Many ‘solutions’ have been implemented within china to help prevent and decrease its air pollution and its associated impacts. These solutions have involved short term methods such as those used in the lead up to the Olympics, and long term solutions. These long term solutions have included; afforestation, coal cleaning, converting gas stoves to use clean energy sources and alterations in car use.
The scale at which China is implementing its air pollution reduction methods are large in relation to other countries and the government has been praised for its determination to tackle the problem. Despite this the long term methods appear to be slowly changing the emissions and pollution and time seems to be rapidly running out, so does China need to put into action methods which will reduce this problem at a faster rate or should methods be left as they are? For the Olympics short term methods including; the closure of factories, taking old buses off the road and banning cars on certain days are being used in a desperate hope to increase the air quality over Beijing before their big event, but should these types of methods become long term solutions if they have such a large and quick impact on the air pollution? If factories were to be closed down completely there would be a major impact on the economy, but would this maybe be a small price to pay especially in the long run?
Overall it appears that China is in a difficult situation, as whatever route they take they will be scrutinised. Either their efforts will slowly reduce the pollution and the amount of deaths will be decreasing at such a slow rate it will appear as though nothing is being done despite Chinas determination, or they take drastic measures such as the closure of all factories, which would have a significant impact on the economy and general running of the country.
References
Bai. J (2008) China steps up efforts to fight pollution. Reuters. 12th February 2008.
Pomfret. J. (2008) China factories move inland to avoid green scrutiny. Reuters. 20th February 2008.
Schmollinger. C., and Shen. I. (2008) China to shut factories to cut air pollution before the Olympics. Bloomberg. 9th Fenruary 2008.
