From Red to Green: China and Pollution

Driving home on the highway after a rain, the sun sets in the rearview mirror casting orange light across the afternoon sky. In the distance you can see the stark outline of the mountains through the window. On the hillsides you imagine a short dusting scrub that makes their flanks look soft. You want to stroke your fingers across the mountian, as you would pet a cat, but of course you cannot. This is how it should be, you think. Most of the time, though, that is not how it is. On summer and fall days expecially it is not the mountains that welcome you home, but an overlying crest of smog, choking your vision until you cannot even see a blur of an outline of the range through the smear. This is the issue that confronts us in the day and age of industry. The steady decline of the state of the environment.

For a long time now, the United States has a had a strange sort of sinking feeling - that it has been losing ground politically, economically, and now environmentally. We are no longer the same world power that we once were. Our economic decline has pulled us down to the normal level of influence, dragging everyone else as well. All, that is, but China. China has grown in all realms of power, becoming the world's manufacturer, and developing itself in terms of preventing pollution. Our fear that China will take over the world with its leaps and bounds in saving the environment, however, are unfounded.

I read an article called "Think Again: Green China" which discussed both China's failures and successes in terms of the environment. Written in response to rumors that China has outdone the U.S. in this field, the story makes the point that although China does have more ambitions and is working harder currently to work against pollution, it has many more problems to fix than we do. If seen in terms of a race track, we are starting many steps ahead of them. China is one of the most polluted countries in the world, the Chinese cities of Linfen and Tianying placing the top two most polluted in the world. Data cited in the article shows that 750,000 chinese people die early due to the poor condition of air, water, and earth. Despite statements that China is surging forward with manufacturing alternative energy sources, such as solar panels or wind turbines, it is also true that 90 percent of those created are traded off. So even if China is creating these sources, it certainly does not benefit from any of them in a big way.

On the other hand, though, is the fact that China's legislation on the subject is much better than ours and most others'. They have the single child law which restricts the population and through it consumption of the country's resources, as well as a law banning plastic bags and resources. The article uses these points to argue that their government system is not conducive to actual change in society. I agree and disagree; although it may take a while for changes to take hold, the fact that these changes are spreading at all is hugely important. Even if not everyone follows these laws, the fact is that most will, and this is enough to make a significant difference. As polluted as they are, this legislation adds greatly to any case that someone might make for China and environmentalism. In any case, it is much more than the United States has done, even with the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen looming. This brings us to the culminating statement of the article; even if China is gaining ground in this "race," we cannot blame them for our own indolence. Power has lulled us into a state of undeserved complacency. Even if it is arrogance and pride, the need to always come out on top, that spurrs us into motion in this situation, it is better than watching in horror as we are bested again. We must do something, if we are to be mollified.

Though this issue is obviously important to the modern world, as an issue of both world power and protecting the earth from the danger that is global warming and pollution, it is more difficult to apply it to what we have learned of European history. In this, I will have to look to the more general political side of the problem. As we have seen in all facets of the French Revolution, it is when a leader stops striving to improve the condition of the state that he or she is overthrown. The people simply become dissatisfied with settling for what has never worked or could be done better. Perhaps, there is something similar to be seen in the power of the United States. If it does not stop speaking and start acting on the issue of the environment, it will lose even more of the power that has long slipped from its grip. Making a difference is not easy, but it is for the best of all. Change is beneficial to a people, as stagnation is not.