Chinese environmental impacts: 1. Household sizes are decreasing, fewer children per couple, increase in divorce, populating aging and dieing at the same time the number of people living tripled in the same floor area. This trend is creating rapid urbanization. 2. Increase affluence has meant increase demand for beef, lamb, and chicken products. Four fold increase in consumption of milk, eggs, and meat between 1978 and 2001 and increase of waste resulting from 10-20 pounds of plants for one pound of meat. 3. China’s transportation network has grown explosively: 1952-1997, a 108 fold increase in the length of railroads, motor roads, and airline routes; 1980-2001 a 130 fold increase in the number of automobiles and projected increase by a factor of 4 by 2010. China’s economy lurks behind using pollution generating technology. However, I have heard China is very interested in fuel cell technology. Chinese rivers and groundwater sources are declining, due to the industrial and municipal waste water discharges, and agricultural and aquacultural runoffs of fertilizer, pesticides, and manure. 75% of Chinese lakes and almost all the coastal seas are polluted. Blooms of plankton whose toxins are poisonous to fish and other ocean animals have increase 100 percent a year. The Guanting Reservoir in Beijing has become unsuitable for drinking. Only 20% of the domestic water is treated. Many of the cities are experiencing severe shortages of water. 4. China energy efficiency in industrial products is ½ that of the First World: Paper production requires twice as much water; irrigation relies on surface methods responsible for water wastage; ¾ of China’s energy production depends on coal; China’s coal-based production of ammonia, required for fertilizer requires 42 times more water than natural-gas-based ammonia production in the First World. 5. Soil erosion is now effecting 19% of China’s land area. Erosion is especially devastating on the Loess Plateau and increasely on the Yantze River, whose sedimentary discharge is starting to fill the river bottoms inhibiting ship navigation. 6. China problems begin with deforestation trends. China is one of the most forest-poor countries in the world, with only 0.3 acres of forest per person compared to the 1.6 acres world average. Forest cover 16% of Chinese land and the deforestation is a major contributor to soil erosion and floods. The 1998 floods affected 240 million people. China has experienced increasing frequency of droughts, which now affect 30% of its croplands each year. 7. Under way in China are some of the largest development projects: The Three Gorge dam of the Yantze River – the world largest dam, at a cost of $30 billions. (2009 completion date); the South to North Diversion Project (2050) expected to cause water imbalance to the Yantze. 8. Drought is increasing. For 300 AD to 1950, dust storms use to afflict north-western China once every 31 years; from 1950 to 1990, once every 20 months; and since 1990, almost every year. Deforestation has interrupted the rain-producing natural hydrological cycle. Overuse of lakes and wet lands has decreased the water surfaces for evaporation. [Learn More ...]

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