Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1.2
Kuznets Curve of China's environment (Source: Xue Jinjun, based on
China Statistical
Yearbook 2011
)
effects of some special measures taken by the central government together with the
problems of concealment and missing statistics. Therefore, the prospect of reducing
environmental pollution is discouraging.
Hu warned that China was the biggest victim of environmental pollution. The
1.3 billion Chinese people are the poorest sufferers of various environmental
pollutions, which especially affects their health. According to statistics from the
International Institute of Applied System Analysis (IIASA), China's national gross
life loss resulting from man-made particle pollution is the highest in the world.
It reached 1.163 billion person-years in 2005, which reduces the average life
expectancy in China by 0.89 years. In 2035 it will reach 1.573 billion person-
years, which would reduce the average life expectancy by 0.245 years if China's
population were 1.462 billion then. What large figures for national life loss and
GDP damage!
In addition, China is one of the countries with the largest area exposed to acid
rain, and billions of Chinese people are victims of air pollution. Coal is the biggest
source of China's air pollution and the biggest killer of people's health. According
to World Bank statistics, China is the country that emits the most sulfur dioxide in
the world. China has 20 of the 30 most pollutant cities in world. As WHO predicted,
China had about 380,000 people who die from air pollution caused by solid fuel
burning (International Energy Agency,
World Energy Outlook 2007: China and
India Insights
). According to a report of the OECD, health loss caused by air
pollution will be equivalent to 13 % of China's GDP until 2020.
As a matter of fact, environmental problems have broken out frequently in recent
years. It's easy to find events on the internet, such as the “Songhua River Pollution
Problem” of 2005, the Sanlu Milk Incident of 2009, the “Cancer Village” in
Guangdong Province reported by CCTV in 2010, the “Harbin Pharmaceutical
