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Introduction
China made a great leap forward. Within only a quarter of a century, the originally rural economy shaped country has changed into
an industrial giant. Since the 1980s, one widely describes these changes as an "economic miracle". Between 1980 and 1995,
the average annual growth of the Gross National Product (GNP) was 9,4 per cent. With a GNP amounting to US$ 696 billion, in
1995 China ranked as the country with the eighth largest economy of the world. The average annual growth of per capita GNP
approached 8 per cent in the last few years. For many people in China watching television, possessing a washing machine and
even driving a car now are part of their everyday life. And in recent days, the first step has been done for China's admission to the
World Trade Organisation (WTO). As a result, China should not be considered as a developing country any more.
Nevertheless there are losers in the "miraculous" economic growth. One of the main losers is definitely the environment. In terms
of healthy, clean and stable natural surroundings, China made a great leap backwards: breathing has turned into a risk for
human health, fresh water has become scarce, forests are shrinking, deserts are expanding and wildlife is threatened with
extinction.
In order to make people aware of China's outrageous environmental situation, the following presentation aims to lay open some
main ecological problems of the country, namely: air pollution, water contamination, land degradation and loss of biodiversity.
Air Pollution
Out of the ten worst air-polluted cities in the world, six are situated in China. These six are Beijing, Guangzhou, Lanzhou,
Shanghai, Shenyang and Xi'an. Some experts even locate eight of the world's ten most polluted cities in China (adding Huhhot
and Chongqing to the former).
In general, air is considered polluted when it contains large quantities of components that are bad for people's health. Those
components (hereafter referred to as total suspended particulates) include smoke, soot, dust and liquid droplets from
combustion. Other air pollutants are toxic chemicals like sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). SO2 is produced when
fossil fuels containing sulfur are burned. NO2 is a poisonous, pungent gas formed when nitric oxide combines with
hydrocarbons and sunlight, producing a photochemical reaction. These activities occur in both natural and anthropogenic
activities. NO2 is emitted by bacteria, nitrogenous fertilisers, aerobic decomposition of organic matter in oceans and soils,
combustion of fuels and biomass, motor vehicles and industrial activities.
According to air quality standards fixed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), air is defined as polluted if it holds more than 90
micrograms of total suspended particulates per cubic meter, more than 50 micrograms of SO2 and/or more than 50 micrograms
of NO2. A 1995 survey showed that the air quality of most cities in southern China generally exceeded more than three times the
fixed standards for total suspended particulates, while the air over northern Chinese cities even surpassed the limits by four to
five times. Air in Beijing, for instance, typically held 377 micrograms per cubic meter for total suspended particulates (90
micrograms for SO2, 122 micrograms for NO2), in Lanzhou it contained 732 micrograms per cubic meter for total suspended
particulates (102 micrograms for SO2, 104 micrograms for NO2) and in Guangzhou it held 295 micrograms per cubic meter for
total suspended particulates (57 micrograms for SO2, 136 micrograms for NO2).
Closely related to polluted air is acid rain. Its harmful drops retaining significant amounts of SO2 are said to fall down over almost
half the country. Acid rain damages trees, crops and agricultural land and can have a long-term serious impact on plants,
animals and human beings. In many Chinese provinces, whole crops die because of polluted rain. In Gansu province, the core of
radishes and cabbages are said to turn black. In Chongqing (Sichuan province), due to acid rain damage, tree corridors along
some streets have been replanted three times during the last three decades, each time with a different tree species, but all trees
have perished. In Xi'an (Shaanxi province) the famous terracotta warriors have suffered serious oxidation for the same reason.
The acid rain phenomenon is mainly brought about by the use of coal fuel which supplies up to 76 per cent of China's energy
needs (the world average is 27 per cent). The problem is even predicted to worsen as China, being already the biggest coal
consumer in the world, is expected to increase its annual coal-fuelling rate by the year 2000. (In 2000 the annual rate of burned
coal could climb to about 1.5 billion tons, compared to 1.3 billion tons in 1995.) Burning of coal is directly responsible for SO2
emissions (in China about 90 per cent of the total SO2 emissions actually come from coal fuelling), and is therefore accountable
for acid rain and air pollution.
According to a recent article published in the German magazine Der Spiegel (The Mirror), coal in China is not only burned in
plants, but enormous quantities of this fuel material already caught fire in mines and have been glowing for years. The carbon
dioxide (CO2) thereby produced annually amounts up to 200 million tons, which corresponds to four times the total CO2 emitted
by car traffic in Germany. Experts consider such smouldering coal fires in China, causing serious air pollution, to be one of the
largest ecological catastrophes in the world. Large areas of farmland, freshwater supplies and forests are damaged; in addition
these smoldering fires have injurious impact on humans' health.
Apart from coal burning, low technical standards of plants and the complete lack of filters are also responsible for air pollution in
China. These mostly old, state-owned factories together generate more than 80 per cent of all toxic industrial emissions. For
instance the Beijing Steel Mill alone causes more than 50 per cent of Beijing's SO2 and 60 per cent of its NO2 emissions.
Automobiles present another problem. Although produced only in recent times and in co-operation with developed countries,
even new motor vehicles in China remain on an obsolete technical level and therefore emit far more pollutants than necessary.
Only a few cars have high tech catalytic converters and most of the vehicles still rely on leaded gasoline or diesel. So, an average
car in China generates ten times more harmful substances than an average car in Japan or in the United States.
An alarming consequence of air pollution is the number of people dying of respiratory diseases, such as lung cancer. The death
rate from respiratory disease has increased by 25 per cent during the last decade. In Shanghai for instance, where the air is said
to contain more than 300 hundred different types of chemicals out of which 100 are carcinogenic, there are annually 300 to 500
cases of death attributed to bad air quality. Apart from serious respiratory diseases, air pollution can provoke high-blood
pressure, neurosis and chronic eye problems.
Water Contamination
More than half of the people in China consume drinking water of low quality. Hardly any of China's biggest cities meet drinking
water or groundwater standards. As for Chinese urban rivers, according to a 1994 survey, out of 135 controlled urban river
sections only four reached fixed standards; 52 failed to meet even the minimum water quality requirements. Most of them are
heavily polluted with untreated organic and industrial sewage.
The annual volume of wastewater produced increases steadily: official government statistics show that the total quantity of annual
wastewater in China was 29 billion tons in 1981 while it had grown to 37 billion tons in 1995, and it could approach to 80 billion
tons by the year 2000. In the mid-1990s, more than 97% of the wastewater discharged into rivers, lakes or seas did not receive
any prior treatment. In Beijing, the annual sewage treatment capacity reaches only 500,000 tons. This is far too low to handle the
increasing discharge of household and industrial sewage. In general, because of insufficient sewage treatment capacities, the
majority of Chinese water resources hold either pathogenic organisms such as schistosomia ova, cercaria, ova of parasitic
flukes, and worms or chemical and toxic compounds like petroleum, volatile phenol, permanganate, and mercury. Consequently,
many drinking-water supplies are contaminated too, so that several million people are regularly afflicted with significant intestinal
diseases.
In addition, increasing agricultural productivity, including excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers, worsens groundwater and
intensifies drinking-water pollution. According to World Bank data, fertiliser consumption in China almost doubled between 1979
and 1997; and the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) stated that fertiliser application on China's arable land had
risen from 25.9 million tons in 1990 up to 33.1 million tons in 1994. Most of the fertilisers being chemical ones, their intensified
use can't but have a serious impact on local water quality.
At the same time, drinking-water reserves are limited. The demand for water for industrial and other purposes grows massively
and steadily while the groundwater level has sharply reduced over the past few years. On the one hand, both physical and
climatic factors affect water availability and distribution throughout China. Northern China for instance is characterised by
unequally distributed groundwater supplies due to extreme seasonal variability of water provisions, while there is regularly
abundant precipitation in the southern regions of the country. On the other hand, water deficiency relies on socio-economic and
industrial development, since modernisation of urban housing, transportation and industry intensify fast growing water demands.
As a consequence, more than 100 Chinese cities are frequently confronted with water shortages.
Undoubtedly, the decline of water supply has detrimental impact on water quality, as more polluting components concentrate in
less fresh water. Therefore clean drinking water, though a fundamental condition for all creatures to live, will become increasingly
scarce and precious.
Land Degradation
China covers a total land area of 9.326 million square kilometres. Only 13 % per cent of this area is arable land. In 1995, China's
total forest areas covered 1.333 million square kilometres representing about 14 % of the entire land. (In Japan the total forest
area covers far more than 70% of the total land, Germany is covered by 30% with forests and the United States by 23%.) In China,
average annual deforestation amounts to 866 square kilometres corresponding to a 0.1% average loss of national forest every
year. At least a quarter of China's forests has disappeared since the 1960s. (According to UNDP [1996]: in recent years, even
virgin forests have been decreasing at an annual rate of 5,000 square kilometres. And in the last four decades, almost half of
China's forests have been destroyed.)
The motive for deforestation is mainly permanent conversion of natural grove areas to other uses, including shifting cultivation,
permanent agriculture, ranching, settlements, and infrastructure development. In the 1950s, the mining industry was a capital
threat to natural woodlands as charcoal was consumed excessively in relation to the mass iron and steel melting campaigns. In
the 1960s and 70s, large forest areas were cleared away for agricultural purposes. Since the 1980s, both the rapid economic
development and the population explosion are responsible for a growing demand for wood. Paper production, for instance,
seriously damages China's virgin forest supplies; the quantity of wood used to make paper has increased within only ten years
from 7.4 million tons in 1982 up to 20 million tons. Today, China's forests are still vanishing. Less than ten regional forest
bureaus out of 40 have no groves to administer. And it is estimated that very soon, only two or three of the bureaus will have some
forest to supervise.
With forest shrinkage, deserts can expand unhindered. Apart from deforestation, desertification is another means of land
degradation. According to UNDP China currently has about 1 million square kilometres desertified land which corresponds to
approximately 11 percent of China's total land area. More than 40% of China's tillage and almost 60% of the nation-wide pastures
are desertified. Additional hundreds of square kilometres of land might soon become deserts. Most of the wastelands are
located in the dry and windy areas of northern China, but wet and moist areas in southern China also are threatened.
The main reasons for desertification are excessive forest clearance and massive land burning. Other important reasons are
over-exploitation, such as over-cultivation in agricultural areas, over-herding and over-grazing in grassland areas. Inefficient
irrigation and industrial development further contribute to desertification.
Finally, soil erosion also is a severe kind of land degradation. According to Agenda 21, referring to a remote sensing survey in
1990, China's soil erosion area corresponding to 3,670,000 square kilometres, covering about 38% of the total land area. Annual
soil loss is said to account for 5 billion tons; 70,000 hectares of arable land are lost every year by soil erosion. According to the
State Science & Technology Commission (referred to by UNDP) between 1985 and 1994, about 360,000 hectares of farmland
annually have been affected by top-soil loss.
Forest clearance due to human contribution is without doubt the main reason for soil erosion. But China's natural topography
contributes to the phenomenon, too. Besides, three of the rivers with the highest sediment discharges in the world are situated in
China (the Huang, Liao and Jialing rivers) and regularly wash away vital soil minerals serving as natural fertilisers. It is stated that
the annual loss of natural fertilisers almost equals the annual chemical fertiliser consumption. Consequences of both fertiliser
loss and soil erosion are decline of land productivity, low and irregular crops as well as eco-environmental deterioration.
Biodiversity
China has an extraordinary variety of plant and animal life and is considered one of the countries with the richest biodiversity.
About 600 ecosystems can be found there, ranging from deserts, grasslands, meadows, bamboo groves and different types of
forests, to mangroves, wetlands and alpine frozen soil. The number of China's different bird species is among the highest in the
world. In fish species diversity China also ranks within the leading countries. There are abundant livestock resources and more
than 6,000 vertebrate species; and there are many different kinds of advanced and commercial-use plants.
But the biodiversity of China faces heavy challenges. Human settlement, land conversion for agricultural or industrial purposes
and forest clearance massively contribute to wildlife habitat destruction. Air pollution, water contamination and other means of
environmental threats significantly disturb the natural balance of the ecosystem. As a consequence, plants and animals have to
pay with their lives. Finally, hunting for both commercial and medical purposes (and sometimes even just for fun) alarmingly
reduces the number of wild living animals.
The SEPA estimates that more than 1,000 rare plant species are endangered and under threat of extinction. According to 1999
World Development Indicators, more than a fifth of the 394 mammal species and almost 10 per cent of the 1,100 to 1,200 bird
species are in danger. Altogether about 430 animal species are at risk of disappearing soon, among them are the Giant Panda,
tiger species, the Tibetan Antelope, the Snub-Nosed Monkey and the Flying River Dolphin. 10 mammal species are already
extinct or on-the-verge-of extinction.
Hereafter will be described, representatively for others, the fates of two widely known endangered mammal species; the first is
the one of the Giant Panda and the second is the one of the Tiger.
The Giant Panda is undoubtedly the most famous among China's endangered species is. More than half a million years ago, this
cuddly bear-like animal with the black and white coat populated the bamboo forests in Burma and Vietnam and in southern and
eastern China. Since then climatic change and increasing human settlement have increasingly reduced its range. Today only a
few pandas remain in bamboo forests of isolated Chinese mountain areas like Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces and
along the eastern border of the Tibetan Plateau. With an estimated total population of less than 1000 animals divided into 29
fragmented population groups, the Giant Panda species is extremely threatened with extinction.
The main risk to the survival of the Giant Panda is habitat destruction, caused by logging and natural dieback of bamboo forests.
(Every 10 to 100 years depending on the species, wide areas of bamboo plants flower and die. While they quickly regenerate
from seed, it can take up to 20 years before the bamboo can support a panda population again.) Between 1973 and 1984,
suitable panda habitat has shrunk by 50 per cent.
Feeding almost exclusively on bamboo and because of serious habitat loss, the panda is nowadays unable to move to other
appropriate territories in time of food shortage (that is when bamboo plants flower). As a consequence, whole panda populations
can die of starvation.
Another threat to the panda is poaching. Although highly punished æ a poacher caught might risk life imprisonment or even death
penalty æ illegal hunting still continues: young pandas are captured for zoos, while full-grown individuals are killed for their pelts.
More frequently, however, pandas are snared accidentally in traps set out for other animals, such as musk deer.
As far as the Tiger is concerned, China once was the home of many subspecies: there was the Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris
altaica) in the north, and there were the South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) and
the Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) in the south. Today, only about 100 individuals of this large and
reddish-black-striped cat are left in China, that equals 2 per cent of the earth's tiger population. (According to WWF, the
approximate numbers of tiger individuals left in China are estimated as follows: 15 Siberian tigers, 25 South China tigers, 30
Indochinese tigers and at maximum 20 Siberian tigers; the Bengal tiger is extinct.)
Since the beginning of the century, the total number of 100,000 tigers æ split into eight subspecies out of which three are
nowadays extinct æ has shrunk by 95 per cent down to 5,000 animals. Individuals of the five remaining subspecies are
distributed over 13 Asian countries plus Russia. Unfortunately, all tiger populations have to be considered as seriously
endangered. Out of the four subspecies still living in China, two æ the Siberian and the South China tiger æ are critically
threatened with extinction.
In today's China, tigers, or at least indications of living tigers like vocalisations, pugmarks or scrapes, have been heard or sighted
in forests and grasslands in Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces as well as near the North Korean border.
Having few natural enemies, the leading threats to the tiger are same as to the giant panda: poaching and loss of habitat.
Tigers are mainly killed for parts of their bodies, such as bones, which are commonly used in traditional Oriental medicines,
especially in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). As the human population explosion in east Asia was coupled with a general
booming of interest in TCM, not only in Asia but world wide, there has been a growing demand for tiger bones in the last few
decades. In addition, Chinese authorities encouraged tiger hunting during the 1950s and 1960s when a large-scale government
pest control campaign was initiated in order to reduce the number of the wild cats. More than 3,000 individuals of the South China
tiger species were shot and killed during this period of time.
Loss of habitat is often caused by logging or mineral exploitation. Usually, tigers are solitary animals, except for females with
cubs. Occupying large and different kinds of habitat (which range from boreal taiga, grasslands, temperate broadleaf to tropical
dry forests and mangroves), they prey on wide variety of animals, predominately on large deer species and wild boar. By reducing
availability of prey, habitat destruction can have a detrimental influence on tiger populations.
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