Environmental Challenges facing China in the 20th Century

Human activities have immensely interfered with the ecological system in China. The system includes air, water and soil. All these are the components of the environment. China has been in the limelight for the past few years following an increase in the environment degradation which has caused harm to her citizens.  Human beings are the major agents to the environment degradation around the globe.  They carry out various activities that interfere with the ozone layer, pollute water, soil and air rendering them unhealthy. Some of the degradation activities include:

 Urban migration in China. Majority of people moving from rural arears to Urban places due to lack of well spelt policies to help in controlling this menace has led to overpopulation in towns. This leads to, overcrowding in urban places, pollution due to poor sanitary conditions and political instability which results to insecurity due to heightened conflicts. This also leads to increase in carbon emission in towns, On top of that, following high consumption of foodstuffs in the cities, there is strain in natural resources, for instance, food in rural areas.

 Secondly, deforestation in China due to high urbanization is resulting to demand for more space, trees are cleared down to create more space for the same reason. The most forests destroyed are rainforests which plays key role in the ecosystem, for instance, in absorbing excess carbon monoxide in the ambiance it renders wild animals non-habitual. This endangers human beings life too. 

Thirdly is air pollution. Due to high spread use of fire that emits smoke to the atmosphere, the ozone layer has drastically depleted, exposing people to dangerous rays from the sun that can cause cancer.  The excessive emission of smoke by the industries, due to high industrialization in China to the atmosphere as well, causes the same problem. Industries have ignored their obligation of detoxifying the smoke in chimneys before releasing it to the air (Hershberger, 2014).

In addition, population grows. China is one of the countries with the highest number of population. It is estimated to be a habitat to almost 1.3 billion people. This has forced the government to adopt “one child policy” to help in curbing this problem. Due to high population there will be an increase in emission of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere and also the sanitation condition is substandard because it is not easy for healthy department to monitor such huge population at the same time (Lallanilla, 2013).

Both US and China are custodians of environment conservation in the world. The duos work extra hard to see that the environment they have is worthy living for their citizens. Both countries, experience the problem of air pollution caused by industries in cities. They both endanger wildlife due to deforestation. Both countries have the problem of global warming following excessive emission of carbon gasses to the sky. And lastly, US prevents urban migration by creating equal opportunities to those who are far from cities as compared to China where developments only takes place in urban areas thus attracting people seeking for employment (Priority Issues, 2014).

In summary, both US and China can turn tables around by undertaking the following measures: China should reinforce laws to curb carbon emissions from industries, come up with ways to help in controlling population of the country, and enhance developments even in rural areas to avoid urban migration. On the hand, US should enough her citizens to use clean energy and also use public means for transport to reduce carbon in the air (Live Science, 2006).