The CCP is finally starting to address pollution issues via taxes and fines. It will take them some time ….

“The proliferation of factories and cities - all products of China’s spectacular economic boom - is sucking the Yellow River dry. What water remains is being poisoned. From the canal bank, Shen Xuexiang (the article’s “face”) points to another surreal flash of color: blood-red chemical waste gushing from a drainage pipe, turning the water a garish purple. This Canal once teemed with fish and turtles…now its water is too toxic to use even for irrigation.”

In my opinion, the only solution to the pollution situation in China is strict government regulation. Everyone seems to have their eyes set on the next great invention that will come along and fix the problem. There is nothing wrong with this, however, good old wealth-destroying taxes and fines need to force the issue until then. China has blindly pursued industrial growth for three decades, now the government is faced with the environmental costs.

We all heard about China’s efforts to reduce pollution for the Olympics this summer, but it was not an isolated efort. Their long term goals include cutting “the two key pollution measures by 10 percent between 2006 and 2010. Last year marked the first swing downwards for both of them.”

To their credit, they are living with a lot of pollution from industries that create products that are sent to the US, China needs to figure out how they can continue to move forward on implementing technologies that will curb air pollution. In the US we have many businesses in clean air and green industries that contribute to the economy. Maybe China can begin to create business that will help their pollution issues as well.

I found this posting on econbrowser.com:
Posted by: d_rumsfeld at February 14, 2008 10:32 AM
“China today is about equivalent to Los Angeles in the early 1970’s in terms of air pollution. China doesn’t have the excuse of poor topography though. As China gets wealthier, I anticipate many business opportunities to help them clean up their air.”

Then I got to thinking; of course China is the most polluted country in the world. Ever country that gained economic power in history also created a great deal of pollution in the process, but the economic growth that has been seen in China has never happened so quickly in the history of the world. With that said, it can also be known that there has never been this large of an increase in the pollution of a city so quickly.

The main issue with this pollution is the heath of China’s 1,321,851,888 people. Not only is cancer now the leading cause of death, 500,000 million people in the country are not able to drink safe water. There was an estimation that China would overtake the US in the amount of pollution they created by the year 2010. They were able to accomplish that “goal” over two years earlier than expected.

The question now is what does the world and China do about this? Should China consider slowly down their economic growth? No, that doesn’t make any sense. Should the US and other developed countries start financially supporting China to help them transfer to more environmentally friendly ways? No, that doesn’t make too much sense either. China is considered the US’s main competition in many global markets.

I was surprised to find that China is taking the blame for this pollution problem and is taking action in order to improve the situation. They have created goals, with numerical values spelled out, on what they are working towards for lowing the amount of emissions they release and conserving energy. People are also starting to come together and protest illegal coalmines and factories that are highly polluting. Part of the reason that these protests were sparked was relates to the fact that China is a country that values being respected. As the Olympics came to Beijing, China truly wanted to clean up their act.

Even though China is aware of the problems and really wants to take measures to correct it, many of the goals they have set have gone unmet and I was disappointed to read that some Chinese officials believe that the global warming problem should be corrected by the richer countries and that it should not infringe on the development of China.

It’s well known that there is no fix all that is going to make all the pollution disappear, but I believe that as indicated by the number of people who’s health is being affected by it, it is an urgent problem for the country. By educated the people of China of how negative this pollution is for them, they can then see the importance of correcting it as well.

In formation was found in the New York Times article As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html

You are correct. Most of you are too young to remember this, but I can vividly remember turning on the TV news as a kid and seeing rivers that would burn in Ohio and Pennsylvania, because they were so polluted.

This got me to thinking about the questions raised about the US and its history of industrialization and our current situation with China. It’s easy to forget, but I guarantee we had many of the same struggles with pollution in our rise as an industrial strength. The answer is not a simple one, especially when keeping in mind the enormous rise of China’s production capacities.

Currently it is cheaper to pollute than to produce things more “green” in China. Costs are the most important part of the equation for any manufacturing monster. The Chinese government needs to do more than police all of the wrong doings. Incentives for business to be more “green” would be a great start. Although there is much room for advancement, our technology in this area could prove to have the most profound influence on China’s future, while providing great opportunities for American businesses.

The role we play now and the demand we put on Chinese resources has a massive impact on Chinese pollution. We can not simply point the finger and tell the Chinese to clean up their mess. Pollution is the world’s problem and we need to do everything in our power to help combat this problem.

A few ideas behind the cause of China’s pollution problem are attached within the link.
http://www.whiskeyandgunpowder.com/ChinaPollution.html

As for an answer to the pollution not only in China, but also in our own backyard, I couldn’t help but thinking about this article that was assigned to our economics class by Dr. Zambrano. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/business/16view.html?_r=1&ex=1347595200&en=c01f6ef9..&oref=slogin
It does raise a good point in that if a government wants people to do less of something, simply tax them. This may be a great answer especially if the tax revenue is used to offset other taxes so that it is not actually an “added” tax, but rather redirecting taxes towards something adverse.

While this does seem like a great idea and the article mentions that China might buy into to a scheme such as this, I have a hard time believing it. This especially holds true if it would inhibit China’s first priority, a growing GDP. In addition, from Dr. Hodges speech last week, it is evident that the Chinese Government and many industry owners have close ties and mutual obligations. As a result, a tax on emissions might not be so widely supported by government officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/08/26/world/asia/choking_on_growth.html#story3