What Is Exactly Ecological Environmental Damage? | ZHOU Talks about Ecological Civilization (Lecture 251)
[The content of this article is compiled from the speech of Dr. ZHOU Jinfeng, Secretary General of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), at the “Seminar on Ecological Environmental Damage Assessment and High-quality Development Theory and Technology in Northeast China”. This article is the third in a series of manuscripts compiled from this speech, and is included in the 251st lecture of Zhou Talks about Ecological Civilization.]
There is a fundamental difference between the sixth mass extinction and the previous five mass extinctions. The previous five extinctions were all due to drastic changes in nature; while this one is caused by human factors. Therefore, from this point we can answer the question: what is ecological environmental damage?
We have done a lot of research on environmental conditions based on traditional industrial civilization. Let me tell you a story: the construction of an artificial forest wetland park in Nanyuan, Beijing was approved by many scientists in environmental assessment. After half of the construction, some volunteers reported to us that it had a serious impact on the local natural ecological environment. We went to investigate and found that the situation reflected by the volunteers was real. Many people don’t quite understand this. They think that it used to be a deserted and messy place, but now it has become a well-planned forest wetland park. How can it destroy the ecological environment? If you check the water quality, soil and heavy metal levels, all are good. This requires us to correctly understand what is ecological environmental damage.
One botanist said that there were no endangered plants in Nanyuan Wetlands, so we could eradicate the original vegetation and plan to build a forest wetland park. But I asked him if he knew anything about birds here? He said he knew because he had done bird surveys, and there were no particularly endangered birds. What he didn’t know, however, was how many kinds of birds there were in that wilderness before the forest wetland park was built. There were 40 to 50 species of birds, including many endangered birds, foraging and staying there. How many birds are there after the forest wetland park has been built? There are only four or five kinds of birds. How did this happen? It used to be a wilderness with various vegetation. Some birds eat this kind of insects and grass seeds, and other birds eat that kind of insects and grass seeds. But now there is only one kind of grass on the lawn under unified planning, and many birds have no food at all. All kinds of insects in the wilderness have disappeared. Those insects are good food for birds, and now there are no insects. The natural ecological environment has been destroyed by artificial planning and transformation.
Why should we pay special attention to Nanyuan Wetland? Because that place is the natural habitat of one of the few endangered birds in Beijing. When I was a child, there were grasslands and small river ditches in the center of Beijing; while now, even in the edge of Beijing, you can rarely see the natural wetlands. There used to be such a perfect wilderness in Nanyuan, a paradise for various birds. Unfortunately, it was developed and destroyed by people, i.e., it makes way for social development. By so doing, it seems that we’re in a rush heading for the mass extinction. Not only the biodiversity dependent on the natural ecosystems suffers, we, the human race, ourselves also suffer a lot in the rapid urbanization. All these are contrary to the ecological civilization.
The pollution in Tenggeli Desert is a similar case. Many scientists told me privately that the pollution discharged into the desert did no harm to anyone and the environment was not damaged, because there were few animals and plants there. They even told me that some grass grew there after the sewage was discharged. However, in the end, through the environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) case filed by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), the defendant was sentenced to bear hundreds of millions of compensations for ecological environmental damage. Some people don’t quite understand this, saying that the environment is people-centered. As there are few people in that place, they say that people-centered nature is called environment. This is a one-sided and erroneous statement.
Picture source: Slides of Zhou’s Report
At the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15), China, as the presidency, has made great achievements, making great contributions to the world and leading the world’s biodiversity work and ecological civilization construction. The meeting finally facilitated the signing of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This is the background that we must know when we do the research and evaluation of ecological environment damage.
What is the biggest damage to the ecological environment today? The answer is the lack of comprehensive thinking about biological relations. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework has set five levels for ecological environment damage. What is the main cause of biodiversity loss? It is the change caused by human use of land and sea. Nanyuan Wetlands used to be a perfect natural wilderness, but now it has been an artificial forest wetland park. This is exactly the damage to the ecological environment.
Translator: Irene
Checked by Samantha
Editor: Irene
Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776
Contribution
Do you know? CBCGDF is a non-profit organization. We rely on crowd-funding and donations. You have the opportunity to help us to advance biodiversity conservation. Donate TODAY to power up the movement to make it a better world for all life.
Comments
Post a Comment