When it comes to the word respect, people always think about the respect between person and person, or they always think about the respect between children and their parents. However, respect goes far beyond more than just that. Our relationship, or human’s relationship with animals also requires respect.

Growing up as a child, I am always a person in love with animals. I was always surrounded by dogs, cats, and birds. When they were sick, I took care of them, talked to them and treated them as my friends. I gained a sense of achievement in seeing them happy and healthy. So you can imagine how sad and upset I am when I see the bad and immoral phenomenon happening in our society. A group of people are literally putting animals into bags and sell them on the internet as blind boxes in order to make some profits. They are not showing their due respect to the animals, misrepresenting them merely as objects that can be manipulated. As a result, the animals are squealing in the bags. Some of them die from the lack of oxygen and others die from the lack of food. It was at that moment that I realized that every life matters. It is our responsibility to geive them our respect and create a better environment for the little lives. We must co-exist harmoniously.

So, talking about the environment, what about the relationship between human beings and the environment. Does it also require respect. Absolutely yes. In recent decades, human activities including the expansion of lands, the pouring of nuclear polluted water into the ocean, and even car driving have posed severe threats to our environment, often in an invisible and subtle way. As a result, climate change is worsening, biodiversity is reducing and sea levels are rising. So what can we do about it. Well, by showing our respect to the environment. China has already set an example by releasing the policy of carbon neutrality and carbon peaking. And I think apart from that, the international community must cooperate together to take better actions.

But it is really hard to call for international cooperation at such a time because some events have brought severe detriments to the international relationships. For example, several months ago, the US spokeswoman Pelosi paid an illegal visit to Taiwan. She did not respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, which has caused irreversible disputes and conflicts between the two countries. If we can just show our respect to other countries, such events can be totally avoided.

Let’s imagine a world full of respect, you can sit on a beach, enjoying the basking of the sun, looking at the sapphire sea with your dog running here and there playfully. Everything is so cozy that you can fall asleep without worrying about the coming wars because you are living in such a harmonious society and a peaceful world. This is what we can create through the act of respect.