EUGENE, United States, Feb. 28 -- "Not long ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that we should never judge a cadre simply by the growth of gross domestic product (GDP). This is a very important change given China's political environment, which will greatly help turn the tide in favor of ecological civilization," Chinese scholar Zhihe Wang told over a thousand environmentalists Wednesday night at the University of Oregon (UO).

Wang and another renowned Chinese scholar Wen Tiejun were invited to give keynote speeches at the opening of the 32nd Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC), organized by UO law school students and attended by thousands of activists, attorneys, students, scientists and community members from over 50 countries.

It is one of the largest gathering of environmentalists in the world. From Wednesday to Sunday there will be 130 panel discussions on all kinds of issues relating to environment protection under this year's theme of "Running Into Running Out", which gives a strong sense of urgency that we are running out of resources as well as running of time and options in saving the planet. Topics range from fishery, GMO, energy, to law, government, education and dozens of other fields.

David E. Atkin, an attorney who is attending the conference for the 30th year, said "It educates people. As many speakers are experts, there's huge amount of information. People get better informed on how to do their work better, what are the legal theories and what challenges there are, at different levels though. "

"It also inspires all of us. It connects us and brings us together like a big family. It inspires people to do hard of their work. Many environmentalists work not for profit. They need this kind of inspiration very much to continue on," said Atkin who has started coming to the conference every year since he was a student.

From a meeting of 75 people, the conference grew fast to have over a thousand of attendees in the first couple of years. And from rights protection and forest protection, the biggest issues discussed have shifted to climate change and other global threats in the later years, Atkin added.

The speeches made by Chinese scholars won long time applause from the audience. UO professor John B. Foster said: "When talking about China, U.S. environmentalists used to think that China is the biggest problem. But these Chinese scholars' speeches tell them that Chinese people are doing great effort on environment protection. They bring hope to the conference attendees."