environmental science

I'm taking an environmental science course this semester.
It focuses on East Asia, and especially China.

It's not exaggerated that environmental issues in Asia almost equals that of China.

People think China produces too much pollutions.
It's true but it's not completely true.

Let me explain this.
On average, a person in China produces pullution only one-ninth of one American.
In addition, this is below of the average in the world.
This is true.

The problem is the sum of it. China has 13 billion people in the country.
Therefore, the total emission of pollution is the largest in the world.

Chinese government argue that today's global warming is not the fault of China, and fault of developed countries.
I understand it.
Still, China should not be necessary blamed because of its population.

However, China needs to improve the situation more. This is also true.
We don't even try to understand the reason while China spend huge amount of coal and have enourmous amounts of inefficient plants.


One more thing, I briefly explain an interesting graph I had in the class today.
We compared major Asian cities with the two measurement below in the class.
1. SO2 concentrations (micro gram/square meters)
2. Sulfate concentrations ( same with above)

First is the comparison of SO2 concentrations in 2000.
Beijing: 44.7
Shanghai: 110.2
Chongqing: 135.1
Seoul: 27.4
Pusan: 63.0
Tokyo: 7.7
Osaka: 6.8

Second is sulfate.
Beijing: 26.5
Shanghai: 46.2
Chongqing: 68.5
Seoul: 12.8
Pusan: 26.3
Tokyo: 3.6
Osaka: 4.1

You can know how much cities in China is pollueted,
and how Tokyo and Osaka are clean!!!
I'm proud of that I'm Japanese.

Surprisingly, cities in Korea are not developed in environmental issues.
Especially, Pusan is as much polluted as Beijing when we measure by square meters.
Pusan is the second biggest cities in South Korea, but it doesn't have as much land as Beijing.
As a result, we feel Beijing is much more polluted.

But, this chart is very interesting.
cleanliness
Tokyo, Osaka >>> Seoul >> Beijing, Pusan > Shanghai >> Chongqing