1. from drinking pure water to think
Nowadays, drinking water is becoming a trend. Although the media more than once introduced the various shortcomings of drinking water, but the "drinking water" family is still expanding.
Drinking water is not only pure water, but also mineral water, distilled water and even space water. The tap water we grew up drinking has become relatively "non-potable". We do not rule out the popularity of drinking water, hype plays a role, but it reflects the current water pollution has reached a serious degree of difficult to eat.
There are reports that: "According to reports in 979 on the national survey of 798 cities and towns, the country's daily sewage discharge of 2.58 million tons, of which industrial wastewater accounted for 819, domestic sewage accounted for 199. In 1989 on the National Congress of the 854 cities and towns surveyed, the daily emissions amounted to 36.53 billion tons. Of this amount, 550 million tons of industrial wastewater were agreed upon. The vast majority of this wastewater is discharged directly without treatment, polluting the rivers, lakes and seas.
In addition, there is an indisputable fact in front of every Shanghai people. Huangpu River, the mother river of Shanghai, was a clear waterway with fish and shrimp before the mid-50's (1958), but the water quality started to be polluted in 1962, and the black odor began to appear in 1963 for 22 days, and then rose to 29 days in 1988, accounting for about two-thirds of the year, and the water quality was not up to the standard of the river section accounted for 64.5km, accounting for 56.99% of the total length of 113.5km.
The danger of water pollution is not self-evident. Pollution of water bodies, water quality deterioration of human health and human life, production have brought serious harm.
Water is an important material for human survival, clean people can bring people green flowers and trees, birds and flowers, quiet and comfortable, beautiful and picturesque environment, bring people tranquility, pleasure and peace. But today's polluted water brings people pain, terror and disaster. In order to make life better, so that the beautiful landscape will always be on earth, so that the water flow continuously, people have become more and more clearly recognized the importance of preventing water pollution.
2. "Environmental Storm"
In 2005, an "environmental storm" blew up in mainland China, 30 total investment of more than 117.9 billion yuan of projects under construction by the State Environmental Protection Administration called a halt, including three of the Three Gorges Corporation, which belongs to the same ministerial-level unit. The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) called a halt to 30 projects with a total investment of more than 117.9 billion yuan, including three projects of the Three Gorges Corporation (TGC), which is also a full ministry. The reason is that these projects have not been evaluated for their environmental impact and are illegal projects that were built before approval.
Environmental degradation has no way back China's environmental problems did not start today. As early as the 1990s, the problem of environmental pollution has been very serious. Such as the Huaihe River Basin.
In the 1990s, the quality of five types of water accounted for 80% of the entire Huaihe River is like a huge sewage ditch all year round. 1995, the economic losses caused by environmental pollution amounted to 187.5 billion yuan.
According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the loss caused by environmental pollution and ecological damage has accounted for 15% of the total GDP, which means that on the one hand, there is 9% of economic growth, and on the other hand, there is a 15% loss rate. The environmental problem is not only a problem of sustainable development in China, but has become a demon that devours economic achievements.
At present, China's desertified land has reached more than 2.674 million square kilometers; the arable land and homes of nearly 400 million people in 471 counties in 18 provinces and districts are threatened by desertification to varying degrees, and the desertification is still growing at a rate of more than 10,000 square kilometers per year.
In the seven major river systems, the quality of water that has no use value at all has exceeded 40%. More than 400 of the country's 668 cities are in a state of water shortage. Many of them are caused by water quality pollution. For example, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, is located in the Ningbo River, Yao River, Fenghua River, the confluence of the three rivers, but due to water pollution, the most water shortages need to rely on water trucks running day and night, the countryside river water transported into the city of the various enterprises.
China's average of 10,000 yuan of industrial value added, need to consume 330 cubic meters of water, and produce 230 cubic meters of sewage; every 100 million yuan of GDP to discharge 288,000 tons of wastewater. There is also a large amount of domestic sewage. More than 80% of which is untreated, directly discharged into the river, it will not take 10 years, China will have no water available situation.
1/3 of the country's urban population is breathing heavily polluted air, and 1/3 of the country is eroded by acid rain. Economically developed Zhejiang Province, acid rain coverage has reached 100%. The frequency of acid rain is 11% in Shanghai and 12% in Jiangsu. In central China and some southern cities, such as Yibin, Huaihua, Shaoxing, Zunyi, Ningbo and Wenzhou, the frequency of acid rain exceeds 90%.
In China, the maximum sulfur dioxide emissions allowed for the basic elimination of acid rain pollution is 12 to 14 million tons. And in 2003, the national sulfur dioxide emissions reached 21.587 million tons, an increase of 12% over 2002, of which industrial emissions increased by 14.7%. According to the current rate of economic development. As well as pollution control methods and efforts, by 2020, the country only thermal power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide will reach more than 21 million tons, all emissions will exceed the capacity of the atmospheric environment more than 1 times, which will be a serious disaster for the ecological environment and public health.
On January 27, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, some people predicted that if not rectified, the history of mankind's sudden environmental crisis on the economy, the largest destruction of the social system, it is likely to appear in the near future in China.
The fight against pollution is caught in a dilemma there is a saying, to control the environment at the same time as economic development, investment in environmental protection must reach more than 1.5% of GDP. But this is in the case of environmental protection is already very good, in China, according to the experience of Shanghai, in order to really effective control of the environment, environmental protection investment must account for more than 3% of GDP. In the past 20 years, China's annual investment in environmental protection was 0.5% in the first half of the 1990s, and only a little more than 1% in recent years. Environmental protection is a kind of "luxury consumption", large investment, small contribution to GDP, therefore, some of the special funds that should be used for environmental protection, but also be diverted to other purposes.
At present, China's environmental problems in the dilemma: no governance, the future can not be guaranteed; really want to governance, the need for large-scale inputs, the immediate economic and difficult to bear.
Some people have calculated that the enterprises around Yunnan Dianchi in the past 20 years, the total **** only created a few billion yuan of output value, but to initially restore the water quality of Dianchi, at least a few tens of billions of dollars, which is the whole of Yunnan Province's annual financial income. Small paper mills in the Huaihe River Basin, the cumulative output value of 20 years is only 50 billion yuan. But to treat the pollution it brings, even if the main stream meets the minimum standard of irrigation water, it needs to invest 300 billion yuan. To return to the 1970s three categories of water quality, not only the cost is a terrible figure, the time will take at least 100 years.
The cost of violating the law is low and the cost of law enforcement is high on the micro point of view, in the past 20 years, the domestic manufacturing industry in the case of not being able to rely on technological advances to reduce energy consumption and reduce costs, can only be dug in two areas: one is the wage, and the other is the environmental protection. The simplest thing, such as cement production, to meet the minimum environmental requirements, each ton of cement needs to increase the cost of 8 yuan, accounting for 5% of the ex-factory price of cement. The textile industry discharges more than 1 billion cubic meters of wastewater annually, and if it is to be treated, it will cost $1.2 to $1.8 per ton. Increase production costs by 5%. And the vast majority of enterprises simply do not have such a high profit margin. Therefore, only in the environmental issue of guerrilla: or do not build any wastewater treatment facilities: or after the establishment of a pose, during the day to put the sewage treatment pool, no one discharged into the river at night, so that you can save a large amount of cost. In the unorganized competition in the market, the 5% cost. Often it determines the profit and loss of the enterprise, life and death.
And China's two highs and one low in environmental enforcement - high cost of compliance, high cost of enforcement, and low cost of violation - also contribute to this tendency. It is often the case that the environmental protection department spends 500,000 yuan to prove an illegal emissions incident, while the final fine on the head of the offending enterprise is only 50,000 yuan, including the so-called "environmental storm" that is blowing vigorously.
Some of the billions of dollars invested in mega power plant projects, unauthorized construction in violation of environmental assessment, the final fine of only 200,000 yuan. A fine of 200,000 yuan, for an investment of more than 100 million yuan for the project, is simply a drop in the bucket. How can such a penalty be a deterrent to illegal behavior? Therefore, the Environmental Protection Act has been called the "tofu law".
An environmental storm will involve hundreds of thousands of enterprises, the result is inevitable: a large number of bankruptcies and closures, a large number of people out of work, a substantial increase in business costs, the domestic price index quickly exceeded the double-digit. Therefore, both macro-costs, or micro-costs, in fact, can not afford.
Four factors hinder the environmental governance of the environmental protection department in the process of law enforcement encountered great resistance, Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration summed up the reasons for the four aspects:
First, some places on the scientific concept of development is not in place, and simply the pursuit of economic growth rate. Some high energy consumption, heavy pollution of small smelting, small ferroalloys, small chemicals and other projects that are expressly prohibited, in some places even showed a trend of spreading.
Secondly, some local governments in the attraction of investment, one-sided emphasis on simplifying the approval, deadline for the relevant procedures. Regardless of whether the project will exist in the case of pollution, as long as the investment is approved, individual places in the environmental impact of construction projects in the approval of the existence of the "will of the head", "first on the bus, after the ticket" and other illegal phenomena.
Again, the quality of EIA needs to be improved. Some EIA units do not adhere to the scientific evaluation, do not dare to speak with objective facts and scientific data, evaluation conclusions are vague, ambiguous, the environmental feasibility of the project or not the conclusion pushed to the approval department, and even a very few EIA unit fraud, fabrication, falsification of data, or concealment of the facts, which seriously affects the implementation of the EIA system, so that the environmental impact assessment of the form, the loss of third-party The EIA system has been implemented, making the environmental impact assessment a mere formality and losing the minimum scientific and impartiality of a third-party consulting organization.
Finally, information disclosure and public participation are insufficient. The current environmental impact assessment system in China is government-led, with limited government power to regulate a huge number of construction projects, obviously out of reach.
In fact, the resistance to the EIA law has been driven by economic interests behind it.
China is a large country with very little room for maneuver in the environment, and a latecomer to the global resources and markets that have basically been carved up. China does not have any possibility of waiting until the environment is as bad as some of the first countries to govern.
But China is a developing country, and it is inevitable that it will follow the path of economic development and pollution control that others have followed.
The history of the world's countries has shown that there is a **** the same law between economic growth and environmental change: a country in the process of industrialization, there will be a period of environmental pollution with the GDP synchronous growth of the period of high speed, especially in the era of heavy industry: but when the GDP growth to a certain extent, with the industrial structure of the seniority, as well as the willingness of residents to pay for the environment to enhance. Pollution levels reach a turning point after the GDP growth will be with the GDP growth but abruptly down, until the pollution level back to the environmental capacity, this is the so-called environmental Kuznets curve, when the development process of Japan is this law.
There is no doubt that China is unlikely to cross over to such a heavy industry era. Because China's population is too large, the country is too big, can not be like Finland, in the case of the country's manufacturing industry is not developed, with the help of the globalization of the division of labor, directly into the high-tech era.
At the end of the 1990s, the author has returned to his hometown in southern Jiangsu Province, the kind of clear river water when I was a child, sitting on a boat to reach the four townships and eight towns of the scene has gone. And the author is surprised that the main factor causing this situation is the most common household waste. In China, even without the development of industry, the pollutants brought about by population growth are enough to deteriorate the environment to an intolerable point, even if the treatment of such pollution, but also need to invest a large sum of money, need to have an economic base.
China has a long way to go in combating pollution, and needs to act according to the law to stop the occurrence of vicious environmental incidents and slow down the rate of environmental deterioration.
Edit Introduction to Acid Rain:
Rain that is polluted by acidic gases present in the atmosphere and has a pH of less than 5.65 is called acid rain. What is acid? Pure water is neutral and has no flavor; lemonade, orange juice has a sour taste, vinegar has a greater sour taste, they are weak acids; baking soda water has a slightly astringent alkaline, while caustic soda water is astringent, alkaline taste is greater, they are alkaline. Scientists found that the size of the acidic flavor and hydrogen ion concentration in aqueous solution; and alkaline flavor and hydroxyl ion concentration in aqueous solution; and then established an indicator: the negative of the logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions, called the pH value. Thus, the pH value of pure water (distilled water) is 7; the more acidic it is, the lower the pH value; the more alkaline it is, the higher the pH value
Edit This New Concept of Environmental Protection: Harmonized Development of Nature and Economy Society
The deterioration of the earth's environment has aroused widespread concern, and so environmental protection is getting more and more attention from all countries. However, because environmental protection may, to a certain extent, have more difficult to harmonize with economic development and social issues in conflict, so this year, the understanding of the concept of environmental protection has become increasingly novel and reasonable.
Environmental protection is to protect the environment from pollution and damage through administrative, legal, economic, scientific and technological measures; it is also to protect and improve the environment according to the will of human beings so that it is better suited to human labor and life and the survival of living creatures in the natural world, and to eliminate those unfavorable factors that damage the environment and jeopardize the life and survival of human beings. The problems to be solved by environmental protection broadly include two aspects, one is to protect and improve the quality of the environment, to protect the physical and mental health of human beings, and to prevent the organism from mutation and degradation under the influence of the environment; and the other is to rationally utilize natural resources, to reduce or eliminate the entry of hazardous substances into the environment, as well as to protect the restoration and expansion of the reproduction of natural resources (including biological resources) for the benefit of human life activities.
Of course, environmental protection must also take into account economic growth and social development. Only the coordinated development of each other is the new concept of environmental protection in the new era.
Good or bad environmental protection is directly related to the stability of the country, and is of great significance in safeguarding the reproduction of social labor from destruction.
With the deepening of human understanding of the environment, the view that the environment is a resource is increasingly accepted. Air, water, soil, mineral resources, etc., are the natural wealth of society and the material basis for the development of production, constituting the elements of productivity. As a result of serious air pollution, air cans have been sold abroad; as a result of water pollution, climate change and excessive groundwater extraction, water shortages have occurred in many parts of the world; and as a result of population surges, the misuse of arable land, and land desertification, land is scarce, and so on. From this we can see that not protecting the environment and environmental resources will threaten the survival of human society, but also related to the national economy can continue to develop.
The industrialized countries at the beginning of this century, only pay attention to the development of the economy, without regard to environmental protection, at the expense of the environment to seek economic development. When the pollution formed a public nuisance, causing strong opposition from the general public and affecting the smooth development of the economy, only to be forced to governance, paid a high price. It has been called by later generations as taking a development path of "polluting first and treating later". This kind of development not only slows down the development of the national economy, but even destroys the material basis of national economic development. On the other hand, human beings do not act in accordance with the laws of environmental science, wantonly destroying the ecological environment, will inevitably be retaliated by the environment. Statistics show that in 1950, the forest coverage rate in Yunnan Province was 50%, and on average, the province was hit by a major drought or flood once every nine years. As a result of indiscriminate logging and other damage to the 1980 forest coverage of only 24.9%, affecting the role of climate regulation, 1950 ~ 1980 years occurred 11 disasters, so that agricultural production has been seriously broken. This is the environment to give mankind's revenge.