China Reassigns 60,000 Soldiers To Plant Trees In Bid To Fight Pollution

According to The Independent, citing the Asia Times, China has reassigned over 60,000 soldiers to plan trees in a bid to combat pollution by increasing the country's forest coverage. The soldiers are from the People's Liberation Army, along with some of the nation's armed police force. From the report: The majority will be dispatched to Hebei province, which encircles Beijing. The area is known to be a major culprit for producing the notorious smog which blankets the capital city. The idea is believed to be popular among members of online military forums as long as they can keep their ranks and entitlements. It comes as part of China's plan to plant at least 84,000 square kilometers (32,400 square miles) of trees by the end of the year, which is roughly equivalent to the size of Ireland. The aim is to increase the country's forest coverage from 21 per cent of its total landmass to 23 per cent by 2020, the China Daily newspaper reported.

Comments

Probably the sanest use of soldiers

[Anonymous Coward]

Although this will probably only make a minor difference.

Re: Probably the sanest use of soldiers

[peragrin]

The USA used to be that bad. Then we made the EPA, and spent the next 40 years cleaning Stopping at pollution at the various sources, gave us a chance to clean up.

China knows this, they just don't realize the best way is to clean up your act, not patch symptons.

Re: Probably the sanest use of soldiers

[The Evil Atheist]

And the US is willing to forget that lesson bit by bit.

Re: Probably the sanest use of soldiers

[zifn4b]

The USA used to be that bad. Then we made the EPA, and spent the next 40 years cleaning

I'm glad someone on Slashdot finally admitted that the USA has improved in this regard instead of everyone trying to make it out like the United States is the worst of the pollution offenders. It's China, hands down. Evidence that the USA has improved dramatically over the past 20 years. I'm surprised you didn't get modded down making this factual claim.

Re: Probably the sanest use of soldiers

[AmiMoJo]

You seem to be confusing two different statistics. Overall China is worse, but then China has many more people than the US. If you look at per-capita rates then China is quite far down the list, way below the US, Australia, Japan and multiple European countries.

The claim that the US is one of the worst per-capita is true. In fact apart from some under-developed and middle eastern oil producing countries the only one that is worse is Australia.

Re: Probably the sanest use of soldiers

[Uberbah]

Per-capita pollution is the wrong way to measure environmental impact, because my arrogant western exceptionalist ass wants to go on consuming dozens the times the amount of resources as people in other countries

FTFY

Doom and Gloom?

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of the comments here are negatively charged and full of political crap.

Why am I under the impression that everyone here wishes to express their opinions on how to change the world from the comfort of their smartphone or computer rather than actually going out and doing something similar?

The effort is incredible and should they accomplish this, this will be a step in the right direction for mankind. More people should applaud this effort and consider doing the same. If this sets the example, more people should be encouraged to do the same.

If everyone planted a tree for every post they did, you would then be able to be at the level of commitment that the PLA and armed police force. Only then you would have the right to comment, and hopefully the mindset of the posts would be more positive as well.

Re:Febreze on taco diarrhea

[v1]

Of course they need to STOP making pollution, but reforesting their land will also help. There's no reason to berate them for not doing everything at once. Managing a country is all about tradeoffs. They traded their air manpower and quality for product exports and economic standing in the world. Now they're investing some more of that manpower in their environment. Granted, they should have been thinking a bit ahead on this, since it takes time to come to fruition, but at least they're trying.

I personally think this is an outstanding way for them to flex their manpower muscle. One of China's biggest strengths is their sheer numbers combined with their communist government, which is the most efficient way to weild manpower. It has its drawbacks of course, as does any other system, but communism really can get things done fast and at large scale like nothing else. I'd like to see this project quadruple in size in the next year or two. They have the ability to build up momentum fast, and by 2020 they may be at five times the headcount in this project, and only accelerating their efforts. You get that kind of momentum, and even in a project this large with a long return-time, you start to make a serious dent even in a problem that at first appeared "impractically large to tackle".

I think it's still going to be awhile before they start working on the other end of the problem. (the production of pollution) They're still a bit high on the economic returns it's gotten them so far, and I'm sure they're thinking "just a little more, a little more, then we'll start cutting back..." But I think their time is limited, as their population is seeing through their propaganda that's been hard at work downplaying the issue. When everyone in your city is forced to wear masks and set up elaborate air filters in their house, you just can't shovel that much dirt under the rug anymore. And this initial push to tackle part of the problem should be a fairly effective PR stunt at home, chipping away at the idea that the government isn't doing anything about the problem. (which is basically how everyone in any city in China feels right now) Although some will view this as the only reason they're doing it, I think it's a combination of being their original reason and also something more than a token-effort to tackle the problem. But I expect them to get real tangible benefits from their reforestation efforts.

Hopefully they throw a lot more weight behind this project, they could easily become a world-leader in reforestation. (look around the world... who else is even trying at this level right now? nobody)