Today is the World Environment Day. I'd like to share some personal views because our environment concerns sustainable development.
What is sustainable development? Many people think it is fast continuous high growth. This kind of understanding is very partial. In fact, while seeking fast development, many people forget the basic things human beings rely on, air, water and soil. They think it is impossible to avoid pollution if you want to develop. But the fact is once the air, water and soil are polluted, one will have to invest much more efforts to clean them, sometimes, for underground water and soil, if they are polluted, it is almost impossible to clean.
Both American and Chinese experts in this area confirm this conclusion because it is a very complicated chemical process and the pollutants can change into different forms of poisonous matter which will do harm to people. So the best way is prevention, prevention and prevention!
It is always easy to say than to do. But if we human being, who are more clever than any animals in the world, are aware of this problem and trying to take measures, it will be possible.
First, we should behave ourselves. Can we avoid littering around? It looks like a small matter, but it is important if one never litters in any occasion at any time. A lot of times it is the tourists who might litter even though when they are at home or in their own area, they don't do that. So think of it, if we travel, can we avoid littering?
Can we try to sort out our waste after us? It is in fact a good way of recycling to have a lot of rural workers in the city to collect bottles or newspapers and other wastes. But the question is how long such a situation can last to have a large number of people recycling waste? What about other waste? Can we sort them out more than just recycle and non recycle in the public area?
Can we drive less in the city center? During the Olympics, Beijing's sky became blue, which is obvious evidence that if we have fewer cars in the street, there will be less air pollution. I personally think that in summer, the use of air conditioning and cars actually leads to the increase of average temperature. It costs a lot of energy and more importantly it is not good for our health. The government should be praised to issue the regulations that people should regulate their air condition temperature in winter around 20 and in summer above 26. However, I noticed that in practice, it had not been well implemented. In winter, for example when I went to the Wangfujing Department Store, it felt very warm and even the staff complained that it was too hot! In summer, air conditioning can cause cold easily because the gap of temperature between inside and outside the building is too big.
Second, of course enterprises and companies should pay attention to their corporate social responsibilities and treat their waste water and gas before they discharge them into the nature. But there is still a lack of awareness in this aspect. And it has something to do with the legislation and law enforcement. In Sweden and also in New Zealand, anybody or any organization discharge waste, they must pay for it. By doing this, there will be people and companies to take care of the waste. But for chemicals, the factory has to treat it themselves, otherwise if for example the polluted waste goes to the river, it will be very difficult to treat the whole river water. Thus prevention is always important.
Third, there must be political and financial efforts in this aspect. For example, residents want to sort out waste, but where should they put? The city council or city environmental sector or any designated company must provide more containers and bins so that people can do something for the environment. Gradually, the awareness and self-respect will be raised among people.
It is easy for us to behave today or even for a week as it is World Environment Day today, but if let us behave all the time in our life, to make environment protection, save energy a habitual action and lead a fashion of sustainable life style will need a lot of effort. China's efforts and Chinese people's efforts are noticed by the world. Let's continue to strive for a cleaner environment.
By Xuefei Chen, People's Daily Online, Stockholm.
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