There
are an infinite number of ways to approach an issue. Here this piece seeks to discuss two countries and the effectiveness of the
approaches they have taken to lessen their detrimental impact on the
ecosystem. One of the most important factors when determining whether
or not policies will be effective is whether or not the objectives
and initiatives address importance of the role the suprastructure,
the cultural beliefs, norms and values when attempting to accomplish
change.
China has been working industriously toward economic
growth for decades. They have greatly increased their GPD through
substantial industrialization and increase in manufacture and
exports. (2) As with any industrialized nation, the Chinese have seen
a major increase in pollution in correlation with their increase in
industry. According to the World Bank, 16 of the 20 most polluted
cities on the planet are located in China. (1) The major increase in
environmental pollutants has had effects on the ecosystem. Acid rain
is a problem in 40 percent of the country. Desertification is
effecting more than a quarter of the country's land area. The water
is so polluted that is can hardly support marine life or be used in
irrigation. (2)
The impact of rampant industrialization has been
destructive to the Chinese people. If one does not even consider the
fact that the factory workers in China are working under less
regulated conditions and are exposed to harmful and deadly chemicals
in the factories which will lead to cancer, painful illnesses and
premature death (3), the impact the environmental pollution is having
on the wellbeing of the general population is still very substantial.
The air pollution alone is responsible for thousands of premature
deaths every year and is responsible for damaging the fertility in 20
to 30 percent of the male polulation. 500 million people are lacking
access to safe drinking water. (2)(4) Children who are the weakest
are most likely to be effected by the environmental pollution, and
they are the least able to do anything about the problem and the
least to blame.
The environmental impact of China's industrialization
has implications beyond just China's territories and population. The
energy used to fuel the production is for the most part generated
using coal. (5) According to many climate change annalists and
experts there is a correlation between carbon dioxide and planetary effects
in climate change. If there is any possibility that there is an
increased threat to the ecosystem as a result of increased emissions
of Co2, which many experts are agreeing there is, regultation of Co2
should be considered of eminent importance. (6)
The Chinese government has made many references to the
environmental concerns in numerous speeches and addresses over the
recent years. The government occasionally implements new policies
such as having days when no one is supposed to drive a car, caps on
industry emissions, regulations on pollution and the closing of
factories that are responsible for pollution. However, these policies
are not often well enforced. The government has subsidized gas prices
which increases the pollutants from automobile travel. Local
officials are still more likely to be revered and rewarded for
stimulating local economic growth growth than for enforcing
environmental policies. Factories that are closed down often very
shortly reopen in new locations.
The
traditional Chinese mentality of the individual's obligation to the
community coupled with the desire for economic growth has fostered a
mindset in the Chinese people that will take some time and effort to
alter. According to an ethnography China's
Urban Villagers; Life in a Beijing Commune
by Norman Chance, the most desirable position to the Chinese villager
is a position working in a factory. There is this mentality that
factory work is the height of progress to which to aspire. Sadly,
these factories are also the most potentially harmful to the
wellbeing of these Chinese villagers.
A change in priorities and mentality will have to take
place on a fundamental level before any of the government regulations
will be effectively implicated.
(graph
depicting intensity of global air pollution) (12)
Conversely,
nations that have made it a major priority to reduce their industrial
pollution and reverse the negative impact of previous decades have
been very successful in doing so. Rather than work in broad
generalizations, the focus of this portion will be on a single
nation. I began my research for this project in 2005, and now many
of the sources for my research have become hard to find. In 2005 I
was sitting on the floor in a library in San Diego reading out of an
actual physical
encyclopedia which is just how people accomplished research for
projects back then. So while I can not cite the actual physical
source I will paraphrase what spiked the curiosity for this project.
I was studying the impact of industrialization and urbanization on
the traditional Romanian diet and I came across a few paragraphs
addressing how water and air pollution had increased in Romania since
the country had industrialized. The exact statistics of the increased
pollution and the impacts they caused were striking, but I can not
exactly recall them. An even more striking bit of information was
that at that time Romania was working to reduce all of their levels
of pollution in order to be accepted into the European Union. This
was particularly interesting because at the time I was closely
working with a group to raise money to support lobbyists who would
push for a cap on every company's emissions in the state of
California, and here were these people on the other side of the globe
doing the exact same thing kinda. I was completely intrigued, so I
started following their progress.
Here is what people who are actually trying to make a
difference can accomplish. Just thinking about it is soothing and
generates hope. According to information garnered from the United
Nations Development Programme specifically regarding Romania's
environmental policies and progress, Romania became a full member of
the EU in 2007. Between 1995 and now Romania has passed numerous
policies and set up requirements and regulations that are enforced by
an environmental protection agency at three distinctly important
levels. Officials at national, regional and local levels have worked
in unison to address environmental concerns. One of the most
interesting factors is the emphasis the initiatives placed on
generating informative literature and programs to generate individual
awareness of their objectives. The program implemented cited lack of
awareness and lack of understanding as something to be addressed.
They considered cultural awareness an important aspect of the
program. The Rio Conventions were cited and the decision to
“mainstream” the concepts of the Rio Conventions along with
“strengthening systemic, institutional and individual capacity to
integrate Rio Conventions themes into national, regional and local
decision making” were some of the objectives set forth. Other
objectives that were stated by the Romanian Ministry of Environment
and Forests (MoEF) included “management of resources and industrial
affairs...to provide a sustainable future” and also “the
development of Romanian environmental policies and the transposition
of European Union legislation into Romanian laws and norms” (9) The
emphasis on the integration and evolution of the suprastructure is
integral to the success of the reforms Romania has achieved.
The
success that Romania has had can be clearly evidenced in the
reduction of carbon dioxide omissions over the last twenty years.
They have actively reduced their country's omissions to
less than half of what it was twenty years ago.
Other EU countries have reduced their emissions to some extent, but
the results achieved by Romania are some of the most impressive. The
graph below represents Romania's Co2 emissions over the last twenty
years as indexed to the emissions in 1990. The data is taken from a
table that was generated using “Data
on greenhouse gas emissions are officially reported under the United
Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC)”
(10)
(14)
The data used to generate this graph came from a table
that indexes the Co2 emissions of each of the EU's twenty-seven
counties to what their Co2 emissions were in 1990. (11)
While many other countries are seeing an increase in
Co2 emissions as well as other harmful pollutants, Romania has been
able to generate awareness and effectively implement initiatives to
improve the living environment of their populations. Through
strategic and determined effort they have actively pursued a better
quality of life for future generations. Through continued efforts of
this nature Romania can continue to preserve their natural
environment and possibly even improve the quality of air and water
and preserve their rich forests and wildlife.
If there is any positively desirable position to be
taken in these pressing matters of environmental preservation, it is
that education will be the most effective means in actually
implementing environmental initiatives. There is no more effective
means than that. If we as a species wish to persist on this planet,
we must change our mindset. Rampant consumerism and the sorts of
ideals we have allowed corporations to impose upon our population
have been nothing but detrimental to our collective wellbeing and the
wellbeing of the future generations that will have to address the
problems we have created while depleting the earths resources and
needlessly generating waste, pollution, garbage and not much
progress. It was a set of ideals that got us here. It will be a
different set of ideals that will be necessary to set us on a
different course and make an actual difference in our collective
future. If I were to adopt a stance and suggest a course of action, I
would suggest that the UN support world wide enlightened education in
environmental issues and in general to ensure a better future on this
planet. Nothing short of this will do the trick.
Indoctrinating future generations to value family,
knowledge, fairness, justice, wisdom, enlightnment and love over
cellphones, sneakers, sportscars and ipads is the best way to ensure
the continued preservation and flourishing of our species.
Works Cited and Drawn From
- Jonathan Liu, Howard Viney and Diane Holt Environmental issues in China. European Business Journal. June 1st, 2004. pages 59-69 (SCC article database)
- Ploberger, Christian China's Multidimensional Environmental Issues a Fundamental Challenge for China's Future Development - a Critical Assessment. East Asia: An International Quarterly. 28.1 March 2011. pages 1-20 (SCC article database)
- Richard Muller. Conversion of a Climate Change Skeptic
- Norman A. Chance China's Urban Villagers; Life in a Beijing Commune Holt 1984
- I can no longer find this info online but my notes from my research listed “UNDP Rom CB-2 TE FINAL 30/Aug12” and I originally was able to find this rather extesive and wonderfully informative document on the UNDP website. Oddly, one of the main ideas for making sure successful endeavors of this nature were continued in Romania was to ensure that these documents would be available online for those who were looking for them. The document said that. And, now I can not find it anywhere for the life of me.
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