Chinese Population and Environment Pollution - Research Paper Example

China: Population and Pollution Abstract China has been a strong nation and continuously making a mark in the world culture. There is at least one Chinatown in any country worldwide. This nation has influenced other cultures in so many ways. Chinese New Year is being celebrated also by those who are not a Chinese descendant. Its population is approximately 1/7 of the world’s population. Have the government given enough attention to the environment despite the fact that it has to sustain the security and economy of a country whose population is as big as theirs? Could it be that the status of the country’s environment is inversely proportional to its population? Air pollution is one of the many environmental problems that this planet is suffering from as a result of economic advancement. This is one of the reasons why climate change is being experienced worldwide. Smog is the product of chemicals that combine with air and water particles in the environment. Though it appears as a haze, smog is made up of particulate matter and combination of gases. Air pollution has only been noticed as an increasing problem after the Second World War and countries started to increase its population and manufacturing. Though a country’s economy is taken care of by its government, very little attention has been given to the environment which commonly suffers in the quest for economic stability (Wehr, 2011; AFN, 2009). Even the greatest nation does not stand a chance when the environment starts to fight back. There are numerous events that the world is experiencing during recent years that are the product of man abuse of the environment. Air is not just something that a person needs when breathing. Clear air is needed also to have better visuals during travel. There are times that travelling is needed for either trading produce and/or labor. China is classified as a developing country which has a population of almost 2 billion worldwide. Its culture is so rich that it has influenced other nations in the form of different cultural factors such as traditions, celebrations and delicacies. As the country continue to progress, the government has failed to notice immediately that its environment is starting to deteriorate especially the quality of air that the population breathes. It came to a point when the smog condition in Beijing, China’s capital and where the Beijing International Airport is located, became the root cause for the cancellation of more than 200 flights and the delay of more than 125 flights both incoming and outgoing (Challenger, 2012). As reported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2011, China’s population reached 1.35 billion. It is the most populated country in the world. With such a big population, the country’s economy should be sustained to enable proper functioning of its government and take care of the needs of its people. The country’s young adults have already noticed the importance of economy in their lives. Some would start as an employee to save sufficient money. This money would serve as the starting capital of a business of which they would be the employer. In the event that have transpired in December, there were thousands of stranded travellers who cannot do anything else but to wait until it was safe enough for travel. These travellers vary from tourist to investors. Such incident can give a negative image not just on the city itself but the country as a whole. The effects are not limited to the tourism and health sectors but can also affect the economic sector in the long run. Tourism plays a big role in a government’s economy. There would be more room for trade and would be a great income generating opportunity not just only for a particular city or province but also the country itself as a whole. The said aspects negatively affect the tourism of a nation since visitors often take into consideration the said factors in visiting any nation or location. When a country or its government put too much effort in improving their economy, it is a given circumstance that the country’s environment is suffering in the process. Given the example of what have transpired in China, the government fails to acknowledge the environmental economics. It is dealing with the “principles of economics to study why and how human beings interact with their environment the way they do, how they use and manage the environmental resources, and what are the impacts of human activities on the environment.” This type of economics when defined as a discipline “deals with the relationship between economic activities and the environment and focuses attention on economic development and its effects on environment” (Singh & Shishodia, 2007). In the recent years, the environment has been taken for granted and governments had focused more on gaining economic stability. This is not just pertaining to Chinese government but to almost all of the governments in the world. The environment had been abused and pushed aside to make way for income generating opportunities such as factories, mines and others. There are places that have been once forests filled with sturdy trees and home of extinct animals but now are urbanized and commercialized sites. If not for that event in December, the Chinese government would not be revising the existing data on tiny particulate matter. This instance paved way for people around the world to notice what is happening to the environment especially to the air. Seven billion people need air to be able to live. More than half of this population is responsible for the destruction of the environment. One may say that he is not, however when a person would reflect deep down inside guilt can be assessed everyone else. The smaller portion of the population is the ones suffering the effects of this abuse to the environment. As it has been stated, there is an inverse relationship between the environment and the economy. When a country or a city’s economy starts to go on a rise, there is a sudden decline in the environmental situation. Beijing is a very busy city. There are thousands if not millions of gasoline-powered vehicles that travels on the city’s roads. This is just for the city itself and not yet including its nearby provinces. However, this situation can be reversed. Environmental economics can be applied and the 2 entities would turn out to be both beneficial. There have been so many kinds of economic theories that have been presented and studied worldwide but there have been a few who would agree that the simplest form for the environment and the economy to coexist is by the economy respecting their boundaries for environment to be preserved. Unlike the economy that can bounce back at any given day, there is only one environment that 7 billion people are depending on. Facts speak for themselves. The environment is deteriorating every minute. There have been very little efforts by different governments to try and preserve it. When the environment starts tumbling down even further, the more people would feel its effect. Climate change is just one of the many results of environmental abuse. As countries tried to be economically competitive, the more factories they build. When more factories are needed, forest lands are being transformed to become an industrial area. Another effect of environmental abuse could vary from respiratory to dermatological diseases. Lately it has been observed that developing countries, just like China, has an increasing number in infant death. There has been a premise that one reason why China’s population is starting to stabilize in recent years. Could the latter observation be one of the reasons why the country’s population increase has not been the same compared to the previous decade (WHO Europe, 2004)? The World Bank (2007) previously reported that the China, as a country, has made positive impacts in the environment. If this is the case, why was there a smog incident in Beijing last December? What has transpired is evidence that there is an air pollution problem that is needed to be faced. The facts should be delivered as facts without any sugar coatings. The report stated that “Implementations of environmental pollution control policies… have contributed substantially to leveling off or even reducing pollution loads, particularly in certain targeted industrial sector.” With this statement alone, there have had a massive event that happened that was not made public. Because if this statement is based on true facts, there should be no smog incident that have happened in Beijing. There should be no flight either incoming or outgoing been cancelled because of poor visibility in air space. The smog incident was blamed to the ever growing industrialization and urbanization (Challenger, 2012). 4 years is such a short period of time for the air condition to be extremely damaged. This is being based to the report of the World Bank in 2007. If the environmental policies have been implemented properly and continuously, then the incident should not have happened at all. The published article about the China smog incident also stated that Beijing alone burned 27 million tons of coal in a single year, which was in 2010. By that sole statement, either it is the local government who is responsible for not following environmental policies that are present in the country or it is the Chinese government who allowed such violation in order to produce more and have more income generated by the country’s capital. In the report submitted by the World Bank in 2007, it has been noticed that the most populated area is also the most polluted. This area was identified being Northern China where Beijing is located. There 6 cities in Northern China that were identified to as most polluted. Only 1 city in Southern China that is included in the list. These cities have the highest per capita exposure in the whole country (World Bank, 2007). If the Chinese government and its people are truly concerned about their health, they should start to address their environment problems more specifically air pollution. If the government is concerned about the people that they are governing, they should make a stand to protect the air as this is a vital factor in a person’s life. The Beijing smog incident is an eye-opener of what is the condition of air pollution in the city. This condition is just a sneak peak of the air pollution condition in the whole country. Countries around the world, not just China, should start considering using environmental economics as there is an obvious need for it. The environment is starting to crumble down on a faster pace than how people would react to the changes that are happening around them. There can be harmony between the economy and the environment if the first aspect would respect the latter and not abuse it. Too many events had already happened that involved nature’s retaliation to man’s abuse of it. Man does not stand a chance when it is the environment that is fighting back. Climate change and global warming are just 2 of the examples of the effects of air pollution. In every country, forests have been destroyed to make way for industrialization and urbanization. Thousands of trees were cut to make way for buildings and factories. Trees are responsible for “recycling” the carbon dioxide that humans exhale, together with all the tiny particles in the air, to make fresh oxygen that humans breathe. If not for the environment, man’s survival is impossible. The economy cannot survive without the environment. This is simply because the people who are working for the economy need the environment to live and be able to work and earn. The environment can stand on its own. With or without the economy, the environment is still the environment. Even before man has grasped the concept of trade and tourism, the environment already exists. There is a clause in the definition of environmental economics that states “how they [human beings] use and manage the environmental resources (Singh & Shishodia, 2007).” Taking China still as the example, there is obvious misuse of the environmental resources. People were too busy working on infrastructures that they fail to see what the effects of these infrastructures have on the environment. The smog that affected Beijing is just an example of what kind of air the children are breathing in. Their small bodies are being invaded by toxins from the air that they breathe. Economy is slowly killing mankind’s future by making these children ill. Hundreds of deaths have been brought by respiratory diseases. Others will say that it is because of vices and man tends to abuse their bodies. However, it is not just the adults who are dying. There are innocent children who are acquiring diseases because of the pollution present in the environment caused by the economy. Think of the innocent children. They also have the right to appreciate the nature and its gifts. Nobody owns the environment however every man is responsible for its preservation. A stable economy is needed to have nutritious food on the table. What is a stable economy if those people who would eat those foods are already with life-threatening diseases or worst are dead because of diseases brought about by man’s abuse to the environment? There is still time to save the environment. Instead of promoting manufactured produce, promote the beauty of nature that each place is blessed with. This will generate income yet it is preserving the environment that man calls home. References AFN Environmental Stewardship. (2007). Air Pollution and Smog. Ottawa, ON: Assembly of First Nations. Challenger, D. (2012, January 12). China to Release Stricter Smog Readings for Beijing. CNN.Com. retrieved 25 January 2012 from . Haub, C., Gribble, J., & Jacobsen, L. (2011, July). 2011 World Population Data Sheet: The World Adding Another Billion People Every 12 Years. Population Reference Bureau. Singh, K. & Shishodia, A. (2007). Environmental Economics: Theory and Applications. New Delhi, India: SAGE Publications, Inc. United Nations Population Fund. (2011). People and Possibilities in a World of 7 Billion. UNFPA. Wehr, K. (2011). Green Culture: An A-to-Z Guide. California, USA: SAGE Publications, Inc. World Bank, The. (2007). Cost of Pollution in China: Economic Estimates of Physical Damages. Washington, DC: The World Bank. World Health Organization Europe. (2004, July). Health Aspects of Air Pollution. Retrieved 25 January 2012 from . Read More