Slashdot Mirror
Over 80 Percent of China's Well Water Is Polluted (voanews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: 32.9 percent of the 2,103 underground wells tested in China received grade 4 for water quality -- meaning they're only fit for industrial use and are not safe for drinking water. Another 47.3 percent received a grade 5 for water quality. "These latest statistics are an indicator of how bad the underground water quality is. The sources of pollution are widespread and include a lot of agricultures. I think that would be the main source of pollution," Dabo Guan, professor at the University of East Anglia in Britain, told the New York Times. "From my point of view, this shows how water is the biggest environmental issue in China. People in the cities, they see air pollution every day, so it creates huge pressure from the public. But in the cities, people don't see how bad the water pollution is," said Guan. According to statistics from the country's Ministry of Water Resources, 70 percent of lakes used as a water source, 60 percent of underground water, and 11 percent of water in reservoirs did not meet the country's safety standards. Even though the study measured water sources close to the surface, the results are shocking and depict the adverse effects air pollution has in China currently and in years to come.
Don't forget: all those "small government" types would like to starve the agencies that do this analysis of the funds they need to operate. But somehow, the "free market" will fix any contamination issues.
Waiting for those "troll" mods!
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
There is widespread pollution in China. Film at 11:00.
I love to point to China when I hear about how the USA should gut it's reglatory systems. That's what we would be getting a repeat of where we were once.
It's not even wrong to think that when a system is designed to make money, that money won't be made in any manner possible.
Cleaning up after yourself costs money, and since it doesn't matter in six months, who the hell cares if you poison the water? There are plenty more countries with clean water to poison.
I'm still offering tours of what the coal mining companies did in the counties above mine. Land not fit to do anything but die on now. And that orange color in the water does not make it soda.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
You just can't allow individuals and businesses to participate in the free market with no concern for keeping shared natural resources like air and water clean. Even the staunchest free-market thinker Milton Friedman was a proponent of a cap and trade system as a way to financially account for the pollution produced by business.
Please, Nixon was most certainly not an "uberRepublican" by today's standards (shoot, by today's some of his policies would be of the Left) and even by the standards of the day he was only a bit right of middle. The Southern Realignment was still under way when he was in office so defining him under modern party terms doesnt make sense.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
The point doesn't still stand. You are confused. Yes, they call themselves communist, but that doesn't make it the case. I guess you think North Korea is a democracy and a republic if all it takes is a name.
I'm still offering tours of what the coal mining companies did in the counties above mine.
Do you drive there?
Usually
Do you advertise these tours on the internet using power?
Just on slashdot for people who bloviate about how regulations are evil. Whatever you are trying to prove, you are failing miserably.
Companies don't pollute, they provide a product that the market demands. YOU and I are the ones who are doing the polluting.
This is bizzare. So the profit motive doesn't come into play at all? These companies who in the late 1800's until the mid 1900's were run bereft of regulations, and after stripping off a section of coal, they either simply left it, or even better, declared bankruptcy. Then a close relative would start up a new business doing the same thing. After 7 years, rinse and repeat.
Back in the day, their largest customers were other companies, and consumerism hardly existed at all. They didn't have to clean up after themselves, and they didn't.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.