China's Own Government Admits Pollution Out Of Control - "Health And Social Stability Under Threat"

[hatrack]

Dangerously high pollution levels are getting worse as local governments and industries ignore environmental laws in the pursuit of economic growth, China's environment watchdog said. A report by the State Environmental Protection Administration released this week said pollution of the country's rivers and lakes was worsening and that air pollution in cities was affecting the health of millions.

"The quality of the country's overall environment remained unchanged or deteriorated in some areas," said the report, officially released Tuesday and published in the state press on Wednesday. The watchdog attributed much of the increased pollution to the country's booming industries, as the economy steamed ahead by 10.7 percent in the first three quarters of the year. It said many industrial projects had not undergone environmental evaluation before they went ahead, as it highlighted the problem of local governments not implementing strict environmental protection policies.

"Some district level governments are evaluating only 30 to 40 percent of industrial projects before approving them," the administration said in its report. China produced more than 12 billion tons of industrial waste-water in the first half of 2006, up 2.4 percent from the same period last year, it said.

EDIT

The degradation of China's environment was reaching a critical point where health and social stability were under threat, the environment administration's head, Zhou Shengxian, said this month. Zhou said half the country's rivers were severely polluted and a third of its territory was damaged by acid rain. Last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said China was not doing enough to combat the problem.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/061122091033.zh8d7aom.html

[eppur_se_muova]

1. First step to solving the problem is admitting there is a problem.

Isn't that from Alcoholic Anonymous ? Since Bu**sh** never bothered with AA, he's never heard of this concept.