Environmental Issues
While China’s one-child policy has achieved its social goals by raising living standards, it has not reduced the county’s environmental impact and has possibly caused more harm from the higher consumption rate that resulted from those greater standards. Due to population decrease that resulted from the one-child policy “one-fourth of the population — the equivalent of everyone in the United States — has entered the middle class” inevitably leading to an increase in consumption of food, energy, and other goods and detrimental environmental impacts (Weiss). The factors concerning China’s economic growth and population have caused “abrupt and potentially irreversible changes” which have already been manifested through “massive fish kills, lung-searing smog, denuded landscapes” (Weiss). According to Yu Xuejun, a director-general of China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission “To solve China’s problems is to solve the world’s problems” (qtd. Weiss). Unfortunately, China’s attempt to diminish its impact on the environment has led to further environmental issues.
To solve China's problems is to solve the world's problems.
— Yu Xuejun, director-general, National Population and Family Planning Commission
Copyright © 2013 by Alexa Tsintolas. All rights reserved.
