Contamination of underground water from external sources like chemicals spilled by the factories intrinsic and due to the deposits of harmful metals like arsenic is a global problem that requires to be ameliorated through concerted efforts.
It's terrifying to see this horrible pollution, which was written about as prescient science fiction in John Brunner's 1972 novel, "The Sheep Look Up."
When millions of Chinese flee, not for political freedom, but seeking clean air and water, the mass exodus of people from the Middle East will seem like a minor event. And the destabilization of our civilization will accelerate.
When millions of Chinese flee, not for political freedom, but seeking clean air and water, the mass exodus of people from the Middle East will seem like a minor event. And the destabilization of our civilization will accelerate.
4
When a dry cleaner's improperly disposed solvents can pollute an entire town's drinking water, I shudder to imagine the effects of China's unharnessed growth on its water supply.
It's cost the US billions of dollars to clean up the worst Superfund sites. China too will be saddled with the cleanup bill. Meanwhile the businesses that created it will move to the next countries willing to trade short term prosperity for long term negative externalities.
It's cost the US billions of dollars to clean up the worst Superfund sites. China too will be saddled with the cleanup bill. Meanwhile the businesses that created it will move to the next countries willing to trade short term prosperity for long term negative externalities.
4
While the government works hard to make the distinction between shallow and deep wells, what they ignore is that these deep wells are generally very old water that is not renewed except over geologic time. If they are trying to paint themselves into a box by destroying their renewable shallow water resources and relying on their very deep sources then they are doing a fantastic job
3
Sadly, this isn't new. Hard to believe they act as though it is. China has been polluting rural waters for decades as the communist government expanded industry and confiscated lands. Go to China and walk along the Yangtze. It is heartbreaking.
But for the environmental agencies to act like it's no big deal because they get their drinking water in the cities from 'deep' wells is astounding.
More astounding is the millions of acres they've purchased in the western united States where they've sunken deep wells to drain our aquifers. And the dems won't do anything about it.
But for the environmental agencies to act like it's no big deal because they get their drinking water in the cities from 'deep' wells is astounding.
More astounding is the millions of acres they've purchased in the western united States where they've sunken deep wells to drain our aquifers. And the dems won't do anything about it.
5
You think it's bad there now, just think how bad it will be when China's young fracking industry matures and expands.
6
Just as I had delivered some expensive fancy looking made-in-China shoes bought online. And so now I feel I have contributed to the dilemma of the peasant-class. On one hand we help their economy on the other we help them poison themselves. No matter how noble our intentions we don't look beyond the surface…in case we don't like what we see. If China wants to expand into the global economy then it, as must all exporting countries, comply with accepted standards of pollution control. I once visited a far-north remote Australian beach, littered with offcuts from rubber thongs. We hear of a floating Pacific junk yard the size of my country and now alarming subterranean poisoning of drinking water. Our message should be clear to all manufacturing countries. Clean up your environmental act…or we'll start making our own shoes…again.
4
We should not over look our oceans which are the final resting place of all of our pollution. They provide 50% of the world's oxygen and they are slowly dying.
4
Can the US or any other country be justified in allowing any food grown in China to be imported? I would have to assume that most agricultural products produced in China must be watered with this sludge. If this is, in fact, the case then I would presume that any vegetable, fruit or meat produced there must be a concentrator of those pollutants.
What testing is the FDA or other food safety testing entities doing to ensure that we in the west are not being poisoned by Chinese meat and produce that are using this tainted water?
What testing is the FDA or other food safety testing entities doing to ensure that we in the west are not being poisoned by Chinese meat and produce that are using this tainted water?
6
Maybe too many people.Come to So California to experience what the Dems have done to us,in the effort to add more votes and control.
4
The Chinese government already censors our movies. Its starting to look like they are censoring our journalism now too. Big cities use deeper sources? Where do the shallower sources percolate to?
4
I lived in Rio de Janeiro for most of 2003. At least one of the rivers there, which is the first one you see when you cross the bridge from Governor's island (where the airport is located) to the mainland, is an open black sludge sewer and industrial dump. You had to roll up the windows on your car and recirculate the air from inside the car to avoid your eye stinging from the smell and airborne chemicals percolating from the black sludge. If this wasn't appalling enough, the shore opposite the road on this river had dense vertical homes stretching up from the river banks. How anyone could live there with that burning stench day in and day out is beyond me. Though I haven't been back to Rio since 2003, I figured that they must have cleaned that up before they were awarded the WC and the Olympics. I don't see any way that a visiting decision maker could look, or smell, past that very unpleasant greeting to that otherwise majestic city.
What does that have to do with China, you may ask? Well seeing that pollution at that level firsthand forever converted me to merits of sustainable and environmentally responsible economic growth. You can't eat, drink, or breathe money. Though as a species we have still many parts of the world that can still harbor life, at some point we will run out of such things and it is completely selfish and irresponsible to impose such contamination on people that do not have the means to just move somewhere clean.
What does that have to do with China, you may ask? Well seeing that pollution at that level firsthand forever converted me to merits of sustainable and environmentally responsible economic growth. You can't eat, drink, or breathe money. Though as a species we have still many parts of the world that can still harbor life, at some point we will run out of such things and it is completely selfish and irresponsible to impose such contamination on people that do not have the means to just move somewhere clean.
11
Hey Salt Lake, its also selfish to impose pollution on all the non-humans which do not benefit in any way from human activity.
3
@Still Waiting @ Enough Humans,
How about this? You're both right. Toxicity is bad for ALL earthlings and our mother, Earth.
4-12-16@9:29 pm
How about this? You're both right. Toxicity is bad for ALL earthlings and our mother, Earth.
4-12-16@9:29 pm
3
The US and Europe are partly responsible for the industrial contamination of China's water and air. It is our corporations who have built factories in China, or contracted with the Chinese to manufacture things that we used to make ourselves. It is our consumers, you and me, who have passed laws to protect our air and water, but then allowed these industries to simply pick up and move to China where they could compete unfairly with our industries by saving money (in the short term) buy not having to implement expensive, but essential environmental and worker safety protections.
The big losers have been China's groundwater and air, and the Chinese people who's health and who's wildlife is damaged, and our own workers who have lost jobs.
This is my biggest concern about the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership. Does it require the same kinds of expensive environmental protections as our industries are subject to, with requirements for enforcement by the participating countries, and severe penalties for failing to enforce these standards? With regular, 3rd party inspections? I doubt it.
The big losers have been China's groundwater and air, and the Chinese people who's health and who's wildlife is damaged, and our own workers who have lost jobs.
This is my biggest concern about the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership. Does it require the same kinds of expensive environmental protections as our industries are subject to, with requirements for enforcement by the participating countries, and severe penalties for failing to enforce these standards? With regular, 3rd party inspections? I doubt it.
5
Please! Stop with your false guilt and condemnation of the west. China created this, China invited this, because China needed the western industry to employ the people - communism is based on the notion that you must have industry vs agriculture to make communism work. Progressives seem to want to rewrite history and cancel the facts. More than annoying.
1
Just another terrible result of the world's #1 problem no nation or politician will seriously address: overpopulation.
13
I remember when China was first industrializing. I thought that they certainly will look at the mistakes the West made and be able to avoid them. Guess not.
10
The question I have for all the polluters and the corrupt officials that look the other way in China and this country:
When you ruin this planet until it is uninhabitable, where do you propose to live?
When you ruin this planet until it is uninhabitable, where do you propose to live?
7
They'll spend $3 trillion to build themselves a beautiful, gleaming space station to live in. The rest of us can stay on a Dystopic, economically and environmentally shattered Earth. Didn't you see the movie "Elysium?"
4
Who screwed whom? Did China really benefit from the U.S. congress allowing companies to export jobs, fatten bottom lines, and destroy the U.S. middle class or did U.S. industry stick it to China by outsourcing the excessively dirty industries responsible for destroying China's air and water quality?
5
Water, not land or wealth, or minerals - will be the next cause of a great war.
5
Note to Rush Limbaugh and company. El-Rushbo is constantly on a rampage about 'environmental whacks' must be absolutely NUTS to sacrifice even a smidgen of economic growth to help protect the environment. His argument is that a robust economy inevitably makes life better for everyone and that's it's nothing short of insanity to do anything that would compromise that growth.
Well, Rush, that's exactly what the Chinese have been doing for the last generation. Yes, millions of lives have been improved, but with just a little attention to how this growth was accomplished they could have avoided this problem----which is only now starting to make itself felt. The rest of us should take note.
Well, Rush, that's exactly what the Chinese have been doing for the last generation. Yes, millions of lives have been improved, but with just a little attention to how this growth was accomplished they could have avoided this problem----which is only now starting to make itself felt. The rest of us should take note.
5
Republicans want to gut the EPA. They call environmental protections "red tape" and many Americans believe their propaganda. China is the perfect example of what happens when profits are more important than people.
9
It seems that china has not dropped the ties that bind a country in the process developing soil pollution can prevent to anticipat its effectson the economic and social plan New China to assume the sustainability system is seen as a nation focused on quality of life in sustainable communities
It is somewhat hopeless as long as the criminal class corporations are allowed to exist. If the Chinese clean up and demand that manufacturers and farmers act responsibly the factories will simply be moved to a new, desperate geographic area.
Until the gleaming corporate towers are viewed as whited sepulchers nothing will change. Dynamic billionaires wow people on stage while the workers who have worked 12 hours are woken up, given a biscuit and tea and told go at it again-and go home to dirty water and polluted air.
What high-tech CEO said he'd never bring manufacturing jobs back to America? Next time you look at your phone, lap-top or other "off-shore" manufactured device, stop and think. What was the real cost of this thing?
Until the gleaming corporate towers are viewed as whited sepulchers nothing will change. Dynamic billionaires wow people on stage while the workers who have worked 12 hours are woken up, given a biscuit and tea and told go at it again-and go home to dirty water and polluted air.
What high-tech CEO said he'd never bring manufacturing jobs back to America? Next time you look at your phone, lap-top or other "off-shore" manufactured device, stop and think. What was the real cost of this thing?
4
Elsewhere in the Times is an article about Humboldt county Pot growers angry over regulations now that marijuana growing is being legslized around the country. This is amusing, particularly since the water supply in Humboldt county (and surrounding counties) is polluted by the formerly illegal Pot farms who washed chemical fertilizers into the creeks of those hills they were hiding in.
4
This is not a new problem. In travels in China, it was abundantly clear that no one drinks tap water, unless it is boiled and still hot. Even here, many Chinese immigrants and visitors continue their deep distrust of municipal water, eschewing it in hotels, restaurants and homes.
4
My family lived in China for 2 years while our first daughter was an infant. I can attest that scenes like those photos of polluted streams are common (you don't even have to leave the cities). The bright yellow or purple industrial waste were the scariest-looking.
Although we used bottled water for everything, and imported food and laundry detergent, our daughter suffered from near constant diarrhea (gray, very foul, not contained by diapers - I was changing her sheets every other night). Her pediatricians assured us it was fine, and since she was our first, I just assumed it was par for the course of babyhood. Only in hindsight, after we returned to the US and it cleared up, did I realize something may have been wrong. And none of our other children suffered from this (all born and raised in the US so far).
Was the bottled water not so clean after all? Was it the millions of chemicals that are completely unregulated in China? Was it the industrial pesticides (a.k.a. "medicine") we saw workers dousing all foliage in, realizing in horror that our daughter had been crawling on that grass dozens of times before? Was it radiation from the nuclear ship "accidents" offshore that were supposedly fine? Perhaps contamination related to the big oil spill?
China is an environmental disaster zone.
Although we used bottled water for everything, and imported food and laundry detergent, our daughter suffered from near constant diarrhea (gray, very foul, not contained by diapers - I was changing her sheets every other night). Her pediatricians assured us it was fine, and since she was our first, I just assumed it was par for the course of babyhood. Only in hindsight, after we returned to the US and it cleared up, did I realize something may have been wrong. And none of our other children suffered from this (all born and raised in the US so far).
Was the bottled water not so clean after all? Was it the millions of chemicals that are completely unregulated in China? Was it the industrial pesticides (a.k.a. "medicine") we saw workers dousing all foliage in, realizing in horror that our daughter had been crawling on that grass dozens of times before? Was it radiation from the nuclear ship "accidents" offshore that were supposedly fine? Perhaps contamination related to the big oil spill?
China is an environmental disaster zone.
31
Increasing population seems to lead inevitably to increasing pollution. How DO we stop, and reverse, population growth? The stock answer is that as prosperity and modernization increase, families get smaller. This is another way of saying, we have to pollute more in order to get to where we can pollute less, and we are doing this as climate change destabilizes the very systems we have devised to support so many people. Why this does not inevitably lead to famine, disease, calamity, and war is beyond me. Humanity seems to be hurtling toward a big pruning. But maybe I'm just a grouchy old man.
7
China has so many people on relatively little land that its amazing development of the last decades was bound to exact a heavy environmental cost. Geo-political discussions of the "rise of China" ignore the country's environmental Achilles heel, above all relative water scarcity (esp. in no. China). Water is life, and its scarcity is likely to reach crisis proportions in the next several decades and will be even more frightful if China is among the "losers" from climate change due to global warming.
3
The Chinese are poisoning themselves because they are intent on flooding the US with cheap manufactured goods. Americans are poisoning themselves with fear because they have lost jobs and fear the economic power of China.
It seems that the world has lost its collective mind. Instead of reacting to real challenges with courage and determination, we react with denial and name calling.
It seems that the world has lost its collective mind. Instead of reacting to real challenges with courage and determination, we react with denial and name calling.
4
This statistic should be a great cause for world concern, because China is just coming onto the scene as a major world military power and are rapidly expanding that role. The Chinese are also not making any secret of their desire to control more territory, in some cases, vast amounts of territory, not all of which is habitable, of course.
Potable water is essential for life, and would seem that China may not have enough to meet its current needs or its long term needs and may not be able to resolve this problem within a reasonable time let alone a human lifetime.
The lack of potable water, or even water for bathing and washing, may well accelerate China's interest in having more territory to house its people. At the moment, China's people number about five times those in the US, while the surface area of China is slightly smaller than that of the US. That should make us think about where China might look.
When you look at world demographics, Countries like the US, Canada, Australia, and parts of South America would be very likely targets. When it comes to issues like this, national sovereignty issues take precedence over political correctness, and no one expects China to be politically correct in any case.
Potable water is essential for life, and would seem that China may not have enough to meet its current needs or its long term needs and may not be able to resolve this problem within a reasonable time let alone a human lifetime.
The lack of potable water, or even water for bathing and washing, may well accelerate China's interest in having more territory to house its people. At the moment, China's people number about five times those in the US, while the surface area of China is slightly smaller than that of the US. That should make us think about where China might look.
When you look at world demographics, Countries like the US, Canada, Australia, and parts of South America would be very likely targets. When it comes to issues like this, national sovereignty issues take precedence over political correctness, and no one expects China to be politically correct in any case.
3
This article is like being in a canoe at the top of Victoria Falls. Someone in the front of the boat says "maybe it's time to turn around?". The folks in the rear are eating sandwiches and drinking beer. The noise from the Falls drowns out the man's question. "What?" they say.
The canoe tips over the falls and the people in the canoe are shocked as they suddenly descend to their deaths.
There are too many people. There are too many ignorant people. There are too many selfish people. The fact that this article is not the major headline or the number one news item on every TV channel or Twitter feed demonstrates my point.
The water wars and horrors of water born illness will dominate the news long after it's too late. It's happening now. But the sound of the Falls make it impossible to hear. There are too many people - most of whom who are stupid about the Earth.
The canoe tips over the falls and the people in the canoe are shocked as they suddenly descend to their deaths.
There are too many people. There are too many ignorant people. There are too many selfish people. The fact that this article is not the major headline or the number one news item on every TV channel or Twitter feed demonstrates my point.
The water wars and horrors of water born illness will dominate the news long after it's too late. It's happening now. But the sound of the Falls make it impossible to hear. There are too many people - most of whom who are stupid about the Earth.
3
The problem with what China is going to face is that they are withdrawing water from deep aquifers that has taken billions of years to build up in a relatively short period of time. In the next 20 years, expect subsidence and sink holes, ever deeper and deeper wells, lower quality water - all at a time when China is damming the major rivers of South East Asia (by its invasion of Tibet is controls the source of most major rivers such as the Mekong, Indus and Brahmaputra that flow into India/Pakistan/Bangladesh as well as the Tarim, Yellow, and Yangtze River that flow into China. Look for water wars in the next 20 - 30 years if not earlier.
4
The problems of China are the problems of the US.
I think that many people are not aware of how many food products from China show up on the shelves of US grocery stores. So for all in the US who are reading and thinking this problem does not affect them, think again.
And do not be comfortably lulled by the existence of the FDA. They, like everyone else, are under budget constraints and do not test every morsel we eat.
I think that many people are not aware of how many food products from China show up on the shelves of US grocery stores. So for all in the US who are reading and thinking this problem does not affect them, think again.
And do not be comfortably lulled by the existence of the FDA. They, like everyone else, are under budget constraints and do not test every morsel we eat.
16
You can't drink oil. Clean drinking water is the ultimate resource and most of us take it for granted.
10
The pollution levels of both surface and underground water in China and India covering 35% of world's population is in such a dire state due to industrial development leading to greater per capita demand from domestic, agriculture, industrial and recreational activities. Having reliable data on water , soil and air pollution is vital to plan and take action and provide adequate funds to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution. While impacts on health are quite apparent,the depletion of underground water and acid rain will have greater impact on forests disappearing changing the climate due to drought, or heavy floods wiping out the very existence of cities and villages alike. So the data generated is a very valuable tool to plan and take action to avoid future catastrophe.
1
It's quite scary to hear that..but government finally showing some true data, which is encouraging. I hope government will spend more on dealing with environmental problems, people don't wanna more cancers..
America moved its factories to China, between 2001 and 2012, 63,300 American factories closed their doors and five million American factory jobs went away. During that same time, China’s manufacturing base ballooned to the tune of 14.1 million new jobs. In response to rising environmental problems safeguards were established modeled on the EPA and the FDA.
The MEP (Ministry of Environmental Protection) often appears to be under resourced. In 2014 it reportedly has only about 3,000 employees and a budget of $ 643 million. By contrast, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has 15,521 employees and a budget of $ 7.9 billion. That may have improved over time. Reacting to criticism of exporting dangerous products the government agreed to allow American inspectors to examine export goods and demand FDA standards. These are matters in process that should receive more coverage as the topic of Trade comes into play again this year.
The MEP (Ministry of Environmental Protection) often appears to be under resourced. In 2014 it reportedly has only about 3,000 employees and a budget of $ 643 million. By contrast, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has 15,521 employees and a budget of $ 7.9 billion. That may have improved over time. Reacting to criticism of exporting dangerous products the government agreed to allow American inspectors to examine export goods and demand FDA standards. These are matters in process that should receive more coverage as the topic of Trade comes into play again this year.
2
America moved its factories to China, between 2001 and 2012, 63,300 American factories closed their doors and five million American factory jobs went away. During that same time, China’s manufacturing base ballooned to the tune of 14.1 million new jobs.
In response to rising environmental problems safeguards were established modeled on the EPA and the FDIC. The MEP (Ministry of Environmental Protection) often appears to be under resourced. In 2014 it reportedly has only about 3,000 employees and a budget of $ 643 million. By contrast, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has 15,521 employees and a budget of $ 7.9 billion. That may have improved over time.
Reacting to criticism of exporting dangerous products the government agreed to allow American inspectors to examine export goods and demand FDIC standards. These are matters in process that should receive more coverage as the topic of Trade comes into play again this year.
In response to rising environmental problems safeguards were established modeled on the EPA and the FDIC. The MEP (Ministry of Environmental Protection) often appears to be under resourced. In 2014 it reportedly has only about 3,000 employees and a budget of $ 643 million. By contrast, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has 15,521 employees and a budget of $ 7.9 billion. That may have improved over time.
Reacting to criticism of exporting dangerous products the government agreed to allow American inspectors to examine export goods and demand FDIC standards. These are matters in process that should receive more coverage as the topic of Trade comes into play again this year.
China claims the right to pollute the entire South China Sea as well. Let whoever can look after it have it, should be international law.
3
The fruits of globalization. America has regulations in place to help protect our water supply. The regulations are costly, but it's money well spent. With the exception of a few widely publicized cases, we can usually drink our water.
.
China lags behind on water pollution regulations and enforcement. Corporations love them for it. It's cheaper, quicker, and less hassle to open factories there than here - and open factories they do. Everyone at the top makes a mint. But Americans find themselves jobless and living next door to shuttered factories; and Chinese farmers find their wells poisoned.
.
China lags behind on water pollution regulations and enforcement. Corporations love them for it. It's cheaper, quicker, and less hassle to open factories there than here - and open factories they do. Everyone at the top makes a mint. But Americans find themselves jobless and living next door to shuttered factories; and Chinese farmers find their wells poisoned.
10
I find this tragic for the Chinese citizens who simply do not yet have the Political advantage to stop these filthy practices. China is a beautiful Country however, the citizens are at a distinct disadvantage. The New York Times should run the Retro Report about that day when students were killed by the Military for protesting in the Square (which I cannot spell correctly!). There is hope with the young adults because they do not like the Pollution of any kind and they don't like the Culture that eats Dogs and Cats for Dinner.
1
We've been polluting this earth since we crawled out of the seas. The only problem is that we have become exponentially better at it. There are too many of us. My mother came from a family of 9. My father from a family of 5. I'm from a family of 5. My wife and I have two boys. I desperately wanted a girl but It seemed wrong to have more than two children. Most of us are too selfish. So, we die.
2
Shanghai is a world class modern city, with art, culture, music, food, an amazing subway system, and so on... except you can't drink the tap water. It's a jarring reminder of how easy it is to take good infrastructure for granted.
6
Read carefully! “Over 80 Percent of Water Is Polluted in Tested China Wells,”not 80 Percent of Water. What would you test if looking for problems, the water expected to perhaps be polluted. Why is China such a threat to the western Times reader? Know thy self – first. Then look outward.
1
What about all sorts of agricultural products, produce and plants that we may import from China: including rice, tea, and herbs? Does anyone thoroughly test these items? And animals that are grown in this environment and with these plants as foodstuffs?
Republi-cants want to do away with all sorts of regulatory agencies and their funding - just when we need them the most. Ridiculous!
Republi-cants want to do away with all sorts of regulatory agencies and their funding - just when we need them the most. Ridiculous!
4
No one in China drinks water as it comes from the tap. Brush your teeth with it alright but otherwise water is always boiled before drinking but that does not make it save from mineral pollution. Therefore, those who can afford it have water dispensers for bottled ‘spring’ water. Bottled water has been tested elsewhere and found loaded with pollutants so it is better tasting, but safe? The government is awaking to the magnitude of the problem as the article states, some improvement should occur.
I once bicycled across America on Hwy 2 and let me tell you the problem is not only China’s, in some cases drinking local water I could smell the gasoline and had I held a match above it would have expected it to ignite, complained and told ‘that water plenty good’. We are attacking our planet and ourselves in many ways.
I once bicycled across America on Hwy 2 and let me tell you the problem is not only China’s, in some cases drinking local water I could smell the gasoline and had I held a match above it would have expected it to ignite, complained and told ‘that water plenty good’. We are attacking our planet and ourselves in many ways.
5
Look at these westerners, they are rejoicing because China's water is polluted, why can't they take a look on Chicago's contaminated water. Thanks for your cncern, there's solution in every problem :)
4
Contaminated water in Chicago? Perish the thought. Then again, at least we have plenty of it.
for many years, an imminent water shortage was known to loom in the PRC's future ... see the status of the water table in the northern plains. Then, the great undertaking of a water diversion from south to north via canals. The Russians would not agree to a proposal from the PRC to tap Lake Baikal and other sources in Siberia. You can breathe bad air for a long time but you can't drink bad water for as long. Good luck, PRC.
1
This toxic soup goes right up the food chain and that is precisely why the country of origin should be part of the food labeling. Sadly the USDA no longer enforces this since congress caved in to business interests and abrogated the law.
FOOD SAFETY NEWS
"...USDA Ends COOL Enforcement With President’s Signature on Omnibus Bill
By News Desk | December 21, 2015
Effective immediately, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says, USDA will no longer enforce the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements..."
FOOD SAFETY NEWS
"...USDA Ends COOL Enforcement With President’s Signature on Omnibus Bill
By News Desk | December 21, 2015
Effective immediately, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says, USDA will no longer enforce the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements..."
8
Is this the one that applies to meat. One has to wonder who pressured them to drop the requirement. I seriously doubt it was the consumer. I suspect the congressman who advanced this legislation has deep ties, "Political Contributions", from the food industry. First they let foreign food in saying don't worry it will be labeled, then a decade later they add laws to eliminate the labeling. This is what you get when from folks who screech about big government, Mystery Meat.
stages of development
Japan had Minimata mercury poisoning from the Chiso chemical plant crippling/contorting childrens' bodies from 1956
the US had Silent Spring in 1962 crediting with getting the DDT chemical pesticide banned
when I first went to Taiwan I could hardly breathe due to two-stroke scooter pollution - now it's a green sustainable city
the rise of rich people in China will raise calls to clean up the environment - and I believe this is already happening.
Japan had Minimata mercury poisoning from the Chiso chemical plant crippling/contorting childrens' bodies from 1956
the US had Silent Spring in 1962 crediting with getting the DDT chemical pesticide banned
when I first went to Taiwan I could hardly breathe due to two-stroke scooter pollution - now it's a green sustainable city
the rise of rich people in China will raise calls to clean up the environment - and I believe this is already happening.
3
A lot of them seem to prefer moving their families and money overseas away from the source of their dirty and often extremely corrupt weath. Out of sight out of mind and far far away from Chinese authorities. North America is becoming the "Thieves Den" of bad Chinese Capitalist and their Cronies in the Communist Party.
4
If 80% of the water is poluuted it means 80% of the processed food products that the PRC produces are polluted. As we know carcinogens and other toxins build up over time. Why is the US importing any food from the PRC?
6
Learn how to read. 80% of the shallow wells tested are polluted. The article also states most cities draw their water from deeper clean wells. It means 20% of shallow wells and at least some deep wells are clean and that's where people get their water.
Your illogical statement is akin to: Detroit River is contaminated with lead. Hudson River is also a river in the US therefore Hudson is contaminated with lead.
Your illogical statement is akin to: Detroit River is contaminated with lead. Hudson River is also a river in the US therefore Hudson is contaminated with lead.
Will the seafood from China and other edible goods be labeled as such?
3
No. I believe we are already importing chickens from China?
3
So sad to see our world environment being destroyed daily by all who pollute and for the sake of money.We could choose a new way of doing business or look at news to do business.This would be huge.We in America are no different than the Chinese in China. Wasn't Dupont just sued over C-8 (teflon) dumping into our rivers? China is just about 70 years behind us and catching up fast.We are better having learned to dump sooner and clean up later, and pass the cost on to the others...the People, We are not the issue.
3
A major reason for the pervasive environmental pollution in China is their massive manufacturing activities that are done mostly for Western markets, particularly the US. That doesn't excuse the manufacturers who flout regulations or local government officials who take bribes in lieu of enforcement. Those of us in the US and Europe can do something to help the Chinese people. Just avoid buying products made in China. If we simply dramatically reduce our demand, they might have have a chance in healing the environment. If we buy Chinese products, we are complicit in poisoning the Chinese people. If you are a good, caring human being, you would avoid buying anything made in China. Please do that for the sake of the Chinese people. Remember, it's the innocent who are suffering there, not the corrupt.
4
India, Bangladesh and Cambodia have even less efficient and less clean manufacturers. Stop buying from China and buying from 3rd world nations would just means more pollution for the same products.
What we actually need is for China to use its economy of scale to control pollution without raising production cost.
What we actually need is for China to use its economy of scale to control pollution without raising production cost.
Climate change, pollution, water supplies, deforestation -- these are all just symptoms of the larger problem, the elephant in the room that few political leaders seem willing to discuss. All are symptoms of an overpopulated planet. After some 3,000 years of relative stability in which birth rates and death rates pretty much cancelled each other out, we are now increasing our population at an unsustainable rate. World population stood at approximately 1.6 billion in 1900. It is now at 7.4 billion and projected to rise to anywhere from 10-12 billion by the end of this century. From this point on, as population goes up, quality of life and our resources will continue to decline. You can not continue to grow indefinitely in a closed system -- not without serious consequences.
6
One reason not to buy food grown in China...industrial chemicals and heavy metal contamination, yum.
4
AAAANNND... remember the articles about all the food prep we offshore...sending chickens slaughtered here via freight for process and packing in China to save on labor?...a colossally insensitive use of resources to begin with and now all the chicken which we eat gets bathed in THAT water and returned to us to eat...no different than american agriculture being restricted as to pesticides USED in the US, but no worries the chem companies are not banned from shipping to Mexico where they are used in the growth of the food that is shipped back to us and we then eat it...there are NO FREE RIDES..we are all connected and if we don't put an end to this we will all continue to suffer as we wreck the planet and all life forms-
6
The chicken to China is for Chinese consumption. China is a bigger market for food then the US and they want cleaner and less water intense agriculture and that's why they are buying from America.
1
We don’t need to look to China to find water quality this is a threat to human health. In my area of the Midwest, 40% to 80% of surface waters are unsuitable for swimming or fishing much of the year due to agricultural runoff that carries phosphorus, nitrogen and animal waste into public waters.
These waters are also euphemistically referred to as "unsuitable for aquatic life" - which means that it kills fish, birds and amphibians. Set aside the threat to our own health and this pollution is still an ecological disaster.
Likewise, there are many private wells and municipal water systems in agricultural areas that have been or are in danger of being contaminated with dangerous nitrate levels which come from agricultural runoff. If you're a rural homeowner who relies on a well, tainted groundwater is going to change your life dramatically for the worse.
This is a widespread problem that is currently getting worse, not better.
These waters are also euphemistically referred to as "unsuitable for aquatic life" - which means that it kills fish, birds and amphibians. Set aside the threat to our own health and this pollution is still an ecological disaster.
Likewise, there are many private wells and municipal water systems in agricultural areas that have been or are in danger of being contaminated with dangerous nitrate levels which come from agricultural runoff. If you're a rural homeowner who relies on a well, tainted groundwater is going to change your life dramatically for the worse.
This is a widespread problem that is currently getting worse, not better.
12
Tap water in China is generally not sterilized to the degree it is in the U.S., meaning you wouldn't want to drink it out of the tap because of possible bacteria (regardless of whether there are heavy metals/pollutants in it or not). For daily water to drink, most Chinese I know in big cities don't boil tap water but rather, buy bottled water. Most homes have large 5-10 gallon water dispensers for this purpose. Thus, a key question is how safe are the popular brands of bottled water sold in China. Even if cities use deep wells whose water is relatively safer than shallow wells, that's just the tap water, and it's not going to be helping the average city dweller if the bottled water they're drinking is more polluted. As someone who travels to China, I'd be curious to hear further reporting on this issue.
3
China, pollution is thy name. For instance sheetrock that was imported from China two years ago had to be replaced because it produced toxic gasses. The air pollution in large cities in China is among the world's worst. The water is "heavily polluted". I feel sorry for the Chinese people.
2
"Over 80% of tested wells in China are polluted." SURPRISE! I've been to China many times and love the country and the culture HOWEVER in the mad rush to modernize there has been, as we have repeatedly seen, gross negligence in terms of protecting the lives and safety of everyday people. Business speculators build and develop land with little oversight - it's like unbridled capitalism on steroids. China has accomplished more in the last 20 years than most countries did in a century but concerns for the environment and other protections have paid a very heavy price for all this development and this is an undeniable and very sad truth.
6
The cynical me thinks this is humorous and deserving. The more world-weary me sees this as a warning. The Chinese are like a ravenous swarm of locusts. They consume resources insatiably, stripping and polluting the land, air and water. Corruption and a suitcase full of cash will elide the spirit of the law and assuage guilt. Their deals with resource-rich foreign countries are the beginning; the largest population on earth needs water, food & energy, and has the cash and inclination to get (and take) what they want.
As the Caribbean is the hotbed of dubiously legal offshore financial riches, perhaps I will found a company specializing in creating shell companies that guard the ownership to water rights. You want water? You come to me. Bring your checkbook, and buckets of money.
As the Caribbean is the hotbed of dubiously legal offshore financial riches, perhaps I will found a company specializing in creating shell companies that guard the ownership to water rights. You want water? You come to me. Bring your checkbook, and buckets of money.
2
Among the Chinese public, pollution is a primary concern. Government, local and national, are responding as governments do, sporadically and with varying degrees of success. The financial commitment that must be made to regulate and police industrial activity is an ongoing process in all developed societies. As the public health impact in China is recognized the pressure will increase.
The Western perception that government control in China acts independent of public pressure is erroneous. The increasingly widely educated population not only exerts pressure, they populate the positions of power.
The Western perception that government control in China acts independent of public pressure is erroneous. The increasingly widely educated population not only exerts pressure, they populate the positions of power.
2
There is no question that water quality is bad in China, especially in Northern China -- that's why the government is monitoring those 2800 wells, most of them are in the North China Plain. I appreciate NYT included a link to the government report, but think it will be helpful to the readers to know where those wells are located.
1
Yay "free trade"!
2
So many people decrying Chinas industrial revolution fail to recognize the alternative, starvation and people dying of thirst. China has completed enormous water projects and has more undrrway. The article plainly states water is polluted in wells close to the surface. Most people in the industrialized world get their potable water from water that's been diverted. China will too.
Do you think the people of China would be better off if Green Peace was in charge instead of the present government. Your desire to control what goes on in China's border for what is in your best interest and not the Chinese peoples interest reeks of empirialism.
Do you think the people of China would be better off if Green Peace was in charge instead of the present government. Your desire to control what goes on in China's border for what is in your best interest and not the Chinese peoples interest reeks of empirialism.
1
empirialism?
1
Doesn't this strike at the root of the problem with Globalization? Americans, and American factories, have to follow strict rules on ground water pollution and wells. These rules cost money to follow, but it's money well spent. We can usually drink the water we get from our wells.
.
Unfortunately, China and many other countries lag the US in regulations on groundwater. Companies love them for it, because there are fewer costly regulations. So they close up shop in the US, and they go there instead. Corporate execs and shareholders make a mint, but Americans are left jobless and dealing with abandoned factories, and people in China are left with poisoned wells.
.
Unfortunately, China and many other countries lag the US in regulations on groundwater. Companies love them for it, because there are fewer costly regulations. So they close up shop in the US, and they go there instead. Corporate execs and shareholders make a mint, but Americans are left jobless and dealing with abandoned factories, and people in China are left with poisoned wells.
4
This is precisely why we in the United States have the Clean Air Clean Water Act, and descended from that the EPA. Interference with the function of the EPA and associated agencies contributes to situations like the water problem in Flint, MI, to name just one obvious example.
New industrial powerhouses like China have failed in their regulatory responsibilities. They know all about matching or even exceeding our industrial capabilities, but the governments have not learned from OUR mistakes, and so pollution runs rampant in their countries.
New industrial powerhouses like China have failed in their regulatory responsibilities. They know all about matching or even exceeding our industrial capabilities, but the governments have not learned from OUR mistakes, and so pollution runs rampant in their countries.
2
When our leaders get their "immigration reform" shoved through double legal immigration to 2 million per year, and still do not stop illegal immigration our population will explode to 1 billion by 2100 and our water, air and land will be just as lethally polluted as China's. But of course our 1% who orchestrated the 2008 crash, and greedily continue "growth" in order to add millions more to their offshore accounts don't care, they don't really live in the "same boat" - because they will either be able to escape to Sweden or Norway or Alaska or breath and drink expensively filtered or imported air and water as the Red Nobility in China do today while their majority of common citizens are poisoned.
4
We have a rule in our family; we will eat nothing from China.
That applies to our dogs as well.
No wonder so many Chinese are sending their kids overseas for schooling.
That applies to our dogs as well.
No wonder so many Chinese are sending their kids overseas for schooling.
7
Is there a way to determine what food products comes from China ?
The Chinese go to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan to buy baby formula.
3
Unfortunately the food problems in China are migrating fast: thestar.com/news/world/2016/01/05/disturbing-drug-resistant-superbug-gen...
4
The problem is that the entire planet is polluted. The US economic development and lifestyle has been for many decades a model for many countries eager to reach the same goal. By reading this news I am sure that many of us feels some sort of indignation toward China. At this point it seems a little bit late and unfair.
3
We shouldn't be too alarmed because most city-dwellers draw on deep-water wells? What about wildlife populations, which have no such access?
9
Many Americans make the mistake that China is becoming a capitalist dystopia, just like their own country is becoming right now (in a process that begun during the WWII, when the USA transitioned from a somewhat progressive country, that grew essentially through commerce of manufactures, to an unmistakeable empire economy, whose growth depends basically from the arms production and financial parasitism).
But that's not the case. China is still growing quickly and promoting rising living standards to it's people. Growing inequality is a problem, but there are already countermeasures to tackle it. More importantly, it's promoting a transition to a consumer based economy, and the main pillar is it's massive urbanization program, which will urbanize 100 million peasants in the next decades. China is more to First Industrial Revolution UK than to imperial-period (post-modern) USA.
But that's not the case. China is still growing quickly and promoting rising living standards to it's people. Growing inequality is a problem, but there are already countermeasures to tackle it. More importantly, it's promoting a transition to a consumer based economy, and the main pillar is it's massive urbanization program, which will urbanize 100 million peasants in the next decades. China is more to First Industrial Revolution UK than to imperial-period (post-modern) USA.
1
It's a no-brainer to conclude why eat anything grown in China?
China has accumulated a persistent toxic environment over many years.
Don't let the US bring this poison to our tables. Really!
China has accumulated a persistent toxic environment over many years.
Don't let the US bring this poison to our tables. Really!
9
Wow you mean a country which is run by an authoritarian oligarchy with no real oversight or independent watchdog groups is turning out to be an overpolluted mess? What a shocker
7
Why is this a surprise to anyone. Look at the large cities in China. Many days you can not breath without a breathing protection mask. It's disgusting. The Chinese government does not care about the environment. They want production at all costs in order to protect their communist party. Too bad we could not figure out a way to limit the spread of their pollution to the rest of the world- much like they limit their people to free speech.
9
Once I realized that one of the drugs I take was made in China I asked my prescription provider to cease sending me any drug made in China. They thought I was being unreasonable. It my belief that the FDA has no way of knowing what goes on in the production of pharma intermediates used in the manufacture of generic drugs. They get to see what the Chinese let them see.
12
This should be a lesson for us. Frequently we hear politicians talking about the problematic regulations that hold business back - Ted Cruz specifically has berated regulation. What has happened in China is the result of not enough regulation!
The lack of regulation certainly has health and moral consequences, but it also has economic ones. China will spend an increasing amount of money in the next years and decades to treat those sickened by this mess. Companies won't want to locate to China, and people won't want to buy any kind of food from China (including the Chinese).
So to our politicians who want to rid our country of regulation, do so at our long-term health and economic peril.
The lack of regulation certainly has health and moral consequences, but it also has economic ones. China will spend an increasing amount of money in the next years and decades to treat those sickened by this mess. Companies won't want to locate to China, and people won't want to buy any kind of food from China (including the Chinese).
So to our politicians who want to rid our country of regulation, do so at our long-term health and economic peril.
16
So true. China's problem is also the lack of enforcement of the lax regulation. China shows what would happen if we let corporations do what they want. Ironically, where they do have tight regulations is free speech. They would never allow the discussion we are now having.
2
If it were not for the EPA, I am pretty certain much of the United States would be similarly polluted. While we still can choose not to buy Chinese food products, we haven't got many alternatives when it comes to anything else. It's horrible. Now, what I would like to know is how much time will elapse before the Chinese start fleeing their fouled nest? What will happen when one billion people realize they cannot stay healthy in most of their country? And where will they go?
21
The US was very polluted decades ago before the EPA enacted tougher regulations and enforcement. Our environment, thought not perfect, is far better than it was with lax regulation.
3
I have always maintained that we exported our pollution. Just one regulation may have prevented this " any good imported into this nation must be certified that is has been produced under the laws Of our EPA" NO tariff just this regulation
9
I don't think I'd drink the water from the Los Angeles, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, or Potomac Rivers, either. Nor I'm I too anxious to eat any fish from those rivers or any fish caught in proximity of their discharge.
6
False equivalency!
8
Whether you'd like to drink it or not, the water from those rivers, with only basic treatment, meets stringent water quality standards. Groundwater, on the other hand, is expected to be clean and drinkable, usually without any treatment.
3
Agree - no comparison whatsoever.
3
One of the reasons products from China are so cheap. Their corporations, in contracts with American corporations, use factory's that do not bear the cost of their own pollution or waste. Add the subsidy's by the government and the low pay to the workers, with no benefits mind you, and you get Walmart prices. It's wrong for the United States consumer to finance this racket. The Global economy might be beneficial on some level, but it is not beneficial during it's formation.
72
Unfortunately, we don't really care as long as the price on the Walmart shelf is low. Really sad.
1
you nailed it. There's no excuse for this awful pollution, but people in the US and EU often ignore that 1/4 to 1/3 of the pollution in China is driven by our demand for "cheap plastic stuff", we want new iPhones every 18 months, etc., Well, hello folks, where do you think all that is made, and under what conditions? And now, with China wages increasing, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar may be next on the disgusting pollution list since these countries have lower wages than China.
3
This story was front page news on the NYT website. Most of the commenters are concerned and/or alarmed by this story. Look what happened in Michigan with that contaminated water debacle and how fast it was addressed and tackled. My fear is are the Chinese people even aware of their polluted water? Does communist China even report and/or recognize information and warn their general public? If not, that's even more frightening - that the Chinese people are drinking water that is 80% polluted.
6
Socialism with Chinese characteristics demands that the people tolerate these minor inconveniences while they all get rich! Perhaps Papa Xi will suggest that people can solve the problems of air and water pollution by cutting back -- for example, people can take a stop breathing one day out of 10 or not use water one day out of five!
3
Don't tell me the cost of regulation is too high or that it hurts business. Republican governors and lawmakers have long had an adversarial relationship with any form of government regulation and have long argued that regulation hurts business. Laws such as The Clean Water Act ensure Americans have access to clean water. Some of the GOP candidates want to either eliminate funding for the EPA or get rid of the agency altogether. The cost of regulatory oversight is ALWAYS literally orders of magnitude less expensive than cleaning up the mess. Can you imagine the cost of cleanup of the current Flint Michigan problem if it affected, not thousands, but hundreds of millions of people? Not only the cost of clean-up itself, but the ongoing and mounting cost of monitoring and healthcare for the millions affected by the pollution. $Trillions and trillions of dollars.
A huge additional cost that most people don't appreciate: Brain drain. When you have lax regulation that allows and actually incentivizes pollution you lose the best and the brightest to countries that keep their cities clean. There has been a measurable attrition of the wealthy and best educated from China. No parent wants to expose their child to pollution that they understand can cause them to have health problems.
A huge additional cost that most people don't appreciate: Brain drain. When you have lax regulation that allows and actually incentivizes pollution you lose the best and the brightest to countries that keep their cities clean. There has been a measurable attrition of the wealthy and best educated from China. No parent wants to expose their child to pollution that they understand can cause them to have health problems.
8
Another reason our Military need not be listened to.They are always whining for more money for new threats, like China. Case in point , they will all be dead from 100 different kinds of cancer that they produced, MADE IN CHINA, poised food, milk, dog food, lumber. No need to worry about them.
2
Take a look at our future...money via the exploitation of any and all resources running rampant. Current human ethics are being manifest, and not just in China.
I don't know why I'm shocked to hear people cheer when environmental regulation is subject to elimination by our Republican politicians -- oh, yeah, humans don't impact the environment.
I don't know why I'm shocked to hear people cheer when environmental regulation is subject to elimination by our Republican politicians -- oh, yeah, humans don't impact the environment.
3
It seems the rats are abandoning a toxic ship as we see those that have made all the money from causing this environmental disaster seek offshore citizenship and bank accounts (e.g. Panama Papers). The reason why those that can afford it are buying up real estate all over the globe is they want to get out when the country becomes unlivable. If there was true governance in China they would be taking all the exiting moneys to build an ecologically sustainable future for it's citizens. In the end this is affecting the whole globe through environmental and financial chaos.
5
The US went through this phase until, amazingly, Nixon created the EPA. Since then, there have been continuing battles between industry, aided by republicans, and EPA aided by democrats. Not being a democracy, China won't have to deal with such alternative views. Just as China decided to become an economic superpower, China can decide to become a safe and clean environment. Based on their progress over the past 70 years, their future is bright.
1
Perhaps instead of judging other countries...for their pollution, their lack of voting rights, their lack of respect for women, their violence....one could go on and on with how much we have judged foreigners...we should hold up a mirror to ourselves? The era of America as a leader that can wag fingers at how China poisons its population in the name of wealth are over. This article is almost offensive considering the Flint crisis, and countless others like it, are far from being resolved. I'm tired of the underlying racism of anti China articles when our own EPA can keep governors in check and half of our government wants the same as the government of China is doing to its citizens.
1
Many consumable products such as toothpaste or canned goods that are produced in China have water in them. What kind of standards must be met in China order to produce these products? It has only been a short while back that lead paint was found in many children's toys from China. Further, in 2007, melamine was found in many consumable products from China that led to deadly consequences for humans and pets. The list goes on and on. To learn that China has such widespread water pollution is certainly concerning for the people there and here as well. That said, we have our own problems with water pollution that must be addressed.
The crisis in Flint, Michigan with its toxic water supply, was a clarion call that water supplies here in this country are vulnerable to toxicity. That crisis was brought on by political corruption at its worst. There are other cities in the U.S. where polluted water is a problem as well. Denver, Albuquerque, San Diego, Phoenix, Fresno, and St. Joseph, Louisiana and other cities all are plagued with water pollution and/or deteriorating plumbing. While China has vast problems with its water supplies, we need to clean up our water here in this country. Lives are literally at stake.
The crisis in Flint, Michigan with its toxic water supply, was a clarion call that water supplies here in this country are vulnerable to toxicity. That crisis was brought on by political corruption at its worst. There are other cities in the U.S. where polluted water is a problem as well. Denver, Albuquerque, San Diego, Phoenix, Fresno, and St. Joseph, Louisiana and other cities all are plagued with water pollution and/or deteriorating plumbing. While China has vast problems with its water supplies, we need to clean up our water here in this country. Lives are literally at stake.
5
Water quality is part of the equation in lower priced Chinese products.
The western world can not compete with China if China is willing to destroy its environment in the process.
The western world can not compete with China if China is willing to destroy its environment in the process.
9
And meanwhile we allow extreme pollution into our deep water aquifers through fracking! Are we not the example of studidity and hypocrisy?
8
Welcome to Industrial Revolution, the Chinese version. Its the new rubber barons are the relatives of the powerful CCP Standing Committee. Like the past rubber barons, the new Chinese rubber barons will do anything to increase their wealth. It includes poisoning the air, water, and everything. And there is no appeal and no Teddy Roosevelt- just undrinkable water and unbreathable air.
5
So they cleaned our clock economically by not worrying about pollution. Now it's coming back to bite them. How'd that work out for you Chinese?
6
$1 trillion left China last year. The rich rats are fleeing a sinking ship. China's economy is teetering on thinner and thinner ice. This is China's destiny. A great people hobbled by their love of objects. This is theChinese Albatross. You will not find a more materialistic, greedy lot than the Chinese. It's no wonder the corporations of the world found such a willing partner in many of their "deals.'
7
Fracking will do the same to our aquifers. We are only a little ways behind China in that regard. And there is only one candidate calling for a ban on fracking: Sanders.
6
I will not be surprised if decades from now, it comes out that in China (and probably in India and other heavily polluted and overpopulated Asian nations) tens of millions of people died premature deaths due to rampant air and water pollution. It may even reach hundreds of millions, considering the pollution trends in those regions.
My other huge fear is water scarcity. Northern China, home to 500 million or so people, cannot possibly support more people and industry with the rates of water usage there. Southern China is in better shape, because the region has had reliable high rainfall for thousands of years (and appears that that will remain the case with global warming), which may provide the possibility of water transference from southern regions to northern regions.
South Asia, on the other hand, is home to 1.5 billion people and is extremely dependent on the variable monsoons and Himalaya glaciers for most of its water. If the monsoons are heavily disrupted due to global warming such that the Indian subcontinent becomes even drier than it is already, and the Himalaya glaciers disappear, that will mean extreme water hardship for almost a 20% of the global population. I shudder to think what that will mean to the rest of the planet.
My other huge fear is water scarcity. Northern China, home to 500 million or so people, cannot possibly support more people and industry with the rates of water usage there. Southern China is in better shape, because the region has had reliable high rainfall for thousands of years (and appears that that will remain the case with global warming), which may provide the possibility of water transference from southern regions to northern regions.
South Asia, on the other hand, is home to 1.5 billion people and is extremely dependent on the variable monsoons and Himalaya glaciers for most of its water. If the monsoons are heavily disrupted due to global warming such that the Indian subcontinent becomes even drier than it is already, and the Himalaya glaciers disappear, that will mean extreme water hardship for almost a 20% of the global population. I shudder to think what that will mean to the rest of the planet.
37
As it happens (which I'm quite pleasantly surprised), the article has alluded to the rising groundwater in China. Not that it will serve much good to the chinese, if the groundwater gets contaminated, but at least the chinese would not be fighting for water as much as it did with oil and gas supply.
2
China is a Republican paradise! No silly rules about pollution to hold back society! Next time some brainless goober starts ranting about "abolishing EPA" he or she should go live in China and see how it works out. Yes, I'm talking to YOU Ted Cruz.
11
does anyone suppose members of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo or Central Committee drinks this water?
1
No. The article stated Chinese cities draw water from deep and clean aquifers, not the shallow underground water tested in this report.
1
Myopia is magnified in China in the name of a much-needed "progress" that lifts the better part of the population out of poverty. Today...the costs.
But in the U.S., same entrepreneurial myopia haunts the halls of capitalism. Recent vintage? Fracking. Older problems? Love Canal and its ilk. Mine trailings, Monsanto's version of monoculture, lead in gasoline, DDT spraying, and so on and so forth. Outcries from the prescient were (and still are) unheeded, sometimes because the solutions are "job killing." It's a narrow but honed cliché that jobs won't make much difference if there are not people around to fill them. And because we humans are such conservative animals, by and large, we abhor change, enjoying the devil we know rather than the devil we don't know. And then there's climate change....
But in the U.S., same entrepreneurial myopia haunts the halls of capitalism. Recent vintage? Fracking. Older problems? Love Canal and its ilk. Mine trailings, Monsanto's version of monoculture, lead in gasoline, DDT spraying, and so on and so forth. Outcries from the prescient were (and still are) unheeded, sometimes because the solutions are "job killing." It's a narrow but honed cliché that jobs won't make much difference if there are not people around to fill them. And because we humans are such conservative animals, by and large, we abhor change, enjoying the devil we know rather than the devil we don't know. And then there's climate change....
3
China's manufacturing is almost completely unregulated --very little gets in the way of their "free market capitalism". This is what our country will look like if the Republicans, riding on the nickle of the Kochs and their buddies, get there way. It has already started in Flint, Michigan.
Who says regulations are bad?
Who says regulations are bad?
20
The root cause of all environmental problems including water pollution (which is a world-wide problem) is overpopulation, but there is no leadership to address it.
49
The Chinese leadership has been addressing the overpopulation issue for decades and always under intense international pressure to abandon the program. I bet the next time Obama meets with Xi he would raise question about China's family planning policy again.
Can you imagine China with 1.8 billion people instead of 1.3 billion were family planning not in effect?
Can you imagine China with 1.8 billion people instead of 1.3 billion were family planning not in effect?
5
Can't wait for the Republicans to abolish the EPA and we can live like this too.
199
Right, get rid of burdensome regulations. Lets also do away with the FDA and let the food and drug industries police themselves. That certainly worked well in the past.
1
And I was concerned someone would insert a silly, ham-handed partisan sneer into an article about the Chinese water supply!
1
Dear Wine Country Dude,
There's nothing silly about Mr. Harper's comment. Eliminating the EPA and allowing corporations to pollute as much as they want is exactly what the Republican party as a whole is trying to do. China is a great example of why not to do that. I suspect you don't like this comment because you're a Republican, and because the comment is true.
There's nothing silly about Mr. Harper's comment. Eliminating the EPA and allowing corporations to pollute as much as they want is exactly what the Republican party as a whole is trying to do. China is a great example of why not to do that. I suspect you don't like this comment because you're a Republican, and because the comment is true.
6
Your Walmart purchase $$ at work!
78
I've already stopped eating any seafood from China, I think I will just avoid all food from China form here on out.
80
Watch out in grocery store for foreign meat. I don't think they have to label country of origin any more. None of that stuff for me and my store had better not try it.
2
Cheaper to have meat & chicken grown, diced up and sent to US than it is to grow it in the country. With no label laws how will you know where that $2.5 Lbs Ground beef comes from?
What does it take to get their act together? Regulations and enforcement. It is that simple but it seems impossible. Probably because they jail folks who speak out and complain. As someone of Chinese descent, it is sad that such a beautiful country with such smart and talented people are ensnared in a trap their compatriots created.
9
Chinese version of Reaganonmics.
5
Don't worry we're catching up.
1
You could help instead of snickering. The jailed are usually trouble making lawyers bend on making a name for themselves instead of experts. If you see the numbers and what experts are saying, China is actually ahead of its environmental scheduled. This paper reported on April 4th that China's goal of reducing carbon intensity 40-45% below 2005's level by 2020 is ahead of schedule. The new likely target is 50%.
most of your iphones, pads, laptops, flat screens and other electronic doo-daas are shipped back to china whence they came for recycling, but its not th kind of recycling you think
its kind of like salmon returning to spawn, only its not
have a look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSWGV3jGek
its kind of like salmon returning to spawn, only its not
have a look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSWGV3jGek
5
You are only partially correct. Any Apple products can be returned to Apple Store in person or online for responsible recycling free of charge. In fact, Apple will give you gift card or trade-in credits for certain products to encourage you to recycle. Apple have designed special machinery to take apart and separate components for all its products while the products were still in the design stage.
1
NY Times: excellent revelations. Can you please have some water experts dig into the data and tell us about the types of pollution? Heavy metals, insecticides, coliform bacteria? The NY Times is read around the world and we need to get some details out there. Also, it would be useful to see how these pollutants effect food sources in China and products that are exported.
20
You don't need NYTimes. This article links to the report by Ministry of Water Resources. You can read the report yourself
2
It's in Chinese!
1
Yet here in the states, we import crops grown in that soil without any testing for chemicals or pesticides and we import their farm raised fish as well. It is not unfair to undersell American, or any other countries farmers, because of efficiency or cheap labor, but we have a right not to be poisoned.
Remind me about who checks up on that? Maybe this is pet food part two!
Remind me about who checks up on that? Maybe this is pet food part two!
36
What can you expect from a country that poisons its own childrens' baby formula.
2
This article illustrates the flaws in our Asia-oriented free-trade agreements. US and Canadian farmers and factories are held to a high standard environmentally and pass that cost on to the consumer. No such problem in PRC. Then the PRC entrepreneurs get wealthy and move to the US to enjoy our parks and clean air and water.
49
"This article illustrates the flaws in our Asia-oriented free-trade agreements. "
yes, all this would not be happening if there were no free trade agreements.
yes, all this would not be happening if there were no free trade agreements.
2
Ah, afraid you made the same mistake as Trump there, we don't have a free trade agreement with China.
2
dan, you do know that China is WTO (an organization that requires all participants give equal access to each other)? this is a de facto free trade agreement as it lowers tariffs on nearly all tangible products (except agricultural) to practically zero.
2
Governor Rick Synder should feel right at home being a "public servant" there in China. When he tells citizens that they're too worked up by brown water old Rick can get backup from the government. And all the money they save from cleaning up the water can go into their pockets. Just like they were trying to do in Michigan.
Rick Synder, go to China. They'll welcome you with open arms. Show them how to poison the water and look good at the same time. The Chinese government would appreciate someone like you. Who said polluters were universally reviled? In China they are being head-hunted.
Rick Synder, go to China. They'll welcome you with open arms. Show them how to poison the water and look good at the same time. The Chinese government would appreciate someone like you. Who said polluters were universally reviled? In China they are being head-hunted.
28
The water in a well is polluted or it is not. It is not 80% polluted, as this inaccurately worded title maintains. I suggest the writer meant that the water in over 80% of the wells tested in China is polluted.
The first formulation, if it made any logical sense, could be taken to mean there is not a single well in China with safe, clean, drinkable water. The latter, though still not a glowing report, does allow for the possibility of 19 out of every 100 wells being safe for human consumption.
The first formulation, if it made any logical sense, could be taken to mean there is not a single well in China with safe, clean, drinkable water. The latter, though still not a glowing report, does allow for the possibility of 19 out of every 100 wells being safe for human consumption.
8
Isn't this the obvious result of any heavily populated area industrializing ? In the U.S., it was not as bad during our transition to industrialization because we had one-fifteenth the number of humans on roughly the same size of land ? There was and is pollution, but not as widespread as in China. How about some sympathy for non-human life forms which people are annihilating at an increasing rate, and start reducing human population ? This is especially true for advanced economies like the U.S. The resource and energy use of these nations cause pollution and habitat destruction worldwide.
50
Indeed. And this is exactly the reason why we in the western world should have salute the chinese for their very strict one-child policy for a very effective control on population growth. Now, if only we could have that kind of sensible policy on other under-developed and developing countries like India, Africa, and muslim countries in the Middle East, the planet earth will be much better served.
4
We, as a global population have really not addressed the water issue. We have an finite amount of life supporting water and an increase of global membership....this is mathematically unsupportable. We see the fresh water of the arctic poles streaming down into the oceans changing it to unsustainable life supporting water. The religious sector wants more life without control.... There will become, as we see in China and other areas on the planet a point of no return.
1
Perhaps they need to reassess the loosening of the one child policy (as should the rest of the world). It would be a lot easier to support 1-2 Billion humans on this planet rather than 8 billion.
14
If someone wants to buy barrels and barrels of Freon gas you can find it in China. And the seller will help you smuggle it out of the country. If you want to buy a grandmother's wheelchair, cheap, still warm from use, you can buy it in China.
Money counts a lot in China. Both from great need of it from the teeming poor peasants to the needs of the Chinese bureaucrats, a more greedy lot you will not find anywhere.
China will never become a great nation in the sense of the United States. It is fundamentally deficient any sense of universal comity. This is how China has always been. It is how it always will be. Nothing will change it. China's destiny and future will be shaped by it's essence. In China it is really us versus them. One day "them" will take over. I don't know when or how but it should be a Doozie when it happens. The Chinese Spring.
Money counts a lot in China. Both from great need of it from the teeming poor peasants to the needs of the Chinese bureaucrats, a more greedy lot you will not find anywhere.
China will never become a great nation in the sense of the United States. It is fundamentally deficient any sense of universal comity. This is how China has always been. It is how it always will be. Nothing will change it. China's destiny and future will be shaped by it's essence. In China it is really us versus them. One day "them" will take over. I don't know when or how but it should be a Doozie when it happens. The Chinese Spring.
9
China is the world's oldest and most stable civilization. And until the Industrial Revolution it was the wealthiest. The Western pre-eminence of the 19th and 20th centuries is the anomaly in five millenia of Chinese history.
But we're rapidly catching up to them.
China don't have to be a great nation in the sense of the US. China has been a great nation while Rome was still around. If it wasn't for decades of European imperalism (US included), China wouldn't be the way it is.
1
"The latest study found that 32.9 percent of wells tested had Grade 4 quality water, which meant that it was fit only for industrial uses, National Business Daily said. An additional 47.3 percent of wells were even worse..."
On the other hand the Chinese billionaire class is doing better even than the American. And in end-stage capitalism the only metric is the welfare of the 0.1 per cent.
Endless plutocrat attacks on the regulartory state and particularly corporate capture of the Food and Drug Administration means that American food produced by the agribusiness monopoly means you should be cautious about American food let alone the made in China equivalent.
But, hey, it's OK because the Kochs and Waltons net worth rises by a billion a month, and that's the important stat.
Beware of big government; abolish the EPA; and remember that "your" "representatives" in Washington are totally owned by corporate interests.
Bernie is your last chance.
On the other hand the Chinese billionaire class is doing better even than the American. And in end-stage capitalism the only metric is the welfare of the 0.1 per cent.
Endless plutocrat attacks on the regulartory state and particularly corporate capture of the Food and Drug Administration means that American food produced by the agribusiness monopoly means you should be cautious about American food let alone the made in China equivalent.
But, hey, it's OK because the Kochs and Waltons net worth rises by a billion a month, and that's the important stat.
Beware of big government; abolish the EPA; and remember that "your" "representatives" in Washington are totally owned by corporate interests.
Bernie is your last chance.
13
Over 80,000 chemicals in the US are totally unregulated and so little information exists about many of them water is not tested. Some of them are routinely renamed by the chemical industry to evade notice. Read: http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/welcome-to-beautiful-park...
Corporations, and those who run them will do anything to make a profit. And then there's US. Look closely at the side of the highway on your next sightseeing trip. Your view is likely to be filled with man made debris, and most are utterly indifferent to the growing sewer we live in. It doesn't matter where you live, human pollution production is the rule.
Corporations, and those who run them will do anything to make a profit. And then there's US. Look closely at the side of the highway on your next sightseeing trip. Your view is likely to be filled with man made debris, and most are utterly indifferent to the growing sewer we live in. It doesn't matter where you live, human pollution production is the rule.
13
Thank you for the link to the sad story about DuPont and its chemical C8 used in Teflon and the terrible effects on the people, animals, land and water in West Virginia. The public thinks the U.S. government protects us against toxic chemicals (or that the FDA protects us against injury from pharmaceuticals) but the reality is the burden of proof is upon those injured after the fact.
3
Awesome its about time...!!!!
2
The only way to get clean water from dirty is to use energy. Obviously that is counterproductive. It's amazing how stupid and greedy humans are. Is there a word for eating your own children (as well as everyone else's)? Everywhere humanity has set up its habitation, there earth has become barren. -We- are the apocalypse.
7
Shocking!
The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party behave just like...the corrupt bankers on Wall Street and America's corrupt corporate CEOs.
Edward Abbey wrote, "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell."
And it's true in China and India, just as it's true here.
All suppress human rights and environmental protection...to make more money.
The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party behave just like...the corrupt bankers on Wall Street and America's corrupt corporate CEOs.
Edward Abbey wrote, "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell."
And it's true in China and India, just as it's true here.
All suppress human rights and environmental protection...to make more money.
12
Sooner or later, Tianenman Square will look like a picnic.
5
Im glad I read this seeing I just recently noticed that SHOP RITE is selling THEIR BRAND made in china canned fruits. YUMMY
14
The death of the environment - or at least livable conditions - is the inevitable result of unbridled Capitalism - whether private or state sponsored.
12
I am shocked and saddened by this. The inevitable result of this pollution is a massive degradation of public health and widespread diseases such as cancer.
While the West looks at China's economic accomplishments they ignore the human costs. But the only real difference between China and the US is that we exploited and ravaged our environment when our population was small and the damage spread out over decades. China's destruction has been just as swift and decisive as its explosive economic growth. The environment cannot sustain nor even recover from such an onslaught.
My heart goes out to the Chinese people and to the entire earth that suffers from these policies.
While the West looks at China's economic accomplishments they ignore the human costs. But the only real difference between China and the US is that we exploited and ravaged our environment when our population was small and the damage spread out over decades. China's destruction has been just as swift and decisive as its explosive economic growth. The environment cannot sustain nor even recover from such an onslaught.
My heart goes out to the Chinese people and to the entire earth that suffers from these policies.
46
does your heart also go out to the communist party officials who refuse to enact and enforce environmental laws and regulations?
2
My heart does not go out to a species that knows better. This pollution, wherever it is, is the product of stupid, selfish, immoral behavior by men. We reap what we sow.
As to your comment about public health, I think cancer will just be an obvious result. When was the last time mental health tests were run on people after they were subject such atrocities? Get ready for the worst.
I DO feel the pain and agony that ALL of us will experience because of the selfish and stupid behavior of men. I am just mad as hell. We all knew this would happen in the 60's and 70's but the "ME" attitude and iPhones became more important than clean water and food. Stupid is as stupid does. Sad.
As to your comment about public health, I think cancer will just be an obvious result. When was the last time mental health tests were run on people after they were subject such atrocities? Get ready for the worst.
I DO feel the pain and agony that ALL of us will experience because of the selfish and stupid behavior of men. I am just mad as hell. We all knew this would happen in the 60's and 70's but the "ME" attitude and iPhones became more important than clean water and food. Stupid is as stupid does. Sad.
2
Protecting natural resources and the environment has always been at the bottom of the list of priorities for the Chinese. Fortunately for us in the US, it's only the second or third bottom priority. I think tribal treaties among indigenous people of western Myanmar might be lower.
4
Worse is that about a fifth of China' arable land is contaminated with heavy metals.
18
Dear Socialists: this is what the economic system you seek to impose on the USA leads to.
7
Dear conservatives: This is the type of environment we will end up here in the US if Republican plans to eliminate the EPA and environmental regulations are laws are eliminated.
2
Dear TPierre Changstien,
Sorry but you're wrong. Democratic socialism is what's being pushed for in the U.S., which means a democratically elected government that attempts to take care of all its citizens' needs. The government of China is a totalitarian oligarchy, with no interest in its citizens' needs; it is by no means socialism in any form.
Sorry but you're wrong. Democratic socialism is what's being pushed for in the U.S., which means a democratically elected government that attempts to take care of all its citizens' needs. The government of China is a totalitarian oligarchy, with no interest in its citizens' needs; it is by no means socialism in any form.
6
The socialists are not the ones talking about shutting down the EPA - the sociopaths (GOP) are.
7
It wasn't that long along that we saw a host of Chinese-manufactured products recalled from American stores: dog and cat food in 2007; powdered milk and baby formula in 2008; Mattel toys in 2009. The smog and air pollution problem in L.A. almost makes the smog and air pollution in China look non-existent in comparison. China doesn't seem to care about their own environment, much less the rest of the world's either since pollution affects the entire world, eventually. This contaminated water story is a no-brainer. The real story should be an a realistic plan of action with tangible steps to clean up the water, soil and environment that is suffocating China. This is a sad and equally scary story.
7
I'm unsurprised by this finding. When I go to the store to buy fish, I'm always careful as to buy fish not imported from China. What do you expect from a country with 1400 million people; all of this waste, pollution have to end up somewhere. It always end up in the water.
6
Well (ha), this is hardly surprising. China's air quality in its cities is horrendous, it has the most mine disaster deaths of any nation, and I recall a few years ago thousands of dead pigs were discovered floating in one of its rivers. The totalitarian government just doesn't care much about its peoples' health, or the environment, or the future of its nation.
On the other hand it's the most populated nation on earth, so if its continually increasing pollution causes a drop in life expectancy, as expected, it will benefit the rest of the world.
But if China's citizens want to live without a toxic environment, in order to get a department like the E.P.A. to protect their air, food, and water, they're pretty much going to have to get a new government.
On the other hand it's the most populated nation on earth, so if its continually increasing pollution causes a drop in life expectancy, as expected, it will benefit the rest of the world.
But if China's citizens want to live without a toxic environment, in order to get a department like the E.P.A. to protect their air, food, and water, they're pretty much going to have to get a new government.
4
But if China's citizens want to live without a toxic environment, in order to get a department like the E.P.A. to protect their air, food, and water, they're pretty much going to have to get a new government.
we have a political party that desires to eliminate the EPA and these very environmental laws and regulations. Maybe we can ship it to China to govern.
we have a political party that desires to eliminate the EPA and these very environmental laws and regulations. Maybe we can ship it to China to govern.
4
So the chickens finally come home to roost. The price to be paid for China's unregulated industrialization. The results of us having our iPhones and all that short lived junk in Walmarts. Unfortunately the largest factory owners and the major contributor to the pollution are not as effected by this. They have homes in Sydney, Hong Kong, L.A. Toronto etc to which they escape. The Chinese will start diverting Tibet's Himalayan water and any other country they choose. Just as they are buying African countries at the moment for primary industry (Congo timber, Namibian uranium etc.). The only way to fix this is to hold Chinese products to an environmental standard. Apple, Walmart, Ikea etc. need to start enforcing green labelling and environmental audits, so we, the consumer driving force behind much of this environmental destruction, can make informed choices. After all, China's climate change problems are our climate change problems.
5
I have been unhappy about the notion of shipping food, such as pork and chicken, to China for processing, then shipping it back here for sale. One of my concerns (beyond the obvious labor implications) is that China is in the place we were half a century ago, when our waterways were routinely polluted by industrial activity.
But I am not so sure about how safe things are here, either. Wells around the nation contain PFOA. Locally we have two areas on the Superfund list for aquifers contaminated by solvents. Water in older districts contains high levels of lead. Fracking is a huge concern. There is still controversy about how much of the PCBS have been mitigated in the upper Hudson.
China is at the beginning of the cycle, in which knowledgeable people will become outraged, and start to demand fixes. We are at the end of the cycle, having grown complacent that we are addressing and fixing pollution, and discovering that we still have significant problems - like dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and eutrophic areas in Lake Erie.
While we look at China, and exclaim about unregulated industry, we need to keep looking and exclaiming here, too.
But I am not so sure about how safe things are here, either. Wells around the nation contain PFOA. Locally we have two areas on the Superfund list for aquifers contaminated by solvents. Water in older districts contains high levels of lead. Fracking is a huge concern. There is still controversy about how much of the PCBS have been mitigated in the upper Hudson.
China is at the beginning of the cycle, in which knowledgeable people will become outraged, and start to demand fixes. We are at the end of the cycle, having grown complacent that we are addressing and fixing pollution, and discovering that we still have significant problems - like dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and eutrophic areas in Lake Erie.
While we look at China, and exclaim about unregulated industry, we need to keep looking and exclaiming here, too.
4
We in the US should avoid thinking that we are protected by our institutions or the geographic distance separating us from China. As I learned studying environmental science--everything is connected to everything else. Be it contaminated goods coming to the US from China, or social/economic consequences of water pollution spilling over into the US, what goes around comes around. Folks, this problem is partly our problem.
3
This is why I don't want to buy US chicken that has been processed in China. We have enough to worry about with our own water supply.
3
As China grapples with its pollution and other costs of industrialization, its wages will rise and we'll start getting jobs back but at a far lower hourly wage.
I wonder what the figures were for "industrializing" USA?
1
But now we know. What's the excuse?
2
Same as our reasons for ignoring the problems for decades: political and economic power
Since so many here in the US have forgotten - or have never experienced - effects of serious pollution - this should be a warning. Tech industries make have pristine looking campuses, but often offshore the manufacturing pollution with the jobs. And pay little attention to downstream pollution as the castoff products require specialized handling.
If keeping the environment as healthy as impossible received the attention it deserves, that would increase costs - but provide other jobs.
If keeping the environment as healthy as impossible received the attention it deserves, that would increase costs - but provide other jobs.
54
We are experiencing effects of pollution every day. Think fracking, contaminated eater supplies across country, and other super fund sites.
All the Chinese had to do is look at the US entering into WWII to see what expansive unfettered growth is capable of doing to the environment.
I remember dead waterways and forests in the 70s and smog encapsulated cities. It was great for jobs and the stock markets, but horrible for health. It took a massive public outcry to address the problems. I guess it is easier to believe "it's different this time" versus "greed knows no boundaries". Good luck cleaning up PRC.
I remember dead waterways and forests in the 70s and smog encapsulated cities. It was great for jobs and the stock markets, but horrible for health. It took a massive public outcry to address the problems. I guess it is easier to believe "it's different this time" versus "greed knows no boundaries". Good luck cleaning up PRC.
51
Absolutely doktorij. We still worry about our water when the sediment is disturbed (by human digging or by nature) in our bays and rivers. There is a layer of toxins/heavy metals gradually being buried by natural sedimentation near our cities and industry, but it takes decades and we still have to be careful. Also, how many superfund sites are still in progress?
4
You really don't know what you're talking about. The 70's were generally considered a decade of stagflation--not a time of great job growth and good US stock markets.
1
MO I was talking about the pollution of the 70s based on the previous decades, which were good for jobs, industry and the stock market.
2
China is not becoming westernised. It is becoming totally nihilistic.
The West is, in that sense, becoming Chinese. The more I stay in China, the more I feel this pull towards the great void.
Like them we will sell our morals, our values, our souls for some fracking oil, for some instant gratification, for some big nationalistic dream
The West is, in that sense, becoming Chinese. The more I stay in China, the more I feel this pull towards the great void.
Like them we will sell our morals, our values, our souls for some fracking oil, for some instant gratification, for some big nationalistic dream
110
Polluted sky, land and water
It doesn't really matter
as long as they believe in the Chinese dream
"Apres moi le déluge" is all they would scream!
It doesn't really matter
as long as they believe in the Chinese dream
"Apres moi le déluge" is all they would scream!
6
Will Chinese government owned companies in the United Stated act responsibly concerning the environment?
I wouldn't want to drink down river or from the same aquifer.
If the food label says made in china I don't purchase it.
I wouldn't want to drink down river or from the same aquifer.
If the food label says made in china I don't purchase it.
60
Will Koch-owned companies and other anti-regulation Republican donors in the US act responsibly?
Look at what Duke energy did to North Carolina's water
http://www.catawbariverkeeper.org/issues/coal-ash-1/duke-energy-dan-rive...
Look at what Duke energy did to North Carolina's water
http://www.catawbariverkeeper.org/issues/coal-ash-1/duke-energy-dan-rive...
6
Here is your ideal for those that prefer business unfettered by government regulation, your tax dollars not syphoned off by unnecessary government organizations, your profit model not hindered by constitutional over-reach.
Some people's paradise is most people's hell.
Some people's paradise is most people's hell.
177
You do realize that China's government owns and regulates most economic activity in China, right? China is basically a fascist state that cloaks itself in communism. Remember, fascism and communism are both ideologies from the Left.
4
The model that the Congressional Republicans are aiming for.
4
QED, you do realize that one of the Republican party's goal is the dissolution of the EPA and environmental regulations and laws? As far as I know they are ideologues of the Right.
2
It appears that China many years ago decided to join the modern world regardless of the cost. What they have not realized is that Nature is not subject to Polit Bureau directives. We may be witnessing an object lesson in the costs of unrestrained development. God help the Chinese people.
88
Whatever China is now or will be is due, in good measure, to our investment and purchase $$.
5
God help those near China. China may want some clean resources.
1
To be sure, there's always a catch-up phrase. When you didn't even have enough to eat, you can't afford to watch out for the environment too. Thus was the predicament that China started out with some three decades ago when it opened doors to expand its economy. Now that its citizenry is getting richer, they are more in a "wealth preservation" mode, realizing that for all the wealth in the world, if they don't have basic environmental protection to ensure clean air and water and food safety, they won't have a life to enjoy the half-earned wealth.
2
If the Earth could laugh it would laugh
that we think progress is buildings tall,
or power grids mighty,
or computers sleek,
or pads that glow
or high speed rails
or dams that stem the flow
of rivers raring to go,
that we think progress
is industrial farming
with chemicals galore.
Our toxins absorbed
the Earth glows in its rocks
the water runs green or red
or brown and sick--
it seeps in our wells as self sabotage--
and that is what we proudly call
progress.
The earth weeps in our drinking water
it yields what we have given to it.
that we think progress is buildings tall,
or power grids mighty,
or computers sleek,
or pads that glow
or high speed rails
or dams that stem the flow
of rivers raring to go,
that we think progress
is industrial farming
with chemicals galore.
Our toxins absorbed
the Earth glows in its rocks
the water runs green or red
or brown and sick--
it seeps in our wells as self sabotage--
and that is what we proudly call
progress.
The earth weeps in our drinking water
it yields what we have given to it.
24
“From my point of view, this shows how water is the biggest environmental issue in China,”
Environment . . . China. What an oxymoron. But most of the rest of the world, including us, should talk. Where does everyone think all this crap we generate goes? Let's be honest add human life to the long list of identified carcinomas . . . for all the good that will do. But where else is there to go? I guess we just have to live with it.
But take heart! This means that 20% of the wells are still good? Maybe enough for the top 1%, or so? Well, then, what's the problem?
Environment . . . China. What an oxymoron. But most of the rest of the world, including us, should talk. Where does everyone think all this crap we generate goes? Let's be honest add human life to the long list of identified carcinomas . . . for all the good that will do. But where else is there to go? I guess we just have to live with it.
But take heart! This means that 20% of the wells are still good? Maybe enough for the top 1%, or so? Well, then, what's the problem?
15
This sets up the conflicts that will come in Asia. Perhaps, China's most important goal in taking Tibet is to control the head waters of the Himalayan Mtns. That water currently supplies the entire heavily populated sub continent in Asia with billions of people. With poor water China will divert more and more and it will get very ugly in coming decades. Water...the source of life!
86
No living creature can exist without water.
It's a matter of out-of-sight-out-of-mind for most citizens in China. They see polluted sky, and they complain. They don't and won't get their water tested, so they don't know.
Even for people in US (hello, Flint), citizenry has generally taken water for granted, unless and until big events blow over, like heavy government fine for water wastage in CA due to severe drought that everyone is aware of, or the proven contamination case in Flint (thanks for the small number of practitioners who brought the issue to light).
That's the price the Chinese pay, in the race to modernity and economic growth.
Even for people in US (hello, Flint), citizenry has generally taken water for granted, unless and until big events blow over, like heavy government fine for water wastage in CA due to severe drought that everyone is aware of, or the proven contamination case in Flint (thanks for the small number of practitioners who brought the issue to light).
That's the price the Chinese pay, in the race to modernity and economic growth.
45
Not just Flint and industrial cities, but farming regions. The pesticides and farm waste that wind up in groundwater is just as bad, possibly worse. We don't tend to manage our resources well, until they are on the brink of collapse...
11
@doktorij, Flint is but the latest big event. And this is all while GOP continues to push funding and enforcement of EPA as if protecting our environment is a very bad thing. Stupid stupid idea.
1
Actually it is not "out-of-sight-out-of-mind" for most citizens in China.. it's simply not talked about publicly, so you might assume that people are oblivious to it. Purchasing habits tell otherwise -- anyone who can afford it drinks bottled water and buys foreign brands of just about everything ranging from household goods to luxury items and even food -- not as a status symbol per se, but because they don't trust their own domestic brands. You can complain all you want in China, but nothing will ever come of it. Instead, you do as most do here -- wear air masks, run air filters at home, grow indoor air-cleaning plants, source food and water from reputable suppliers or from overseas ($$$), etc. But that's easier to do in a wealthy big city than the countryside. Out there, there's a certain resignation to your fate -- you're poor, uneducated, and nobody gives two cents about you. Get your water tested... and then what?
Environmental degradation is the price for rapid modernization that we *all* pay. It is not endemic to China.
Environmental degradation is the price for rapid modernization that we *all* pay. It is not endemic to China.
2
When I hear some U.S. politicians talk about the need to reduce regulations in order to create jobs, I can’t help but wonder if jobs at the expense of the environment is their unstated goal.
198
The goal of US (Republican) politicians is not really jobs at the expense of the environment (although that may play well in coal country). As a result of having sold their souls, and their votes, to their campaign contributors, their goal is generally corporate profits at the expense of the environment.
94
It's not even jobs that is their goal. It is free reign to make money for the shareholders and themselves despite how much someone else suffers.
8
"their goal is generally corporate profits at the expense of the environment."
How about: their goal is generally corporate profits at the expense of the everyone except *their donors*?
How about: their goal is generally corporate profits at the expense of the everyone except *their donors*?
2
The more you read about the challenges in China, the more you have to question their ambitions in the South China Sea, and against Taiwan. If they are unable to provide basics like clean water, what makes them think they can manage a war of conquest?
11
waging a war is much easier than maintaining a good environment with economic growth. Any group supplied with weapons can wage war (ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Queda, Taliban). Very few countries produce goods with little environmental impact. The US is not one of them.
8
Please, I am sure they can wage a very destructive war. May not be successful, but I am sure they are capable of mass devastation.
1
When I was younger, travel to China was a dream of mine.
After this and other stories, no longer-
How about some plastic or other toxins in your pet's food or baby formula-
After this and other stories, no longer-
How about some plastic or other toxins in your pet's food or baby formula-
47
You should still go and experience SE Asia and China. Nothing should stop this desire. It's immensely nuanced and complex. Go do it anyway. You won't regret it.
4
China was a lot different in the 80s, definitely less smog. Glad I saw it then versus now...
4
Suspect you'll possibly be subject to "Han's revenge". (Similiar to Montezuma's!)
...and US consumers are still buying and eating shrimp grown in farm-ponds in India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Do you really believe that their water is free of heavy metals and other industrial pollutants? What about farm raised catfish, Tilapia? In effect - you are drinking the same water as the Chinese.
117
That is not correct. Only China has that much under or un-regulated heavy industry. Though the countries you mention do harbor such dubious aspirations.
One alleged policy in the TTP is that food will not be required to be labeled from where it came. This is very serious and must be made very public. This is a health issue.
econ major, the rules for food safety are strengthened by TPP. Alleged? You just are guessing. Same with much of the rest of TPP.
The good news is that in 200 years humans probably will have learned how to manage the planet properly.
4
In the year 2525, if man is still alive...
6
I'd add another zero to that estimate.
And then only another 1000 years to find the political will to actually do it.
1
But the Chinese have improved the average citizens; quality of life ! they have lifted millions out of "poverty" ! its all worth it ! until one realizes that real wealth is health , real quality of life depends on a benign , non toxic environment , the Chinese have irreparably ruined their sources of genuine prosperity following a by the numbers only break neck economic model that cast millions into dead end jobs that permanently marred their bodily health and poisoned their communities and doomed themselves slaves to enduing poverty of long lasting vibrancy and human development as they have followed the Potemkin village Hollywood portrayal of dolce vita and power - but its a conspiracy to criticize anything the Chinese embark on.... -
66
Every river in Asia has become a sewage dumping ground for farmers to dump their diseased farm animals or factories to pour their waste. I know of one American company who informed the Nanjing officials that they would channel the factory waste to the water treatment plant in the city and the Chinese thought the Americans were idiots to not save the money and dump the waste in the river next to the factory! How is it that the government has failed to educate itself and the people about the importance of clean water? It's TRAGIC. They themselves have failed to protect their own environment and are in desperate need of seeing their own reflection.
87
I agree but, man, are you in need of a remedial crash course in punctuation!
5
This is exactly what I was afraid. People only talk about air pollution that is very partial. Water and land pollution should be included. These examinations do not show contamination from antibiotics that is already a big issue in rivers, lakes, and probably bay area in China. A half of antibiotics in the world is used in China. In the US, people started talking about metal and mineral contamination for the drinking water. If we check, we would be surprised how our drinking water would be contaminated not only by metals and minerals but also by organic chemicals including antibiotics.
53
..makes one glad to live in New York City.
Birth control pills, thru urination, has polluted water supplies and his highly suspect in the incidence of creating "intersex" fish and amphibians, and the lower rates of testosterone in males due to elevated levels of estrogen in the water. So it's not just antibiotics. I can only wonder what are the effects of anti-depressants in our water supplies?