Pollution

Pollution. You’ll experience it first hand in Beijing. Look closely at the blue sky before you leave Springfield, it will appear even clearer when you return from Beijing. (One of the benefits of traveling is you quickly realize there is no place like home.) In the lead up to the Olympics, Beijing undertook extraordinary measures to reduce pollution: shutting down factories, reducing the cars on the road, and even stopping all construction projects. Last year the MBA group was there before many of the measures were in place and the increased work before the shut down may have led to some of the worst pollution days for the year.

China isn’t the first country to go through an industrial expansion where pollution controls take a backseat. St. Louis’s air quality is better today, but the City Air Pollution Control describes the fall of 1939 – “Day turned into night by pollutants trapped by inversion.” In general, US cities have spent time and money cleaning up the industrial pollution residuals from earlier decades.

In China the problem seems to be intensified by the rapid pace of expansion and because China has been the dumping ground, allowing other countries to clean up. At the national level the Chinese government purports to be concerned about environmental issues. In the most recent Five Year plan for FDI doesn’t allow incentives for industries with excessive pollution (China Law Blog). The national plan is often not followed at the local level. Local government officials want development and will sometimes look the other way to obtain investment. The economic slowdown will reduce the restrictions and incentives for pollution controls.

An interesting article from the Asia Pacific New York Times provides a good overview of the current environmental challenges China faces - Choking on Growth. Additionally, a story last fall on 60 Minutes about electronic recycling or should we say electronic dumping was shocking. Here is a link to the story on the CBS website - The Electronic Wasteland.

China's pollution impacts the world. However, can the world use China for a dumping ground and then complain about the pollution that leaks out? What responsibility do we have in helping to correct the problems?