Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Diamond (2005) writes: “China’s . . . environmental problems will not remain domestic issues but will spill over to the rest of the world”.
Trade between china and the rest of the world also causes environmental problems. As Diamond (2005) puts it, “Imported timber, hence exported deforestation”. China is the third largest consumer of timber in the world. China has a very high demand for timber; however, local supply is limited by a government ban. Therefore, China depends on timber imports to satisfy its high demand. This high demand causes deforestation in the countries China imports from.
The Chinese government aspires to turn China into a First world country. Diamond (2005) argues that, “China’s achievement of First World standards will approximately double the entire world’s human resource use and environmental impact. . . . That is the strongest reason why China’s problems automatically become the world’s problems”.
With or without China’s interaction with other countries, pollution from China is inevitable. “China’s large territory and population would guarantee effects on other people merely because China is realising its wastes and gases into the same ocean and atmosphere (Diamond, 2005).
China imports and exports her environmental problems to the world knowing or unknowing. The fact that all countries are globally connected means that environmental problems are and will never be any country’s local problem, but global ...Download file to see next pagesRead More