In my opinion it is hard to protect the environment.On the one hand,environment is closely related to GDP,which could easily be seen from countries like ours few years go.Environment is sacrificed in exchange for economic boom.Industrial wastewater,hazardous gas emission,mineral exploitation and hundreds of other sources of damage accelerate the pollution and leave no time for environment self-repair.Such imbalance may take decades or even centries to fix.
On the other hand,individual awareness is more important than laws and policies to some extent.A clear awareness of conception of sustainability is a key factor to slow down the problems such as deforestation,species extinction,water shortage along with many others which are mainly caused by human.I am convinced that it is the education that helps build up such awareness in the first place.Therefore,I believe it is impossible to save the invironment without comprehensive education and full-fledged legal system.
In the nutshell,environment protection is a long term task.Current situation is an alarm sound for our careless destruction.Economic development must be well balanced,civil residents should be educated to live a sustainable life and environmentally-friendly laws should be carried out and put into effect.