Exercise 2: Personal Enviromental History at Shanghai City
August 19, 2024 By: Jiaqi(Ryan) Shi
Prof. Mark Butorac
HIST3991 Enviromental History
Jiaqi(Ryan) Shi
Aug 19,2024
My family and I lived in a small town in northwest China when I was very young. Then we moved to Shanghai City where is located in southeast of China. I’d like to show you the different environments in the same city that were experienced by my parents, grandparents and I. We also have different points of view in treating the environment.
The Yangtze and Yellow rivers are known as the two most important rivers in China. They are providing abundant fresh water resources for thousands of Chinese people. Shanghai, where my family lives, is located in the Yangtze River Delta region and is tightly embraced by the Yangtze River. Therefore, the Yangtze River provides most of the freshwater resources for our community and family. In addition, the Huangpu River is also one of the most important natural resources. It runs through the entire urban area and divides Shanghai into two areas, Pudong and Puxi. Meanwhile, Huangpu River greatly helped Shanghai’s water supply system, shipping industry and industrial development. Shanghai also has Chongming Island Wetland and Dongtan Wetland. These wetlands are home to a large number of wild animals and plants all year round, and there are also many migratory birds passing through here. These wetlands are largely natural, but because of their special ecological environment, they are partially affected by human factors, such as wetland protection and development projects.
Shanghai has a flat terrain, but it is not naturally formed. The city was once a seaside depression that was artificially transformed into a flat inland plain before my grandparents came to the city. Although transforming the depression into land can provide people with a lot of arable land. But the process of urbanization means that a lot of land is developed and a lot of buildings are built. This extremely fast urbanization speed has forcibly changed the original natural landscape.
As I just mentioned, the right to use land resources largely comes from the efforts and efforts of predecessors. Especially in the construction development, transportation infrastructure and industrial zone expansion in the city center and surrounding areas. Although Shanghai mainly relies on external inputs due to the lack of local energy resources. However, the development of wind and solar energy resources in coastal areas is gradually replacing traditional energy, reflecting human intervention and utilization of natural resources.
My family always likes to protect the environment from our own perspective. Firstly, we believe saving energy and reducing energy consumption can help us protect the environment. By doing so, we are always using appliances that are more energy-efficient such as Energy-saving light bulbs, solar panels. Not only that, we also installed water-saving equipment such as low-flow shower heads and toilets to help with water conservation. To reduce the use of plastic, we encourage our whole family and our friends to use reusable shopping bags, cups, and tableware. We actively participate in or support local community greening projects, such as planting trees to help maintain parks and green spaces.
As an Asian and middle class, my ethnic and class heritage has certainly influenced how my family and I view and relate to the environment. Most Asians living in China are influenced by Chinese Confucian culture as well as Taoist and Buddhist thought, and this is true for me and my family. Confucian culture emphasizes harmony between man and nature. Although Confucianism is not a direct environmental theory, it focuses on moral responsibility and social order. In this cultural context, respecting nature and protecting the environment are seen as part of moral responsibility. In addition, Taoism and Buddhism have also had a profound impact on the Chinese people’s environmental concepts. These religious traditions emphasize the sacredness of nature and harmony between man and nature, especially in terms of moderation in consumption and respect for nature.
As a child borned in a middle-class family, I am no longer troubled by basic life problems such as getting food and clothes. Therefore, I am more concerned about improving the quality of life including environmental issues such as air, water quality, and food safety. For example, I often choose organic food, participate in environmental protection activities, and support environmentally friendly policies. In my grandparents’ era, the environment and living resources they were exposed to were completely different from my current ones. At that time, China had not yet experienced economic reform and all the Chinese people struggled for basic life needs. My grandparents were the same as everyone at that time. They were only concerned about whether they could obtain enough resources to survive with no concern about the impact on the environment. Even though environmental degradation and pollution problems had already appeared in Shanghai City at that time. The government did not set up corresponding environmental protection laws and regulations. My grandparents’ views on the environment did not begin to change until after 2000.
By the time of my parents’ generation, with the rapid expansion of global industrialization, environmental problems had gradually developed to a point that could not be ignored. The most serious ones included air pollution and water pollution. However, their environmental awareness focused more on improving their own quality of life rather than protecting the overall environment. Although they may participate in some environmental protection actions, this awareness is not deeply rooted and is more a reaction to specific problems.
As our quality of life improves, my family and I have begun to pay more attention to the environment. It means we do not only care about the environment in our community or city. Instead, we realized that global issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainable development are becoming more serious. Therefore, we always like to be involved in environmental protection actions, including advocating to avoid use of plastics, practicing energy conservation, promoting sustainable products and renewable energy, and supporting environmental protection organizations. And we hope to enjoy the benefits of the environment while contributing to its protection through individual and collective efforts. This change in the view of the environment is very huge. Maybe they have never thought that they would work hard to protect the environment. In their eyes, protecting the environment only meant keeping their homes and communities clean. Now they have realized that protecting the environment is a more complex concept. Protecting the environment does not only require a slogan, but also requires everyone in the whole society to work hard for it.