China, Lurching Giant

Chapter 12Jamie, Hong, Ashley

China’s Population Trends

• China has 1.3 billion people; about 1/5 of the entire world population

• Mandatory Fertility Control• Rapid Urbanization• Urban population increased seven times

from 1953-2001

Urbanization

• Urbanization continues to be a large propulation for China’s sustainability

• The income gap between rural and urban China has widened.

• More people are suffering from diseases related to air pollution, water pollution, and fatty diets.

China’s Economy

• Fastest growing economy in the world• Industrial Outputs (Steel, cement, plastic)• Vehicle Production• Demand for meat products• China is the largest consumer of coal, oil, and timber• China is the largest producer and consumer of toxic fertilizers• Many of China’s industries create disproportionate waste

Air, Water, and Soil

• Air quality the worst in the world• Water shortages, pollution, waste• Soil problems: reduction in cropland• More than two-thirds of cities are fully

surrounded by trash• Watch YouTube Clip: China's Environmental

Problems

• China is one of the worlds most forest poor countries

• The government is taking steps to increase the area of plant species but deforestation has caused billions in damage through erosion and floods.

• Climate change and deforestation both contribute to China’s increasing frequency of droughts, which currently affect 30% of the crop land each year.

• 90% of China’s grasslands are considered degraded.

• This degradation has lead to the increase in the frequency and severity of floods on the Yellow and Yangtze rivers

• Another consequence of

deforestation is the increase of frequency

and severity of dust storms in eastern

China

• Wetlands and some wetland species have become endangered.

60% of the in the Sanjian Plain have been converted to farmland.

At the current rate of drainage, the remaining swamps in the Sanjian Plain in the Northeast (8,000 sq miles) will be gone within 20 years.

Fish consumption is rising as a result of growing affluence and overfishing.

Due to overfishing and pollution, the freshwater and coastal marine fisheries have suffered severe degradation.

The white sturgeon has been pushed to the brink of extinction

The Bohai prawn harvest declined 90 %

Formerly abundant native species such as the yellow croaker and hairtail must now be imported

The Yangtze River was closed for the first time in 2003 because the annual take of wild fish has declined 75%

Other endangered species

The Giant Panda

Gingkos

Chinese Alligator

What does it mean to people?•300,000 deaths per year and 54 billion in health care costs are attributed to air pollution.

•730,000 deaths per year (and rising) are attributed to smoking

•China is the world’s largest consumer and producer of tobacco. Average blood levels in city-dwellers

double levels considered dangerous and put at risk the mental development of children

connections

China’s large population greatly effects other people

trades and pollutions

• China’s connection through trades, investment and foreign aid has been accelerating.

• Export trades= increased pollutions in china.

Increased in economic growth and environmental degradation

• In 2002 china received the worlds highest amount of foreign investment.

Untreated garbage and pollution intensive industries

• China is willing to accept other countries toxic garbage.

• Some foreign companies transfers PII to china.

Invasive species

Why china’s problem is the worlds problem

• China wants to achieve the first world lifestyle.

• China’s achievement of first world standards will approximately double the entire worlds human resource.

Then and Now

• China’s leaders used to think that only capitalist societies were affected by environmental damages.

• Both the development of environmental problems and solutions are accelerating.

Better or worse?

• Things will get worse before they get better.

The future

• China is making big efforts