Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Panda?

The Chinese account for about ONE IN EVERY FOUR PEOPLE ON THE PLANET, and even their own government's conservative estimates project population growth at one-fourth again by 2030. Add this to the fact that they are short on natural resources (except dirty coal), clean water + arable land (which is being diminished each year due to erosion + construction) and the estimated growth could equate to BIG SHORTAGES in the future.

On top of this, Chinese of average means are now getting a glimpse of the good life and they want their share of it. Living standards therefore have to keep improving for nothing more surely invites social unrest than the dashing of rising expectations. Unrestrained growth can destroy ecosystems on which all economies ultimately depend, but headlong pursuit of wealth is the cornerstone of modern Chinese life. "Americans do not know how urgent our need for economic improvement is - How little our people have compared to what Americans take for granted." stated one man quoted in Earth Odyssey by Mark Hertsgaard (a great book from which I've gathered many of these facts).

Note: Photos have been gathered from the Web as our journey through the southern hinterlands brought us mainly through beautiful countryside and cities, though with populations in the multi-millions, that were very clean. The majority of China's environmental mayhem is being conducted in the big cities with large-scale industrial + manufacturing sectors, but obviously, future shortages and pollution will affect not only the country as a whole but the entire globe. Check Worldwatch's "China Watch" for current news + happenings.

(Photo: The future is looking bright for these optimistic "Beijing 2008 Olympic" mascots. We saw this optimism mirrored on many peoples faces in China where the feeling on the street must be similar to what the 1950's in America was.)

Most Chinese accept the view that economic growth requires environmental damage, and they are quite ready to pay that price. "Americans talk about saving birds + monkeys while there are many Chinese people who still don't have enough food to eat." With our own eyes, we saw that the corpulent Chinese stereotype is not at all true in the South where no one carries any excess weight. On the other hand, a big part of the culture is eating out communally and whether through pride or having enough, we were rarely begged for food. MUCH less than in San Francisco or the other Asian countries we've been traveling in.

China and the U.S. are each responsible for such a large share of global consumption that any international attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, limit oceanic overfishing, or phase out ozone-destroying chemicals simply CAN NOT SUCCEED without their cooperation. The U.S., with 301 million people (each of whom earn an average of $34,500), casts a long environmental shadow largely through it's extravagant consumption patterns - gas guzzling SUV's, an advertising-saturated culture of fast food + throw-away plastic packaging and shopping malls crammed with all sorts of unnecessary junk. China's environmental heft, on the other hand, still derives mainly from the size of it's population (an estimated 1.3 billion). At the moment (1998 estimate), less than 10% of it's population (each of whom earn an average of $5,600) can afford even a pale imitation of American excess (But a pair of Nike's cost $100 here too!), but if incomes keep rising that percentage will increase (as we have seen with our own eyes) and the environmental effects of China's gigantic population could be fearsome to behold.

Coal is an inescapable fact at the center of the Chinese environ- mental crisis, and there is no easy (or even not so easy) remedy. Although China has taken steps to mitigate the damages caused by burning coal, it's options are limited by a scarcity of everything from water to alternative fuels to investment capital (although the latter has recently been changing). Yet China's reliance on coal and it's yearning for economic growth are so entrenched that even their own health experts don't oppose doubling the nations production if attempts are made to reduce negative health effects in order to meet the growing demands. The Chinese are still dying like flies from lung + bronchial disease, just as they have done for centuries, but now it's the coal rather than the cold that is killing them. In effect, they've traded the epidemiology of a peasant society for the new + improved industrial model. The coal that is killing so many is letting them live longer, warmer lives in the meantime. Air pollution in some of the big cities like Beijing, Chongqing, Xi'an + Shengyang are at astronomically high levels and obliterate the sun for weeks, or months, on end. People aren't educated about the effects though, and as with drinking untreated water or eating fish from a polluted river, they say "It's not o.k. for you because you're a foreigner, but I've lived here my entire life and I'm used to it."

This lack of education also extends to smoking, and as one witty traveler we met observed "They smoke here like it's their job!" There are little to no warnings and they start young. Though mostly males, most internet cafe's are packed with teens (or younger) gaming and smoking with barely a break between. You begin to wonder if it's an attempt by the government to ebb the population tide after the one-child law failed so miserably. Better that the people be prosperous and die early than to risk hindering China's goal to rise back to the top. (Photo: Check out this BS! - Special selected tobacco for environment protection)

What is truly discouraging about China's aggressive development is that they're following our lead without heeding our mistakes and current information about environmental degradation. Globally, there's a glamorized ideal about the "American Way" that's being emulated with it's rampant consumerism, waste instead of conservation and auto-centric culture. It is truly unfortunate given that so many other cultures, because of sheer necessity, have HAD to utilize efficient mass transit to move people around. Have HAD to re-use + conserve. But all that's changing with new found wealth. The good + bad news is that while there has recently been a global move towards plastics (where once glass bottles were still re-used in developing countries as when I was a kid... but there is an even MORE discouraging aspect to this), there IS an active community of folks that have opted for recycling as a means of personal income. We've seen it all over Asia - Glass, plastics, cardboard, scrap metal... collected from curbs + trash cans, brought in and sold. Hell, even in our neighborhood in San Francisco, little, old Chinese ladies go around in the early hours taking the recycling from our curbside bins. Not on THIS kind of scale though. (Photo: I haven't seen anything quite like this, but I believe it)

"Americans say that China is the straw that breaks the camel's back on greenhouse gas emissions" commented Zhou Dadi, a self-described insider on China's climate change policies. But we say, "Why don't you take some of the load off the camel first? If the camel belongs to America, fine, we'll walk. But the camel does not belong to America... China will insist on the per capita principle of distributing emissions rights. What else are we supposed to do? Go back to no heat in winter? Impossible. China is not like Africa, you know, some remote place that's never been developed. We used to be the most developed country in the World. Now after many decades of turbulence, civil war, revolution, political instability + other difficulties, we finally have the chance to develop the country again. And we will not lose that chance."

Here's a "link" to the corresponding story.

A recent quote from The Economist (05.29.07) "And don't let's be fooled by all the recent talk that China has embraced capitalism—to the point of allowing that American business icon, Starbucks, to set up shop in the Forbidden City. This is surely a Muhammad Ali-style rope-a-dope move to make the enemy complacent before the decisive blow is struck. This column knows a plot when it sees one. This is China we are talking about—and capitalists, especially Americans, should be afraid, very afraid."