Indeed, the industrial sector can have negative environmental impacts as viewed from industrial production processes. On one hand, the industrial sector can consume a great deal of non-renewable resources. On the other hand, some harmful substances (i.e., exhaust gas, waste water, waste materials) will be generated in the process of industrial production. As is well known, it is impossible to solve the problems linked to resources and the environment without the development of industrial entities. On the contrary, pressure on resources and the environment can only be relieved by a more developed and powerful industrial sector. Substances on the earth could originally not be classified as ‘resources’ and ‘waste’. Without industrialization, most of the substances would be waste rather than resources. With the support of science and technology and an advanced and developed industrial sector, all substances can be changed into resources, and even wastes can be transformed to benefit human beings. Industrialization has the potential to help create a living environment for human beings. At the same time, industrial processes can have negative environmental impacts. Improper industrial exploitation can cause damage to the environment, but the environment can only be protected and improved by more developed industrial technologies. Therefore, the key is to increase the green level of industrialization, and to solve the problems linked to resources and the environment in China with a more developed and advanced industrial sector.
Researchers of the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently carried out field research in Xixia County, a protected area of industrial water sources in the middle region of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project. The Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China named Xixia County as a Nationally Designated Eco-Demonstration Region in May 2008. As a mountainous county of the central region in a middle stage of industrialization, the county has made great achievements in environmental protection. Will more stringent environmental protection in Xixia County affect its economic development, particularly its industrial development? According to the field research, it will not. While Xixia County has made great achievements in environmental protection, its economy (especially the industrial sector) has been growing rapidly. In fact, the Xixia County's achievements in environmental protection are largely due to the conditions created by the rapid development of the county's industrial sector. By contrast, neighboring Xichuan County has basically same natural conditions as those of Xixia County, and its original ecological environment is similar. But today, there is a huge difference between the ecological environments of the two counties. Xixia County presents green mountains and rivers, while Xichuan County presents vast stretches of bald mountains.
One of the reasons that led to such a difference between the ecological environments of the two counties lies in the difference of their industrial development. On one hand, industrial development has the potential to help accumulate wealth for society rapidly so that more financial resources can be allocated for environmental protection under the premise of meeting the needs of basic livelihood. On the other hand, industrialization can also absorb more agricultural population originally living on mountain forest resources and land resources, and this can help reduce nonpoint agricultural pollution.
With the financial resources provided by the industrial development, Xixia County has the ability to invest significant amounts of money in ecological projects, water pollution prevention, immigrant resettlement, adjustment to the industrial structure, and other areas. Governments at the county are able to receive a certain amount of ecological compensation from the central government as transfer payments, but these limited transfer payments alone are insufficient. A large proportion of funds invested by Xixia County for ecological and environmental protection mainly come from the local government tax revenue, which comes from the local industrial sector, especially its large industrial enterprises.
A relatively ample financial capacity can support the development of green and high-efficiency agriculture so as to create conditions to reduce agricultural non-point source pollution. Now, the difficulty of preventing environmental pollution in China has shifted from point source pollution to non-point source pollution. The former is caused by the industrial sector, and the latter is caused by agriculture and life. Developing high-efficiency and green agriculture will not only increase farmer incomes but also reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers, resulting in significant reduction of non-point source pollution caused by agriculture. For example, planting kiwi trees is a typical type of high-efficiency and green agriculture. It takes 3 to 5 years from investment to planting to producing benefits. Without the government's guidance or support, it is difficult for farmers to carry out a long-term investment in such a field. To reduce agricultural nonpoint source pollution, the government of Xixia County has actively guided farmers to develop local organic agriculture with low pollution. In doing so, the government has provided farmers with more infrastructure and technical support services. For example, in order to promote the planting of organic and harmless kiwi trees, the government contributed to the building of a kiwi fruit production base, setting the cement piles and barbed wires for kiwi trees to climb, and spent money on buying kiwi seedlings for farmers to grow. The government of Xixia County has been able to allocate funds to subsidize farmers to plant kiwi trees because the industrial development of the Xixia County provides sufficient financial resources.
The development of local industry has the potential to absorb a large number of transferred agricultural labors, and also to create the conditions to reduce agricultural nonpoint source pollution. The industrial development of the Xixia County has absorbed a lot of agricultural population originally living on mountain forest resources and land resources. The transferred agricultural population, on one hand, will no longer engage in agricultural production, resulting in a reduction of agricultural nonpoint source pollution and deforestation. On the other hand, farmers will be able to consume cleaner energy due to relatively high income from the industrial sector. By contrast, neighboring Xichuan County has basically the same natural conditions as those of the Xixia County, but a significantly lower forest cover rate. One important reason is that its industrial sector is underdeveloped so that it is difficult for the county's industry to absorb a large number of rural labors and thereby reduce dependency on and damage to mountain forest resources.
In short, although industrial production processes can have negative environmental impacts, industrial development can play a positive role in environmental protection and improvement from a global and long-term perspective.