Its a pretty well recorded fact that China is a dirty dirty heavily polluted place right now. The cost of their breakneck speed has been a huge toll on the natural environment of China. I don’t just mean the pretty trees and butterflies — everything from their potable water network, the air, the rivers and most urban environments in China are in a terrible state.
The Guardian [Have I made it clear to you yet that this is a great source of enviro-news?] had a great piece yesterday on the situation in China. It turns out that the head of China’s environmental Agency (EPA equivalent) stated that much of China’s social and political unrest is related to the terrible environmental conditions most people live in.
Today there was a piece on the Chinese government banning Bank loans to firms that repeatedly break environmental rules. Considering that anywhere from 75% of Chinese companies have been accused of breaking pollution laws this could be an interesting new rule to put into place.
The Chinese environmental agency has some very good laws on the book — against toxic dumping, against e-waste, for clean air etc. The problem has been one of enforcement. I wonder if the head guy came out with that public statement so he could get some more clout to enforce what his departement is ment to do.
I also had an interesting chat with a Fletcher grad who works at the IMF and lived in Beijing for 5 years. She thinks that the way they will make the air clean enough for the Olympics will be to turn off all the factories around and in Beijing for a month before the games. I guess the Chinese will have to see what costs them less money — cleaning up the factories and installing scrubbers and filters, or just shutting them down for a month?
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