By Wang Haiqin & Wang Chaoran

Research Report Vol.18 No.4, 2016

“China Livelihood Survey” team of Development Research Center of the State Council administered a household survey on China’s livelihood issues like environment in eight provinces in 2015[ ], and received a total of 12,714 valid questionnaires. Survey results show respondents are most dissatisfied with environmental pollution and ecological degradation, although nearly 60 percent of respondents acknowledge that environment has been improved in recent years. The survey also finds that respondents’ evaluation of environment is greatly influenced by such factors as age, gender, income, education, occupation, residence as well as different types of questions concerning environment.

I. Respondents’ Satisfaction Greatly Influenced by Improved Subjective Evaluation of Environment

1. Improved subjective evaluation of environment Among all respondents, 58.5 percent report that their environment has been improved during the past three years[ ], 29.5 percent believe no improvement have been seen, and only 10.6 percent report that environment has become worse[]. Compared with the survey last year, the proportion of respondents who believe environment has become better increases by 27.5 percentage points, and that of respondents who believe things have worsened reduces by 4.1 percentage points. More respondents feel better quality of all types of ecological environment while fewer of them think the opposite. The proportions of respondents who think that air quality, water quality, and disposal of household waste and sewage are “very good” or “good” are 60.8 percent, 59.2 percent, 53.1 percent and 49.2 percent respectively, 3.5, 1.9, 3.1 and 2.6 percentage points higher than last year. Therefore, respondents think most progress is made in air quality, followed by disposal of household waste. The proportions of respondents who believe air quality, water quality, disposal of household waste and sewage are “very poor” or “poor”, fall by 3.3, 1.1, 3.6 and 3.3 percentage points compared with last year.

2. Great impact of subjective evaluation of environment on respondents’ satisfaction Among respondents who believe environment has been improved, 68.8 percent are satisfied with their living conditions, while 11.8 percent are not; but among those who think environment has worsened, only 57.2 percent admit that they are satisfied with their life whereas as high as 21.3 percent do not. Hence it is obvious that respondents’ evaluation on environment is closely related to their satisfaction about their life. In theory, environmental quality can affect life satisfaction in three ways. The first is biophilia[ ], which means environment improvement enhances the attachment between man and nature. The second is health, which means good natural environment is conducive to relieving anxiety and depression. The third is perception, which means people feel less satisfied when they are aware of environment pollution and ecological degradation. Empirical studies abroad also show the relationship between environmental quality and life satisfaction. For example, Professor Welsch (2006)[] at Carl von Ossietzky Universit?t Oldenburg found that there is a significant negative correlation between average life satisfaction and air pollution in 54 countries. Besides, Professor Mackerron at University of Sussex and Professor Mourato at London School of Economics (2009) found that respondents’ life satisfaction will drop by 0.5 points as nitrogen dioxide in London increases by every 10 microgram per cubic meter[].

II. Respondents’ Increasing Awareness of Environmental Problems

1. Environmental Problems top the list of the most dissatisfying social factors In the survey of 2015, respondents are most dissatisfied with environment pollution and ecological degradation, food safety, and poor-rich divide, accounting for 24.2 percent, 19.1 percent, and 17.7 percent respectively. Household survey in 2014 and 2013 both suggest the issue of environment pollution and ecological degradation is the third most dissatisfying. Though an increasing proportion of respondents think that environment has become much better, the issue of environment pollution and ecological degradation is still the most dissatisfying. This indicates that the whole society focuses more on environment, but environment improvement is made at a slower pace than people’s rising expectations of better environment.

2. Urban and rural areas face different serious environmental problems Overall, household waste and air pollution are two major problems. The proportions of respondents complaining about household waste and air pollution are the highest, 25.1 percent and 24.8 percent, respectively; the third most serious problem is water pollution which is complained by 18.8 percent respondents; while the proportions of respondents complaining about other environmental problems are all less than 15%[ ]. Three environmental problems—air quality, household waste and noise—are complained most by urban respondents, accounting for 38.3 percent, 23.2 percent, and 21.6 percent respectively (see the table below). Compared with rural respondents, 20 percentage points more urban respondents are disgruntled with poor air quality. Rural respondents complain most about disposal of household waste, serious pollution of surrounding water area, and poor air quality, accounting for 24.9 percent, 20 percent, 18.1 percent, respectively (see the table above). Lack of rural sewage treatment is the important reason for rural water pollution, and only 42.5 percent of rural respondents believe sewage treatment in their area is “very good” or “good”, lower than the proportion of respondents who think highly of treatment of other pollution[ ]. As air pollution problem arises in rural areas, 18.1 percent of rural respondents complain about the problem, which is mainly caused by the fact that air pollution moves from urban area to rural area, as well as incomplete infrastructure and incapability of preventing and treating air pollution in rural areas. Only 44.7 percent of rural respondents believe treatment of pollution from their surrounding factories and enterprises is “very good” or “good”. In addition, straw burning still accounts for 21.4 percent of air pollution, which further worsens air quality in rural areas.

III. Significant Correlation between Subjective Evaluation of Environmental Quality and Many Factors

Research on environmental awareness and evaluation of environmental quality began in the late 1960s in developed economies, and the 1990s in China. These studies divide factors influencing public environmental awareness and evaluation of environmental quality into two parts[], individual level including gender, age, education, income, occupation, and residence, and structural level including economic development, environmental issues, dominant values, government management system, and penetration of mass media. Most studies focus on the analysis of individual factors, and create many theories explaining public environmental awareness and action, such as “gender hypothesis”, “age hypothesis” “social class hypothesis”, and “residence hypothesis”. These theories were put forward in developed countries in the 1970s, but China can still learn from them when analyzing its current public awareness and action of environmental protection. ...

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