www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
Opinion / Op-Ed Contributors

Fight poverty to reduce pollution

By Bjorn Lomborg (China Daily) Updated: 2014-08-04 07:33

In the past three decades, China's development has pulled a staggering 680 million people out of poverty. It did so through a dramatic increase in access to modern energy, mostly powered by coal, which has led to terrible outdoor air pollution in Chinese cities, not to mention making China the world's premier carbon dioxide emitter. That is why many environmentalists say that China's meteoric rise has come at substantial environmental costs.

It is true that China now suffers from more outdoor air pollution than in its pre-boom days, but the same happened in all other industrializing countries - air pollution in London reached a peak in 1890.

It is also important to point out that while outdoor air pollution in China has definitely increased since 1990, the overall impact of air pollution has declined. This is because indoor air pollution is often wrongly ignored. Indoor air pollution comes from burning charcoal, twigs and dung inside the house, which creates terrible pollution and kills more than 1 million people in China each year.

Overall, the world's largest study conducted by the World Health Organization estimates that for China, deaths from outdoor air pollution have increased from 900,000 to 1.2 million a year from 1990 to 2010. But decreasing poverty has allowed many more to avoid indoor air pollution, which has dropped faster, from more than 1.6 million deaths to 1 million deaths in 2010. Almost 2.6 million people died from air pollution in China in 1990, but the number declined to 2.3 million in 2010 despite an 18 percent increase in the population. In total, fewer people now die from air pollution in China because of less poverty.

With outdoor air pollution rampant in Beijing that may seem surprising, but we forget that indoor air pollution has always been more important. In 1900, almost all pollution deaths in the world were related to indoor air pollution, and the individual risk of dying from air pollution was more than five-fold higher than it is today.

In short, indoor air pollution has declined, because the increasing number of people coming out of poverty can now afford to cook using modern energy. Yes, outdoor air pollution has increased - but that only confirms a long-standing finding that many environmental indicators tend to first get worse, then better, with economic development.

Essentially, China, just like the United Kingdom before it, has traded off economic development for some additional outdoor air pollution. This prosperity buys food, education and medical services, while electricity and gas help eradicate indoor air pollution. The familiar pattern is that once a country obtains a certain level of wealth, it can also afford to protect more nature and reduce pollution. About 80 percent of China's coal-fired power plants now have pollution-reducing scrubbers, and sulfur emissions have been declining since 2006.

Fight poverty to reduce pollution

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

Most Viewed Today's Top News
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 日韩欧美一区二区三区免费看 | 欧美成人综合在线观看视频 | 在线欧美精品二区三区 | 日本免费一区二区三区看片 | 免费女人18毛片a级毛片视频 | 日本一级毛片高清免费观看视频 | 国产精品系列在线一区 | 99久久99久久精品免费看子 | 亚洲v视频| 日韩久久中文字幕 | 亚洲色视频在线播放网站 | 一级不卡毛片免费 | 亚洲欧美日韩国产综合高清 | 精品一区二区三区亚洲 | 91免费网站在线看入口黄 | 日本一区二区三区国产 | aa级毛片毛片免费观看久 | 成人自拍在线 | 视频二区在线观看 | 九九精彩视频在线观看视频 | 久久久久无码国产精品一区 | 成人一级网站 | 一区二区三区四区在线视频 | 亚洲三级成人 | 免费伦费一区二区三区四区 | 久久久久久久久久免费视频 | 久久a热6| 99精品国产在现线免费 | 免费看一区二区三区 | 国产一级视频在线 | 国产亚洲午夜精品a一区二区 | 九九午夜 | 久久精品一区二区三区中文字幕 | 日韩一区二区视频在线观看 | 国产欧美一区二区日本加勒比 | 国产一级一片免费播放 | 99视频在线播放 | 国产亚洲福利一区二区免费看 | 色综合久久综合 | 欧美精品色精品一区二区三区 | 香焦视频在线观看黄 |