By the mid 2010s, a nationwide environmental protests movement which was largely middle-class, urban and well connected had emerged in China while the increasingly visible inequalities’ between china’s rich and poor challenged the “dirty and unequal” growth of China. The number of major environmental protests in China grew by 120 per cent from 2010 to 2011, according to Yang Chaofei, vice-chairman of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences. rotests throughout the weekend in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, were successful in stopping plans to expand a local plant producing the toxic chemical paraxylene, or PX. Protests defeated PX plants in Xiamen and Dalian in 2007 and 2011, respectively. In response, China’s leaders started taking series of fundamental reforms directing to balance environmental sustainability and social stability maintaining the economic growth. The government’s new policy is targeting new and green developments, with incentives for private financers to also pursue such opportunities and practices through green growth and clean technology funds especially in the polluter industries. According to World Economic Forum’s economic analysis for China, “Under the banner of “ green and inclusive economic growth”, China’s government introduced a series of ambitious measures to close the loop of production processes, implementing stricter environmental regulations and supply chain requirements for firms.“ This essay discusses the Chinese rare earth industry and its tie and relation with environmental pollution, green technology and green economy.
Rare earth mining polluting the environment but enable green technology:
Undoubtedly, Chinese mining particularly in rare earth mining is supporting the new Chinese aim towa...
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...tion is that building a sustainable future requires using approaches and processes that are sustainable in practice as well. To achieve that goal, likewise said in the Tim Jackson’s “Transitioning to the Sustainable Economy” piece, the government needs to enhance its administrative efficiency and adopt modern market-based approaches to create a supportive yet stable environment for nourishing the green economy (Jackson). In Jackson’s piece, the availability in the future of more comprehensive and more reliable data will allow for an expansion and deepening of this effort, enabling policymakers and rest of the world’s stakeholders to better understand the options that are available to them in pursuing an effective green transition. Slowly but certainly , China followed by the rest of the world is and will transition to greener and sustainable economy and environment.
With forward movement in society, it is important to consider not just what will propel most toward success, but also what will help to sustain the environment along the way. What may have been considered appropriate decades ago, may no longer be socially acceptable due to the changes observed in both the business world and the environment (Fiske, 2010). Therefore, it is important for organizations thriving in today?s economy to consider how they may capitalize most effectively from their product or service of choice while minimizing or eliminating any damages along the way (Knoke, 2012).
Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2010). In Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy Achieving Sustainability, Twelfth Edition. Pearson Education.
One of China’s best successes has in turn been one of its biggest downfalls. One of the main problems is China’s greatest success which has been its phenomenal economic growth. This is one of the main drivers of the current environmental problems that the country faces. Factories dump pollutants into the air and water. It is difficult to see the Chinese government making the significant sacrifices required to improve their environment if it means slowing down their economic growth.
Generational conflicts, political strife, environmental regulations, stakeholders in big oil, and many more hurdles affect the push to fully sustainable economies around the world and even here in America. In a world where coal, oil, and natural gas are limited, countries are gobbling it all up as fast as they can before other poorer countries come on the grid. Even though America and other countries gobble up these resources the life of the people is still a struggle to meet basic needs. Sustainability is an intermingling of resource use and protection of the “quality of life”, it is met by using resources sparingly and by recycling or reducing the use of other non-renewable resources to provide for our immediate need, but also to conserve and protect the needs of the next generation and to improve the quality of all the lives to come.
Since the dawn of civilization, pre-historic societies have practiced the technique of mining in order to obtain minerals from the earth that could be used for the production of weapons, ornamentation, and building of structures. As society has progressed in technology and the many uses of Earth’s resources are continually developing, mining still plays a major rule in the industry of many countries. By definition, mining is described as the extraction of minerals, precious metals, and other valuable materials from the Earth; in addition, these supplies are things that lack the ability of being produced by agriculture, or artificial manufacturing in laboratories or factories, thus rendering these resources unrenewable. Therefore, a broad definition of mining is the removal of a non-renewable resource from the earth which includes: base metals, uranium, iron, limestone, coal, rock salt, potash, diamonds, precious metal, petroleum, natural gas, and even water. Although the practice of mining is as archaic as the civilizations that first utilized the practice, modern mining greatly differs from the techniques of the past. Because of the advancement of modern technology and a higher demand for these non-renewable resources, present day mining is tremendously more evasive than its prehistoric form and with the vast increase in the world’s population greater amounts of materials are extracted from the earth in comparison to the amounts used by early civilizations.
China’s economy has grown to be the second largest economy in the world, and along with its positive economic growth, they have been branded as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Out of all the fossil fuels available in China, coal is the most abundant and politically secured resources. Coal fired energy plants are easily integrated into existing power systems, which is why the demand for coal has been rising at a staggering rate. Every one to ten weeks, a new coal fired plant is opened up somewhere in China that is capable enough to power all the houses in either Dallas or San Diego. This paper will aim to discuss the reasons as to why China burns so much coal, taking globalization and the economy into account, the environmental and social consequences and the solutions that can be utilized to reduce coal combustion. China’s coal exports have increased nearly threefold in the past three years and China is now the world’s second largest coal exporter after Australia. This has had widespread implications for international coal markets, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. This rapid export growth has been underpinned by significant changes in China’s domestic coal consumption, production and distribution sectors and expansions in coal rail and port capacity. Government support for coal production and exports in some parts of the industry may also have contributed to China’s coal export competitiveness.
China is on the quest to secure massive amounts of energy. This demand for this overall energy is based on the fact that China is the country with the most population on the globe and with a rapidly growing economy. According to Jenkins (2012), over the last 30 years the GDP has increased over 9 percent annually, which makes China the second largest global economy. China has out ranked Germany in becoming the world's number one exporter (Jenkins, 2012). The developments from this growth are an across the board effect on motorization, urbanization, and industrialization which is manifested in the extensive construction of infrastructures and the extreme popularity of automobiles. The results of these factors are energy concerns, both environmental and precautionary, and a rapidly increasing demand for oil, particularly as a fuel for automobiles. Linwei, Feng, Zheng, and Pei (2012) asserts that views on the future oil consumption of China varies with support for oil independence, a steady course of oil reliance, or the suggestion of development of a limited level of substituting alternative fuels. Because of their desperate need for energy, China is pouring monies and labor into the expansion of other countries hoping to secure entrance and access to resources. These opinionated differences are forcing decision makers to evaluate the situation again and continue to study the development and future trends of oil in China. Although China is a coal producing country and has increased its natural gas usage, its need for oil is great, especially since in 2011, the International Energy Agency reports China's oil consumption growth was responsible for 50 percent of the global oil consumption growth. The country is searching for alternati...
Many people with the term sustainability and have the misconception that environmentalism and sustainability portray the same idea. Although the tree metaphor is an example of nature, the government works in a similar way in terms of economy and society, as it does with the environment. All three pillars of sustainability are the foundations to a successful nation. Likewise, the three roots of the tree must balance to continue to preserve and grow. Overall, sustainability is a crucial concept as it governs all the things we need for our survival and nourishing values. It is how we use our already scarce resources to balance the economy, environment, and society effectively and thrive in the growing
China has approximately 20% of the world’s population, which is around 1.3 billion people (Morris, 2009, p. 111). Also, China has become one of the worlds biggest manufacturing countries within 30 years (Fawssett, 2009, p. 27). However, such rapid development has come at a cost, which has created various environmental problems. Coincidentally, China has 16 cities on a list of the 20 worst polluted cities in the world (Fawssett, 2009, p. 15). Therefore, this essay will explain the reasons for China’s environmental problems, then evaluate the claim that the Chinese government and people, are tackling these environmental problems. First, crop farming techniques over the last hundred years, and their consequences will be explained. Followed by, how peoples choice in food has changed over the last hundred years, and how this indirectly affects the environment. Then, how a capitalist economy is linked to agriculture, and finally what the Chinese government and people are doing to tackle these problems.
Rare earth elements allow for the conveniences shared by modern society. It is the critical components that have made the advancements in technology possible. Its versatility expands thought different media that include: renewable energy, geographic information systems, national security, missile guidance, computer technology, hybrid vehicles, plastics, medical technology and more. All population throughout the world use it regardless if they know it or not. The mining and process of rare earths come at a very high price. They are extremely hard to purify and produce hazardous material that is not easily disposed of. Accidents during the mining and processing of rare earths have caused sever and costly environmental contamination and degradation. China has been the only producer of rare earth metals for years and has restricted its exports. This has led to a worldwide shortage and struggle for countries to supply the demand it requires.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
In recent years, business or green business was no longer an option to become an obligation. Companies started to change their mindset and values to develop new environmental proposals, for example launching second ecological lines.
Countries such as China and Japan need to enforce more powerful regulations on the amount of carbon emissions that they produce. China put in regulations just this last year and Japan postponed plans for a national regulations on carbon emissions, bowing to powerful business groups that warned of job losses as they compete against overseas rivals facing fewer emissions regulations. It’s not a good sign that large corporations can control how a nation regulates its environmental safety laws. China is finally planning to regulate their carbon emissions. This is long over due concerting that China ranks as the world’s number one carbon dioxide emitter, thanks in part to the massive amounts of coal the country burns. China currently builds a new coal-fired power plant at a rate of about one every week to ten days. The country’s coal burning levels are nearly on par with the rest of the world combined.
‘Development that meets the needs of the present with the ability for the future generation to meet their own needs.’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) Sustainable development requires three key components: economy, society and environment, sustainable development can be success through striking balance in those factors. These three components are indispensible, they compel to depend on each other. On the other words, we can only gain a decent and energetic environment and society if the economy is strong with a healthy a stable growth rate.
By showing the world the severity of our need for conservation, we will be able to save the earth and get the most out of our resources. We need to fix this problem before it becomes uncontrollable to the point of having no resources to supply our needs. By reducing our consumption of resources, we will be able to become closer to fixing the problem of global warming, high gasoline prices and pesticide filled meats. The outcome of respecting our world and “going green” will better how we live our lives, our communities and the environment. The concept of “going green” is a necessity for the future because “our children deserve cities as beautiful as they are.