china/pollution article

[montoya 0]

this might be of interest to some of you:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/weekinreview/30yardley.html?hp

 

China's Next Big Boom Could Be the Foul Air

By JIM YARDLEY

 

BEIJING — The steady barrage of statistics trumpeting China's rise is often greeted elsewhere as if the figures were torpedoes and the rest of the world a sinking ship. Economic growth tops 9 percent! Textile exports jump 500 percent! Military spending up! Manufacturing up!

 

The numbers inflame the exaggerated perception that China is methodically inhaling jobs and resources and, in the process, inhaling the rest of the planet. Burp. There goes the American furniture industry. Burp. Thanks for your oil, Venezuela.

 

But one statistic offered last week by a top Chinese environmental official should stimulate genuine alarm inside and outside China. The official, Zhang Lijun, warned that pollution levels here could more than quadruple within 15 years if the country does not curb its rapid growth in energy consumption and automobile use.

 

China, it seems, has reached a tipping point familiar to many developed countries, including the United States, that have raced headlong after economic development only to look up suddenly and see the environmental carnage. The difference with China, as is so often the case, is that the potential problems are much bigger, have happened much faster and could pose greater concerns for the entire world.

 

"I don't think it will jump four or five times," Robert Watson, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said of the pollution prediction by Mr. Zhang. "But it could double or triple without too much trouble. And that's a scary thought, given how bad things are now."

 

China is already the world's second-biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions and is expected to surpass the United States as the biggest. Roughly a third of China is exposed to acid rain. A recent study by a Chinese research institute found that 400,000 people die prematurely every year in China from diseases linked to air pollution.

 

Nor does China's air pollution respect borders: on certain days almost 25 percent of the particulate matter clotting the skies above Los Angeles can be traced to China, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental experts in California predict that China could eventually account for roughly a third of the state's air pollution.

 

The air problem could become a major embarrassment if, as some experts believe, Beijing does not meet its environmental targets for 2008, when the Olympic Games will be played here.

 

For the Chinese government, the question is how to change the country's booming economy without crippling it. President Hu Jintao has made "sustainable development" a centerpiece of his effort to shift the country from unbridled growth to a more efficient economy. Mr. Hu and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao have repeatedly mentioned environmental protection in speeches.

 

The political attention comes as environmental problems are begetting social and economic problems. Violent riots have erupted in the countryside over contaminated water, stunted crops and mounting health woes. In a handful of villages, farmers have stormed chemical factories to stop the dumping of filthy water. Roughly 70 percent of China's rivers and lakes are polluted. In cities, people drink bottled water; in the countryside, most people are too poor to pay for bottled water, so they boil polluted water or simply drink it.

 

Public anger is also rising in cities. In some, air pollution is so thick that on the worst days doctors advise, impractically, against going outside. Last week, hundreds of people living in the Beijing outskirts protested plans for a factory they fear would inundate the neighborhood with pollution.

 

The severity of the situation has created an opening for environmentalists in and out of the government. Environmentalism is a chic issue for college students, who have participated in garbage cleanups and joined the growing number of nongovernment organizations focused on pollution. The once-meek State Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA, has become more aggressive in identifying and going after polluters and calling for reforms.

 

But the political and practical obstacles are formidable. Car ownership has become part of the Chinese middle-class dream, and the car industry has become a major contributor to tax coffers and a force in the overall economy.

 

Industrial pollution is difficult to control because local officials often ignore emissions standards to appease polluting factories that pay local taxes. SEPA has closed factories, only to see them reopen weeks later. To make a serious reduction in air pollution, experts say, tougher, enforceable standards are needed, and many factories would need new pollution control equipment.

 

"There has to be the political will," said Steve Page, director of the E.P.A office of air quality planning and standards. "The challenge they face is how will these plants be lined up and told this will happen?"

 

Politically, the Communist Party has based its legitimacy on delivering economic growth and understands that the boom cannot be taken for granted: high growth is needed simply to keep unemployment in check, and top leaders fear that a slowdown could lead to social instability. Local officials are promoted, foremost, for delivering economic growth. This is why environmental officials have pushed for a new "green G.D.P.," which would alter how gross domestic product is calculated to reflect losses inflicted by environmental degradation.

 

The party is suspicious of environmental groups because of the role similar groups played in promoting grass-roots democracy in the "color" revolutions of central Asia. Human Rights Watch reported that some environmentalists were recently arrested.

 

But if there is resistance, there is progress, too. A law taking effect next year will require that China produce 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Fuel efficiency standards for new cars are already stricter than those in the United States. At an air pollution conference last Monday, environmental officials solicited advice from their peers in Europe and the United States.

 

Mr. Page, the E.P.A. official, praised Chinese officials and said China is considering the sort of regional pollution abatement strategies used in the United States. "They are wrestling with a lot of the same pollution problems that we wrestled with several years ago and that, to some extent, we still are grappling with," said Mr. Page, who attended the conference.

 

Ma Jun, an independent environmentalist based in Beijing, also praised the efforts by SEPA. Mr. Ma said China's status as the "workshop of the world" made it inevitable that its share of the world's pollution would increase. But he also cautioned that too many government ministries remained consumed by economic development. He said the government also needed to recognize the "environmental rights" of citizens.

 

"The pollution problem," he said, "is very serious."

[Ocean11 0]

As China's biggest customer, the US could do a lot to encourage change if it took its head out of its fat arse. (According to a book by Sherrod Brown that I just read). Ditto Japan too if Koizumi would just stop going to that damn shrine.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

I read China Inc by Ted Fisherman in which he gets into more detail about the transormation China's going through.

 

Wonder how much longer Japan's forests will be around until theyre destroyed by acid rain coming from China.

 

The $hit coming from China will be more than Japan's octogenerian population. But, at least Japan has somebody to wipe their @sses for the next decade

[fb_steve 0]

I think they are trying (maybe superficially) to combat carbon emmissions cause they are persuing a massive nuclear power program.

 

There's always that debate that its unfair to take shots at developing countries for industrlialisng when most western countries experienced this some time ago. China might be an exception cause of its sheer size though.

[Ocean11 0]

Yes, we should really take shots at ourselves for failing to take an interest in where we buy our cheap stuff.

 

You can now get two Chinese-made fleeces at Uniqlo for under 3,000 yen. Good value you may think. But China uses far more energy to make its products than more efficient manufacturing countries like Japan, and the cheapness of the product comes from grossly depressed wages for workers, and lack of environmental standards.

 

So when you get your cheap stuff from China, the cost also includes the ill wind blowing from China, and the utter misery of millions of workers who may yet wake up with a vengeance one day.

 

These days I try to buy stuff made closer to home to gain some slight control of this kind of thing.

[Oyuki kigan 0]

Yup. Something or somebody is usually paying the price for your cheap goods.

I wish Japan could take a slightly harder look at how its consumption habits affect the world on a larger scale. There is a chance for Japan to lead Asia in environmental initiatives, but ...

Of course, compared to America it may not be quite as bad, but at least there is dialouge there. When was the last time you saw an Adbusters-style magazine in Japan? Most japanese i`ve talked to have never heard of the word `expliotation` (搾取) (actually, only 2), much less `sweatshop`.

 

The good thing is at least someone in China is acknowledging the problem.

[nzlegend 1]

You only have to read Time and National Geographic to be bombarded with stories of Chinas cavalier attitude to progress and pollution.

Time especially is constantly bagging China, its crass classless culture, corruption, oppression, pollution. I wonder if it is really a crap screwed up place as Time makes it out to be.

Many of Chinas problems were initially created by Mao, I been reading about him, was one of histories biggest pricks right up with there with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin

 

Back to pollution... desertification of arable farmland, is another serious issue on the table or should I say swept under the carpet. This and horrific air and river pollution and China keep putting their foot down harder on the accelerator.

China is a going to implode because they dont know one word - sustainability