Young Chinese people support environmental protection
2003-07-20 Xinhua
Many Chinese people, especially the younger generation, are reconsidering
their relationship with the natural environment. The Communist Youth League of
China (CYLC) launched a massive environmental protection project in 1999 urging
the country's 420 million young people to plant trees along major watercourses
in China, including the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, both dubbed "Mother
River of the Chinese culture".
At the 15th CYLC National Congress, which
is scheduled to open in Beijing on July 22, outstanding achievement by young
people in the CYLC mission will be awarded. According to Zhao Yong, a member
of the Secretariat of the CYLC Central Committee, the project aimed to cultivate
awareness of environmental protection among the country's young people and
attract more Chinese citizens to participate in the cause, which will benefit
generations to come.
"Protecting our mother rivers is critical for
maintaining the sustainable development of Chinese society," said
Zhao.
Chinese tradition has held that human beings are part of nature,
and will therefore benefit from environmental protection.
However,
excessive exploitation of natural resources and environmental pollution have
greatly endangered social and economic development in China. Floodwater from the
Yangtze River frequently hits southeastern China while the gushing Yellow River
has dried out in some tributaries.
Thanks to the CYLC project, some 56
million Chinese young people aged from 14 to 28 have participated in protecting
the great rivers.
A total of 250 million people from all walks of life
have contributed to the project, which involves donations and government funds
of over 250 million yuan (30.2 million US dollars) . The area of newly planted
trees and forests amounts to some 187, 000 hectares and it rapport with nature
has become a new trend young Chinese people.
As an environmental
protection move, Wang Junjing, an eight- year old Beijing girl, has collected
some 100,000 used batteries during the past four years. The environmental
protection association of Harbin Institute of Technology in northeast China's
Heilongjiang Province has managed to buy each student in the university a spoon,
replacing throw-away wooden chopsticks, commonly used in university
cafeterias.
As young Chinese people plant trees and adopt a more
environmentally-friendly lifestyle, a new "green" future can be expected, said
Zhao Yong.
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