Environment research essay 750 words 12 hrs
Environment research essay 750 words 12 hrs
Topic is relationship between environment and health in China. U have to follow the ppt to write the essay and add some research and resources.
Attachments
China’s Development Model
Consequences for the Environment and Health
Outline of the lecture
China’s development model: changing goals and priorities (economic growth and globalisation)
The consequences of structural reform on the environment and the provision of public services (health care)
Reconciling economic growth with sustainability and the right to health
Development as a Value System
Competing developing models throughout the 20th Century (achieve different forms of modernity):
Capitalism and Western liberal democracy and Communism
Collapse of the USSR and China’s adoption of a market economy: the end of history?
Does China offer a new model of development?
Fukuyama (1989) All viable alternatives to Western liberal democracy have failed.
Capitalism is ultimately the only viable economic system in the modern world and all states must ultimately adopt free market capitalism.
All human societies, regardless of their cultural or historical make-up, are inevitably drawn into a global consumer culture.
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The Implications of Development & Economic Growth
Development (with economic growth at its core) implies industrialization, urbanization and intensification of resource use
Population growth; increased demand for food, housing, water supply, electricity supply, etc.
Land conversion, loss of biodiversity, pollution, etc.
China’s Rapid Transformation
Rapid urban growth:
1978 – 17% (urban)
2007 – 42% (urban)
2011 – urban population passes the
50% mark for the first time in Chinese history
2030 – 70% (urban)
Since 1978 China’s urban population has grown by about 430 million
Enormous use of resources: infrastructure, housing, services, etc. (China’s second wave of industrialisation)
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China’s Rapid Transformation
Rapid integration with the global economy; China becomes the ‘factory of the world’
China’s population reaps the benefits of economic growth (better living standards)
While developing a taste for conspicuous consumption
Fuelling China’s economic growth
China: largest energy consumer in the world; second oil consumer after the US
Annual energy consumption growth rate:
1980-1999: 4%
2000-2005: 10%
2006-2010: 6.6%
Goal: 4.3% annual growth rate
China is the largest CO2 emitter
Inefficient use of resources: water, electricity, oil, coal
Energy Consumption
Australia is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (30% of China’s imports) and of coal (Australia and Indonesia provide 50% of China’s coal imports); Australia is also the largest exporter of coal in the world
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Environmental Consequences of Economic Growth
China’s Environmental Crisis – The New York Times#
Air pollution: (CO2 & SO2 emissions from coal and fuel)
Water pollution/water scarcity: (industrial and human waste) More than 70% of China’s lakes and rivers are highly polluted
Land erosion and desertification: (climate change, agricultural land conversion, deforestation)
Develop first, clean up later?
Given the emphasis on economic growth, until recently there was little incentive for local officials to protect the environment
Stringent environmental laws – poor enforcement: Fines for polluters tended to be lower than the cost of investing in clean technologies
Local governments allowed industries to pollute if they brought investment and created jobs
Electricity, water and coal prices kept artificially low (to keep production costs low, particularly for export industries)
No incentive to make a more efficient use of these inputs
China – Energy – Regulation – Choking on Growth Part V – The New York Times#story3#story3
China’s early stance on environmental protection
Critics: environmental damage poses major long-term challenges to domestic and global economic growth, social development and health
As a developing country China insisted on its right to grow
China: responsibility for fighting global warming rests primarily with industrialized countries (since they emerged as major economic powers leaving behind a legacy of environmental damage)
Until recently, Chinese officials had argue that rich countries were the main contributors to global warming and environmental degradation, and that therefore they should find a way to solve the environmental problems without impinging on China’s economic development
Developed countries and their MNCs have carried out natural resource exploitation, land acquisition, dirty manufacturing, and have for decades shifted environmental pollution to the developing world
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China: common but differentiated responsibilities
‘Typically, industrial countries deal with green problems when they are rich…we have to deal with them while we are poor. There is no model for us to follow’
(Ren Yong, Chinese climate expert)
Developing nations, particularly those with large populations and limited infrastructure, argue for the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in regards to the environment (Vogler 2008: 363).
Cross-national Environmental Injustice
Approx. 25% – 33% of China’s total national CO2 emissions result from production for export markets
Until 2000 around 70% of the 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste produced globally each year ended up in China
China itself has become a large producer of e-waste
(due to growing domestic consumption and disposal of electronic appliances)
These are
“embodied” emissions
that have largely been “displaced” to China from countries that formerly manufactured but now import these goods.
Guiyu China: e-waste capital of China. Made infamous by a documentary made by a Chinese MA student (Michael Zhao) studying in the US, which traces the “export” of Californian e-waste to China
China put in place in 2000 a law to ban the import of e-waste, though it still comes in blended in other waste material (e.g. metal scraps) Also, e-waste can still be legally imported into Hong Kong and then re-exported to China but without needing a waste import/export permit.
China’s exports of small household appliances accounted for 60 per cent of the global market, with the shares for microwave ovens, air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines standing at 72 per cent, 54 per cent, 27
per cent and 21 per cent, respectively
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Environmental challenges
faced by China
World Bank – Chinese Government joint report (2007)
The combined health and non-health cost of outdoor air and water pollution for China’s economy comes to around $US100 billion a year or about 5.8% of the country’s GDP (e.g. China’s GDP growth rate in 2003 was 10%)
About 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year, mainly from air pollution in large cities
Water pollution: growing levels of cancer and diarrhea
Around 191 million people drink contaminated water, causing around 60,000 premature deaths each year (severe diarrhea, and stomach, liver and bladder cancers)
Water pollution further exacerbates China’s severe water scarcity problems (overall cost of water scarcity- about 1% of GDP)
Large-scale power blackouts (due to boom in heavy industry and manufacturing) (electricity and coal insecurity)
Joint World Bank-Government of China report entitled Cost of Pollution in China – Economic Estimates of Physical Damages. China approached the World Bank in 2003 to develop an estimate of how much environmental air and water pollution costs China – including in human health impact terms. This was triggered by a growing concern on China’s part that its rapid economic growth was carrying a large environmental and human health cost. The World Bank put together a joint Chinese and international expert team that developed a new model to estimate these costs and impacts largely based on China’s unique circumstances. Building on scientific work undertaken in recent years, in particular by China’s Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), but also the Ministries of Health and Water Resources, the research project is the first of its kind in a developing country.
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China’s New Environmental Policies
China realises that it is in its own interest to address environmental degradation (otherwise its exports are doomed and its population cannot tolerate much more environmental degradation)
State investment into alternative forms of energy: China is now the largest producer of green technologies, and the largest investor into renewable energy production and on R&D of green technologies
China’s cities though still polluted are no longer the most polluted in the world
The most polluted city in the world is Ahwaz (Iran) with 373 Particulate matter per cubic meter; in contrast Lanzhou (China’s most polluted city) had 150 pm/m3 (2009); Beijing 121 pm/m3; LA 25 pm/m3
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Other domestic
pressures
Environmental NGOs were the earliest NGOs to emerge in China (mid-1980s – environmental and social impact of the Three Gorges Dam)
Growing awareness of the damaging effects of pollution (e.g. protests against polluting industries)
Largest growing section of the NGO sector in China (alliances between activists and scientists)
9% of reported ‘mass incidents’ in 2012 were related to environmental rights issues
In 2010 there were 700,000 reported complaints related to pollution, polluting industries and environmental disasters. (official statistics 2010 Environmental Statistical Yearbook)
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ENGOs &
Broader Political Reform
‘Greening of the Country’: monitor and protect the environment; but keeping the work of ENGOs localized and fragmented
Attempts to co-opt NGOs: funding pressures faced by NGOs; need for personal connections with the local Party-state to influence policy
ENGOs have nonetheless played a crucial role in fostering local activism in community issues
Anti-PX plant cases in
Dalian, Kunming and
Maoming
PX – paraxylene, used in the manufacturing of plastics and polyester. Latest protest in Maoming, Guangdong (March 2014). New PX plant is being proposed to feed from the local refinery plant run by the local government and Sinopec http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/guangdongs-environmental-protests-turn-violent/
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Health in Reform China
China’s development strategy has affected health provision and outcomes in several ways:
Market incentives: Health – from public to private good
Demographic composition: family planning and population ageing (higher incidence of chronic disease)
Changing lifestyles: different health care needs; higher demand for health services
Internal migration (challenges to how health services are provided)
Rising health problems due to pollution
Health Care Provision
in Maoist China
Medical services provided by urban work units (danwei) (included free health care for dependants)
Rural communes ran a cooperative medical system staffed by ‘bare foot’ doctors (emphasis on preventive care)
Over 95% of the population had access to basic medical care
1979: while China’s per capita GDP remained one of the lowest in the world (alongside countries such as Malawi and Burundi), China’s life expectancy (68 years) ranked near that of middle income countries
Market incentives in health care provision
Reduction of government funding for public hospitals
Dismantling of the ‘iron rice bowl system’: SOEs wanting to reduce the burden of workers’ benefits (pension and medical expenses in particular)
Introduction of market incentives to make the sector more efficient: move towards a fee-for-service model
Public hospitals acting as for-profit entities
Incentives for doctors to over prescribe and to require expensive tests and treatments
Urban health care provision
By the late 1990s less than 40% of the urban population had any medical insurance
Medical expenditures one of people’s main concerns
People resent medical personnel for unethical behavior (refusing care to those who can’t pay; over prescription; malpractice; demanding ‘hong bao’; getting quick backs from pharmaceutical companies)
Basic medical insurance schemes put in place since 1998 (employees and urban residents)
Rural migrant workers not
covered
Health care in rural areas
With the dismantling of the communes in the early 1980s so too the rural Cooperative Medical System (RCMS) is dismantled
Village clinics privatized: the rural population has to pay for all medical care out of their own pocket
By the mid-1990s medical expenses (from catastrophic illness) became one of the main causes of poverty in rural China
After various pilot experiments in 2003 the RCMS is reinstated with Central government support
Health Consequences of Population Policy & Demographic Change
Population Policy
Gender imbalance (117:100) and changing population pyramid (less young people, more elderly)
2010 – 8% over 65; projection 2030 – 20%
Problem of care for the elderly
Epidemiological transition
Higher incidence of chronic disease and obesity; higher demand for medical services and pharmaceuticals
Population mobility
Rural migrant workers not covered in the cities; rural medical facilities of lesser quality
Around 16 million children are born in China every year (2010)
China’s over 65s:
1980 – 5%, 2010 – 8%, 2030 – 20%
Japan
1980 – 9%, 2010 – 23%, 2030 – 32%
Korea
1980 – 4%, 2010 – 12%, 2030 – 21%
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Other pressures on the health system
SARS and HIV/AIDS epidemics
Perverse relationship between poverty and disease (e.g. blood contamination case)
Malpractice sees hundreds of thousands of donor infected with hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases
MoH establishes blood banks where people can sell their blood; red blood cells separated, blood pooled together, injected back into patients
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Concluding summary
1980s-1990s China’s reform process prioritised market competition and economic growth over the environment and the provision of social services (health)
Pollution and its health effects pose an important economic and human cost
Raising income inequalities and the commodification of health services meant only those who could pay can access medical care
China is now prioritising clean energy and environmental conservation and is gradually building social safety nets for its population
Will we see a qualitative change in China’s development model?
Towards the environment, social safety nets
and public delivery
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