Massive Consumption of Natural Resources in China - Research Paper Example

? Massive Consumption of Natural Resources in China and its Ecological Implications Natural resources are the main input in any country’s industrial, economic and consequently varying kinds of developments. With the constant consumption of these resources at an alarming pace, depletion of natural resources is becoming a very renowned term. Retaining the planet’s vitality is proportional to the resources we conserve. The pattern of resource consumption in China is such that it is consuming resources like farmland, water and timber with twice more frequency than their efforts directed towards these resources’ renewal for development purposes. The paper attempts to look into areas addressed by experts, organizations and nonprofit bodies and the conclusions drawn by them. The study will reveal that resource depletion cannot be controlled, since their consumption is inevitable, unless the variables which have potential adverse effects on this issue are monitored. Problem Statement: The ecological footprint of China has increased two fold since 1960’s and its demand is twice than what their ecological system can sustainably provide (WWF). The coming 20 years will be decisive relative to what path the Chinese will take for sustainable development and consequently the effects it will have on the Asian economy. Method: This paper will look into the published research on sustainable development in the modern world specifically China. The majority of the analyzed papers are from last 10 years. The projections and findings identify what variables are perpetuating this problem, the works of the concerned bodies, efforts by the Chinese government and the regulatory authorities. The reports on issues of sustainable development in China, by World Wide Fund for Nature (one of United Nation’s coveted organization) are pivotal to the research input that has been utilized. Background: Chinese consume more industrial and agricultural goods than the United States of America. According to Earth Policy Institute, China is the world’s largest consumer of steel, coal, grain and meat with a booming economy holding 1.3bn people (BBC News). This increasing demand consequently results in more frequent utilization of China’s natural resources which is proving to be a burden on China’s ecological system’s capacity. Ecological Footprint is a very relative term while discussing the limitations of the world’s ecological system. Ecological Footprint is one of the most comprehensive measures of an individual’s average demand from the nature. Ecological Footprint of a nation is defined as the total threshold area which is required for food production, fiber and timber that the inhabitants consume, capacity of land and depth of waste absorption, and the space for its infrastructure (WWF). This demand of nature is compared to the planet’s biocapacity, which means the area which is biologically productive and sustains life. In comparison to the world, Asia-pacific region has a lower size of ecological footprint. This region holds 50% of the total world’s population and its demands from nature constitute about 40% of total biocapacity of this planet, the current world demands 25% more than the planet can provide (BBC News). Introduction: China is significant in this region because of its large ecological footprint which is due to its large population. China’s massive use of goods from grain to platinum has made it a raw material economy. China is suffering an ecological deficit since quiet a long period of time. The emission of carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels is one of the biggest sources of this deficit in China. Chinese import resources to meet their ever mounting needs. This indicates that the consumption of natural resources in China is also influencing and integrated with other countries’ consumption of natural resources too. This also points out to the fact that China’s need for resources is more than the capacity of its land. They import from countries such as Indonesia, Canada and the United States and export in the form of manufactured products. Starting from 19th century, China experienced that their demand for nature had started exceeding the supply on the domestic level consumption. They became the biggest crude oil importers. In 2008, China had a demand for potash, petroleum, nickel, manganese, iron ore, copper, cobalt and chromium which were duly imported (The China Analyst). Their in-land resources are either limited or inferior in quality. To meet the needs of economy, China relies on state-owned companies. Despite having an almost nonexistent and a weak renewable industry, they are a major exporter of energy renewable equipments. This phenomenal need for resources has gone through a shift from 19th to 20th century at great costs and more cost is looming ahead. Depletion of Natural Resources and China: Due to fast paced technology and time intelligence, the consumption of the resources is overshooting the usual demand graph of this world. However, the world can be divided into heavy, light and average consumers. China is one of the biggest players in this regard. Its economic structure and future leaning is directive of the world economy too. It is facing an overshooting demand for natural resources in the coming years, thus the decisions taken by China relating to this issue will have significant effects on the entire resource depletion framework. They consume about 12% of the world’s biocapacity, which makes them the second largest consumers of natural resources (WWF). China needs to find a new developmental path to achieve environmental quality. Many experts, observers and concerned bodies have worked and developed measures and indicators for understanding sustainable development. The Chinese Government supports these researches, as they are well aware of the gravity of the situation at hand. Most of the domestic research works on understanding ecological characteristics of the Chinese land was done around 1999 (WWF). The experts have divided the land in specific geographic regions and explained the ecological models that prevail in these areas. These models are then related to the specific fields of consumption like transportation, production, energy plants etc. and the consumer behavior. The Administrative Agency for China’s Agenda21 published a great amount of research work on ecological systems. Overpopulation has resulted in the depletion of the most important natural resource in China i.e. water. In China there is an uneven distribution of natural resources of fresh water. The Yangtze and Pearl River in the southern river system, supply 80% of the water which serves half of the Chinese population (Wang and Wei). China’s water resources are only two thirds of the entire whole. The government puts particular focus on development, sustenance and usage of water. They suffer huge deficits of chrome and magnesium. They have an abundance of coal but the demand is so massive that they have to import coal as well. China has 89 cities and 46% of the population lives in urban areas (The China Analyst). The increasing urbanization is another one of the variables that impact resource depletion. Due to this shift, the construction industry has now come into gear. About half of the nation’s steel demand and one third of aluminum are vested into the domestic construction industry. The concerned bodies are raising voices on the environmental issue. The Yellow River Basin covers a major portion of northern China. The water from here is supplied to the industries and the farmers. There is also an issue of acid rain. These rains result from certain toxic materials raised in the air by varying industries, cause a decrease in agricultural yield. This has resulted in a perpetuation of rural area problems. The emission from cement kilns, power plants and mills is another unfortunate contribution to an increase in Global Warming. This increase in Global Warming means scarcity of shared natural resources, intolerable climatic conditions and a low quality of human life. China relies on sharing the resources from surrounding lands via trade. China’s ecological consumption is stressing the biocapacity globally. Future Directions: The recent ecological studies have now begun to focus on the appropriateness and fairness of the footprint. They are now directed to put cut off points so that a fair share of resources to everyone in this world is possible. The experts are more concerned with the woven pattern of footprints of multiple countries due to reliance on international trade of resources. The usage of resources will become more and more complicated and the damages more lasting than ever. Usage of nuclear power as an energy resource is a compliment to human’s ability in influencing the nature but increasing reliance on these sources means lesser safety and more vulnerability. The Chinese will have to look into more and more methods of identifying resource renewal methods. The government is pursuing the development of dams, which in themselves are mega projects. Upon the completion of these projects, the ecological burden regarding water resources will be fairly decreased. Organizations and Individuals Involved in the Concern: The early researches in China on resource depletion, conservation and sustenance were undertaken by The Administrative Center for China’s Agenda21 whose support resulted in no less than 500 research papers. The experts followed the methodologies suggested by Mathis Wackernagel and Bill Rees in their book Our Ecological Footprint (WWF). International World Concern Organizations like WWF have worked in the Chinese regions to make correct assessments for predicting the future of ecological system in China. The Chinese Government is running mega projects like Three Gorges Multiple Purpose Project, Xiaolangdi Multipurpose Project on the Yellow River and South North Water Transfer Project, concerning development of water resources (Wang and Wei). Solutions Proposed and Identified in Works: The Global Footprint Network WWF under UN, in its report concerning the ecological system and its implications in China, has proposed a CIRCLE approach: Compact urban development, Individual Action, Reducing hidden waste flows, Carbon reduction strategies, Land Management and Efficiency Increases (WWF). Half of the variables to be monitored and controlled may sound easy but the results will be slow on the uptake given the action has to be massive and proper. Studies have proposed public education and policy enrichment. The emphasis is on finding the trends rather than looking at the situation that exists. The areas like fossil versus renewable energy sources, fairness of ecological consumption and regional and global flow need to be looked into. The government has endeavored to construct power generation facilities, energy renewal machinery and expansion of existing facilities. The government plans to invest an additional 4 trillion in the construction sector for the next 20 years, giving an additional petawatt of power for the people (The China Analyst). Smaller, out dated coal plants are being closed to be replacing by larger and more efficient plants. Nuclear plants are being used to meet the needs of energy and power generation. About eight more hydroelectric plants are under construction. Studies identify various variables and how can they be controlled. The China Analyst report has identified them in terms of factors that can be controlled. It starts with focusing on Population growth. According to them, it can be slowed down by creating awareness and restrictive policies by the government and based on individual motivation too. This should be equipped with proper education facilities. The consumption patterns on the individual level can be cut down to a mere half by eliminating the trends of overconsumption. The usage of ecological footprint to cater to goods and services needs to be and can be reduced significantly. Minimizing waste, increasing recycling, using efficient equipment which is energy effective and fuel efficient cars can significantly reduce the reliance on natural resources’ direct consumption. Revitalization of unproductive lands, irrigation and management techniques can create an effective manner of land consumption and consequently increase the bio capacity of the land. The amount of production is based on the existing ecological system and the way it is utilized and managed. Discussion: China and many other countries are using Nuclear Power Plants to cover their energy shortage. The increasing dependency on nuclear reactors puts the safety and security of mankind in jeopardy. The recent example of the earthquake in Japan is a very vivid identification of the dangers of using such methodologies since nature is still not in human’s control. I think the use of Ecological Footprint as the pivotal measure of resource depletion in a land still has its limitations. The ecological footprint only takes carbon dioxide emissions in consideration, leaving out the greenhouse gases which are also accountable to environmental damage. The government, concerned bodies and experts are employing and suggesting various methods and models to help in restoration, renewal and development of energy. However, I think that the limitations of these models in itself is a huge significant topic. Analyzing these limitations will enable experts in deducing counter acts and solutions to these problems thus strengthening the stability and sophistication of these models. I-Search Paper Introduction We were required to look into one of those issues that also relate to the wellbeing of the world. China is a huge country; its successes and efficiencies overshadow the problems that it has to face time to time. Though, when I thought of potential problems in China, issues like economy overheating, population composition, overpopulation etc. came to my mind. However, I chose depletion of natural resources in China as my topic. China is a huge growing economy; their production and operations are majestic and so is their need for natural resources. It was also intriguing to me that how the Chinese have survived their massive need of resources despite weak in land availability. Depletion of natural resources is a worldwide concern. There are few big players in this context who are major contributors in this depletion. Like United States of America, China is also one of the largest consumers of natural resources. It would be fair to call their demand for nature as phenomenal. The primary source of information I used for this research paper was looking into the online publications, models and researches by ecological experts and organizations. The starting point was WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature), which is a trust and a member of UN-Water. UN Water consists of about 28 UN organizations; many of the partners in UN-Water are outside the UN. I found myself very interested to know the surprising facts and figures regarding the huge resource consumption in China. I outlined few questions for myself upon which I built my research paper Q1. Identifying methods of measuring Consumption of Natural Resources and the common terminologies used in this regard? Q2. What variables have effect on the current stressing situation regarding ecological system in China and the preventive measures being taken? Q3. Limitations of methods employed to counter this problem and a glance at the future of China’s standing on the resources at hand? The Search Plan and the Search: The search plan was an assigned one. Its objective was to identify one of the problems with China and understand and study it in relation to how it effect’s the world and how can its solution contribute to the well being of humanity. Following the detailed guidelines I started with identifying the most reliable sources of information regarding my research problem. One of the top ranked sources identified by the search engine, when I used the keywords Depletion of Natural Resource in China, was WWF’s reports on current analysis of resources and resource consumption in China. WWF has published consecutive reports on ecological scenario that prevails in China. The report namely Report on Ecological Footprint in China gave me the initial ideas of how to interpret the phenomena of depletion of resources scientifically. I decided to stick to few main source of credible of information in order to increase the authenticity of my paper. One of the other online resources which proved very informative in this regard was The Beijing Axis. It is a Business Solution Organization and they produce reports containing a healthy set of verifiable statistics and theory. There were pages on internet that explained what is natural resources and why are they being depleted interestingly under the heading of China but no mention of the country’s information whatsoever, which proved to be a time cost since they weren’t fruitful. The Results The study helped in identifying variables like population, consumption, technology, area and productivity as the ideal sectors to be monitored for controlling the depletion of natural resources in China. The important terms like Ecological Footprint, Biocapacity etc. and their effects have been identified and explained since it is the most used term in ecological study. The paper helps in understanding the current and old models of research followed by the Chinese researchers, the pioneer works and the new studies. I also learnt the measures taken by the Chinese government to conserve natural resources including big projects like elimination of obsolete technology using plants, inventing energy renewing equipment and building of technologically advanced dams over their primary water resources. China’s Government has introduced policies to reduce aggregate demand on resource consumption on per capita basis. The most interesting and workable finding was the CIRCLE approach proposed by WWF’s report on Ecological Footprint in China. It is a 360 degree approach to cover all the practical and workable areas as solution to the problem of biocapacity problem in China. The paper also looks into the projections by the experts on the next twenty years that will define the future of China and consequently the Asian region. The information indicates how China’s Ecological Footprint influences the footprint of other countries from which it imports huge amounts of raw material to meet its need for production, construction, operations and services. Various industrial sectors that are huge consumers of the resources have been identified too. Discussion: Depletion of Natural Resources is a broad segment and can be broken down into workable pieces like Industry and Production, Environment, Human Demands etc. I think more study can be done on the limitations of the methods currently being used to increase effectiveness of the solutions. Bibliography BBC News. BBC. 17 February 2005. 18 April 2011 . The China Analyst. China's Phenomenal Demand for Natural Resources. Hong Kong: The Beijing Axis Ltd., 2010. Wang, Min and Dongying Wei. Population and Natural Resources. Case Study. Beijing: Beijing Normal University , 2010. WWF. Report on Ecological Footprint in China. Beijing: Global Footprint Network, 2010. 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