TWO MEN have been arrested after they were found pouring 25 bottles of pesticide into a river in Bijie, Southwest China's Guizhou province, in a bid to catch fish "more easily". China Youth Daily commented on Wednesday:

Using pesticide to harvest fish from a protected river does not make sense, not least when the river is subject to a seasonal fishing ban. Such folly has not just killed scores of fish and other aquatic life, but also posed a grave threat to residents and livestock in downstream towns and villages.

A lack of respect for nature, or "ecological intelligence" as Harvard psychologist Daniel Goleman has named it, is responsible for the thoughtless fish hunt. China boasts time-honored traditions of upholding sustainable ecological philosophies. Great minds of the past did think alike when it came to advocating exploiting natural resources sustainably and avoiding overfishing or overkilling.