Air Pollution in China (Research Paper Sample)

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Air Pollution In China
Introduction
Air pollution in China is an intensely urgent distress and for a vital motive. China is facing severe environmental dilemmas that must be confronted in order to prevent extinction of species, destruction of forests, and the encroachment of deserts. The effect of air pollution is not restricted to the environment. This owes to the fact that air pollution also affects the health of the Chinese citizens. The Chinese government lacks sufficient regulations on environmental protection. For example, there have been instances where citizens have been arrested for taking photographs indicating that the Chinese industries emit illegal discharges. These environmental issues are caused by the nation’s rapid economic development. Nonetheless, China has problems of corruption and a tumultuous history that also contributes to the problem of air pollution (Cropper, 59).
China has an extensive network of progressive laws on air pollution. Unfortunately, these regulations are always ignored. The Chinese government has the capacity to restore and safeguard the Country’s natural atmosphere. To achieve this, Chinese leaders must strengthen the agencies tasked with the duty ofsafeguarding the environment. One of these agencies is the judiciary (Feng, 14). That said, this work discusses the air pollution dilemma affecting the Chinese government then proceeds to provide possible solutions to the legal flaws on the Chinese people. It also uses a feasibility analysis to elucidate on the outcomes of air pollution to the Chinese population.
Feasibility Analysis
According to Cooper (64), China’s rapid urbanization and industrialization are accompanied by adverse social costs. More than 50% of the Chinese urban residents are exposed to the yearly average degrees of particulate matter (PM) that is four times more than that of the Americans. Chronic exposure of this magnitude has the capacity of producing long-term effects on the health of the Chinese population. Some of the health effects that can result from air pollution include premature immortality, heart diseases, and respiratory illness. In fact, a study by World Bank revealed that 350,000 Chinese lives were lost because of air pollution in 2003. The study also revealed that air pollution resulted to 250,000 new conditions of Chronic Brochitis. Table 1 below gives a summary of the feasibility analysis of the estimated benefits of controlling the quality of air in China.
Table 1


Table 1 above provides the net difference in welfare levels and consumption involving he simulation results of policy and historical scenarios. The comparison of the table establishes the benefits that the Chinese citizens would have enjoyed. One should note that these benefits would have been enjoyed only if the Chinese government had executed the air quality control regulations. In addition, one should also note that the analysis in the table does not consider the costs of implementing the air control regulations. According to Matus et al., the benefits of controlling the quality of air between 1975 and 2005 are estimated to be between US$ 47 billion and US$ 13 billion. This represents a percentage of 5 to 19% (Goelz, 119).
Three primary variables influence the trend depicted by table 1 above. The first factor is the historical and policy scenarios, which declined with time. Another factor that affects the trend is the progressive growth of the Chinese urban population. Ultimately, the last variable that influenced the declining trend is labor productivity growth. In addition, the benefit reaped from air quality control is estimated to have increased from US$18 billion to US$ 80 billion. This establishes that there is a decrease from 12% to 4% between 1975 and 2005(Goelz, 129).
Regulatory Flaws in the Chinese Government
Various traditional approaches of government have prevented a successful regulation of the quality of air in China. The Chinese policies, institutions, and attitudes are still rooted in traditional philosophies such as Taoism and Confucianism. The Confucianism philosophy argues that a man’s need comes prior to environmental conservation. As a result, the nation’s problem of air pollution persists because of the Chinese aggressive nature in pursuing economic development. Another flaw in the regulations of the Chinese government is the magnitude ofthe corruption. Local business and political interests often oppose the regulations governing the quality of air. This owes to the fact that the economic implications of executing the air quality regulations are high. As a result, local and provincial governments that are responsible for implementing national policy disobey the central government regulations. Powerful individuals in the local governments often receive bribes from businesspersons in order to ignore national policies and regulations. The judiciary has minimal authority to enforce the national policy on air pollution because the judiciary depends on local governments for funding. Evidently, the lower governments in China play a major role in air pollution.
One has to note that China has a number of environmental laws, which have failed to address the problem of air pollution in the country. The National People’s Congress enacted about twenty statutes for environmental control. Evidently, the Chinese government has passed a plethora of policies, laws, and regulations on air pollution. Unfortunately, Chinese environmental lawyers have asserted that barely 10% of the air control regulations are truly enforced. This owes to the reality that the laws that govern the air quality control are structured in a vague language. The laws have been drafted in a way that hinders the local governments from enforcing the national government's directives. This owes to the fact that these regulations can be interpreted with extreme lenity; thus, promoting air pollution. In fact, some philosophers have argued that theselaws have been intentionally designed using a vague language. The same philosophers further argue that the laws are meant to communicate to the international community that China desires to control air pollution while providing room to promote air pollution.
Solution to the Regulatory Flaws
The best available solution to this menace of air pollutions is the introduction of a specialized court that would solve China’s legal flaws. The Chinese government must exploit her capacity to develop specialized courts aimed at dealing with the dilemma of air pollution. While developing such courts, the Chinese government should emulate the New Zealand Environmental Courts (NZEC). This owes to the fact that NZEC developed a court systemcomprising of informed and well-trained judges on the topic of air pollution. Similarly, the Chinese government should cease from hiring the skills of underqualified professionals in order to achieve their mission of thwarting air pollution (Natural Resources Defense Council, 37).
By adopting the option of hiring qualified personnel, China will focus its mission on tackling the problem under discussion. Furthermore, NZEC has achieved tremendous milestones in controlling air pollution. Consequently, if China develops independent courts with well-trained talents then the problem of air pollution in China will become history. Nonetheless, one should note that NZEC operated in a relatively smaller region than China. As a result, the Chinese government has a duty of developing several courts to compensate for her vast size and population. To sum up, this is the best alternative available to the Chinese government because this structure has already been tested. As mentioned before, this system was successful in New Zealand. That said, if proper emulation is accomplished, then the problem willbe solved efficiently.
Progress Made on the Solution
This section discusses the relevantprogress made on the proposed solution by stating when the solution was introduced and the current stage of implementing the solution. To begin with, the solution was introduced in September 2003. This is supported by the fact that The Environmental Assessment (EIA) Law was introduced in September 2003 (World Bank, 97). The EIA Law gave The State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) powers to control air pollution on a large scale. This was aimed at controlling air pollution by giving powers to a centralized government agency. Since its introduction, positive progress has been made to curb the issue of air pollution.For instance, Beijing recently announced about the preliminary stages of creating a Ministry of Health (MOH) from the remains of SEPA. In addition, both SEPA and MOH pledged to create a group tasked with a duty of controlling air pollution. This announcement was made in February 2007. Evidently, the Chinese government is implementing measures aimed at decentralizing powers from the local authorities. This is supported by the progress such as the formation of MOH. In addition, 18 government agencies signed a national action plan for the period between 2007 and 2015 (Italian Trade Commission, 51).
Supporters and Opposes of the Solution
The solution of improving on the Chinese legal structure has both supporters and opposers. As mentioned earlier, the local authorities are backtracking the central government efforts to tackle the problem of air pollution. This makes them the key, and only opposes to the proposed legal solution. Nonetheless, a number of bodies support the solution. To begin with, the fact that the central government is making progress towards decentralizing powers of the local authorities displays that the central government is supporting the solution. In fact, 18 additional government agencies are also supporting the solution. According to Freeman & LU (78), 18 governm...