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April 22 is Earth Day.

The theme of this year’s Earth Day is “Our Power, Our Planet”. To protect the Earth we live on and maintain a clean ecological environment is not limited to a certain country or certain nation but a vital issue that the whole mankind living on the planet should be concerned about and that everyone should solve by their joint efforts.

However, human activities for economic growth have caused serious environmental problems such as global warming, ozone depletion, air and water pollution, and resource depletion.

Untimely maximum temperature is observed in different countries.

Expressing concern over the rise in temperature, meteorologists asserted that frequent sultry weather is expected to set in in the future due to the accelerated global warming. On the Internet there is a prediction that this year and next year might be the hottest ones in history if El Nino occurs. 

Forest fires occurring frequently due to persistent high temperature and drought, exhaust gases from vehicles, smoke from thermal power plants and factories and sandstorms are factors that increase air pollution.

Plastic pollution has also had a tremendous impact on the environment. The total amount of plastic goods produced in the world from 1950 to 2016 reached 8.3 billion tons, 6.3 billion tons of which were reduced to waste, and it will reportedly increase up to 12 billion tons by 2050.

The marine environment is also seriously affected. All sorts of pollutants, including industrial waste water, domestic sewage and plastic waste, are flowing into the sea, destroying the marine ecosystem. Now, sea level is rising continuously due to global warming. 

The problems of water shortage, farmland loss and waste disposal are still serious.

Therefore, many countries around the world are focusing on the development and utilization of renewable energy resources in order to make the ecological environment cleaner and meet the increasing demand for energy.

Natural energy has positively been developed in our country, too.

Solar power stations have been built across the country to make effective use of solar energy and many units have ensured the supply of heating and domestic water by using solar water heaters.

Ryomyong Street, which is called energy-saving and green street, uses geothermal energy to provide heating and the utility rate of solar energy accounts for a large proportion of electricity consumption.

Power production based on biomass energy and wind power is actively under way and the construction of tidal power stations is progressing apace.

Different regions of the country are directing big efforts to radically increasing the capacity to purify sewage and treat waste and eliminating the sources of all kinds of pollution while ensuring clean environment by using advanced dust-collecting and purifying devices.

Mountains across the country are turning into “gold and treasure mountains” as nationwide efforts are further intensified to turn mountains into useful ones.

Offshore farms and fishery stations are actively creating artificial coral reefs and raising and releasing young fish into the sea and offshore farms are being built in such a way as to protect the marine ecological environment.

Meanwhile, research for protecting the marine environment is pushed ahead with while the marine ecology reserves are well managed.

Our country is also conducting the work to boost exchanges and cooperation with international organizations including the United Nations Environment Programme.

It is a common duty of mankind to positively protect and preserve the ecological environment of the Earth and hand it down to posterity.