建构绿色公共舆论空间
王莉丽
对于世界和中国而言，20世纪都是一个绚丽传奇的世纪。一条沉睡百年的东方巨龙在历史的瞩目下，纵身于世界的云端，开始了腾飞、崛起的篇章。1978年至今，中国经济保持了年均增长9%的高水平。2003年中国国内生产总值达到11.67万亿元人民币，外贸进出口总额达到8 512亿美元，世界排名仅次于美、德、日。中国已经被视为世界经济发动机之一，成为继美国、日本、欧盟之后的第四大经济支柱。无怪乎众多世界政治、经济巨擘惊呼“中国崛起是不可阻挡的”。
但是，在走向和平崛起的道路上，中国面临着许多不容忽视的长期性因素的制约。在中国的现代化进程中，伴随着深重的资源环境矛盾，中国经济社会的持续发展、中国人口的继续膨胀，开始愈来愈面临资源瓶颈和环境容量的严重制约。中国经济生活中存在大量的资源浪费、生态破坏、环境污染等方面的问题，可持续发展能力还不强，中国工业产品单位消耗能源是美国的3.5倍、欧盟的5.9倍、日本的9.7倍；废水排放量居世界第一，超过环保允许量的68％；二氧化硫排放量也居世界第一，超过环保允许量的77％。可以说，在中国崛起的进程中，资源环境问题将是中国面临的最大挑战。
笔者认为，解决问题的关键就是树立科学发展观，举国上下树立可持续发展意识。因此，构建绿色的公共舆论空间、传播环境文化、实施可持续发展战略，已成为摆在中国政府和中国传媒面前的严峻使命。
中国政府对环保的重视始于1978年，邓小平同志首先提出中国应制定环境保护法；1984年，中国政府将环保提到了“基本国策”的地位；2003年，中国政府提出以人为本，全面、协调、可持续的科学发展观。保护环境、热爱环境、建设环境、提高全民族环境意识，成为我国社会主义现代化建设的奋斗目标之一。
环境问题归根结底是人的问题，提高全体公民的环境意识，是我国环境保护工作中的一项战略性措施。根据国家环保总局和世界银行关于最新中国环境问题研究报告，过去十年间中国环境保护取得显著成就，环境污染加剧的趋势从整体上开始得到控制，但中国环境保护将面临更复杂的挑战。这种挑战除了来自技术、经济方面的因素外，还有一个非常重要的因素，就是公众的环境意识。公众的环境意识直接影响着每个人对环境的态度和行为，国家各项环保政策都要在公众理解的基础上得以执行。而提高公民环境意识的最有效的途径就是环保传播。
环境保护是一项涉及社会各个方面的活动，在时间和空间上都具有广泛性，是需要社会各个方面长时间协调配合才能够取得成功的一项艰巨的任务。环境保护政策的实施，环境保护法律法规的贯彻执行，人类生存环境的改善，都是需要全社会共同参与才能够实现的。所以在环保工作中，环保传播在对环境保护的知识传播、舆论监督、提高意识、社会责任、促进发展等诸多方面起着其他社会领域不可替代的作用。
中国的环保传播事业经历了30多年的历程，但是在充满生机、精彩纷呈的环境信息传播面前，环保传播理论显出滞后的灰色。一些重大的基本问题还没有令人满意的回答。当作者就论文采访曲格平教授时中国环保创始人之一，原全国人大常委、全国人大环境与资源保护委员会主任委员，现任中华环境保护基金会主席。，曲格平教授不无感叹地说：“以往出席世界环境会议，我总是不停地解释环境宣传的含义，因为在西方媒体看来，宣传是一个有点贬意的词汇，现在你提出‘环保传播’这个概念和理论，将切实解决这个问题。”因此，研究中国环保传播，不仅对中国新闻传播研究视野的拓展具有一定的理论意义，而且对大众传媒进一步加强环保传播及优化传播效果具有指导和借鉴意义，同时对引导人们科学正确地认识环保问题、动员全社会合力解决环保问题，建构绿色公共舆论空间也具有实践意义。
目前，中国正处于社会转型时期，政治、经济体制改革深化，经济发展与环境资源的矛盾愈演愈烈。环保传播作为环境保护中的一个重要力量，其潜在能量究竟发挥了多少？中国当前的环保传播效果如何？环保传播中存在什么问题？如何优化？等等，都是需要审视的问题。
环境问题的牵涉面非常广，涉及社会政治、经济、文化各个层面。目前，国内外学界对大众传媒的社会化功能以及环保文化、环保教育都进行了比较深入的研究，国外学界对环保传播(environment communication)也进行了初步研究。与国外相比，中国学界针对环保传播的研究还处于起步阶段，只有散见于网络和报章的一些相关报道和文章，还没有形成成熟的学术研究成果。
本书在吸收国内外学界研究成果的基础上，提出环保传播这一新闻传播领域的新概念。试图在国内外前辈及同仁相关研究的基础上，在对中国环保传播领域一些专家学者进行访问的前提下，探讨环保传播的历程、功能、存在问题以及发展前景。
由于经验和理论积累所限，作者对环保传播理论的研究还存在诸多不足，作为一名有着社会责任感和历史使命感的媒介从业人员，我希望能够为研究大众传媒对环境保护的影响提供一些可借鉴的理论和事实依据，并为后续的研究打下基础，为中国的大众传媒最终真正承担起环保传播的历史使命而提供研究基础。
希望这本书所传递给读者的不仅仅是环保传播的学术理论，更多的是用浅显易懂的语言和大量生动的案例，呼唤更多的人心灵深处对生命的敬畏和对绿色的希望。我希望每一个中国人都关注绿色，希望中国的大众传媒真正承担起传播绿色文明的重任，成为名副其实的绿媒体，从而也为中华民族从容应对资源环境挑战，实现和平崛起尽一份微薄之力。
王莉丽
2005年9月18日于清华大学
Foreword
Construct a Green Forum for Public Debate
Wang Lili
The 20th century is an era of miracle for both the world and China. Awakened from its deep sleep over the last several hundred years, China has risen again. Since 1978 China has maintained an average annual growth of 9%. In 2003 China’s GDP exceeded 11.67 trillion RMB with its foreign trade standing at 851.2 billion US dollars. Its ranking in the world economy is only after the United States, Germany and Japan. China has become one the powerhouses of the world economy on a par with the United States, Japan and European Union. Political and business leaders claim that the rise of China is unstoppable.
However, China faces longterm formidable challenges in its peaceful rise. China’s modernization is accompanied by presures from resource shortages, growing population, excessive waste, ecological degradation and serious environment pollution. China’s growth is hardly sustainable. The unit energy consumption for China’s industrial products is 3.5 times that of the United States, 5.9 times that of EU and 9.7 times that of Japan. China is the world’s largest discharger of wastewater, exceeding standard acceptability by 68%. China is also the world’s largest emitter of SO2, exceeding standard acceptability by 77%. It can be argued that resource and environment will become the greatest challenges for China’s in its further growth.
The author thinks that the solution lies in establishing a scientific view of development and nationwide public awareness of sustainable growth. In this context, the creation of a green space for public debate on environment issues to promote understanding of sustainable development is of critical importance to the Chinese government and China’s media.
The Chinese government’s attention to environment began in 1978 when the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping suggested China making its first environment legislation. In 1984 environment protection became one of China’s fundamental state policies. In 2003, the Chinese government adopted a scientific development that is people centered, balanced, coordinated and sustainable. Protecting, caring about and improving environment are priority objectives in China’s modernization drive.
Environment problems are at heart problems with the human beings. Increasing public awareness is an important strategy in China’s environment programs. According to the latest research report by the State Environment Protection Administration and World Bank, China has made impressive progress in protecting its environment in the last 10 years and pollution on the whole is checked from getting worse. However the challenges China faces are going to be more complicated. This increased complexity is a result of technical and financial factors as well as public awareness which influences individual attitude and behavior. State policies have to be understood and supported by the public for effective implementation. Enhancing public awareness is the most effective way to do environmental communication.
Environment protection is an endeavor that involves all sectors of the society. It is long term and expands over geographic areas. Ongoing multisectoral coordination is critical to the success of environment protection. The implementation of protection policies, the enforcement of environment legislations and regulations and the improvement of our habitat all depend on participation from all segments of the society. Environmental communication has irreplaceable role in spreading knowledge, influencing public opinion, increasing awareness, establishing social responsibility and promoting environment friendly growth.
China’s environmental communication has been developing for over 30 years. However despite the multitude and great variety of information being communicated, theoretic research in this field is still lagging behind. For some fundamental questions, convincing answers have not been found yet. When the author was interviewing Professor Qu Geping for the purpose of this book, he said with relief that“when I was attending international environment conferences before, I always had a difficult time explaining to western participants the idea of Huan Jing Xuan Chuan (environment propaganda) because the word propaganda has a negative connotation for media in the western countries. Now you have proposed this concept of environmental communication and I think this is going to be an effective solution to the problem.” Research on environmental communication not only serves to expand the field of study for journalism but also helps to strengthen the involvement of the media in environment issues and improve its effectiveness, increase understanding of environment problems, channel resources from different social sectors into protection initiatives and construct a green space for public opinion and debate.
China is a country in transition and its political and economic systems are undergoing fundamental changes. The conflict between economic growth and environment and resources is increasingly intensified. How much potential does environmental communication have but is not realized? How effective is environmental communication in China?? What are the major problems? How can we optimize it??? All these questions deserve our serious attention.
Environmental communication is a broad subject, covering diverse areas including politics, economics, culture and social life. Scholars in China and other countries have conducted indepth study on the social functions of mass communication, the culture of environment protection and environment education. Research on environmental communication has been developing well in some countries and China in comparison is only getting started in this area. Related discussions are scattered in reports and articles on newspapers or on the internet and there is yet no sophisticated academic outcome.
The book draws experiences from international researchers and proposes environmental communication, which is a new concept to China. The author aims to discuss the history, function, challenges and prospect for environmental communication by building on related researches in China and other countries and interviewing Chinese experts in environmental communication.
I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject, but as a media person with strong sense of our responsibility to the community and the future generations, I feel this urgency to write this book to contribute to the practice and research of environmental communication, which I believe will enable China’s mass media to live up to its historic role as a force for environment wellbeing.
Instead of confining myself to the academics of environmental communication, I have chosen to use plain language and a large number of case studies to help make this concept resonate with readers.? Hopefully environment will be on the mind of every Chinese citizen and China’s mass media will truly become green media to help the country meet its environment challenges in its peaceful rise.
September 18
Tsinghua University
Wang lili’s RESUME
1994 - 1998 Bachelor Of Arts, institute of Broadcasting and Hosting, China Media University
2002 -2005 Master Of Arts, institute of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University
She Entered Radio China International in 1998 as a reporter and host for its TV production International News.
She received awards and recognition from China Association of Radio and TV Stations and the International Broadcasting Association.
In 2000, she was one of the winners in the Rongshida Contest on TV Hosting organized by China Central Television Station.
In 2001, she co-founded China Environment and Resource Website and won the Ford Environment Protection Prize.
She has been the General Manager Of Public Affairs of China Environment and Resource Website since 2004.
Her book titled Global Leadership was published by Tsinghua University in January 2005.
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