CHINA’S POLLUTED ENVIRONMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMANITY.

Today China has many problems. For starters, many Chinese citizens are freezing this winter not only because it’s impossible to mine coal in the usual mining areas of that vast country. Due to punitive downpours of rain. For some period of time, the CCP has been trying to punish Australia for speaking out on several issues of international import. Including China’s belligerent posture towards many of its neighbors. Along with its clumsy attempts to cover up the true origin of the Covid-19 Virus. As a retaliatory measure, the CCP has blocked the importation of Australian coal. However, by doing so they have only increased the winter misery of their own citizens.

Another serious problem being faced by China is air pollution. Recently the Chinese Capital of Beijing has been shrouded in heavy smog. With visibility in that city falling to less than 200 meters. The concentration of pollution particles in the air that people try to breathe reached such an unhealthy level. That, schools were ordered to stop Physical Education classes and outdoor activities. Highways were also closed due to poor visibility. Authorities blamed the smog on unfavorable weather conditions and regional pollution spread. China happens to be the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Primarily because it generates about sixty percent of its energy needs by burning coal. The dense clouds of smoke ascending from China’s gigantic power plants are the main causes of smog in northern China. (Paraphrased from The China Morning Post).

China was home to many of the world’s most polluted cities and is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) region experienced particularly severe air pollution, with an annual average fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentration of 93 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m³) in 2014, which far exceeded both China’s national standard and the standard advised by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to 2015 estimates by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning (CAEP), emissions of PM_2.5, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) substantially exceeded the cities’ environmental absorptive capacity by 80 percent, 50 percent, and 70 percent respectively. (THE WORLD BANK, CHINA: Fighting Air Pollution And Climate Change Through Clean Energy Financing).

China is also wrestling with an extremely serious water pollution problem. More than eighty percent of China’s groundwater is heavily polluted. Industrial pollution and farming have rendered them unsuitable for human utilization. According to statistics reported by the Chinese media more than eighty percent of the underground water in large river basins of mainland China is unfit for drinking or bathing. Because of contamination from industry and agricultural activities. Approximately four hundred out of six hundred cities in the country use groundwater as their source of drinking water. Contaminants like fluoride, manganese, and compounds used in fungicides were found present in the water.

Much of China’s farmland is contaminated by pollutants, including arsenic and heavy metals. Such contaminants pose a threat to the country’s food production according to experts. The professional assessments of contamination levels go as high as forty percent. More areas are gradually being affected. The degree of contamination is intensifying and the range of toxins is increasing. Pollutants can stay in the soil for several hundred years unless it’s properly treated. China’s worst soil contamination is caused by arsenic release during the mining of copper and other metals. Arsenic is the most dangerous chemical and China operates approximately two hundred and eighty thousand mines. Current estimates are that fifty percent of the farmland in Southern China is polluted by heavy metals including Cadmium, Arsenic, Mercury, and also petroleum organic compounds. (Paraphrased from CN News: China’s Soil Pollution Problem)

The convergence of toxic waste and agriculture has resulted in a soil contamination crisis in China—nearly one-fifth of China’s farmland is polluted.  For example, in Hunan Province, a center of non-ferrous metal mining, it is estimated that 10% of the rice is contaminated with cadmium, a carcinogenic chemical. (Wilson Center, September 18, 2014)

But how and why was this state of affairs arrived at? The Bible tells us that originally God made everything perfect. We read, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. (Genesis 1:31 NKJV). China is not the only country suffering from environmental degradation. This quagmire is universal. But in China, the problem is most acute. Just as emotionally disturbed children violently destroy their toys and are often cruel towards animals. In like manner, the human race is busy building weapons of mass destruction to destroy civilization. As if that development wasn’t serious enough, now we are polluting the environment so severely that ultimately the earth will be uninhabitable. We have some extremely serious problems. We are instructed, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV)

The problem of human wickedness is not confined to any one race it’s universal, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23 NKJV). Furthermore, lest anyone should be seduced into thinking that some people are better than others. We are cautioned, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” Romans 3:10-12 (NKJV). As long as humanity is grappling with the sin problem. Nowhere will be safe from us while we are living there. Not even the planet Mars will be safe. Since the theologically ignorant Mr. Elon Musk, who doesn’t even pray, would like to build a human colony there.

The wise man Solomon stated over three millennia of time ago, “That which has been, is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NKJV). In other words, the very same moral and environmental crises that we are experiencing today existed in prehistoric times. In the first book of the Bible, we read, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually… The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:5,11. NKJV). For thousands of years, wise men have wondered about the mysteries of virtue and goodness. During the Middle Ages, various people made pilgrimages to holy shrines just to achieve a deeper spiritual experience and possibly change. The Savior summed it all up when Nicodemus, a prominent member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Paid Him a visit one evening after dark; because he was also desperately searching for TRUTH. The world’s Redeemer hit the nail right on the head by asserting, “Most assuredly, I say to you unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 NKJV)