2015 Accelerated Geography of China Lesson Plan
Dates:
Day One:
1. Quiet Question: Type Two Prompt---Continuing with the water theme that we began in the
Middle East Unit, we are going to watch a You Tube Documentary on China’s water issues
titled “China Water Pollution and Shortage” and use the included “China’s Water Pollution
Crisis” article by Elizabeth C. Economy published on January 22, 2013. Then you and your
partner are going to complete the prompt.
Now you and your partner are going to complete the following Reflection Questions.
a)What is the current state of China’s water situation? Explain. Why is it this way?
Give TWO DIFFERENT PIECES OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE from either the article and/or the
documentary that support this. Be sure to explain each!
1)
2)
b)What is being done by the environmentalists, the Chinese government, and/or businesses to try to
correct the problem? Explain their actions or lack of action.
Give TWO DIFFERENT PIECES OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE from either the article and/or the
documentary that support this? Be sure to explain each.
1)
2)
“China’s Water Pollution Crisis”
By Elizabeth C. Economy
January 22, 2013
According to one report, “up to 40 percent of China’s rivers were seriously polluted” and “20
percent were so polluted their water quality was rated too toxic even to come into contact with.”
In recent weeks, Chinese and western media have been all atwitter over the shocking levels of air
pollution in Beijing and a number of other Chinese cities. But it really shouldn’t be all that
shocking. After all, in 2007, the World Bank and China’s own State Environmental Protection
Administration (now the Ministry of Environmental Protection) found that that as many as
750,000 people die prematurely in China annually from respiratory disease related to air
pollution. And more recently, Greenpeace Beijing reported that in 2011 in four major cities, more
than 8,000 people died prematurely as a result of just one pollutant, PM 2.5. Anyone who spends
any time in Beijing knows that the city has not yet found a way to tackle the myriad sources of air
pollution from construction to cars to coal.
As frightening as the country’s smog-filled skies might be, the country’s water pollution is easily as
alarming. According to one 2012 report, “up to 40 percent of China’s rivers were seriously
polluted” and “20 percent were so polluted their water quality was rated too toxic even to come
into contact with.” Part of the explanation may rest in the “estimated 10,000 petrochemical plants
along the Yangtze and 4000 along the Yellow Rivers.” (And the Yellow and Yangtze are not even
the most polluted of China’s seven major rivers.) On top of whatever polluted wastewater might
be leaching or simply dumped into China’s rivers from these factories, the Ministry of Supervision
reports that there are almost 1,700 water pollution accidents annually. The total cost in terms of
human life: 60,000 premature deaths annually.
While the macro picture is concerning, even more worrying is that individual Chinese don’t know
whether their water is safe to drink or not. A Chinese newspaper, the Southern Weekly, recently
featured an interview with a married couple, both of whom are water experts in Beijing. They
stated that they hadn’t drunk from the tap in twenty years, and have watched the water quality
deteriorate significantly over just the past few years, even while state officials claim that more
than 80 percent of water leaving treatment facilities met government standards in 2011.
It is difficult to get the straight story. According to one report by Century Weekly, there are a
number of reasons for differing assessments of the country’s water quality: 1) the frequency of
testing at treatment plants is too low, and only 40 percent of the treatment plants in China’s
thirty-five major cities have the capacity to test for all 106 indicators in any case; 2) there are only
a few independent water-quality monitoring bureaus, and most water testing is done in-house by
the same water-treatment plant being evaluated; 3) there is weak transparency from local
governments as to the results of the tests; and 4) no water testing accounts for the contamination
that occurs from the aging and degraded pipes through which the water is transmitted to Chinese
households.
China’s environmental challenges are long in the making, not simply a function of the past thirty
years of reform. As one reporter has noted, Beijing in the 1950s transformed from a city that “did
not produce even pencils” to one that boasted “700 factories and 2000 blast furnaces belching
soot in the air.” In his 1991 book Environmental Management in China, QuGeping, China’s first
director of the country’s National Environmental Protection Agency, further commented about
that time: “The environmental situation quickly deteriorated. A lot of places were polluted by
either smog, sewage waters or rubbish. Biological resources, forests in particular, were seriously
damaged, causing several losses to the ecosystem. There was extensive destruction of the natural
environment of our country.”
In the 1950s, China, like other countries, neither understood well nor had the capacity to deal
effectively with the environmental and health challenges its rapid development was creating.
Today, however, China has both the knowledge and the capability. In the midst of the recent air
pollution crisis, Premier-elect Li Keqiang said it would take time to address the air pollution
problem: “There has been a long-term buildup to this problem, and the resolution will require a
long-term process. But we must act.” In the meantime, the Chinese people can only wear their
masks, buy their bottled water, and hope they are not in this year’s batch of pollution-related
casualties.
Elizabeth C. Economy is C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies at the Council on
Foreign Relations. She is an expert on Chinese domestic and foreign policy and U.S.-China relations
and author of the award-winning book, 'The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to
China's Future.' She blogs at Asia Unbound, where this piece originally appeared.
You Tube Documentary: China Water Pollution and Shortage
Published on Feb 10, 2014 with running time of 7:25 minutes
CLICK TO WATCH FULL DOCUMENTARY ONLINE: http://www.docsonline.tv/documentary/271
THIS FRAGMENT OF THE DOCUMENTARY "CHINA ON CHINA, SUN WIND BUT NO WATER" IS FOR
PROMOTION PURPOSES ONLY. WE DO NOT OWN THE MATERIAL EXCLUSIVELY, BUT HAVE A LICENSE
CONTRACT FOR INTERNET STREAMING.
Over the past decennia, China has become the factory of the world. The economical growth has
benefited the country in many ways, improving the lives of many citizens. However, the
industrialization has been disastrous for the environment and the living conditions of many others.
The ground water near Bejing is sinking one meter each year and drought has become a serious
problem. Also, water pollution as waste water out of the sewers flows directly into the Liangshui
river. Near the idyllic West Lake in Hangzhou, families are fighting the severe air pollution by multiple
factories. Is China ready for a clean future, by applying current technological developments on solar
and wind energy?
Environmental Interest
The environmental issues in China discussed in the documentary have a major impact on the
biophysical environment as well as human health. Especially the growing amount of motor vehicles
and industries such as the coal industry due to rapid industrialization has severe consequences for
China and its population. Negative effects are water pollution and water shortages, air pollution,
deforestation and desertification. As a result, the Chinese government has undertaken actions, such
as implementation of stricter environmental regulations and shutting down of some polluting
industries. However, government actions haven’t been adequate enough. The environmental issues
have led to growing concerns and a growing group of Chinese activists, fearing for their environment
and living conditions. Promotion of clean energy technology, such as solar energy and wind power has
become increasingly important. Solar power is a growing industry for power generation and water
heating. Examples are the clean energy urban projects in the Solar Valley in Dezhou city. China is
already the largest wind energy provider worldwide.
About the Series
China on China is an eight-part documentary series dealing with politics and daily life in today’s China.
After centuries of Western dominance, the world’s center of economic and political weight is
shifting eastward. In just 30 years, China has risen from longstanding poverty to being the second
largest economy in the world, faster than any other country in history. What China says and does is
therefore of great importance to the entire world. The series provides a rare insight into the
reinvention of this Eastern superpower.
2. Class: The introduction activity only touches the tip of the iceberg of the environmental
problems that have been created in China as China has chosen to sacrifice its environment and
the quality of life of its people for significant economic growth. With this lesson, we will be
examining the defining geographic characteristics of China and its ongoing environmental
struggles. We will be doing this through two different ways:
a) The teacher lecture on the key geographic features
b) The group jigsaw homework on the environmental problems.
3. Class: The teacher is going to begin the China’s Geography PowerPoint Lecture, and you are to
take notes in the provided graphic organizer.
4. Homework: You will be assigned one of the following environmental issues facing China to
read and take notes in the separate graphic organizer from the China’s Environmental
Problems PowerPoint and/or the Three Gorges Dam PowerPoint uploaded on the teacher
page. You will be teaching this material to your group members on the third day of this
lesson. YOU HAVE ONLY ONE NIGHT TO DO THIS. The next night will be the labeling and
color-coding of the maps of China.
Jigsaw Topics: Five People Per Group
a) Water Shortage and Water Pollution: Slides 5-28 (One Person in Group)
b) Air Pollution and Smog: Slides 29-52 (One Person in Group)
c) Deforestation and Desertification: Slides 53-64 and Overall Effects and Impact on China and
World: Slides 65-70 (One Person In Group)
d) Three Gorges Dam---Separate PowerPoint: Slides 27-78 (Two People in Group)
a. Focus Only On Environmental Topics of:
i. Person One: Flooding Control, End Water Shortage, Clean Power Source,
Landslides, Earthquakes
ii. Person Two: Weather Patterns, Pollution, Wildlife, and Silt and Erosion Issues
Day Two:
5. Class: The teacher is going to finish the Geography of China Power Point Lecture.
6. Homework: Tonight you are to label and color the Political and Physical Maps of China.
Day Three:
7. Groups: Break into your assigned Jigsaw Groups from the first day’s homework. You have the
class period to teach and discuss the environmental problems of China and completed the
second graphic organizer.
8. Homework: Summative Assessment---You will be completing your second Mini-Q this
semester. The focus of this one is China’s One-Child Policy and its population issues. To help
you with this, a separate PowerPoint on China’s One-Child Policy has been uploaded to the
teacher page for you to also consult and use information from in your answers to the
document questions and in your outline.
Chunking:
Night One:
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Read the Background Essay entitled “China’s One-Child Policy: Was It a Good Idea” and use
Active Reading Strategies.
Go to the China’s One-Child Policy PowerPoint and read and take additional notes on the
following topics: (If you do not do this, it will be very difficult to analyze and work with the
documents.)
o What is the policy?
o What were the reasons for the policy?
o When it was first implemented and how has it been implemented?
o Positives of the policy?
o Negatives of the policy?
Night Two:
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Read and analyze Document A: Population Projections and answer the 5 Document Analysis
Questions.
Read and analyze Document B: Fertility and answer the 5 Document Analysis Questions.
Night Three:
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Read and analyze Document C: Environment and answer the 5 Document Analysis Questions.
Read and analyze Document D: Young Women in the Workplace and answer the 4 Document
Analysis Questions.
Night Four:
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Read and analyze Document E: Social Imbalance and answer the 4 Document Analysis
Questions.
Read and analyze Document F: Single Children Speak and answer the 3 Document Analysis
Questions.
Night Five:
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Do the Bucketing and Thesis Development and Road Map Handout.
Do the Working Title of the Mini-Q Essay Outline Guide.
Do the Introduction/Paragraph One of the Outline.
Night Six:
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Do the Body/Paragraph Two of the Outline.
Do the Body/Paragraph Three of the Outline.
Night Seven:
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Do the Body/Paragraph Four of the Outline.
Do the Conclusion/Paragraph Five of the Outline.
Print up everything if typed. Turning in on:_____________________________________