Every year the whole world loses 4.7 million hectares of forest, its area is more than the entire land area of Denmark. It is estimated that about one million animal and plant species are currently at risk of extinction. Mother Earth is clearly calling on the international community to act. Nature is suffering. The oceans are full of plastic and are rapidly turning acidic. Extreme heat, wildfires, floods and storms etc. affect millions of people across the world. Climate change, human behavior altering nature and deforestation, land use change, rapid agriculture and livestock production, and increasing illegal trade in wildlife, etc., are various “crimes” that accelerate the destruction of the planet, which destroy biodiversity. Are.
Ecosystems support all life on Earth. From air to breathe and drinking water to soil to grow food, human health depends on the health of Mother Earth. Restoring damaged ecosystems will help eradicate poverty, combat climate change, and prevent mass extinctions. But this mission will be successful only when everyone participates in it. In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to designate every April 22 as International Mother Earth Day. In fact, its true origins date back to the 1970s. The year 1970 was also established as Earth Day on this day. In 1972, the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm signaled that the world recognized the interdependence of humans, other biological species and the planet. People’s awareness of environment is increasing and environmental movement has spread all over the world. Especially in the 1990s, more than 140 countries joined the environmental protection program through various environmental forums.
China has always played an indispensable role in improving the global ecological environment, such as afforestation, wildlife protection and new energy development and utilization. In recent years, China has stepped up the coordinated promotion of the integrated protection and orderly governance of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, sands and snow lands. Over the past ten years, the average concentration of PM 2.5 in major cities across the country has decreased by 56 percent and the number of days with heavy pollution has decreased by 87 percent. China has become the country with the fastest improvement in air quality in the world. The proportion of good water bodies in China has increased by 23.3 percent to 84.9 percent, while urban black and odorous water bodies have been basically eliminated. The safety of drinking water for the public has been effectively guaranteed. China’s carbon emissions have been cut by more than 35 percent. China’s soil environmental quality has made fundamental improvements. A national soil environmental monitoring network covering 80,000 stations is established in China. China not only ranks first in the world in new energy development area, but also ranks first in renewable energy development and utilization scale. With this, China has driven the rapid and vigorous development of global renewable energy.
The recycling rate of plastic products in China is about 30 percent, which is higher than many developed countries. Since 2008, the average annual reduction in the use of plastic bags in major retail stores in China has reached 2 million tons. China’s forest area has increased by 7.1 percent to 227 million hectares. About a quarter of the new green area in the world comes from China. This reflects China’s responsibility as a leading country in actively responding to global climate change. China has given new impetus to building a global ecological civilization and promoting green restoration. International Mother Earth Day and Earth Day are coming. Countries around the world must recognize, more deeply than ever before, the urgent need to move towards a more sustainable economy that benefits humans and the planet. Work together to enhance the harmonious coexistence of man, nature and earth.
(Credits – China Media Group, Beijing)
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