Chinese students are getting greener, but some feel they are swimming against the tide.

A rapidly developing China is running up against all kinds of environmental problems, just as today's developed nations did more than a century ago. The difference is now these problems are occurring on a much greater scale, and they're wreaking far more damage upon the environment. So, as the political and business leaders of tomorrow, or indeed as citizens of China today, how concerned are the country's college students about their environment, and what are they and their universities doing to help prevent its deterioration?

“Sandstorms, desertification, and polluted air, water and land. These are just some examples of environmental deterioration that we face in China today,” says Beijing student Wang Ou. “Are students aware of these things? They would have to be blind not to be.” Yet according to www.people.com.cn , a Chinese web portal, just 70 percent of respondents to an environmental survey conducted in Peking University, the country's leading university, said they had a “normal level” of awareness about the issue. They identified the top three environmental harmers in their campus as water and electricity wastage, overuse of paper materials, and the use of disposable chopsticks.

“The problems run much deeper than that,” says Wang Ou. “I may be cynical, but when I see 1,000 new cars rolling onto the streets of Beijing everyday, or canals clogged up with polystyrene food containers every time I get a train out of the city, or read newspaper articles about the latest environmental catastrophe, I am not filled with great hope.” Wang feels college students need to take a more proactive role in addressing environmental issues today, because they will be the ones that have to clean up the mess in the years and decades to come.

Universities Are Doing More

At least universities, as the cradle of tomorrow's scientists, businesspeople and government leaders, are taking the issue more seriously these days. Tsinghua University's Department of the Environment has set up a movement called the Green Organization. The highly popular organization arranges plenty of interesting activities that students are happy to take part in, like tree-planting expeditions and organizing recycling campaigns. They get great participation rates - when the students can find the time. There are similar organizations in other Chinese universities, too. These organizations promote environmental awareness among college students, and hope that they will then spread the information farther a field. “Last summer, my classmates and I went out to some local residential areas and handed out leaflets with information on daily actions that every individual can take to reduce his or her burden on the environment,” says Wang Ou. “I would say that most of the residents we spoke to were receptive to our ideas. They read our leaflets, and promised to take these small actions. But who knows what they did in practice? Maybe they threw our leaflets on the ground as soon as they got around the corner!”

Others have ventured a little deeper into the field, and returned with more positive experiences. Wang Chuang is a student in Tsinghua University. It is his opinion that, “Environmental problems have emerged as a result of China's huge population and rapid development. Most students these days are well aware of this. But they don't know the true situation. They need to actually go to these places, and get more deeply involved, to grasp a realistic idea of the situation, and moreover, of what is being done to fix it.” So Wang Chuang did just that - he was part of a research team organized by Tsinghua that visited an area of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region earlier this year to find solutions to environmental problems caused by overgrazing on its once-expansive grasslands.

Wang was one of an 11-member team called the “Green Light.” It was made up of students from fields as diverse as electronic engineering, hydroelectricity, and even law. None of the team members had a background in environmental studies, but all of them were concerned and eager to help. Years of overgrazing on the grasslands had devastated the local environment. Another team member, Zhao Chenlong, describes how, “Two potential solutions were tested on a small area of land. One was the planting of trees in affected areas, the other was surrounding them with blocks that would prohibit grazing sheep and cattle from entering, in the hope that the situation would remedy itself within five years. When results show the best solution, it will be applied to a much wider scale.”

The team was charged with the task of researching the “realities” in the local area. Says Wang Chuang, “Simply removing the problem, i.e. , the grazing sheep, would affect the local people, and that would not have a satisfactory outcome. So we had to carry out thorough research on the shepherds, on their basic needs, and on their lifestyles. We visited them in their homes and examined out the local conditions.” All the group members then discussed what they had seen, and approached the subject from a number of different angles. “These sessions inspired many new ideas,” says Wang Chuang. “It was great to be out in the field together, discussing these and other environmental problems with students from different parts of the country. With so many people willing to discuss the issues, and more importantly, take action, it certainly gave us the feeling that all of these problems can eventually be overcome.” The team's final task was to draft a report on their findings, and hand it in to the local government, who would take things from there.

The Debate Goes on

Many of China's pollution problems have emerged in tandem with the country's breakneck economic growth. China naturally has the right - and the duty - to create better opportunities and livelihoods for its citizens. But is the government doing enough to clean up the leftovers? Some students certainly think it is. Says Zhao Chenlong, “My home province of Shaanxi is a coal producing area with plenty of heavy industry. It suffered heavily from the effects of pollution in the 1990s, but the government took various measures to address these problems, and things are much better now. And as a citizen of the province, I can say that economic development is crucial to our people. Finding a balance between that and environmental protection is the objective, but it is no easy task. I am confident that we are going in the right direction.”

Not everyone shares Zhao's confidence. Wang Ou says, “I doubt very much that the government is doing all it can to solve the country's pollution problems. Take Beijing, the Chinese capital, for example. There are less than two years to go until the Olympic Games come to this city. This event is one of the most important things that the government has been working on this decade, yet look out your window, and the air is still thick with pollution. If we're not making enough efforts to solve the problems here in the capital, where the eyes of the world will be fixed in 2008, I doubt very much that sufficient efforts are being made to bring pollution under control in other cities around the country.”

One thing that is not likely to run out of fuel anytime soon is debate on the environment. Whether that's taking place between signatories and non-signatories to the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, or between a couple of sweepers on the street, it's an issue that every human being is - or should be - concerned about. Young Chinese people are genuinely worried about the effects that pollutants have on their health, and that of their future children. “Economic development is a good thing for our country,” says Wang Ou, “I do not doubt that. But should it come at such a heavy price? We breathe poisoned air. We eat poisoned vegetables. I for one am not optimistic about the future.” But another “Green Light” member, Wu Tianyi, says, “We cannot go backwards. We must have faith that those in charge will find the right balance between economic development with environmental protection.” Watch the space outside your window for more…