The Role of Grassroots movements and Non-Governmental Officials.
Grassroots activism and non-governmental officials’ efforts have led to some small changes, villagers sometime try to block traffic to factories or ‘tamper with water supply systems in order to gain attention’ (Liu, 2010). Such activities and protests lead to riots. The Chinese government often supress activists, arresting or shutting down protests. Wang Linsheng was fired from his position as Chinese Communist Party secretary after telling the media how many villagers had died of cancer. However, these grassroots movements and NGO efforts to gain significant media attention led to a government investment of four million Renminbi to build a drinking water reservoir. Green Anhui achieved success by helping ‘farmers collect evidence, gain media coverage, and drive the three chemical factories away from their village’ (Liu, 2010), this removal of the three polluters that occupied this village meant that the sources of the water and air pollution that had been causing cancer were gone. It is important that the Chinese government are willing to cooperate with civil society, there have been reports of harassment, assault and prosecutions to activists who were looking to get credible evidence. These grassroot movements have has particular success, Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau put a halt to chemical factories in one district in order to inspect them, only three of them were allowed to reopen. Although the Chinese government has often dismissed and supressed activists and media, they have reportedly allowed more citizen involvement in environmental protection. NGO’s have a been successful in educating, holding campaigns and conservation projects, there has been less success in influencing government decisions. It is necessary that international and national NGO’s work together.
Applying The Environmental Kuznets Curve.
China employs the ‘grow first and clean up later’, the environment suffers as a result of rapid industrialisation and increasing GDP. In short, the Environmental Kuznets curve (ECK) posits that as economic growth occurs in the initial stage of industrialisation, environmental degradation occurs, thereafter once per capita income has reached a certain threshold, people can then afford to demand a better environment. These cancer villages provide empirical evidence of how these early stages of economic development can cause damages of such magnitude that they are irreversible. It is unlikely to see the level of pollution in these villages decrease, meaning that in the l