Talking about the environment and environmental protection we middle school students tend to regard it as important but irrelevant. Or some of us may think what we’re doing to conserve nature now is like giving to charity, helping adults to protect the environment. However, we, as human beings, are by no means excused from the close relationship between man and nature, neither can we escape from possible disasters brought about by the destruction of the environment. In fact, man and nature are ever so closely connected in a cycle that any missing link leads to the collapse of the whole ecological system, which, undoubtedly, results in human beings’ suffering. In recent years the cities of Beijing and Tianjin have suffered from sandstorms almost every spring. In severe cases dust from these storms has been blown to Japan and sometimes even as far as North America. How did all that come about? Due to overgrazing for profit, more than 90% of the beautiful grasslands have been turned into desert. As a result, even the hardy camels cannot survive this cruel challenge. Even with two layers of eyelashes, camels were blown blind by the sandstorms. These blind camels would starve to death since they lose the ability to look for food. In addition, due to lack of nutrition from their mothers, baby camels are born extremely weak. Unable to stand up even after struggling for several hours, these baby camels are sure to die. Moreover, the serious desertification of the grassland leads to a shortage of water. What can be fetched from the wells is not water, but sand. Therefore, people keep digging deeper for water. When they’re asked what can be left for their offspring if the water is used up, the herdsman answered: “We would be so thankful if we can survive, it’s impossible for us to be concerned for them. ” Dying camels, eroded grasslands and exhausted water resources... Our livelihood is seriously threatened. Can we really ignore this? Because we have not been friendly to nature, she takes revenge, and we begin to suffer. Further more, our future generations will also suffer because of our short sightedness. So, to protect the environment is to secure our own future. To be friendly to nature is to maintain our humanity. We should protect the environment not after the problem of hunger is solved or the standard of living is raised; instead, environmental protection should be prioritized in the agenda of social and economic development. If environmental protection means the preservation of resources and the improvement of natural surroundings, it also means the awareness that we as children of the earth should love and protect nature for our own good. In this case, laws and regulations will not be necessary; factories won’t have their wastes recycled only when governments compel them to do so; consumers won’t hesitate to spend a few hundred Yuan more to buy energy efficient refrigerators; and children will take up their share of responsibility by such simple acts as not littering. So ladies and gentlemen, dear teachers and my fellow students, every time you refuse to use plastic bags, every time you sort your garbage, every time you ride in a bus rather than a car, you are doing your part to preserve nature.Thank you!