Environmental problems in China
The most serious environmental problems in China are deforestation, overgrazing and air pollution which are interacted with the climate change. They have already had great impact on people’s life and the whole environment of China. We will talk about them through the following paragraphs.
Deforestation
The forest cover rate in China is about 34 percent. This is very low in the world. However, people still keep on chopping the trees like before. The areas of forests are increasingly reduced. When people cut down forests and change the land into the farmland a lot of plants and animals lose their home. The areas might lose rainfall and the rain that falls may run off the land quickly as well. If there are no forests, many people will lose the steady water supply and when the floods come, there will be no screens to preserve us. The floods in 1997 have warned us. Many animals have to go to another place and some species of them extinct when moving out forever.
Overgrazing
The overgrazing in China is very serious. For example, on the tableland of Tibet, there are many sheep. The sheep need to eat grass. When they finish all the grass on the upgrade of the mountain, the farmer just lead them to the downgrade full of grass. When the sheep eat all the grass down hill, the grass on the upgrade hasn’t grown however. Then the farmer and the sheep will find the new grassland while the mountain becomes desolate. The overgrazing also causes desert spread in hot and dry areas and the wind erosion.
Air pollution
China is a big industrial country so there are a great number of factories. Much dirty air is released everyday. There is so much traffic in China that burning of oil and coal, and the exhaust from cars and trucks cause serious air pollution. The air that was polluted can hardly breathe by people and it sometimes irritates people’s eyes when breathing. It’s also harmful to the animals nearby. The air pollution is not only outside now; the indoor air quality is a big problem to modern Chinese. The major problem is the use of traditional fuel such as wood, dung and charcoal. Furthermore, the toxic oil paint can cause disease such as cancer. So it’s even not safe to live in the house.
Though the problems are local threats. There are still many things for people to do to solve these problems. We should protect the environment as well as our earth.