China is the most populous country in the world and the largest producer of CO2. Up until now the Chinese government has been very deceiving about their pollution issue and on reports it gives out to it’s people and the rest of the world. However most Chinese people see how bad the issue is everyday. With airport closures and road closures in many of it’s cities, “frequent hazy days” was the top 10 environmental news item in China last year. One of China’s main concerns is protecting it’s place as the world’s second largest economy. With resource depletion and the polluting of it’s lands and waterways. They have realized what kind of impact environmental issues can have on their political stability and food provisions. China is just now in the initial phases of it’s transformation from an agrarian society to an industrial one. This being said it is unlikely for real change to occur until 2030. If China failed to act on their pollution issues, grain production would fall between 5-20% and would cause major imbalances in water resources. Up until now pollution reports were only available from the US embassy and was highly criticized by the Chinese government. But now they have agreed to start publishing more detailed air quality data based on international standards.
I feel the article told of issues many people already knew about. However it was good to see that the Chinese government is starting to take the issue seriously and open up about it on a global platform. With Chinese industry steadily growing and pollution levels growing just as fast, if the rest of the world cleans up their act and China does not. We would never get anywhere on the global pollution issue. The rest of the world had their eyes opened up to China’s pollution issues during the Beijing olympics. With parts of the population only being allowed to drive on certain days and industries shut down. The smog was still intolerable to most. ANd these are the conditions Chinese people live in everyday.
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