Transcript China

China
China - geography
The worlds largest
population
1/5 of the worlds total
population
Complex environment
worlds largest and
highest mountain
plateau
Two of the worlds
longest rivers
Many lakes
Ecosystem range from glaciers, deserts,
grassland, wetlands, tropical rainforest
Long coastline and
continental shelf
Demographic and resource pressures
• Population growth 2-3% pa from 1950-70s, has
slowed down to 0.7% since the one child policy
However:
• Household numbers grows 3 times faster.
• Household size have decreased from 4.5 to 3.5
people in 15 years. Estimated to be 2.2 by 2030
• Added another 8 mio. Households in 2000
• Per household floor area tripled in 30 years
• Urbanization incr. from 13% to 39%
from 1952-2003.
Population distribution
Density highest in south east 94% of
population lives on 43% of the land
China’s Economy
• Fastest growing economy
10% pa
Largest producer of steel,
television sets and
aquaculture
• Largest consumption of coal,
fertilizer, pesticides and
tobacco
• Near the top in production of
electricity, cars, chemical
textiles
• 2003 production of steel,
cement, chemical fiber and
color TV incr. by 7, 13, 42,
and 17214 times respectively
China’s Economy
• Consumption of meat,
milk and egg increased 4,
4 and 8 fold respectively
from 1978 to 2002.
• Number of vehicles
increased 6 fold from
1980 to 1994
• The traditional TownshipVillage Enterprises (TVE)
very energy inefficient
and based on coal
• Foreign investment in
new industries better but
double edged
Driven by
foreign
investment
China’s Policy
• Believed that humans could and should
conquer nature and that only capitalist
countries suffered from environmental damage
• This changed in 1972 when China attended
the first United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment
• Environmental protection a basic national
principle in 1983
• Strategy to achieve sustainability in 1994
• 2003 Sustainable development and harmony
between man and nature
• Rhetoric or reality – economy still main driver
In summary
• Population and household growth +
• Escalating production and consumption
of natural resources +
• Increased emission of air and water
pollutant +
• Increased affluence +
• Considerable pressure on the natural
resource base and environment +
Environmental Consequences
• Chinas environmental
problems are among
the most severe of
any major country and
are getting worse:
• Air pollution
• Land Degradation
• Cropland losses
• Desertification
• Disappearing wetlands
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Grassland degradation
Soil erosion
Overgrazing
Salinization
• Water pollution and
shortage
• Freshwater
• Groundwater depletion
• Oceans
• Loss of biodiversity –
increase in invasive
species
Health Consequences
Air pollution
• Most severe env.
health problem
• 3 out of 4 city
dwellers live below
Chinas air-quality
standards
• Acid rain fell on a
quarter of cities for
more than 60% of
rainy days
Iron, steel and chemical factories spew
• High mortality rate
sot, fly ash and sulfur dioxide into the air
from lung disease,
• High rate of lung
Pollutant trapped in the valley and within
cancer because of
the walls of the city. 2 million people live
smoking
Taiyuan – Shansi Province
CO2 emission - China
• Indoor air pollution.
Women in Xuan Wei in
Yunnan province has
the highest lung
cancer rate among
Chinese women. From
the burning of unclean
coals in the homes
without ventilation
• Improving as
industries achieve
emission standards –
change from coal to
gas
Social equity on CO2 emission
• CO2 emission,
largely a byproduct of energy
production and
use
• Low and middle
income countries
have seen a
relatively much
higher increase in
CO2 emission
• Second most severe env.
health problem
• Sewage, agricultural and
industrial waste
contaminates water
supplies and cause many
deceases
• Much surface and
groundwater is declared
heavily polluted by
heavy metals incl. lead,
mercury, cadmium,
arsenic and fluorides.
• China’s per capita water
availability only ¼ of
Skeletal fluorosis
world average - shortage
Water pollution
•
Arsenic contaminated
water
Water Pollution
• More than 700 mio people consume drinking
water contaminated with levels of animal and
human excreta that exceed maximum
permissible levels by as much as 86% in rural
areas and 28% in urban areas
• By 1996 only 5% of industrial and 17% of
domestic waste received any treatment before
being discharged in rivers, lakes, oceans etc.
However these percentages are increasing
• Also dramatic increase in fresh water
aquaculture
Cancer mortality from water
pollution - TVE
Liver and stomach cancer deaths
doubled since the 1970s. China has
Highest liver cancer dead rate in the
world
• Increase in cancer
mortality over time
in control area,
polluted and most
polluted townships
• Show that increased
pollution results in
increased mortality
• steady increase in
cancer mortality
over time in polluted
areas
Cancer death and anemia from
sewage storage - Urbanization
Baoding City disposed 250,000 tons
of sewage per day into lake via a
Canal
Deceases investigated:
• Cancer
• Liver cancer
• Esophageal cancer
• Anemia
In
Control area
Polluted area (along
the canal)
Most polluted area
(near the lake)
Cancer mortality and birth defects
– changes to agriculture
Impact of new practice
of using industrial
wastewater for irrigation
70 km long canal build in
1960, daily received
400,000 m3 of untreated
wastewater from
coalmines and
petrochemical, power
and chemical plants –
increasing cancer
mortality and birth
defect
Ocean pollution
Production of aquaculture freshwater
fish has increased steeply
Water Shortage
• Unevenly distributed North only 1/3 of South
• 100 cities suffer from severe shortages, halting
industrial production. 300 cities out of Chinas
617 Cities suffer from shortage
• 2/3 from groundwater mining – salt water
intrusion in coastal areas and subsidence in
some cities
• World’s worst cessation of river flows. Yellow
river stopped flowing during 20 of the years
1972-1997
• Number of days without flow up from 90 in
1980 to 230 in 1997
Water shortage
The farmer holds a small irrigator
used to lift water out of a canal
using small buckets
Competition rural
urban intensifying:
Residential use incr.
from 31 to 134 bil. tons
from 1995 to 2003
while industrial use
Incr. from 52 to 269 bil.
ton
Farmers can not
compete economically
1000 ton of water in
agriculture = $200
while in industry it =
$14,000 of profit.
Virtual water?
The Yangtze Basin –
Three Gorges dam
• The worlds largest
water project –
• one of the worlds
largest hydropower
projects
• Average annual run
–off 451 bil. ton
• Significant social
and env. impact
• May silt up in 50
years
• Will move water to
northern China
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam will move water
from south to the north
• Figure 1
Soil erosion affects 19% of land
As a result of human activity, such as
• Deforestation for agriculture and logging
• Destruction of vegetation (grassland)
• Cultivation on steep slopes
• Drying out of wetlands for agriculture and city develop
Consequences
• Deposition of sediment in the river bed causing more
frequent flooding leading to the deposition of coarse
sediment particles and secondary alkalization
• In one area more than doubling the area of eroded
land from the 1960s to 80s
Over grazing- increase in number
of goat, sheep and cattle
Increasing
desertification, the
Gobi desert expanded
by 52,400 km2 from
1994 to 1999
Winter storms create
enormous dust
storms affecting
Korea and Japan
Terraces for Rice Growing
Arable land mainly in the east
Arable land
where most
development
takes place
Severity of Human Induced Soil
Degradation
The destruction of agricultural land poses a big problem
for China’s food security
Consequences for China’s people
• Socio-economic losses
• $72 mil per year is spend to control just one weed
imported from Brazil for pig forage
• $250 mil in annual loss arising from factory closure
due to shortage of water just in one city
• Sand storm damage app $540 mil/year
• Acid rain damage to crop and forest $730 mil/year
• $6 bil cost of green wall to protect Beijing
• $7 bil/year losses due to desertification
• $7 bil/year due to losses from other alien species
• $27 bil loss due to flood in 1998
• $54 bil/year losses due to water and air pollution
Consequences for China’s people
• Health cost
• 1996 to 2001 spending on public health incr. by
80%
• App 300,000 death/year due to air pollution
• Lead blood level in cities twice the level considered
to be dangerous
• Natural disasters
• AD300 to 1949 dust storms once every 31 years.
Since 1990 almost one every year – soil erosion
• Drought damage about 160,000 km2 of cropland
every year – double the area in 1950s
• Increasing flood frequency
China in the global village
• The shear size of China’s population, its landmass and
economy guarantee that its environmental problems
will spread to the rest of the world
• Beneficial and harmful imports
• China importing natural gas and oil– reduces environmental
damage from the use of coal
• Countries transferring pollution-intensive industries to China
– using technology often prohibited in the exporting country
• China paid to accept toxic trash from developed countries
(increased from 1 mio to 11 mio t/p.a. 1990-1997)
• Exports causing damage at home
• Products go abroad but pollution stays at home
China in the global village
• Invasive spices exported (chestnut
blight, Dutch elm disease, Asian longhorned beetle)
• Exports air pollution into the
atmosphere
• Exports deforestation. China’s import of
wood has increased 6 fold; mainly from
Malaysia, Papa New Guinea and Brazil
Chinas problem – A global issue
• China largest contributor of
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Sulfur oxides
Chorofluorocarbons
Ozone depleting substances and
Carbon dioxides
Chinas problem – A global issue
• Dust and aerial pollutants already
impact neighboring countries
• Leading importer of tropical rainforest
timber – a driving force behind tropical
deforestation
• What will happen if China achieves 1st
world standard of living with 1st world
environmental impact per capita
Are their any hope?
• Increasingly participating in international treaties
• Introducing better farming practices and some
traditional environmentally friendly technologies
• Becoming less energy intensive
• WTO/Olympic caused China to pay more attention to
air pollution
• Phased out leaded petrol in little more than a year
(took Europe and N.A. decades)
• 1998 ban on logging and National Forest Conservation
program
• Grain-to-Green program in 2000, by 2010 130,000
km2 of cropland will be converted. One of the biggest
conservation programs in the world
1. Destruction or losses of natural resources:
natural habitats
wild food sources
biological diversity
soil
2. Ceiling of natural resources:
energy
freshwater
photosynthetic capacity
3. Harmful things that we produce or move around:
toxic chemicals
alien species
atmospheric gases
4. Population issues:
population is growing
per-capita impact