Chinas Consumption And Its National And International Consequences - Case Study Example

The overconsumption of energy and resources by China is a threat to the world as well as the Chinese society itself in many ways. This paper highlights some of the ways in which overconsumption of resources has had detrimental effects on the Chinese society as well as the world at large. On one hand, coal happens to be a fundamental reason of the economic growth of China; on the other hand, the consumption of coal has caused immense damage to the environment of China and the people of China at large.

Today, at least 70 per cent of the energy needs of China are being met by coal. In the year 2006m China consumed about 2.4 billion tons of coal that was more than the combined consumption of three big countries of the world including America, Britain, and Japan. In the year 2000, China’s coal consumption was anticipated to double by the year 2020. One reason for the huge consumption in China is its inefficiency that reflects from this statement of a Chinese official; “TO PRODUCE GOODS WORTH $10,000 WE NEED SEVEN TIMES THE RESOURCES USED BY JAPAN, ALMOST SIX TIMES THE RESOURCES USED BY THE U.S. AND--A PARTICULAR SOURCE OF EMBARRASSMENT--ALMOST THREE TIMES THE RESOURCES USED BY INDIA” (Elizabeth para. 7). .

E EMISSIONS, FALLS ON ONE-QUARTER OF CHINA'S TERRITORY AND ON ONE-THIRD OF ITS AGRICULTURAL LAND, DIMINISHING AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT AND ERODING BUILDINGS” (Elizabeth para. 8). Coal consumption in China is also a cause of water shortage. Coal mining and coal processing both require intensive use of water. Since most of the coal resources of China are found in its arid regions, the operations of coal mining in China often get into a competition with its agriculture and residents in their access to the water resources that have thus become scarce.

“AS MINING ACTIVITIES OFTEN DRAW HEAVILY FROM GROUNDWATER SOURCES, THEY HAVE DEPLETED GROUNDWATER LEVELS IN MANY COAL DISTRICTS. THIS HAS DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS ON LOCAL FLORA AND FAUNA, ESPECIALLY DURING INCREASINGLY MORE FREQUENT PERIODS OF DROUGHT” (Tu and Johnson-Reiser 7). The water pool China has seriously dried and decayed as a result of the incompetent management of the resources. This has not only led to the loss of grains but has also caused increase in the social disruption in different forms including protests and conflicts, thus thwarting contemporary China’s supreme socio-economic goal.

Most of the programs of conservancy of water in China have failed. China has not only affected its own people and the countries all over the world with its massive consumption of coal, but is also responsible for the rise in food prices because of its high consumption needs of grains. “FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS, GLOBAL FOOD PRICES HAVE SOARED BY 80 PERCENT, AND THE MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS CHINA’S GROWING DEMAND FOR GRAIN TO FEED ITS LIVESTOCK AS A MAJOR REASON FOR THE CURRENT GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS” (Kim 232).

The US and China account for 40 per cent of the emissions of greenhouse gas across the globe. Success or failure of the efforts