Delaney on Chapter 5

China’s natural resource problem is huge. They are consuming their natural resources faster than they can be replenished. They are losing their forests to deforestation. As a result desertification is happening. Dust bowls are occurring and people are having a hard time living in these conditions. Also China is running low on oil. They consume approximately “one-third of the world’s growth in oil consumption” (Dodson 94) in 2010 alone. Because of this consumption they need to get their oil from elsewhere. This has caused them several other issues, not having to do with natural resources. For example, when China was working with Sudan for their oil, china helped supply the Sudanese government with all kinds of weapons which in essence gave the Sudanese government help when it came to their genocide. China was looked down upon for this. Also, water is another major issue for the Chinese people. They have used so much water that their rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, are now almost completely running dry. This is causing them issues not only socially, with the fact that people in the countryside feel like they are being treated worse because the people in the cities seem to be getting priority of the water, but also the lack of water flowing in the rivers is causing the land to have many sinkholes occur which are all very dangerous and sometimes deadly. Something that Dodson might be missing in his analysis is the fact that China is so populated. He mentions it once when he says that the consumption of oil per person is much less than that of the U.S. but it isn’t mentioned really again. They are so overly populated that this lack of resources seems inevitable. When comparing China’s grim looking future, natural resource wise to the U. S. I see similarities and differences. It is similar because we use a lot of resources as well however, we are different because we waste much more than they do. The U.S. needs to start thinking about its future if it doesn’t want to end up like China.