Daniel Maddox
Ecology Problems
9/28/14
IPAT Analysis – China China has one of the biggest examples of the IPAT formula to date with its destructive habits on the environment. For starters, I will focus on the population aspect of china’s impact on the environment. China received a population spike after World War II which makes it today one of the worlds overpopulated countries in the world. With more people comes more responsibility for the earth to support these humans. An increase in land use will be an issues since more people equal more space for them to live. This takes away precious forest and wild life areas that where there before. This is a result in habitat lost for other species including plants and animals. The more population equals the more resources that need to be available for the people. China can harm the environment by fishing way too much to support food for their families and wipe out a whole spices. The more humans equal more pollution for each of them and the earth suffers from garbage to gases. Next in China’s IPAT equations is their affluence on the environment. It creates the average consumption of each person in the population of an area. As the consumption of each person increases, the impact on the environment will increase as well. It’s basically China’s ecological footprint on the world. In the film, they focus on one Chinese man who was using coal to heat up his home for the winter. Now there are different ways in which his home could be heated up, but it was cheaper and more convenient for him to use coal. This would have been all ok besides that fact the coal releases harmful gas into the air which creates vapor pollution into his home and the environment. It’s like the choice between eating an organic lunch over a fast food meal. Sure eating fast food is cheaper and more convenient, but all that goes into making fast food possible is very harmful to the environment from slaughter houses to trucks driving cross country to supply these chains. Following in China’s IPAT equation is their technology advancement on the environment. This resource production of affluence is, how much be environmental impact is involved in creating, transporting and disposing of the goods, services and amenities used. China can either use technology to either improve their environment or destroy the environment with advancement. In the film, there was a portion where the movie focus on automobiles mostly. It was disused that China’s car and trucks were very low in environmental conservation, with the air exhausted and overall pollution that comes from the car. The automobiles are one of the biggest