HONG KONG
nike free 2011, April 7 (UPI) -- China's annual State of the Environment report, released in late March, did not paint a promising picture.
With sandstorms blowing in the north, acid rain pouring in the south
Nike Free outlet deutschland, and complaints against pollution from neighboring countries increasing, China has the world wondering if its environment is beyond despair.
As China inches its way toward becoming the world headquarters for industrialization, striking a balance between economic development and sustaining the environment poses a serious challenge. In the last two decades, China's gross domestic product has grown by 8 percent, a record the rest of the world holds in awe. But the dizzying GDP growth has come at an environmentally costly price.
In late March, while the U.N. Environment Program was holding Asia's first Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Seoul, thick yellow dust was blowing into South Korea all the way across the ocean from northern China. How to handle the increasingly menacing sandstorms in China became a key topic at the forum.
Last week, under pressure of complaints from Southeast Asian countries and domestic environmentalists, premier Wen Jiabao ordered a halt to an ambitious hydroelectric dam project on the Nu River in Yunnan Province, which
nike free günstig, if unleashed, could damage the ecosystems in neighboring Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The 13-level Nu River Dam project, comparable in size to the environmentally controversial Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, was planned as a future source of electricity to quench the energy thirst of developments on the east coast.
China has already triggered objections from southern neighbors along the border with Yunnan. Along the Mekong River, which China shares with Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, the water level has dropped to a historic low, affecting the lives of millions living downstream. The Southeast Asia River Network, an environmental group, blames China for building dams upstream on the Mekong River.
These countries have reportedly asked the Chinese government to reconsider the new dam project.
Nationwide, "Mini-hydro dams seem to be the most popular alternative for producing extra electricity," Mei Ng, director of Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong), told United Press International.
Ng, who was the U.N.'s Global 500 laureate in 2000, promotes environmental sustainability for China's development plans. She said all across the mainland, endless pipelines interrupted green belts and countless reservoirs dotted the pristine countryside.
"We've got to stop the concepts of building dams as soon as there is a lack of electricity and digging mines whenever coal is needed," Sheri Xiaoyi Liao, president of Global Village in Beijing, told UPI.
The concerns of Liao and Ng highlight the relationship between developmental needs and the environment in China. Wherever industrial development advances, a clean environment retreats.
As the annual report of the State Environmental Protection Administration revealed, urban air quality in 2003 remained a serious problem, with 42 percent of the cities reaching national air quality standards. Last year, acid rain was a problem in 265 out of 487 cities monitored. In the report's words, "generally speaking, acid rain pollution worsened nationwide."
Industrialization also casts a shadow over the country's water resources. According to the report, 38 percent of the water in the nation's seven major river basins met national water quality standards.
A report by the official Xinhua News Agency on April 2 revealed the "appalling" pollution of the Yellow River. More than 40 percent of what the Chinese call their "Mother River" is more heavily polluted than the worst official level. Pollution of the river, which runs west to east across the nation, costs China nearly $20 billion per year in lost revenues. Offshore, 50 percent of water at monitored points reached nationally acceptable seawater quality standards.
"Over-plowing, overgrazing, over-cutting, over-pumping and over-stripping, China is stretching its ecosystem to the limit," Ng said.
In the countryside, farmers' sole hope rests on drilling deeper wells rather than seeking technical assistance to enhance irrigation efficiency and rainwater harvesting.
Environmental advocates say GDP growth can be a disguise covering long-term damage. Only recently has the Chinese central government pointed out that GDP growth should be viewed with a cooler, more scientific attitude.
While waterway transportation on the Yangtze River is counted in the annual GDP growth, about 100,000 ships navigating the Three Gorges area every year discharge 7 million tons of untreated human waste, 15 million tons of sewage water and 100 million tons of oily wastewater into the river.
Ng said China has offered itself as the dumping ground for cheap products, outdated technology and other countries' discards. Some 80 percent of global electronic waste is shipped to Asia, of which 90 percent ends up in China. Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shangdong and Shanghai are among the favorite destinations.
Pan Yue, China's vice minister for the environment, urged the nation to take a fresh approach to GDP figures. He said environmental protection could generate more economic activity that would contribute to GDP. Cleaning up the Yangtze and the Yellow River, for example, could be billion-dollar projects.
The State Environmental Protection Administration has set as its 2004 goal the task of cleaning up the most polluted areas and the most polluting industries. It hopes to help forge more balanced growth by improving management in environmental control and through tougher enforcement.
President Hu Jintao ordered the agency to seek ways to reduce pollution and clean up the main waterways.
"Cleaning up the environment calls for a thorough change in lifestyle at grassroots level and appropriate government policies," said Liao, whose organization promotes awareness in saving energy and reducing car use.
"It's good that the central government has called for a new and comprehensive look at development rather than just blindly focusing on the growth numbers," said Liao, adding more than goodwill is needed.
Pan Yue, in an article on his agency's Web site, said China has to find a way to industrialize in a way that is technology and labor intensive, economically efficient, low in resource consumption and produces minimal pollution. Environmentalists say there are many areas for exploration. Promoting mass transit in cities could help, and switching from farming to intensive reforestation could bring some relief in the countryside.
In Linan, Zhejing province, bamboo and walnut cultivation has helped to boost farmers' per capita income to a record high of $650. In addition, ecotourism in what is called the Bamboo Kingdom and the neighboring town of Anji lured 2.35 million tourists in 2002, including the film crew for the Oscar-winning movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Ng said that bamboo, a resilient plant and a symbol of China, sets an example and offers a lesson for the country's ecological approach: "Live and let live."
