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Fighting smog demands more than simply fining a few cities
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Our environmental authorities are adopting unconventional and drastic measures to battle smog.
Take the environmental watchdog of Liaoning Province. It recently levied an aggregate of 54.2 million yuan (US$9 million) in fines on eight cities, including Shenyang, the provincial capital, Dalian and Anshan. These cities haven’t done enough to tackle the smog, according to the watchdog.
Shenyang received the heaviest fine, 3.46 million yuan.
This is the first time fines for lax pollution control have been issued. They are intended to be used to fund the campaign to control smog.
In an interview with Xinhua, Zhu Jinghai, director of the watchdog, was optimistic that fines could achieve the intended effects, just as they did in motivating authorities and polluters to clean up the heavily contaminated Liao River.
His optimism may be justified, but it is not shared by many members of the public.
Skeptics argue that fines are ultimately borne by taxpayers, not by the erring individuals and corporate interests, and thus cannot credibly deter polluters or keep officials on their toes.
Another cause for concern is the discrepancy between fines — the lowest being 200,000 yuan — and the vast profits earned from polluting activities. The paltry sum of the fines are a negligible price to pay.
The popular backlash against the proposed fines indicates heightened public concerns about the haze and its health consequences.
Decades ago, when the extent of haze today could hardly be envisaged, most people would probably have prioritized growth and living standards before environmental protection.
But as development increasingly becomes a curse in many regions rather than blessing, priorities are changing.
Changing priorities
Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli recently wrote in Qiushi, or Seeking Truth magazine, that people used to be content with “being well fed and clothed.” That concern is now put on the back burner, ceding ground to “expectation for a better environment,” cleaner air, water and safer food, he said. Thus, policy should be shaped by and oriented toward that expectation, he concluded.
High living standards and environmental protection may previously have been viewed as dichotomies, but they are no longer as paradoxical as we thought, and the prospect of smart development relies on resolving this dilemma.
Different choices reflect changing needs.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, after basic needs are satisfied, human needs will go beyond that scope and strive for constant betterment, until they reach the apex of self-actualization. The popular urge for environmental cleanup is one such improved focus.
Persistent haze is a rude awakening to the crude form of industrial and urban development to which we have grown inured for years.
Although we have had many rude awakenings in the past, the latest one is so dramatic and catastrophic that it will likely elicit genuine attention.
It’s predictable that as urbanization and industrialization push up energy consumption, air pollution will only get worse.
As the much-vaunted future growth engine, galloping urbanization could also be a bane if it is unbridled.
Although there is no general agreement on what urbanization should be like, at least the authorities have spelled out what it should not be.
At a recent high-level conference on urbanization, attended by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, 10 bans were announced, including “destruction of the environment, blind demolition and construction, erection of ghost towns and identical cities.”
Punishment necessary
However, unless complemented with specified punishment for violations — and preferably linking official promotion to performance — these prohibitions may appear too vague to be cautionary.
For example, the ban on “look-alike cities” risks becoming empty talk, and may encourage cities to resurrect their already obliterated past by rolling out ersatz relics.
To be sure, China’s future urbanization must venture off the beaten path, as necessitated by current conditions, and also start a healing process to undo past damage.
But fines should not be the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to healing.
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