IS CHINAS CULTURE AN OBSTACLE TO BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE?
By
Jean Faullimmel
Background
Another environmental mission to China in June 2014 to promote Environmental Education in the Province of Sichuan made me realize more than ever, the enormous difficulties the country has to implement proper environmental standards and having them reinforced. In spite of the great efforts made by the Chinese government pollution, whether air, water or soil, do not seem to be abating. But why? Is it cultural, does it lack scientific rigor to implement better standards, or is the country confronted by too many special interests?
In Europe, between the 1960-90s rivers were severely polluted. Along the river Rhine from Switzerland to France, Germany and the Netherlands, stretches the major European industrial complex. During that time poor environmental legislation and chemical accidents degraded the rivers ecosystem. For example the 1986 Sandoz incident near Basel, Switzerland, sent tons of toxic chemicals into the Rhine turning it red. The river Rhine became a chemical dump to a point where the fish population almost disappeared.
In view of the severe contamination of this ecosystem at that time, important environmental and safety legislation was implemented. This new legislation helped the Rhine ecosystem to recover from the damage done by human activities. This was possible for several reasons: (a) better environmental legislation and reinforcement of it, (2) the implementation of the environmental management system ISO 14001, (3) an accurate analytical database of industrial pollutants, 4) the rule of law, and (5) financial incentives from governments to invest in green technologies. The question to be addressed here is whether developing countries that face the same issues as Europe did, can use the same approach to help damaged ecosystems to restore their original health?
The Chinese environmental context
Since the economic reform and the opening of foreign investment by Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, Chinas economy grew at a GDP pace of around 10% for the last 25 years. The country focused only on economic development. It has helped millions of people to come out of poverty, but resulted in severe environmental side effects that affects China today. China because of its size, huge population and being the worlds manufacturing hub, the 2 country can also alter the climate worldwide due to increasing greenhouse gases, and the oceans aquatic ecosystems as well due to severe water pollution. The industrial revolution neglected for too long environmental development. Sustainable Development states that both developments go together and at the same pace. Today China has important and urgent pollution issues to solve. Once pollution has reached the environment, its negative impact such as groundwater contamination, can only been seen over a period of several years. When overall pollution lowers the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we used for farming, and the food we eat, the populations health deteriorates.
As pollution has no border, local pollution becomes global through winds and ocean currents. External pressure rather than internal pressure has made China aware of the urgency of the issues. Is it already too late, or does nature and its ecosystems still have time to recover from the serious damage inflicted on them? Today, in terms of pollution, the country sees only the tip of the iceberg, that is, the 10% seen as water, land and air pollution. The greatest environmental challenges the government is facing is that it must also focus on pollution that is not seen. Groundwater, a major natural source for drinking water, if one of them. If water and land remediation is carried out too late, future generations of Chinese will see the pollution impact of the remaining 90% when their health is reflected in increasing medical bills, and when they have to pay the heavy cost of decontamination.
Today we do not know whether the pollution in the country decreases or increases with respect to, for example, 2000, since the country do not have a complete and accurate pollutant inventory. Only such document helps to see the evolution of pollution over the years. Provided the yearly analytical data are complete and not falsified, they tell us whether or not the country improves its environmental performance. Without pollutant data, it is impossible to set up objectives and targets on what is significant and where investment should go. To do so an accurate reference point is needed.
The cultural impact,
Todays Chinese thinking derives from Tao, Buddhist and Confucius philosophies. Having been many times in China and worked with the people, Im always struck by their tolerance, their kindness and their hospitality. Yet Im wondering whether too much tolerance in not in the way to better environmental performance. For example, when you drive on a highway, very few people respect the driving code, and you wonder how they obtained their driving license. Or if you are in a hotel elevator, men continue to smoke even though there is a non-smocking sign in front of them. In both cases even if people do not comply to the law, it does not seem to bother anybody. 3 It is an accepted way of life.
In the same way, when it comes to environmental standards, not complying to the legislation was a normal in some places. I remember a chief engineer in a dyeing factory telling me that they have to pump water from the aquifer as deep as 100m because the water above is contaminated. The same factory used coal to in their furnace to make steam, but the air emission coming out of the smokestack was black. Sulfur dioxide was the only standard to comply to. Yet there was seldom a quantitative analysis done, and there was no yearly inventory on how much sulfur dioxide the factory released into the atmosphere. But what about a standard for the black particulates that have also a serious health impact on the population? There was no standard for it and no filtration system to retain the back particulates. Regarding the sulfur dioxide standard, it was not respected and every factory in the area did the same. It was an accepted fact and there was no reinforcement of the standard either.
There exists the Environmental Management system ISO 14001 to help companies to handle their chemical waste and how to reduce it. Chinese companies usually only get their accreditation when they want to export their products. I worked in ISO accredited companies but wondered how they passed the test. It was of poor environmental management quality and incomplete compared to European accreditation procedures. A European auditor would never give the ISO accreditation in such case. Perhaps corruption was also involved in the certification process. Corruption generates also pollution when the rule of law is not respected. And certainly the need for more company profits may also push its upper management to ignore the legislation, and/or pay off governmental officials to stay quiet. The cultural background has a lot to do with such tolerance and behavior, and corruption is a way of life in developing countries.
Collaboration between Governmental agencies and the private sector
I have witnessed a serious lack of cooperation between governmental environmental agencies and the private sector. The former dictates the latter about what to do without really understanding the context of the industry, and industries, afraid of being penalized, hide the reality of their environmental performance. But there is also a social issue involved. If the plant is told to close down because it cannot comply to the law, a lot of people may have to be send home. Both unemployment and severe pollution could lead to social unrest.
Usually old companies are the greatest polluters, but they are not financially strong enough to invest in green technology and thus need financial help. Government and the private sector must work together to develop mutual trust, understand each other and find a compromise about the actions to be taken, its dateline, and whether the government can give financial incentives for new technology allowing the plant to comply to the law. If the government does not help, pollution continues. If the rate of pollution is faster than the rate of pollution control and prevention, then the contamination of the land, water and the atmosphere will continue to increase.
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Environmental Education and Environmental Information
When a country is seriously polluted and when the health of a whole nation is at stake, environmental education and environmental information is a necessity. It concerns all levels of society. It must help the population to develop a deeper understanding of the issues, and help individuals to change their attitude and behavior toward the environment and their relation to it.
What is their difference? Environmental information provides (a) facts or opinions about the issues, (b) it does not teach individuals critical-thinking, (c) does not help them in problem solving and decision making, and (d) may advocate a particular viewpoint.
On the other hand, Environmental education can be divided into different components: (a) Awareness and sensitivity, (b) knowledge and understanding, (c) attitudes, and (d) participation. Environmental education does not advocate a particular viewpoint or course of action. It teaches individuals how to weigh various sides of an issue through critical thinking and enhances their own problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Such education can start in Primary School, then Secondary School, followed by High School, and finally the university. But the public also needs to be educated, especially those who do not have the chance to go to school, and those who are being affected by pollution. Humans have the power and knowledge to choose what sort of environment they want to live in. The GDP may be high, but it does not reflect the quality of life of the population. If neglected, pollution issues can become a source of social instability in the country.
It is understandable that the old generation of Chinese has difficulties to adapt to the fast pace of change taking place in recent years. Old habits, or the old way of doing things, 5 are difficult to change. But it is the younger generation of Chinese, the future of the country, who must be educated most to develop environmental awareness to understand the impact of pollution on their wellbeing and their relation to the environment. At a young age, proper attitudes and the respect for the environment are easier to accept. Education is the first step for change. Understanding the consequences of a situation if no action is taken is better than ignoring it. Waiting for the problem to be solved on its own with time is not a solution either. Only environmental awareness can change such attitude
Conclusion
The question we have to address is whether the Western definition of Environmental Education can be applied in China as its culture and political system are different? To answer this question, we must understand Chemistry. Regardless of culture the fundamentals of chemistry are the same around the world and even in the universe: molecules are made of atoms, atoms are made of electrons and protons. Some chemicals are toxic while others are not. It is the toxic chemicals that harm our health and contaminate our environment and consequently harm the wellbeing of the population.
The same impact of toxic chemicals is true in China as well as in Europe. The critical concentration of a toxic compound in air and water that harms a person is the same. Also, the health of the world population has the same value worldwide. So regardless of culture and political systems, the same approach to protect the environment and human health should be taken and carried out with the same scientific rigor. Science is neutral, it does not belong to a religion, a system, special interests or a specific culture. It is not chemistry that is to blame if people become sick and ecosystems destroyed, it is rather man who is the culprit because of the way he misuses chemistry. This awareness gives Environmental Education its real importance.