China has become a global superpower. Its rise to the top of the trading chain has become a key factor into what it’s become today. With its accelerated population over the last years, it’s economic value has flourished its economy to a wide extent. There is also a saying, that with every good thing, there is always something bad. That’s when China’s environmental factors come to play. In the last twenty years, the quality of life in china has been decaying. The air surrounding most of the major cities in china are filled with horrible, toxic chemicals that has brought worldwide attention to this issue. Not only that, but contaminated and scarce water in China also play large roles in the impact of the environment. I believe that the increase in population, coal processing, and manufacturing of goods, have brought about environmental damages, but has also created economic stability. In the Shanxi Province sits Linfen, one of the most polluted cities not only china but the world. Since 1978, Linfen has been China’s number one resource in coal producing energy. China needed large amounts of sufficient energy for its big manufacturers and for its rapid increase in population. In the past, linfen was a pleasant farming community and also mentioned as “the fruit and flower town”. Its name comes from the Fen River in which its sits on. It was widely recognized as the city with running natural water springs. In the 1930’s, the town had less than a few thousand people
The world economy has improved rapidly as a result of globalization in past decades. However, many environmental problems began to emerge during the economic boom. Especially, in the middle of the 20th century after World War II, many countries restarted economic development and urban construction. At this time, severe air pollution influenced a number of regions. For instance, London was affected by a critical air pollution event, called the Great Smog of London, in December 1952. During a week, 4000 people had died as a direct result of smog and over 100000 were got ill by the human respiratory tract. Subsequently, from 1978 to now, China has seen a great amount of economic increase, with its gross domestic product (GDP) expanding hundreds time since the reform and opening up. Although China has obtained a huge progress with the globalization, it has resulted in a series of environmental problems at the same time. The aim of the essay is to discover how the globalization affected the environment on air pollution, soil pollution and biological invasion in China. And I intend to analyze the instances of the connection between air
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
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
The largest cities in China are over populated and polluted due to globalization. Peoples health is poor because of the air pollution from all the factories. People die quicker and not many babies are born to replenish the population. Most people around in the cities can be seen wearing masks.
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.
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
According to history of China, water consumption, growing population and demand for higher living standards were increasing steadily since the 1950s, when industrial development of the country started. In theory that could lead to new economic era and growth of the country, but in practice that caused one of the most important environmental problems in China. First of all, the pollution of water resources in this country goes deep into history in the 1970s. According to Wang (1989), the situation hasn’t changed for the better and the rate of pollution increased rapidly. Even nowadays the government of China cannot tackle
In the article, “The Filth They Breath in China,” author, Michael Auslin, discusses the health concerns that citizens in China are forced to face, and how the country put itself in that position. China positioned the importance of its economic success, above the health of its people. The air quality has reached a state where people are urged to stay inside in order to avoid the dense smog. Also, industries have dumped an immense amount of waste into water sources, causing them to be unsafe for public use. These extreme living conditions should catch the eye of those living in the United States, in order to prevent the same from happening to them.
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
The rise in China from a poor, stagnant country to a major economic power within a time span of twenty-eight years is often described by analysts as one of the greatest success stories in these present times. With China receiving an increase in the amount of trade business from many countries around the world, they may soon be a major competitor to surpass the U.S. China became the second largest economy, last year, overtaking Japan which had held that position since 1968 (Gallup). China could become the world’s largest economy in decades.
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.
I think that seeing how China’s soil and waterways have affected many people's health should really be a wakeup call to the way we treat our environment in the U.S. as well. I don't understand why many of us continue to harm the environment even after we watch the effects unfold We have creatures and insects that are directly affected by the chemicals that have affected the environment like the pesticides we put in our soil and in the chemicals that goes in our water. We have watched bee colonies collapse because of pesticides and have learned that chemicals and pesticides affect our health and don't connect these things to make a change.
Since China is known as the world factory people move out of rural areas and began living in urban environment because for more job opportunities. In Shenzhen there’s about 30-45% factory vacancy because of the cheaper areas in the countryside (Zou, Mingxi). In 2013 Southern China produced about 30% products for the world and their top exports are electronic equipment which accounted up for about 16% (University of Hong Kong).Now that the pollution of urban areas in China is rapidly growing it is hard to maintain sustainability for everyone since everything is polluted specially air and water. Since China’s population is four times longer than United states, it is harder to maintain an environment clean and to provide everyone with clean water. One way that we can
Since the industrial revolution, many developed and developing countries have begun the process of urbanization to achieve faster development. The transformation from rural to urban brings the human beings convenience and wealth. However, in the past decade, many cities have met not only benefits but also challenges. Environmental problems continue to grow in those high-density areas. To investigate these problems and their influences, two cities, from a developed country and a developing country each, New York City (the U.S.A) and Shanghai (China) are chosen to compare. Both cities are economic centers in their own countries. New York City started its urbanization in the 19th century while Shanghai started in around 1980s. The process NYC has experienced, especially environmental problems, is a good example for Shanghai government to learn from when it continues its urbanization step in the future. Three problems are investigated: air pollution, water quality and soil contamination. These ones are significant in our lives as they can affect our organs and thus influences our health directly.
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