Article Analysis: Why China’s air pollution is on the rise again

Article: Economist, T. (2016). Cite a Website – Cite This For Me. Economist.com, from http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/01/daily-chart-1

This article provides a detailed overview about the spread of pollution in China. The article discusses several reasons that are causing pollution. These industries include the steel industry especially which is the most prominent reason of the spread of pollution in China. China is a rapidly growing economy. To meet their growing industrial needs, they need power and construction material China has been producing a great amount of its energy from Coal which causes the emission of greenhouse gases. As can be seen in the graph below, the use of coal has dramatically increased in the past few years. Especially there is a rapid surge at the end of 2015. The graph shows increase in the use of steel, coal and cement in China that are also the major causes of pollution.

China’s considers it industrial growth an important factor that provides its people the necessary jobs. China has more than a billion population and providing them with jobs and other resource to have a sound life is the duty of the Chinese government. China therefore, needs a rapid economic growth to increase their per capita. The details provided in the article are a reflection of the growing economy of China and its environmental implications.

My personal opinion is that any country that wants to grow economically must adopt to sustainable ways. For example China undoubtedly needs energy to power their economy but at what cost? I think that they should look at growing their economy via renewable energy sources to be sustainable over a longer period of time.