China's environment still terribly polluted, getting worse

And Now for Something Completely Familiar

Almost nowhere else on earth today is a source for so much environmental gloom and doom as China. To sum up: It's bad. In fact, for those prone to hopelessness ... read on, there's plenty to get depressed about. Nearly 500 million people in China lack access to safe drinking water. About 750,000 people die every year due to outdoor air pollution and water pollution. And only 1 percent of China's 560 million urbanites breathe air that's considered safe by the European Union. Relatively recent attempts by the central government to control pollution have met resistance from local leaders who are often in collusion with industry. Thousands of protests and riots break out each year in the country due to pollution and health concerns, and the government has banned the publication of pollution health statistics since it could incite further social unrest. "Typically, industrial countries deal with green problems when they are rich," said Ren Yong, of the Center for Environment and Economy in Beijing. "We have to deal with them while we are still poor. There is no model for us to follow."

straight to the source: The New York Times, Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley, 26 Aug 2007

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Comments: (2 comments)

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Beijing...

Good point made here --- and mind you I'm not in any way excusing the problem --- it's just interesting to consider that we stand in judgement of China for their lack of environmental controls based on our own adharmic experience of using and abusing the land for the past 100 years or more to come to the place where we can stand back and say "oh no China, you must do it this way because you're polluting the earth". I mean if you look at it from their perspective they just want what we have --- and we've had no qualms with waving it in front of the rest of the world at every opportunity. There is so much good in the U.S. -- we just need to start setting a better example and taking responsibility for our role in the problems of the world.

Cory

by cmbryant1 at 8:49 AM on 28 Aug 2007

China isn't to Blame, America is!

Not until 20 paragraphs into the New York Times story do you get what the real cause of the pollution in China is.

"Chinese leaders argue that the outside world is a partner in degrading the country's environment. Chinese manufacturers that dump waste into rivers or pump smoke into the sky make the cheap products that fill stores in the United States and Europe. Often, these manufacturers subcontract for foreign companies -- or are owned by them. In fact, foreign investment continues to rise as multinational corporations build more factories in China. Beijing also insists that it will accept no mandatory limits on its carbon dioxide emissions, which would almost certainly reduce its industrial growth."

The next paragraph of the article skirts the issue of our companies taking advantage of cheap labor and lax environmental rules. Both of which are in-part caused by the corporations demands for such rules. The article then goes on to say that the problem is that they aren't using market-oriented incentives.

The article finally gets to the truth of why their environment is so extremely polluted, in the last paragraph.

"At least two leading environmental organizers have been prosecuted in recent weeks, and several others have received sharp warnings to tone down their criticism of local officials. One reason the authorities have cited: the need for social stability before the 2008 Olympics, once viewed as an opportunity for China to improve the environment."

In summation I feel this article was crafted first as propaganda to make it even harder for a post Kyoto treaty to pass because the biggest arguments these days is we can't act if China doesn't at the same time which is total lunacy. The second important part of this is the idea that they aren't implementing market solutions implying that that is what works. Both of these ideas are worthless and stand as a block to the articles two good paragraphs that really get to the heart of the matter.

The first is that China's pollution problems could be more adequately stated as US corporation pollution problems and US consumerism problems. If it weren't for our shoddy global tyranny pollution would not be a problem because China wouldn't be propelled by our ridiculous market growth.

Secondly, China does a really bad job at human rights. That means that the people standing up against the destruction of their lands get punished. We find that out in the last paragraph of course not the first one.

If I were to rewrite this article I would lead with a paragraph like this one.

"US corporations and consumers fuel the ongoing rapid total destruction of the Chinese environment. Chinese citizens who try to stand up against our corporate authority are knocked down by the authoritarian government we encourage. Things look bleak unless Americans start demanding corporate governance and stop buying useless Chinese trinkets."

I need to teach these journalists how to write.

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by wildleaf at 9:32 AM on 28 Aug 2007

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