The number of cancer patients is steadily increasing, deaths resulting from pollution continue to rise, and life expectancy continuously declines. The youngest lung cancer patient ever was recently recorded in China, an 8 year old girl. This is far from unusual as the Chinese population has 1/3 of the world’s lung cancer patients. In fact, from 2002 to 2011, cancer patients in Bejiing have doubled (Telegraph UK). Cancer in China has become so rampant that it has created a new term to describe the relative concentration of cancer patients as a “cancer village”. These are near large factories that put out dangerous products and according to Chinese Environmental Experts around four hundred and fifty of these exist. While some of this can be attributed to cigarette smoking, many young people who do not smoke and do not live in smoking environments are catching pollution related lung cancer. Dana Loomis, an expert at the World Health Organization stated, “With the levels of pollution existing in Europe, the risks associated with exposure to air pollution are comparable to passive smoking… You could expect higher risks in more polluted areas." A specific example of this harmful pollution come from the production of metals. Many Chinese children have been affected with lead poisoning just because of in air pollution from lead production (NCBI). Young people in china are continuously affected …show more content…
The amount of money China is apparently spending to fix the environment is also quite impressive as Bloomberg reports that China has put around 294 billion dollars into cleaner energy sources and environmental rehab (Landberg). This amount of money has certainly put the Chinese into debt, forcing them to produce more goods, creating more pollution. Yet from a social standpoint it is evident that something more needs to be done. People throughout China and the world continuously protest for change. In China from a human’s standpoint, they face poor and a severe lack of resources like water, unlivable conditions in cities, and atrocious human health. At this point, it appears that China’s environment may even be unrepairable as a result of lack of environmental concern in the past. With a depleted environment and a lot of work needed to be done is it even worth China trying to fix their problems? Looking at recent Chinese action, it apparently is. But what will China and other countries to do help this problem without destroying one another’s economy? And has solving this problem become up to the current global leader, the United