In the United States, the Barack Obama administration is fighting to lift the national debt ceiling. In China, the huge debt owed by local governments has set off shockwaves across the country. In the European Union, member states are desperately trying to find a way out of the debt crisis.

In other words, the world seems to be obsessed with financial or monetary debts, ignoring the environmental debts we have piled up, which could dwarf all the other debts.

If Americans have been living beyond their means in the financial sense, we Chinese have been doing so in the environmental sense. And if we don't address our environmental debts, they will haunt our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and those who follow them.