In bright spring weather, where should people go for a spring outing?
Romantic flower fields in the countryside, shaded greenery in cities, and even vibrant pocket parks at street corners allow residents to step directly into spring scenery.
These spring outing scenes reflect the fruitful achievements of China’s ecological civilization construction and also reveal the people’s strong aspiration for a sound ecological environment.
Recently, while taking part in a voluntary tree-planting activity in the capital, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “We should coordinate urban and rural greening and beautification, add green spaces around the people wherever possible, and give urban and rural residents a greater sense of green well-being.”
The sense of green well-being is most directly felt through changes around us.
There was a time when ecological and environmental problems seriously affected people’s quality of life. Some foreign observers once believed that air pollution control was “something impossible to change without thirty to fifty years.”
Today, forest area and forest stock volume continue to achieve “double growth,” while the areas of desertified and sandy land continue to achieve “double reduction.” Blue skies, green land, and clear waters have become the norm.
These changes are not only visible, but also tangible. When closed windows become open windows for fresh air, when people no longer cover their noses while passing by but live close to clean waters, and when dust-filled skies give way to lush greenery, every improvement in the ecological environment is shared and enjoyed by all.
“We must make choices. What exactly do we want? From the perspective of whether the people are satisfied and whether they agree, the ecological environment is very important; from the perspective of improving people’s livelihoods, this is also the most important point.” Once the value coordinates of what to choose and what to give up are clearly identified, the answers to what should be done and how it should be done become clear.
From deeply advancing the battles to defend blue skies, clear waters, and clean land, to scientifically carrying out large-scale land greening campaigns, and to continuously improving the rural living environment, efforts have always focused on issues strongly reflected by the people. With the resolve to overcome difficulties through human effort, one ecological pain point after another has been turned into a livelihood highlight.
Making a sound ecological environment the most inclusive public good for people’s well-being demonstrates the livelihood warmth of green development in the new era.
A greater sense of green well-being comes from unwavering transformation, reflecting the certainty of high-quality development.
When working in Fujian, in response to the situation in which many forest farmers lived in poverty while holding on to “lucid waters and lush mountains,” Comrade Xi Jinping promoted the reform of the collective forest tenure system. Forest farmers changed from “tree cutters” into “tree guardians,” developed the understory economy, and achieved simultaneous increases in both the “green content” and the “gold content” of mountainous and forest areas.
Lucid waters and lush mountains are both natural wealth and economic wealth. By continuously improving the mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products, a sound ecological environment can become a growth point for people’s lives, making the sense of green well-being more substantial and more sustainable.
A greater sense of green well-being comes from a long-term perspective on development, planning not only for the present but also for the future.
“It is not that faster growth is impossible, but that we choose not to pursue it.” By abandoning the practice of judging success solely by GDP growth rates and promoting a comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, the proportion of good-quality water in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has risen from 67% to 96.5% over the past decade, while its regional GDP has more than doubled. China has built the world’s largest renewable energy system and new energy industrial chain, and during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the added value of the “three new” economy has grown at an average annual rate of more than 8.5%.
New quality productive forces are themselves green productive forces. By taking green and low-carbon development as the fundamental solution to ecological and environmental problems, promoting industrial ecology and ecological industrialization, and continuously transforming ecological advantages into development advantages, we will win a higher-quality, more sustainable, and more resilient development future through the mutual promotion of ecology and industry and the harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. (Yin Shuanghong)
(Source: People’s Daily)