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The economy or the environment - must we choose ?James Long: Good morning. Today's debate question is The economy or the environment-must we choose?' With me are Mr Lin Shuiqing, from the Green Society, and Mr Qian Liwei, a business development consultant. We are following our usual schedule for debates. Mr Lin Shuiqing will speak first for three minutes. Mr Qian Liwei will follow, also for three minutes. Then we will open the floor for discussion. If you have any questions or comments, you can use this time to express them.Lin Shuiqing: Good morning, everyone. First I am talking to you today about the way vast areas of the world are damaged by chemical waste. Many places have been destroyed and many plants and animals have died. This is awful. Factories produce large amounts of poisonous chemicals. The waste they create goes into the atmosphere and makes us sick. Other types of waste flow into our water, killing river and sea life. Much sea life is being destroyed by fishing boats. These boats catch large numbers of fish without giving them time to lay eggs. This will result in a smaller number of fish left to eat.While we damage our environment, we keep producing more and more people who need more land to live on and more food to eat! The world's population has grown by six times what it was in 1800.The figure is now about 7 billion people!It is our duty to cut back on production and reduce the amount of things we make and buy. The amount of rubbish we produce is turning into a big problem; we need to think more about recycling our waste. It would be good to increase the amount of things we recycle, and teach people ways of living. We may even create more jobs and help our country become more developed at the same time.Thank you.Qian Liwei: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Ms Lin. That was an interesting speech. It is clear that you are very concerned about the present situation of our environment. As a business development consultant, I'm often seen as being against the environment. When people think of factories, they think of clouds of dirty smoke or pipes pouring chemical waste into rivers. They think of greedy businessmen hiding from their responsibilities and only worrying about money. People often have this belief that development is bad for the environment, but this does not have to be true.What I'm here to say is that having worked with many environmental consultants, I know that a healthy environment and development should be possible at the same time. There are many factories and industries which control the amount of pollution they produce, and are very careful to spend money repairing any damage they cause. The people operating these factories are deeply concerned about the environment. We need to stop thinking of companies and businessmen as the enemy, and give them more credit!Ms Lin suggested we should cut back on the quantity of things we produce in order to save the environment. I don't agree with her because then jobs will be lost. I believe that people are more important than fish and trees.However, I do agree that we should produce more things from materials that have been recycled and less from raw materials, the supply of which is growing smaller and smaller. What we need are better laws to preserve the environment, and still allow our country to grow. This includes controls on how many trees are cut down and how many fish are caught. This might make wood and seafood more expensive, but paying a higher price for some things is not always bad . Asking around, I find many people willing to pay a little higher price for things that are friendly to the environment.Finally, those factories which pollute the environment should have to pay higher taxes. If you harm the environment, you should have to pay for it to be repaired. Thank you for listening.James Long: Now we will open the floor for discussion .Protecting the Yangtze RiverAs the third longest river in the world, the health of the Yangtze River has raised concern both in China and abroad. Rapid development and an increase in population have meant that the amount of water taken from the river is rising, and the waste being put back into the river has been increasing. That is not good news for the people who rely on the Yangtze River for water. Nor is it good news for the wide range of fish and wildlife that live in or along the river. Many people have recognized the importance of protecting the Yangtze River and organizations and projects have been set up to deal with the problem. The Green River organization , for example, educates people on the importance of protecting this great river. It also watches the river and stops the illegal hunting of animals, which had has put the wild animal population in danger.Two special government projects are also under way. The first project , a water and