Human and nature

Author: Yang Youxing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Over the past two decades, under the emphasis and leadership of the Party and the state, China's environmental protection work has grown from small to large, from weak to strong, achieving significant progress. At the same time, public environmental awareness has also greatly improved. The five years just past were the period with the largest increase in public environmental awareness, the period with the closest integration of environmental protection and economic development, and also the period with the fastest growth in environmental protection. It was precisely because the Party committees and governments at all levels implemented environmental protection as a fundamental policy in all development processes, accelerated industrial restructuring, increased environmental investment, and strengthened environmental law enforcement that the trend of deteriorating environmental pollution was basically controlled, and the environmental quality in some regions and cities began to improve. It was precisely because industrial enterprises continuously innovated and adopted clean production technologies, phased out backward equipment and processes, and strengthened pollution control that the total discharge of pollutants nationwide was controlled and reduced. The increasingly extensive and in-depth environmental publicity and public opinion supervision by the media not only exposed environmentally harmful behavior but also promoted the resolution of environmental issues, further raising public environmental awareness. As the public more consciously used legal means to safeguard their environmental rights and interests, more and more people participated in activities to protect and improve the environment, laying an extremely important social foundation for the in-depth development of the environmental protection cause.