Environmental awareness on the rise in China
I would like to direct any reader who might be so inclined to read a long interview about how the awareness about environmental protection gaining momentum in China.
The rich consume and the poor suffer the pollution.
Pan Yue, deputy director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), also writes:
In China, environmental protection is an increasingly pressing issue. Not only are pollution and ecological degradation becoming ever more serious, but also people are more and more unsatisfied about the situation. The speed with which we are polluting the environment far outstrips our efforts to clean it up. Why is this? China has a large population but few resources, and our production and consumption methods are too out of date. But at the root of the problem lies a more significant cause -- the lack of public participation in China.
The initial motivation for the world environmental protection movement came from the public, without their participation it would not exist.
Read more at China Dialogue The environment needs public participation.
He also looks at the lessons China can learn from Japan:
Take Japan as an example; although the country faces a greater pressure on resources than China, it is a world leader in protecting the environment. Visitors to Japan in recent years are invariably impressed by the country’s clean environment. But Japan also experienced the serious social consequences of pollution midway through the last century, when it underwent large-scale industrialisation.
Asahi Shimbun also notes that the Chinese government seems to be giving reporters considerable latitude to write about environmental issues, whereas stories on religion, human rights, military issues and diplomacy are much more sensitive.
Media at the forefront of China's environmental fight
The rich consume and the poor suffer the pollution.
Pan Yue, deputy director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), also writes:
In China, environmental protection is an increasingly pressing issue. Not only are pollution and ecological degradation becoming ever more serious, but also people are more and more unsatisfied about the situation. The speed with which we are polluting the environment far outstrips our efforts to clean it up. Why is this? China has a large population but few resources, and our production and consumption methods are too out of date. But at the root of the problem lies a more significant cause -- the lack of public participation in China.
The initial motivation for the world environmental protection movement came from the public, without their participation it would not exist.
Read more at China Dialogue The environment needs public participation.
He also looks at the lessons China can learn from Japan:
Take Japan as an example; although the country faces a greater pressure on resources than China, it is a world leader in protecting the environment. Visitors to Japan in recent years are invariably impressed by the country’s clean environment. But Japan also experienced the serious social consequences of pollution midway through the last century, when it underwent large-scale industrialisation.
Asahi Shimbun also notes that the Chinese government seems to be giving reporters considerable latitude to write about environmental issues, whereas stories on religion, human rights, military issues and diplomacy are much more sensitive.
Media at the forefront of China's environmental fight
Comments