Air Pollution In Beijing

Beijing: Land of pollution?

There are several things that will strike you when you visit Beijing aside from the impressive modern architecture and busyness. At the top of that list is the air quality.

Have you ever visited Los Angeles during rush hour? Multiply that by 10 and that's the air quality in Beijing during our visit.

The air is so thick with pollution it's hard to imagine the inhabitants are not at severe risk of lung disease. One student traveling with us studied in Beijing for several years and speaks Mandarin like a native. It was an incredible blessing having him on the tip.

When I mentioned the air quality, he said, "If you think it's bad now, don't come in winter. Coal is the primary fuel used to create heat for China and the air is black with the soot that comes from the coal-fired plants. China is building one new coal plant every week to satisfy its insatiable demand for energy."

The power plants are designed with scrubbers, so we're told, but since it takes so many officials to approve the building of these plants, few of those scrubbers end up in the final design. The money to include the scrubbers ends up, well, unaccounted for.

We have the equivalent of missing funds in the U.S. also, unfortunately, but China is the only way of doing things.

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This means that mercury and methane gas released by coal combustion are freely dispersed in the atmosphere at an alarming rate, soon accelerate. If this does not concern the World Health Organization, I do not know what is expected.

The five-year plan of the Chinese government has presented at a meeting of business leaders recently to reduce carbon emissions by 17 percent is based on the number of base what?A decrease of 17 percent carbon based on current levels will have little impact if these levels are growing exponentially!

Carbon dust

The fog was so thick pollution in Beijing, it was difficult to see two blocks ahead of you. Pollution in Xi'an was even more difficult. It has all the man mingles with the dust pollution of Yellow incredibly fine blowing from the mountains stripped of trees to the north.

The yellow dust is as fine as talc still almost as ubiquitous as oxygen. Dust along the streets and cars as a light dusting of snow. We were told the deforestation of Northern China made the yellow dust omnipresent. When the wind blew, your throat closed and eyes watered. In two days, I developed the worst sinus infection I'd ever known. We heard it was worst in August: you are much more aware of your breathing in the summer months.

In What Ways Can The Air Pollution in Beijing be Related to The ...

In What Ways Can The Air Pollution in Beijing be Related to The Market Economy ?

This essay will explain how air pollution in Beijing relates to the market economy by looking at how one operates. Because ‘modern neoclassical economists… form the dominant mainstream school in economics’ (Himmelweit and Simonetti, 2004, p.86), discussion will be based on the neoclassical model with externalities providing the main focus. Two solutions will then be considered; private or social ownership, and taxation and compensation.It will show how these solutions must operate within the dominant structure is the neoclassical model of a market. Concluding that the environmental degradation in the end, this model has to change.

"A market economy is an economy which has its main way of allocating resources through a market" (Himmelweit and Simonetti, 2004, p.82). These resources can be anything with a financial value. The neoclassical economic model sees operating contracts based on the selfish choices of individual agents (Himmelweit and Simonetti, 2004, p.86). These agents are generally suppliers or consumers with a self-interest of achieving maximum savings or profits (Himmelweit and Simonetti, 2004, p.91). This extra money is called surplus. In a market economy the most efficient producers offer the best price, thus squeezing out less efficient competitors. Consumers then buy at the cheapest rate. These market forces create a pricing mechanism that regulates the economy. Adam Smith referred to this automatic regulator as the ‘invisible hand’ (Himmelweit and Simonetti, 2004, p.86). The efficiency of markets can be seen as environmentally positive because cutting costs could mean cutting waste. However, savings can also be made by having less consideration for social costs like air pollution. These bi-products are called ‘externalities’ (Himmelweit and Simonetti, 2004, p.98). Externalities are generally overlooked by a neoclassical model that only considers financial issues. One of the externalities of Beijing’s market economy is air pollution.

In recent years, China has seen ‘spectacular economic growth’ (Watts, 2005). It has entered the market offering services at cheap prices. This has enticed both consumers and producers. But what are the costs of China’s efficiency? Economic growth allows more Chinese citizens to own cars. In five years the number of cars in Beijing has more than doubled. This has been blamed for the rapid increase in emissions that contribute to air pollution (Watts, 2005). The externality of more cars is higher air pollution. The Guardian article goes on to claim that ‘pollutants in the sky over China have increased by about 50% during the last 10 years’ (Watts, 2005). There are fears that air pollution could quadruple within fifteen years unless the rise in energy consumption and automobile use can be slowed (Watts, 2005). Another sign of economic growth is energy consumption. Energy has a value which is regulated by the market economy however, its externality, air pollution, is not. So how do we force the market economy to take responsibility for its externalities? One option is private or social ownership.

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