The Livelihood Index 2006 displays that 86% people agree that the environmental pollution greatly affects national health. This result suggests that the more and more severe environmental problems have threatened the survival and development of both our own generation and the generations to come.

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(The voluteers attending environmental protection activities)

Among the fourteen categories of the research questionnaire, ‘food safety’ attracts the most attention. People who are “concerned” or “very concerned” with food safety problems occupies 82% in all respondents. In the aspects of drinking water pollution and air pollution, 81% and 72% respondents respectively have voiced concern.

The result of the research also implies that 61% people think the Chinese government attaches importance to environmentalism while only 4% of respondents hold the negative opinion. The total score of the environmental awareness of the public is 57.05; moreover, environmental behaviour and the environmental satisfaction score respectively 55.17 and 60.20. The embarrassment due to these low scores rings the alarm for the cause of environmentalism for the Chinese people.

“For China, the primary goals of the friendly-environment society are to establish a manufacturing system with low consumption, a life system with moderate consumption, an environmental system with recycling resources, a stable and efficient economic system, a technological system with persistent innovations, an open and ordered commercial and financial system, a fair social distribution system and an enlightened and progressive socialist democratic system”, points out Pan Yue, associated chief of the State Environmental Protection Administration, as the pioneer of “the Livelihood Index”.