Synthesis Essay: Government Responsibility In China

Jiawen Cheng

Synthesis Essay

Government Responsibility

It’s become a common sight to behold. In other cities, popular must have fashion items include scarves, sunglasses and perhaps a striking pair of shoes. In Beijing however, surgeon masks have been “in style” for years and more recently more people have been sporting a can of fresh air; from Canada. The pollution has gotten so bad that people are willing to pay as much as 22.95 U.S dollars for a 10-liter bottle of “Pure Premium Oxygen’. “[The] first shipment of 500 bottles of fresh air were sold in four days,” said co-founder Moses Lam to the Telegraph. The government has faced increased domestic and international pressure to address the situation. Throughout the years, China’s industrialization and economic boom has brought millions of people out of poverty and skyrocketed their economy to first place, but in doing so, their environment has been seriously damaged. A new poll done by Gallup shows that 57% of Chinese adults believed that protection of the environment should be given top priority even at risk of slowing economic growth.

The city lies at the corner of the North China Plains and is surrounded north to west to north by the Yanshan Mountains. The mountains act like a cage keeping some of the pollution trapped in the city. During the summer and winter months, the weather can go from searing to frigid, causing a spike in energy consumption. Over two thirds of China’s power is generated by burning coal. During the winter months, air pollution by coal soars while in the summer months, the humidity keeps the pollution trapped within the city. Because of it’s location, Beijing relies heavily on wind to control its pollution. However one of the three winds that blows into the city comes from heavily industrialized areas in the south such as Shaanxi and