China Looming Environmental Crisis

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Pollution can generally be regarded as the state of making the environment to become unclean for the human habitation by the use of the impurities. The impurities which cause pollution are generally called as the pollutants. The pollutants can be categorized as being inorganic or organic in nature. At the same time pollution can be divided into many types depending at the site of effect. The types of pollution which are currently recognized by the global environmental bodies include the water pollution, air pollution, sound pollution and the soil pollution.

Some of the causes of the pollution include the agricultural activities such as the use of the fertilizers, the spray of the insecticides and pesticides. But the major cause of pollution which has been regarded in this twenty first century is the industrial causes. Most of the countries which are regarded as being Industrialized and the other developing powers like India, Brazil and South Africa have the increased rate of pollution.

Among the developed countries China tops in the pollution league as it has recorded seventy percent of the pollution rate in the major cities respectively.One of the major implicated cause of the environmental crisis is the industrial revolution which is taking place in the Chinese territory. Industrial revolution causes both the air pollution through the emission of poisonous gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfuric acids respectively.

At the same time the industrial revolution has been implicated in the water pollution by depositing the industrial effluents to the major rivers respectively. Moreover the industrial revolution can cause the soil pollution by leaving the persistent pollutants in the soils. This paper will try to analyze the looming environmental crisis in the Republic of China which is caused by the industrial revolution during this twenty first century. At the same time this paper will analyze the significance of the Shen-yang and the Three Gorges Dam to the China’s economic geography.

China may be regarded as the leading country in the world with a lot of water pollution percentage. This has been attributed as a result of the booming industrial economy. The industrialization has consequently led to the industrial wastes discharge to the major rivers of the country which are mostly located near to rivers respectively. Some times e toxic organic materials have been discharged into rivers and this has increased the various toxicity of the drinking water thus making the water in china to be declared as being unsafe by the health department of china.

According to the established statistics about three hundred million people in china lacks the sufficient drinking water (WHO,45-49).The industrial accidents which has increased in the recent times has also contributed to the increase in the rate of water pollution. For example the recent accident involving the chemical industry spillage had greatly polluted the Songua River which led to the evacuation of the individuals as the government feared the safety of the citizens in the surroundings.

Actually it has been found that pollution of china has increased highly as a result of the tremendous increase of the industrial waste products into rivers and lakes respectively. According to the established data there is approximately two hundred million tons of industrial effluents which are released every year to the major lakes and rivers respectively (WHO, 89-102).

China has been regarded as the “world factory” by many nations on the world and hence it has been regarded as the country of concern which needs to sign the Kyoto Protocol which was aimed at preventing the environmental pollution at large. It has been analyzed by the critics that there is going to be an occurrence of the “ecological disaster” in the Chinese geographical settings. According to the state environmental protection administration,” china has paid a high environmental price” (Liu, Jianguo & Jordan Nelson, 89-96).

At the same time if the current pace in the industrialization is maintained by the Chinese government, then china is expected to suffer in the pollution rate and at the same time it may face the depletion of the natural resources respectively in the near future. Moreover the pollution load in china is expected to double by the year of 2010 respectively if the rate of industrialization can not be revised (Pierzynski, G.M; Sims, J.T. &Vance, G.F, 40-48). Moreover it can be noted that the amount of water pollution which china has currently recorded is much more compared with other developed nations such as United States of America, Japan, Britain, France and Spain respectively.

The high population of the Chinese republic has consequently increased the demand of industrialization and at the same time the large population has polluted the rivers by discharging the waste products through their activities respectively. China has been ranked as the first in the sewage discharge to rivers and lake and it takes the second position in the industrial effluent discharge to the rivers (Miller, R.W & Gardiner, D.T, 70-78).

The waste products have been found to be having a profound effect in the ecosystem as a result of the destruction of the habitat area. However it can be noticed that there is no industrial power which has come up without having a negative impact in the environmental developments. The industrial revolution of china has also caused a lot of air pollution for instance the emission of the poisonous gases from the industries is a major threat to the Chinese population.

Wang Jinnan, the leading environmentalist says that “It is a very awkward situation for the country because our greatest achievement is also our biggest burden,” “There is pressure for change, but many people refuse to accept that we need a new approach so soon.”(Pierzynski, G.M; Sims, J.T. &Vance, G.F, 40-48). Thus although we need to have the industrial advancements we need to have the alternative methods of getting the required goals respectively.

The industrial gases produced to the environment have currently made china to be seen as the world problem. The emitted dangerous gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide have been found to cause what is generally known as the global warming. This has been achieved by the depletion of the ozone layer.If this continues then the world in future is going to face the atmosphere catastrophe. This is obtained by what is called as the green house effect.

The Kyoto protocol has constantly urged China to reduce the emission of the gases which arise as a consequence of the coal fuel production respectively but this has not been attained as most of the Chinese leaders are only interested on the industrial advancements later than on the environmental conservations. At the same time the acid rain which is produced as a result of this air pollution has been found to affecting the neighboring countries such as South Korea and Japan respectively.

However the government of the republic of China should embark on the alternative methods of producing energy so as to reduce the gaseous emissions and at the same this methods should be able to conserve energy respectively. For instance the coal energy should be substituted with the wind and solar energy respectively. It is quite evident that the Chinese leaders are not ready in reducing air industrial pollution in general.

They argue that most of the pollution is caused by the multinational companies which are owned by foreigners who have embarked on the Foreign Direct Investments. Moreover Beijing has presently insisted that it is not ready to start regulating the rate of carbon dioxide emissions in to the environment. It argues that by reducing the carbon dioxide emission then it will cut the level of industrial growth by a great percentage which may have a negative impact on the economic advancements. At the same they argue that the rich countries had caused the global warming in the past and it is now that they are pretending to be concerned with the environmental conservations.

According to Ren Yong,a climate expert at the center for environment and economy in Beijing he says that Typically, industrial countries deal with green problems when they are rich,”. “We have to deal with them while we are still poor. There is no model for us to follow.”(Ma, Xiangcong, 32-35.) The industrial revolution in china has also caused a lot of soil pollution. This has been attributed by the discharge of the industrial which are known as the xenobiotics to the soils.

These industrial materials are composed of the chemicals in the form of the pesticides, fertilizers and the insecticides. At the same time this soil pollution may be caused by the industrial run off, and radioactive elements which have the industrial origin. The mostly important chemical materials which are emitted by the industries include the polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and the radio nuclides. The soil pollution has constantly led to the increase of water pollution as a result of the entrance of the industrial chemicals through the ground water and the run off water which has a lot of chemicals in it.

At the same time the decay of the organic materials of the industrial origin have been implicated in the production of the poisonous gases such as the sulfur dioxide which in turn lead to the production of the acid rains (Dasgupta, Susmita; Hua Wang; Wheeler, David; 51-56) The three Gorges Dam project in China has changed the direction of development in china in different ways. This project which was initiated by the government can be regarded as one of the outstanding water project to be initiated in the world history. At the same time this project can be seen as one of the controversial issue in the environmental and economic sector.

This project consists of three dams which covers a distance of two kilometers. The involved gorge includes the Xiling, Qutang and Wu. This dam can be regarded as one of the deepest in the world as it covers approximately two hundred meters deep. Since the establishment of this project many changes have taken place in the Chinese history. The radical changes can be traced in the field of environment, economic and the social field respectively. From the environmental perspective of view it can be established that this dam has been used to generate a lot of electricity which has been used as an alternate to the fossil energy which was initially obtained by burning the fossils.

The fossil fuel has a lot of pollution effect to the atmosphere.The fossil burning has been implicated in the emission of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide respectively. At the same time the government of China managed to eliminate the polluting materials from the edge of the dam. Moreover the construction of the sewage treatment plant has been constructed nearby the dam which has improved the quality of the drinking water and at the same time reducing the pollution of the Consequate Rivers which are connected with the dam (Kayn, Joseph; Yardley, Jim, 48-55).

This project has helped to control the floods which used to occur in this area. Since these dams are so large and deep, they can constantly resist the water levels. By controlling the floods the people of China are know safe and some of the water borne diseases have been controlled thus improving the living status of the Chinese people respectively. The history of china records that much floods used to occur in the river Yangtze annually which used to affect the agricultural land and at the same time cause some diseases. The other positive geographical effect of this project is that it has been used to control the flow of the river sediment respectively.

These dams have reduced the flow of the sediment load down the rivers. The reduction of the sediment load has led to much agricultural production since the rate of soil erosion has been reduced to a great extent. This project has contributed to the economic growth of the place where they are located. For instance they have constantly acted as one factor of the tourist attractions which in turn has led to the provision of the foreign exchange to the government of China. Most of the tourists visit this location annually to tour the beautiful scene and some of them participate on the boat racing respectively. Consequently these dams have been used in the transportation department.

For this case they are used in the shipping of goods from one place to another. The river transport has been utilized to a great since this is the only alternative for the long distance transport which is cost effective. I t has been established that these dams have the largest system of shipment dockets in the Chinese republic which is used to handle large cargos every year. The construction of these dams has led to the geological instability on the land where these dams were built on addition to the surroundings respectively. This is generally caused by the presence of the large structures which triggers the seismic waves. The outcome of the seismic waves is the increase in the landslides in the region.

Moreover after the construction of these three dams many people were evacuated and resettled in different places which some residents were against. It is approximated that about two million people were forced to migrate by the government. According to the critics the people who were forced to migrate have a chance of remaining poor in their entire lifetime. Moreover they have the problem of remaining landless and they may be economically marginalized. At the same times there is a lot of ecological changes in the dams which has led to the change in the habitation of the organisms such as fish(World Bank,43-51).

The recent changes in the emphasis on the sustainable economic development has greatly changed the dimension of the Shenyang city which had been seen initially as a dirty city which is fully of pollution ranging from the water to air pollution. The main development perspectives are to make Shenyang a center of economic growth in terms of commerce, tourism and technology. Shenyang has recently started to increase the green cover by concentrating on the forestation programs in the urbanization agendas respectively. This forestation program has helped to curb the green house effect and at the same time control the soil erosion respectively.

The a forestation has been accelerated up to the Hunhe River and other areas of the North Shenyang which has produced what is commonly known as the “Three North’s” shelter forest (Kayn, Joseph; Yardley, Jim, 48-55).Moreover the Shenyang city has developed the new energy structure. The use of the coal has been reduced which has been substituted with the liquid gas and the wind energy respectively. The new techniques of cleaning the presence of coal in Shenyang have been developed. These new technique includes the liquefying techniques and the initial processing of coal before using as the energy source.

To conserve the energy which can be lost to the environment, some alternative energy saving structures have been constructed in Shenyang. The infrastructure has greatly improved. Since the population of Shenyang is high, the city has embarked on the compressive environmental management by constructing the appropriate infrastructure such as the garbage plants and the sewage treatment plants. At the same time other infrastructures such as roads, drainage channels and the improved water facilities has been provided so as to improve the environmental status.

Thus it can be concluded that China is one of the most polluted country in the world. The pollution in this country has been attributed as a result of the industrial revolution which has led to the emission of the dangerous products into the environment. However some cities such as Shenyang have started to take the appropriate measures which are aimed at improving the environment status. If the pollution status is not controlled then china will bring some long term negative effects to the world. Moreover the construction of the three gorge dam project has tried to modify the environment by producing the alternative energy which is safe.

Works cited

Dasgupta Susmita, Hua Wang & Wheeler David. “Surviving success: policy reform and the future of industrial pollution in China”. Volume 1, 1997: pp 51-56. Kahn, Joseph & Yardley, Jim. “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes.”: 48-55.

Liu, Jianguo and Jordan, Nelson. “China’s environment in a globalizing world”, Nature 434, 2008: pp 89-96.

Ma, Xiangcong. “China’s environmental governance”: Beijing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp 32-35.

Miller, R. W. and Gardiner, D. T. Soils in Our Environment, 8th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.1998: pp 70-78.

Pierzynski, G., Sims, J. & Vance, G. Soils and Environmental Quality, 2nd edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2000, pp 40-48.

The World Bank. Environmental crisis in China, 2009: pp 43-51.

World Health Organization and the United Nations Development Program. “Environment and People’s Health in China.” 2001: pp 89-102.

World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, “Indoor air pollution database for China.” Human Exposure Assessment Series, 1995: pp 45-49.

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China Looming Environmental Crisis

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