Pollution pictures to make you vomit.

[Putrefaction]

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

I am at a loss of words...

[Anchyyy]

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

I am at a loss of words...

This is just...:worried: Poor people who are living and dying of such pollution and still China as a country does not prevent that.

[Putrefaction]

Not even just the people, I was also extremely angry and depressed at what it's doing to the earth. Yeah, everyone says that this is just a phase and China is doing it to become a superpower, just like the US did, but I think it's different. Back in the 1800's, that technology is all that the US--or anyone--had. It was deplorable, but it lead to where we are now--greener, more efficient, and I think that China should be reprimanded for using cruel, environmental-toxic methods.

But I am an idealist with bad debating skills....

[Derfel]

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

I am at a loss of words...

Holy ****. I thought I was going to see the usual heaps of industrial shite, but this stuff is plainly disturbing. I never had much faith in humanity, and this just reaffirmed me in my position.

[Numark]

I really wonder what causes all of these deficiencies we see in China as a nation, culturally.

Why they have so many troubles with pollution, treatment of people, treatment of animals, disregard for the health of others, etc.

We know not all companies and peoples of China are like this- but that is all I ever see.

[bakaKanadajin]

Toronto, my hometown, has a large Chinese population, one of the largest if not the largest outside China I believe. Since childhood I have observed the way Chinese commerce culture operates. Waste water, dead fish/prawns, vegetable waste products (stems, stalks, etc), styrofoam containers, plastic wrap, etc., thrown into the streets and gutters to rot in the sun. I mean major city streets where people walk around, walk their dogs, etc. let alone back alleys. The summer stench of Chinatown's streets is notorious. And keep in mind it isn't even their own country, it's a host country.

After the city initiated it's new food health and safety rating system for restaurants operating within the municipality of Toronto, a number of Chinese restaurants had to close down immediately. I read about one that just closed down the other week actually, 20 were infected with salmonella.

Poisoned gyoza.. baby formula intentionally spiked with melamine to yield a higher 'protein' content, the list isn't short. Go to Pacific Mall in Markham, a Chinese-operated shopping center. Nothing but fakes, bootlegs, imitations, etc. This isn't something recent, stemming from sudden industrialization, this is just the way it is in Chinese business culture, anything for a buck.

Sure it happens in every country, granted, but not on this scale, not with this much carelessness and self-destructiveness. Only in China.

I have nothing against the Chinese people I come into contact with on an individual basis. Generally they're quite nice and actually quite ashamed of what their government lets corporations get away with.

But you know, it is what it is, and it's very bad. Pardon me for being critical but only a fool would try to paint this picture positively.

[Putrefaction]

Well, you would think that if China had a supposed great respect for the earth, at one time, and it's highly traditional, it would keep that tradition on. Somewhere in the past century I think it has been convoluted so as you said, the dollar is almighty and the means can be misconstrued. I have seen Asians creating a lot of waste as well, but I can't attribute it to them as many other races do as well.

[Hezam]

How dirt they are !
Amazing pictures !! dont make me laugh...it's very rude and un-human acts.

[Elizabeth]

Well, you would think that if China had a supposed great respect for the earth, at one time, and it's highly traditional, it would keep that tradition on. Somewhere in the past century I think it has been convoluted so as you said, the dollar is almighty and the means can be misconstrued. I have seen Asians creating a lot of waste as well, but I can't attribute it to them as many other races do as w
ell.
You think after years of silent suffering effects of filthy air and tainted water, the Chinese people are still are too busy making a buck to have a second thought for toxins poisoning their own surrounding farmlands and sickening local residents ?? I don't know what more power you expect of the individual to effect change. It isn't like this is a free country where the average citizen has a voice in their own future and well-being of their social structure. They are slaves in a nondemocratic society. The central government cares about two things : economic growth and controlling the people. Their only regard for a million premature deaths a year at any time other than the Olympics are the funds to be earmarked for medical care and public health. Environmentalists expose pollution, press local government officials to enforce environmental laws which are then either summarily flouted or result in tens of thousands of protests a year and then ignored.


The below citations just happens to be a recent target of several widely-covered “mass-incidents” of violent protest available to the foreign press corp.




http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/806/

China: Pollution protests against "death factory" suppressed

Friday, 7 August 2009.
Lethal waste from a chemical plant in Liuyang city, Hunan province, has killed at least five people

Last week, on Wednesday 29 July, over a thousand villagers in Zhentou township in Liuyang city, Hunan province laid siege to local government offices and a police station in protest against pollution from the nearby Xianghe chemical factory. Their demonstration earlier in the day had been thwarted by local officials, with police making six arrests. Zhentou township residents are fighting for compensation and medical treatment following closure of the polluting plant in June. For six years, the Xianghe "death factory" was illegally producing the dangerous metal indium, while denying this, and claiming instead it was only manufacturing the food additive zinc sulphate. Indium is used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for electronic products such as watches, mobile phones, and high-definition TVs. China is the main producer of indium.

By refining indium, the Xianghe factory also produced cadmium, another dangerous metal, as a by-product. This lethal production process lacked government approval and the necessary safety facilities for dealing with the toxic waste. When the plant was finally closed in June, environmental officials claimed that indium had only been produced for a short period during 2006. But workers at the plant have told the South China Morning Post (6 August) that this is not true, indium production had been constant at the plant since 2004.

"We had absolutely no idea that what we did would cause such devastating damage to the environment and to our health," one worker told the SCMP."Bosses only told us about making big money. They never talked about health hazards."

[pyro530]

As bad as these pictures are, China's environmental issues are becoming well known to the rest of the world. China is now making a big move this year to become more environmentally friendly.
Part of the problem is not everyone follows regulations in China, but I think as you see China become a superpower this will be less and less of an issue.

[Putrefaction]

That story is both heartbreaking and sick. That reminds me of lies back in the older days when I studied US History of companies... having studied cadmium, such radiotoxicity is not healthy, obviously.

I don't understand why a country would do this even if it were developing, perhaps it's because I come from America, but wouldn't the rationale be to mimic the leading country's movements, ie green movement, and expand and enhance that? It follows the PC logic with computers, at least in my mind.

And now I have to remember to 100% recycle my computer monitors, even if it costs an extra few dollars. China's not the only one at issue here, Indian pollution has not been ignored. I feel sad, because it's my parents' home country, and to see their ideals of a healthy and thriving earth is going down...

I also want to bring up the population growth, do you think it is sustainable with advances in health and consumption? I am vegetarian, but I hear that fish and other food supplies are diminishing at a fast rate.

[Alma]

Well, you would think that if China had a supposed great respect for the earth, at one time, and it's highly traditional, it would keep that tradition on.

apparently, that is just image that country has and managed to preserve it somehow. same in Japan or any other country (preserving an image, no matter what that image is actually, not just about respect etc..)
these pictures are really sad, no doubt about it. I really wonder how people manage to survive.

[Derfel]

As bad as these pictures are, China's environmental issues are becoming well known to the rest of the world. China is now making a big move this year to become more environmentally friendly.
Part of the problem is not everyone follows regulations in China, but I think as you see China become a superpower this will be less and less of an issue.

China would have to abolish itself to become environment friendly. Only long years or war can cut through the thick layer of shite that is the bunch of people in charge of capital in the country.

[Elizabeth]

That story is both heartbreaking and sick. That reminds me of lies back in the older days when I studied US History of companies... having studied cadmium, such radiotoxicity is not healthy, obviously.

I don't understand why a country would do this even if it were developing, perhaps it's because I come from America, but wouldn't the rationale be to mimic the leading country's movements, ie green movement, and expand and enhance that? It follows the PC logic with computers, at least in my mind.
All industries want a green future and to intensify efforts towards highly-efficient technologies. But you don't quadruple economic growth on windmills and solar panels alone. http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/08/10/china%E2%80%99s-green-leap-forward/

Short answer : Because Western companies are climate change hypocrites and have moved or outsourced their manufacturing to China to avoid strict environmental standards, get cheap labor and cheap electric power. :okashii:


Growth Run Amok

As gloomy as China’s pollution picture looks today, it is set to get significantly worse, because China has come to rely mainly on energy-intensive heavy industry and urbanization to fuel economic growth. In 2000, a team of economists and energy specialists at the Development Research Center, part of the State Council, set out to gauge how much energy China would need over the ensuing 20 years to achieve the leadership’s goal of quadrupling the size of the economy.

They based their projections on China’s experience during the first 20 years of economic reform, from 1980 to 2000. In that period, China relied mainly on light industry and small-scale private enterprise to spur growth. It made big improvements in energy efficiency even as the economy expanded rapidly. Gross domestic product quadrupled, while energy use only doubled.

The team projected that such efficiency gains would probably continue. But the experts also offered what they called a worst-case situation in which the most energy-hungry parts of the economy grew faster and efficiency gains fell short.

That worst-case situation now looks wildly optimistic. Last year, China burned the energy equivalent of 2.7 billion tons of coal, three-quarters of what the experts had said would be the maximum required in 2020. To put it another way, China now seems likely to need as much energy in 2010 as it thought it would need in 2020 under the most pessimistic assumptions.

“No one really knew what was driving the economy, which is why the predictions were so wrong,” said Yang Fuqiang, a former Chinese energy planner who is now the chief China representative of the Energy Foundation, an American group that supports energy-related research. “What I fear is that the trend is now basically irreversible.”

The ravenous appetite for fossil fuels traces partly to an economic stimulus program in 1997. The leadership, worried that China’s economy would fall into a steep recession as its East Asian neighbors had, provided generous state financing and tax incentives to support industrialization on a grand scal

Environmental degradation is by nature short-sighted. Multiply that by an entrenched fast-growth political culture and a vast manufacturing-export sector responsible for half the world demand. If environmentally responsible means a drop in productivity, China cannot go green without political change.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=4

[RavenRockstar]

These were saddening =[
I've been to China, and the difference between major cities and the countryside is astounding. Theres all manner of pollution in the city, lying everywhere, and floating in the air. But the coutryside is so amazingly beautiful. The contrast really points out the excess filth of the cities, if only they would clean them up, they would be so gorgeous. Plus, Im taking Enviromental Studies as my Science credit, so this kind of irresponsibility makes me cringe.
Wouldnt you think that having cleaner cities would increase tourist activity and make more money over time? :?

[Elizabeth]

These were saddening =[
I've been to China, and the difference between major cities and the countryside is astounding. Theres all manner of pollution in the city, lying everywhere, and floating in the air. But the coutryside is so amazingly beautiful. The contrast really points out the excess filth of the cities, if only they would clean them up, they would be so gorgeous. Plus, Im taking Enviromental Studies as my Science credit, so this kind of irresponsibility makes me cringe.
Wouldnt you think that having cleaner cities would increase tourist activity and make more money over time? :?
Because Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai are production centered, indeed they are some of the worst in the world. But urbanization with good-quality sanitation that is managed sustainably is totally on the frontier of infrastructure efficiency and energy use. They draw people away from subsistence farming, which is ecologically devastating, empower women by defusing the population bomb AND by being compact consume far less CO2 live in more dispersed communities. The best indicator for developing countries, though, is when women move to town, they are rewarded for having fewer kids, getting some education, some economic opportunity, etc. One for the girls ! Woohoo !!! :cool:

[Putrefaction]

empower women by defusing the population bomb AND by being compact consume far less CO2 live in more dispersed communities. The best indicator for developing countries, though, is when women move to town, they are rewarded for having fewer kids, getting some education, some economic opportunity, etc.

This is good to hear. Though I'm not sure we should be moving away from farming; synthetic foods are...not safe to eat yet, at least in my opinion.

Population and gender ratios are hilariously bad in China.

[ChrisGR]

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_co2_emi-environment-co2-emissions
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-pollutioncomparisons.htm(kinda old but its worth taking a look at)

Its good to point out the extremely polluted China but ignorance about your own situation is hypocritical and creates more ignorance.

[Derfel]

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_co2_emi-environment-co2-emissions
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-pollutioncomparisons.htm(kinda old but its worth taking a look at)

Its good to point out the extremely polluted China but ignorance about your own situation is hypocritical and creates more ignorance.

You just presume ingorance, you know absolutely nothing about the knowledge of your opponent pertaining a field that hasn't come up yet. Arrogance.

[Numark]

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_co2_emi-environment-co2-emissions
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-pollutioncomparisons.htm(kinda old but its worth taking a look at)

Its good to point out the extremely polluted China but ignorance about your own situation is hypocritical and creates more ignorance.


I'd also like to point out those "figures" if you can even call them that are UNBELIEVABLY outdated... The bottom cites two reports in 1991 and 1992... since when has a gallon of gasoline in america cost $1.07!? China has unprecedented economic growth in the 18 years since those numbers.

[ChrisGR]

I'd also like to point out those "figures" if you can even call them that are UNBELIEVABLY outdated... The bottom cites two reports in 1991 and 1992... since when has a gallon of gasoline in america cost $1.07!? China has unprecedented economic growth in the 18 years since those numbers.

already referred to that but it doesnt mean anything.

for example if China in ten-twenty years becomes "master" in enviromental policy, does that mean that we forget about the sins of today?
in total in all the modern years of human history usa is still the country which has caused the most pollution, that doesnt mean that China is excused tho.

[RavenRockstar]

I'm quite aware of the U.S. pollution problem, actually. However, the point being discussed was pollution in China, so that's what I was commenting on.

[ikkoikki]

China is probably doing what Japan's government did until the 1960s. In the Itai-Itai and Minamata pollution cases, the government and big business simply turned away criticism and covered up incidents, realizing that local opposition didn't affect national politics and the financial costs of acting in a greener manner were placed higher than public health. Thankfully the growth of pressure groups and a more open media in the 1960s altered the situation (but certainly didn't solve all the problems).
China seems to be acting in a similar manner; economic progress at any cost to the poor citizens who have to live with the consequences.