Noise pollution
Picture by Zhu Lijun

喧嚣尘上的车马声, 大兴土木的轰鸣声, 歌舞升平的音乐声……在城市丛林中穿梭,处处都有噪音在冲击你的耳膜和神经.头晕耳鸣, 精神不济, 心烦气躁……承受着各种噪音带来的沉沉重负,人们早已不堪其扰.难怪此话题一公布,不少读者就迫不及待地喊出"噪音污染何时了"的心声,献计献策自然也是格外积极.

Unwelcome harmful sound
By Ella Xu

Noise pollution is any kind of unwelcome harmful sound like the sound generated by construction equipment and other sounds that are heard in public. Sometimes even music can be noise pollution.

Noise is part of our life and some noise is necessary. What would the world be like if we did not have construction taking place? What would the world be like if no birds were chirping, no dogs were barking and no bugs were buzzing? Any sound that exceeds the standard that people can stand is harmful to people's health and can cause heavy damage such as sleep loss, high blood pressure and other forms of stress related illnesses and is often the cause of inefficient work and low productivity from workers.

What can be done to prevent excessive noise pollution? The government can draft laws to stop or lower noise pollution. For instance, there should be a fine when the sound is above the 120-decibel level. If the noise level tests ten decibels higher than 120 decibels then the fine should be double. The government can also educate people on how dangerous noise can be to your health. Finally the people themselves need to be aware of the dangers and should try to eliminate or reduce noise pollution.

In short, everyone, the citizens and our government, have an obligation to make our environment in Xiamen much more livable by decreasing and in some cases eliminating noise pollution.

Suffer a lot from great noise
By Stacey Qian

Noise comes from all kinds of sources. They are among the audible litter which are routinely broadcasted in the air. We can say that any form of unwelcome harmful sound is noise pollution.

I suffer from noise pollution badly. Every morning, I wake up early due to the noise from garbage trucks and construction equipment. Every night I cannot sleep well because my neighbor stays awake until midnight or later talking loudly and playing his television and music at a very high level. This kind of noise negatively affects human's health and well-being. It results in a general reduction in the quality of our life and opportunities for tranquility. Although we have laws and ordinances, many municipalities do not have adequate resources to follow up on complaints. Even when a municipality has an enforcement office it may be unwilling to do no more than issue warnings because taking offenders to court is expensive.

There are two effective measures to deal with noise pollution. One of which is to raise awareness of noise pollution by way of educating the citizens so people and businesses do not make noise in public that is harmful to others. The other is to establish networks among local noise activists who will assist communities to reduce noise pollution.

Give back quietness
By Rain Wu

Noise is transient so it is often easy for us to ignore its existence. In fact, it is present everywhere and it is threatening our life. It negatively affects human health because noise causes stress and any form of stress is a leading cause of different illnesses and may even result in suicide. Any form of unwelcome sound is a form of noise pollution if it causes annoyances, sleeplessness, fright or any other stressful reaction.

Most of the noise in Xiamen comes from the traffic, factories, construction sites and the many shops, restaurants and clubs. Xiamen is a small and crowded city. There are always all kinds of vehicles roaring on the road every day. To make things worse, the city is always changing so we see many construction sites everywhere and they are always making lots of noise even up until midnight. This makes us restless and sometimes we cannot fall asleep. A lot of other noise pollution comes from the busy open markets, the shopping centers and even the citizens themselves.

To face this problem, the local government should play the most important role in environmental protection today. The local laws controlling noise pollution should be strictly enforced. What is more important is that attention should be paid to the education of the people so that everyone will fully realize the importance of environmental protection.

Comments from the Common Talk English Club

For me, here are three steps to deal with the problem when I am exposed to noise pollution:
1. Fight with it and try to win. My weapons: requests, persuasions, rules, laws, and phone calls.
2. If I can't win the fight, I try to accept it. My methods: ignoring, tolerating, adapting, and lowering its impact.
3. If I can't accept it, I escape it and hide myself. My favorite places to hide: books, music, home and seaside.
--Jessie Wang (a faithful member of the Common Talk English Club)

Noise pollution is caused by those people listening to rock music in the evening. The government should solve the problem to make our living environment quiet. Don't be noisy!
--贺泽人(middle school student, member of the Common Talk English Club)