The World Factory and Urban Air Pollution in the Pearl River Delta Region
Name:Mo Xiaobo Student ID：S07328
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Seku Conde
Department of Anthropology Minzu University of China
2007-2008 Academic Year
Abstract: China has been accelerating her industrialization by absorbing a large numbers of foreign investments in the process of globalization. China's economic strength continuously increases but suffers aggravated environmental pollution at the same time, of which the urban air pollution is especially serious. The cause of this phenomenon is partly due to transnational corporations from developed countries transferring their high pollution and labor-intensive industries to a developing countries with low cost of labor and loose environmental protection rules, such as China, in the pursuit of higher profits. So China's environmental pollution is, in essence, is partly the consequence of the developed countries occupying core status of a world system exploiting the developing countries occupying periphery or semi- periphery. In this paper, I will take the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region as an example to illustrate this fact.
Keywords: world system, industrialization, environment, air pollution
1. Introduction
The several spring rains in late March made the Pearl River Delta (PRD) cities feel the atmosphere of the spring temporarily. The Central Meteorological Station published some weather information tips in the online: The air quality conditions in Guangzhou were good for air pollutants diluting, proliferating and clearance, and were suitable for normal outdoor activities. As many Chinese cities, Guangzhou was still far from the beautiful spring sunshine in the great mass of days in March. The gloomy days bring gloomy emotion to people, to which people are accustomed. In recently years, the word haze has been coming out continually in various media. There were 22 haze days in December, 2007 in Guangzhou. For many people, the haze weather brings depress, cough, dizziness, fatigue, nausea and bad temper. More patients go to hospital in such weather. [1]
In contract, the official environmental reports declare that the urban air quality is improved. The “Report on the State of the Environment in China 2006” published by the Department of state Environmental Protection reported that, in the year 2006, overall urban air quality was improved to some extent compared with the previous year despite heavy pollution in some cities.[2]
These ambivalent phenomena stimulate me to think of: (1) is the environment in China improved or deteriorated? (2) What are the external and in-depth causes of contemporary environmental situation? (3) Is China’s environmental problem an isolated fact? And how do the foreign countries affect China in globalization era? (4) How should we solve the problem we meet to improve our environment? In this article, I will try to answer these questions.
In this article, firstly, by enumerating ample facts and statics, I will reveal that the urban air qualities in the PRD cities are worse in fact, though the official environmental reports allege unbar air qualities being improved every year. Then I will summary the negative effect of awful air condition, which is a consequence of industrialization in PRD. But my analysis will not end by this, and I will reveal deeply that these air pollution and industrialization are a process of globalization, in which the development countries transfer their industry as well as pollutants to underdevelopment countries through a “World System”. Finally, I will give some recommendations to improve China’s urban air quality or, more extensive, China’s total environment.
The PRD region is one of the most important economic centers in China, on which the metropolises locate are easily affected by surrounding environmental condition. So the PRD region is an appropriate window for me to study the relationship between the urban air pollution and the process of globalization and industrialization.
2. The World Factory and Its Whole Environmental Situation
2.1 The World Factory and Its Main Workshop
As reform and opening up policy have been implementing in China since 1978, China has built an independent and completely modern industrial system, and China is evolution from a backward agricultural country into a large industrial producer. Industry enjoys a more prominent position in the national economy. The percentage of industrial output in the GDP rose from 10 percent in 1952 to 44.3 percent in 2000. Industry has become the generator of China’s economic growth and the most powerful economic sector. If the building industry is included, industrial output rises to 50.9 percent to the GDP for 2000. In 1999, China led the world in the output of coal, iron and steel, cement, glass, home appliances, and textiles, and ranked second in the output of electricity, chemical fibers, and cotton cloth.[3]
China’s economy is big and growing fast. It ranks third in total gross domestic product (GDP) and has the highest growth rate, of three times the world average. It is the world’s largest producer of steel, cement, aqua cultured food and television sets, and is the second-largest producer of electricity and chemical textiles. From 1978 to 2003 its production of steel, cement, chemical fiber and color TVs increased by 7, 13, 42 and 17,214 times, respectively. It is the largest consumer of fertilizer and accounts for 90% of the global increase in fertilizer use since 1981. As the second-largest producer and consumer of pesticides, China accounts for 14% of the world total and has become a net exporter. Production and consumption of these industrial and agricultural products leads to air, water and land pollution and other forms of environmental damage. But despite China’s large total GDP and outputs of these various products, its per capita GDP and outputs are still much lower than those of many other countries — hence they still have a large potential to increase. [4]
(Source: Jianguo Liu & Jared Diamond，“China's Environment In A Globalizing World”，essay on “Nature ” Vol.435, (30 June 2005). Pp.1179-1186)
With the development of industry, China is from a closed economy to an active participant in foreign trade. From the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, China’s industrializations were conducted basically within the confines of a closed economy. From 1979 to 2000, China’s total foreign trade volume raised from US$20.6 billion to US$473.3 billion with an average annual growth rate of 15 percent.[5]Along with the expansion of China’s foreign trade, its industry has become increasingly dependent on exports. After the 1990s, the dependence of the Chinese economy on exports exceeded 20 percent, specifically 20.3 percent in 1997 and 23.4 percent in 2000.[6]
Since 2001, there have been increasing comments at home and abroad with respect to china becoming a “world factory” or “world manufacturing center”. At present, more than 50 percent of the world's cameras, more than 30 percent of the air-conditioning and TV, more than 25 percent of washing machines and about 20 percent of refrigerators are made in China. China’s industrial added value in the manufacturing sector, the fourth in the world Bit, after the United States, Japan and Germany, the world manufacturing industry have been transferring to China step by step.[7]
As the foreland of China’s reform and open policy, the PRD region is one of the most flourishing regions in China, and this crowded and cabined region is the core of the “World factory”. The area of PRD region only takes 0.43 percent of the whole country, and the population accounts for 1.8 percent, but it accounts for 8.25 percent of national GDP. The main power of the economical locomotive in this region is all kinds of industries directly or indirectly serving for the developed countries. According to a "HP" procurement president’s words, HP corporation purchase goods valued billions of dollars in China every year, 80 percent of which being from the Dongguan city, a city in the east of the PRD region. [8]In a word, the PRD region is the “main workshop” of the growing “world factory”.
2.2 The Whole Environmental Conditions Worsen as GDP Advance Triumphantly
From 1989 to 2001, China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth was at the rate of 9.3 percent in average, significantly ahead of the World’s 3.2percent, 2.7percent in the developed countries and 5.2 percent in the developing countries, becoming the one of world's fastest growing countries.[9]
With the economy growing at the fastest rate of any major nation, China’s environmental problems are among the most severe of any major country, and are mostly getting worse. Many Chinese, including its leaders, are aware of these problems and have tried to tackle them. Some things have improved, such as the air quality in Beijing and some other big cities. But such efforts have not matched the forces of environmental destruction, and have not prevented other indicators from further deterioration.
In fact, China faces greater environmental challenges than other major countries. Of the 142 countries for which environmental sustainability was evaluated, China ranked 129th. In per capita ecological footprint (a measure of human natural resource consumption and waste output), China is below the world average, but its total ecological footprint is the second largest in the world after the United States, owing to its population size.[10]
3. Is The Urban Air Quality Improved?
3.1 The Contradiction
No air means death. Of different kinds of environmental problems, such as soil erosion, water pollution, species extinction, and so on, the [...]
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