China's Soil Pollution and Degradation Problems

Claudio O. Delang

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781134851645
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Environmental Economics
• Index: Economics

China's air pollution is infamous. The haze can make it impossible to see buildings across the street, and the pollution forces schools to close and creates health and morbidity problems, in addition to tremendous environmental degradation. However, China also faces another important environmental problem, which is less well-known to the public: that of soil degradation and pollution. This book provides an overview of the problems related to soil degradation and pollution throughout China, examining how and why current policy has fallen short of expectation. It also examines the challenges faced by policy makers as they attempt to adopt sustainable practices alongside a booming and ever-expanding economy.

China's Soil Pollution and Degradation Problems utilizes grey literature such as newspaper articles, NGO reports and Chinese government information alongside academic studies in order to provide an extensive review of the challenges faced by grassroots organizations as they tackle environmental policy failings throughout China.

This book will be of great interest to students of environmental pollution and contemporary Chinese studies looking for an introduction to the topics of soil pollution and soil degradation, and for researchers looking for an extensive list of sources and analysis of China's environmental problems more broadly.

1
Introduction

China’s air pollution is infamous. The haze from belching factories and clogged highways can make it impossible to see buildings across the street. The pollution forces schools to close and creates health and morbidity problems, in addition to tremendous environmental degradation (Delang, 2016a). China’s water pollution is less well known, especially for city dwellers who don’t see the polluted rivers. However, news outlets frequently report on China’s rivers mysteriously turning red or yellow, the sudden appearance of floating bodies of dead fish, and green algae blooms coloring lakes (Delang, 2016b).

China also faces another important environmental problem, which is less well known to the public: that of soil degradation and pollution. The problem of soil degradation is not unknown to Chinese people. In northern China, people have long been suffering from dust storms from the arid Loess Plateau, a problem which the government started to address in the 1980s through a series of environmental conservation programs. In the late 1990s the government also initiated the largest forest conservation and reforestation programs in the world, in most of the central and western provinces.

However, the problem and the extent of soil pollution are less known. People do know that not all the food they eat is healthy, but they do not know the scale of the problem. Indeed, up until very recently, little was known of the true extent of soil pollution in China, since the government has consistently refused to make comprehensive soil pollution data public. In 2013, Beijing’s lawyer, Dong Zhengwei, requested soil pollution data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, including information on the causes and methods for dealing with the problem. The request was declined on the grounds that the data was a “state secret”. Nevertheless, at the end of 2013, the government released limited information on soil pollution, partly because of the strong public reaction against that refusal. Despite the lack of details, the released data caused widespread concern (He, 2014a). In April 2014, the government issued a more comprehensive report about the country’s soils (He, 2014b). The report shows that 16.1 per cent of the soil samples (19.4 per cent for agricultural soils) are contaminated with organic and chemical contaminants as well as heavy metals and metalloids such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic (Zhao et al., 2014). Chinese officials say that an area the size of Taiwan is so polluted that farming should not be allowed there at all (Wong, 2014).

This book looks at the problems of soil degradation and pollution in China through a review of official reports, academic publications, and news articles published over the last years. After this short introduction, Chapter 2 discusses the levels of soil degradation and pollution. The chapter provides data about the soil resources in China in terms of agricultural land, grassland and forestland. It then turns to the national standards that are used to assess and quantify the level of pollution of soils and the geographic distribution of soil pollution. The third part of the chapter introduces the standards of soil erosion and the geographic distribution of degraded soils.

Chapter 3 looks at the causes of soil degradation and pollution. It first discusses the levels and the causes of soil degradation, touching on wind erosion, water erosion, and freeze-thaw erosion. The land-use practices that lead to soil erosion are mainly related to agricultural and livelihood activities and include overgrazing and the collection of fuelwood and medicinal plants. The chapter then reviews the different types of soil pollutants and their distribution in China. Soil pollution is caused by both agricultural and industrial activities. Pollution from agricultural activities includes the use of industrial wastewater and urban sewage, which farmers rely on to irrigate the soil because they lack sufficient water. In addition, soil is polluted by animal waste and the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides. Pollution by industrial activities includes the accumulation of air pollutants in the soil resulting from mining, industrial activities, and transportation.

Chapter 4 discusses the impacts of soil degradation and soil pollution. Soil degradation results in nutrient loss, salinization, acidification, and desertification, with negative consequences on grain output and the production of livestock. Soil degradation also has negative consequences on ecosystem services, including damages to biodiversity, dust storms, and floods and landslides. The impact of soil pollution mainly affects China’s food security and includes heavy metal contamination and food poisoning.

The government has started to address the problem of soil degradation from the 1980s with programs that aimed to restore the original vegetation on degraded lands. On the other hand, soil pollution has only started to be addressed over the last few years, partly because the problem is directly related to industrial activities, which the government does not want to curtail. As Zhuang Guotai, the head of the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s Department of Nature and Ecology Conservation, said: “In comparison with efforts to clean up air and water pollution, we’ve hardly got started with soil. But once the market is opened up, soil remediation will be on a far bigger scale than either air or water cleanup” (He, 2014c).

Chapter 5 looks at the solutions to soil degradation and pollution. The approaches followed by the government to address soil degradation include the refinement of the legal framework, various land restoration policies (including the reforestation of dryland areas, a logging ban [the Natural Forest Protection Program], and the reforestation of wasteland and slope farmland [the Grain for Green Program]), and conservation agriculture. The solutions to soil pollution include improving the legal framework to punish polluters, identifying and monitoring the sources of pollution, and controlling the number of polluting enterprises. In addition, the government has proposed a reclassification of soil utilization to avoid employing polluted soil for agriculture, and promoting technologies to reduce soil pollutants. Not all policies pursued have been successful. For example, the reforestation of drylands has been blamed for contributing to desertification. However, it must be recognized that the government is finally acknowledging that soil degradation and pollution are problems which may imperil food security and jeopardize the development of the country and is trying to address the problem.

Bibliography

Delang, C. O. (2016a). China’s Air Pollution Problems. London: Routledge.

Delang, C. O. (2016b). China’s Water Pollution Problems. London: Routledge.

He, G. (2014a). Special report: The legacy of Hunan’s polluted soils. China Dialogue. Retrieved 15 December 2016 from www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/7076-Special-report-the-legacy-of-Hunan-s-polluted-soils

He, G. (2014b). Special report: The victims of China’s soil pollution crisis. China Dialogue. Retrieved 15 December 2016 from www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/7073-Special-report-The-victims-of-China-s-soil-pollution-crisis

He, G. (2014c). The soil pollution crisis in China: A cleanup presents daunting challenge. Environment 360. Retrieved 15 December 2016 from http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_soil_pollution_crisis_in_china_a_cleanup_presents_daunting_challenge/2786/

Wong, E. (2014). One-fifth of China’s farmland is polluted, state study finds. The New York Times. Retrieved 15 December 2016 from www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/world/asia/one-fifth-of-chinas-farmland-is-polluted-state-report-finds.html

Zhao, F. J., Ma, Y., Zhu, Y. G., Tang, Z., & McGrath, S. P. (2014). Soil contamination in China: Current status and mitigation strategies. Environmental Science & Technology, 49 (2), 750–759.

2
The levels of soil degradation and soil pollution

Introduction

Soils play a vital role in the Earth’s ecosystem and are essential to human life. Soils filter the rainwater and regulate its discharge, preventing flooding. They also buffer against pollutants, protecting groundwater quality. Soils provide plants with a foothold for their roots and hold the necessary nutrients for plants to grow. They are home to a myriad of microorganisms that decompose organic matter, fix nitrogen, and store large amounts of organic carbon, all of which are fundamental processes for natural ecosystems. With 10 cm of topsoil taking more than 2,000 years to form, one could argue they are a non-renewable resource (Kong, 2015). Soils that have lost their fertility can be restored, but only at great pains and expense; therefore, prudent strategies for soil resource management are crucial for life on the planet (Rojas, 2013). In this chapter, I discuss the current conditions of soil resources in China. I will also provide an overview of Chinese soil quality standards and the classification, degree, and distribution of soil pollution and soil degradation in China. This will provide the background to the other chapters, where the causes, consequences, and solutions to soil pollution and degradation are presented.

Soil resources in China

Agricultural land

The past 50 years have brought a significant increase in China’s agricultural productivity. The country’s land area covers 6.4 percent of the world’s total land area and 7.2 percent of its total farmland, and yet it supplies food to 22 per cent of the global population (Fan et al., 2011). According to China’s Environmental State Bulletin released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2016, until the end of 2014, China had 645.7 million hectares of farmland, with arable land covering 135 million hectares, orchard land covering 14.4 million hectares, forestland (forestland is included in the official statistic of farmland) covering 253 million hectares, and pastureland covering 219.47 million hectares (MEP, 2016). However, the quality and quantity of land suitable for farming is dropping. The same study found that by the end of 2009, the country’s land area suitable for cropping had shrunk to 0.1 ha per person over the previous three years, less than half the global average of 0.23 ha per person (China daily, 2014). In 2014, the amount of farmland had further dropped by 0.11 million hectares due to construction and natural disasters, among other reasons (MEP, 2016).

According to Liu et al. (2015), in the east of China, the area of farmland decreased mainly due to urban expansion and mining activities. On the other hand, in central and western China, the area of farmland decreased because of the Grain for Green conservation program, which involved converting croplands to woodlands and grasslands in areas with highly vulnerable ecosystems (Delang and Yuan, 2015). Finally, in the semi-arid and arid regions of northern China, the area of cropland increased due to the reclamation of grassland (Liu et al., 2015).

Apart from such regional changes, Xiao et al. (2015) also found that the ratio between irrigated farmland and rainfed farmland areas has changed significantly. Irrigated farmlands refer to agricultural lands where water is supplied to crops artificially, while rainfed farmlands receive their water from rainfall (Salmon et al., 2015). Irrigated farmland is usually more productive than rainfed farmland, because the timing – and amount – of water supplied to the plants can be regulated (most crops produce ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The levels of soil degradation and soil pollution
• 3 The causes of soil degradation and soil pollution
• 4 The impacts of soil degradation and soil pollution
• 5 The solutions to soil degradation and soil pollution
• Index