I smell the pollution!”

Bad Air in China

My previous postings were about higher education and the new urban poor in China. Now I would like to take on another hot topic, the environment, in China with my readers.

In the past decade China earned her reputation as the factory for the world. Many of manufacturing jobs were relocated from the west including the United States to China. The Chinese economy enjoyed a comfortable ride through this transition. A significant portion of Chinese citizens got them out of the poverty for this opportunity. However, behind the prosperity is the severely damaged environment. For instance, 9 of the 10 cities with the world’s worst air pollution are found in China (Schmidt, 2002).  Many of us might still remember the great concerns about the air quality raised by some of the athletes participating in the Beijing Olympic Games three years ago. During our latest trip to China, my son complained about the fact that he could smell pollution. The severity of air pollution was easily spotted when I was there. Even the snow on the ground was somewhat grayish in my hometown.  The consequence of air pollution is so enormous for the Chinese society. The respiratory disease linked to air pollution is the leading causes for the death in China (Schmidt, 2002).  Adults die most often because of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and children because of pneumonia (Schmidt, 2002). Air pollution causes millions of Chinese to suffer from chronic ailments including heart disease, cancer, decreased immune function, and fatigue (Schmidt, 2002).

The polluted and diminishing water resources are even a greater threat to the life of many Chinese citizens.  A recent report showed that the underground water sources for drinking water in more than half of the Chinese cities do not reach the national standards. The hazardous chemicals in the drinking water used by more than 190 million people are above the safety level (Schmidt, 2002). For this reason, my parents have been buying bottled water for drinking. Because of the limited availability of water resources, many cities in northeastern China are plagued by the chronic water shortage. My mom often store quite a few plastic bottles filled with tap water in her balcony in case there is unexpected water outage,  which had happened several times a week. When I was there, I experienced a cutoff of water while I was in a middle of a shower.

Another drastic effect resulting from the degradation of environment is the dust storm of this time of each year. While I am writing this blog, I just noticed a headline from Xinhua News that the citizens in Beijing are suffering from one of the worst dust storms this year. The visibility falls below 2 miles (see the picture above). The situation can be much worse in some of northwestern areas, like Gansu province. The visibility could be as low as 50 meters. The local citizens are forced to stay inside buildings. Economic activities are brought to a halt.

Sandstorm in Gansu

The worsened environment is directly correlated with the industrialization in China during the past 60 years. The degradation was accelerated in the past 20 years, which matches the period of fast growth in Chinese economy. Coal is the most used source to power Chinese economy. The coal was often burned without treatment to reduce the release of hazardous gases, such as sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide, and without the removal of particles in the soot (Schmidt, 2002).  Associated with the recent economic boom, a vast amount of small to medium sized factories were erected everywhere. Many of those factories produce chemical and biological wastes. Since the local governments are concerned only about the economic profits, they stay blind to the potential environment damages. It is often reported that the chemicals from manufacturing facilities are freely discharged along the major rivers. Now the problem becomes too huge to be remedied. It was estimated that the damages caused by pollution and degraded resources consume up to 8% of China’s GDP, roughly equal to the annual growth of the country’s economy (Schmidt, 2002). In other words, the economic development in the industrialization process is washed out. History may not repeat itself. However, one can find a lot of similarities in the history. What we seeing in China reflects what has happened in US early last century when US was going through her industrialization. The sad reality is that we do not learn from history.

                          I am glad that the Chinese government is committed to restore the environment. In next decade 1.5 percent of GDP will be invested in the environment protection. More importantly the Chinese government at all levels should feel the urgency and accountability in this issue. They should have a balanced policy in economical development and environment protection. We have already seen that Chinese are importing technologies in clean coal. They have an annual target in increasing forest coverage. In my hometown, they just started a centralized heating system. This way the emission will be better controlled. I trust that the situation will be improved with time. I hope that other developing countries will avoid the same mistakes in their industrialization process. In the end, we will live in a better world. 

             

             Work Cited:

Bad Air Quality (n.d) http://www.our-energy.com/pictures/static_content/china_hydropower_as_the_right_solution/bad_air_quality.jpg Retrieved  April, 30,  2011 from www.Google Image.

Sandstorm in Gansu (March, 2010) http://feww.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sandstorm-19-march.jpg  Retrieved April, 30, 2011 from Google Image.

Schmidt, CW. (2002, September). Economy and Environment China Seeks a Balance. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002 Volume 110, PA517-PA522.Retrieved March, 24, 2011from Academic Search Complete Database.