nstantly creates new problems for the government to deal with. A birth limitation policy allows "one child per family, with allowance for a second child under certain circumstances" however overpopulation is still placing stress on the environment as China's carrying capacity is put to the test daily (U.S Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 2010).
             China is home to 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities, as listed by the World Bank in 2007 (China Program: The state of China's environment). Over 60 per cent of the country's rivers and lakes are tainted with chemicals, industrial waste or toxic spills, and nearly 25 per cent of its citizens lack access to clean drinking water (China Program: The state of China's environment). Thousands of deaths daily can be accredited to China's air pollution; which plays a role in reducing the average life span of civilians (China Program: The state of China's environment). Experts are saying that China uses three times as much energy, per unit of GDP, as the United States and nine times more than Japan (China Program: The state of China's environment). The Chinese Public Security Ministry admitted that "incidents of social unrest grew by more than 6 percent in 2005" (China Program: The state of China's environment). Major biodiversity loss has resulted from deforestation and growing desertification across the country (China Program: The state of China's environment). Greater strains have been placed on already over crowded urban centers, as nearly 300 million people have migrated from rural hometowns in search of job prospects in the country's richest cities, (China Program: The state of China's environment). In 2005, the government reported "over 87 000 cases of social unrest where concerned citizens demanded their right to a clean environment" (China Program: The state of China's environment). The country's environmental misery...