China Facing a New Threat: Environmental Pollution

China of the Great Wall, the industrial revolution, the military power, of hyper-technological development, of expansionism in third world countries especially in Africa and South America, of trade wars, of pressures on the Indo-Chinese area, he had not come to terms with his hyper-liberalism that started in deng’s time, catapulting the country from Maoist socialism, which ensured a bowl of rice for all, to the chase held back to more affluent living conditions than the dignified poverty in which the Chinese people had lived years of widespread pre-industrialization.

National emergencies are mainly represented by air pollution and water pollution that has caused China to be violently awakened by a blissful sleep in which only the positive things created by development were seen, putting the negative consequences under the carpet. 

As for air pollution,according to a study published by Berkeley Earth, about 4,000 people a day die in China from diseases that depend on air pollution.

Scientists blame deaths primarily on emissions from coal-fired power plants and in particular the tiny particles known as PM 2.5 that can trigger heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and asthma, and which, according to the Berkeley Earth study, silently kill 1.5 million people a year, the 17th of China’s mortality level.

The Chinese government has taken note of the catastrophic environmental situation by taking decisions that are going in the right direction to try to solve the danger of the air being breathed in.

The price to pay was not low, indeed the systems used by the government were quite drastic. In addition to the closure of all obsolete coal-fired factories,the use of coal and wood for domestic heating in cities has been limited.

In addition, the Chinese government has put significant resources on wind and solar,starting green energy production that will help lower the level of pollutants in the air in the coming years. For the transport sector, the government expects 200,000 electric vehicles on its roads by 2020 and 500 models of cars on the road to be considered polluting.

The reform action of the Chinese government is not exhausting here in fact it is also looking for solutions against desertification and air de-oxygenation by foreseeing the realization of an ambitious planting plan, in fact about 26 billion plants will be planted in the next 10 years.

On the other hand, as regards the water situation,at present, one third of the water resources in the country are not drinkable and 15 is not even usable for irrigation or production, as it is polluted by pesticides, industrial discharges and fertilizers. As a result, fish activity is globally compromised as the catch has a highly dangerous level of pollution for health.

In the light of this problem, the government has been the figure of the water manager, which is not in any case entirely new, in fact this position was born as early as 2007, in the Shanghai area, when a serious environmental incident occurred in Lake Taihu, one of the largest in the country, where there was an invasion of poisonous algae.

About 5 million inhabitants of the city of Wuxi did not have the opportunity to take advantage of the water resources for daily life and that was why the figure of the water manager who had the power to supervise the many authorities was formed, finally dissolving the traffic jam of powers and the decision-making stalemate.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.