Dangers to the Environment

Heiry Vesga
University of Texas at El Paso


Dangers to the environment
Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in China. People of Beijing suffer from trying to breathe
clean air, and deal with living in a populated area, but its not just Beijing. Those who
lives in an over populated city tend to have a high risk of pollution. They have to wear
masks and buy air filters to avoid breathing the toxic air. The government started to take
action noticing that the population has grown a lot by 1.3 billion causing increase of
disease and deadly increase of pollution. While theyre trying to solve the problem those
who lives in major polluted city has to face the environmental problem.
History of Beijing
In mid-January 2013 there was a rise of hazardous air pollution. The people of Beijing had to
stay in their homes because the air was so toxic that it didnt matter if your lungs were
healthy or not it wouldve still killed you (NASA (2010, September 22). Beijing order
enterprise to set back their production and for the people not to do outdoor barbecues and
use fireworks. It was one of highest air pollution in history. Normal air quality index is
supposed to be 300, if its higher than 300 its consider hazardous that Beijing and other
cities hospitals had an increase of patients. Beijing air quality was 340 consider to be
dangerous for all humans, its toxin small particle spread two dozen times considering for
it to be safe. The U.S. already been trying to find solution to fix the problem but if
Beijing wants to see a difference on their air quality it comes with sacrifices. Theres
been discoveries what toxic air can do to you, it can cause lung cancer and possibly
blatter cancer (Snyderman, N. (Reporter), & Willliams, B. (Anchor). (2013, October 17).
U.S.A has already cleaned up its act by using greener energy and changing up
somethings that causes air pollution, but china is still on the same problem with over
populated areas, decrease of fresh air, less fresh water, increase of fossil fuel, and to
many chemicals thats causing their environment to go bad and what makes it worse is
that it doesnt stay in china, all its pollution travels down to U.S. Below is Beijing and
Tianjin before being covered by fog and the second picture is a Beijing and Tianjin
covered by white fog which is air pollution.

One of the reasons why china is dealing with huge impacts on their environment because of
theyre to overpopulated. It all started in 1949 when workers and families were paid to
have babies (http://dillhoff8.blogspot.com/2010/05/overpopulation-in-china-and-
india.html). The government realized that the birth rate was going up so they decided to
come up with Later Sparcer Fewer Policy but there were still many people even though
there was a decrease in population but it wasnt enough so in 1979 thats when the
government decided to come up with a new plan The one child policy
(http://dillhoff8.blogspot.com/2010/05/overpopulation-in-china-and-india.html). As of
today theres 1.25 billion people, as birth rate kept rising up there was shortage of food
that resulted to 20,000,000 deaths but it wasnt a big deal since it was a way to handle
over population growth(http://dillhoff8.blogspot.com/2010/05/overpopulation-in-china-
and-india.html). The next reason why is because of fossil fuel. Burning coal is a huge
factor of air pollution and climate change. Coal is one of dirtiest fossil fuel there could
be. Coal mining destroys the ecosystems and releases toxic particles thats release into
gas that goes into our water and air. China launched its main source of energy in the
1980s, the main source of energy has always been coal whether it was electrical power,
rail road transport, or as heating fuel. China was in a shortage of energy the most
important thing in chinas development. (Elspeth, Thomson, The Chinese Coal Industry:
An Economic History (2003) p.178) Leader Deng Xiaoping back in ancient country
launched a reform to economy development the first thing was to increase the energy
supplies. Coal supply started sparking up when the coal industry were under pressure for
high demand of energy, 738.54 million tons of coals were produced nationwide.
Revitalization Plans
China is in rising demands for coal because of economic growth. The government is working on
a plan for a greener energy to reduce CO2 and pollution by switching to boilers fuelled
by cleaner energy which is natural gas instead of burning coal
(www.jica.go.jp/english/publications/reports/annual/2010/pdf/15.pdf). In 2002 JICA
provided an ODA loan for Beijing environmental improvement to target on some areas
like industrialized or residential areas. There was a lot of coal burning facilities near
those areas so the Chinese government introduced Beijing the first natural gas facilities
with the participation from Japan. The best thing about using natural gas is that it can also
trap heat and be reused and while the facility provides energy it can generate hot water
for residential areas. Before Beijing had a total of 128 of burning coal industries but
thanks to natural gas 102 coal burning facilities have been removed reducing 300,000
reduction in coal use and 200,000 ton reduction in CO2 emissions.
Natural gas is not just the only green energy source, there also been discoveries on using
Hydrogen. Scientist suggested using Hydrogen because it replaces all kinds of fossil fuel
energy thats causing the greenhouse effect (Vezirolu, T., & ahin, S. (2008). The
greenhouse is like a shield outside of the atmosphere thats supposed to be absorbing all
kinds of sun radiation and acid rain, thats why fossil fuel should be removed, but it still
havent been removed because the government have trust issues on greener energy source
they think it wont work.
For the overpopulation growth the Chinese government created a one child policy in 1979 and if
they break the law they would be taxed 50% of their income or be punished by loss of
employment or other benefits (Hilali, A.Z China Report 33.1 1997). The other method to
decrease the rise of population was birth control programs and economic changes.
Conclusion
The proposal for cleaner energy its starting to be in action and theres been increase on greener
energys industries but theres still fossil fuel out there. We have to break the fossil fuel
habits in order to live in a healthy environment and live healthy. When we smoke every
day our body starts to get unhealthy the same with our planet we cant expect our
environment to be better the next day. There would be some sacrifices to be made but it
would be for the best. Theres been thousands of people dying because of the air we
breathe and were paying it because we chose modern life over a cleaner environment.



1. Elspeth, Thomson, The Chinese Coal Industry: An Economic History (2003) p.178)
2. Hilali, A.Z China Report 33.1 1997).
http://maps.unomaha.edu/Peterson/geog1000/Sidebar/ChinaPop.html
3. NASA (2010, September 22) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=80152
4. Schmookler, A. (1997, October 6). It's time to break the fossil fuel habit. Christian Science Monitor.
p. 19.

5. Snyderman, N. (Reporter), & Willliams, B. (Anchor). (2013, October 17). Air Pollution
Causes Lung Cancer, WHO Agency Announces. [Television series episode]. NBC
Nightly News. Retrieved from
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse?cuecard=67253

6. Vezirolu, T., & ahin, S. (2008). 21st Centurys energy: Hydrogen energy system. Energy
Conversion & Management, 49(7), 1820-1831. Doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2007.08.015

7. JICA ANNUAL REPORT, 2010 Switching from Coal to Natural Gas, Introducing. High-Efficiency
Cogeneration Facilities (www.jica.go.jp/english/publications/reports/annual/2010/pdf/15.pdf).

8. (http://dillhoff8.blogspot.com/2010/05/overpopulation-in-china-and-india.html).