Air pollution in china Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Air pollution in china - Essay Example Indeed, the poor air quality threatens the power of the Chinese Communist Party which derives its authority from its social contract for providing better quality life to the people. The increase in both indoor and outdoor air pollution in China due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and economic growth adversely affects its people’s healthy, ecology and economy, thus the adoption of critical measures to curb the problem. The contributing factor to China’s air pollution is its rapid economic growth, urbanization and industrialization. He, Huo, and Zhang observe the proportion of China’s urban to total population grew from 18% to 31% between 1978 and 1999, this being three times the world’s average during the same period (398). The use of coal as a source of energy has been the main source of anthropogenic air pollution. Even so, Zhang and Smith observe that 60% of the population still lives in rural areas (848). This population uses biomass, which mainly includes crop residues and wood, in simple stoves. Thus, while the urban population heavily depends on coal for energy, the rural population depends on biomass. As such, China faces the problem of both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Despite the improvement in environmental protection requirements that have improved China’s air quality in the past decade as observed by Liu et al., the issue still remains a critical chall enge (281). SO2 and total suspended particulates, TSP, still remain ten times more concentrated in China’s air than recommended by the World Health Organization. Thus, it would be beneficial to understand the sources of this. The indoor air pollution in China is attributed to the rural population’s reliance on biomass as the source of household energy. Zhang and Smith observe that 80% of the energy that the rural households consumed in 2003 was from biomass, that is mainly wood and crop residues