China's environment: An economic death sentence
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/28/china-environment-economic-fallout/The Chinese government should put the economic growth and political concern to one side. China needs to concentrate on saving and improving the environment. The article above says that 700,000 people die a year because of the poisonous air. China should try to save its people first. If all the workers die now, China will have no labor force, and they won't earn anything. So, why not try to save the people? China will continue to grow as long as there are human resources. The government should think farther ahead rather than concentrating on getting the benefit in front of them. The government can spend money cleaning up the environment and save the workers. It's true that China will be spending a lot of money on the environment, but it can gain more benefit later on. Workers need to be in good health conditions to work. This issue puts Chinese workers' life on the line. If the government doesn't take action soon, this problem could become a political problem.
I agree with you Thao. China should put their industries on hold and figure out a solution for their environment. If 700,000 people are dying each year because the polution in the air is that bad, they need to solve that problem as soon as possible!
ReplyDeleteChina is an environmental nightmare. Have you seen the towns that have been smothered with trash and had to be abandoned? I'm not sure if China will hop on the green environment movement and clean up. I hope they do though.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I hate to see the pollution and human rights violations that are going on in China you have to look at China's leaders point of view to see why they aren't embracing the green movement. Their population will continue to rise until 2030 so they really aren't worried about the death toll due to pollution. Its sad but to them the growth in their economy is more important than their citizens and this isn't the first time China has neglected citizens. Anyone who took Mrs. Ciemiewicz's class last year would know and if you didn't you should go and ask her because she has some good materials.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, it would take a lot of pollution to kill off the entirety of the Chinese labor force. I don't really see that as being a number one problem. However, the number of people that are dying from the pollution problems is a concern that should be handled. Also another sad truth as Ben mentioned, human rights violations are so common in China already that I don't see any action being taken to solve this problem immediately.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that the environment and political thought are deeply intertwined. How does it look to the Chinese people if their Communist nation suddenly jumps on the Green bandwagon, which is being driven by the Capitalist first-world nations? I think on some level the refusal to keep the environmental impact in-check is symbolic from China, saying to the world what is most important to them. China has one goal, which is to become the world's superpower. I'm guessing that to them, they see the GDP issue as #1, and the environment is somewhere near the bottom of the list.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Thao, what will happen to China's labor force if none of the workers are healthy enough to engage in any actual labor? This is just another case of technology causing more problems than it solves.
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