Green Earth Volunteers
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Green Earth Volunteers comprises of a group of people who focus on global safety, including Chinese journalists, scientists, government officials, company and enterprise staff, university, secondary and primary school teachers and students and retired people. It was established in 1996. Up to now, over 50,000 volunteers have joined us. We hold high the flag of entering nature, getting to know nature and making friends with nature.
Cute “Qiqi”
From 12 January 1980 to 14 July 2002, “Qiqi” was the only Baiji dolphin that was raised by humans. At the moment, there are only four types of fresh water dolphins. The Baiji dolphin which lives in the Yangtze River is the most endangered one. When we were holing an exhibition for Baiji dolphins in Beijing in 1997, we once interviewed ten people. Only two of them knew that there was a water species living in the Yangtze River called Baiji dolphins. At that time people living along the Yangtze River also said that Baiji dolphin’s meat cost 300 RMB per kilo. Green Earth Volunteers have been diligently working for the past 5 years in order to let more people get to know “Qiqi” and Baiji dolphins living in the Yangtze River. At 8.30 am on 14 July 2002 “Qiqi” eventually finished its hard and lonely life. However, at that precise moment hundreds of thousands of people were feeling sad for its passing away. Caring for animals started from caring for Baiji dolphins. Between November and December 2006, 6 top national whale and dolphin experts used the most advanced devices and equipment to search in the Yangtze River, but regretfully they failed to find even one. Based on this, Green Earth Volunteers will advocate people to pay further attention to the Yangtze River and the water species living in there and attack sand-digging and excessive hunting.
The earth should have been colourful
The Yellow River’s Hukou is the historical site where Dayu carried out water control. Even now, the mark that Chinese people long for harmoniously getting along with the earth is still recorded there. However, due to disturbance by humans, now the mountains there are bold and the water is narrower. People living there are having nine dry years out of ten. From the spring in 1999, Green Earth Volunteers’ footprints started to appear on this land. They hoped that they could add some colours to these big mountains with their own hands. From 1999 to 2006, the trees that we planted there were growing taller.
Observing birds
Chinese people once classified sparrows as one of the Four Pests and wanted to make them extinct. The world once suffered the lonely spring due to the excessive use of pesticides. Now human beings finally realize that birds are our friends. Birds represent an area’s environmental conditions the most. Observing birds is one of the means of getting to know nature. In the past few years, one journalist from Green Earth Volunteers has recognized over 500 types of birds. This journalist has already been able to take more friends to go into big mountains, forests and wetland to meet our bird friends.
The Swan Lake in Rongcheng, Shandong is a good place for Green Earth Volunteers to get to know birds in the season when migratory birds move every year.
In order to protect human beings’ friends – birds, we should get to know them and understand them. Giving birds identity tags is one of the most important methods of understanding and researching birds. On New Year’s Day in 2002, Green Earth Volunteers put a little tag on a big swan’s foot, which recorded its height, weight and characteristics.
Wednesday Class
The subject for this class, which is taught every Wednesday, is all types of creatures which are living in this world together with us human beings. Everybody who likes nature can come to the class with their ears, pens and paper.
The Journalist’s Salon
A lecture is given once every month. Every expert who focuses on environmental protection will tell the journalists about their understanding of the nature and the environment. Although they don’t get paid, the experts all devote themselves in their lectures. The journalists are also listening to them with great interest. The newest environmental protection concepts, the latest environmental issues and the newest environmental technology are widely spread, exchanged and communicated through this platform. Clashes may also take place here between different information and viewpoints. At present, the Journalists’ Salon has started in ten cities in China. The Green Journalists’ Salon Network will be established in 15 cities nationwide from 2007.
Ecological travelling
When on holiday, we once went into Inner Mongolia’s Keshiketeng ice mortar and granite stone forest and we learnt how the geological structure was formed there and why it could last until today. We once went into the Cherry Blossom Mountain in Fujian and saw how South China tigers were reintroducing to nature and how they started again to learn to hunt animals. We once went into the Wolong National Environmental Protection Area and fixed our camera at pandas which were playing in the trees. Once we also went into the wetland where red-crested white cranes live and saw the cranes living and procreating there. We went into Xinjiang’s Gobi Desert to experience its wealth and desolation. In future, we’ll continue traveling to big mountains and rivers to meet more of our human beings’ friends there.
Focus on rivers
From 2003, Green Earth Volunteers started to focus on rivers in western China, especially the Min River in Sichuan, the Dadu River and the Three Parallel Rivers in Yunnan. We called for public participation and reasonable development of rivers according to the EIA law. Green Earth was the first to focus on the Nu River hydroelectric project. In February 2004 Prime Minister Wen Jiabao instructed on the Nu River hydroelectric project plan report that careful research and scientific decisions are required for this type of project which attracted wide public attention and on which environmental sections had different opinions. In 2006, after it reexamined the Nu River, the UNESCO requested the Chinese government make necessary promises on protecting world nature heritage.
We started our “Ten Years Travelling Along China’s Rivers” in November 2006. We will constantly focus on the rivers in western China for ten continuous years through TV, radio, newspapers and the online media. The routine of “Ten Years Travelling Along China’s Rivers” starts from Dujiang Weir to the Dadu River’s Mugecuo, then to the Yalong River, Panzhihua’s Ertan, following by Yunnan’s Lancang River, Jinsha River and Nu River. We will choose ten households, ten special sceneries and ten river’s water quality and record them together with the rivers’ destiny in the next ten years.
River information and “Feelings for the Nu River” website
From January 2005, “river information” is published every day. The information contains all of China’s main media’s published news and commentary on environmental protection and problems. Apart form publishing river information every day, “Feelings for the Nu River” website also publishes “Ten Years Travelling Along China’s Rivers” and global ecological reports in both Chinese and English.
Charitable sales
Through charitable sales, we have established 37 reading rooms in primary schools along the Nu River as well as setting up a film class for these 37 schools. Every Spring Festival we will organize volunteers to go to the Nu River, which is a world heritage site and one of the Three Parallel Rivers, to experience the high mountains and gorges, the green river water and the unique bathing event.
Thinking about the source when drinking the water
We investigate the water around Beijing and hold an activity called “Joy of Traveling by Water” every Saturday. We hope that every person in Beijing will join us in paying attention to the rivers around us. This is not just for our health, but also for the health of our earth.
Chinese environmental journalists’ Investigative report
In 2006, Green Earth and the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association started the “Chinese environmental journalists’ Investigative report”. The journalists will write 12 investigative reports based on the in-depth interviews and surveys concerning environmental incidents occurring every year. We hope that this Chinese nature, ecology, environment and human history recorded by the journalists will be long-lasting.
Join our activities and walk into nature with us
Please call us on 84039930
E-mail : G84039930＠163.com
www.greensos.cn www.chinagev.org www.nujing.ngo.cn
