The 35th World Earth Day roused unusual enthusiasm across China, which has just pledged to adopt a scientific concept of development.  

Some 1,500 primary and middle school students in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, formed huge English letters "I LOVE YOU MOTHER" at a local school playground on Thursday afternoon and sang the song "I love you, mother" to mark Earth Day and call for the whole society to take care of the earth.

 

In China's northernmost Heilongjiang Province, the local environment protection authority started a crackdown on radiation pollution Thursday and punished institutions for illegally dealing with radiation waste or idle radiation facilities, in a bid to keep the earth clean.

 

China Central Television Station (CCTV) has put on a 20-hour TV series about Earth Day since Tuesday introducing various scientific knowledge about the earth to the public.

 

The Chinese government has highlighted Earth Day as well.

 

A populous country with limited natural resources like China should cherish forest, every river, every inch of the earth and every mine, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in a letter to students of a Beijing local primary school Wednesday.

 

China will exploit the natural resources in a rational way since the eco-environment here faces heavy pressure, the premier said in the letter.

 

The primary school students wrote a letter to the premier earlier about their project to call on children across the country to protect the earth.

 

Sun Wensheng, minister of land and resources, said just ahead of Earth Day, "The Chinese government pledges itself to a scientific concept of development in using its resources."

 

The Chinese government took "Be Kind to Earth --- Scientific Development," as this year's theme of China's commemoration activities for Earth Day.

 

"Water" was one of the most frequently mentioned words on Earth Day in China.

 

The Chinese society needs to be more conscious of the water shortage and the importance of saving water, said Wu Jisong, director of the Water Resources & Hydrological Department under the Ministry of Water Resources, at a Sino-Japanese forum Thursday.

 

Two thirds of over 600 Chinese cities lack water and one sixth are severely short of it.

 

On the same afternoon, a small meeting was held in Beijing's Dongsi community at which delegates of residents from some communities in Beijing exchanged their ideas about how to save the water.

 

"My way is to wash tableware with the water I used to wash rice," said Liu Shuzhen, a granny from Jiangongnanli community, "I never use cleaning agents."

 

Jiang Zuhong, a teacher from the Beijing Institute of Technology, has just changed the toilet at his house from one with10-liter toilet tank to 3-liter one. "It is a waste to use so much water at once," he said.

 

The Beijing municipal government has said it will raise the price for water supply by next year, 1.6 yuan per cubic meter of living water higher than the present price.

 

However, still many ordinary people were indifferent to the Earth Day things despite promotions here and there.

 

"I didn't know there is an Earth Day," said Liang Wenwang, a taxi driver in Beijing in his forties. "It is the scientists' job to protect the earth. It is too far away from our life."

 

The scientists and experts from the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Geological Society of China and China Land Science Society launched a scientific promotion on Earth Day at a busy street in Beijing downtown Thursday.

 

"Only two or three people came to us during the whole morning and only asked very simple questions such as 'What's Earth Day' and 'What do people usually do on this day,'" said Jiang Xuejian, a teacher from the China University of Geosciences.

 

"It will be a long-term job to publicize the knowledge on protecting the earth," said Prof. Bi Kongzhang from an institute under the Ministry of Land and Resources, "It is far from enough to just do it on Earth Day."

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2004)