Chinese Environmental Activists

By Anonymous -

Chinese Environmental Activists

 By Sameer Mehta

China's swift industrialization has created lots of pollution which has worsened the environment. In fact, 2/3 of the most polluted major cities are in China.  The pollution in the air they breathe is hazardous to their health and the water they drink is contaminated.  400,000 people are dying from sulfur dioxide, a toxic chemical made when sulfur is burned.  China has become the world leader in environmental problems and it needs to respond to these problems.  They just can't let hundreds of thousands of people die due to bad environmental policies.  They should not worry only about economic growth at the expense of people's health.  China's first priority should be to act up and save people's lives and not try to make more factories that create more pollution.

Beijing air on a day after rain (left) and a rainless day (right)
Beijing air after rain (left) Beijing day without any rain (right)


The Chinese people themselves are actually trying to help the environment.  They want to have a life without environmental problems and are taking some steps towards that end.  In May 2007, students and professors from Xiamen University sent a million text messages to Chinese citizens asking them to protest the $1.4 billion petrochemical plant that was going to be built nearby.  On June 2007, from 7,000 to 20,000 people came to protest.  This shows that the Chinese people want to take action even if the Chinese government doesn't want to respond.

 In 1994, China didn't have any non-governmental environmental organizations.  In 2005, they had over 2,000 such organizations.  Think about how many they may have now!

 In Dalian, a city in northwest China, a doctor was worried that the mercury in batteries was leaking in the soil.  She took matters in her own hands and got the local stores to take the batteries for recycling which prevented people from getting sick from mercury poisoning.

 Even though the Chinese government isn't concerned enough to take action to help the environment, its a very good thing that the Chinese people themselves are making theo effort to help the environment.  They are protesting and are creating organizations to promote environmental awareness.  The Chinese activists are trying to help the environment and they are succeeding.

Sources : http://www.climate.org/topics/international-action/chinese-environmental-action.html

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