Globalization Brings Smog to China S Big Cities Essay

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China -- Globalization and Air Pollution

Because China has essentially become, as The New York Times explains, " ... the world's factory floor" by producing electronics, clothes and many other goods for America and other nations (as part of its globalization strategy), it has generated "huge emissions of pollutants" in the process. Those pollutants include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides; and certainly the burning of fossil fuels in Beijing and other major Chinese cities contributes carbon dioxide to the problem of global climate change. This paper looks at the problems facing China when it comes to air pollution -- which results from its huge manufacturing and electrical generating plants.

Air Pollution in China

An article in The Guardian claims that air pollution in China's cities is "so bad" it actually resembles a "nuclear winter" (Kaiman, 2014). A nuclear winter (after an atomic bomb has been dropped) is an atmospheric condition that seriously slows photosynthesis in plants, which puts a country's food supply in jeopardy. In Beijing and in " ... broad swaths of six provinces" during February 2014, a very dense "pea-soup" kind of smog was serious enough to penetrate deep into people's lungs and actually enter the bloodstreams of citizens (Kaiman, p. 1). The smog was mainly from the coal-fired plants that run much of China's economy.

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The concentration in Beijing was PM 2.5 particles, and actually hit "505 micrograms per cubic meter" (Kaiman, p. 1). The World Health Organization's guidelines call for air pollution to be no more than 25 micrograms; anything above that level is unsafe, according to the WHO.

Besides the terrible toll on humans who are breathing in those toxic fumes, there has also been an economic toll, according to Kaiman; that is, when the air is extremely foul and visibility is greatly reduced, commercial airlines shut down, highways are closed (because part of the pollution comes from autos), and tourists stay away from otherwise attractive venues. Clearly China's economy has benefitted greatly from globalizations, but how bad is the pollution in China's cities? Professor He Dongxian at the Agricultural University's College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering conducted an experiment using chili and tomato seeds.

The professor grew one group of seeds under artificial lab light, and a second set of the seeds in a Beijing greenhouse (using natural light that is greatly diminished due to the pollution in the air). The lab seeds sprouted….....

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"Globalization Brings Smog To China S Big Cities", 27 October 2015, Accessed.28 June. 2025,
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