Breakthrough: Why an Emerging Chinese Middle Class is Good for the Environment

The New York Times reported today that Chinese citizens marched their streets in protest of a multibillion-dollar petrochemical plant backed by China's leading state-run oil company:

The protest, against a $5.5 billion ethylene plant under construction by PetroChina in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, reflected a surge in environmental awareness by urban, middle-class Chinese determined to protect their health and the value of their property.

Demonstrators voiced concern about local air and water quality:

Fan Xiao, an environmental advocate who is a geologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Chengdu, sent out a mass cellphone message that had been written by one of the movement's leaders and was being widely circulated across the country. "Protect our Chengdu, safeguard our homeland," it said. "Stay away from the threat of pollution. Restore the clear water and green mountains of Sichuan."

Pollution is nothing new in China, but prosperity and protests are. Demonstrators were members of an urban middle-class, not peasants or factory workers. They were well-off enough not only to have the time and inclination to organize the protest, but also to do so via cellphone text messages and blogging. China's prosperity should come as good news to anyone who cares about climate change; this burgeoning middle class may well represent tomorrow's environmental leaders.

But for now, Chinese "environmentalism" is mostly concerned with local air and water quality. Human environmental concern is an organic, evolving phenomenon and it begins with the practical and immediate: sanitation systems and disease prevention come before protecting endangered species and slowing climate change. In the U.S., we worry about China's huge population stressing resources and contributing to environmental degradation. But if China's development path continues, we could potentially gain a lot of allies in the fight against climate change.

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