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Growing Public Unrest Leads China To Admit To 'Cancer Villages'

Posted by Soulskill on from the cheeriest-places-on-earth dept.

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."

19 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Typo Last Sentence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    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!

  2. Industrial revolution standard procedure by Gabrill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
    1. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure by DFurno2003 · · Score: 4, Funny

      When can we begin shipping our politicians their way?

    2. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure by Luckyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Issue is that just because start of the road is the same for them, assuming that they will end up at the same goal is quite strange. East Asian countries have a very different culture, with very different approach to even most basic of things. Expecting them to end up at the same goal is rather ignorant to say the least.

    3. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny

      Didn't you read Gabrill's post? They are trying to cut DOWN on pollutants.

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      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure by Synerg1y · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ya, but it seems, the states & Europe got the best of the globe's tolerance for pollution, I don't think we can expect the same weather if every single country in the world goes through an "industrial revolution" adding to the accumulating pollution.

    5. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I spent a few weeks in China with an anthropologist friend. We'd go to National Parks and preserves and such, only to find that someone had built a roller coaster or slide or some other tourist attraction in them. My friend explained that the Chinese culture doesn't have a particular appreciation for nature in its raw state; that rather than seeing "pristineness" as a virtue in itself, the Chinese kind of see it as a null state, such that a pristine area can always be improved by adding something to it.

      Then again, other than freaks like Thoreau, most Americans weren't out hugging trees at the beginning of our Industrial Revolution either. We were busy chopping them down to build places to live out of them. (And anybody who knows the history of Niagara Falls can understand the idea of "cancer villages" quite easily...)

    6. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Then again, other than freaks like Thoreau, most Americans weren't out hugging trees at the beginning of our Industrial Revolution either.

      Bingo. This idea that "asian culture" is so different from "western culture" is just intellectually lazy. Sure there are differences, but fundamentally people are people, they all want the same stuff - food, air, water, sex, sleep, security, health, family, respect, creativity, etc.

      The sort of reforms we saw that came in on the western industrial revolution aren't culturally specific, they are human-specific. The implementations will surely vary along with the timelines, but the end result will be the same because if it does not get to a similar point of satisifying universal human needs, it will collapse because the humans won't tolerate it indefinitely.

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      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    7. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure by icebike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      Actually, they are in the LATE stages of the industrial revolution (as any casual use of Google Earth would reveal). They are entering that state where increased disposable income and increased levels of education cause individual citizens making purchasing choices that drive the economy in a direction of more open-ness, more freedom, and more environmental responsibility. These people enter government and start working toward taking care of the environment.

      Progress is slow, but this is exactly the predicted pattern that has been seen all over the world as prosperity and education increase, people start taking better care of their environment, investments, and themselves. Much of the west went thru this in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. You rarely hear of smog alerts in the US any more. They used to be common and long lasting in the past. You actually see clear skylines over most cities these days. Hell, even the Hudson river is recovering.

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      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    8. Re:Industrial revolution standard procedure by Jeeeb · · Score: 3, Informative

      Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong are all East Asian nations (or special administrative areas) which are to varying degrees culturally similar to China and provide good examples of this. South Korea and Taiwan are particularly dramatic examples of moving from autocratic to democratic government. Although it is not in East Asia, you could also add Singapore and Malaysia to this list. Singapore interestingly still has an autocratic government, while (less developed) Malaysia is in a kind of transitional phase towards proper democracy. They all have cleaned up their environment a lot as citizen awareness and sensitivity towards environmental problems has increased.

  3. Lest we become hypocrites... by Anachragnome · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lest we become hypocrites...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory

    1. Re:Lest we become hypocrites... by Gabrill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem isn't mismanagement. It's lack of management. Industrial oversight is not intuitive to new industrial booms, because the short term profit will always outweigh the long term unseen consequences until they come to light.

      --
      Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
  4. China will soon have a plan for clean-up... by swschrad · · Score: 5, Funny

    as soon as they hack the EPA.

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    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  5. Low low Walmart prices by Tailhook · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    1. Re:Low low Walmart prices by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are many nations that are close enough. There's no need to seal our borders, just avoid the worst offenders, in particular the ones that have at some point introduced poison into the food supply.

  6. Re:Seen from space = BS by WilliamGeorge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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).

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    William George
  7. 12 year plan leaked! by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    It says "In twelve years there will be no environment left to protect. So carry on"

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  8. Still waiting.. by Daetrin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Where's the explanation on how the free market is going to fix this problem without the need for burdensome regulation? Anyone? Anyone?

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    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    1. Re:Still waiting.. by chrylis · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because I just can't resist feeding trolls, a free market is dependent on property rights. In a free market, those whose air, water, or land was polluted could take the polluters to court, and in fact government protection of polluters has been a consistent feature in wide-scale environmental problems.