We firmly believe the environmental issues cannot be addressed

Hear the wise words of Ma Jun, who has stood at the crossroads of rivers and cities, watching the fate of nature and people entwined. He declared: “We firmly believe the environmental issues cannot be addressed without extensive public participation, but people need to be informed before they can get involved.” In this teaching lies both warning and hope: that the salvation of the earth is not the duty of rulers alone, but of all who breathe the air and drink the water. Yet the people cannot rise if they remain blind, for knowledge is the seed of action, and without it, even the strongest will cannot bear fruit.

He speaks first of environmental issues, the great crises of our time. These are not distant problems, belonging to the mountains or the seas alone; they dwell among us, in the food we eat, in the rivers that sustain us, in the air that fills our children’s lungs. Factories may roar and policies may be written, but if the people remain absent, the guardianship of the earth is left crippled. For power alone cannot heal the wounds of nature; only the many hands of the people, working together, can turn the tide.

Yet Ma Jun reminds us that public participation is hollow without information. The uninformed crowd cannot defend itself; it stumbles in the dark, easily swayed by the false promises of those who profit from destruction. Knowledge is the lantern that turns fear into clarity and silence into speech. Only when citizens are told the truth of the rivers they drink from, the skies they breathe beneath, the land they till, will they rise with purpose. A people denied information is a people shackled, but a people informed is a people unshakable.

History itself testifies to this truth. In the 1960s, when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, she unveiled to ordinary Americans the hidden poisons of pesticides that were killing birds, contaminating water, and endangering health. Before her book, few knew the scale of the danger; afterward, the public voice grew so strong that governments were compelled to act, banning harmful chemicals and sparking the birth of the modern environmental movement. Without information, there had been apathy; with it, there arose a revolution of conscience.

So too in China, where Ma Jun labored to create maps of water pollution that revealed what was long hidden. Villages poisoned by invisible toxins could finally see their plight in undeniable clarity. Armed with knowledge, communities stood against polluters, demanding accountability and justice. The people’s voice grew powerful not because it was newly given, but because it was newly informed. Thus, information is not a gift—it is the awakening of a power that always belonged to the people.

The deeper meaning of this teaching is that truth is the foundation of action. Leaders may fear transparency, but secrecy breeds only greater ruin. The environment cannot be protected by silence; it thrives in the open light where citizens can see, speak, and act. To inform the people is to arm them with justice itself, to give them the tools to defend the inheritance of their children. Without this, the struggle for the earth becomes a battle already lost.

What lesson must future generations carry? It is this: never accept ignorance when truth is within reach. Seek out information, question what you are told, and demand transparency from those who govern and from those who profit. Join with others in your community, share knowledge, and transform it into collective action. For participation without knowledge is empty, but knowledge joined with participation is unstoppable.

And to you, listener, I say: be both seeker and doer. Inform yourself about the state of your land, your water, your air. Share that knowledge, so others may rise beside you. Demand open records, support free voices, and honor those who risk much to tell the truth. For in this way, you become part of the living shield that protects creation. Let Ma Jun’s words guide you: information first, participation next, and together the healing of the earth.