China and the Environment. Challenges population arable land loss air pollution greenhouse gases...
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Transcript of China and the Environment. Challenges population arable land loss air pollution greenhouse gases...
population
• 1.3 billion and counting• policy working
– similar fertility rate to U.S.– will level off at 1.6 billion in 2050– declines after that
• can modernization help the slowdown?
arable land loss
• net annual loss since 1950: 1,800 sq. mi. (Starr, 118)
• this is accelerating during reform period• desertification also an issue
– 16 million acres lost– 40 million acres at risk– dust storms in Beijing
• Chinese buying U.S. farmland (latimes.com)• leasing land in Laos, Cuba, Mexico (People’s
Daily Online)
air pollution
• coal burning– especially unfiltered in rural areas: 70%
smoke and dust, 92% sulfur dioxide (Sunday Herald)
– by 2020, 100 million tons per year
• car smog– rapid growth– if every Chinese family 2-car family, 600
million cars
greenhouse gases
• fourth in the world (Starr, 179)• could pass U.S. soon• support Kyoto in principle,
negotiating limits, according to official at Foreign Ministry
• sustainable?
water
• 1995: 36.5 billion tons of sewage and industrial waste into water (Starr, 180)
• 90% water flowing through major cities undrinkable
• water depletion: most serious in North
energy
• one 100W light bulb per head, per year currently (Sunday Herald)
• net importer of oil now– responsible for 1/3 of the rise in daily oil
consumption last year – predict same this year: 1/3 of 2 million barrel per
day increase (Sunday Herald)
• energy-intensive industries – steel, aluminum, plastics– second, behind Japan, in oil usage (Sunday
Herald)