Under the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, on April 17th, China announced that its GDP in the first quarter of 2020 was 20.65 trillion RMB, down 6.8% year-on-year, with significant negative growth in both consumption and investment engines. So how do we interpret the 6.8% of GDP in the first quarter of 2020? Is it bad? Dr. Zhou Jinfeng has something to say:
“China’s GDP fell 6.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, which is not particularly bad news for me. As we all know, in the first quarter of this year, the global ecological environment has been given unprecedented rest; in the first quarter, the global carbon emissions have dropped dramatically; in the first quarter, the life condition of wildlife has been greatly improved.
We can see a lot of news about this topic, such as turtles, elephants, lions and even the wild animals in the city are also free from human disturbance during this period. Of course, in the current situation of human suffering from the COVID-19 epidemic, many countries and people’s production and life have been greatly affected, so we shouldn’t say it’s a good thing in such a situation. However, if put another way, the global environment did get a rest during the first quarter because the ecological environment has been collapsing under the constant pressure of human beings in the past.
I want to say that at present, governments and enterprises are trying to resume production, expand consumption, expand investment, and implement various stimulus policies. I do not support this series of practices, which are not appropriate. Although China's GDP in the first quarter of this year showed negative growth, people's life satisfaction and health and safety were not bad during this period.
Of course, people's life needs a variety of recreational activities. However, it also proves that a large number of people's travel, consumption, energy consumption, electricity consumption, and water consumption can be saved and reduced. Therefore, before we fully resume production and life, can we seriously think about and control it? At present, stimulating consumption and production will bring more or less unnecessary environmental costs.
Although employment, people's livelihood, production, and other issues are indeed very important aspects, we need to always remember that ecological civilization should be a priority, and lucid water and lush mountains should be a priority. We cannot develop the economy at the cost of environment and ecology. Is it really meaningful to pursue high GDP? Maybe it has some significance for capital, economy, and industry. However, we should start to realize that in addition to GDP, natural resource production and natural ecological conservation are more important tasks.
Therefore, I hope that in the next step, when countries around the world gradually implementing policies such as returning to work, stimulating production, and consumption, we must remember that the protection of natural resources, environment, ecology, and resource conservation should be given top priority. Only in this way can people realize sustainable development; only in this way can people realize the real priority of ecological civilization; only in this way can human beings survive to build a better home together."
In the last part of his lecture, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng emphasized that he hoped that governments of all countries should remember to put ecological protection and resource conservation at the top of their minds when implementing policies of resumption of work and economic stimulus.
https://v.qq.com/x/page/m09548neg0t.html
(Photo, video credit: CBCGDF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/12155.html
By / Xue Tongtong Modified / Maggie