Urbanization has gradually increased all over China use.

Carbon dioxide emissions have increased

dramatically causing reductions in air quality. With no accommodations in the trend of increasing

energy use in China, the country will face even more brutal consequences in the future. The effect

will be felt not only in China but also around the globe

Air Pollution Problem

China’s fast growing development is greatly impacting the global models of resource usage and the

related environmental and geopolitical issues. China recently became the world’s leading consumer

of all major industrial commodities except for oil (Grumbine 249). The nation is entering a new

phase of urbanization, which is enhancing the rapid transformation in China’s economic growth.

Due to rapid economic growth, China’s total main “energy consumption incrased from 400 mega-

tonnes of oil equivalent in 1978 to nearly 1,820 mega-tonnes of oil in 2007” (Song et al 310). This

trend is expected to continue for several decades. As a result of rapid economic growth, China’s

energy demand is increasing which also increases the emissions of pollutants. For example, coal is

one of the main energy sources in China and it is also the world’s largest coal-mining country:

“Coal provides nearly 70 percent of China’s primary energy consumption and is the single most

important source of pollution in China” (Song et al 9). According to Xunpeng Shi (Song et al 10),

about 85 percent of the sulphur dioxide and 60 percent of the nitrogen oxides emitted into the

atmosphere in China come from the combustion of coal and this trend of energy consumption in

China is expected to remain for at least the next 20 years. In this respect, China’s continued

economic growth, requires tremendous amounts of coal, and is posing immediate environmental

problems, especially in the country’s air quality.

Living in the 21st century, it is undoubtedly clear that the sheer number of motor vehicle companies

how much people around the globe think they need cars. With China’s rapidly growing appetite for

electricity and automobiles, the country’s increase in greenhouse gas emissions over the next thirty

years will likely equal that of the rest of the developed world: “From 1984 to 1994, the number of

motor vehicles in China tripled, to reach 9.4 million” (Day 9); The predictions indicated that in the

first two decades of the twenty-first century the number of motor vehicles in China will increase by

a factor of 13 to 22 (Day 9). For instance, in Beijing, as of August 2003, the number of motor

vehicles doubled to two million, with 2,000 new license plates being issued per day. Also, the first

nine months of 2003 alone, vehicles sales boosted by 30 percent: “Demand for new cars in China

are growing at 20 percent to 30 percent per year” (Day 10). This rapidly emerging car culture has

created plentiful amounts of air pollution and urban sprawl. For this serious issue, it was suggested

that China encourage a mass transit system consisting of urban light rail, buses, and bicycles for

China’s continuously growing transportation needs. However, officials in Shanghai appeared to be

reluctant in supporting the public transportation systems, and rather to be moving in the opposite

direction. In fact, they announced a ban on the use of bicycles on major streets to make way for

automobiles (Day 10). Shanghai officials are oblivious to the increasing coal-consumption that

causes grey air, showing their indifference to sustaining the environment. Looking at the rapidly

increasing transportation needs in China, it is crucial that the Chinese government be adamant in

promoting environmental management by developing new and improved public transportation

systems in order to prevent excessive amounts of vehicle

While many focus on China’s rapidly industrial sector which accounts for close to 70 percent of

China’s energy demand, they forget that residential consumption, despite accounting for only 11

percent, should also be taken under consideration for energy requirement and carbon dioxide

emissions. First, it seems obvious that richer households should generate more emissions, simply

because they have more money to spend. More critically, household variations in energy

requirements and emissions per yuan - that is, energy and emissions intensities (Song et al 335).

Given that households with different levels of per capita income are likely to have different
consumption bunches, and that different goods clearly require different quantities of energy in order

to produce one yuan of output: “while richer households do indeed emit more per capita, poorer

households tend to be more emissions per yuan spent” (Song et al 335). In this case, their heavy

reliance on coal as a source of direct energy1 makes poorer households considerably less energy

efficient. Although rich households consume more energy and produce more carbon emissions per

capita, their emissions ratio is lower than poor households’. That is, richer households are relatively

energy efficient. (see Appendix 2). When one looks at the direct and indirect energy2, emissions

and ratio between the two indicated that the major cause of lower energy efficiency for the poor is

more direct energy consumption than the rich households, which is mostly due to coal consumption

(see Appendix 3) This directly relates to contaminating the air. For indirect energy consumption and

emissions, there is almost no difference across income groups (Song et al 348) and see (see

Appendix 4, 5). Based on the result that households with higher levels of education consume less

energy per capita and assuming that services, it is better off for China to raise incomes to the point

at which services dominate consumption patterns.

In exploring the ways in which, China is experiencing the burden of additional carbon dioxide

emissions and other environmental pollutants in addition to the huge coal mining industry projected

throughout China, it is clear that it is also economic globalization that introduces the consequences

of polluted air. Economic globalization has created an increase in the production of consumer goods

at the lowest costs to suit consumer demand. For instance, the story of tracing the life cycle of

Mardi Gras beads celebration in New Orleans, the viewer grasps the near-universal human tendency

to strive for an affluent lifestyle (Harriss et al 11). There is irony in the unsafe and inhumane

conditions for workers while people in New Orleans enjoy their time throwing beads, not knowing

the circumstances or the beads’ production. This shows not only the indoor pollution in beads

making factory in Fuzhou, but also symbolic of China’s fast mount to the world’s top producer of

carbon dioxide, exemplified by the beads making factory that offers a trade with the United States

for a reasonable price of the beads given that they are fulfilled quality and quantity: “We produce

products and these products are consumed by other countries, especially the developed countries”
(Hariss 11). Just as China is highly dependent on resources and its comparative advantage, so the

degree of air pollution increases due to the demand for all the coal consumption that it takes to

produce items.

The major responsibility for environmental protection lies with the government. No one else can do

this; government needs to take the case more seriously and implement rules, then the problem will

be solved pretty quickly (Bauer 55). When it comes to sustaining environment, ordinary residents

also play a role in forming environment policy; however, the executive level does not tend to take

their opinion seriously enough, so they do not act efficiently enough. For example, the residents

living in the city of Benxi use available channels3 to make their complaints so Benxi’s people’s

congress made forty-three motions and draft resolutions requesting that the government take actions

to reduce pollution. However, these requests do not bring about effective changes to environment

policy, for the government twists the complaints that it receives from the city government.

Moreover, China seems to be reluctant in publishing the correct data regarding the specifics of air-

quality. Regarding the serious issues in air pollution all over China, American embassy required

Beijing government to report its air-quality every hour, but Beijing failed to report the correct data

shown on the reading scale. A reading at a controversial monitoring station run by the American

embassy showed a PM 2.5 level of 866 microcosms per cubic meter while Beijing’s own municipal

monitoring center acknowledged readings little above 700 micrograms. Failing to report data

regarding the air specifics, the American embassy further insisted on independently monitoring and

publicly reporting Beijing’s air quality and that it reports the reading correctly (The Economist).

This is especially controversial since false reports could, in a long run, potentially lead to a downfall

of China with such great environmental impact, thinking that the air pollution in China is not as

bad.

Many areas in the developed world still struggle with local air pollution in excess of standards,

while much of the industrializing world is just beginning to assess the social and ecological impacts

of poor air quality. Instead, it is the cause of the air pollution that distinguishes China from other

regions (Day 124). More than any other country, China depends on the combustion of coal for
power generation and industrial production. Although the percentage of coal use has declined since

its peak of 1.4 billion metric tons in 1996 (Day 125), it sill accounts for nearly 70 percent of all

China’s energy power generated in China. Locally, coal smoke and particulate matter pose a direct

threat to respiration, raising morbidity and mortality rates. Researchers discovered that China’s air

pollution problems were not confined to China. The prevailing winds that carried sulfur emissions

among provinces also were to blame for acid deposition on the southern top of Japan and the

Korean peninsula. In addition to this regional spreading, scientific studies launched in the mid-

1900s predicted that China’s coal-burning plants were discharging enough greenhouse gases to

place China on a trajectory that would surpass the United States as the chief contributor to global

warming. China is becoming an environmental threat to both its domestic atmospheric commons

and the regional and global commons (Day 126). A consequence of these has been that some

regions in China that receive a disproportionate share of the damage from emissions have

complained that regions that receive a disproportionate share of the benefits from those emissions

should curb heavily polluting power plants. However, since most localities are not fully aware of

the interregional transport of emissions, objections among Chinese regions have not been as

pronounced as international calls for China to reduce its emissions. Domestically, the battle over

sulfur dioxide policy has been fought between environmental protection bureaucracies and

opponents within local government agencies and industries that see stronger regulations as running

counter to development priorities (Day 126).