Rovereto+World+in+the+Balance++China+Revs+Up


 * Title:** World in Balance: China Revs Up
 * Director:** Chris Schmidt
 * Release Year:** 2004

The film discusses the rapid industrialization of China, and the sustainability problems that follow such an aggressive industrial program. Within that focus, the film is further focused on the proliferation of cars in China, and the infrastructure changes and societal changes this is causing. China once had over a billion poor people, but now it has the world’s fastest growing economy, growing at an astonishing 8% per year for more than 20 years. As its economy has grown, its need for energy has grown as well, and by 2030, could match the carbon emissions of the US projected at that year. China’s energy is mainly supplied by coal, and China today is home to 7 of the world’s 10 most polluted cities.
 * What is the central argument or narrative of the film?**

The problems this film draws out are mainly to do with overpopulation and current economic philosophy, as well as globalization. With respect to globalization, the point the film makes is a cultural one. The United States is a major world power, and China has really taken western consumerism as its model. Since the capitalist economic reform in China in the 1980s, the Chinese economy has been booming, and the average income has more than quadrupled. The issue of consumerism and the loss of a cultural heritage were presented as well, as people are leaving their traditions and their ancestral villages and towns behind to move to the city. Shopping malls have sprung up all over the country, and consequently energy consumption has skyrocketed. In 2001, China burned 25% more coal than the US.
 * What sustainability problems does the film draw out?**

The issue in China is that the economy grew incredibly quickly, without a concurrent development in environmental policy. The lack of clean energy alternatives is a big problem, as 70% of China’s energy is provided by coal. As stated before, China is home to 7 out of the 10 most polluted countries in the world. The smog from the coal plants and the cars in many of the cities is terrible. In Beijing, there are days when it is advised for people to stay indoors, as the smog is that dangerous. Respiratory disease kills at 10 times the rate it does in the US. China itself says that it is losing 6% of its GDP due to the public health costs of this pollution. This implies problems with China’s health care system and the quality of their medical workers, though this is not stated in the film.

Overpopulation in China has been a major concern for a long time, and a solution was attempted with the one child policy. This controversial policy has been effective in slowing China’s population growth, but the policy is no longer mandatory. As it stands today, China has almost 20% of the world’s population, but only has 7% of the world’s arable land. The problem with overpopulation also ties in with energy consumption. As it is, China is using outdated energy technology that is less efficient and more polluting, and it is using this infrastructure to provide power to 1/6 of the world’s population. The more recent problem is with China’s love of cars.

The popularity of cars in China is a relatively new thing. The Chinese are adopting more Americanized outlook as a consumer culture, and are more interested in trends and new products. This has resulted in the massive increase in the number of cars on the roads in Chinese cities. In 1995, only 2 million cars were in China, but by 2004 that has risen to over 20 million. There were 400,000 new cars on the roads of Beijing in 2003 alone. Chinese cars don’t have the emissions standards the US and Europe have, and in the film, one car salesman is proud to talk about how a certain car meets a standard in Europe, but that standard was out of date by 10 years. The government is a matrix issue in all of this, as it showed the power it could exert in 2000 by banning the sale or use of unleaded gasoline, yet has done nothing since to make cars less polluting. The film implies the government does not want to act because the auto industry has been creating 15 million jobs a year in the past few years.

The part I found most compelling in the film was when the fuel efficiency and technology level of the cars was discussed. I had no idea that cars in China used such outdated technology compared to cars in the rest of the world, and these cars are new, production line cars, not just old refurbished ones.
 * What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?**

Another segment I found compelling was the part about the air pollution in cities. The statistic that 7 of the world’s 10 most populated cities are in China really shows how far behind China is as far as sustainability is concerned, and how fast it must develop. In the discussion of smog in the cities, the film focused on a young family living in Beijing. The couple was bringing their child to school on their bikes, and the denseness and disgusting color of the air was shocking.

I was not really compelled by the discussion on China’s overpopulation and how that relates to food production. While I believe it is a serious issue, I don’t really see how it tied in with the message of the film or its narrative, and they way it seems to be placed into the movie haphazardly bothered me. There was only one factoid given in relation to the issue, and then the film moved on to something else.
 * What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why?**

The film best addresses a general audience, who do not necessarily have to know anything about the issues the movie presents except that pollution is a bad thing. This makes sense, as it is a NOVA presentation, a series that is aired on public television, and is meant to give the viewers a fairly brief synopsis on key issues and developments to help improve these issues. A person fairly knowledgeable on the issues of globalization and industrialization may already know about many of the issues presented in the film, and so may not get that much out of this film.
 * What audiences does the film best address? Why?**

The main improvement that I would like to see in this film is elaboration on the issues they present. The film is a short one at just under one hour in length, but if the film were perhaps a little longer, then some more detail could have been included. Also, offering more statistical comparisons on China compared to the US or Europe would have made the message on pollution and consumerism more impactful.
 * What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental education value?**

The film presents fairly standard solutions to the problems of gas-powered cars and dirty energy production. It talks about new energy technologies like the hydrogen fuel cell, but then asks where the hydrogen will come from. It also says that the Chinese should be more demanding of quality in their products, and that they should be driving improvements and change. While not exactly a solution, the film also talked about the Kuznets curve, a theoretical graph of Pollution vs. Affluence. Once the population’s affluence reaches a certain point, then demand for cleaner air and more sustainable practices pushes pollution rates down.
 * What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective.**

The brief mention of the Kuznets curve in the film compelled me to look into the concept. It turns out that the Kuznets curve isn’t exactly what the film described it as. The actual Kuznets curve is a graphical representation of the theory put forward by economist Simon Kuznets that economic inequality increases over time while a country is developing, then after a certain average income is attained inequality begins to decrease. What was put forth in the film is actually the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). These EKC’s have been in use in papers and the technical aspects of environmental policy since 1991, though their accuracy in displaying trends in contested. No one curve fits all the information on different pollutants and different places.
 * What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out?**

After hearing about how outdated China’s car technology was, as well as its emission’s policies, I wanted to see if the situation has improved. In 2004, China adopted its first nation-wide fuel economy standards for cars. These standards are considered to be the world’s third toughest set of standards, behind Japan’s and Europe’s. The new policies call for passenger cars built in 2010 to get 15% better gas mileage, on average, than those that were built in 2003. At the very least, it is a step in the right direction.


 * References:**

Article on Environmental Kuznets Curves: < [] >

Article on China’s Fuel Economy Standards: < []>