‘At first, no one cared. It was just a mountain fire, a drought, the extinction of a species, the disappearance of a city until this disaster is closely linked with everyone.’-- The Wandering Earth
Today is the 25 days which has been defined as the public hygiene incident by the WHO of the novel coronavirus pneumonia. By 24:00 yesterday, China had reported a total of 77,150 confirmed cases and traced 635,531 close contacts. The novel coronavirus has been confirmed in 25 countries, including China.
Since the second half of 2019, disasters of different forms and pain have been encountered all over the world.
Paddlefish extinction
Australia’s wildfires may have killed more than a billion animals.
The flu has killed 10,000 people in the United States.
Four hundred billion locusts have arrived in India and Pakistan.
Thinking about these catastrophes, it is not difficult to find that celestial punishment is not metaphysical or apocalyptic thought, but a universal connection, and karma:
The source of the coronavirus pneumonia may be one lust-game of gluttons.
The extinction of the paddlefish is linked to habitat destruction and predators.
The so-called ‘climate cause’ of Australia's wildfires is linked to ecological imbalances.
The locusts are also because of tropical storms caused by abnormal weather...
The continuous disaster is warning us: man and nature is no longer at peace.
Once upon a time, a fierce beast with sharp teeth and sharp claws, a sudden frost, or the river bursting its banks after a rainstorm, all can scare us, and we human beings fear nature. Gradually, however, guns and ammunition have made us the masters of living things; technology has made mountain flood and earthquakes unpredictable, and people have begun to have the illusion that nature is not invincible.
Having no idea about the selfless and tolerant of nature, turning a blind eye to the tragedy of Pompeii and Loulan, human dig land to fill the sea, reclaim farmland from lakes, deforest area excessively, hunt, and pollute the environment, assuming that they are the winner...They create toxic and harmful waste while demanding precious resources, which has done harm to the natural environment seriously.
Nature tells us the insignificance and fragility of human beings with disasters. Once the ‘harmonious coexistence’ relationship between human beings and nature is broken, people can only suffer the consequences. So the first lesson I learned from this disaster was to restore a common sense of reverence for nature and to work together to protect the natural environment.
Next, I would like to talk about the second lesson I learned in the disaster as a legal people -- accelerating the research of disaster legislation and establishing the disaster legal system as soon as possible.
Disaster legislation, as a new field of environmental law, is a legal discipline that studies disaster prevention and reduction. In simple terms, it is the legal thinking and norms of the state, the government, social organizations and citizens on the prevention, response and relief of disasters.
First of all, the following discussion is not intended to blame. China’s efficiency in this outbreak is recognized by the world, but the reason why China has become an ancient civilization with a history of 5,000 years and become stronger is precisely because it is good at introspection for continuous progress.
In this‘epidemic battle’, in the great situation of the united efforts of the whole country to fight against the epidemic, it is inevitable that we have experienced some ‘hectic’ moments.
At the beginning of the outbreak of the disease, it was not taken seriously and the outside world except central government was totally unaware of it. Instead, Wenliang Li, a whistleblower who takes certain corrective action in order to draw public attention to government or business abuses, was given administrative punishment for ‘spreading rumors’...This highlights the shortcomings of disaster reporting and handling systems.
Our country has launched an emergency response mechanism to combat the epidemic, and local governments have responded positively, but there are still some cases of poor execution, which shows the main powers and responsibilities of the disaster prevention and reduction organs are overlapping and the functions and powers are not clear.
During the epidemic, most people’s knowledge of epidemic prevention were inadequate, and some people even did not cooperate with prevention and control measures. They acted against the wind to create opportunities for the spread of the virus...This phenomenon reflects that the national emergency awareness is weak, and the national quality of disaster prevention and mitigation should be improved;
After the outbreak of the epidemic, not only the masses ‘rushed for medicine overnight’ and ‘it was difficult to get a mask’, but even the medical staff in the front line also fell into the predicament of the urgent shortage of medical supplies, which is enough to show the urgency of accelerating the establishment of the disaster emergency material support system, all of which need to be regulated by legislation...
Therefore, to accelerate the research of disaster legislation and establish the disaster legal system as soon as possible is the precious experience gift from the disaster. In light of the treatment of this outbreak, I think we need to pay attention to:
(1) to clarify the relationship of ‘harmonious coexistence’ between man and nature and guide the basic value concept of disaster prevention and reduction law;
(2) to increase the popularization of disaster prevention and reduction, integrate disaster prevention and reduction into national education and related vocational assessment, and improve the quality of the whole people in disaster prevention and reduction;
(3) to ensure the clarity and consistency of the responsibilities and powers of disaster prevention and reduction, and to strengthen the normalization of powers and responsibilities of all emergency response subjects and disaster prevention and control subjects;
(4) establishing a unified, efficient and standardized national emergency material procurement and supply system, improving the management of disaster relief procedures and the effect evaluation mechanism, and ensuring that there are laws to abide by on the distribution of relief materials and donation of money and goods;
(5) improving disaster economic legislation related to industrial policies of disaster prevention and reduction, finance, taxation and government procurement;
(6) paying attention to the complementarity between other legal disciplines and disaster legislation, such as force majeure and change of circumstances in civil law, the crime of causing and expanding disaster and the crime of malpractice in disaster prevention and mitigation in criminal law, the administrative penalty connected with disaster in environmental protection law...
Reconstructing the consensus of respecting nature and establishing a comprehensive disaster legal system as soon as possible will certainly contribute to the better construction of ecological civilization and the greater protection of human rights. Finally, we conclude this meditation with the confession of ‘mother nature’ in the public service film ‘Nature Is Speaking’ :
‘I do not need human beings,
but humans cannot live without me.
Yes, your future depends on me.
If I prosper, so will you.
If I fail, you will fail, or worse.’
Reference: Yin Fang. Thinking on basic problems of disaster legislation [journal paper] - study on the rule of law 2014 (1)
