Blog 2- China and Air pollution

China to publish monthly list of the 10 worst polluted cities


The Chinese government is responding to the countries major air pollution crisis by creating a list of the ten worst and best cities in the country.  The country is continuing to battle its ever-growing problem with air pollution because it is so rapidly developing.

Vice Primer Zhang Gaoli said that this list would be an incentive to motivate cities to clean up their air and move those cities along the track to a more environmentally friendly economy.

With regards to the issue at hand the Vice Primer had this so say.  "Combating air pollution is a long-term, difficult and complex task, we must stress the cleaning up of polluted cities and the cutting and management of pollutants."

There are many problems as to why China is needing to focus more on the air quality of its country.  A few of these include their economic competition, and the contentment of its citizens.

The issue of pollution is a huge social issue.  The main part social theory that it falls under parts of the functionalist theory.  That theory states that each part of a society contributes to the greater good.  The question here is about the environmental concern, which is part of the basic right to breathe.  The first point is the people need to breathe and second is that if people are always getting chocked by various particulate matter(PM) then that is detrimental to their health, then the more of the country's gross national product will be spent on health care and less on funding education or building roads for farmers to transport their goods to the cities.  Those people who are adversely affected health-wise due to poison air will be spending all their time and money in hospitals and less time as a working person, contributing the country's economy.  It is really a downward spiral.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/search/?q=china+and+air+pollution&x=-783&y=-180

Lillian Brown

Sept 19th 2013

7:22 pm