Chapter 11 – East Asia Section 1 Guided Reading Questions Review…

Most serious environmental problems (q.1)  LOCATION CONSEQUENCES EFFORTS  Deforestation: Japan = best; China = worst. JAPAN has major environmental laws & policies to protect its forests. They are also major importers of forest products from North America and Southeast Asia. China has significant deforestation especially in the south. That makes flooding worse. China has tried reforestation – that’s a slow fix.  Flooding: China leads this region in loss of life & property due to flooding. In the North it is mostly due to the Huang He River. In the south it is the Yangtze that floods most. The government has built dams, levees, irrigation projects & has tried to force the relocation of many who live in flood prone zoned (including in and around regulatory lakes).  Soil erosion: Loess Plateau of central China ; causes tremendous sediment build up in the Huang He River leading to devastating floods. They rely mostly on levees to correct this problem. Severe deforestation contributes as well.

Flooding along the Yangtze (q.5)  irrigates more than a third of China's agricultural output and produces 40 percent of the nation grain, 25 percent of its rice, 30 percent of its cotton, 48 percent of its freshwater fish and 40 percent of China's total industrial output.  Flooded fields produce as many as three crops a year (two of rice and one of wheat) and every bit of land is used.  Nearly 400 million people live in the Yangtze watershed; More than 200 million people live along or near the Yangtze itself.  The Yangtze is responsible for 70 to 75 percent of China’s floods. Floods on the river in the 20th century alone have killed more than 300,000 people. There were catastrophic floods on the Yangtze in 1931, 1935 and 1954 and 1998 (4,100 died in that flood)  Severe rainfall was the main cause of the floods but man-induced factors included deforestation & the inhabitation of vulnerable flood plains by large numbers of people (550,000 people were evacuated from areas that were built as regulatory lakes meant to capture flood water & prevent loss of life & property.)

The Huang He River (q.6)  As bad as flooding on the Yangtze has been, Huang He flooding is even worse.  The river carries more sediment than any other major river in the world. That sediment is deposited as fine silt, building up the river bed until it is high above the surrounding plains resulting in floods when the river bursts its banks. As each flood recedes the River finds a new way to the sea, and the cycle begins again. It has had 26 major changes in course in the past 2000 years.  1,500,000 people have settled in the two largest "diversion basins. The Huang He is estimated to have flooded some 1,500 times since the 2nd century  The most destructive of these floods occurred in August million people were left homeless. Estimates of the number of people killed by the flood (and the ensuing disease and famine) range from 850,000 to 4,000,000, making it the deadliest natural disaster in recorded history

Deforestation & pollution in China (q.7)  DEFORESTATION : historically China has not been devoted to forest conservation like its neighbor Japan. Demand for Fuel-wood & agricultural land are its main causes. Regeneration is tough b/c the problem has persisted so long. Now China suffers a severe shortage of forest resources & if industrialization continues at its current pace they will become a major importer of those products soon.  POLLUTION: industrial pollution is one of China’s biggest environmental problems. Coal dependency causes acute air pollution; toxic waste dumping in coastal areas is causing water pollution.  China lacks strict env. regs. in favor of industrial development.

Japan’s environmental approach (q.7)  Despite its large population & high level of industrialization, Japan’s environment is clean. They maintain strict environmental regs & have protected their air & water. They also practice “pollution exporting” relocating “dirty” operations to other countries. They are also exporting hazardous waste to developing countries.  The Japanese excel at recycling.

E. Asia & endangered species (q.8)  Giant Panda Giant Panda  Many traditional East Asian medicines use parts and derivatives from more than 1000 plant and animal species including tiger bone, bear gall bladder, pangolin scales, rhinoceros horn.  Uses in Traditional Chinese Medicine: (“TCM”)  ditional-chinese-medicine-and-endan gered-animals/ ditional-chinese-medicine-and-endan gered-animals/  What’s being done to help? Panda reserves in Sichuan Province; wild land preservation in northern Manchuria; logging prohibited in NW Yunnan; also outside wildlife groups like CITES & Animal Asia are helping to raise awareness.  Animal Asia on CNN Animal Asia on CNN