China's Growing Pains

Wrenching environmental problems are plaguing the world's newest industrial powerhouse. Can China clean up its act?
Ads for the latest electronic tools and toys at the COMDEX technology trade fair in Beijing reflectChina's roaring economy and its move toward a consumer society China's appetite for high-tech goods is enormous: The government recently reported that there are more than 260 million cell phone users—so many that they are believed to outnumber subscribers to conventional phone service.
This house in Yuan Pu, a remote village in China's northern Qinghai Province, has electricity, though about half the homes in the area do not—yet. The government of China is spending billions of dollars building and upgrading rural electricity networks. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power are playing a part in this electrification effort, and the U.S. Department of Energy provides assistance through partnerships with its National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Toxic sulfur dioxide and other pollutants billow into China's atmosphere from plants such as this coal-powered ironworks in Pianguan. For the bulk of its energy China relies on coal, a leading source of acid rain and pollution. Indoor and outdoor air quality is so bad that the World Bank estimates that more than a quarter of a million deaths each year could be avoided if China succeeded in its pollution control efforts.
A flat tire slows the transport of a bok choy tower through the streets of Kunming in Yunnan Province. Such vegetables—eaten with rice and fish—have traditionally formed the bulk of the Chinese diet. But more demand for meat from people with rising incomes, particularly in urban areas, has resulted in increased livestock farming and livestock feed production. Runoff of untreated livestock waste adds to pollution in rivers and lakes. Medical researchers are concerned that eating more meat will result in an increase in heart disease and stroke.