Everyone knows that China is a country that is moving leaps and bounds along the path of industrial growth. For a long time, China has been called an "economic miracle", because over the past decades the country has been confidently leading in the production of steel, machinery, food, and is also striving to become a world leader in the automotive industry. Of course, in this regard, the welfare of the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom is constantly growing, but China’s ecology threatens to turn into a large-scale catastrophe for the entire planet. Moreover, every year the situation only worsens.
Ecological Situation in China: General Description
For several years now, the whole world has been watching how rapidly the environment in China is deteriorating. Photos revealing the monstrous atmosphere in cities and villages simply flooded the Internet. And it is worth saying that they make environmentalists from around the world sound the alarm and demand from China reliable information about their environmental situation.
The country's authorities are constantly silent about the results of water, air and soil samples. Particularly acute is the problem of soil pollution and the immense consumption of groundwater. This leads to the fact that under many large cities voids form, threatening the subsidence of buildings and entire streets. Scientists noted that the largest funnel is located near Beijing. Many buildings went cracked and in the future will begin to fall apart, this situation can no longer be corrected.
A large number of plants and factories that provide China with economic growth emit tons of toxic substances into the atmosphere. In addition, it is worth considering that almost all CHP plants operate on coal - the most harmful fuel for the environment. The country ranks first in the world in the consumption of this raw material, naturally, emissions of coal processing products enter the atmosphere and create toxic smog in cities.
Environmental problems in China have been hushed up for a long time, but now they have already acquired the scale of a disaster that affects the entire planet. Despite the fact that the country has acceded to the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges to control harmful emissions into the atmosphere, an industrial power enjoys exemptions as a developing state. This leads to a deterioration of the situation and increased social tension within the country.
Environmental issues in China
Most often, large countries have some of the most serious environmental problems, but this cannot be said about China. He has a whole range of difficulties that have long gone out of control of the authorities. Moreover, many party leaders of the country admit that attempts to resolve the situation will stop China's industrial growth. This in turn will affect its economic development and position on the world stage. But in any case, if China does not take any measures in the near future, poor ecology, the reasons for which lie in the barbaric use of natural resources, will cause irreparable harm to the planet and significantly reduce the country's population. Already, it suffers from a number of diseases caused by environmental degradation.
In general, a number of urgent problems can be identified that require immediate solution:
- air pollution;
- soil poisoning;
- deforestation;
- land degradation;
- deterioration in water quality.
Of course, this list is just a superficial look at what China’s ecology looks like. Therefore, we will try to analyze key issues that will help us deeper into the essence of the problem.
Air Pollution: Causes
The level of air pollution is evidenced by the fact that the sixth level of air pollution in cities (and it is critical) has become quite familiar for the Chinese themselves. Sometimes Beijing and other cities are shrouded in smog and fog for several days, and its residents do not dare to remove face masks. What is air pollution related to?
First of all, with the operation of the CHP. Increasing production and urbanization of the country require more and more electricity, so in the near future it is planned to open up to five hundred new thermal power plants in the country. This means that air emissions will increase. Although the Chinese themselves can no longer imagine how to worsen things. In addition, carbon dioxide, which is formed as a result of burning coal, which is not subjected to special treatment, makes a significant contribution to enhancing the greenhouse effect. Therefore, China ranks first in the list of countries accelerating the melting of glaciers and climate change on the planet.
Industrial enterprises also contribute to air pollution. Many of them have low-quality cleaning systems, so more than fifty percent of the harmful substances that must be retained by filters get into the atmosphere. In the context of economic growth, China will only increase the pace of industrial development, which in turn will lead to the construction of new factories, roads and cities.
Do not forget about the number of cars in megacities of the country. Why? In China, the ecology is bad - this is a well-known fact, but few people understand that every year the wealthy population of cities changes to cars that methodically poison the air in megacities. The authorities have been trying to deal with this problem for more than a decade. They limited the movement of cars on certain days of the week, promote cycling, and reduce the cost of travel by subway. But, unfortunately, the environmental situation continues to deteriorate. For example, last year sixteen Chinese settlements were included in the list of twenty most dirty cities in the world . Terrifying statistics, isn't it?
The dirtiest city in the world - Linfen, China
The ecology of this place makes us call it hell, and there is no greater punishment in the country than living in Linfeng. The population of the city is about one million people, most of them are employed in factories, of which there are several dozen.
The fact is that the city is the center of the coal industry. Coal mining and processing takes place in these territories , as well as several industrial facilities involved in the production of food are built.
The horror of the situation in Linfeng can be felt with a cursory glance at the city - it is always hidden by dense smog, there are no plants inside the city or beyond (even grass and weeds do not grow here), and tap water resembles machine oil in texture and smell.
If there are damned places on the planet, then Linfen can undoubtedly be attributed to them.
Poisoning of rivers and other water bodies in China
A major environmental problem in the country is the deterioration of water quality. In recent years, this process has gained incredible proportions, affecting almost all of China. Ecology (poor drinking water and wastewater pollution) is becoming a disaster for the whole country as a whole, and now there is no one who would not have affected it. After all, water is what everyone needs to exist and be healthy. In China, unfortunately, it is no longer possible to find a clean body of water.
Industrial enterprises drain sewage directly into the rivers and waters of the seas. The waters are contaminated with phenols, heavy metals, cyanide compounds, mercury and other toxic substances. According to some reports, approximately seventy percent of the country's water reserves are completely contaminated. Moreover, even underground water bodies were poisoned. This is terrible, but in many rivers water cannot even be used to irrigate agricultural land.
In addition, in recent years there has been a significant reduction in the country's water reserves. This is due to the active economic activity of man. After all, every year the number of plowed lands increases, where hundreds of tons of water are used to grow various crops. As a result, rivers and lakes are rapidly drying up, and underground reserves are beginning to be used for irrigation. Gradually, the country switches to watering fields from deep-water wells. As a result, China's ecology is suffering even more.
Land degradation
In China, the process of desertification is rapidly underway. This is due to the fact that forests are being actively cut down, and the liberated territories are used as pastures or agricultural fields. Now more than a third of the territories are pastures, this leads to the destruction of vegetation and the disappearance of the fertile layer of the earth. The desert is gradually capturing China and now occupies a quarter of the territory. Today, dozens of settlements have been captured by sand, and dust storms have become commonplace even in Beijing.
Soil poisoning
In parallel with desertification, the process of poisoning the soil with fertilizers and other chemicals occurs. In addition, as a result of improper irrigation, many soils were salted, and this reduced the number of lands suitable for agricultural activities by several times.
All this, against the backdrop of China's ever-increasing demand for food, leads to rather sad thoughts - soon the country will become dependent on food imports, which will significantly change the situation on the world stage.
I would like to note that the government carefully hides studies on the state of the land and does not publish them anywhere. This secrecy indicates that the situation may be several times worse than environmentalists from Europe and Russia imagine.
The consequences of poor ecology
The people of China have long felt for themselves what the poor ecology of China means. The causes and consequences of an unreasonable attitude to nature are closely interrelated, which is why the country's inhabitants suffer from serious health problems.
It is known that an increasing number of Chinese are fixing respiratory diseases, including chronic bronchitis and asthma. Conjunctivitis caused by acid rain and sandstorms that brought smog and soot even to remote areas of the country became quite common.
More than seven hundred thousand inhabitants die from poisonous smog every year in China, and approximately sixty thousand Chinese suffer from poor-quality water, acquiring diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys.
The poor ecology of China has led to an increase in the number of cancer patients. According to the WHO, about one and a half million people die of cancer every year in the country. And sometimes all the villagers, without exception, are sick. Seven years ago, about five hundred such settlements were identified, which they call “cancer villages”.
Social tensions in China
It is not surprising that environmental problems in the country, as well as their consequences, cause a negative assessment of society. Increasingly, riots and clashes with law enforcement agencies are taking place in China. The people begin to protest against the construction of new factories, the dumping of waste into rivers, where fish are still found, and puts forward demands for urgent measures to improve the environmental situation in the country.
For example, clashes with police in Dalian and Shifan continued for several days. The authorities managed to reassure the people with great difficulty. Every year, more and more young people take to the streets, demanding to stop environmental pollution.
Of course, China delights in its incredible pace of economic growth. He literally supplies the whole world with cheap products and goods. It is proved that every third product in the world that falls on store shelves was made in China. Here are just residents of the country pay an incommensurably high price for this success.