The Devouring Dragon: How China's Rise Threatens Our Natural World
Craig Simons (Author)
- Print Length: 304 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0312581769
- Publisher: St. Martin's Press (March 12, 2013)
新書
中國是條破壞環境的貪食龍？
黃安偉 報道 2013年03月15日
北京——在中國，環境的迅速惡化在今年已經成為一個最重要的話題。1月，在北京和中國北
方部分地區，空氣污染創下了歷史記錄。本周，一些官方媒體報道，人們發現將近6000頭死豬漂浮在一條河裡，其河道最終會穿越上海市中心，因此水污染又成
為了關注焦點。與此同時，環境倡導人士在向政府施壓，要求公布土壤污染的數據，而官員們一直將這歸為國家機密。
那麼，正在北京舉行的一年一度的全國人民代表大會上，代表們對環境問題展開辯論，也就不足為奇，儘管大會很大程度上只是形式上的立法機構，擔負著為共產黨政策披上合法性外衣的責任。
按圖放大
考克斯報系前駐亞洲記者克雷格·西蒙斯。
按圖放大
《貪食龍：中國的崛起如何威脅我們的自然世界》
同樣令人擔憂的是，中國對世界上其他地方的環境影響，即便中國人尚未對這一問題展開熱烈討論。這一影響不容易量化，但是考克斯報系(Cox
Newspapers)的前駐亞洲記者克雷格·西蒙斯(Craig
Simons)做了這件事。他的第一本書《貪食龍：中國的崛起如何威脅我們的自然世界》(The Devouring Dragon: How
China's Rise Threatens Our Natural World)記錄了他的發現，這本書在3月12日由聖馬丁出版公司(St.
Martin’s
Press)出版。西蒙斯最近談起他為何要開展這一項目的原因，中國官員如何評估氣候變化，以及美國能採取何種行動緩解中國帶來的環境影響。以下為這次談
話的節錄。
問：
你為何選擇關注這一問題？
答：
我在中國生活工作了十多年，先是作為和平
隊(Peace
Corps)的志願者，後來又做了記者，我看到了環境危機給普通民眾的生活造成的影響。後來我在2005年找到了一份駐亞洲記者的工作，並開始到各個地方
出差。在印度尼西亞，我就中國的需求如何致使伐木活動愈演愈烈進行報道，並與一些專家交談，他們擔心野外的紅毛猩猩可能會滅絕。在韓國，朋友告訴我韓國遭
受了中國嚴重沙塵暴的侵襲。在圖瓦盧，一個地勢低洼的南太平洋小國，當地人擔心中國溫室氣體排放量的增加會加速全球變暖，而全球變暖最終可能會導致他們的
國家被淹沒。由於不斷經歷類似事情，我開始認為，中國在21世紀最大的影響可能是對地球本身的影響。我想要了解中國的崛起如何對世界各地的環境造成影響。
此外，考慮到中國有很多地區仍然相對貧窮，中國的繼續發展對我們共同的氣候環境、地球上剩餘的野生動植物和森林意味着什麼。
問：
你說過你的目標之一是將中國對其他國家的環境影響置於歷史背景下。可以告訴我們更多有關這個背景的信息嗎？
答：
背景不過就是自從工業革命開始以來，人類
在地球上引發的巨大變化。中國大約在過去十年的時間裡才開始到國外尋求大量自然資源，這些需求在到達一個穩定水平之前，可能會大幅增加。但與歐洲和美國不
同，中國的增長曲線呈上升趨勢時，全球環境已經嚴重惡化。大約自從工業革命開始以來，人類已經耗盡了地球上逾四分之一的森林，將地球推入第六次物種大滅絕
時期——其滅絕速度比自然滅絕速度快100至1000倍——並向大氣中排放大量溫室氣體，致使全球氣溫上升超過一華氏度。將中國置於這樣一個大環境中有利
於我們認識當今環境問題的全球性：這提醒我們，我們都有責任。
問：
你在做研究時，最讓你吃驚的是什麼？
答：
最讓人吃驚的是中國需求之大。中國擁有
13億人口，佔世界人口的19%，30多年來，中國經濟的年平均增長率約為10%，似乎沒有不受中國影響的地方。我這兒有一個非常尖銳的例子，一個總部位
於阿肯色州的環保組織要求禁止搜集野生龜，因為一些品種可能瀕臨滅絕，而這在很大程度上是因為中國對龜肉的需求。雖然美國龜類出口數據並不全面，但他們發
現，2002至2005年間，僅從德克薩斯州達拉斯·沃思堡機場(Dallas-Fort
Worth)出口至亞洲的野生龜就超過了25.6萬隻。還有另一個例子，如今，來自中國的空氣污染物（向來自其他國家的污染物一樣）已經對全世界造成影
響。中國地區空氣中的污染物——塵土、臭氧、一氧化碳及水銀經常進入北美及其他大陸的土地中。
問：
中國官員在多大程度上意識到了他們的政策給世界其他國家造成的影響？
答：
雖然中國官員深刻認識到了中國的發展政策
給本國環境造成的影響，可是該國公眾對中國國內消費給其他國家造成的影響幾乎毫無認識。儘管目前，中國被認為是全球非法砍伐木材最大的進口國，然而，沒有
幾個中國人思考過非法砍伐造成的問題。同樣地，沒有幾個中國人考慮過消費傳統中藥和珍奇物種對野生動植物造成的影響。我在中國的市場和餐館裡就看到過動物
產品，其中包括在售的虎骨和犀牛角。研究還發現，在中國，人們普遍有食用野生動植物的慾望：例如，根據非政府環保組織國際野生物貿易研究組織
(Traffic)2010年的一項調查，在中國六個城市的受訪者當中，有44%的受訪者在前一年當中消費過野生動植物；大多數受訪者認為，是否食用多種
野生物種應該是個人選擇。在氣候變化問題上，情況則更微妙一些，中央政府已經非常公開地推動能源效率的改善和增加對可再生能源的利用。不過，專家認為，在
地方層面上，大多數官員仍在繼續把精力集中在經濟增長上。
問：
中國官員如今怎樣評價氣候變化，他們的評價和美國官員的評價是否存在很大差異？
答：大多數中美高層官員之間存在一項共識，那
就是氣候變化是一個嚴重的問題，需要加以解決。然而，在專家當中，對於中國和其他發展中國家應該做些什麼的問題，存在着重大的分歧。中國通常堅稱，為了公
平起見，任何未來的排放量預算都應考慮歷史排放量和人均排放量，這將使中國在未來得到大得多的排放份額。在聯合國最近舉行的會議上，西方國家已經設法敦促
中國政府，接受針對未來排放的強制性限制，不過，正如2009年，我們在備受爭議的哥本哈根氣候對話中所見到的，到目前為止，中國政府依然不肯接受一個量
化的排放上限。
問：中國官員常說，中國有權按自己的意願發展經濟，美國不應對中國的環境影響指手畫腳，這是因為美國花了很多年的時間發展自身經濟，卻沒有考慮這麼做的後果。即使到現在，美國的人均碳排放量依然要比中國的高。中國人的說法有道理嗎？
答：是的，這是一個有道理的論點。在美國經濟
衰退之前，中國的平均碳排放量是美國平均碳排放量的六分之一到四分之一（具體數值取決於算法差異）。更重要的是，中國人比美國人貧窮得多。中國在2011
年的人均收入不足4000美元，是美國人均收入的十一分之一。在現實中，這意味着美國人習以為常的許多東西，中國人都沒有，比如私家車、可以供暖和製冷的
房屋、到國外旅遊的機會，而中國人渴望擁有這些東西。儘管如此，另一個有道理的論點是，每個國家在發展中都面臨過不同的挑戰。幾位與我交談過的專家指出，
應對氣候變化可能是中國必須承擔的責任，儘管它可能會要求中國放慢經濟增長的速度。
問：你曾說過，不想寫一本只有批評的書。你也就中國該如何減少發展過程中對環境造成的影響提出過一些建議。中國應該採取哪些更有效的措施呢？
答：中國政府所能採取的最有效的措施是，對溫
室氣體排放量設置上限，或者對碳排放大幅徵稅。現在，很多專家認為，只有中國和美國願意下決心設置排放上限，全世界才能有效控制碳排放。全球人為排放的溫
室氣體中，幾乎有一半來自美國和中國。因為中國相對貧窮，而且仍在大舉建設國家的許多基礎設施，因此，下這樣的決心極具挑戰性。
問：那美國可以採取哪些措施，幫助限制中國對全球環境的影響呢？
答：我做的報道越多，就越發意識到環境問題是
我們共同的問題。由於中國是世界製造業大國，我們都能受益於中國低廉的價格。但是，我們不斷增長的物質財富所製造的污染，也讓我們深受其害。中國在其中扮
演着重要角色，但它只是一個前沿代表，其背後是更大的一波發展浪潮，印度、巴西、俄羅斯和其他許多國家都在其中。富裕的發達國家所能做的最重要的事情是，
它們要減小自身對全球環境產生的影響，包括控制溫室氣體排放量，從而為其他國家樹立榜樣。之後，西方國家還可以再做一些別的事，與其他國家分享自己的繁
榮。這一點部分上可以通過以合理價格提供環境友好型技術來實現。另外，發達國家還可以提供資金來保護世界上尚存的野生空間。比如，在巴布亞新幾內亞，為那
些決定保全自己土地的村民提供收入和機會，或者幫助培訓荒野地區的養護員，並為他們提供設備，我在印度北部就參觀過這樣的區域。
問：如果中國繼續現在的發展道路，在未來十年里，其他國家的人們會受到哪些更深的影響呢？
答：如果按現在的趨勢繼續下去，預計世界尚存
的原始森林將會遭到砍伐，更多物種將會瀕危或滅絕。目前，原始森林在尚存的森林面積中，只佔很小的一小部分。我們還可以預測，如果中國不下決心控制溫室氣
體排放，國際社會就不太可能會認真努力地解決全球氣候變暖問題。因此，中國是全球齊心協力拯救現存環境的一個關鍵（美國是另一個關鍵）：它產生的影響如此
巨大、經濟增長又如此之快，以至於沒有北京的參與，各國政府就無法產生足夠的政治意志力來採取行動。
黃安偉(Edward Wong)是《紐約時報》駐京記者。
翻譯：許欣、張薇、谷菁璐
New Book Tackles China and its Environmental Exports
By EDWARD WONG March 15, 2013
BEIJING — The rapid degradation of the environment in China has become a central topic of discussion this year.
Air pollution in Beijing
and other parts of northern China hit record levels in January. Water
pollution was thrust into the spotlight this week when official news
reports said that
nearly 6,000 dead pigs
had been found floating in a river that slices through the heart of
Shanghai. Meanwhile, environmental advocates are pressing the government
to release data on soil pollution, which officials have categorized as a
state secret.
It is no wonder, then, that delegates to the National People’s
Congress, which is holding its annual meeting now in Beijing, are
debating environmental issues, even if the congress is largely a
rubber-stamp legislature charged with giving Communist Party policy a
veneer of popular legitimacy.
ust as worrisome, if not as hotly discussed among
Chinese, is the impact that China is having on the environment in other
parts of the world. It is not an easy thing to gauge, but Craig Simons,
a former Asia correspondent for Cox Newspapers, set out to do exactly
that. He documented his findings in his first book,
“The Devouring Dragon: How China’s Rise Threatens Our Natural World,”
which was published March 12 by St. Martin’s Press. Mr. Simons spoke
recently about his reasons for embarking on this project, how Chinese
officials assess climate change and what the United States can do to
mitigate China’s environmental effects. These are excerpts from that
conversation.
Q. Why did you choose this particular topic on which to focus?
A. I’d lived and
worked in China for over a decade, first as a Peace Corps volunteer and
later as a journalist, and I’d seen the costs of its environmental
crisis on the lives of average citizens. Then, in 2005, I took a job
covering Asia and began to travel regionally. In Indonesia, I reported
on how Chinese demands had intensified logging and talked with experts
worried that orangutans might become extinct in the wild. In Korea,
friends told me about huge dust storms that had blown in from China. In
Tuvalu, a tiny, low-lying South Pacific nation, locals worried that the
growth of China’s greenhouse gas emissions could speed global warming,
which looked likely to eventually inundate their country. As I continued
to have such experiences, I began to think that China’s greatest
21st-century impacts are likely to be to the physical planet. I wanted
to understand both how China’s rise had affected environments around the
world and, given that much of China remains relatively poor, what its
continued growth could mean for our shared climate and Earth’s remaining
wildlife and forests.
Q. You’ve said that
one of your goals is to put China’s environmental impact outside its
borders into a historical context. Can you tell us more about that
context?
A. The context is
simply the tremendous physical changes to the planet humanity has caused
since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. China only began to
seek significant amounts of natural resources abroad over the last
decade or so, and those demands are likely to grow dramatically before
they plateau. But unlike for Europe or the United States, China’s growth
curve is rising at a time when the world’s environments already are
severely degraded. Since roughly the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, humanity has cleared more than one-quarter of Earth’s
forests, set off the world’s sixth great era of extinctions — with
losses occurring between 100 and 1000 times faster than the natural
baseline — and pumped enough greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to
warm the planet by more than one degree Fahrenheit. Fitting China into
that larger narrative also helps us realize the global nature of today’s
environmental problems: it reminds us that we are all responsible.
Q. What surprised you the most as you were doing your research?
A. The most
surprising thing was the reach of Chinese demands. As a nation with 1.3
billion people, 19 percent of humanity, and three-plus decades of annual
economic growth averaging about 10 percent, it seemed there wasn’t
anywhere that China hadn’t touched. One poignant example I found was a
petition by Arkansas-based environmental groups to ban the collection of
wild turtles because some species faced possible extinction due largely
to Chinese demand for turtle meat. Even though data on U.S. turtle
exports is spotty, they found that more than 256,000 wild-caught turtles
were exported to Asia from the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas airport alone
between 2002 and 2005. Another example is that air pollutants from China
(as from other nations) are now reaching around the world. Dust, ozone,
carbon monoxide and mercury polluted into the atmosphere in China are
now regularly settling back to Earth in North America and other
continents.
Q. How aware do you think Chinese officials are of the impact that their policies have on the other parts of the world?
A. While Chinese
officials have become acutely aware of the impacts of China’s
development policies on its own environment, there is little public
awareness of the effects of Chinese consumption on foreign nations.
Despite that China is now considered the world’s largest importer of
illegally felled logs, few Chinese have thought about the problems
caused by illegal logging. Likewise, few Chinese think about the impacts
on wildlife of consuming traditional medicines and exotic species. I’ve
seen animal parts, including tiger bone and rhino horn, for sale at
Chinese markets and restaurants. Studies have also found a widespread
desire to eat wildlife: according to a 2010 study by Traffic, the
environmental NGO, for example, 44 percent of people interviewed in six
Chinese cities had consumed wildlife in the previous year; most believed
that eating many wild species should be a personal choice. With climate
change there’s more nuance, since the central government has made a
very public push to improve energy efficiency and to increase the use of
renewable energy sources. But experts believe that at the local level,
most officials continue to focus on economic growth.
Q. Within official
circles, how do the Chinese now assess climate change, and does their
assessment differ significantly from that of the United States?
A. There is agreement
among most top Chinese and American officials that climate change is a
serious problem and needs to be addressed. However, there is significant
divergence among experts on what China and other developing nations
should do. China has generally maintained that, to be fair, any budget
for future emissions should account for historical and per-capita
emissions, which would give China a much larger share in the future. At
recent U.N. meetings, Western nations have tried to push Beijing to
accept binding limits to future emissions, but, as we saw during the
contentious Copenhagen climate talks in 2009, Beijing has so far
resisted accepting a quantitative cap.
Q. Chinese officials
often say that China has the right to grow its economy as it wants, and
that the United States should not wag fingers over China’s environmental
impact since the U.S. spent many years growing its economy without
thinking of the consequences. Even now, the carbon footprint per capita
in the U.S. is still bigger than that of China. Do the Chinese have a
valid point?
A. Yes, that’s a
valid argument. Before the U.S. recession, China’s average carbon
footprint was between one-quarter and one-sixth of the average U.S.
carbon footprint (depending on how one calculates it). More importantly,
Chinese are much poorer than Americans. In 2011, China’s average
per-capita income was less than $4,000, one-eleventh of the U.S.
average. In practice this means that people don’t have many of the
things Americans are used to — private vehicles, heated and cooled
homes, the opportunity to travel internationally — and they’re looking
forward to those things. Another valid argument, however, is that every
nation faces different challenges as they develop. Several experts I
talked with pointed out that dealing with climate change, which might
require slower economic growth, might be the burden China needs to bear.
Q. You’ve said you
didn’t want to write a book that had only criticism. You’ve given some
prescriptions on how China can lessen the environmental impact of its
growth. What are some of the more helpful steps it can take?
A. The most helpful
step Beijing could take would be to adopt a cap on its greenhouse gas
emissions or to impose a significant tax on carbon. Many experts now
believe that the world will be able to rein in carbon emissions only if
China and the United States, which together produce almost half of
global anthropogenic emissions, commit to limits. Because China is
relatively poor and it is still building much of its national
infrastructure, such a commitment would be challenging.
Q. What are some steps the United States can take in helping limit China’s impact on the global environment?
A. The more I
reported, the more I saw that our environmental problems are shared.
Because China is the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, we all benefit
from its cheap prices. But we also suffer from the pollution created by
our increasing material affluence. China is a big part of that, but it’s
only the front edge of a larger wave of development that includes
India, Brazil, Russia, and many other nations. The most important thing
rich, developed nations can do is to realize that they need to become
better role models by limiting their own global environmental impacts,
including by controlling greenhouse gas emissions. After that, the West
can do more to share the prosperity it has achieved. This could come
partly through making environment-friendly technologies available at
reasonable prices. It could also come through helping pay for the
preservation of the world’s remaining wild spaces, for example by
providing income and opportunities to villagers in Papua New Guinea who
choose to preserve their land or by helping train and equip wardens in
wilderness areas like those I visited in northern India.
Q. If China continues on its current path, what further effects will people living in other countries feel in the next decade?
A. If the current
trends continue, we can expect more of the world’s remaining old-growth
forests — which today make up a small part of remaining forested
areas—to be logged and more species to become threatened or extinct.
Without a Chinese commitment to curb greenhouse gas emissions, we could
also anticipate that the global community would be unlikely to generate a
serious effort to address global warming. China is thus one key (the
United States is the other) to coming together to save what remains: its
impacts are so large and are growing so quickly that without Beijing’s
participation, governments will have difficulty generating the political
will to act.
Review
"From the coal mines of Colorado to the forests of Papua
New Guinea, and all over China in between, Craig Simons illustrates from
the ground up how the Middle Kingdom's economic takeoff is upending the
planet at the very moment it is reaching an environmental tipping
point. The book is both a gripping grassroots narrative of economic
development as well as a heartfelt plea for the future.”—Richard
McGregor, author of The Party and Washington Bureau chief for the Financial Times
“China’s
insatiable appetite for resources has raised the world’s metabolism in
ways that you could never imagine. Craig Simons' Devouring Dragon
takes you clear across the globe—from the ghost town of Trinidad,
Colo., to a jungle in Papua New Guinea to the world’s largest dam on the
Yangtze River -- as he tells the fascinating story of the world’s
interconnectedness. This is the most important book about the
environment in years, scary, riveting and packed with insight into how
the world’s resources are exploited for economic growth.”—Barbara
Demick, author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea and Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood
“In The Devouring Dragon,
Craig Simons gives a lucid portrayal of the ways in which the world is
being changed by China’s rise. The science and the statistics are
sobering, but so are the human faces behind the numbers as Simons writes
with deep sympathy for people struggling to overcome poverty and
isolation: the New Guinean who longs to travel, the Chinese farm family
who, despite being careful consumers, are part of a massive
transformation that threatens to throw the world out of balance.”—Peter
Hessler, author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip and Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China
“Simons
paints a devastating picture of the global consequences of China’s
relentless and rapacious growth, from the clear-cutting of the earth’s
last stands of exotic hardwoods to the extinction of major animal
species, from coal dust that reaches Oregon to the crippling pollution
that swaddles China’s cities. China’s rise, as Simons shows, has raised
hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty; the cost,
environmentally and ecologically, has been calamitous for the
planet.”—Edward A. Gargan, author of The River’s Tale: A Year on the Mekong
“The Devouring Dragon
offers a wide-ranging, carefully researched, and ultimately chilling
account of China's impact on global biodiversity and climate change.
Craig Simons journeys around the world to speak to illegal loggers,
biologists tracking species extinction, and a panoply of Chinese --
whose appetite for resources and a higher standard of living is
catalyzing a planetary environmental crisis. By turns diverting and
personal, informative and thoughtful, this book serves as an urgent call
for all of us to change our patterns of consumption before it is too
late.”—Judith Shapiro, author of China's Environmental Challenges and Mao's War against Nature
“A
compelling and superbly written account of China’s massive
environmental impact around the globe. A must read for any thoughtful
citizen, The Devouring Dragon portrays the choice before
humanity: a headlong rush to a highly degraded planet OR a truly
sustainable path that respects the wondrous living planet and its
promise for all.”—Thomas E. Lovejoy, University Professor of
Environmental Science and Policy George Mason University Biodiversity
Chair The Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment
"From
Papua New Guinea to Trinidad, USA, Simons goes further than anyone
before him in tracing the impact of China's rise on the global
environment. Adroitly blending science and theory with personal stories
and on-the-road reportage, this book vividly describes the risks posed
by climate change and biodiversity loss as Chinese consumers follow the
unsustainable path set by their counterparts in the West. The author
does not flinch from grim stories, but neither is he overwhelmed by
them. This book ends with an optimistic message of empowerment and
change."—Jonathan Watts, author of When a Billion Chinese Jump
About the Author
Craig Simons has reported on the environment from a
dozen Asian nations for Newsweek and Cox Newspapers. He has also written
for Outside, Backpacker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street
Journal. He studied at Harvard University, The University of
Pennsylvania, and—as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow—MIT.
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