The Melbourne Herald Sun tells us: Just days after a 100-tonne spill of toxic benzene [in Harbin] caused a public health crisis, a second chemical plant explosion has been reported in China.
Schools closed and thousands of people were evacuated in southwest Chongqing after a blast at the Yingte Chemical Company.
This isn’t rural China. These are big towns where these eco catastrophes are occurring. Harbin has 3-1/2 million people; Chongqing a mindboggling 30 million, give or take the population of Delaware. Put another way, Chongqing by itself has considerably more people than Iraq and is catching up to California. No wonder this isn’t a simple situation. The Independent, a left-leaning publication, has a pretty detailed analysis of how the Chinese lied to their people about the Harbin spill.
More interesting to me are the implications of these events for the ecology of the developing world, of which China, despite its giant economy, is still very much a part. In the light of the disasters in Harbin and Chongqing (and whatever other ones the Chinese government may have succeeded in covering up) the politically-motivated (and happily extinct) Kyoto Treaty now seems almost anti-ecological in its intent. But as countries like China and India boom, genuine global approaches to these matters must be developed. The question is how to do that without the interference of the hugely-corrupt United Nations, which would most likely make matters worse. Still, this is everybody’s problem. The Russians are already bracing for the pollutants from Harbin.
UPDATE: Pajamas Media has more with links to blogs inside China.
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5 Comments
1. Foobarista:It would be profoundly useful if the enviro-NGOs quit worrying about CO2 emissions and started paying attention to real pollution that actually kills people. Frankly, I used to be something of an environmentalist, but starting in the late 1990s, I saw the environmental movement move from cleaning up pollution to “Stop Corporate Dominance”, various reactionary anti-science crusades, and Kyoto. They clearly were no longer serious, so I abandoned them, although I do hope that _someone_ pays attention to the toxic waste dump that is much of East Asia (in particular).
But China’s happily meeting its (nonexistent) Kyoto obligations, so I guess it’s OK…
Nov 25, 2005 - 9:00 pm 2. Steven:Roger,
I haven’t seen this point in the news, but Harbin is the site of the famous Snow and Ice Festival, which opens in early January every year. R. Todd King’s great pictures of the event are here: http://www.rtoddking.com/chinawin2003_hb_if.htm
This is a really important tourist event, and the local economy has a lot invested in its success. I can’t imagine many visitors will be going to Harbin to play in the snow, knowing the area will be dealing with contamination.
Oh, and Roger (I write this for all you southern Californians), that white stuff on the ground is called, “snow.” It’s kind of like the ice in a margarita, but without the kick. Incidentally, regarding King’s photos: Most of the ice that they use to build those fantastic ice monuments comes from the nearby river.
Nov 26, 2005 - 12:00 am 3. Terrye:It seems to be the norm with old communists…just look at the Soviet Union, they were not famous for their environmental bonafides.
Nov 26, 2005 - 2:53 am 4. Lola:And there’s that great dam that is supposed to help control Yangtze River. I know it’s supposed to have been built to exacting standards, but considering the shoddy construction of buildings that collapse when this shouldn’t have happened and rampant corruption, I just don’t believe the Chinese government’s assurances. If that dam breaks, it will truly be a catastrophe, ecological and humanitarian.
Nov 26, 2005 - 3:55 am 5. AlanC:Terrye,
30+ years ago I wrote my paper for my Senior Seminar (Poli. Sci. major) on polution in the USSR and its basis in Communist economics. (Many thanks to my professor, a Russian refugee, for translating all the stuff from USSR sources)
It really is easy to show how Marxist economics is the driver behind the polution in the USSR and probably in China as well.
The key point is that according to their means of accounting, only things that have a human labor component have value; and that only to the percentage of that component. Basically this means that there are no costs associated with raw materials beyond the cost of extraction.
This led to such practices as only using the highest grade ore and chucking the rest; same with timber which, because they chucked the junk in the nearest river, ruined the sturgeon breeding grounds which killed the production of caviar, etc. etc.
Potable water was used for industrial processes that polluted it cause it had no more cost than untreated water.
Only government can control pollution of those resources (primarily air and water) which are not susceptible of private ownership.
Nov 26, 2005 - 7:37 am