Aerial photography of the scenery of the Qinling Mountains, Shaanxi Province. [Photo/VCG]

On June 5, 1972, the United Nations held the UN Conference on the Environment for the first time in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, which adopted the famous Report of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and the Action Plan for the Human Environment, and put forward the slogan "To Defend and Improve the Human Environment for Present and Future Generations." The 1,300 delegates from 113 countries and regions proposed that the opening day of the Conference be designated as the World Environment Day. The 27th session of the United Nations General Assembly held in October of the same year, upon the recommendation of the Stockholm Conference, designated June 5 of each year as World Environment Day, and required United Nations agencies as well as governments and groups around the world to hold activities around June 5 every year to protect the environment and oppose pollution.

On February 23, 2022, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China set the theme of the Environment Day of this year, which falls on June 5, as "Work Together to Build a Clean and Beautiful World." As the World Environment Day approaches, China News Release exclusively interviewed Zhang Jinshuo, a well-known science writer and the deputy curator of the National Zoological Museum of China, about the said theme.

Environment is indispensable for the survival and development of organisms. Legions of organisms have rigorous demands for the quality of a clean environment, including air, water and soil. As key environmental indicators, these organisms signify the degree of pollution of the environment. The environmental quality of an area is manifested in the abundance of species in the local area. The quality of the environment can be sensual awareness for humans, but some organisms, which are extremely sensitive to chemicals, are unlikely to survive when the composition of the surrounding materials changes.