China and the global environment - Asialink

CHINA AND THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTINTRODUCTIONStates can no longer be sustained because they would easily overwhelmsupporting natural systems.It is no surprise, therefore, that questions regarding China’senvironment are now at the forefront of national and internationalconcern. As more reliable information has become available, the sheermagnitude of the problems has slowly come to light. It is important tobear in mind, however, that China’s environmental crisis has been along time in the making. Problems of landslides, flooding, deforestation,and increased silt loads in rivers have existed in China for centuries.The uniqueness of the current environmental crisis lies in its scale andinterdependence with the outside world.China’s environmental crisis: a brief overview 2China has a vast territory (9.6 million km 2 ) with huge natural resources,but its per capita resource base is low — 22 per cent of the world’spopulation lives on 7 per cent of the world’s arable land with only 8per cent of the world’s natural resources. 3 China’s natural resourcesare also unevenly distributed: the areas south of the Yangtze River haveabout 80 per cent of the nation’s water resources but lack land, whilethe reverse situation exists in the north of China. 4 Consequently, 27per cent of China’s grain is produced in the north leading to the overexploitationof ground water beyond the ‘safe yield’ where recharge canbalance withdrawal. 5Agriculture has long been an important foundation of the Chinesestate, yet only about 30 per cent of China’s land is suitable for cultivation.The widening gap between a growing population and a shrinking landresource base is giving rise to serious concerns over food security. 6Overall, rapid economic growth has led to a precarious situation inwhich energy and resource demands are now outpacing supply.Uneven development and the growing divide between rich andpoor further complicate the environmental predicament. In effect,the poorest regions of China are also the most ecologically fragile.As in other countries, the poor carry a disproportionate burden ofenvironmental degradation but are also most in need of developmentopportunities. The situation is made worse by the fact that dirtyfactories are relocating away from large urban cities and into rural areaswhere regulatory control is weaker. Uneven development is leading to asituation whereby those most able to afford protection will benefit, thusreinforcing pre-existing inequities. 7Sobering environmental statistics are now widely reported inthe Chinese and international media. Urban pollution problems arereminiscent of London in the 1950s or Tokyo in the 1960s, only moresevere. In the late 1990s, air pollution in Chongqing was significantlyworse than in London in 1952, and levels of organic mercury in theSonghua River in northeast China were reported to be up to five timeshigher than in the Minimata Bay in the 1960s. 8 A total of 16 out ofthe top 20 most polluted cities in the world are now in China. Oneyear after the Olympic Games, air quality in Beijing has improved butairborne particulates (TSP) 9 are still three times above World HealthOrganisation guidelines. 10Atmospheric pollution in LanzhouIn 2007, China overtook the United States to become the world’s biggestemitter of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions. 11 Although its per capita23