Transcript Environmental Issues in China

Environmental Issues in
China
Major Problems China is Facing
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Population
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Energy use
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Food Production
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Water Pollution,
shortages.
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Coal Pollution
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Air Pollution
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We’ll discuss:
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Energy, growing society
Food production, water shortages, feeding China
Population as it relates to all of these problems
Dr. Bray will cover:
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Air pollution
Water pollution
Deforestation
Other issues
In reality…
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No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power
without creating a legacy of environmental damage—which can
then take decades and lots of public concern to be addressed.
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It was the case for the U.S., European countries, and other MDCs.
In the U.S., environmentalism and environmental laws came
about in order to deal with the big mess we created in the first
place (water, air, and land pollution).
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So, what’s the ‘big deal’ if China is now doing the same?
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Scale; pollution affects
millions of people. Pop. size
Everyone is watching
Global problems
(i.e., global warming)
Some issues…
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China is doing what the U.S. and European nations did—developing,
demanding vehicles, using more energy, and consuming and polluting
accordingly.
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In China, the difference between the rich a poor is tremendous—much of
the country is still faced with LDCs problems such as poor water quality,
malaria, malnutrition. Yet the affluent are purchasing more than one
vehicle, consuming more meat, and mimicking the EU and U.S.
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China has surpassed the U.S. as the largest green house gases emitter. This
was not predicted until 2010
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Coal is the major culprit, and provides about two-thirds of China’s energy
needs. China has abundant supplies and already burns more coal than the
United States, Europe and Japan combined.
Now McDonalds have drive-thrus’ in major cities… what will that do to air
pollution, water, agriculture, and overall health of population?
Cheap Energy… good energy?
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Electricity is the fastest- growing part of China’s energy demand
Growth of electricity is projected to continue at no less than 7%
through the year 2000 and beyond
China’s total electrical generating capacity has to double every decade
to keep pace
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There are plans to build thirty to sixty new electricity power plants
every year for the foreseeable future
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75% of these plants will be coal- fired, most of the rest are nuclear
Cheap Energy…good energy?
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Coal reserves are enormous. For China, this is important because it can
develop without relying on foreign countries to supply energy needs.
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Overall, it is not a clean source and the environmental and health
impacts are great.
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Last year, China burned the energy equivalent of 2.7 billion tons of
coal, three-quarters of what the experts had said would be the
maximum required in 2020. To put it another way, China now seems
likely to need as much energy in 2010 as it thought it would need in
2020 under the most pessimistic assumptions.
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The ravenous appetite for fossil fuels traces partly to an economic
stimulus program in 1997. The leadership, worried that China’s
economy would fall into a steep recession as its East Asian neighbors
had, provided generous state financing and tax incentives to support
industrialization on a grand scale.
Cheap Energy… good energy?
Are they mining efficiency?
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Chinese buildings rarely have thermal insulation. On average, twice as much
energy is used to heat and cool as those in similar climates in the United States
and Europe. A vast majority of new buildings — 95 percent— do not meet
China’s own codes for energy efficiency.
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New buildings require China to build power plants, which it has been doing
prodigiously. In 2005 alone, China added 66 gigawatts of electricity to its
power grid, about as much power as Britain generates in a year. Last year, it
added an additional 102 gigawatts, as much as France.
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Coal-fired plants are quick and cheap to build and easy to run. While the
Chinese government has set goals for increasing the use of a long list of
alternative energies — including wind, biomass, hydroelectric, solar and
nuclear — they all face obstacles, from bureaucracy to bottlenecks in
manufacturing.
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The problem is particularly acute because governments across Asia, from China
and India to Indonesia and the Philippines, are turning mainly to coal to meet
their soaring electricity needs and prevent blackouts, even though coal
produces more global warming gases than any other major source of electricity.
Solutions?
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Plans have slowed to expand the use of natural gas, which
burns more cleanly and produces less greenhouse gas than coal
or oil. It has proved costly and difficult to build pipelines .
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The future of hydroelectric power in China is clouded by
severe environmental problems at the Three Gorges Dam on
the Yangtze River.
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One of the strangest features of China’s energy policy is the
paucity of environmental controls on coal-fired plants, because
rules governing them were written long ago. Renewable
energy projects actually face a more stringent review of their
environmental impact.
Solutions?
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Move factories outside of the city centers. NIMBY
issues…
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Wash the coal that factories and power plants use before
burning it. Clean coal technology; however the amount of
CO2 released is the same
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Install sulfur dioxide scrubbers in power plants.
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Install electrostatic precipitators to remove small cancer
causing particles from coal smoke. Particulates create
health problems locally and globally.
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Improve efficiency so less coal is burned.
Obstacles to solutions…
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China’s yearning for economic growth
“We must reduce the health affects of coal burning
while we increase the production of coal”.
The government only directs 6 to 10% of its energy
budget to efficiency
“Some people in China assume the market will take
care of everything”.
Politics in China
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Authoritarian government makes it hard to shift into environmental action.
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The focus is on growth. There is concern about health and the environment;
there are some targets for cleaner air and water, however it is still inexpensive
for industry to pollute and there are no tax or market-oriented policies in
place that help discourage pollution.
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There is corruption, and if a coal mine is shut down, it often reopens thanks to
officials looking to profit.
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China does not want to stop growing its economy and argues that the boom is
in part due to demand for cheap products from countries like the U.S.
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Therefore… the argument is that environmental problems are not their own
doing, but that of MNC’s opting to operate in China. The pollution remains
local, but the good and profits are shipped elsewhere.
China’s position is that the U.S. and Britain polluted their way to the top, and
caused global warming. Industrialized countries only worried about
environmental problems when they were wealthy enough to do something
about them—not ye the case for China.
Water and Food Production
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60,000 people a year die from diarrhea, bladder and stomach
cancer, and other diseases caused by water-borne pollution.
China suffers more deaths from water pollutants than from coal
mine and vehicle accidents combined.
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Compared with the United States, China has 1/5 the water
supply, but almost 5 times as many people. China has about 7
percent of the world’s water resources and roughly 20 percent of
its population.
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It also has a severe regional water imbalance. About 4/5 of the
water is in the South, while ½ the population lives in the North.
Northern parts of China are under such water stress that there is
a threat of it becoming the world’s biggest desert.
Water and Food Production
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Farmers in the north once used shovels to dig their wells.
Now, many aquifers have been so depleted that some
wells in Beijing and Hebei must extend more than half a
mile before they reach fresh water.
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Industry and agriculture use nearly all of the flow of the
Yellow River, before it reaches the Bohai Sea.
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About 5/6 of the wetlands have dried up, according to one
study. Scientists say that most natural streams or creeks
have disappeared. Several rivers that once were navigable
are now mostly dust and brush.
Addressing the problem?
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Chinese leaders have undertaken one of the most ambitious
engineering projects in world history, a $60 billion network of
canals, rivers and lakes to transport water from the flood-prone
Yangtze River to the silt-choked Yellow River. But that effort,
if successful, will still leave the north chronically thirsty.
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But water remains inexpensive. Chinese industry uses 4 to 10
times more water per unit of production than the average in
industrialized nations, according to the World Bank.
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In many parts of China, factories and farms dump waste into
surface water with few repercussions. China’s environmental
monitors say that one-third of all river water and lakes are not
even good enough for industrial or agricultural use.
If there is no water…
who will feed China?
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China has lost some forty million hectares of
arable land since the late 1950’s. This amounts
to nearly one- third of all the land currently
under cultivation.
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If China were to rely heavily on irrigation,
then it should be able to feed between 1.3 and
2.0 billion people. But things are drying up…
Grain Consumption
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A dietary shift towards more meat would increase
China’s total grain demand.
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This places more pressure on existing agricultural
land, water supply, and pollution—keep in mind, its
about feeding 1.3 billion people, not a small town.
Food Shortages
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The future gap between supply and demand in China will be
closed only by importing food.
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It is estimated that China would need to import 175 billion
tons of grain by the year 2025
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The current level of global grain exports is 200 billion tons
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The global community may not be able to supply the
amount of grain that China will need in the future
Threats to Sustainable Agriculture
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Long term collective investments have declined in rural China
“Get rich quick and every peasant for himself”. Peasants
cannot afford to use organic fertilizer anymore, they intensify
production and aim for immediate returns.
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Typically this results in more water needed, greater soil degradation,
and overall future diminished crops—vicious cycle.
In twenty years when they may need it most, the water and soil
will have been poisoned beyond repair.
Mitigating the Food Crisis
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China has limited the loss of arable land, reclaimed idle land,
and increased crop yields
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Better seeds, irrigation, and other technical improvements
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The government now insists on maintaining 95% selfsufficiency in grain production
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Implement more real prices for water to discourage waste
Sound Familiar?
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In 1963, a flood paralyzed the Northern region, prompting
construction of a flood-control system of dams, reservoirs and
concrete spillways. Flood control improved but the ecological
balance was altered as the dams began choking off rivers that
once flowed eastward into the North China Plain.
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The new reservoirs gradually became major water suppliers
for growing cities like Shijiazhuang. Farmers, the region’s
biggest water users, began depending almost exclusively on
wells. Rainfall steadily declined in what some scientists now
believe is a consequence of climate change.
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Before, farmers had compensated for the region’s limited
annual rainfall by planting only three crops every two years.
But underground water seemed limitless and government
policies pushed for higher production, so farmers began
planting a second annual crop, usually winter wheat, which
requires a lot of water.
Sound Familiar?
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The rising water demands in the North China Plain make it unfeasible for
farmers to continue planting a winter crop. The international ramifications
would be significant if China became an ever bigger customer on world
grain markets. Some analysts have long warned that grain prices could
steadily rise, contributing to inflation and making it harder for other
developing countries to buy food.
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Scientists say converting farmland into urban areas would save enough
water to stop the drop in the water table, if not reverse it, because
widespread farming still uses more water than urban areas. Of course,
large-scale urbanization, already under way, could worsen air quality;
Shijiazhuang’s air already ranks among the worst in China because of
heavy industrial pollution.
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Keep in mind that around 1900, Shijiazhuang was a collection of farming
villages. By 1950, the population had reached 335,000. This year, the city
has roughly 2.3 million people with a metropolitan area population of 9
million.
Is there a right answer?
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Population will keep growing, and growing, and
growing…though it may stabilize, it is still a lot of people
trying to own a car.
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China simply wants to develop; to end poverty and feed its
people. The goal of developing countries is to become
developed.
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With such a growing economy, can you blame them for
enjoying McDonalds and not worrying about where the meat
comes from and what that means for the environment?
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These issues are relevant because most of the world’s
population falls under a similar category as China. They are on
the verge or in the middle of economic growth, with large
populations, and cheap and dirty energy is the most readily
available means for development.