China News Service, April 22 (Dong Hanyang) April 22 is the 52nd World Earth Day. Today, a series of issues such as climate change, sharp decline in biodiversity and marine pollution need to be further paid attention to.

Not long ago, the Japanese government decided to discharge nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. This behavior, which ignores the safety of the global marine environment and ecosystem, has triggered "condemnation" from international environmental protection organizations and fishermen who have made a living from the sea for generations. However, some Western countries that have always hyped up environmental protection events have chosen to remain silent on this matter.

In the face of real environmental protection "big events", why is it difficult to hear the voices of the previously active Western "environmentalists"? Isn't this contrary to the original intention of launching the World Earth Day initiative?

[World Earth Day, starting from an oil spill]

The Santa Barbara oil spill in the United States in 1969 largely promoted the birth of World Earth Day. That year, a pipeline failure of the United Oil Company of the United States caused a spill of 100,000 barrels of crude oil, killing thousands of seabirds, dolphins and other creatures.

Not only that, American factories at that time could also discharge thick smoke and sewage into the natural environment at will, and leaded gasoline was still widely used... People's environmental awareness was very weak. These scenes touched Americans Gaylord Nelson and Dennis Hayes. They proposed to launch a large-scale environmental protection publicity campaign across the United States. Therefore, they were later called the "Father of Earth Day."

On April 22, 1970, the first "Earth Day" was held. About 20 million Americans took to the streets to call on people to love the earth and stop destroying it. This action not only promoted the promulgation of relevant environmental protection laws in the United States, but also gradually received responses from around the world.

On April 22, 1990, 200 million people from more than 140 countries held commemorative activities in various places, with great momentum. Since then, April 22 has become a world-class environmental protection publicity day.

However, over the years, environmental problems are still intensifying with factors such as industrial development and human activities.

United Nations data show that since 1980, global marine plastic pollution has increased 10 times, affecting turtles, seabirds and marine mammals; in addition, about 1 million species of animals and plants in the world are threatened with extinction.

Protecting the earth is imminent.

[Japan wants to discharge sewage into the sea, why are Western environmentalists silent? ]

In 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake occurred in Japan and triggered a tsunami, resulting in a serious leak at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Ten years later, the Japanese government announced that it plans to discharge more than 1 million tons of nuclear waste water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea starting two years later. This behavior has been severely criticized because it is essentially "choosing the plan with the lowest economic cost and blaming all mankind."

Experts point out that nuclear sewage will pass through ocean currents, first to Alaska or Canada, and Hawaii, and then return to Asia along the ocean currents, and fish and shrimp will be contaminated. If humans eat contaminated seafood for a long time, they may also develop chronic radiation sickness, causing damage to the hematopoietic organs, nervous system, and even DNA, which will pass on the harm to the next generation.

Faced with the Japanese government's plan, Fukushima fishermen and fishery associations took the lead in opposing it, and China, South Korea, Russia and other countries and several environmental protection organizations also expressed dissatisfaction. However, people gradually discovered that Western environmentalists and some organizations who were once keen to "wave the flag and shout" for the climate crisis are now "shrinking their necks."

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish "environmental girl" who is strongly promoted by the West, has been sought after by young people in many countries for launching the "school strike for climate" action. She is also particularly concerned about carbon emissions in developing countries. However, she, who has always been "full of firepower", did not make any more noise this time except for forwarding two related news from Japan on social media, and seemed to have suddenly "silenced".

Coincidentally, Jerome Foster, an 18-year-old boy selected by US President Biden to join the presidential advisory group, has been protesting in front of the White House every week since 2019, calling on the government to pay attention to the climate crisis, but he has also remained silent in the face of Japan's discharge of nuclear wastewater.

Today, most of these "environmentalists" have become "guests of honor" at the US Congress and the BBC. From this point of view, whether they are environmentalists or "spokespersons" with ulterior motives shaped by the West, the answer is obvious.

Not only "voice", but also "action"

Compared with the "eye-catching" approach of some Western environmentalists who strike and march at will, protecting the earth's environment requires more down-to-earth actions.

Take China as an example. Over the past few decades, the pace of protecting the earth's environment has never stopped. In 1986, the Aksu region of Xinjiang decided to launch the Kekoya Desert Greening Project. Over the past 30 years, a total of more than 1.2 million mu of afforestation has been completed.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP (China's gross domestic product) fell by 18.2%.

Many countries around the world are also taking action. About five years ago, more than 190 countries and regions jointly "pledged" to reach the historic "Paris Agreement". Under this agreement, more and more countries have pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of this century.

On Earth Day in 2021, the Global Leaders Climate Summit will be held in video form. At that time, leaders from China, Russia, the United States, Canada, South Korea and other countries will attend to discuss issues such as environmental protection.

Climate change has always been an issue concerning the survival of all mankind, and no one can be immune to it. We only have one earth. Protecting our mother earth is not only about "voice", but also about "action".

In fact, every ordinary person like you and me, starting from the little things around us that we can do, not wasting food, saving water resources, insisting on garbage classification, and more green travel, is the best way to participate in environmental protection. Treating Mother Earth well is protecting ourselves.

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