China chokes on its own success
Monday, 14 April 2008 02:10
Thomas Blinde
Whenever China is on the news the subjects often are related to human right violations, the occupation of Tibet, high economic growth, and the battle against corruption. However, the most alarming problem is often overlooked, namely that China is choking on its own success. Due to rapid economic development, China’s relatively limited resources and environment remain in a questionable condition. China is, with the exception of coal, relatively poor concerning its natural resources while continuing new demands arise caused by an extreme fast economic growth.The most crucial problem China faces, is the lack of a sufficient amount of exploitable water to sustain the current economic activities, and more weighty, the population level. Because the water supply in some areas is far below the minimum of existence, 500 cubic meters per capita per year, this directly threatens the survival of people. Nevertheless, the quantity of water is not the single water related problem. The available water’s quality is, at least, even worrisome. Forty percent of all water is polluted in such extend that it has become useless for any human, industrial, or agricultural purpose. This phenomenon directly endangers the health of China’s population and creates a decrease in agricultural production. A different hazardous factor towards the public health and food supply is air pollution. Air pollution causes long cancer rates that are 8.8 times higher in serious polluted areas, like Shanghai, than in clean regions of the country. Another consequence of heavy polluted air is acid rain falling down on one-third of the arable land, diminishing agricultural production. This has a major impact on the Chinese government’s ability to feed its population. Although these problems are already disrupting enough on themselves, a growing population and the current stage of economic development enhance the gravity of the situation. Namely, all developing countries follow the traditional path of: first pollute, control later. This implies that China produces highly polluting and energy intensive until it reaches a highly developed country’s wealth level. The continuous growth of population causes an increasing demand of food, water, living accommodations, etc... These two factors combined give companies the incentive to continue producing. In other words, economic growth is momentarily more important than a healthy environment, a healthy population, and sufficient food supply.All these problems need to be solved inevitably, because the price that will be paid if they are not is too high. The price at stake is the death of countless people. Nonetheless, there is still hope. The Chinese government has undertaken some action to control the birth-rates by means of a one child policy. Although this one antidote will not cure the entire problem, it states that the Chinese government is, at least, trying to overcome this obstacle. However, if China wishes to prevent choking on its own success it must undertake action in order to reduce its demand on natural resources, produce cleaner, and limit its economic growth as well before chaos arises due to a sickening environment and inadequate food supply.
Last Updated ( Monday, 25 May 2009 00:49 )
