Five of the world's ten most polluted cities are in China and the pollutant levels are 2-5 times above the World Health Organization's guidelines for safe exposure. In addition, China's car count has skyrocketed in the last decade. In Beijing, cars increased from 200,000 to 1.3 million in the last 10 years. Fresh water is a great concern in China. Three hundred of China's 617 cities now face water shortages.
Deforestation is also a serious environmental concern.
The forests in China are home to the endangered giant panda. The forests once covered 300,000 square miles, but today only 83,000 square miles remain. These forests also house more than 900 species of birds, half the plant species in China and four species of pheasants found nowhere else in the world. The deforestation threatens all of these species. Section 1, page 18.