Environmental Effects Of Urbanization On Shanghai And New York City

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 Joseph E Stiglitz who won the Nobel economic prize said, ‘Two forces will shape the 21st century: urbanisation in China and technological innovation in the US.’ Urbanization is such an important issue for China and the world. Research figures indicate the urbanization rate has grown to 45% from 13% since 1949 and the government estimates it will increase to 60% in 2030. Some researchers have shown urbanization in China was very successful and got many great accomplishments. On the other side, many other researchers also revealed critical opinions to what it has done in the past. They also worried about the future of urbanization in China. Through this report, This report will examine what benefits and disadvantages did urbanization process bring to China and How is the future of it.

When we speak of the term urbanization – the outward expansion of human population from the city-centre, many feel the sense of triumph about the current living conditions, and are enlightened to do great works on the planet. Of course, it is not wrong if one feels this sense of triumph at first, but the ambiguity comes when the environmental aspect is placed in the talk. In this capitalistic world where money and status are worshiped, many negative effects associated with urbanization are being forgotten or dismissed.

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.

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.

As mentioned in Diamond’s book, Collapse, China has been facing and is still facing air pollution and environmental damages. The air pollution crisis in China is caused mainly by their large economic boom causing more factories, vehicles, and overpopulation (Clark, et al.). “Pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide are rising due to the increasing numbers of motor vehicles and the coal- dominated energy generation” (Diamond 363). Because of the immediate effects of air pollution such as the smog that is visible to citizens in China, many citizens wear face masks every day to protect themselves and their health. Diamond also mentions the fact that because China has the worst environmental damages such as air pollution, this might affect the rest of the world.

For example, Los Angeles, California is avery populated city that everything is so crowded and we have ridiculous amount of traffic jams every single day. The amount of automobiles there are in the atmosphere contribute to the air pollution which later on causes smog to occur. Factories are also another reason why

The population growth in Beijing contributes to a big portion of its pollution. The population has risen from 11 million to 16 million in just 7 years, and has nearly doubled over the past century. Factories that utilize coal burning contribute to the smog currently present in Beijing. Many of these factories depend on outdated and inefficient technology which emits air pollutants. Beijing is a victim of its own topography since it's surrounded by mountains which traps pollution within the city. Air quality worsens in the spring and summer seasons when the humidity and temperature levels increase. Air pollution has been so drastic to the point that the city often engulfs in smog making it near zero visibility which in turn causing road

To begin with, the amount of inhabitants in Beijing causes pollution. As the capital of China, most every Chinese person dreams of living in Beijing, for this reason Beijing is full of people, and as they move in the air becomes worse. Beijing population is increasing every day and as people increase car use also increases. With nearly 20 million of people living in Beijing, this amounts to 5 million cars driving around every day. Even though the government tries to limit cars that drive in one day by the plate number of each car, but still these cars create abundant carbon dioxide. To make matters

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

16 of the top 20 air polluted cities are located in China; this is due to rapid development in many what were rural areas of China. A massive 30% of china suffers from acid rain, also because air quality is so poor, 400,000 premature deaths from air polluted causes in 2003. Leaking water pipes contaminated drinking water, which caused illness throughout China; resulting in 70% rivers/lakes are polluted.

We see that China has polluted more than 10 times the amount of pollution in the U.S. The population of the cities are relatively the same; This data was published in January of 2015. By looking at this chart, we understand that pollution is evident and that we need to do

China's fast-growing economy has attracted worldwide attention; However, what followed was a series of serious environmental problems. For example, since 2014, haze has polluted most big cities in China, especially in the north. Beijing with full of haze lets people associate with London fog of 1952. As the earliest industrialized country, London is one of the first cities in the world that suffer from fog problems. Wifely used of coal for manufactories and families is the main reason to cause the London fog and stimulated the spread of air pollution. China repeats the same mistake that London made. After decades of governance, the environment in London has greatly improved, the UK’s successful experience is worth learning from China. Blindly

According to Xinhua news agency, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Beijing, Tianjin and surrounding areas carried out a supervision of atmospheric pollution caused by industrial enterprises. As of May 7th, 28 inspection teams inspected 8447 units, of which 5594 were found to have environmental problems, accounting for about 66.2% of the total number of checks. The few major problems found during this inspection is “small scale industries” that don’t follow any environmental regulations, lack of pollution control facilities in the industries and pollution control facilities not operating on standard.