Air Pollution Worsens in China
Over the past few years, air quality in China has worsened.
On May 5, 2013, China Daily, a website run by the Chinese government stated, “Most
first-tier cities in China are barely suitable for living due to their poor
ecological environment...”. The air pollution in most of the major cities in
China, such as Beijing, is to the point where emissions and pollutants are
killing people. The air is so thick that visibility is sometimes only about 20
to 50 feet. There have been attempts to reduce the dangerous emissions, such as
in the 1990s when all coal burning plants were pushed out of the city of
Beijing and replaced with natural gas plants. The air pollution is now at a point
at which it needs to be dealt with and the central government cannot do this
alone. You would think that since China is an authoritarian government that
they could force changes to be made, such as the ones in Beijing, but the
smaller provinces of China control the economies inside them. This means they
control the industries that are run within their jurisdiction. The Hebei
province in China, which borders Beijing, is the main source from which the
pollutants are coming. They are much poorer and their regulation on air
pollution is not as tight. Provinces such as the Hebei province ignore policies
given to them from the central government. The industrial provinces and oil
companies in China are just some of the obstacles that have to be overcome in
order to reduce harmful emissions. Since China mainly uses high sulfur fuel, oil
companies would have to spend 800 million dollars for expensive environmental
technology that would potentially reduce emissions by burning cleaner oil. It
is said that China’s emissions are to grow exponentially over the next few
years. The auto sales in China recently passed 20 million. Personally, I think
that this problem should be dealt with immediately. It is harming people every
day and some are losing their lives. Although it will cost a lot of money, the
technology needs to be implemented and the only way this problem is going to be
fixed throughout the country is with cooperation from both the provinces and
the central government of China.
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