Urbanization in China

Urbanization can cause a nation to change in a beneficial or disastrous way. Urbanization is defined as the social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban (Wordnet 2.0, 2003 Princeton University). Urbanization usually begins to happen when people decide that they want to move from the small rural towns to the much larger urban cities for many different reasons such as jobs, schools, or more active social lives.
Most of the time in most places, urbanization can be concluded as a tragedy. But, China has made their urbanization problem into a new idea. The Chinese government has estimated that almost 34% of citizens will move to the larger urban areas in the next ten years. From reading this article, the Chinese are obviously fearing a shortage in their already struggling environment. China is already suffering with pollution and it will gradually worsen over the next upcoming years due to urbanization. China, seeing what is to come, decided to use their worsening situation for the better. They are now using a 10-story steel building to their advantage in Beijing which is the first official “green building” . Yang Guoxiang quotes “This building will be considered standard practice in China in ten years”. He explains how the building uses 70% less energy and 60% less water the usual building. It uses many materials that are considerate of the environment and energy levels such as insulating windows, solar collectors located on the roof, and the “new” air conditioning system that uses ice blocks so air conditioning won’t have to be used (http://www.theworld.org/worldfeature/chinaenv/04.shtml).
This building does have many people nervous because to build more of these green buildings, their homes will have to be destroyed even though the government has offered free apartments to these families. But regardless of what people say, China plans on building 6 more green buildings around China. The government are even making new buildings that are not considered green buildings to use half the energy being used. Many believe these green buildings are wonderful ideas that have come out of what could have been hazardous.
In my opinion, even though the green buildings will cause many people to lose their home, they are being offered somewhere else to live instead of being kicked out on the street. I understand their homes are extremely important, but homes will always be available, but you can’t build a new environment. I believe these green buildings are marvelous ideas that should go all around the world where urbanization may have not become a problem yet. Also the idea of the government thinking about the environment and urbanization before it becomes a disaster is excellent. The people in China should be grateful for the leaders they have. The green building is an awesome idea that the people of China should take advantage of.

Gabrielle C. Poe