With a development of high speed in recent years, China has become one of the fast economic growing countries in the world, but at the same time, we are also facing the worsening problem of pollution. We are all well aware of the terrible situation: water loss and soil erosion along the Changjiang River and Huanghe River, the gray and cloudy sky on the industrial city, the dead water without living things. So what are the causes of the pollution problem? To answer such question is not easy, and in general, causes can be divided into 3 categories: concept, system, and society.

"Chinese lack the concept of environment protection!" many foreign visitors get this conclusion on the first sight. Because this can be reflected by many details in life: rubbish is thrown everywhere; one-off chopsticks are still used in restaurant; waste water can be discharged into river without limit. The ignorance of environment pollution shows that environment weighs quite light compared with the economy, sports, politics, etc. Although propaganda and education began emphasize the problem these days, there is still a long way to change people’s concept that was formed more than 100 years ago.

The category of system causes involves 2 aspects: law and policy. In China, many specific laws about environment are either blank or unclear. Consequently, many activities and behaviors that do harm to the environment can go without punishment. Even in the area with clear law, the executions are not strict and powerful at all. For instance, many companies along the Changjiang River discharge large volumes of waste water into the river, but they can easily avoid punishment by stopping discharging when the departments of environment discovered it. And sadly the environment department can do little to this.

Policy is another direct factor of the pollution problem. It is well known that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is highly emphasized by Chinese governments of all ranks. To pursue high speed increase of GDP, economy is often developed at the cost of environment destroy. So such phenomena are very popular: forests are cut down for economy; illegal factories are permitted for local development. And behind them are the short sight policies of the government. Besides, nongovernmental organizations do not play an important role in China. Although we can hear more voice from them now, their role is limited to propaganda without essential and powerful effect on society.

Social category also includes several aspects. First, Chinese population is so large that it requires more efforts for managements and measures to take. Besides, a large part of Chinese population is uneducated or low educated, which adds more difficulties. Further more, although economy has been developing fast these years, yet there are also quite a lot of people, especially in country and village, that live in poverty. And they should not be blamed for not caring the environment enough, because the stress of making a living is the first they should face.

In conclusion, it is obvious that pollution is a complex problem in China and the causes of it are really versatile. In addition, all these factors are not insulated and always interactive with each other. So the solution to this problem should be based on a comprehensive and deep understanding of it.