I have a dream. And my dream is green.

My dream is a green forest where the trees are no longer crying in despair > but singing in the spring breeze because their leaves are moistened by dew instead of being dry with dust, be-cause we use the trees for a shade instead of a seat, and because the woodcutters have buried their axes.

My dream is the green banks of rivers that prevent sand from being washed away so that the water of the Yellow River will not be yellow and the water of the Yangtze River will not flood towns and villages.

My dream is a green land in the vast desert of industrial pollution, and an oasis where there will be neither more black smoke from the chimneys nor grey smog over the cities.

My dream is a green paradise where the sky is blue, the air is fresh, and the water is clean, where man and animals live together in joy,-and where man and the environment grow together in peace and harmony.

This is my dream. This is the dream of our generation. And this is also the dream of our fathers and our children.

For thousands of years, green nature has given us too much. Green leaves have given us oxygen. Green trees have given us shelters. Green plants have given us grain. And green grass has given us the inspiration of poetry. Indeed, we cannot over-exaggerate how much we owe our Mother Nature.

But we mankind have simply not been grateful. With the in-dustrial revolutions, with the development of science, and with the increase "of our ability to dominate over nature, we mankind have become more greedy, self-conceited and arrogant. We have taken to the habit just to "take "but never to "give "in our attitude to mother Nature. We have given Nature the most ignorant and bru-tal ravage in satisfying our ever-expanding desire.

Now as we suddenly wake up to look at our world at the end of the 20th century, we find we are being caught in the biggest environmental disasters in history: dirty air, acid rain, global warming, water pollution, loss of O-zone layer, disappearance of animal species, increase in toxic chemicals, deforestation and en-larging of desert. Environmental destruction has become an actual threat to our existence.

Now the green area is shrinking, the green world is weeping and the green nature is getting back on us. Should our present mode of growth be allowed to continue, the only place where we can find our green world is in our dream.

To be or not to be, that is the question Nature will put before our generation as we enter the 21st century in our 20s. We are a special generation with unusually heavy burden on our shoulders, because we will be living at such a critical period in history when environmental destruction has reached its peak but the results of he efforts to save the earth are yet to show.

For us, the green revolution is not just a blueprint, but an urgent task. For us, the green action is not just a good deed, but a basic struggle for survival. For us, the green dream should never remain a dream, but must definitely come true.

So friends, let us not be satisfied by the fact that we will not be environmental killers. We must be the green angels. Let us not be satisfied to be green dreamers. We must be the green creators, for in our own hands, we shall repay the debt our fathers owe mother Nature and build up a new green world.