China's degrading environment should serve as a warning to the US

[nam78_two]

Too often imo, in the political debate in this country we give environmental issues only token importance. During the 2004 presidential debates only one question addressed the environment and that was the debate in the town-hall meeting format. These days it is slightly better, but only marginally so. This is an issue that if ignored for too long, WILL catch up with us.


Everything I read about China's environment reinforces my belief that, this is an object lesson in what eventually happens to a country in the absence of strong legislation protecting the environment. And it is happening here. Over the last 7 years, the insane pro-corporate, anti-environmental policies of the Republicans have caused an incredible amount of damage to the environmental protection laws of this country. A lot of it is low-profile stuff they sneak in, but it has been slipped in there and it will be our undoing unless we make this a top priority for our elected leaders this election cycle and going forward.

The NYTimes has an ongoing examination of the environmental issues in China and it is scary. I feel deeply for the unfortunate people of that country and the mess their leaders have plunged them into.

Ignoring environmental issues does not make them go away. They will eventually catch up with us and we should make sure our leaders understand this.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/world/asia/28water.html

Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up

SHIJIAZHUANG, China — Hundreds of feet below ground, the primary water source for this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running dry. The underground water table is sinking about four feet a year. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater.

Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year. Population is rising. A new upscale housing development is advertising waterfront property on lakes filled with pumped groundwater. Another half-built complex, the Arc de Royal, is rising above one of the lowest points in the city’s water table.

“People who are buying apartments aren’t thinking about whether there will be water in the future,” said Zhang Zhongmin, who has tried for 20 years to raise public awareness about the city’s dire water situation.

For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China’s galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China — even as demand keeps rising everywhere.

China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply.

For the Communist Party, the immediate challenge is the prosaic task of forcing the world’s most dynamic economy to conserve and protect clean water. Water pollution is so widespread that regulators say a major incident occurs every other day. Municipal and industrial dumping has left sections of many rivers “unfit for human contact.”

Cities like Beijing and Tianjin have shown progress on water conservation, but China’s economy continues to emphasize growth. Industry in China uses 3 to 10 times more water, depending on the product, than industries in developed nations.

“We have to now focus on conservation,” said Ma Jun, a prominent environmentalist. “We don’t have much extra water resources. We have the same resources and much bigger pressures from growth.”

>>
“There’s no uncertainty,” said Richard Evans, a hydrologist who has worked in China for two decades and has served as a consultant to the World Bank and China’s Ministry of Water Resources. “The rate of decline is very clear, very well documented. They will run out of groundwater if the current rate continues.”

>>
A century or so ago, the North China Plain was a healthy ecosystem, scientists say. Farmers digging wells could strike water within eight feet. Streams and creeks meandered through the region. Swamps, natural springs and wetlands were common.

Today, the region, comparable in size to New Mexico, is parched. Roughly five-sixths of the wetlands have dried up, according to one study. Scientists say that most natural streams or creeks have disappeared. Several rivers that once were navigable are now mostly dust and brush. The largest natural freshwater lake in northern China, Lake Baiyangdian, is steadily contracting and besieged with pollution.

What happened? The list includes misguided policies, unintended consequences, a population explosion, climate change and, most of all, relentless economic growth. In 1963, a flood paralyzed the region, prompting Mao to construct a flood-control system of dams, reservoirs and concrete spillways. Flood control improved but the ecological balance was altered as the dams began choking off rivers that once flowed eastward into the North China Plain.
>>
More at the link.

[Bluebear]

1. President Gore. For science, for the planet.

PLEASE run, Al Gore, somebody needs to lead the way to save this planet.

[nam78_two]

3. Agreed

I can :toast: to that.

[Reterr]

2. k&r.eom

[LSK]

4. K&R

[ftr23532]

5. Recommended

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. That is a very powerful series the NYT is putting together

It's terrifying and true. I can't recommend it enough.

Every one should take the time to read and view it in it's entirety.

:kick: &R

[nam78_two]

8. Agreed

It is a very informative (if depressing) series.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. The U.S. degrading environment should have been a warning to China.

This is a pattern followed by all countries when increase industrial production. Big spike in pollution as everybody tries to get rich, followed by a slow reduction as environmental concerns take over.

China now looks like the U.S. fifty years ago.

[provis99]

9. I heard a reporter on CBC

talk about how when he stayed in Beijing, smog was so thick that when he looked across the street, he couldn't make out any of his neighbors. Sounds like London, circa 19th century.

[nam78_two]

12. My SO's brother lives there

And he says that the destruction has been ramped up so incredibly in just the few years he has been there that certain parts of the country are unrecognizable from how they were a few short years ago.

[tammywammy]

10. It really should have been the otherway around

During the US and Europe's industrial revolution we had the same type problem that China has now. But, during the 20th century, the US and Europe have managed to turn things around and the pollution isn't nearly as bad as it once was. While there are still huge stride that the US needs to take in an environmental approach, at least the EPA does something.

China has no effective government equal to the EPA. While they have an environmental agency, it has no ability to fine or fix really any problems. That's the problem over there. Plus, with their continuing pollution of major water ways, their drinking water is not only polluted, but they're eventually effecting drinking water down to India. Overall it's a huge mess.

China's problems should have been nipped in the bud at the beginning of their huge industrialization if they had taken the precautions that the US and Europe implemented after our industrialized revolution.

[nam78_two]

11. But that is my point

The last 7 years have seen a steady attempts at the erosion of environmental policies and regulations, instituted over years. It is tracked by or perhaps preceded by a general lack of interest by the public at large in environmental issues. It is very easy to undo the effective environmental policies of several decades with just one Bush. It is a slippery slope. IMO you can NEVER turn your back on environmental issues with the attitude that"Eh we have done enough for now. Bought some leeway to trash the place."
Globalization is another complicating factor, because in a sense we are outsourcing our pollution/environmental destruction, with growing consumerism, that is fueled by the availability of cheap goods from other countries, that do not follow the same environmental or labor standards. We are part of China's environmental problems. In such a globalized economy, it is all tied together.

[nam78_two]

13. kick.nt

[earth mom]

14. K & R. nt