Why this matters?

Recently, Trump claimed that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. The public began to worry about the carbon emission will rise significantly in the near future. This news reminded me of the air pollution in my home country, China. People kept saying about developing countries sacrificed their environment for more energy production and economic development. However, I like thinking critically instead of guessing based on common sense. I’d love to dig more into the data to see if the country’s development is contradicted with the environment. I’ll take China as my target country for now but may add a developed country as a comparison group if necessary.

Here are my main concerns:
  • Is there a relationship between industrial development and energy consumption?
  • Does the increasing energy consumption obviously affect the environment?
  • How’s the future prospect of sustainable energy?

Resources

I’m going to use the open data sets from The World Bank’s databank, including data of the Sustainable Development Goals, Sustainable Energy, GDP, CPI, population, and so on. These data are updated frequently (latest update was June 01, 2017), available from 1990 to 2012.

How?

What does the results mean to me/us?

I used to play around small hills and beautiful forests near my parents’ countryside home when I was very young. About 5 years ago, all those sceneries became mud, trucks, and noises. The climate became very hot in summer. We took all the kids to the city since their faces could never be cleaned by polluted water near the village. I was shocked, and angry. I believe the industrial development hurts our environment but I also hope new energy/technology will emerge to save our future. I hope there’s a balance point between benefits and the environment.

From this data analysis, my fellows and I will have a clearer understanding of our energy and environment situation. Additionally, I’ll touch on industries a little bit so that we know what industries need our efforts to change them, and what industries need us to advocate them.