China’s Economic Engine Forced to Face Environmental Deficit

[YankeyMCC]

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For years, eastern China’s Jiangsu province has proudly led the rest of the country in economic production. With a population of 74 million, the province’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) leapfrogged from US$1,000 in 1996 to US$3,038 in 2005, making it the first province to exceed the US$3,000 mark, five years ahead of schedule. With merely 1 percent of China’s total land area, Jiangsu claims 15 percent of the country’s overall industrial output and 10 percent of its GDP.

But the country’s leading economic powerhouse is now forced to face its own environmental woes following a sudden outbreak of algae in Taihu Lakein southern Jiangsu. The algae bloom cut off the tap water supply to more than 2 million people in Wuxi City in late May.

In early July, a top provincial official called on the industrially booming region to sacrifice its GDP growth in order to balance the “green” deficit it owes to China’s third largest freshwater lake. After a series of intensive, high-profile efforts by the central government to address the lake’s pollution, Jiangsu Provincial Communist Party Secretary Li Yuanchao urged local officials to spare no efforts in cleaning up the water body, even at the cost of economic growth.
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The Taihu Lake incident in Jiangsu reflects the dilemma of environmental deterioration vis-à-vis rapid economic growth in China as a whole. Three decades of continuous industrial development has not only created an economic miracle, but also led to environmental havoc as a result of high energy consumption and unchecked pollution. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people potentially lack clean and safe drinking water because 70 percent of the country’s rivers and lakes are contaminated (28 percent of which suffer from serious pollution and are not fit for irrigation or even industrial use) and 90 percent of the country’s groundwater is undrinkable, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
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http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5259

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My reason for posting this is it just provides such a clear, unambigous example of the problem created when GDP is used as the primary (only) measure of success of society.

[GliderGuider]

1. You mean Adam Smith's invisible hand won't pick up after us?

Don't forget about the externalities, folks. Our unfolding ecological nightmare is the Tragedy of the Commons painted on a global canvas. This is indeed a clear-cut (if you'll pardon the image) example. Thanks for posting it.