Environmental protection is to protect the environment of human existence from pollution and damage by taking administrative, legal, economic, scientific and technological measures in many aspects; also according to the will of human beings, to protect and improve the environment so that it is better suited for human labor and life and the survival of living creatures in nature, and to eliminate those unfavorable factors that damage the environment and endanger human life and survival. One is to protect and improve the quality of the environment, protect the physical and mental health of human beings, and prevent the mutation and degradation of the organism under the influence of the environment; the other is to use natural resources rationally, reduce or eliminate harmful substances from entering the environment, and protect the recovery and expanded reproduction of natural resources (including biological resources) for the benefit of human life activities.
Of course, environmental protection must also consider economic growth and social development. Only the coordinated development with each other is the new concept of environmental protection in the new era.
Good or bad environmental protection is directly related to the stability of the country and has an important significance in safeguarding the reproduction of social labor from destruction.
With the deepening of mankind's understanding of the environment, the view that the environment is a resource is becoming more and more accepted by people. Air, water, soil, mineral resources, etc., are the natural wealth of society and the material basis for the development of production, constituting the elements of productivity. Due to the serious air pollution, there were cans of air for sale abroad; due to water pollution, climate change, and excessive groundwater extraction, water shortages have occurred in many parts of the world; due to the surge in population, abuse of arable land, and land desertification, making land scarce, etc. From this we can see that failure to protect the environment and environmental resources threatens the survival of human society and is also related to whether the national economy can continue to develop.
At the beginning of this century, the developed industrial countries only paid attention to economic development, disregarding environmental protection, and pursued economic development at the expense of the environment. When pollution became a public hazard, causing strong opposition from the general public and affecting the smooth development of the economy, they were forced to control it and paid a high price. It is called by future generations to take a "pollution first and then governance" development path. This way of development not only makes the national economy develop slowly, but also destroys the material basis of national economic development. On the other hand, human beings do not act in accordance with the laws of environmental science, reckless destruction of the ecological environment, will certainly be retaliated by the environment. Statistics show that in 1950, the forest coverage rate of Yunnan Province was 50%, and the average of nine years was hit by a major flood and drought disaster. Due to indiscriminate logging and other damage, the forest cover was only 24.9% in 1980, which affected the regulation of climate, and 11 disasters occurred between 1950 and 1980, causing serious damage to agricultural production. This is the revenge given by the environment to human beings.
