Air Pollution: Inside and Out - China's Environmental Challenge

While all of the issues I mentioned above are related to outside where citizens easily unprotected to anywhere they visit, there is an existence of is air pollution caused indoors as well. By means of indoor, the home you are living in with harmful air particles generated by solid fuels consisted of carbon monoxide (CO), Sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and several other compounds (Bruce, Rogelio & Albalak, 2000. UN Report, 2008 pg. 125-126 and 129). All of those compounds were found in biomass fuels like animal dung, wood, and coal. that lead danger of respiratory health. According to the UN Habitat 2008 (pg. 125-126), “Combustion of wood, for instance, emits 50 times more indoor air pollution than gas from a stove...” this is
All factories in China could require safety regulations by inspectors once per month and ensure safety environment for workers. If factories fail to meet the regulations, people could protest until factory owners met their demands. Qiang Li, Bob Nicksin, and Alan Bao, writers for O’Melveny & Myers LLP online, discusses that their government needs to come up with coal replacements using clean energy. According to the authors’ article, "…China’s State Council released a development plan for cleaner energy under the 12th Five-Year Plan…. aims to increase the proportion of non-fossil fuel and natural gas-based energy, and decrease the share of coal-fired energy.” Their government also needs to improve the regulations for all vehicles. Drivers could be required to have inspections once a year in order to check for emissions standards under the strict rule. According to the authors’ article, “Beijing officials have also stated their intention to remove 180,000 older vehicles from the road, and promote clean energy vehicle…In addition, compressed natural gas (“CNG”) …has fewer particulate emissions than either gasoline or diesel fuels, and is expected to help Beijing reduce its air pollution.” The diesel engine cars could be replaced with hybrid or electric cars or ZEV (Zero Emissions vehicles) in the future. Didi Kirsten Tatlow, a
The population of China continues to rise at an exponential rate because of the prevailing economy. Ironically, China is known as one of the worst polluting cities because of their economic growth. Even though China residents already have been through many air pollutions in the past, citizens were shocked by the recent event. It is time for the Chinese government officials to step up to prevent the unstoppable air pollution by changing China into a “greener” country and saves millions of lives. While the economy is a top priority in China right now, but Beijing citizens have to keep the balance between safety of their lives and fighting against the pollution. Most of all, I learned it is not about the economy helping to keep China thriving. It is about having available solutions and strategies to replace outdated technologies with newer ones that are designed to make China a healthier living environment and positively impact the quality of human