The past several decades' rocketing growth are now seeing China pay some tough prices.

Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is between US$400 and US$1,000, but the pollution here is as bad as that in developed countries when their GDP had reached US$3,000 to US$10,000.

The destruction of the environment has become a social problem no less serious than unemployment, energy shortages or the income gap.

The environment issue has never been so closely related to social justice.

Social justice is one of the key factors needed to maintain a harmonious relationship between different social classes. But it cannot automatically be achieved through economic development or social progress.

If we do not change the growth model featuring aggressive consumption of resources, ease the pressure on environment from industrialization and urbanization, or settle the conflict between social groups who have suffered from environment destruction and those who have benefited from economic development, there will be no social justice.

The cornerstone of social justice is that individuals or social groups should see a balance between the benefits they enjoy and the responsibility they must shoulder.

The fact is that some people get rich, but their wealth comes at the cost of the environment, which belongs to everybody. Some regions accumulate wealth before others do, but their wealth is based on environment destruction in other areas.

Harmonious relations between certain social groups are inevitably hurt.

Rural residents and urban dwellers get different treatment. Farmers have made tremendous contributions to the modernization of China, but they have not shared the rewards as much as their urban cousins have.

Power and wealth are concentrated in the cities and towns at an astonishing rate, while farmers do not have access to enough education, employment and social security.

China is seeing one of the worst income gaps in the world. The income of urban residents was already 3.2 times that of farmers' last year, while the figure was only 1.8 times that of the 1980s.

Almost all money earmarked for preventing and fixing the effects of pollution is invested in industry or towns and cities, and there are virtually no environmental protection facilities in rural areas.

More than 300 million rural people do not have access to clean drinking water and 150 million mu (10 million hectares) of farm land are polluted every year.

Water quality in towns and cities gets better through sewage treatment, while polluted water is diverted into rural waterways without being processed.

The air in the cities is cleaner now since factories have been moved out, only to pass it on to the suburbs where they are then built.

City dwellers enjoy fresh vegetables and grain, while rural areas are left with deteriorating soil, ecological turbulence and agricultural pollution, as a result of an overdose of chemical fertilizer and pesticide.

Developed and under-developed parts of the country should get equal treatment.

In recent decades, areas with rich natural resources in the west channeled them to eastern regions that did not have their own. But now, the eastern regions that have completed the industrialization process, do not reward western regions with enough returns.

The gap between the developed and underdeveloped regions keeps widening. The GDP in the eastern regions accounted for 59 per cent of the nation's total last year. The per capita GDP in the eastern regions is 2.59 times of that of central and western regions.

The origins of most big rivers in China, the west, are of high ecological value. Yet the exploitation of forests and mineral resources in past decades has more or less destroyed the environment there.

Efforts are being made to restrain industrial development and cut down on the use of resources there. But environmental protection in the west has mainly been prompted by the developed regions, while the west still has to fight to improve their economy.

There is a similar disparity between different social groups.

Better-off groups consume many more resources than the less well-off. Their money should be used to provide compensation in medical services and other problems associated with the environmental pollution they cause.

The poor are unable to choose their own living conditions or medical care.

New methods must be sought to address these issues.

Some ideas have been spawned. By deducting the cost of environment destruction from the GDP, a green GDP could be calculated to reflect the true development of the country.

When this is calculated and used to assess officials' performances, local officials will be prompted to pay more attention to public affairs instead of concentrating on economic growth.

A new benefit-reward mechanism could be set up. The groups and regions benefiting from environmental protection should reward those who worked to achieve it.

Such rewards could be made with favorable policies to the west for their efforts. The government could also impose charges on those who consume more resources than others.

Consumers of luxurious housing and cars should also be charged extra fees for the land, oil and other resources they consume or occupy.

Poorer people should get special subsidies if their consumption of water, electricity and other energy is within certain limits. Victims of pollution should get financial compensation, either directly from the polluters or from taxes levied.

Last but not the least, public involvement must be encouraged.

If the public is encouraged to take part in decision-making, policies will win more support as well as protect their interests better.

Integrating these ideas about environmental protection into economic policies, the authorities should encourage a circular economy, explore alternative energies and resettle residents in regions where the environment is too harsh for people to live.

Social justice has become an issue that demands an immediate solution. Environment protection is a field whose improvement is in the interests of everyone.

(China Daily November 4, 2004)