The increasingly serious environmental problems in China are inseparable from the extensive economic growth mode of high consumption and high pollution. There are other subjective and objective reasons behind this extensive growth. What is it? The following is my introduction to the causes of environmental pollution. I hope I can help you.
I. epistemological roots of environmental problems
1. The misleading of anthropocentrism.
Many environmental problems in modern times are largely due to people's short-sightedness and blind spots in cognition. They are manifested in the problem of human sharing, which is a series of wrong views of nature - natural cybernetics, environmental determinism and anthropocentrism; On the issue of the relationship between human and social development, it is a mechanical concept of development. (Wu Zifang et al. "Ecological crisis and regulation mechanism of China's coastal cities -- Taking the urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta as an example", China's population, resources and environment, issue 3, 2009) for a long time, people have focused on human beings, ignored nature and human survival essence, amplified human subjectivity and believed that human beings can become conquerors of nature. Ignoring the existence and value of nature has made the development of civilization step by step towards the opposite of mankind. While pursuing progress, mankind has also set obstacles and traps for its sustainable development.
2. Lack of business knowledge and low quality of managers.
Although the "quality" and "quantity" of China's EIA team have been greatly improved in the past 30 years, the professional quality of the EIA team is still uneven. Some EIA personnel have low professional quality, weak sense of responsibility, do not adhere to scientific evaluation, and cannot speak with objective facts and scientific data. The evaluation conclusion is vague and ambiguous. Some environmental assessment units or assessment experts, out of consideration of economic interests, stand on the position of investors, can not consider the environmental load in an all-round way, and lose the minimum scientificity and impartiality of the third-party consulting organization; In addition, some EIA units have resorted to fraud, fabricated or forged data, or concealed facts, which has seriously affected the implementation of the environmental impact assessment system. These phenomena make the environmental problems gradually worsen due to the neglect of supervision.
3. Weak legal awareness and weak concept of handling affairs according to law.
The "Yuanmingyuan incident" in the "EIA storm" in 2009 reflects people's lack of legal awareness and the concept of handling affairs according to law. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen the study of laws and regulations and strengthen the concept of handling affairs according to law in the whole society.
4. The concept of tourism tends to be the same, and the aesthetic interest is monotonous.
It must be admitted that the original intention of many projects is only to develop tourism resources to "meet the needs of tourists". However, only from the narrow concept of tourism, this aesthetic perspective and interest will be biased. Today, with the vigorous development of tourism resources in China, aesthetic taste is also developing abnormally. Take the Old Summer Palace as an example. If we equate the Old Summer Palace with an ordinary Park, we will belittle its value as a master of cultural sites and Chinese gardens. The Old Summer Palace is not only a historical witness of the Chinese nation being invaded by Western powers and trampled on by Western civilization, but also a rare place for the people of the whole country and the world to recall and reflect; It is also a rare specimen that embodies the essence of Chinese traditional culture. The Management Office of the Old Summer Palace should make great efforts to guide Chinese and foreign tourists to learn and absorb the wisdom of the ancient Chinese, rather than keen on boating tourism and creating new artificial scenic spots. Therefore, this narrow concept and aesthetic taste of tourism need to be updated.
II. Economic root causes of environmental problems
1. Enterprises pursue high profits and have weak awareness of environmental protection.
At present, China is in the transition period from planned economy to market economy. At the same time, it is the initial stage of socialism. Most of the economic development is extensive. Most enterprises only pursue profits and pay no attention to environmental protection. They even sacrifice the environment at the cost of pursuing high profits. There is no way to talk about environmental protection consciousness.
2. In order to pursue political achievements, local officials pay more attention to economic development than environmental protection.
Local governments at all levels, as primary stakeholders, often take administrative means to implement local protection in order to maximize their interests, but pay little attention to the cross-border ecological environment. There is not enough awareness to adhere to and improve the environmental target responsibility system of governments at all levels, improve the target management system of comprehensive environmental improvement, and include indicators such as the improvement range of environmental quality and the reduction rate of total pollutant emission into the assessment and evaluation. The problem that local governments are eager for quick success and instant benefits in pursuit of short-term political achievements, and even sacrifice the environment for economic development is still very serious.
According to environmental factors: air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution.
According to human activities: industrial environmental pollution, urban environmental pollution and agricultural environmental pollution.
According to the nature and source of environmental pollution: chemical pollution, biological pollution, physical pollution (noise pollution, radioactivity, electromagnetic wave), solid waste pollution and energy pollution.
Environmental pollution will cause direct damage and impact to the ecosystem, such as desertification and forest damage, and also cause indirect harm to the ecosystem and human society. Sometimes the harm of this indirect environmental effect is greater and more difficult to eliminate than the direct harm caused at that time. For example, greenhouse effect, acid rain, and ozone layer destruction are environmental effects derived from air pollution. This environmental effect derived from environmental pollution has a lag, which is often difficult to detect or predict when the pollution occurs. However, once it occurs, it means that the environmental pollution has developed to a very serious level. Of course, the most direct and easily felt consequence of environmental pollution is to reduce the quality of human environment and affect human quality of life, health and production activities. For example, city air pollution causes air pollution, people's incidence rate rises and so on. Water pollution worsens the quality of water environment, generally reduces the quality of drinking water sources, threatens human health, causes premature birth or malformation of fetus and so on. Serious pollution incidents not only bring health problems, but also social problems. With the aggravation of pollution and the improvement of people's environmental awareness, the population disputes and conflicts caused by pollution are increasing year by year.
At present, environmental pollution problems have appeared in varying degrees all over the world. The aspects with global impact include atmospheric environmental pollution, marine pollution, urban environmental problems and so on. With the globalization of economy and trade, environmental pollution is increasingly showing an international trend. The problem of transboundary movement of hazardous wastes in recent years is a prominent manifestation in this regard.
Harm to human health
People need to breathe air to sustain life. An adult breathes about 20000 times a day and inhales 15-20 cubic meters of air. Therefore, the polluted air has a direct impact on human health.
The harm of air pollutants to human body is multifaceted, including respiratory system damage, physiological dysfunction, digestive system disorder, nervous system abnormality, mental decline, cancer and disability. For example, from December 5 to 8, 1952, 4000 people died in the coal smoke incident in London, England. People call the smoke of this disaster "the smoke of murder". According to the analysis, this is because there was no wind and fog in London in those days, and the exhaust smoke and dust from factory chimneys and residents' heating diffuse in downtown London for a long time, with the maximum concentration of smoke and dust reaching 4.46 mg / m ³， The daily average concentration of sulfur dioxide reached 3.83 ml / m3. After some chemical reaction, sulfur dioxide generates sulfuric acid droplets, which are attached to the smoke or condensed on the fog droplets and enter the organs with the breath, causing people to get sick or accelerating the death of patients with chronic diseases. This is called photochemical pollution.
It can be seen from the above example that when the concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere is very high, it will cause acute pollution poisoning, or worsen the disease, and even kill thousands of people in a few days. In fact, even if the concentration of pollutants in the air is not high, the human body breathing this polluted air over the years will also cause chronic bronchitis, bronchial asthma, emphysema, lung cancer and other diseases.
Environmental pollution and cancer
A large number of research data show that environmental pollution is an extremely important cause of cancer. Relying on the strength of the whole society and taking comprehensive measures to effectively control environmental pollution is an important part of comprehensive cancer prevention measures.
Harm to plants
The harm of air pollutants, especially sulfur dioxide and fluoride, to plants is very serious. When the concentration of pollutants is very high, it will cause acute harm to plants, causing injury spots on the surface of plant leaves, or directly causing leaves to wither and fall off; When the concentration of pollutants is not high, it will cause chronic harm to plants, making plant leaves chlorotic, or there are no harmful symptoms on the surface, but the physiological function of plants has been affected, resulting in the decline of plant yield and deterioration of quality.