Lesson Plan: China’s environment

Time Content

5 mins (whole class)

Introduction Locate China on Google maps. Introduce the country’s basic geography. Point out that the West is mountainous, and the North is dry.

10 mins (whole class)

Activity Look at the “traffic”, “photos” and “weather” images on the map of China with google maps. What do they tell you about the environment in China?

10 mins (in small groups)

Activity Discuss the ideas of “sustainable development” and “environmental protection”. What do these ideas mean to you? What is the relationship between the two concepts? Are they contradictory concepts or do they go together? Discuss the four photos (without captions shown): the Leshan Buddha, polluted water and dog, man on bicycle in surgical mask, people on top of a four wheel drive vehicle. Variants:

What do these photos show? Why do you think they were taken? How could they be used to make an argument?

How do these photos compare to the ones available on google maps?

For smaller children: leave out the people on top of the vehicle. 5 mins (whole class)

Plenary Discuss what the children learned, was most interesting.

Lesson Plan: China’s environment

Aim Introduce pupils to the concepts of sustainable development and environmental protection:

get them to start thinking about what these concepts mean and how they are used in discussions about China’s environment.

Provide opportunities to develop discussion on the “development versus environment” controversy.

Provide opportunities to reflect on the values we bring to discussions of the environment, and of the ways images are used to inform and direct these discussions.

Objectives Pupils learn to distinguish sustainable development from environmental protection.

Pupils have an opportunity to discuss the ways in which development affects the environment, and the ways the environment can affect development.

Pupils have the opportunity to reflect on their own values in relation to the environment.

Resources http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/focus-on/clean-technology-and-

renewables/schwartz/index.html?cid=PS_01_46_06_00_00_02_02 , upbeat video from a corporate boss.

http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?catid=10&blogid=2&subcatid=66

Suggestions for further development Look at the history of sustainable development and environmental protection in Scotland.

Use links above to discuss the politics of sustainable development and environmental protection? Who loses and who benefits from development? What about environmental protection? Why do people argue about these issues? What is the best way of sorting out these kinds of conflicts?

Use environment as link into a discussion about the future. What kind of future can we imagine for ourselves? What do we need to do to make that future happen?

Factsheet for teachers: China’s

environment

‘Sustainable development’ and environmental protection • Policy-makers around the world began to seriously consider the environmental costs of

development in the early 1970s. This led to the first big UN conference on environmental

protection in Stockholm in 1972.

• Later, policy-makers began to try to think of ways of resolving the supposed conflict between

economic development and environmental protection. The Brundtland Commission (1987)

defined “sustainable development” as meeting the needs of the present generation without

sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This definition was

influential in the run up to UN Conference on Environment and Development, the so-called

“Earth Summit,” which was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

• The Rio conference led to the signing of important international conventions on global

environmental issues such as climate change and protecting biodiversity. It encouraged nation-

states to produce sustainable development plans and sign up to principles of environmental

protection.

• Subsequent conferences have reiterated and expanded on those goals, as well as sought ways to

coordinate the actions of different countries to deal with global challenges.

China’s responses to development challenges • Due to wars and political instability China didn’t develop very much in the second half of the 19th

century and the first half of the 20th. China’s leadership therefore has long felt the need to catch

up with other countries. Mao thought his own brand of socialism would be the best way to

achieve this, but since 1978 China’s leaders have recognized that free markets offer a better way

to develop the economy.

• China sent a delegation to the first “Earth Summit” in 1972 and has been an active participant in

international discussions about environmental protection and sustainable development since

then. For example, it responded to the 1972 conference by establishing a body charged with

environmental protection policies. This body gradually became more influential and eventually

(in 2008) became the Ministry of Environmental Protection. China was among the first countries

to produce a sustainable development plan under Agenda 21, by publishing its own Agenda 21

plan in 1994.

• The political and economic systems which emerged under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping from

1978 were geared to developing local economies by integrating with wider national and global

markets. There is no question that these systems have been massively successful in developing

China’s economy , lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and dramatically

improving the life changes of the average person in China. For example, a Chinese baby born

today can expect to live about six years longer than one born in 1980. Life expectancy has

reached 73.5 years, which is still behind Germany at 80.4 years, but ahead of Russia at 68.5 years.

• China’s leadership has also made some tough decisions which arguably benefit the environment.

For example, it introduced a one-child policy in the early 1980s to control population growth.

Environmental protection policies have gradually improved as awareness of environmental

problems has increased in the top leadership and society at large, but..

• China’s political system is quite decentralized. This makes it hard for political leaders at the top

to change the country’s direction quickly and to enforce laws if they go against the interests of

local leaders who have a vested interest in development. Also, China is reluctant to sacrifice its

own prospects of becoming a rich and powerful country in order to solve environmental

problems which resulted from other countries’ rapid development at an earlier stage in history.

This has been evident in climate change negotiations in recent years.

• Many countries benefit from China’s rapid growth. For example, in the West we benefit from

cheap consumer goods which keep inflation low. Many developing countries are benefitting

from a resource boom as they sell raw materials that fuel China’s growth. The world is thus

partly responsible for China’s environmental problems, just as China is partly responsible for

environmental problems in other countries.

China’s environmental problems • China has the largest population in the world. At 1.3 billion, this is about a fifth of the world total.

• Acid rain affects about 13% of the land area

• Around a fifth of surface water is not safe for human contact

• Air pollution from vehicles and industry is a major cause of respiratory illness. The

environmental protection authorities in China’s major cities have come under pressure to report

so-called PM2.5 ratios or the concentration of particulate matter under 2.5 micrometres in

diameter, as these particulates are thought to be especially harmful when breathed.

• China is the world’s largest emitter of CO2. Its emissions reached 8.29 billion tonnes in 2010,

ahead of the US at 5.43 billion tonnes. Its emissions are also rising fast, whilst industrialised

countries like the US and Germany tend to have more stable emissions.

• China has done a lot to make its energy use more efficient, but it is still behind technological

leaders like Germany. For example, in 2010 it used 265 kg oil equivalent per $1000 of GDP,

whereas Germany used only 119kg.

• Environmental protests in China are becoming more common as people wake up to the costs of

pollution in terms of health, life styles and development opportunities. The government worries

about the implications for political stability.