Chen, as chairman of the Inner Mongolia Sandstorm Research and Control Promotion Association, says, for example, that spring should be a time of bright seasonal sunshine and new life. On the contrary, dust and sandstorms in his region not only cause tremendous inconvenience but also badly affect economics and production. If China is to set a goal for itself as an affluent, well-rounded society then it needs to give its environment absolute priority. Chen says the fact that affluent people live with serious air pollution must go against the aims China sets for itself.

He says that back in the 1950s, China experienced only five sandstorms. It rose to 13 in the 1970s and 23 in the 1990s. Although China has become a country with a vastly depleted ecology, there are things that can be done, as it is largely due to human intervention that it happened in the first place: the erosion of grasslands into farmland has removed vital vegetation and created deserts even though in recent times this has ceased.

Chen Shoupeng has called for an overall increase in the treatment of the environment in China. Otherwise, he says, man will not be thanked by nature. But he acknowledges that this process is a long one and requires tough rules and regulations to make it work: ecological education being a vital component that should begin in the earliest classroom, he says.

It is incumbent on man to strengthen its relationship with nature and reap the reward an affluent society deserves by living in environment that is ecologically friendly.

(China.org.cn translated by Li Jinhui, March 7, 2003)