Vice chairman of the board of Antarctic Forum limited company

Huang Naihua

After more than 30 hours’ continuous flight and two days’ jolt on the Drake Passage, I landed on Antarctica where was covered with ice and snow. A fantastic, splendid and mysterious scenery appeared in front of me. I enjoyed the natural wasteland, azure seawater, glaciers in different postures and groups of penguins, seals and birds. I took breath of fresh air and lost myself in the beautiful imagination. Nowadays the global environment is increasingly deteriorated, what has been the force to protect the rare and pure Antarctica? I thought that it should be the outstanding “Antarctic Spirit”, including human pursuing for peace, abiding by contracts, restraining ourselves and achieving harmony between human and human and between human and nature.

It has already been proved that Antarctica is rich in mineral resources, especially the marine biological resources in Southern Ocean. In order to conquer Antarctica and unveil its mystery, generations of explorers and scientists have left footprints of exploring on Antarctica, a remote and dangerous land. More than 20 countries have set up research expedition station in Antarctica. With the development of China, we have set up three expedition station: Great Wall, Zhongshan and Kunlun Station. We’ve also made great achievements in various subjects, including geology, meteorology, glaciology, oceanography and biology. There’re neither police nor armies and national boundaries in Antarctica. But people of the expedition station around the world abided by the Antarctic Treaty, advocated team spirits and coexisted with each other peacefully without considering national boundaries and skin color. There are 9 expedition stations near the Chinese Great Wall Station. They are from Russia, Korea, Uruguay and Chile. Neighbor stations communicate with each other frequently. No matter which station you are in, they will provide you free meals. They are intimate as an international family. On the cruise “Silver Sea” to Antarctica, we lived together all day long with not only my team members but also friends from other countries, including America, Britain, Australia, Italy, Finland and Japan. We got along well with each other. It was Antarctica that linked us closely……

Up till now, Antarctic continent is still a pristine and spotless white world of ice and snow. No aboriginals lived on this beautiful and mysterious land. Nobody could leave anything there or take anything back from there. In the early morning, a gleam of luminous gold sparkled the silver mountains. Thousands of penguins lived here. They wobbled towards people, which was very cute. You can really feel the harmony between human and nature.

In fact Antarctic spirit reflects a new moral code which human yearn for. The harmony between human and human, human and nature should be the common goal of human beings. Nowadays, the global climate change is an important issue focused by the whole world. Those shocking environmental problems, including air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, food pollution and improper development of natural resources, have devoured human’s life ruthlessly like a devil, threatened the ecological balance, restricted the economic and social sustainable development and put human into trouble. Therefore, to protect the earth and the environment not only needs regulations but also needs each citizen’s care and reverence to the environment and ecology, even to the mankind. Let’s start from saving resources and reducing pollution. Adjust our lifestyle and start from myself, from little things so that we can make a contribution to protect the beautiful home.

Everyone was asked to use one word to express feelings of the Antarctic expedition. The word I gave was “yuan”, which means wish in Chinese. “Yuan” is the original inner thoughts of human, including willingness, desire, hope and vision. “Yuan” gives people pursuit, hope and strength. I hope that the air can be cleaner, nature more environmentally friendly, ecology more civilized, human more intelligent and the world more harmonious. May the Antarctic spirits forever exist!