China 's Long Standing Battle Against Air Pollution

Air pollution serves as the biggest concern in the realm of environmental problems in China. Two thirds of Chinese cities’ air quality are below the standards established by the World Health Organization (“Special Report,” 2004). Consequently, three-eighths of the population breathe unhealthy air on a daily basis inhaling tiny particles into their lungs resulting in an average of 1.6 million deaths per year from asthma, lung cancer, stroke and heart disease (Levin, 2015). Industrial emissions contribute

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

According to the EPA pollution recommendations, when a city reaches an air quality index (AQI) of over 400, all people should avoid going outdoors. Beijing’s highest AQI is 895. This impacts the daily lives of Beijing citizens immensely. Air pollution has been related to increased cases of cancer, heart disease, stroke and other respiratory illnesses. It is also associated with asthma in children.

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).

Globally, many countries are increasingly feeling the effects of environmental degradation. This has been occasioned by the increasingly evident effects of poor environmental conservation policy. There are currently taking the brunt of environmental degradation that has been occasioned by rapid the industrialization that has occurred both within and out of the country. “Air pollution has been at fault for a significant portion of the country’s environmental problems. Studies have identified the country’s economic boom as major contributor to this (Jitendra and Tanvi, 42)”. In East Asia, yellow dust it calls “Asian dust” is the biggest issue, which is mostly influenced by China’s industrialization and coal burning electrical generating plants. The main issue concerning South Korea and Japan is the air pollution caused by China's rapid economic growth crossing the boundaries into these two countries, it is blown from China to Korea and Japan causing hazardous air pollution. There causes many problems, it occurs respiratory problems, an increase in incidence of acid rain, highway accidents, and forcing many residents to stay home. Also, dust will enter a human’s mouth and organ which will cause respiratory problems through inhalation. “Air pollutants are gaseous or particulate matter which that have an impact on human health and natural ecosystems” (Lee, Adeel, 134).

There have been strides to regulate laws in China to deal with this environmental damage and destruction, but often times these laws and regulations are ignored even by leaders. The health of China’s citizens is at risk, and though the future seems far ahead of us, there might not be a future in Chine due to air pollution and its major environmental

Although thought to be “not a big problem” and “under control” by most people, pollution is making its way in being a serious and an unforgiving threat to society. Pollution a topic everyone hears and knows exists. What they don’t know is how serious of a problem it is already becoming. Many health issues are being reported now that are linked to air pollution and even the most severe weather places have encountered are linked to air pollution also. By society, not fully being aware of the true threat that pollution is making, it will only become a growing threat that they will be encountering.

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.

Beijing, China has a coal mining history of nearly 800 and some odd years. This has been a major air pollutant and the main reason for it is because its economy has grown substantially in the last 30 years. Worldwide, there are twenty cities with the highest, worst air pollution, sixteen of those cities are within China alone. The main causes of Beijing’s air pollution can be pointed to several factors. Large economical growth, an increase in vehicles on the roads, growth in population, and manufacturing. China has also experienced major economic growth with a large rise in Gross Domestic Product. This increase can be connected with pollution. Vehicles are just one contributor to pollution which we will discuss later in this paper.

Kan Tingting, a 35 year old cafe manager says, “‘What bothers me the most is that my child may have a very negative view of nature’”(Wong 29). The children of Beijing see smog constantly and suffer daily. Although the ordinary person does not do much to restrain smog, it has killed thousands of people throughout history.

China is a country in Asia which is also in the Northern Hemisphere. China has a border with Russia, India, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Pakistan, North Korea, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Laos, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Bhutan. China has many physical features that include The Great Wall of China, Huang He, Xi Jiang River, Yangtze River, Cangshan Mountains and Mt Everest. There are many issues in China and one issue is air pollution. Air pollution are additional unnatural compounds and toxins. These include harmful gases, dust or fumes making it difficult for plants, humans or animals to survive. The gases include carbon dioxide, methane, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, lead and chlorofluorocarbons.

You can’t really understand the devastating effects that pollution has on us until you experience it for yourself. If pollution is not addressed it could cause consequences. If there is one thing that I would change in the world, it would be, getting rid of pollution.

Smog is defined by fog or haze being mixed with smoke or any other pollutant. That is exactly what had happened in London in 1952. At first, no one knew exactly what caused the yellow colour and the rotten egg smell of the smog, but after many years scientists were finally able to figure out the mystery behind the Great Smog of

China is the second-largest producer of greenhouse gas, acid rain and other pollutants in the world. That means China has lots of environmental problems, and air pollution always is one of the most serious issue in China. In the world, nobody can live without air. However, the quality of air comes down every year. Smog is one of forms of air pollution produced by the reaction of sunlight with hydrocarbons, nitrogen compounds, and other gases primarily released in automobile exhaust. Smog is common in large urban areas, especially during hot, sunny weather, where it appears as a brownish haze that can irritate the eyes and lungs (Science Daily). In 2015, the smog becomes the most serious

Another useful suggestion raised by Y and C is to look at current air quality policies in China, the corresponding authorities and how they work together. D and H added that air quality policy is incorporated into the national 5-year plan, regional and city plans, and main cities we can look into are Beijing, Shanghai Guangzhou and also Shenyang. It is a good suggestion because these policies are guiding the action of related corporations and the people in the corresponding authorities are key decision makers. Therefore, key authorities and recent main policies on air quality are reviewed as below.