Having the world’s largest population and second-largest economy, China has an e

Question

Having the world’s largest population and second-largest economy, China has an environmental footprint that is unique to other countries. The lifestyles of affluent consumers in China are built upon high levels of consumption and unnecessary waste of resources. Such affluence is based mostly on the assumption—fueled by mass advertising—that buying more things will bring happiness. This type of affluence has an enormous harmful environmental impact. Read the article “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes” and view the video “The Environmental Cost of China’s Growth” Spend some time thinking about how China’s environmental impact may affect its citizens and the world at large. How do you foresee economic growth when you consider the impact that the environment must endure?

Explanation / Answer

No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo.

But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.

Agriculture, meaning food security and safety, are among the most affected economic sectors. Acid rain is a costly by-product of China's air pollution, which can cause crop damage and deforestation and if the problems are not resolved it would start affecting other sectors and according to scientists estimation the next sector affected will be ciggarette production as most of the pollution in china is due to tabacco consumption

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