Worldview / China

410,000 people die yearly as a direct consequence of pollution. Acid rain falls on about three-tenths of the country.

China's economic development has been sterling, but highly reliant on extremely pollutive energy generation. Of the fossil fuels, coal releases the most carbon into the atmosphere when burnt. This can be addressed to some degree by clean coal-firing plants. However, the coal-firing plants in China are primitive and highly inefficient, leading to large amounts of carbon emissions, which in turn contributes to respiratory and heart problems being the leading cause of deaths in China.

Plans are much underway to nip the problems in the bud, especially as the impact of environmental problems continue to hit at the populace, especially the rural poor, whose subsistence is often interwoven with that of the environment's. With this has come about the political will to change, and the government has responded with environmentally-friendly policies.

It offers financial incentives to set-ups who employ green practices, such as tax-cuts. A tax structure which favors the environmentally friendly is expected. Hard-line measures from Beijing are expected, with a vision of a green 2008 Olympics. However, due to the extent and extreme implications of China’s unsustainable practices in the past, major problems are expected to continue well into the 21st century.

Moreover, China has pursued a policy of slowly opening up its markets to the forces of globalization and capitalism. Under this model, it has encouraged a select few to get rich first, then let the effects trickle down to the poor such that everybody’s share of the pie becomes bigger. However, this has caused great income inequality in China, which has led to great strain on the social mechanisms, causing resentment among the Chinese, especially as it is the poor that suffer the most for the rich's riches.