IE admission essayIE admission essay

G. local inhabitants' lifestyle &sustaG. local inhabitants' lifestyle &sustainable developmentinable development

——————Hao WUHao WU

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

--------Brundtland Report, 1987

• Environmental (ecological) sustainability

• Economical sustainability

• Social sustainability

What is sustainable development?What is sustainable development?

Caution !Caution !

•The consumptive lifestyle.Exploiting resources for short term growth and ignoring the cost for future.

•The profit priority lifestyle.Sacrifising environment and morality.

•The incorrect personal lifestyles.Vanity,laziness, waste, social responsibility etc.

Sustainable development in ChinSustainable development in Chinaa

As early as in 1996, the Chinese Government made sustainable development one of the most important policies. But the situation has been improved very little and lifestyles of the majority have not changed, or even worse.

Let's have a look at the examples of what is going on in my hometown Jiaxing, a middle size city in south China.

The consumptive lifestyleThe consumptive lifestyle..

Local Examples:Local Examples:••Over constructing&Plowland decreasing.Over constructing&Plowland decreasing.

In 1996, Jiaxing city area is 25 km2.In 2005, Jiaxing city area is 60.5 km2.In 2011, Jiaxing city area is 95 km2.

2000 2005 2010

3040

5060

7080

90

Year

Are

a in

km

^2

Over ConstructionOver ConstructionvsvsEmpty FlatsEmpty Flats

The official vacancy rate: 48.76% in 2007.How about the real rate?

Over ConstructionOver ConstructionvsvsEmpty FlatsEmpty Flats

Plowland decreasingPlowland decreasing

Jiaxing used to be famous as "the city of rice and fish".

Plowland decreasingPlowland decreasing

Over construction leads to plowland's decrease surround the city.

The profit priority lifestyle.The profit priority lifestyle.

Local Examples(pollusion):Local Examples(pollusion):••Water pollusion.Water pollusion.••The famous "dead pigs worry" near Shanghai.The famous "dead pigs worry" near Shanghai.

Pollusion is a typical example of market failures——Negative Externality.

•Factories do not take pollusion as a production cost, but the environment does.

•The nature has self-cleaning ability, but only up to a certain limit. Once this limit is past, environment will be destroyed suddenly.

Water pollusionWater pollusion

"Dead pigs worry""Dead pigs worry"

SHANGHAI—Chinese authorities said they found more than 3,300 dead pigs in a river that supplies water to Shanghai, a stark illustration of China's problems with environmental pollution.——by Wall Street Journal, March 11th.

"Dead pigs worry""Dead pigs worry"

By the "DF Daily", the dead pigs come from Xinfeng Town, Jiaxing City,whose main income is from raising pigs.

According to the report, raising pigs is actually high pollutional.Dealing with pig waste and dead pigs is expansive.

The Incorrect personal lifestyles.The Incorrect personal lifestyles.

Local Examples:Local Examples:••Traffic congestions and private carsTraffic congestions and private cars••VanityVanity

"Traffic Problems""Traffic Problems"

Silently, Jiaxing has arrived the time for traffic jamtraffic jam and traffic-led air pollutiontraffic-led air pollution.Local government has expanded the public transport system but citizens prefer using private cars.

One said to a journalist:"Everyone else is using private car. Why should I take a bus?"This is a typical example of lack of social responsibility, which is inconsistant tosustainable development.

"Traffic Problems""Traffic Problems"

Statistics:•The Jiaxing polulation is 419 in 2007 and 450 in 2012 (in 10,000 units, recorded at the end of the year) .The population increased by only 7% in 5 years.

•However,there are 47.6 vehicles in 2011 compared with 57.7 in 2012.The number of vehicles increased by 21% in a single year!

•In China , each family has roughly 3 persons on average.This means one car for every 3 families.And think about the high population density in China !

Note: The traffic problem is even worse than expected because of the unplanned fast expansion of city size.

(Background is a diagram of number of vehicles registered "place of purchase" as "Jiaxing"in each month 2012.)

"Vanity of citizens""Vanity of citizens"

The reason for China being the largest luxury goods market is:Not only the rich buy luxuries, but also the poor.

Some spent all their salaries for class LV bags.Some couldn't affort so that they buy imitated LV bags.

A bag can't change who you are.A bag can't make your life better.

How can we improve the lifestyles inconsistent to sustainable develop

ment?

Causes?

Solutions

Short term

Long term

Causes:• Fast growth out of control. Having been growing fast for more than 10 years, the pace is very h

ard to slow. For example, if the constructions stop, there will be many workers b

ecoming unemployed. As a result, they have less to spend in the market,contribute less to taxation, but become more reliable on social welfare.

• Government policy makers' promotion on consumption.

Demand pulls economical growth and the multiplier effect makes every penny spent more valuable in reality.

Especially when the international market is weak, domestic market growth cannot slow down.

Actually, the Chinese government has spent lots money promoting the market, which is similar to the US's Quantitive easing.

Causes(continue):

• Flaws in environmental laws or lack of regulations. Different from the western countries, who have a well established law system.

For a long time ,there is a blank in environmental laws in China while the most efficient way to stop market failure caused by externality is using government enforcement.

• The increasing wealth gap between the rich and the poor. The Gini coefficient of China is very poor. This causes the majority poor being

more anti-social and feeling unbalanced. Imitated brand bags are direct results of the self-console attitude.

• Misunderstandings of life value or misleading life goals. Income has been long treated as the standard of life success and the fierce co

mpetitiveness has an incredible impact on young people.

Short term solutions

• Government Enforcement

• Brand & Patent protection

• Promoting waste division and recycle

• Advertising on morality and social responsibility

Long term solutions

• Education

• Pollusion Permit Trading Scheme

• Better structured social welfare scheme& taxation scheme

• Promoting balanced growth

Jiaxing in Action(Government)• Increase Government environmental spendin

g

Government spending on Environment Treatment (RMB)

2011 87,000,000

2012 140,000,000 increased by 61%

• Investigate pollution resources and distribution(2012)

Made 30 investigational trips; Set 500 water pollution test points; Detected 18311 pollution resources; and so on.

• Reduce pollution Closed 3 high pollution factories and improved 39 factories;

Rejected 1000 high pollution projects since 2008; and so on.

Jiaxing in Action(Government)

Jiaxing in Action(Education)

In school

Topics in picturesLeft: protect resourcesRight:start from ourselves

Jiaxing in Action(Society)

In society

Topics in picturesLeft: Healthy life styleRight:Protect plough land

The end.

Sustainable Lifestyle needs everyone's contribute.

Hometown Protection needs everyone's

effort.

We have only one world, we have only one home.

——— Presented by Howe