Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Hello, welcome to Roundtable, where we serve up piping hot debates on the issues that
Sizu and China and beyond.
I'm Yolin.
Imagine a group of young people gathered by a river, picking up trash and learning about
the ecosystem that thrives there.
These aren't just ordinary summer activities.
They are part of a growing movement of youth-driven ecological preservation.
How are young people in China and around the world stepping up to protect our planet?
From participating in clean-up efforts to leading educational initiatives, what exactly are they
doing to work for a more sustainable future?
For this episode, I'm joined by Yushun and Steve Hatharly.
Now grab your virtual compass and follow us to the heart of the discussion.
Just the globe youth are becoming champions of environmental protection, taking action
in their communities and beyond.
Whether it's through hands-on conservation work, innovative educational programs, or
advocacy, young people are making their voices heard in the fight for a sustainable future.
Today, we'd like to explore the various ways they are contributing to the preservation
of our planet, because today is actually a very special day.
August 15th marks the National Ecology Day here in China, with a growing awareness of
ecological protection, more and more young people are taking practical actions to protect
our beautiful ecological environment.
So tell us a little more about the National Ecology Day, will you?
Of course.
Actually, last year was the first National Ecology Day, so this year is the second.
As the country's drives to enhance environmental conservation for the construction of an ecological
civilization, and the decision was made at the session of the Standing Committee of the
14th National People's Congress in June 2023.
And the country will hold various, like we can say, promotional and education activities
on the day to also before the day.
Probably the whole month is the month for holding all of these activities to actually advocate
ecological civilization and raise people's awareness of protecting the environment.
Yeah, which is why this is such an important day to have on the calendar, I think, because
we need to be reminded that the environment needs to be taken care of, right?
Our plants, our trees, our waters, our animals need to be taken care of.
And we all know that, right?
And nobody wants to do anything bad to hurt the environment or anything like that.
But I think reminding everyone that we need to do just a little bit more is an important
thing to do.
And having a day like this National Ecology Day is the perfect way to do it.
Yes.
And we have a lot of days, a lot of festivals, a lot of weeks as such.
We have the Earth Day.
We have about a diversity day.
We also have water week reminding us to be conservative when it comes to using water.
I think it was elephant day.
Elephant day, high-court day.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, all those days.
And I think once in a while we would use this day as a good occasion to talk about related
issues because they are, it's really, really, very important.
Not only are we having all these different days, actually when it comes to the awareness
or when it comes to different policies, asking us to protect the environment.
There are a lot of the word or keyword to protecting the environment, making sure the ecological
environment is established the way we wanted to be.
A lot of these keywords happen in a lot of our major goals.
For example, we see that in the five-safere integrated plan, ecological civilization construction
is one of the aspects.
We also see, for example, in the basic strategy for upholding and developing socialism with
Chinese characteristics in the new era, the principle of harmony between humanity and
nature is one of the strategies.
And also when it comes to the new development philosophy, green is one of the elements,
one of the key words.
And when it comes to the goal of building a socialist modernized strong country by the
middle of the 21st century, a beautiful China, which concentrates on environmental protection,
is one of the objectives.
So yes, we say a lot about it and we do a lot about it.
And we have achieved quite a lot about it, but I don't think it's enough.
Yeah, I mean, it's never enough.
There's always more that can be done.
You should and I were talking before the show today and he asked me, Steve, did you have
any kind of preconceived notions about Beijing or its weather or anything like that before
you came?
And my answer was, not about the weather, but, and I think this is the answer for a lot
of expats who come to Beijing for the first time.
I was completely blown away by how green the city is.
There are trees everywhere.
And I've tried to explain this to my family and my friends back home or in other countries
and they say, oh yeah, and I say, no, no, no, no, you don't understand.
There's literally a tree next to a tree next to a tree next to a tree next to a tree
around this whole entire city.
And it's wonderful and it's beautiful.
I expected Beijing to be a concrete jungle as many big cities around the world are, but
that's really not the case.
And it's really nice to see that this obviously, it's only the second ecology day, national
ecology day, but obviously taking care of the city in a green way has been a concept
for a really long time.
Yes, actually, there has been a saying that instead of having some parks in a city,
we hope to view the city in a huge park.
The whole city feels like a park.
Yes, that's the idea.
And that is why we have a lot of city center parks.
We have neighborhoods parks, we have pocket parks, a lot of different parks.
So yes, improving the environment in the city is also another thing that local governments
and the central government is doing.
And in the meantime, I don't know whether or not it's due to all these different types
of days, different policies and agendas.
And our continuous effort of saying, yes, it's something very, very important.
We do see that I like to believe that's one of the factors.
And apparently we see more and more young people participating in promoting the idea
of building a more ecologically friendly environment.
And of course, the future belongs to them and they care about what we do today because
they are going to live the future.
And one thing that I find very interesting is that they're doing it in very innovative
ways, not to the let's gather together and have a meeting and learn about 10 fun facts
about the planet kind of way.
Yeah, not the typical internet search that everyone else does, including myself.
Yeah, especially a lot of these universities are going into maybe primary schools to have
some these kind of classes with all of these little primary students.
And then no matter it's give them classes or, you know, promotional knowledge classes
about how important or how the college works.
Or just give them a little bit of little games and make some DIY ecological bottles, we
would say, they put moss and little stones into this little bottle to make them understand
how the college works.
And I think it is a really good example to actually raise or be remind to remind all
of these, no matter their students or their parents, to make them realize that the importance
of the whole ecological system is a need to be protected.
Yeah.
And when I was back in my school days, this was not a topic that was discussed in school.
This was not a topic that was discussed at home.
In Canada, Canada is really famous for its clean air and beautiful lakes and rivers and
mountains and forests and trees.
A lot of forests.
Yeah.
So we don't really discuss the environment that much.
We never have a topic about the air quality.
Never.
I've never had one in my life in Canada before.
But there's a strong movement that it should be a part of educational curriculum in many
countries around the world.
In fact, a lot of international bodies are calling for this part of school.
On a regular basis, the United Nations say that it should be a part of teaching in
all schools by 2025.
That's right around the corner.
There was a study done by UNESCO that analyzed education plans in 50 countries around the
world.
And they found that more than half of the schools they looked at make no reference to climate
change.
19% made any mention of biodiversity at all.
So obviously, if those study results are correct, there's not enough being done at an early
enough age in schools to get students aware of the issues.
And if we're talking about kids in relatively young age, sitting them down in a classroom
and talking about things that they need to remember is definitely one of the most typical
way, traditional ways.
I'm not saying it's not useful.
If you can remember all the things, then in a certain age, definitely you will understand
the meaning behind it.
It is useful.
But it might not be the most effective ways.
That is why we see, for example, Ushan's case.
Ushan mentioned that college students are going to different primary schools and having
these interactive activities with kids.
Instead of explaining to them what is a ecosystem, you build a ecosystem in the little bottle
and you put in different plants, water, little fish, or little other animals and insects.
And you tell the kids, see these things are all intertwined.
They affect each other.
And if you think about the Earth as this little bottle, then we are one of the links.
And we are affected by all of the other elements.
And we see, for example, in July, 2024, over 50 primary school students from a children
volunteer group in Jimo district entered the Qingdao campus of Shandong University to
study knowledge and marine ecological protection with universities, student volunteers.
They also demonstrated scientific experiments made environmental creative handicrafts.
I would assume little bottles.
And among other things, carried out the clean beach action, which are actual things that
you can do to literally make some contributions and help the environment by picking up garbage
a little bit and sorting them out with different classification codes.
And these are all very hands-on and helpful.
And this is cool because it's young kids helping younger kids to protect the future that
they will share.
Yeah.
And I agree with you when you say, rather than sitting in a classroom and teaching from
a book about the importance of the environment and the fact that we need to protect it, getting
kids involved in hands-on activities is something that would be far more effective, I think.
You know, we talked about the results of the UN study, but there are countries around
the world that have taken action already.
For example, Cambodia has integrated climate change into their new and expanded Earth science
curriculum.
That was introduced in 2020.
And then other countries are going in a similar direction, Argentina.
For example, their parliament approved a national law of comprehensive environmental education
in 2021.
And that requires environmental education to be taught in schools at all age levels.
So there are countries that are taking steps to do the right thing here.
And also, I think these activities, as we said, we are making people reminded.
You know, because at least at this age, let's take this example of these primary school
students.
They are realizing that, okay, we are in this environment of, we need to have the awareness
of protecting the environment because we are facing all of these issues, you know, natural
maybe disasters.
And as Steve said, you know, in an environment that has a good environment, you don't actually
have the idea of, okay, we need to protect it.
We need to do something about this.
So I think with all of these activities or campaigns, they are making these young students
to realize that, okay, this is actually something that we have achieved.
And this is something that we need to take care of.
So actually, you know, as someone who has lived in Beijing for three years, and also why
I asked the question to Steve, it's because I actually had that kind of perception on
Beijing's weather.
So back then, I thought Beijing will always be cloudy and the air could be dusty, you
know, because they all, sometimes it has a lot of like storms.
But right now, as kind of a new citizen in Beijing for three years now, I actually see,
you know, more, I can really feel that, you know, the number of the days with blue skies
has increased.
And also, you know, as a southerner who was born and raised in this southern part of China,
before coming to Beijing, I thought that, you know, it could be overcast skies for
maybe a month, 99% of the days of the year.
There could be even more blue skies than in southern China, because of, you know, in
southern China, there are a rain season.
So that's, you know, compared to that, it's quite enjoyable to stay in Beijing in summer.
That is actually a very good point.
I think one of the reasons we want to remind the young people about how important it is
is partly because we've experienced something that they haven't.
We've seen different types of plants in our surroundings.
We've seen, well, for my generation, for example, I think I share similar feelings of
ocean is that I have, I have seen, for example, river banks in my hometown.
They were not protected.
They, you can see certain, some, some letters there is not to a garbage mountain kind of
degree, but it's certainly not enjoyable as it is today.
You can still play by the river bank, but now the river bank, the no men attended kind
of river bank has already been turned into a river park.
It's a huge park, the water is clean.
You cannot really catch any frogs anymore, but I guess it's a good thing because safer
with frogs.
For the frogs.
Also for the frogs.
Yeah, the frogs are delighted about that as well for sure.
But the last time I brought my kid to my hometown and we went to the park and I was
like, wow, when I was a kid, I was like playing in the adjacent area of the river.
I can easily step into the river, which is not safe for me or for the frogs, but now
my kid is enjoying this park environment, which means he has no idea what kind of parks
or what kind of environment he used to be.
He has no idea what kind of effort we put in to create this environment and telling them
that is actually very helpful.
That is, and that means that when he grows up, he'll be inspired to do the same thing.
Exactly.
Talking about water and water conservation, China has done a pretty good job in terms of
that as well.
Yeah, of course.
According to a China Daily report this May, though China's GDP last year was double what
it was in 2014.
Its total water consumption remained stable at around 610 billion cubic meters.
So last year, water consumption per unit of GDP and per unit of industrial added value
decreased by 41 percent and 55 percent respectively compared to 2014.
In the meantime, we see China has restored over 100 million more.
That is about 6.7 million hectares to a coal systems that include mountains, rivers, forests,
landlands, lakes, green lands and deserts.
And we say that yes, it has achieved a lot and over the past 40 years, it has achieved
continuous growth in forest area and for a stock making a greener planet, at least a
greener China for us yet.
I did a little bit of research on this number, 6.7 million hectares.
It's actually the area of Ireland covers about 7 million hectares.
So it's almost the same size as Ireland.
We grow out a country of trees.
That's so cool.
But the thing is, I feel like yes, especially for us living in the city, in the city that
is much tended to, we feel the improvement of the environment.
One thing we cannot neglect is that the environment is a system and if the system is getting better
or is getting better the speed that we wanted to be, then the global warming issue would
be addressed better than what as we expected to be and the biodiversity situation would
be improved at the speed that we wanted to be and it is not just yet.
So there are still a lot of work to do.
I think getting ahead of the problem is a smart thing to do as well with all the water
conservation that China is doing.
It's a really smart thing because the problem hasn't come to the country yet or to the city
yet to Beijing yet.
But if you look at Mexico City, for example, they are in an absolute crisis right now.
Mexico City population wise, not that different from Beijing, 22 million people live in Mexico
City and they are in the midst of a severe, severe water crisis because of different reasons.
Geographies, one of them, some chaotic urban development and some leaky infrastructure.
And then you put climate change on top of that.
But my point is, is that they've already reached the problem and now they're trying to
backtrack to fix it.
But if you're aware that the problem could come in the future and you take steps to get
ahead of it, then maybe that problem never comes.
When we think about climate change or we think about taking care of our ecological systems,
preventative measures is always the best way to go.
Yes, that is why for a lot of young people, they would find different ways to make their
contributions, to work for a better and greener future.
And they are using different measures.
We talked about them talking to younger kids about the importance of protecting the environment.
And they are also utilizing this very today or even future technologies, including artificial
intelligence.
We've interviewed people who use artificial intelligence to start this website, providing
people with data that are corrected, that are checked, that are from reliable sources,
so that everyone in need of this resource of these data can get the information they
need on the website.
We've seen people finding a very beautiful place, setting up a little camp, allowing more
and more people young and old, and whoever to enjoy the environment while getting themselves
some knowledge about certain species, about the relationship among these species, so that
they understand how important it is to better protect the environment.
And all these measures are done and are initiated by the young minds of the country and the
globe.
And I think about Canada before, Canada is doing that as well.
They have a group called the Canada Environment Youth Council, which is a group of young people,
a group of youth, who are really passionate about the environment in Canada and passionate
about protecting it for their own future, and then the next generation of Canadians as
well.
And the really cool thing about that group is that it's a nonpartisan group, and they
actually give advice to the government of Canada, this group, this youth group, on decisions
that in their opinion, things that need to change or steps that need to be taken.
Getting the youth involved in a variety of topics, but especially the environment is
really important.
Yes, and also I think this day or National Ecology Day is using the same idea to inform
people, not also as we said, the activities and campaigns have started through the whole
month of August.
And I saw that starting from early August, the National Botanical Garden Science Popularization
Center here in Beijing actually kicked off a series of popular science lectures for this
National Ecology Day.
The lectures featured many experts in fields such as botany, zoology, and also astronomy
who shared fascinating stories about the world of living things and allowed the audience,
especially primary students to experience the boundless charm of biodiversity.
And I saw that a professor Lee Jianjing from the National Museum of Natural History, he
used a series of captivating photos and videos to tell the story of dinosaurs.
And I think that is the popular topic among you.
So say we live in the city, we want to contribute.
Do you think there's anything we can do besides using recycled water to flush your toilet,
setting up your air conditioner to 26 degrees Celsius and do not have them all the time,
unless you have a little baby at home who kind of needed on all the time, which is my situation.
So what are some other things that we can do?
Oh, in fact, I was thinking when you're asking this question, I was thinking the outdoor
activity group that I was in.
I saw a lot of list of their activities and there are some trash picking activities to
suburban area of Beijing.
And they call out all of these, no matter how old you are, you can bring your family to
this area to pick up the trash in the mountain areas and then also enjoy the beautiful scenes
of Beijing.
Yeah.
You know, water conservation, we talked about.
So the advice that we always hear if you're brushing your teeth, don't let the water run
things like that, take shorter showers, that helps out.
But that's the advice that we hear all the time.
All the time.
My big concern is do we do enough?
And I think if I answer that personally about myself, no, I don't.
And I think the reason for myself not doing enough and in general is kind of comparable
to going to the gym once or twice or three times.
You don't see the difference, right?
If you turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth consistently, you don't see the
environment change.
So if you don't see a change immediately, just like at the gym, well, then you're discouraged
and you want to quit.
So we stop doing the things to help the environment.
We need to remember to be consistent in our habits, in our hobbies, to take care of our
planet because this is where we live.
Yes, and we need to be reminded constantly.
And perhaps that's why we're doing the show today.
That's one of the reasons.
And in the meantime, next time when you see an electric bill building up so high, stop
thinking, wow, I spent so much money thinking, huh, I've used all the energy.
Maybe I should do something to make the situation better.
The contributions of young people to ecological preservation highlight a growing awareness
and commitment to environmental stewardship.
And I hope this can be better.
Because more young people become involved in these initiatives, the momentum for a healthier
planet will only continue to grow, paving the way for a more sustainable and ecologically
balanced future.
