Source 1

While the pace and level of China’s climb as an industrial power goes unmatched, the country has greatly surpassed the norm when it comes to pollution problems. Cancer is now the main cause of death in China. While hundreds of thousands of people a year in China die due to air pollution, almost half don’t have access to clean drinking water. Huge amounts of energy are required to sustain the growth of heavy industry, almost all of that comes from coal, which also happens to be the dirtiest source. The sun is rarely visible in some of China’s industrial cities, and lead poisoning causes sickness and death among children. The industrialization has also lead to water shortages that put farmland at risk of desertification. Since some cities don’t want their industrial growth hindered, they refuse to accept compulsory carbon dioxide emission limits. The rapid industrialization has taken a toll on China’s land, air, and water, a lot of which was already damaged by years of Stalinist economic planning that put an emphasize on urban areas establishing heavy industry. China’s industries use a lot more energy than those in other countries; by itself, the aluminum industry  uses as much energy as the nation’s commercial sector – which includes all the hotels, restaurants, banks and shopping malls – combined.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=5&_r=1

Source 2

In recent years, the Chinese economy has been growing rapidly, and as a result, so are the environmental stresses. The people living in China’s densely populated regions are threatened by air pollution, contaminated drinking water, water shortages, freshwater and marine pollution, and deforestation. China is not progressing towards a sustainable society, and their speed of economic development can’t be supported by the environment for much longer. The planning of land use should be approached from an ecological point of view, thus preserving the land’s stability. Goals need to be set in place in order to help preserve the three important ecological bases: forests, the base for the terrestrial ecosystem; coastal wetlands, the base for the marine ecosystem; and farmland, the base for producing food. When it comes to these goals, limits should be established on how much land can be used for urban development and manufacturing. Limits on the pollution produced by these activities should be set in place in order to prevent irreversibly damaging the environment. Finally, proper planning needs to be applied to economic development to allow the utilization of energy and resources after satisfying the said constraints.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/y07350348434xg20/

Source 3

China is currently undergoing a rapid increase in industrialization. As a result, emission, population, and health trends will modify the degree to which exposure to air pollution affects the health of China’s citizens in the coming decades. It’s apparent that the recent, rapid development in China’s cities and industrial areas has affected the air quality as of recent. Many Chinese cities, including Shanghai, currently experience annual average levels of respirable particles that exceed the World Health Organization’s air quality guideline. The health impacts in China consequential from industrialization result from exposures to a combination of pollutants, particles, and gases –mostly from combustion sources. These sources are different than those in North America and Europe; a large part in China results from the open burning of biomass and solid waste materials, and combustion of low-quality fuels, such as coal. The substantial rise in the burning of fossil fuels for power generation and transportation in industrializing China will wreak important penalties for environmental quality and human health in not only China, but other nations too.

 

Speizer, Frank E; Cohen, Aaron; Mehta, Sumi. (2008). Environmental Health Perspectives, Asia: Changing Times and

Changing Problems. 116, (9), 370-371. 

Source 4

Coal combustion in China has contributed to more atmospheric pollution than anything else. The majority of coal burned in China is for industrial use. While many smokestacks contained dust removers, most lacked sulfur dioxide pollution control devices. Therefore, urban and suburban areas suffered from serious air pollution, as well as acid rain, under unfavorable weather conditions for pollutant diffusion.  In areas suffering from the resulting acid rain, damage to trees and agricultural crops is widespread.

 

Sun, B.
Zhao. (1996). AMBIO - A Journal of the Human Environment: Air pollution and acid rain in China. 15, (1), (1-2).



Source 5

China’s economy has been primarily powered by coal, instead of petroleum and natural gas as in the majority industrialized economies. Its abundance in reserves has resulted in coal accounting for 70 percent of the country’s total energy supply. Serious environmental damage has resulted from the exploitation and consumption of coal poses a threat to the sustainability of the development of the Chinese economy. In 1993, 100,000 square kilometers of agricultural land endured the damages of industrial waste; the inappropriate use of waste and sludge resulted in 9,000 square kilometers being critically damaged after being utilized by piles of solid waste. Since the Chinese legislation concerning sustainable development was announced on the basis of a planned economy, China’s economic transition produced many problems; no environmentally related laws or regulations directly relevant to economic sectors have been established.

 

Guo, Rongxing. How the Chinese Economy Works. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Source 6

China has been in a rush to industrialize and increase its economy, and in turn, has incurred hazardous levels of air and water pollution, along with other environmental problems. It’s been discovered that in China, kids born and raised under the toxic clouds produced by coal-burning plants have smaller heads and poorer scores on development tests compared to children that have been exposed to cleaner air. Essentially, China is on a much more polluted economic development path that the other industrial superpowers have followed. Historically, western nations were able to clean their cities by outsourcing their dirty industries to other countries. Many Chinese cities are outsourcing too; the cities are becoming cleaner because factories are being moved to rural areas, where they affect less people. However, this does not eliminate the fact that industrialization is producing pollution at an alarming rate. China needs to acquire the technology to produce energy and goods in a more environmentally friendly manner. Countries that outsource much of their industry, and whose demands are greatly fed by China, should help them obtain those technologies. 

Rennie, John. 2008. Helping China, Scientific American. 299, (2).