Argument essay: Environmental Pollution In China

One day in the class our teacher Vincent asked us what controversial problems you knew in the world and almost all Chinese students said “Environmental pollution”.In China, the environmental pollution has became the most serious problem. As there are more and more cars and factories, our environment became worse day by day. Therefore, I believe we should look into the major causes of the pollution, how they have damaged he environment, and the possible ways to reduce the existing pollution.

The first major cause would be the fast economic development. As we all know that China is one of the fastest developing countries in the world,  our major focus is on making money to let more Chinese people live a better life. Normally, when a nation’s economy starts to boom, it would most likely develop industrial industry. Not surprisingly, more and more people have discovered that chemical engineering industry can make money easily. Therefore,  many people who have the money and still want more starts to build factories. In China you can easily find smokestacks, and many cities have been overwhelmed by a "pungent smell”. Many chemical and industrial enterprises are built along rivers so that they can dump toxic waste into water easily that leads to the river being polluted.

The second major cause would be the automobiles. In China, we have about 217 million automobiles. Everyday, you can see a ”long dragon” on the road. In the morning you don’t need to set an alarm to wake you up, the noise can make you wake naturally. If you go pass the cars, you can hardly breath. People are suffering from sound pollution and toxic emission everyday. Not only our health conditions suffer, but more severaly, our environment is suffering as well.

Last but not least, pesticide abuse is also a major contributing factor to pollution. In China, the farmers always use a lot of pesticide to keep the vegetables fresh. For example, in my hometown, we have a famous fruit called winter jujube. I remembered my grandfather told me the winter jujube was hard to live without pesticide, and those pesticide could hardly be washed off by running water. On one hand, it is understandable to a degree that the farmers are only trying to make a living by using pesticide to keep the fruits and vegetables fresh. On the other hand, the over-use of pesticide has already poisoned our land. As the land become less fertile, farmers would move to another land and continue to use pesticide. It is simply a vicious cycle.

As people always say, it is never to late to do something. I believe the environmental pollution in China could still be “cured” if we start right now. First, the government should come out more harsh punishment for over-dumping toxic waste into the river. And at the same time, they should set up some rewards for factories that have a good record to keep their toxic dumping within acceptable range. Certain tax deduction would be a good idea. Second, the city has to limit the automobiles on the street, especially during morning rush hours. And the government should encourage more and more people to take public transportation like subways and buses to go to work. In this way, we could see a significant reduction in the air pullution level. Third, the farmers should seek for alternatives for the pesticides. Acturally, there are more environmental friendly pesticides in the market. If the local government could introduce these products to the farmers, or increase the publicity of certain “green” pesticide products, the problem caused by pesticide abuse could also be solved.

In conclusion, there are many factors that could contribute to environmental pollution, and fast economic development, automobil emission, and pesticide abuse has become the main causes of environmental pollution in China. These factors have caused serious damage to the environment, and to our health as well. Therefore, the earlier we could start to solve the problems, the better our life would be. We cannot develop our country in the expense of polluting our environment. The development would not last long. Instead, we should implement more sustainable way so that we could eventually become a truly “developed” country.