Today is the 35th World Earth Day, and this year the theme for the day in China is “Be Kind to Earth--Scientific Development.”

In the morning, the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS) opened to the public for the first time in its 48-year history. The public was invited to visit four key laboratories, in which state-of-the-art scientific research equipment was displayed. Three specimen exhibition halls were also open.

Hundreds of Beijing college students and citizens from nearby communities visited the special exhibition.

Outside was a display sponsored by the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Geological Society of China, which presented basic information about China’s natural resources--including land, minerals, water and ocean--to heighten public awareness of the need to protect them.

Passers-by examined the text and pictures displayed on streetside exhibition boards concerning sandstorm formation, water resource distribution, solar energy applications and a variety of other topics. Professors and other specialists stood by to explain details, and a number of informative handouts were given away free of charge.

Although the government is paying close attention to environmental protection and resource conservation, public awareness and understanding is still sorely lacking. Sponsors of the activities today took advantage of the occasion to help people understand the fragility of the planet.

Yesterday afternoon, 800 Beijing primary and middle school students from “Li Siguang classes” gathered at the Great Hall of the People to help launch a program to make environmental protection a lifelong habit.

Li Siguang (1889 - 1971) was a well-known geologist whose research led to the discovery and exploration of the gas and oil fields in the Daqing and Shengli regions, respectively in northeast and east China.

The students appealed to the youth all over the country to get personally involved in resource conservation. Pupils from one primary school read aloud a handwritten letter they had received from Premier Wen Jiabao, in which he said he hoped that they would understand and care for the Earth and protect it throughout their lives.

The students will also visit the newly renovated China Geology Museum, which is scheduled to open to the public on June 1. Academicians from the Chinese Academies of Sciences and Engineering will be invited periodically to lecture on earth science and natural resources at various schools.

Around the country, people are being called on to take care of their planet.

Minister of Land and Resources Sun Wensheng spoke yesterday, calling on the public to be kind to the Earth to preserve its resources.

“The Chinese government pledges itself to a scientific concept of development in using its resources,” Sun said.

The concept, a new ideological advance of the Communist Party of China (CPC), calls for comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable people-centered development.

It also stresses coordinated development between urban and rural areas, among different regions, between economic and social development, between the development of man and nature, and between domestic development and opening to the outside world.

China’s theme for this year’s World Earth Day--“Be Kind to Earth--Scientific Development”--embodies the idea of harmonious development between man and nature, according to Sun.

The Ministry of Land and Resources says that while China’s land area ranks third in the world, its average land per capita is just one-third the world average. Arable land per capita is less than half the world average, and mineral resources per capita stand at about 58 percent.

Despite these shortages, Sun said, China has a low resource utilization rate and has seriously damaged and wasted its resources over the years.

“China is placing increasing demand on its resources for social and economic development, while confronting severe shortages in resource supply,” Sun said. “Therefore, China must adopt a scientific concept of development in using its resources to achieve harmonious and coordinated development between man and nature and between economy and society.”

Sun said that China would protect its land, especially farmland, in the strictest manner, while strengthening supervision over resource exploitation.

“To protect the Earth is to protect ourselves and to leave a precious living space for our offspring,” Sun said. “Let’s move to protect the Earth and create a beautiful life and a bright future.”

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2004)