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

China has also announced who will manufacture...

[arglebargle_xiv]

... the trees: Zhongshan Tandem Plastic Products Co., Ltd, Yuhuan Xushi Plastic Industry Co., Ltd, and Ruian Jinda Plastic Machinery Co., Ltd.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, absolute values, yes. Per-capita values, it's still 2× the amount that China pollutes, from the wikipedia page that you linked.

Even more, if you sort by per-capita, USA is 7th place, the first real large polluter (~14%) behind small countries (up to 1.5%). So yes, USA still has a long way to go *per-capita*.

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.

For all the whiners

[quonset]

For those who whine what a waste this will be, how it's doomed to failure, WHERE WILL THEY GET THE TREES???, one only need look at what one man can do.

Yes, he's been doing it for 37 years, but to accomplish this little bit of restoration, singlehandedly, leaves little doubt what a literal army of people can do, if this is done correctly.

Re:For all the whiners

[RazorSharp]

Another great example is Wayne National Forest in Ohio. Southeastern Ohio was completely destroyed by coal mining in the early twentieth century, and when the coal ran out the economy was left just as devastated as the land. FDR made the land a national forest as one of his New Deal plans, and bought the land off any residents who would sell, and hired those who stayed to plant trees. Today, only eighty some years later, the place looks like it been a forest for hundreds of years (and it's been this way for several decades).

It doesn't take long for mother nature to thrive, given a chance. If the Chinese remain committed to turning their environmental situation around, they certainly could. The commitment is the problem. Unfortunately, Wayne has been leased out by the federal government for fracking. Fortunately, Wayne has shown the ability to rebound from worse.

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.