Name
Professor
Engl 108-006
11/03/2014
Chinese Economic Expansion and Increased Air Pollution In recent years, China has been experiencing unprecedented economic growth. Chinese prosperity has had negative side-effects, including extreme environmental pollution (Wong, 2014). What researchers call “ambient particulate matter pollution” was the fourth-leading risk factor for deaths in China, contributing to 1.2 million deaths in 2010. Construction, industrial waste and greenhouse gasses are the major contributors to an epidemic that is creating a public outcry for government intervention. The Chinese government and other stakeholders have asserted that air pollution is decreasing and that the main culprits are not large industrial corporations. They point to strict regulations that they claim have been rigidly enforced. However, many foreign governments, environmental groups and activists around the world dispute this assertion. A growing number of Chinese also believe their government is not doing enough to curb environmental pollution. In 2012, the government announced a “war on pollution.” However, the slow reaction to a decades old crisis is a reflection of the power struggle within a government torn between those who believe in economic growth at all costs, and those who believe that these costs are becoming too high. At the heart of the controversy is a complex question: Is the Chinese government properly regulating industry to reduce and control pollution, or are
As the exploration of the industrial development and increased speed of the urban sprawl in Beijing, many severe environmental issues attribute mainly to the anthropocentric activities have been come out of the scene. One of them is the air pollution. Air pollution has been regarded as the most severe environment issue in China since it has already threatened to physical health, especially for the respiratory tract and lung. “In January 2013, Beijing experienced historical heavy air pollution. In this particular month, very few days were observed with blue sky.” (Lijian Han et.al., 2015) According to the analysis of the driving factors, “the population grew fast, and energy consumption and the number of vehicles increased rapidly” (Ju Zhang et.al., 2010), these factors add together can make the air quality worse than any one of them separately can. Firstly, it has been an undoubted truth that more and more people originally lived in rural has been moved to core urban of Beijing since there are more opportunities in there. Therefore, the huge explosion of urban population with more energy release and more CO2 exhalation is seen as an inevitably primary factor causing the bad air quality. What’s more, as the population
Air pollution by definition, is the presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects. Beijing is a major Chinese city that endures air pollution significantly. A study on the global burden of disease found that outdoor air pollution contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in China each year (Chemical & Engineering News,2017). As China is the world's second largest economy behind the United States, it is most definitely under the influence of globalization. Globalization causes industrialization, a process that will inevitably create pollution.70% of air pollution in China is from the tailpipes of automobiles (Conserve Energy Future, 2017). Thus, the introduction of advanced transportation brought by globalization has adversely affected China's atmosphere.
Pollution in Beijing has exceeded the ‘Very unhealthy’ alert and is now rated unlivable. People in Beijing are advised to avoid going outside wherever possible. Good morning/afternoon everyone. I 'm here today to raise awareness about air pollution in Beijing, the capital city of china.
However, China accounts for 33% of the worlds Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly arising as a result of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, and the deforestation that occurs in its wake. China is also suffering from desertification, coastal reclamation and severe climate change as are result of their long time blasé attitude towards environmental issues. While the Chinese Government now do acknowledge that environmental oversight has occurred, strict censorship within China deprives outsiders of receiving the full story of the environmental calamity that is occurring within China. Citizens within China are becoming increasingly concerned with governmental policy that regards further unnecessary degradation of the environment. A retired party official revealed that there had been 50,000 environmental protests within China in 2012 alone. China has amended numerous government acts and implemented strict new regulations in an attempt to curb pollution and Greenhouse gas production. However, the problem China faces cannot be swept under the 'bureaucratic rug' so to speak. The problem rests with the lack of an alternative clean energy to the fossil fuels currently used to fuel China's resource hungry industry. China has implemented numerous 'real world' measures to reduce environmental impact. Perhaps the most well known of these projects is 'Green Wall of China', which is a 4,500 km green belt
Fears of polluted air and water, and the extinction of wildlife species due to contamination have overtaken the western world. In an excerpt, titled “The Filth They Breathe in China,” taken from American historian, Michael Auslin’s book, the author focuses on the nation where, due to its rapid industrial growth, these effects of pollution are most prominent, China. In his article, Auslin, uses anecdotes, uses strong diction, and uses appeals to logic and credibility in order to capture the enormity of China’s pollution problem.
In the past decade, the severe air pollution problem in fast developing countries, particularly in China, has caused highly social and scientific attention. In 2014, 92 % of the world population are exposed over to the WHO Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) PM2.5 concentration level of 10 μg/m3 (World Health Organization, 2016). Ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution ranked as the third leading risk factor in India and Nepal, and ranked as the fifth in China (GBD 2015 Risk Factors Collaborators, 2016). In 2012, about 3 million deaths globally were attributed solely to ambient air pollution, and around 87% of it occurred in low- and middle-income countries (World Health Organization, 2016).
Last year, china had an environmental crisis due to rapid growth of industrialization. This had become a serious threat to China as they had to use roughly 9% of its gross national income. The air
I visited China about a year ago, however everything I saw was discussed by Magdoff and Foster in what Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism. The intense pollution is enough to make the citizens stay inside for the day, as we here in Colorado might for a snow day. The sights witnessed there is sound evidence that support Magdoff and Fosters argument that capitalism is the primary driving force behind environmental degradation. An explorative journalistic piece by NBC’s 60 minutes Lesley Stahl, revealed that there are currently multi-billion dollar cities being built in China that are completely vacant. China’s massive economic growth can be attributed to policies set forth by the Chinese government some years ago. The Chinese wanted to, ‘catch up with the world, “20 years in a day.” Their ability to actually live up to this goal shows that their government highly values economic growth and will do anything to support it, even at the cost of the environment. This example of the Chinese government is reflective of how most of the world values economic growth, though extreme. Because, no country wants to be in a recession, it is bad for the people causing deep strife in the balance between the environment and economic growth. This paper will utilize the writings of Magdoff and Foster to contend that the way we think about economic growth is harmful to our environment. Additionally this paper will argue that violence is the often necessary for an ideal
In the article “Beijing to Raise Threshold on Red Alerts for Smog”, it’s very interesting to know that finally China is doing something about their air pollution problem. For years and years they haven’t done anything because China doesn’t have the same rules and regulation as the United States of America. China produces a lot of products for different countries so that’s a major source of pollution also and they don’t have any kind of regulations on the smoke coming from the factories, and the air quality is terrible their as well. In the United States the EPA has the authority to shut down factories and tell them they need to make changes because we take pollution seriously compared to China who just takes it lightly which isn’t a good thing.
“Cleaning up China” written by Rana Foroohar, informed Americans about environmentalist Ma Jun’s efforts to reduce pollution in China. Foroohar is an assistant managing editor for Time magazine. She also speaks to millions of television news watchers across the world for CNN. Foroohar recently traveled to Beijing and had the opportunity to extensively interview Ma, who has developed the strategy of publishing some of the polluting companies’ environmental data online. Using the Internet, he planned to expose to the entire world how foreign companies and their suppliers are polluting China, using that exposure to persuade those businesses to change their policies. Those records quickly went viral, producing a substantial impact. “ A 2011 report on Apple, for instance resulted in a major effort to clean up environmental violation in the company’s supply chain” (Foroohar, par. 4). Apple is just one of the many companies trying to change their environmental impact on China, principally because they care about the image they project to the world. However, Ma Jun’s strategic plan is not limited only to major corporations but to convince the entire world to jump on the environmental bandwagon. Foroohar wrote, “The initial goal is to coax the SOEs to grab the low-hanging fruit—retrofitting coal-fired power plants to reduce the worst emissions or stopping overproduction of steel” (Foroohar, par. 6). However, according to the news reports on CNN as late as October
This article describes the threat coal burning possesses towards China by vastly increasing air pollution, leading to many deaths. Furthermore, the article details both how effective the Chinese government’s response has been towards the increasing dangers of air pollution and the effect of heavy air pollution. The author, Edward Wong, a former TIME news foreign correspondent, has written many unbiased articles related to global crises for NY Times and TIMES News. Published by the somewhat reliable news source New York Times, the credibility of the author compensates for any issues. Covering many important issues around the world such as the Iraq war, the author’s credibility is vastly justified. This article provides detail into the damage
The Economic boom from factories connection to air pollution is unconventional. The reason factories stay open is only for the monopoly it has over monetary distress. The economical perspective affects the health concerns beyond a doubt. Nearly 5-6 million people die every year due to an illness related to air pollution. The pollution is tremendously bad in China, which the people of China have to stay inside their homes with the windows shut at all times. China has faced their first “red alert” which has put a halt to usage of motor vehicles, and factories stopped operation. People all over the world are suffering from air pollution, some cases worse than others. Urbanization constantly grows each year which contributes to air pollution which has an immense impact on the
One of China’s best successes has in turn been one of its biggest downfalls. One of the main problems is China’s greatest success which has been its phenomenal economic growth. This is one of the main drivers of the current environmental problems that the country faces. Factories dump pollutants into the air and water. It is difficult to see the Chinese government making the significant sacrifices required to improve their environment if it means slowing down their economic growth.
For the past thirty years, China 's GDP has been growth at a substantial rate 10% annually, when totaling that up for 30 years, that would be an increase over 17 times their original economy before their economic boom. China 's economy is ranked second to the U.S and it is the world 's largest exporter and the world 's second largest importer. This sounds magnificent, of course, until we bring into the statistics of China 's pollution level increase within those thirty years as well. Before China 's economic boom, their economy pollution was only minimal, after the economic reform implemented by Deng Xiao Ping, the economy started to grow, and pollution started to soar as well. From 1980 to 2001, China 's economy have grown at 10% GDP, but its energy consumption have not grown as fast, meaning there were less pollution than growth. China had excess energy to sell to the energy market in the world prior to 2002. After 2002, China 's demand for energy skyrocketed, which mean their pollution also skyrocketed to an unprecedented level in China 's history. By 2007, China had surpass U.S at the number one spot in pollution, in which it emits 20 million tons of Co2 annually, and this number is predicted to increase even more, but their economy was still only ranked second. Which means that China had generating more pollution per dollar GDP than the U.S. China is a very
The population on China is constantly increasing and it is increasing quickly. Because of the population increase there are more and more carbon emission, which is causing a lot of pollution in China. “While China’s economic boom has greatly accelerated the devastation of its land and resources, the roots of its environmental problem stretch back centuries” (Albert and Xu, 2016). China’s environment is becoming more and more polluted and it is also causing harm to the plants, animals and ecosystem there. China’s population began booming and has increased by about 10% every year for the last decade (Albert and Xu, 2016). While the population increases so does the industrialization of the country which in turn increases the carbon emissions and pollution. The water is also becoming increasingly