Spring Break
At colloquium, professor warns of China's global environmental impact
Jeff Sullivan
Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: News
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"I don't know if I have any answers for you," she said. "Probably more questions than answers in fact."
Shapiro discussed the environmental impact China has on the United States and the world in general. She said that pollution from Chinese factories has been measured and detected from inside the United States' borders, so much that a country on the other side of the planet is feeling the effects of China's environmental problems.
"We're getting China's pollution in the United States," she said. "So that shows that we can go green as much as we want, but unless China cleans up, we're sunk."
Shapiro discussed the immense environmental hazard that China is facing today. Not only is the Chinese government facing ever-increasing carbon emissions and water shortages, but it also must deal with growing problems of acid rain reaching beyond its borders.
"Acid rain is a huge issue for China's immediate neighbors, Japan and Korea," she said. "The acid rain from China is destroying Japan's forest, and as a result Japan is one of the greatest donors of environmental aid to China."
Shapiro said that a country's environmental footprint cannot be calculated only within its own borders, because environmental problems cannot be contained by man-made boundaries.
Shapiro added that it is because of a government sponsored fad in which the populace is encouraged to consume more products and buy more to stimulate the economy instead of being environmentally aware, much like the situation in the United States. Combined with a complete lack of trust of the communist regime, not only is there a lackluster effort to improve the environment from a communal level but there is no concern from the general populace as to fixing these problems.
"During the Mao regime, people believed so fervently in the communist regime and then suffered at the hands of the system so badly that they do not believe anything the government says anymore," she said. "So that now when the government really is trying to help serious environmental issues people just don't really care anymore."
But while the general populace is relatively complacent, Shapiro said, the government itself is in a panic as to what to do about China's mounting environmental problems. The recent fervor in which the government is responding to these issues is because of the upcoming Olympic Games that will be held in Beijing and concern for China's international image.
"Why do you think China's so excited that they got the Olympics? Everyone's coming back to the Middle Kingdom to bow down," she said. "Why does it matter so much that the air be clean? Because they don't want to blow it."
