Air Pollution Comes along with Urban Development - Essay Example

Air Pollution Comes Along With Urban Development Today, clean air is what all life depends on. This proves the vital nature of this natural resource in the world. Unpolluted air to the animals, humans, and plants promote good health and welfare. However, sustenance of clean air, especially in large urban cities, is problematic given multiple industries, dense population, and intense traffic networks (Cho and Choi 3-4). The pollution of urban air is high in cities in developing nations owing to urbanization. In most developing nations, little or no regulations are adopted in order to lessen automotive emissions through reduction technologies on vehicle emissions and fuel quality. China, like Indonesia and México, is an emerging economy where air pollution in large cities causes significant health problems and is part of the nation’s priorities. Tackling air pollution not only curbs the degradation of air quality, but also promotes economic growth through the reduction of extra operating costs in public, businesses, households, and industry sectors. However, urban center reshaping results in greater livability regardless of the city’s geographic location. The debate on urban air pollution is far from over with both sides, making all efforts to prove their point. As the debate on air pollution becomes heated, many are left asking: should we stop urban development to protect our atmosphere? Logan, a senior research scientist in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, argues that the adoption of environmental regulation, economic reform, and energy policy controls air pollution even with urban development. Logan completed a study in which he showed that through dramatically reversing local and global air pollution in China, coal consumption lowered as the consumption of oil, natural gas and electricity rose. Consequently, there was a drastic decline in the consumption of air pollution emissions by about 20% and a corresponding decline in carbon dioxide emission by 15%. In his study, Logan (42) investigated the tradeoff between air pollution and economic growth to indicate how breaking away with the coal-based past through adoption of economic reforms, environmental policies and targeted energy reduced sulfur and other air pollutants. The study indicated a positive correlation between fiscal reforms and definite policies on environment and energy and reduced levels of carbon emissions, particulate, and sulfur. A different study conducted by in 2014 (Cunningham) confirmed that China being the world’s largest coal producer and consumer continually experience air pollution from hazardous gases and particulates due to coal. The purpose of Logan study was to observe the impact of reforming energy, economic and environmental policies to reduce air pollution by minimizing dependence on coal energy. Logan showed that the benefits of lessening coal usage were more than the risks of shutting down numerous high polluting and inefficient coal plants owned by the state such as in 1999. Such closures, Logan demonstrated that, accounted for 15 million tons of coal annually. Based on Logan’s study, policy makers in China developed policy options that sought to include natural gas, stringent environmental regulation enforcement, and energy efficiency to offset any resumption in hazardous energy consumption. Cunningham, of Oilprice.com and an editor of investoideas.com, disagrees with previous studies and claims that energy, economic, and environmental policies should be implemented only after any developing nation attains peak pollution. Unlike Cunningham, a study conducted by Yan and Wen of the institute of electrical engineering China showed that China’s urban development strategy should proceed under economic, energy, and environmental reforms to reduce urban air pollution. Cunningham argues that as an emerging economy, China is yet to attain its peak pollution, and should grow first then seek clean air later. Cunningham reveals that now, China’s peak pollution attainment is much closer for the nation to promote large scale adoption of cleaner energy sources like solar and wind but its citizens have to wait until a given point in time. According to Cunningham, China’s persistence to attain peak pollution makes it resistant to adopt regulations on carbon emissions, as it seeks additional time to attain its ceiling emission rate. Cunningham’s study reveals that the Chinese government believes that the attainment of peak greenhouse gas emissions will result to a turning point characterized by closure of coal plant, but increased use of natural gas, solar and wind power, and cleaner vehicles and transit. By means of Cunningham’s study, China, like other developing nations, should attain a strong economy through urbanization first, after which it can begin to work on minimizing its pollution rates. The promise to its urban dwellers is that the chocking urban air elimination will occur soon. In support of the previous studies, Yan and Wen of IEE China, argue that the new wave of increased urban development in developing nations is fundamental in the realization of their urbanization objectives. Like Cunningham, Yan and Wen argue that the developed nations have previously polluted the air for far much longer through urbanization such as New York metropolises. However, Yan and Wen advocate urbanization governed by moderate expansion, comprehensive development, and improved quality. Comprehensive urban development realizes the negative consequences that come with rapid urban development and seeks to implement energy, environmental, and economic reforms to manage them. From the study by Yan and Wen, urbanization introduces urban traffic challenges with China experiencing mixed bicycles and car traffic that results in air pollution and growing demand for oil. Additionally, urbanization accounts for the increased population in cities, thereby resulting in closely-linked modern transportation and communication modes within the cities. However, Yan and Wen support China’s urbanization strategy by highlighting that the state’s 60% urbanization objective to effectively reduce the rural population by 2020 through the development of metropolises and megapolises will be accompanied by stringent urban construction measures and electrification of transportation. These engineers in favor of urban development argue that the challenges of heavy urban traffic causing air pollution from exhaust gases can be effectively managed through electrification of urban transport. They claim that transport electrification will reduce the release of pollutants into the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of the residents and that damage the ozone layer. Dasgupta, Hamilton and Pandey, authors of World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, 2004, agree with the previous findings that urban development under strict reform policies significantly reduces air pollution in urban areas. According to Logan, previous economic reforms targeted at closing inefficient state-owned coal plants resulted in significant reduction of coal related pollutants like Sulfur, particulates, and carbon dioxide. Additionally, energy reforms that favor electrification of transportation have led to cleaner cities based on research from Yan and Wen. Dasgupta, Hamilton and Pandey (3), believe that there exist significant relationship between environmental quality and economic growth unlike doubts cast policy makers and researchers like Cunningham’s believe that developing nations should grow first and seek to implement pollution regulations later. They argue that the suggestion of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) of cleaning the environment after urbanization is too simplified and that appropriate strategies for urban development can result in cities with lower geographic susceptibility while governance reforms perpetuates significant air pollution reduction in poor developing nations. Incorporating governance and susceptibility in the EKC model explains the improved levels of air pollution in urban centers in developing nations. Additionally, the World Bank research (Dasgupta, Hamilton and Pandey 26) indicates that an EKC model combining governance, income, susceptibility, and population density sufficiently supports the fact that some poor developing nations’ urban centers already satisfy the OECD air quality levels. Their argument is that poor developing nations do not have to grow first while continually increasing air pollution until they are middle-income nations. Conversely, the World Bank Working Paper 2004 (Dasgupta, Hamilton and Pandey) indicates that with policy reforms, poor countries can sufficiently adopt urban development while minimizing air pollution by about 50%. Sun and go, epidemiologists at the John Hopkins school of Public Health, argue that with increased unregulated urban development, air pollution has become a hazard to human health. The World Bank Working paper 2004 (Dasgupta, Hamilton and Pandey) support that the inhalation of suspended particulate matter from exhaust fumes harms human health. The study by Sun and Gu contributed to previous studies as it sought for the distinct influence of air pollution on the elderly, and the contribution of economic development in modifying the effect of air pollution on health status. The study indicated that air pollution positively related to economic development in any community, implying that the elderly persons residing in Chinese wealthy cities were more affected compared to those residing in poorer urban areas. The contradiction of the findings in this study and the findings in similar studies in the US and Canada indicate the role of regional socioeconomic status. In developing nations, high socioeconomic status cities are accompanied with increased ecological degradation and pollution. The findings of the research clearly indicate huge degradation of the Chinese environment and, consequently, the Chinese elderly experience severe health outcome, including cognitive impairment, routine life activities, and activities of daily living. In developing countries, only complex linkages exist among well-being, air pollution, and socioeconomic status, leaving room only for simple assumptions of that the higher the air pollution, the poorer the health of the people. Evidently, Sun and Gu (1316) argue that the sensitivity of urban residents influences the impacts of air pollution, especially if the population is susceptible to other preventable death causes present in urban centers in developing nations. Matthew’s study, in his Master of Science dissertation, on the negative impacts of freeway air pollution on childhood neurodevelopment indicated a resultant delay. Along with the study by Sun and Gu, Mathew indicates that exhaust gases accumulated in the air negatively impacts neurodevelopment process during early childhood. While some occurrences of developmental delay result from heritable chromosomal anomalies, exposure to psychosocial disadvantages such as poverty, illiterate parents, and parental mental issues, elevates the neurodevelopment risk. Mathew also reveals that developmental delays are due to motherly smoking and exposure to pesticides as well as secondhand smoke. The resulting impacts relate to the consequences of exposure to traffic-oriented pollution, which is increasingly becoming inevitable in urban areas. Chinese children have been found to experience decreased cognitive functioning owing to pollutants such as Nitrogen dioxide, whose impact depends on the proximity to the freeway, within approximately 300 m. However, as the distance from the freeway increases, developmental delays and cognitive abilities in preschool children lessens. The study findings concur with previous research that identified elevated risk levels in children exposed to air pollutants like NO2, in their mother’s womb or during childhood (Mathew 35). Mathew (41) found that children living with their families within freeway distances up to 3000 m before or after birth are at higher risk of neurodevelopment delay. This is particularly the case in congested poorly planned urban centers with congested traffic and increased air pollution from the exhaust gases. Air pollution is a serious topic right now, but should not result in the cessation of urban development. Currently, urbanization is a key cause of air pollution, especially due to the use of fossils for fuel, increased population, and traffic congestion. However, researchers like Yan and Wen reveal that adopting electrification of transportation would result in significant reduction of air pollution from hazardous gases like NO2 that cause neurodevelopment delays in children and cognitive impairment in the elderly persons. Additionally, Jeffrey, Yan and Wen, and Cunningham reveal that air pollution in urban areas can significantly be minimized through reduced coal dependence and higher adoption of renewable energy like solar and wind in urban areas. Finally, the World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2004 reveals that even poor developing nations can develop and significantly reduce air pollution by about 50%. Works Cited Cho, Hee-Sun and Mack, Joong Choi. "Effects of Compact Urban Development on Air Pollution: Empirical Evidence From Korea." Sustainability 6 (2014): 5968-598.Print. Cunningham, Nicholas. "InvestorIdeas.com: Peak Pollution: China Aims For The Top So It Can Go Down." ProQuest 11 June 2014: 1-2. Print. Dasgupta, Susmita, et al. "Air Pollution during Growth: Accounting for Governance and Vulnerability." World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3383. United States: World Bank, 2004. 1-30. Print. Jeffrey, Logan. "Dirt fast development: The tradeoff between economic progress and air pollution." Havard Asia Pacific Review (2001): 42-45. Print. Manins, P, et al. "The Imp Act Of Urban Development On Air Quality And Energy Use." 2001. Imperial College London. 28 October 2014. Print. Mathew, Mary, Nitya. Exposure To Freeway Air Pollution And Developmental Delays. Dissertation. United States: UMI Dessertation Publishing, 2011. Print. Sun, Rongjun and Danan Gu. "Air Pollution, Economic Development of Communities, and Health Status Among the Elderly in Urban China." American Journal of Epidemiology 168.11 (2008): 1311-1318. Print. Yan, Luguang and Xuhui Wen. "Clean Air and the Electrification of Urban Transportation." Urbanization, Energy, and Air Pollution in China: The Challenges Ahead - Proceedings of a Symposium. China: National Academy of Sciences, 2004. 1-19. Print Works Cited Cho, Hee-Sun and Mack, Joong Choi. "Effects of Compact Urban Development on Air Pollution: Empirical Evidence From Korea." Sustainability 6 (2014): 5968-598.Print. Cunningham, Nicholas. "InvestorIdeas.com: Peak Pollution: China Aims For The Top So It Can Go Down." ProQuest 11 June 2014: 1-2. Print. Dasgupta, Susmita, et al. "Air Pollution During Growth: Accounting for Governance and Vulnerability." World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3383. United States: World Bank, 2004. 1-30. Print. Jeffrey, Logan. "Dirt fast development: The tradeoff between economic progress and air pollution." Havard Asia Pacific Review (2001): 42-45. Print. Manins, P, et al. "The Imp Act Of Urban Development On Air Quality And Energy Use." 2001. Imperial College London. 28 October 2014. Print. Mathew, Mary, Nitya. Exposure To Freeway Air Pollution And Developmental Delays. Dissertation. United States: UMI Dessertation Publishing, 2011. Print. Sun, Rongjun and Danan Gu. "Air Pollution, Economic Development of Communities, and Health Status Among the Elderly in Urban China." American Journal of Epidemiology 168.11 (2008): 1311-1318. Print. Yan, Luguang and Xuhui Wen. "Clean Air and the Electrification of Urban Transportation." Urbanization, Energy, and Air Pollution in China: The Challenges Ahead - Proceedings of a Symposium. China: National Academy of Sciences, 2004. 1-19. Print. Read More