
As the country becomes richer and stronger, and the people's living standards become higher and higher, people are more and more enthusiastic about improving the quality of life, and many families often buy cars to improve their living standards when the economy allows. Last year, 25 million cars were sold in mainland China, and people felt that this was something to be happy about, because it meant that everyone's life was getting better and better.
But Qian Yi, a professor at Tsinghua University, said that "if the average Chinese person has three cars for four people, the biggest worry will be people's food."
Theoretical sources
Mr. Lighters Brown, an adviser to the Council on Sustainable Development under President Clinton, was invited to Tsinghua University to give a report, and Mr. Lighters Brown is an expert specializing in sustainable development, and Tsinghua University professor Qian Yi admired him very much, so he talked a lot with Mr. Lighters Brown.
Mr. Lighters Brown mentioned that China's economy is now developing very fast, the total GDP is growing every year, and the per capita income is about to reach the income level of the United States, but due to China's special national conditions, Chinese must not consume like Americans, he gave many examples, one of which is the example of cars.
He said that if the Chinese, like the Americans, have three cars for every four people, then there will be big problems.
First, because at that time, the Chinese are likely to have reached 1.45 billion, then the total number of cars in China is 1.1 billion, and the current total number of cars in the world is 800 million, and if China reaches 1.1 billion, then it is a terrible data.
Second, if there are so many cars, the country must build roads, parking lots, and the construction of these facilities requires a lot of land, about 29 million hectares of land resources, this amount of land is equivalent to the total area of China's current rice fields, so should it occupy such a large area of rice fields to ensure the operation of cars? If it is occupied, then what should be done with the food supply?
The third issue is the amount of gasoline used, which is very large for 1.1 billion cars, more than 1.3 times the amount of gasoline produced in the world every day.
After listening to Mr. Lites Brown's analysis, Mr. Qian Yi thought that he was giving a piece of advice to China, so he proposed that "if the average Chinese person has three cars for four people, the biggest concern will be the problem of people eating"
Imagine the consequences
We can imagine what would happen if we did achieve an average of 4 people with 3 cars.
First of all, the increase in the total number of cars will inevitably increase the traffic pressure, with the current number of cars, the road will be jammed in the morning rush hour and evening rush hour every day, if the total number of cars really reaches 1.1 billion, it will be unimaginable, maybe even cause traffic paralysis, the number of car accidents increased dramatically.
In order to solve the problem of traffic and car parking, the country must build a large number of roads and parking lots, which will require the occupation of a large amount of agricultural land, resulting in a sharp decline in grain production on the mainland.
In addition, the total number of automobiles will increase significantly, and the demand for oil will inevitably increase, so air pollution will inevitably increase, and climate problems such as global warming will be affected.
This is like the butterfly effect, the increase in the total number of cars will inevitably affect major problems such as land resources, oil resources, and air pollution.
Go back to its roots
Thinking about it seriously, is Mr. Qian Yi's sentence really just a car problem? Of course not, she's talking about our consumption patterns.
Because the mainland has a large population, less land per capita, and less resources per capita, we cannot consume like Americans, and our consumption pattern must be in line with national conditions. We need to start from China's national conditions, follow the trend of global human development, save and protect the planet.
First of all, we should promote a fairer moderate consumption pattern for all citizens, and discourage or restrict the high consumption, advanced consumption, abnormal consumption and profligate consumption of a small number of people. The public policies and financial assistance promoted by the government should not only be the "icing on the cake" for the rich, but also should be a "charity in the snow" for the poor, with the aim of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, reducing the unfair distribution of income and the difference in the level of basic public facilities and services, and achieving the goal of reducing the number of poor people in urban and rural areas.
Second, promote more sustainable consumption patterns, which are future-oriented. At present, the consumption pattern is "high consumption of resources, high emission pollution, and high materialization", and we hope to shift to the type of "low consumption, low emission, and dematerialization".
Third, promote greater encouragement of the development and use of new technologies and innovations, provided that they are complemented by sustained population growth and consumer demand. Fourth, it is suggested that development policies should be consumer-centric, and consumers should be protected rather than producers.
Fifth, we should have a global consumption outlook that is open to the international market, and we should make more active use of the two kinds of resources and the two markets instead of intensifying the development and utilization of our own scarce resources, so as to fully share the trade gains and consumption sharing created by economic globalization.
Brief summary:
Mr. Qian Yi seems to be talking about the car problem, but he is really talking about consumption patterns. In fact, this is a global problem and not special to China, but Chinese have a large population, relatively scarce resources, and a relatively weak environment, and must choose a consumption pattern suitable for national conditions in the future-oriented strategic choice, which is related to China's long-term development results and the future human development process.
Moreover, as the largest developing country in the world, China's words and deeds have attracted the attention of the whole world, and we should set an example for world development and global peace, and assume the responsibility of a major country, so the choice of consumption mode is a very important part of it.