Energy Consumption

China’s water is polluted also by the disposal of waste. There have been large quantities of deposits of organic and toxic waste from households, agriculture and industry.

Deforestation has caused the flow of bud along the rivers and affects water supply and quality. People’s Daily, June 12, 2007 reports that Lake Taihu was covered with a foul-smelling algae and freshwater was shut off for more than 2 million people in Wuxi due to the blue-algae infestation of the lake.

Besides the poor quality of water there is the problem of the shortage of water.  Water beds of several important cities including Beijing and Shanghai are low, causing shortage of supply of well water. Supply of waters from rivers including the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are running short because of diversion to agriculture production and electricity generation along the sources.

 Energy Consumption

According to “China country analysis brief” published by the US Department of Energy (2001) China accounted for 9.8% of world energy consumption. By 2025, projections indicate that China will be responsible for approximately 14.2% of world energy consumption. Of the 40 quadrillion Btu of total primary energy consumed in China in 2001, 63% was coal, 26% was oil, 7% hydroelectricity, and 3% natural gas. While residential consumption has increased its share of China's energy demand over the last decade, the largest absolute gains in consumption were from the industrial sector. In 2001, China’s energy intensity as measured by thousand Btu per 1990 dollars of output was as high as 36 thousand, as compared with 21 thousand for Indonesia, 13 thousand for South Korea, 4 thousand for Japan and 11 thousand for the United States, because of differences in output mix among these countries and in energy intensities in producing the same products.

While China ranks second in the world behind the United States in total energy consumption and carbon emissions, its per capita energy consumption and carbon emissions are much lower than the world average. In 2001, the United States had a per