Looking forward to a green tomorrow: Preface to the Chinese version of "Silent Spring"

Ecological planting 2020-06-29 10:57

《Preface to the Chinese version of Silent Spring (Abstract)

Liang Congjie, founder of Friends of Nature

I have read Rachel Carson's famous book "Silent Spring" after the Chinese translation came out. As early as 1962, it issued the first alarm for humans to use modern technological means to destroy their living environment. However, in the United States that year, it was severely criticized by pesticide-related companies and mocked by some public opinion. I admire Ms. Carson's scientific spirit, vision and courage. History finally proved that although she was a very rare person at the time, the truth was on her side.

In fact, the environmental problems facing China today are many times more serious than the scene described by Carson in the 1960s. To give only one example: Carson named his book "Silent Spring" because for ordinary Americans, not hearing birds in their backyard is a big surprise. But please recall, when we Chinese urban residents heard birds singing in their backyards or near them? For Chinese people, environmental problems are far more than whether birds can be heard or not, but whether people can survive normally.

We know that it was the publication of Carson's book that led to the establishment of the first civil environmental protection group in the United States. The first real private environmental protection group appeared in China in a full thirty years later, that is, the early 1990s. The Chinese people hope to realize a "moderate society" and hope that most people can live a prosperous life. This pursuit is normal and nothing wrong. But we must not forget that pursuing wealth comes at a price, and one of the costs is the consumption of natural resources and the increase in environmental load. Chinese people must learn to find a balance between the two, and must not advance the living environment of our descendants in exchange for the "better life" of contemporary people.

In China, an important task of non-governmental environmental protection organizations is to strive to improve the environmental awareness of hundreds of millions of ordinary Chinese people.Because we firmly believe that China can only look forward to a green tomorrow when most Chinese people understand the importance of environmental protection to themselves and their descendants.In this regard, Ms. Carson's Silent Spring will be one of the most powerful, classic readings for our public awareness of environmental awareness.