500 Million Chinese Need Drinkable Water?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in China, Environment
Have we made a deal with the devil?
Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics.
As a nation, do we have a responsibility to begin to wean ourselves off of cheap Chinese goods? Bite the bullet and pay a couple more dollars for a barbie doll or a hundred dollars more for our luxury items? I’d do it, but this is a market driven, global economy and there’s little chance we’ll be rolling back the clock.
Still, it seems completely immoral to support a nation that would leave more than our entire population with little access to drinkable water. I mean, maybe this just soudns dumb, but it’s WATER. How does the government not get this? Or do they just not care?
Not only that…their pollution is actually affecting California…
China’s problem has become the world’s problem. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power plants fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo. Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles originates in China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research.
The article is very comprehensive (and long), but I urge you to read the whole thing.
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 and is filed under China, Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 26th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
The people you feel guilty about have acquiesced their ability to choose destiny to the central government. Let it fall apart. Also, if 500 million people did not have drinkable water there would be 500 million dead people.
August 26th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I cannot feel sorry for the Chinese. They had the opportunity to become the first 21st century economy. Based on new technologies, being very smart about air pollution and water quality. They could very easily have looked at all the copious mistakes the West has made and made very smart and long-term decisions on how to implement a durable and sustainable economy.
They would have become rich anyway. Yes, it would have been a lot slower, it would have cost more, but they would have become an economic juggernaut. Now, it’s an anemic patient, using 1/8 of the world sweet water supply for 1/6 of the world population [or thereabouts]. And they are polluting the water like there’s no tomorrow.
How could they not see this had to end in a gigantic ecological drama? If you’re king of the dung heap you’re still living on a pile of shit.
All the money that would have been ‘not economically viable’ to develop the economy responsibly, will now be used to try and undo some of the damage.
And serves them right after what they did to Tibet.
There, I said it.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
If we have made a deal with the devil, I’m afraid we’re long past the point of being too late to back out, at least not without paying a price much greater than a couple more dollars for a Barbie doll or a hundred dollars more for our luxury items.
For better or worse, a huge portion of the U.S. economy hitched its wagon to the Chinese red star years ago. This means that if their economy ever takes a hit, ours inevitably will too. In other words, not only can’t we take very strong action against China without hurting our own economy in the process, but U.S. business interests with ties to China have a strong perverse incentive to downplay Chinese shortcomings, like poor product quality and yes, environmental damage, that might jeopardize Sino-American trade relations.
Welcome to the brave, strange new world of globalization, where by propping up a growing but fragile Chinese economy, we also prop up our own.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Yes, it’s quite clear we have made a deal with the devil. Except it is not the American people that are making this deal, it is our government and multi-national corporations which could give a flying turd about the environment. Anyone that has read a remotely truthful account of modern day China should know that the extent of the environmental devastation taking place in China is unprecedented.
When nearly all of your fresh water supply is not even of use to industrial applications, you know you’ve got a very serious problem on your hands. But in America it’s business as usual, so what we say, so China is polluting their own water. Well, it’s a big problem in several ways and it directly affects the United States whether the greedy U.S. corporations moving their choose to acknowledge it or not.
China is the most populace country in the world, people require three fundamental things to live, Food, Water and Air. When water ceases to exist so do people, when people are fighting to hang on to life itself anything can happen. China pollution is tantamount to terrorism, it threatens the entire planet.
When one understands the signifigance of the U.S.’s industrialization from approximately 1890 to the present you get a full understanding of the situation. In our capacity to pollute this planet with only 300 million people and China now imitating our luxurious, wasteful, and irresponsible lifestyles–China dwarfs our population and so does it’s ambitions. American’s are just stupid to think this world can handle this kind of pressure and we have litte credibility to stop it, after all, we lead the way in
teaching the world how to live as irresponsible as possible, to live on a credit card life style, consumerist throw away, who gives a shit world, Ah! who cares! I’ll be long gone by then you hear people say. One word: delusional!
August 26th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
made a deal with the devil ? HAHAHAH !
WE - who are addicted to buying buying, buying…..(and a few other things)
with our (mighty, yeah right..) dollars - ARE THE DEVIL !
get real sheeesh
August 26th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
The difficulty really is that China is building a new coal power plant every WEEK, with no controls, no scrubbing, no environmental regulation, because their government looks the other way when they get paid off. Basically each week they build a new power plant worse than EVERY power plant in the US. And we know how bad ours are (thanks to Bush’s revised EPA rules).
Until and unless international pressure is brought to bear on China (and other developing countries) to curb their suicidal pollution levels, they have the capacity to bring the entire world’s environment to destruction. Of course we, the US are the prime polluters (and under Bush have no intent to even slow our sins), but they are poised to surpass us within a few years, and double us within a few decades.
Please, everyone, start listening to the majority mainstream climatologists and environmental scientists who say we are fast approaching the point of no return, if we have not already surpassed it, and start making changes in world energy policy, forcibly if necessary. I would like to grow old thinking that I won’t have to carry an oxygen tank and a radiation shield around with me whenever I leave the house.
August 27th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Western cities were polluted cesspools for the greater part of a century during the industrial revolution. Give it time and they will get their act together. Its really been only 15 years since China opened up to the global economy and began all this development. Besides, I’m sure that if you did a comprehensive study of the health and well-being of Chinese people overall, you would find steady improvement in things like life-span, infant mortality, and disease survival.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:27 am
“Western cities were polluted cesspools for the greater part of a century during the industrial revolution. Give it time and they will get their act together.”
Good plan Jimmy, let’s just “hope” China has a change of heart in the next 20, 30 or 40
years from at which time there will be nothing to save!
August 27th, 2007 at 10:47 am
You are confusing me here, is it 20, 30 or 40 years until the earth is destroyed?
August 27th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I like how the Chinese environmental policy equates to the devil, but nothing is said regarding the eugenic mandatory abortion policy of China.
“Yes, those Nazis were real bastards….they dumped all kinds of pollutants into the Danube!!!” Oh, the outrage.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:13 am
You are confusing me, you want to sit here and argue the merits of whether our planet is or isn’t in danger while the research ended that discussion long ago.
This isn’t smog clogged London in the infancy of the industrial revolution, this is the accumulated affects of all the world, primarily the U.S. and now China. This isn’t another one of those cute little reports by some American Enterprise Institute “scientist” that claim we are “making the weather more pleasant” or “the earth is just going through one of its warm cycles.” This is China consuming as much as the U.S. did but not in 100 years as it took us but 20 years.
It’s already been proven that at the rate of consumption we are now seeing on earth it would take 5 earths to meet the need, we only have one.
Your question is loaded, you know I have no definitive answer to give you. And you are exactly the type of person that fosters this sort of environment where we remain inactive in the face of the destruction of civilization as we know it.
Here’s a very elementary question for you: How much of water on earth is fresh and fit for human consumption, then ask yourself the follow-up question, how fast is the human population growing, what it is projected to be in the year 2050?
A species that cannot reverse its irrational behavior in the face of clear and unquestionable evidence deserves extinction.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:21 am
“I like how the Chinese environmental policy equates to the devil, but nothing is said regarding the eugenic mandatory abortion policy of China.”
DosPeros thinks China should double its population from 1.3 billion to 2.6 billion. Now that sounds like a logical plan to fix their water shortage problems.
I don’t know if come up with these wonderful ideas on your own or do you watch a lot of 700 Club?
August 27th, 2007 at 11:22 am
“I like how the Chinese environmental policy equates to the devil, but nothing is said regarding the eugenic mandatory abortion policy of China.”
DosPeros thinks China should double its population from 1.3 billion to 2.6 billion. Now that sounds like a logical plan to fix their water shortage problems.
I don’t know if you come up with these wonderful ideas all on your own or do you get all of this great information from the Christian Coalition?
August 27th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Before you jumps on the bandwagon, you may need to consider….
Yes there are pollution problems in China for many years. This article does not produce any breaking news. But to claim that most of the pollution over LA originated from China is laughable.
The quality of life for the Chinese people has greatly increased because of industrialization. This includes better education, health care, welfare, etc. If you had to choose between getting your country’s population above poverty levels, or deducing population so the world doesn’t increase by a few degrees in some decades from now, which one would you choose?
The author of this blog acts as if no progress is being attempted, which is not only untrue but destroys any credibility he once clinged to. There are huge attempts to stem pollution, $925 million devoted to it. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK29274220070827
In the end, every country has their own problems. Focus on taking care of yours before attacking someone else’s.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
“If you had to choose between getting your country’s population above poverty levels, or deducing population so the world doesn’t increase by a few degrees in some decades from now, which one would you choose?”
Umm. I’d choose to not increase the world by a “few” more degrees. A degree is not a small matter, two degrees is significant. What do we need more of? degrees or people? This world is already overpopulated. I don’t advocate that people stop having children, I advocate that 1.3 billion people not have 3 or 4 children apiece, in affect doubling their population. With affluency comes responsibility.
The world cannot carry on as it has to this point and expect that our precarious situation will get better and not worse. Humanity needs to use its collective brain and make some very wise decisions fast. If not, this world is doomed to learn the hard way. You think the fight over oil is bad? wait until the world’s over population outstrips the world’s water supply.
All if this is made worse of course because it is not just simply a matter of not having enough water. Nuclear proliferation has increased more than ever. Just since Bush took office a half dozen nations have made the decision to acquire nuclear technology. Even the mighty United States cannot control a world where dozens and dozens of nations have this awesome power.
We’ve already outstripped the world’s water supply. To think that [we] can control all of these variables because we are a [superpower] is naive. The title “superpower” doesn’t mean anything after the buttons are pushed. People die all the same with or without the title of superpower. Anyone that hasn’t noticed Bush’s huge push toward a neo-nuclear age should be alarmed.
You’ll have people that say what in the hell does water and nuclear technology have to do with each other, well, what does oil and nuclear technology have in common? Geopolitical wrangling, that’s what. Which can and does easily equate to war. Just look at where we are today. Just wait until China hits full stride, the “superpower” today is going to be a runner-up to China.
August 27th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Numbers matter. The comparison between the Western industrial revolution and the Chinese one becomes a false one because of the sheer scale of what’s happening in China. Because of the massive amount of coal mining and coal power plants the pollution generated in China is on a scale that soon will dwarf what the U.S. and Europe used to generate. And the statistics for health in China are in fact still decreasing because of pollution problems and the fact that health care is as poorly distributed as the wealth that their version of capitalism is generating.
And the claim that the article states that most pollution in L.A. comes from China is is a false one. Here is what it says:
The United States has worked on reducing particulate pollution for decades now so it isn’t that far fetched that with the huge amount of particulate pollution heading east from China could make up a significant proportion of the particulate pollution on the west coast of the U.S.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Jeremy — WOW! Usually even the most spiritually-gnarled postmodernist find the forced abortion policy an evil and retched example of tyranny. Even most atheists manage to find some seedling of discomfort in the idea of a woman being forced to have her child exterminated involuntarily. But not you Jeremy. You manage to response to that moral catastrophe with the banal wit of some nazi executioner. Oh, yes, forced abortions and religious suppression are mere “Christian Coalition” talking points. All of that religion/freedom baloney is not nearly as important as your environmental agenda. Indeed, Jeremy, I do believe that your environmental agenda could come to fruition overnight if we just killed half the population.
To answer your dimwitted moronic questions: Do I come up with this all by myself? No. My influences in regard to the rights and dignity of humanity are manifold. But congratulations, your comments are quickly changing that…
August 27th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Yeeeeeeesssssss. Indeeeeeeeeeed. Justin - PLEASE start a link on the side called “The Dumbest Things Ever Said on Donklephant.” You can put on sorts of DosPeros quotes in there (I won’t be offended), but honestly this has to take the cake and it should be rewarded.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
I don’t know that I’d say that we’ve already outstripped the world’s water supply but there are definitely looming problems as far as fresh water supplies are concerned. Desalinization isn’t cheap but it will soon be necessary in many places. One problem with global warming that you don’t hear from those who admit that it is happening but say it won’t be a problem is that they severely underestimate the role of glaciers and snow packs in providing fresh water to many people.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
“Indeed, Jeremy, I do believe that your environmental agenda could come to fruition overnight if we just killed half the population.”
Who said anything about “killing half the population?” China’s current one-child policy isn’t a conspiracy of eugenics, it’s called reality. China realizes that it has an enormous population problem, they have instituted the one-child policy out of sheer pragmatism. Say what you will about it, but the fact is the world cannot afford two China’s. The earth can barely sustain the current population as it is.
Regarding my statement: ‘We’ve already outstripped the world’s water supply.’ What’s is so “dumb” about it? Consider this; “97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water. Nearly 70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human use. 1% of the world’s fresh water (~0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed by rain and snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis.”
Also take into consideration that a good deal of the world’s population live in arid climates which lack the necessary supply of fresh water to sustain that population and therefore governments must resort to costly and unsustainable desalination methods to acquire the necessary water to support their human populations, agriculture and livestock. This doesn’t take into account at all the water required by wildlife in order to survive. That’s right, there are other species on this planet besides us. Do you suggest we just take every last drop for human consumption and let 90% of the species on this planet disappear?
Oh yeah! I forgot, what a dumb statement that was. Look up the definition of “outstripped.” My statement stands as is.
August 28th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Don’t worry, Dos. Now that we’ve outstripped the worlds water supply, the Chinese will simply die of thirst until they reach a population equilibrium. It may actually work better than the forced abortions we see today. Alhough it may not be as “pragmatic” as bundling baby girls into burlap sacks and tossing them into a river.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Jeremy - If the world can barely handle the population that it has and you care so much for the world — have you thought about killing yourself to help curb the outstripping of water problem and what not? I am completely serious Jeremy, Al Gore tells me that solutions starts at home - or in your case, your mom’s basement.
I thought we were going to get a bunch more water when the ice caps melted - so much so the coastal regions were going to flood and blah, blah, blah….whatever happen to the TOO MUCH WATER concern. You people confuse me.
August 28th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
“Alhough it may not be as “pragmatic” as bundling baby girls into burlap sacks and tossing them into a river.”
Jimmy the Dhimmi and DosPeros, don’t forget to mention our great alley India, you know, the people we are selling our nuclear technology to. They’ve been carrying out a lovely Gendercide policy of their own that is far older than China’s and on an equal scale if not more so. Female infanticide is nothing new genius. I love how you and your neocon buddy Dos try to pin statements on others, of which they have not made.
I believe in abortion and a population that the planet can realistically support. I’m not some dogmatic fool that thinks 3rd world countries that are already bursting at the seams should continue to let their populations pop out children like Pez candy dispensers.
August 28th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
“I thought we were going to get a bunch more water when the ice caps melted - so much so the coastal regions were going to flood and blah, blah, blah….whatever happen to the TOO MUCH WATER concern. You people confuse me.”
You’re 100% right about this Dos, I suggest you drink some of that ocean water to quench your virulent case of stupidity. Where do you think the “melting” icecaps go? Does it go straight into your refrigerator, or perhaps the ocean where it is salinized, and thus unfit for human consumption. You don’t have that problem though, so I suggest you drink up!