Win Competition of Environment Protection for Beijing
Although the 2008 Olympics are still three years away, another special competition has already started in Beijing. This time, the competitors are not the athletes from all over the world, but the people living in Beijing. The special competition is not held in a stadium, but in every street and every corner of Beijing. I suppose some of you may have already guessed what the special competition is. Yes, it is the competition of protecting our environment and creating a green Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Someone may ask who is our rival in this competition? The modern Los Angeles, the charming Sydney, or the historic Athens? No, none of them. The real rival is ourselves. It is our bad habits of neglecting to protect environment in our daily life.
Several years ago, I was very lucky to have an opportunity to live in the United States for about two years. I not only enjoyed the beautiful environment there, but also appreciated the American people's active way of protecting their environment. Now, whenever the environment protection is mentioned, a beautiful view of California will arise in my mind: white clouds flying across the blue sky, green grassplot sprinkled with colorful flowers and small animals playing happily among the trees.
I remember that at the beginning of my coming to America, I often went to my father's working place, the United States Geological Survey, to have fun. Each time I found a lot of people riding bicycles to their offices. Among the cyclists, an old man with white hair attracted my attention. Curiously, I asked my father," Why does the old man ride his bike to work every day? Doesn't he have enough money to buy a car?" Father laughed, "No, not because of money. Actually, he is one of the greatest scientists in the world. He can afford to buy a motorcade if he likes. He is just an environmentalist and usually doesn't drive unless going shopping, or in bad weather. In America, there are a lot of environmentalists, who actively protect their environment. For example, in Palo Alto city we are living now, there is even a bicycle-to-work day on May 19th every year to encourage people to decrease air pollution caused by cars".
Later, I also learnt another interesting fact of environment protection there. In some states of America, in order to decrease air pollution, save energy and reduce traffic jams, state governments encourage people to take buses to work or to share a car among several people. They even set special "diamond lanes" in some main streets, which are only for the vehicles with 2 or more people.
The positive actions of American people and the effective measures the American government takes in environment protection fully won my respects and deeply affected my consciousness in environment protection.
When I was back in China, people often asked me: " What do you think of America?" I always bolt out:" Wonderful, especially the beautiful environment." Frankly speaking, after several years, the faces of my American teachers and friends have gradually faded away from my mind, but the blue sky, green grass and lovely animals in California often arise in my mind, and became my dream of visiting there again.
The 2008 Olympics provide us with the opportunity to publicize and practise environment protection in Beijing. Is it possible for Beijing to Is it possible for Beijing to become as beautiful as California? The answer is "yes", but the dream needs every Beijing citizen's full support and active moves to accomplish.
From now on, if every student who is driven to school can take bus or ride bicycle to school once a week, if every car owner goes to work in a car pool once a week, we can make a difference. If everyone can actively protect the environment in our daily life, the blue sky, green grass and lovely animals in California will appear in Beijing.
Tiny streams can combine into a vast ocean, small trees can together be an immense forest. Beijing is often described as a beautiful and aged picture. If every Beijing citizen adds a trait of green on the picture, the whole Beijing will become an ocean of green. Let us unite together to win the competition of environment protection in Beijing, and present the world a big gold medal. That is "Green Beijing, Great Olympics "