Society
Low-carbon life still difficult for many Chinese
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-11 15:01
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Despite the government campaign to promote public transport and bicycles, the number of vehicles on the roads has continued to increase.
"Big city authorities have missed a good chance to promote public transport," Li said. "Beijing should have built more subway lines ten years ago. Now the situation is like opening Pandora's box."
The city's roads are no longer easy for pedestrians and bikers to use.
Wang Xiaojun, chief media officer with Green Peace's Beijing office, bikes 30 to 40 minutes to work every day. The ride is neither comfortable nor safe.
However, he sticks to biking and taking the subway occasionally to reduce his carbon footprint.
"Taking public transport is not always perfectly comfortable. It will take time for it to improve, but we'd better act now."
He believed lots of little steps could make a huge difference, such as switching incandescent bulbs to LED ones, avoiding using disposable chopsticks, and turning off computers when leaving the office.
Regarding these things, Wang argued that public discussions were not robust enough.
Chen agreed with him that a lot of work needed to be done to raise awareness and much room remained for behavior change.
"To reduce emissions doesn't mean you have to give up your comfortable life. But how much inconvenience you are ready to take really depends on your awareness," she said.
