Slashdot Mirror
Growing Public Unrest Leads China To Admit To 'Cancer Villages'
eldavojohn writes "A new report from China's environment ministry has resulted in long-overdue self-realizations as well as possible explanations for 'cancer villages.' The term refers to villages (anywhere from 247 to 400 known of them) that have increased cancer rates due to pollution from nearby factories and industry. The report revealed that many harmful chemicals that are prohibited and banned in developed nations are still found in China's water and air. Prior research has shown a direct correlation between industrialization/mining and levels of poisonous heavy metals in water. As a result, an air pollution app has grown in popularity and you can see the pollution from space. China has also released a twelve-year plan for environmental protection."
China has also released a twelve-year plan for environmental protection.
Should read:
China has also released their twelfth five-year plan for environmental protection.
My apologies!
after my wife returned from China, and told me about the red air, it seems like a possibility now.
I've maintained for years that China, Mexico, and similar countries going though industrial booms are simply in early stages of industrial revolution. Next we shall see environmental, wage, and health reforms, as these countries realize the need for sustainable management of their labor base.
Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
Lest we become hypocrites...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory
as soon as they hack the EPA.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
We are feathering our environmental nest at home and stocking our shelves from unregulated hell holes.
At some point this evacuation of our industrial base to China will emerge as a moral issue. It's already an employment issue for the working class and a fiscal issue for the nation, but neither of those seem to comfortable office people and the ruling class.
Maybe the shame of all this will.
Importing from regimes that do not have equivalent regulatory rigor is exploitation.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
You can't see clean air from space - it is clear. You can see heavily polluted air, though. The idea is that there are so many pollutants that the effect is visible on a large scale - you can see where it is heavier and where it is lighter (or completely not present, though I suspect little of China's populated area has truly clean air).
William George
It says "In twelve years there will be no environment left to protect. So carry on"
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Where's the explanation on how the free market is going to fix this problem without the need for burdensome regulation? Anyone? Anyone?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Don't worry once China has to enact those bothersome environmental and safety laws that cut into profits the corporations will move on to the next 3rd world country.
Yes they will - and that's how progress happens! There are a finite number of places that haven't finished their industrial revolution yet, and this just speeds the process along. Eventually, the whole world will have made it to the good side of the industrial revolution, and that's not at all a bad thing.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
No I did not overlook Tiananmen, which happened 23 years ago, the same year as the Exxon Valdez disaster, and the US invasion of Panama.
This is not a political issue, it is an economic issue.
My point is that it is simply ridiculous to state that China is just now entering the industrial revolution, when the truth is that China is in the later stages of that revolution, and is quietly entering a social revolution, which is being allowed to happen by the (nominally) communist government.
Contrary to your assertion, I don't expect any violent upheaval in China, nor do I expect progress toward greater freedom and environmental responsibility to slow. China has never known democracy as we understand it in the west. Yet for the average Chinese citizen these are the Good Old Times. They have never had it so good in their long history. They have always lived in a feudal serfdom. It will take perhaps 50 years but they will eventually get to current western standards.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
...which also doesn't work. I think people just aren't designed to grasp a community as big as the one we have. When you live in a village, you see the consequences of your actions, so you avoid shitting in the pond. Today, we have no idea where our shit comes from and who's dying in the manufacturing process. It's not just that there's no available time in our lives to inspect what we buy (both because we buy too much crap and because our time is limited and information simply isn't readily available). We don't even follow politics anymore, because everything is too big and bureaucratic. We can dismiss everything because we live very abstracted lives, so lots of people do it.