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Clean environment a hard sell when compared with GDP mania
By Wan Lixin |
March 7, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ON February 28, Beijing had another day of off-the-charts air pollution, smoggy and sandy, all combined in one.
An AP photo published in Shanghai Daily on March 1 showed four young women defying the storm in the lousy conditions, wearing masks or burying their mouths in their collars, their long hair flying in the wind. Thanks to years of heady growth, these chic ladies now have fancy dresses, fancy handbags, and fancy cars, but they no longer have decent air.
Such trade-offs characterize nearly all areas of prosperity.
So "haze" will be accepted as more and more a part of our life. As I started writing this article on Tuesday, downtown Shanghai was also shrouded in a heavy haze.
Still, as that storm struck Beijing just ahead of the ongoing national conferences of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People's Congress (NPC), the pollution issue still intruded on the awareness of some of our legislators.
"When vital living conditions are being threatened, the environmental issue is no longer a side issue, but a crisis," said Zhong Nanshan, an outspoken physician and NPC deputy. He added that if air deteriorates at the current rate, in a matter of few years, victims of cancers will grow exponentially.
"GDP first, or health first, now is the time to decide," Zhong said. Some deputies said that artificially fueled high growth at the expense of our environment or survival is "toxic growth."
Years of enshrinement of GDP, a holy grail sort of metric, has led to damages of epic proportions: A quarter of the country vulnerable to persisting smog, 90 percent of our underground water already polluted, and 150 million mu (10 million hectares) of arable land contaminated - and the figures are pure guesswork, for the Ministry of Environmental Protection guards these figures jealously, as classified information bearing on national security.
This land had nurtured and sustained the Chinese civilization for thousands of years, when dynastic rulers' top concern was to be deserving of divine protection so that their actions might not bring calamity to their posterity.
Today we smugly prided ourselves on having being lifted from such superstition. In a progressive view of life, what matters is now, rather than tomorrow. The compelling task is to derive the most kick from now, by spending (consumption).
"So our aspiration for clean air and water is dashed once and again on the frustration of new exposes of outrageous cases of pollution," said Zhu Yilong, a member of the CPPCC.
Some deputies insightfully characterize such growth as "making money only to foot the medical bill as a result of pollution."
But many officials remain adamant. The way we enshrine our GDP makes it very difficult to wean ourselves from it, however toxic it might be. For many, a glowing GDP means wealth and promotions. So in the grand narrative of the new market credo, people's happiness become somewhat linked with GDP.
In a report titled "Preventing toxic growth, anxieties over green civilization" (March 3, Xinmin Evening News), it is revealed that 24 of the 31 provinces and municipalities in China are targeting GDP growth of over 10 percent for 2013.
The article concluded that the people and our nation are paying a heavy price, in human life and economy, for the extensive mode of growth that characterizes our economy.
As revealed by Zhang Lijun, a former environmental official and a member of the CPPCC, the strongest resistance to environmental protection initiatives come from local officials in their blind pursuit of GDP. In their overriding drive for growth, local environmental watchdogs cannot but become poodles in making the local environment amenable to businesses.
Pollution never makes economic sense, in the long run. For instance, the 1,500 paper mills in the Huaihe River region have left 120 million local people without clean water. It is estimated that restoring the river to its former conditions would require an investment that would be thousands of times the GDP created by the paper mills.
And that GDP "creation" is largely pocketed by reckless entrepreneurs, plus local officials whose career prospects hinge on their GDP-enabling power.
When officials smugly enunciate the latest GDP figures, they are never compelled to go into the environmental and social costs of the growth.
There are remedies.
According to a Wenhui Daily report ("Why can't polluters foot the bill?") on March 1, a survey of 258 of Shanghai citizens found that 85 percent of the surveyed said that it is necessary to impose punitive fines on polluters.
But for that to happen, it takes a government more responsive to the complaints of the people, and a government that's much less pro-business.
And there's the rub.
An AP photo published in Shanghai Daily on March 1 showed four young women defying the storm in the lousy conditions, wearing masks or burying their mouths in their collars, their long hair flying in the wind. Thanks to years of heady growth, these chic ladies now have fancy dresses, fancy handbags, and fancy cars, but they no longer have decent air.
Such trade-offs characterize nearly all areas of prosperity.
So "haze" will be accepted as more and more a part of our life. As I started writing this article on Tuesday, downtown Shanghai was also shrouded in a heavy haze.
Still, as that storm struck Beijing just ahead of the ongoing national conferences of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People's Congress (NPC), the pollution issue still intruded on the awareness of some of our legislators.
"When vital living conditions are being threatened, the environmental issue is no longer a side issue, but a crisis," said Zhong Nanshan, an outspoken physician and NPC deputy. He added that if air deteriorates at the current rate, in a matter of few years, victims of cancers will grow exponentially.
"GDP first, or health first, now is the time to decide," Zhong said. Some deputies said that artificially fueled high growth at the expense of our environment or survival is "toxic growth."
Years of enshrinement of GDP, a holy grail sort of metric, has led to damages of epic proportions: A quarter of the country vulnerable to persisting smog, 90 percent of our underground water already polluted, and 150 million mu (10 million hectares) of arable land contaminated - and the figures are pure guesswork, for the Ministry of Environmental Protection guards these figures jealously, as classified information bearing on national security.
This land had nurtured and sustained the Chinese civilization for thousands of years, when dynastic rulers' top concern was to be deserving of divine protection so that their actions might not bring calamity to their posterity.
Today we smugly prided ourselves on having being lifted from such superstition. In a progressive view of life, what matters is now, rather than tomorrow. The compelling task is to derive the most kick from now, by spending (consumption).
"So our aspiration for clean air and water is dashed once and again on the frustration of new exposes of outrageous cases of pollution," said Zhu Yilong, a member of the CPPCC.
Some deputies insightfully characterize such growth as "making money only to foot the medical bill as a result of pollution."
But many officials remain adamant. The way we enshrine our GDP makes it very difficult to wean ourselves from it, however toxic it might be. For many, a glowing GDP means wealth and promotions. So in the grand narrative of the new market credo, people's happiness become somewhat linked with GDP.
In a report titled "Preventing toxic growth, anxieties over green civilization" (March 3, Xinmin Evening News), it is revealed that 24 of the 31 provinces and municipalities in China are targeting GDP growth of over 10 percent for 2013.
The article concluded that the people and our nation are paying a heavy price, in human life and economy, for the extensive mode of growth that characterizes our economy.
As revealed by Zhang Lijun, a former environmental official and a member of the CPPCC, the strongest resistance to environmental protection initiatives come from local officials in their blind pursuit of GDP. In their overriding drive for growth, local environmental watchdogs cannot but become poodles in making the local environment amenable to businesses.
Pollution never makes economic sense, in the long run. For instance, the 1,500 paper mills in the Huaihe River region have left 120 million local people without clean water. It is estimated that restoring the river to its former conditions would require an investment that would be thousands of times the GDP created by the paper mills.
And that GDP "creation" is largely pocketed by reckless entrepreneurs, plus local officials whose career prospects hinge on their GDP-enabling power.
When officials smugly enunciate the latest GDP figures, they are never compelled to go into the environmental and social costs of the growth.
There are remedies.
According to a Wenhui Daily report ("Why can't polluters foot the bill?") on March 1, a survey of 258 of Shanghai citizens found that 85 percent of the surveyed said that it is necessary to impose punitive fines on polluters.
But for that to happen, it takes a government more responsive to the complaints of the people, and a government that's much less pro-business.
And there's the rub.
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