How The Fast Growth of China Has Impacted Its Natural Environment

Introduction

Since the 1970’s, China has experienced a time of rapid expansion and growth at a scale not seen before (Bremner, 2006). The processes China has used to grow were widely popularized many years ago during the industrial ages of Europe and America, however, the amount of people China can use in its workforce, but must also feed, provide housing, and other basic needs too has been greatly increased in regards to the population numbers in Europe and America during their industrial ages. For China to stay in its position of economic power, they are causing significant harm to their environment as well as the environments of their surrounding neighbors (Stalley, 2009). This harm is dealt in different form of pollution, such as the heavy layer of smog in many of China’s cities, the expelling of industrial waste into river streams and lakes, and the tearing down of trees and other plant shrubbery to create more buildable land, which in turn promotes desertification and dust storms. These three different forms of pollution are very destructive to a natural environment and if left unchecked, will make the lives of Chinese citizens very difficult. The destruction of the environment seen in China and the consequences they face can be explained with the somewhat new term of ecological debt (Roberts and Parks, 2009).

In simple terms, ecological debt is the point a country will pass when the consumption of their resources within their ecosystem, or territories, exceeds that system’s ability to regenerate its natural resources (McKibben, 2011). This is also true for non-renewable resources, where the consumption of said resources outweighs the production and acquisition of the non-renewable resources. This concept is mainly based on the biophysical carrying capacity of an ecosystem by measuring the ecological footprint of the human society; one can determine the rate at which the country or society is depleting its natural resources (Goeminne and Paredis, 2010). The carrying capacity is the maximum population size the environment can sustain of a certain species. In regards to China, many speculate they are causing so much damage to their natural environment that they will not be able to recover and repair their natural environment (Goeminne and Paredis, 2010). The main cause of China's environmental damage is their rapid growth and their use of coal to power their country (Roberts and Parks, 2009).

China’s Growth

Today, China has a growing economy estimated to be around $12.6 trillion (Bremner, 2006). This growth was achieved by rapid expansion in their money supply, loan growth, and fixed investment. Their economy has also shifted from being a closed, command economy to a market-oriented economy that now plays a greater role than 1970’s China. Some evidence of China’s growth is China’s position since 2010 as the world’s largest exporter and the second largest economy, right behind the U.S. Similar to most developing countries; the coastal areas are developing faster than the inland cities. However, with this growth come some daunting environmental problems, such as the degradation of China’s mangrove forests and coral reefs, desertification, deforestation, industrial river pollution, and increased levels of smog in the atmosphere (McKibben, 2011).

In the 1970’s, China was a closed, centrally planned economy, since then, China has grown to be one of the major powers in the world. However, they are facing problems only faced by more developed and larger countries, such as ecological debt and a growing ecological footprint. The term ecological debt can mean many things, such as the date in a year where the world’s natural resources have been used up that they can no longer be replenished by the end of the year (Roberts and Parks, 2009). The term is also used to explain in quantitative and tangible numbers the amount of damage done by countries to their surrounding environment (Roberts and Parks, 2009). The main idea behind this is that a country will need to spend the same or more time in repairing their natural environment while they acquire the needed natural resources (Roberts and Parks, 2009).

In order to mirror the prosperity and growth of the West, China has rushed to create their own industrial revolution by becoming leaders in many of the major industries that polluted America, Germany, and other Western countries during their own industrial revolutions (Bremner, 2006). Chinese companies, with the help and support of the state, are the leading producers of steel, coke, aluminum, cement, chemicals, leather, paper and other goods that would normally face high costs and tougher environmental regulations in other parts of the world. But these mills expel large particulates, smog, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and other forms of air pollution into the atmosphere that are very difficult to remove (McKibben, 2011). This is where the idea of ecological debt comes into play. While China is experiencing this huge growth in their economy, at what cost does this growth incur? It will take years, possibly decades, to remove the pollution in China’s atmosphere and to repair the damage already done.

The use of coal to power China has led to a cornucopia of problems relating to air pollution and the health of China’s citizens. According to the Energy Information Administration, China accounts for 47 percent of the world’s consumption of coal, which is almost equal to every single country on Earth, combined (Stalley, 2009). Compared to 2011, China’s coal consumption has grown by 9 percent. This growing use of coal as an energy source comes from the 200 percent increase in demand of electricity compared to early 2000 (Stalley, 2009). Also, most of the coal is used during the winter months in China’s north to help heat houses. As discussed below in the section regarding air pollution, the cities in China’s north have some of the worst air pollution due to the cold, even though the cities are considerably smaller than China’s capital Beijing. However this does not take Beijing out of the loop for air pollution. Beijing is in the middle of an industrial belt of coal-burning factories, which no doubt produces many of the smoggy days that greatly surpass the Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality scale. For background purposes, an air quality index rating above 300 means the air is unsafe to breathe (Zarroli, 2013). It is advised that everyone stays indoors with a running air purifier and remain as still as possible. For a growing a developing country like China, this is impossible to do.

In January of this year alone, there were nineteen days in Beijing that went above the 300 threshold; the average of all nineteen days worked out to be a rating of about 500. Incredibility, on January 19th, the index reached 886, which is the same as living inside a smoking lounge (Stalley, 2009). Manufacturing industries, the mills mentioned above involving the production of steel, coke, aluminum, cement, etc., and Beijing’s five million plus cars all add to the air pollution that is slowly taking over the skies of China. Also, it is important to note Beijing is not the most polluted city in China. That role goes to the city of Urumqi in the far west of China; where as mentioned above, the increased use of heating apparatuses greatly affects the air pollution of China (Zarroli, 2013).

Air Pollution

Similar to Russia’s problem of controlling a vast country, China is having a difficult time imposing new rules and regulations regarding air pollution in the western regional area of China. A great example of this is with the Qingtongxia Aluminum Group in Qingtongxia, China (French, 2007). In 2005, China announced a nationwide campaign to reduce the overall energy consumption of the country by raising electricity prices to discourage growth. China’s west relies on companies like Qingtongxia Aluminum Group, which accounts for ten percent of Qingtongxia’s gross domestic product (French, 2007). To get around the regulations set by Beijing, Qingtongxia removed the Qingtongxia Aluminum Group from their city’s national electrical grid and instead were directly supplied with electricity from the local company. This removed the chance of the company being charged with increased fees and it also let the city of Qingtongxia still receive their needed electricity at a low price (French, 2007). This is recurring problem in China where the local level has conflicts with the regulations set out by the state level, which leads to many local governments not following state regulations.

A more personal example of China’s problem with air pollution and smog is the case of the eight year old girl in the province of Jiangsu who, according to The People’s Daily, became the youngest person in China to be diagnosed with lung cancer (Duggan, 2013). Her doctor suspects the lung cancer developed from the increasing levels of smog and her location to a busy road. She was exposed to PM 2.5 pollution that contained fine particulates that can lodge themselves deep in the lungs of humans and then enter the blood stream, making this level of pollution very dangerous for humans (Duggan, 2013).

Water Pollution

The pollution of rivers and lakes by the industrial actors of China is also a huge problem in China’s fight to be more environmentally friendly. Most of the effluent released into the rivers of China is untreated and is not naturally dispersed by the rivers of China (Lallanilla, 2013). Some of the effluent contains cancer causing contaminants like cadmium. Not only are the rivers polluted, but this pollution travels to the wells many Chinese citizens use for drinking water. Testing done in July of 2009 by BioMed Central, a UK based scientific publisher, found that the well in Shangba, a city in the Southern Guangdong province, contained large amounts of cadmium and zinc, which both can lead to liver cancer (Lallanilla, 2013). The groundwater that fills these wells is also used for about 40 percent of farming in China. According to Reuters, about 90 percent of China’s groundwater is polluted, while an estimated 60 percent of all groundwater is severely polluted.

One effect of China’s air and water pollution is the creation of “cancer villages.” These villages are so polluted, that even living inside the city runs a huge risk of being diagnosed with cancer (Lyn, 2009). High rates of stomach, kidney, colon, and liver cancer appear in certain areas spread out across China; usually this area of high cancer risk is right next to a heavy industrial complex. Shangba, the city mentioned above in the water pollution section involving polluted well water, is on example of China’s “cancer villages.” According to local citizens, the river that runs through the town changes color from white to orange depending on the different types of industrial effluent (Lyn, 2009). Some of the contaminants in the river include cadmium and zinc, which is known to cause cancer. He Shuncai, a thirty-four farmer from Shangba has this to say about the pollution of his towns river, “All the fish died, even chickens and ducks that drank from the river died. If you put your leg in the water, you'll get rashes and a terrible itch. Last year alone, six people in our village from cancer and they were in their 30s and 40s," (Lyn, 2009). The Chinese government has relatively ignored these areas; one example is in last December, where Jin Zengmin offered a $32,000 reward to any local died environmental officer to swim in a hometown river that Zengmin once swam as a young boy. His reward still stands to this day (Lyn, 2009).

While there are many types of air and water pollution occurring in America and other parts of the world, the pollution is of greater consequence in China due to their lax regulations and almost non-existent response to critical areas of pollution and accidents involving pollution, such as spills (Lallanilla, 2013). In the end, this excessive pollution will slowly kill off many Chinese people. If one were to play devil’s advocate, while the excessive air and water pollution of their cities and towns is completely a negative consequence, it does indirectly solve another area of pollution in China, which is overpopulation. While this does not justify the killing of innocent people, it is similar to idea set forth by the authors of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. In chapter four, Steven Levitt explores the role of legalized abortion in reducing crime, where children who are unwanted or whose parents cannot take care of them are more likely to become criminals and children born in these conditions are usually less fortunate. In a way, pollution in China is reducing the amount of people that require food, electricity, and heating.

One major effect of China’s disregard for the natural environment is desertification and the coinciding dust storms. In the past decade, about 400 million people in and around China have been and continue to be affected by desertification (Tudela, 2001). Desertification is defined as the process of turning arable, farmable land into desert. This is one of the main environmental problems facing China since it affects transportation, food security, and their international relations with the surrounding countries due to the excessive problem of sandstorms, which can blow into South and North Korea, Japan, and even across the Pacific into North America (Tudela, 2001).

In central China, the Gobi Desert converts about 3,500 square kilometers of arable land into desert each year (Tudela, 2001). There are many causes to desertification, some being deforestation, population increases, overgrazing, abusing water resources, city building, mining, and the destruction of vegetation (U.S. Forestry Department, 1997). While the population of China is increasing, they do not need to lose more space to desert where it is difficult to build types of things needed for their citizens, such as farmland and housing.

Another problem with desertification, deforestation, and loss of vegetation is the increased chance of a sandstorm occurring in China (Tudela, 2001). Not only does this affect the country of China, the sandstorm has a good chance to blow over into the Korean Peninsula and Japan due to deforestation and the loss of vegetation that is also occurring in China (Tudela, 2001). Kim, the exchange student for South Korea’s Maritime Academy brought this idea to the attention of the GSMA major when he presented the effect these dust storms have on South Korea. During the sandstorm, people are not able to walk or function outside without the proper protection on. What this means for China is a constant disdain for their economic growth from the surrounding nations since they are the ones who are also feeling the environmental problems caused by China. Not only is the dust a problem, some fear the sandstorm may also carry large particulates that stay in the atmosphere and pollute the air of the different nations in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Also, China’s dust storms could quite possibly be the nail in the coffin in regards to other East and Southeast Asian countries grouping together under one or more goals to disrupt the monopoly China has on power and trade. Not only is it a problem faced by main Asian countries, it greatly disrupts their economies and could potentially shut down cities, such as what happened in the city of Harbin, China, where the smog pollution was so bad the city shut down so people would not have to go outside.

In the end, China is doing irreplaceable damage to their environment and the environment of the surrounding nations, as seen with the creation of sandstorms. However, China is trying to lay out different laws, regulations, and programs to hopefully reduce the pollution of their natural environment as well as renew their environment. One program is the removal of old junk cars that pollute the atmosphere with their decrepit technology (Wong, 2013). Another is the creation of the “Green Wall of China” which is long line of trees planted by the government and various environmental groups to stop the desert from concreting arable land into desert (Roberts and Parks, 2009). While this practice has sound evidence and research behind it, they are apparently only planting one or two species of trees. This will lead to a grey sparse "forest" which will not lead to bio-diversity.

The air pollution and water pollution in China will most likely cause the most damage to their natural environment, due to the severity of the chemicals and pollutant and because the pollution from China is being somewhat ignored by Chinese officials. Not only will the pollution cause damage to the health of the citizens of China, it will also disrupt China’s growth and prosperity that has happened in the recent decades. The different types of pollution affect transportation in China, hurts the day to day operations of businesses and even cities, decreases the amount of biodiversity and life of animals in the area, and most importantly the pollution affects the fish stocks of China.

With dwindling resources and a resource hungry population, China has looked elsewhere for natural resources, such as oil and fish. One place China is looking for more raw materials is Africa. Fishing operations are popping up around West Africa’s coast and many boats are doing terrible damage to their fish stocks. China and other nations are able to fish in the EEZ’s of many African countries due to the lack of infrastructure and a Coast Guard. While this helps China met the needs of their own people, their practices are still destroying the environment and even the livelihood of other people (Wong, 2013).

Unfortunately for the environment, the people of China and other nearby countries, the smog pollution of China is a natural step in rapid economic development. If China was to enforce more environmentally-friendly production methods on their factories and mills, they will lose their export advantage. It will be safe to roll out new environmental regulations when their middle class has grown and can be more self-sufficient. However, their middle class is still growing and China will need to keep their production costs cheaper than the rest of the world to stay on top.

In the end, China is causing immense damage to their environment and more importantly, they are causing an increasing level of damage to their surrounding neighbors. The smog that is surrounding many of China’s cities is slowly choking the citizens of China as well as the businesses operating in China. There is also the pollution of rivers by Chinese businesses and organizations. These pollutants are killing off many of China’s natural resources, such as fish and plant life. Lastly, the expansion and growth of China is causing desertification to run rampant across Northern China and causes dust storms to also increase number and severity. The dust storms are causing trouble not only in China, but also in the surrounding neighbors of China. To stave off the ecological debt, China will have to significantly cut down the damage they are causing their environment by reducing the number of coal plants, switching to more renewable forms of energy, roll out new regulations, rules, and laws to keep businesses from polluting in China’s air and water, and to create a barrier of trees and other shrubbery to hold off the effect of desertification. If China does not reduce the damage they are causing to their environment, China will slowly start to implode on itself since the people of China will no longer be able to function in the lands of China.