Talking about Environment in Asia

  "Environment" has become a hot topic these days.
Since the Industrial Revolution  2 or 3 centuries ago, people enjoy more convenience in life, but it was also the beginning of Pollution and Environmental destruction.

  Modern day Environmental problem has a deep connection with Economical aspects.
Western states developed earlier, and around 1970s it was the peak of environmental hazard.
Asian nations developed economically with mass industrialization in later half of 20th century, and the environmental problems arose around 1990s.
In recent decades, Europe has decreased emission of pollutants, while the problem becomes severe in fast-developing nations such as those in Asia.

The world witnesses a similar pattern for all countries:

Modernization -> Industrialization -> Mass production, mass consumption
-> Pollution, environmental deterioration -> Need of formal Regulation to improve

  Recently, as big countries like China and India start to take off economically, their immense impact toward environment cannot remain unseen. China's emission of CO2 has ranked No.1 since 2007, and India No.3 in 2009. We cannot forget that these big countries have billions of population, huge scale of market and massive usage of resources.

  However, things become more complication these days.
As industries, products and consumptions go beyond borders, Pollution also transcends borders.
Harmful weathers like sandstorm, acid rain and low air quality often affect neighboring countries.

  There needs a common Regulation with binding force among the Asian region, and EU may serve as a model for this . In the European Union, regulations such as LRTAP (Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution 1979) and Med Plan (Mediterranean Action Plan 1976) are equipped with binding forces of international regulations, which make violations punishable.
On the contrary, Asian states have EANET (Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia 1993) and NOWPAP (Norwest Pacific Action Plan 1989), but they function nothing more than monitoring, and thus are not effective to curb the problem of pollution.

  China, Korea and Japan are the 3 leading nations in the Asian region.
However, each of them still have challenges to overcome:
China - Lack of experience, knowledge in environmental policies and strategies
Korea - Lack of big impact in political and economical arena
Japan - historical issues, lack of political initiative

There are some issues that require us to think beyond borders.