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China and the Environment
China is often portrayed as the biggest destroyer of the environment and its thirst modernisation is coming at a high cost for the whole planet. But is that the whole story, or is there another side? There are many aspects of China's environmental situation that are truly shocking. China has the worlds biggest carbon footprint. They have the largest black market for illegally logged rainforest timber. Many of the rivers in China have been so polluted that they contain barely any life. But there is another side to China and the environment that rarely gets reported. At present China builds an average of two new power stations every week, but also builds more wind turbines than anyone else. It has been reported that China uses 15% of the worlds resources. This is a large proportion of the worlds resources but then China does have 20% of the worlds population. In recent years China has overtaken the USA in the amount of CO2 it produces. But yet again when you factor in the countries population you find that China produces 25% of CO2 per person than the USA and only 33% of CO2 per person than in Europe. As the UK has been producing CO2 since the 1800's, much longer than China has been, there is more CO2 in the worlds atmosphere that was produced in the UK than China. Even though China has 22 times the population of the UK. This shows that China was not the cause of climate change as it all started long before their industrial revolution. It started with the Wests industrial revolution. But what of the future? Will China overtake us for the greater proportion of CO2 ever released into the atmosphere? Well the good news is that we are aware of the harmful side of industrialisation and with that knowledge China is making green choices. Those free plastic bags that are always being campaigned against in the UK press, are actually officially banned in China, causing the worlds largest plastic bag manufacturer to cease trading. The protection of ocean fisheries using aquaculture is being led by the Chinese. The Chinese are the worlds biggest recyclers. Beyond the unwanted Robbie Williams CDs being used as foundations for Chinese motorways, the Chinese need for raw materials means that they recycle as much as is possible. Waste sent to China from the West does not end up just being dumped into landfill sites. The worlds largest manufacturer of packaging, the Chinese company Nine Dragons, set about buying the waste paper from Western garbage dumps 10 years ago when China stopped logging its own forests. They even arranged to use the empty containers from goods sent to the West to ship the waste back. China may be making environmental errors in its pursuit for growth and modernisation, but it is also making great strides to embrace green issues and environmental solutions. Industrialisation is unlikely to ever been a green process, but hopefully we will learn to minimise its impact as more nations develop and modernise. Originally published at I Conjure Candles |
