China's air, water pollution worsening

[shaffej7070]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070612/sc_af...llutionairwater

 

 

 

I can't imagine China in 10-20 years if gov doesn't step in to curb growth and concentrate on enviro issues.

[tywy_99]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070612/sc_af...llutionairwater

 

 

 

I can't imagine China in 10-20 years if gov doesn't step in to curb growth and concentrate on enviro issues.

The west coast of the US is now monitoring pollution from China coming over by way of the jet streams.

Edited June 12, 2007 by tywy_99 (see edit history)

[notrevorich]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070612/sc_af...llutionairwater

 

 

 

I can't imagine China in 10-20 years if gov doesn't step in to curb growth and concentrate on enviro issues.

One of the many reasons why I don't want to live in China -

The lack of good health care is also an issue - the Government is not funding hospitals well

[TootTaLu]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070612/sc_af...llutionairwater

 

 

 

I can't imagine China in 10-20 years if gov doesn't step in to curb growth and concentrate on enviro issues.

Too late.

The sky is brown.

[C4Racer]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070612/sc_af...llutionairwater

 

 

 

I can't imagine China in 10-20 years if gov doesn't step in to curb growth and concentrate on enviro issues.

Too late.

The sky is brown.

 

Nanning was always brown or gray, never blue. This is one thing my wife noticed once she arrived. She likes the blue skies.

[Guest knloregon]

That was one of my major disappointments with my long trip last Oct.

 

The rail line from Kunming to Chengdu is famous as an engineering accomplishment---Part of Mao's "third line" defense against Soviet attack.

 

This area is so rugged --it should be remote, and with clean air most of the way. As rail travelers in China know, the harder the country, the more time you spend in tunnels. But for the whole trip, the air was so bad I couldn't even see the country side when the train was in broad day light.

[JimandSarha]

And yet, the world's environmentalists insist we are the bad guys.

 

Funny how you don't see them in droves over here cleaning up rivers. Its a shame. Did I mention its a sewer over here?

[RLS]

I'll say one thing about California, (a little off topic from the OP) but, I have lived here in So Cal since 1973. When I moved here the smog was so thick you could cut it. We bitch about the smog laws and complain about it, but I have seen the air improve drastically over the years. I look out my window now and the sky is a beautiful blue. We have to pay the price if we want a blue sky and a clean river.

[JimandSarha]

I'm in favor of environmental laws too. Its just that now, it is reaching the point that the returns from adding more regulations are getting so slim that the worlds focus needs to switch to developing countries like China, Russia, India, etc.

 

The lack of panic among environmentalists over the third world and their continuing focus on the USA makes me think its extreme liberalism hating American business and the pursuit of sympathetic dollars. Enviromentalism in America has become a job for a lot of people.

 

If it wasn't so, a lot of Greenpeace and Sierra Club staffers would be getting themselves arrested or expelled from the third world.

 

Frankly, I think we've got more government than we can afford and we are just about there on environmental watchdogs. The focus needs to shift to where the problem is now much worse. In a global outlook, the people (and aren't they what's important) and the planet are being harmed much more by places other than the USA.

 

Jim

Edited July 1, 2007 by JimandSarha (see edit history)

[bosco]

The U.S. leads the world in a number of pollution types.

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_so2_...-populated-area

[SinoTexas]

The U.S. leads the world in a number of pollution types.

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_so2_...-populated-area

But the most polluted country in the world, is China.

 

As aye,

 

Jim

[notrevorich]

The U.S. leads the world in a number of pollution types.

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_so2_...-populated-area

But the most polluted country in the world, is China.

 

As aye,

 

Jim

Regardless of who has the most polluted or who leads in the world in pollution in some areas

It's what each country is trying to do to reduce the particular pollution problem .

The US is at least making progress in that area.

[JimandSarha]

Yes, the US is making progress and should continue to do so.

 

What is not right is the balance.

 

The US is made out to be the huge fallguy in pollution. Do we make a lot, yes we do.

 

But there are places, like here in China that are so much more God-assful worse.

 

If I fell into the Chicago river, I would climb out, look sheepish and dry myself off.

 

If I fell into the typical river in China, I would go get a tetanus shot, worry about infection on every orifice in my body and probably get checked over for intestinal worms in a few weeks.

 

Would your American wife go completely apesh*t if she caught you biting into an unwashed vegetable or fruit in America? What about your wife in China?

 

Nobody drinks the tap water in China. Not even in Hong Kong.

 

The air is a nice lovely shade of brown in almost all inland cities here. Not just 2 or 3.

 

This place is a disaster. Its an open sewer most places except Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Even in Shanghai its bad if you go back into the older neighborhoods.

 

While America should continue to steadily improve air, water and food quality, nobody is going to die in America from any of those things, except perhaps after decades of the worst possible exposure.

 

You can die in China today. Right now, in hours from pollution.

 

Just where should the resources of the world, the outrage at the situation be directed?

 

Jim

[Rakkasan]

China is where the U.S. was 40+ year ago. Until Lady Bird Johnson started her Keep America Beautiful program we though nothing of throwing trash on the ground and polluting the air. China is just now starting to address these issues as its ecomomy begins to grow. It will not happen over night, just as our clean up didn't happen over night. There was a time when Lake Michigan was seriously polluted as well as many rivers, expecially in the northeast.

 

The U.S. is the pollution fallguy because we listen to the news nitwits telling us we are the bad guys. They know that if they did the same thing to China or some other countries they would be thrown out. Here we give them airtime and accept what they say without question and the government then get tougher on businesses because it is what is expected politically.

Edited July 1, 2007 by Rakkasan (see edit history)

[david_dawei]

I caught hell for posting this in BB.. might as well post it here... if you cannot understand what the word RANK means, just drop it.

Let's put some RANK to this:

Country...total..per capita..per GDP

US...........1.......11.......39

China........2.......99.......90

Russia.......3.......31.......89

India........4......133.......85

Japan..... ..5.......36.......14

Germany......6.......35.......18

UK...........7.......38.......13

Canada.......8.......13.......38

Mexico......11.......87.......45

France......12.......61........4

Australia...14.......12.......41

Brazil......17......129.......34

if you average the three ranks, China, Russia and India are way..... at the bottom.

 

The US stays at the top. This is not the fallguy position.

 

What the US wants to do is get everyone to focus on the first column, since they will be moved out of that #1 spot logically by larger populated country soon... that will become the fallguy... although the US will stay at #1 for per capita for a longer time... Few people who use waste more than necessary...

 

yet, we're #1, although we're not the largest populated country in the world...