China's Carbon Emissions and Urbanisation

China is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter

In 1980, less than a fifth of China's population  lived in cities. New data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that out of China's 1.35 billion people, 51.3% lived in urban areas by the end of 2011. Nobel prize winner, Sir William Arthur Lewis, develops a link between urbanisation and economic development. He says that as economies develop they move from rural areas to urban areas to acquire higher paid jobs in industries. This can explain the sudden boom in China's urbanisation, which has required a large amount of deforestation adding to the greenhouse effect. At the same time, China's industrial emissions of CO₂ have grown phenomenally since 1950, when China stood tenth among nations based on annual fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions. 1950 is also the proposed time of The Great Acceleration! An interesting journal by Simon J Price claims that land use change by humans has, " modified the landscape through excavation of rock and soil, generation of waste and creation of artificial ground." The major land use change is urbanisation and development of industry. This change has been taking place well before even the Holocene, but its been most significant after the Industial revolution, which is due to exploitation. Data from US Environmental Protection Agency shows that  economies, such as, US, Europe, Japan (developed) and China (developing), contribute the most globally. Can we create a link between economic development and greenhouse gas emission? Yes, because development of economies means jobs and houses are needed, which leads to deforestation and building of industries.