Discussion on China Articles
From Studyplace
Please put any comments about the NYTimes series on pollution in China here.
Based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship between per capita income and per capita pollutant emission(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznets_curve), every country’s development cannot avoid pollution. In the 20th century, the industrial cities in the developed countries have all been through terrible pollutions. "First pollution, last treatment" is the way most countries used, and now the environmental condition is much better in those developed countries. China is being through the rapid development nowadays, so pollution is an unavoidable step. What China is doing is to minimum the scale and the degree of its pollution. Actually, China is paying extremely high attention to the environmental protection. China is popularize the notion of “harmonious society” and “energy saving society”, and it has implemented the three policies of making preventive measures a priority, assigning responsibility to those who created pollution to clearing it up and intensifying environmental control. In China, most of young people refused to use “throwaway chopsticks”, and you can find reports about new steps of environmental protection in the newscasts every single day. However, China is not rich enough to do as perfectly as the developed countries did: China has no funding to export the industrial wastes to other countries, but China has to accept the industrial wastes import from the developed countries. China needs more money to improve the current condition, so China has to develop. In this globalization age, China became the “world factory”, and lots of countries consider China’s development as a threatening so they are trying to slow down China’s development by accusing its monopoly or pollution. China is facing heavy pressure internal and external, so China is trying its best to balance the economy and the environment. The following is the interview of Pan Yue, the deputy director general of the State Environmental Protection Administration of China:
China Newsweek Reporter: Can China maintain economic development and environmental protection at the same time?
Pan Yue : Actually, we are able to change the present pattern to a sustainable development model and we should do it immediately. The United States solved its environmental problems when per capita gross product reached ,000 to 10,000, South Korea solved its problems when per capita gross product reached ,000 to 6,000. Nowadays, some provinces in East China have realized ,000 per capita gross product. With proven techniques, we are able to solve environmental problems ahead of time and pay equal attention to economic development and environmental protection. I mean, we can make environment our top priority in the east and even make some changes to how we evaluate the performance of local officials. (http://www.chinanews.cn/news/2004/2005-01-31/1425.shtml)
The above are some data and subjective opinions from China's standing point:) I wrote them coz I thought maybe it's new and interesting for you guys! Minnie
