POLLUTION IN CHINA

POLLUTION IN CHINAChocking on growth?

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

• Total Population: 1,355,692,576 [1]

• Literacy: 95.1% from population

• Total Area: 9,596,960 sq km [4]

• GDP (PPP): $13.39 trillion [3]

• GDP (Per Capita): $9,800 [121]

• Health Expenditure: 5.2% of GDP [135]

• Exports: $2.21 trillion [1]

• Imports: $1.95 trillion [3]

• Reserves of FX: $3.821 trillion [1]

• Highest Electricity Production and Consumption.

• Highest Number of Internet Users.

• Highest Number of Phones (Mobile and Line).

FLAGThe color of the flag represents the Chinese revolution, while the stars symbolize the four social classes who are united under the Communist Party of China:1)Working class2)Peasantry3)Urban petty bourgeoisie4)National bourgeoisie (capitalists)

ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

A. Reducing its high domestic savings rate and correspondingly low domestic consumption. (50% of GDP [4])

B. Facilitating higher-wage job opportunities for the aspiring middle class, including rural migrants and increasing numbers of college graduates.

C. Reducing corruption and other economic crimes.

D. Containing environmental damage and social strife related to the economy's rapid transformation.

POPULATION PYRAMID0-14 years: 17.1% (male 124,340,516/female 107,287,324)15-24 years: 14.7% (male 105,763,058/female 93,903,845)25-54 years: 47.2% (male 327,130,324/female 313,029,536)

55-64 years: 9.6% (male 77,751,100/female 75,737,968)65 years and over: 9.4% (male 62,646,075/female 68,102,830)

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

• Pollution due to greenhouse gases and sulfur dioxide particulates being emitted from the reliance on coal which causes acid rains.

• The world's largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

• Water shortages, particularly in the north, along with water pollution from untreated wastes.

• Deforestation with an estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 that caused soil erosion and economic development along with desertification.

• Natural frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence.

NASA satellite photo of a smog episode in northern China

TYPES OF POLLUTION

• Consumer Waste

• Water Pollution

• Electronic Waste

• Industrial Pollution

• Deforestation

• Lead

• Air Pollution

CONSUMER WASTE• Caused due to lack of recycling.

• No free plastic bags in stores since June of 2008.

• Ban does not include paper bags in clothing stores and plastic in restaurants.

• Plastic bags had to be clearly purchased from stores and not simply added.

• State Council supporting return of cloth bag and shopping baskets.

• Since the ban, more than 10% fewer bags being thrown away.

WATER POLLUTION

• Water resources in China are facing severe pollution due to illegal waste dumping done by corporations.

• With large industrialization, many water sources have been facing shortages because of the exhaustion of the resource.

• This pollution is causing a sharp decline in water quality.

ELECTRONIC WASTE

• The 2011 amount of waste was 2.3 million tons [2]

• Amount is expected to increase with economic growth.

• A large amount of electronic waste is improperly disposed.

• The creation of jobs through disassembly and processing of electronic waste also caused environmental and health problems.

INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION

• 100,000 of premature death and respiratory illnesses caused by exposure to industrial air pollution.

• Chinese waterways in terrible shape and unfit for human use.

• Due to low financial support towards environmental initiatives, the effects of these initiatives are not big.

DEFORESTATION• Happening due to infrastructure and real estate building.

• In order to exploit rocks and soil within a river, trees and grasslands would be cleared.

• Complete forests taken down in order to build up factories in country side.

• Many natural habitats ruined for industrial growth which causes an imbalance in ecological systems.

• The World Bank claims that China is one of the few countries that has rapidly increased its forest cover in aims of fighting air and water pollution.

LEAD• Lead poisoning has been killing a large number of Chinese

children due to it being incorporated in cheap toys and products.

• It was the most common pediatric health problem in China during the start of the 21st century.

• The blood lead levels have decrease in children after China banned lead in gasoline along with having other similar initiatives.

• Obviously, people in industrial areas were more prone to lead poisoning than people in urban areas.

Beijing air on a day after rain and a sunny but smoggy day

AIR POLLUTION

AIR POLLUTION• Chinese environmental researches have claimed that outdoor air

pollution caused premature deaths were likely to reach more than half a million (550,000) in 2020 which is a lot in term to its current one which is around 400,000.

• Indoor air pollution has also caused an extra 300,000 deaths along with 50,000 being caused from side effects such as diarrhea, cancer, and other diseases.

• According to the World Bank, China’s environmental agency insisted that health statistics should be taken out of published version of environmental reports due to it possibly hindering social stability.

• The biggest fears from air pollution is that it causes lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases due to factory and transportation emissions.

• The chance of having lung cancer is around two or three times more likely to happen in a city than for it to happen to people from the country side.

• Air pollution reached really bad levels to a point where the U.S. Embassy’s equipment could not measure the air’s pollution level and smog actually reached parts of California coming from mainland China.

Comparison between air quality levels.

SHANGHAI’S AIRPOCALYPSEPM2.5 Levels of 6oo+

Comparison between 10 most polluted cities in China and the United States.

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS•Quitting Coal:

• Coal-fired power plants are a main reason behind air pollution since these plants produce carbon dioxide emissions.

• Burning coal is causing the green house effects in terms of the world.

• It is the dirtiest fossil fuel on earth due to it causing air and water pollution along with having solid and liquid waste.

• Particulate matter is resulted from the burning of coal which causes various respiratory problems.

• Mercury pollution is also caused from burning coal and travel to far distances as it moves in the polluted air.

• The remnants of coal are usually thrown into landfills where it is not an actual solution because doing so ruins the ecosystem of whatever soil is in and around that landfill.

“One Car Policy”The same idea as the one child policy but in motor vehicles in order to lessen car emissions on the streets.

CRAZY BAD INDEX?

The establishment of strict and cleaner air quality standards is vital as there has to be a consensus and an agreement to follow the World Health Organization’s levels of adequate healthy PM 2.5 levels.

• Moving to cleaner energy such as solar and wind power:

• This can be very useful in current times but the problem with having large scale implementation of clean energy is the cost that accompanies it.

• Possibly moving to depend on nuclear power for a less dirty and more efficient solution:

• Nuclear waste is put to use in creation military weapons and is much lighter on the environment than other power sources.

• Incentivize and advertise public forms of transport:

• By doing so, streets will have commuters sharing forms of transportation instead of every individual driving their own car or motorcycle.

• Governmental focus on infrastructure:

• Building recycling facilities and increasing regulations and fines for offenders.

• Depending on technological measures to help in insuring that air pollution levels would be preserved and improved.

• Refine urban planning to make sure that raising air quality must be taken into account before accepting or starting any major project.

SIGNED ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS

• Antarctic-Environmental Protocol• Antarctic Treaty• Biodiversity• Climate Change• Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol• Desertification• Endangered Species• Environmental Modification• Hazardous Wastes• Law of the Sea• Marine Dumping• Ozone Layer Protection • Ship Pollution• Tropical Timber 83• Tropical Timber 94• Wetlands• Whaling

CHINA'S DIRTY AIR: CAN CREATIVITY, GIMMICKS

HELP?Video Link

–Thomas Ehrlich

There is an increasing sense of what can be called “legal pollution.”

REFERENCES• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10500832/Shanghai-disappears-in-airpocalypse.html

• https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html

• http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

• http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/chinas-air-pollution-reaches-crisis-level/article17107203/

• http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/multimedia/slideshows/climate-energy/air-pollution-china-nationwide/

• http://globalchange.mit.edu/research/publications/2142

• http://globalchange.mit.edu/files/document/MITJPSPGC_Rpt196.pdf

• http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/campaigns/air-pollution/solutions/

• http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/2-charts-that-put-the-chinese-pollution-problem-in-perspective/360868/

• http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-most-polluted-places-on-earth/

• http://www.searchquotes.com/quotation/%5BThere%5D_is_an_increasing_sense_of_what_can_be_called_%22legal_pollution.%22/223857/