Family Environmental History

February 26, 2022 By: Zhuorui Ye

My family is from Jinan, Shandong province in China, where my grandparents and parents were born and raised. I will focus on my grandparents and parents’ environmental history since I believe that their experience in China illustrates various issues that demonstrate their relationship with their past environment. Notably, the City of Jinan faces the Yellow River at the north and Mount Tai at the south.[1] The city has various natural landscapes and natural and artificial resources, which promote survival for the ecological inhabitants. Jinan is known as the city of springs (Quancheng) because it has more than 800 natural artesian springs, which plot its landscapes and underscores its natural beauty.[2] My grandparents relied on the water springs as their source of livelihood. They relied on the pure and mellow water for their drinking and making of tea. Additionally, because tea tasting is one of the most well-known activities in Jinan, my grandparents and parents engaged in tea brewing activities using the spring water, indicating the springs as a vital source of income and livelihood.

The environment in Jinan is natural and native because the water springs come from an Ordovician karst aquifer under the city. The recharge area for the acquirer is the mountainous area located in the south of Jinan. Additionally, after the aquifer has fed the springs, they discharge the water at about 300,000 – 350,000 cubic meters per day.[3] Some of the natural water sources in Jinan include, Baotu, Black Tiger, and Pearl springs.[4] The environments in Jinan are also native because the springs in the city have distilled a culture in the area with more than 4,000 years.[5] However, to some extent, the environment in Jinan is also human-made because various activities have taken place to improve and maintain the environment and lifestyle. For example, the city has built a high-speed rail line, which has been constructed in the past to ensure modern transportation means for people.[6] As Diamond (1994) argues, human activities and industrial societies have changed the environments, and in no time, half of the world’s species will extinct.[7] Jinan is no exception because more than 250 invasive plant species have been found in the area, threatening the local ecology.[8]

My parents are always conscious of the environment and undertook various measures to ensure its conservation. For example, due to the various natural resources in Jinan, they started a program to educate and encourage the community to reduce environmental pollution. Specifically, they were advocates for clean water springs. As such, they spread the message of proper waste disposal and management to prevent water pollution. Additionally, they were against the commercialization of water from the springs because they were concerned about the devastating effects such activities would have on the natural resources and, subsequently, the environment. My parents applied Krech’s (2005) idea of the ecological Indian because they understood the relations between living organisms and their organic and inorganic environments.[9] Thus, they took all measures to ensure reduced pollution and well-preserved natural resources for the current and future generations. When I was a teenager, I contributed to my parents’ efforts to transform the environment by promoting clean energy. In such an endeavour, I encouraged the use of clean energy sources to ensure environmental protection and reduce global warming.

Our ethic and middle-class heritage played a significant role in how my family and I have related to and valued the environment. As a middle-class family, we understood the various activities that could lead to environmental pollution. Further, we appreciate the importance of clean energy sources and sustainable means of production. Having basic education has equipped us with skills and resources to run programs that ensure cleaner and safer environments. With a Chinese origin in Canada., we have continued the trend of sensitizing people about their environment and the importance of preserving natural resources for the present and future generations. According to Worster (1990), for people to protect the environment and positively impact it, they must first understand nature itself, including how it is organized and how it functions.[10] Therefore, our knowledge of nature has been instrumental in ensuring that we take measures to sensitize our friends and neighbors about the importance of environmental conservation and protection.

My grandparents and parents’ relationships with the environment are different from what I experienced. Their relationship is also different from what I wish to have in the future. During their times, fortunately, there was plenty of food. My grandparents and parents grew up in pleasant environments. They interacted well with natural resources and did not exploit them to get food supplies. However, there is a significant drop in food resources in my generation, which led to more exploitation of the environment. In addition, my junior school offered lessons about the need to take action on issues to do with environmental protection. For example, in Jinan, I was educated on the rising effects of climate change and why we need to address it. Climate change was not a prominent concern that my parents and grandparents have to deal with. Therefore, the present environmental issues and challenges call for more sensitization on the importance of environment conservation. I hope these changes will allow the adoption of environmental preservation initiatives now and in the future.

[1] China Daily, “Jinan: A Veritable City of Springs,” China Daily, 2017, https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/shandong/shandongculture/2017-08/31/content_31327479.htm.

[2] China Daily, “Jinan: A Veritable City of Springs.”

[3] Ibid.

[4] Britannica, “Jinan, China,” Britannica, n.d., https://www.britannica.com/place/Jinan.

[5] Britannica, “Jinan, China.”

[6] Ibid.

[7] Jared M. Diamond, “Ecological Collapses of Ancient Civilizations: The Golden Age That Never Was,” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 47, no. 5 (1994): 37–59, https://doi.org/10.2307/3824451.

[8] China Today, “Jinan – City of Springs,” China Today, 2018, http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/2018/cs/201803/t20180308_800120936.html.

[9] Shephard Krech III, “Reflections on Conservation, Sustainability, and Environmentalism in Indigenous North America,” American Anthropologist 107, no. 1 (2005): 78–86, https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2005.107.1.078.

 

[10] Donald Worster, “Transformations of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in History,” The Journal of American History 76, no. 4 (1990): 1087–1106, https://doi.org/10.2307/2936586.