Smoke signals
He Yong and Huang Min are two strangers who earn different amounts of money and live thousands of kilometers from each other. What they do have in common, however, is they both did something last year to help combat global warming.
He, an employee at a Beijing-based non-profit organization, spent 4,400 yuan ($570) last autumn buying an energy efficient bio-fresh refrigerator.
"The reason I bought the fridge is that it can control temperature so I don't need to defrost food again with microwave, which saves energy and protects our environment," He said.
In his house, the air conditioner and lamps are energy-saving products as well.
Major inudstries, such as this electricity factory in Baotou of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, are working to reduce their impact on the environment. New survey results show that individuals are also eager to change their consumption habits. Niu Yixin |
Meanwhile Huang, who works in a small city in Fujian Province of East China, said she could not afford such an expensive green fridge, but knows that "low energy consumption can be more environmental-friendly".
Huang has updated all the lights in her house into energy-efficient ones. She added that if the price difference between an energy-saving fridge and an ordinary one was as low as 500 yuan ($65), she would consider buying the former for the sake of the environment.
According to findings from a survey released last month, more than two thirds of the 14,220 respondents on six continents said they were concerned about climate change. More significantly, 95 percent of these people had personally done something to reduce the effects of climate change in the past year.
According to the report, 76 percent of the respondents in the Chinese mainland claimed to have bought green products in the past year, well above all the other surveyed countries including Germany and Norway.
"Given that China is about to overtake the United States as the number one producer of greenhouse gases, it is notable that the Chinese consumer is taking action," says the report from Synovate, the UK-based market research company that conducted the survey together with BBC World.
Synovate polled in 21 markets including the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and China throughout February this year, during which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a major report indicating that human activities contributed most to climate change.
"The results (Chinese leading the green products consumption) are not surprising to me at all," said Arthur Tam, director of Synovate China.
He explained that they polled mostly urban residents who were most likely to buy expensive green products. "We talked with about 250 people in each of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and about 1,000 in Hong Kong," he said.
Dr Chen Ying, a senior researcher with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), offered a different perspective. "Chinese are instilled with a more extensive concept of green products than Western people. A bag of so-called organic green tea may also have been counted in as a green product when they tried to answer the question," said Chen, who works for the academy's Research Center for Sustainable Development.
"Also, with rapid economic growth, China is in a phase where people exhibit amazing purchasing power. They are updating consumption goods frequently. Many of them likely bought often-advertised-as-green products last year."
Although Chen disagreed that the survey results suggested that the Chinese are more environmentally conscious than people in other countries, she agrees that it indicates an increasing awareness of environmental issues among Chinese people.
"The Chinese authorities always attach more importance to the commitment of industries in combating climate change than to that of individuals. What the survey results tell us is that it is also time to encourage individuals to change their consumption habits," she said.
Concerned about climate change though they are, many are unclear about the consequences of it, the survey results also show. One in seven who had an opinion on climate change were unaware of the main dangers such as desertification, drought, or flooding.
Asians, including Koreans, Chinese and Singaporeans, especially remain uninformed about the possible outcomes of climate change. Among Chinese respondents, 29 percent of those who were concerned about climate change claimed they did not know about the main dangers.
Above: A chef cooks with an electromagnetic oven on a green product exhibtion held in Beijing last month. Middle: Visitors are drawn to a "green house" with a grass-covered roof. Photos by Lu Zhongqiu |
Huang admitted that she learnt about the term of "climate change" through the media two years ago. "I always believed it was an issue for scientists to worry about," she said.
Huang also admitted that she had no theory about the potential danger of climate change. "I have heard about rising sea levels and shrinking glaciers, but they don't look like something that will affect my life."
Because He works with environmentalists, he is able to keep himself informed about climate change news. "People are concerned about rising temperatures, but they don't know how to take action to change it," he said. "For many young people, they never experienced cooler weathers. So they don't even have any idea that the planet is actually warming."
Steve Garton, Synovate's global head of media research, says there appears to be a need for better environmental education across all markets.
Chen suggests domestic non-governmental organizations related to environmental protection should play a more active role in public education and expand their influence deeper into the grassroots.
Earlier this month, the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development published a report, saying community-based approaches are vital to relieve the threat of climate change in developing countries. Saleemul Huq, head of the institute's climate change group, says climate change is an "esoteric and initially confusing" concept to many.
Therefore, he suggests that translating scientific terms into traditional means of communication such as art and theater, or modern methods such as video are effective in helping poor communities adapt to the situation.
(China Daily 05/15/2007 page20)
