Chinese frugal tradition helps global carbon fight

Jiang Xufeng, Chen Yongrong
0 CommentsPrint E-mail Xinhua, December 16, 2009
Adjust font size:

Zhao Jiagui, a farmer from central China's Henan Province, prefers the lights off when helping prepare dinner at a villa in Beijing's southern suburbs for her relatives.

"Why should I turn on the lights if I can see clearly enough?" she asks.

The 65-year-old is one of hundreds of millions elderly Chinese who continue their frugal ways in a era of fast economic growth and greatly improved living conditions.

For them, frugality means not only saving money but also cherishing precious daily resources. "Being able to afford the water bill does not mean you can waste water," He Shulan tells her daughter and son-in-law.

"Big cities like Beijing are short in natural resources like water, and we have no excuse to squander them," she says.

She has fitted all the lights in her Beijing home with energy-saving bulbs and habitually flushes the toilet with waste water from the kitchen.

Power, Water, Paper

More younger Chinese are also taking up the frugal ways to live low-carbon and energy-saving lives.

When Keke Quei hosts her weekly Sunday evening book club at her Shanghai villa, the arriving bookworms keep their jackets on.

Quei's central heating stays off, although the temperature in the 200-square-meter home is only 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit).

"I don't care about electricity bills, but the power saved. I turn off lights in vacant rooms because it is sensible," says Quei, chief executive of Shanghai-based Kinnogene Inc. a business consultancy firm.

"I don't have a car and don't plan to buy one. There are already so many cars in Shanghai, emitting so much exhaust and making people uncomfortable. And I don't want to add to the traffic," says club member Wang Qiong.

Wang walks, cycles or takes the subway.

Quei drives a Jeep Cherokee as an outdoor enthusiast, but she avoids driving whenever possible and plans to change to a smaller car next year.

"My car is not very fuel-efficient and taking public transportation for me to go around in Shanghai makes more sense," Quei says.

Quei's e-mails are all tagged "Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail."

Some city dwellers see frugality as an inconvenience, but Quei believes that a low-carbon living should be a philosophy.

Zhou Dadi, a researcher at the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), says a low-carbon lifestyle is greatly conducive to energy saving and carbon cuts, and a change in living habits is inevitable to build a low-carbon society.

"A high-end lifestyle equals a high energy-consuming lifestyle. We don't need to live like monks, but a low-carbon life and the traditional Chinese virtue of frugality are commendable," Zhou says.

"The luxury lifestyles of some Westerners are unsustainable and must not be repeated in China," says Li Ang, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace China.

It's hard for the newly-affluent to take environmental actions on their own -- cutting out air-conditioning and motoring -- especially in a developing country like China, so such moves should be praised, Li says.

More improvement room

In the former "kingdom of bicycle" the cyclist is not king.

Li says city planners should endeavor to better protect cyclists' rights on their lane, which could help to ease traffic jam and save energy.

"If every Chinese can change a 60-watt incandescent bulb to an energy-efficient one, it can save the power volume generated annually by China's Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, and prevent 65 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission," Li adds.

An energy efficient bulb can be up to 80 percent more efficient in electricity use than an incandescent one, Greenpeace figures show.

She says two thirds of China's light bulbs are incandescent, especially in rural areas, partly due to underfunding, as Chinese low-earning farmers are more price aware.

The government is stepping up low-carbon building construction, using energy-efficient construction materials and improving the metering and energy conservation of heating systems in northern China, says Wu Yong, an official with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

"China still has room in developing energy-efficient construction, to save more electricity, heating and water," says Zhang Zaidong, chairman of Tiptop International, a Beijing-based property firm that specializes in energy-efficient apartments.

The government announced last month that by 2020, the country's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) will be reduced by 40 to 45 percent from the 2005 level.

"To achieve this aggressive goal, we cannot only rely on government efforts. Chinese people's commitment and environmental protection awareness also carry weight," the NDRC's Zhou Dadi says.

PrintE-mail Bookmark and Share

Comments

No comments.

Add your comments...

  • User Name Required
  • Your Comment
  • Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
Send your storiesGet more from China.org.cnMobileRSSNewsletter
主站蜘蛛池模板: 日本老师和同学xxxx| 特级片在线观看| 国产成人A亚洲精V品无码| 99久久人妻无码精品系列蜜桃 | 国产精品视频免费一区二区 | 日本黄色片在线播放| 亚洲伊人久久大香线蕉综合图片| 精品国产一二三区在线影院| 国产仑乱无码内谢| 人人爽天天爽夜夜爽曰| 女人和男人做爽爽爽免费| 中文字幕在线播| 极品虎白女在线观看一线天| 亚洲欧美专区精品久久| 激情综合一区二区三区| 出差被绝伦上司侵犯中文字幕| 黄色a级片在线观看| 国产精品亚欧美一区二区三区| 一个人hd高清在线观看| 成年黄网站色大免费全看| 久久久国产视频| 日韩精品无码一区二区三区| 亚洲videos| 欧美人与物另类| 亚洲国产欧美精品一区二区三区| 福利片福利一区二区三区| 国产免费拔擦拔擦8x高清在线人| 56prom在线精品国产| 国语自产偷拍精品视频偷拍| a毛片免费观看| 手机在线观看精品国产片| 久久久久国色av免费观看| 日韩不卡中文字幕| 亚洲午夜爱爱香蕉片| 欧美激情中文字幕| 亚洲欧美日韩在线一区二区三区| 精品亚洲欧美无人区乱码| 国产乱理伦片a级在线观看| www.九色视频| 国产精品伦子一区二区三区 | 欧美三级全部电影观看|