Beijing's Fourth-Biggest Reservoir Unfit Even For Irrigation Water - Reuters

[hatrack]

BEIJING - Water from a reservoir that serves as Beijing's fourth-biggest source of drinking water is unfit even for irrigation, state media reported on Tuesday, underlining the gravity of China's water pollution problem.

The official Xinhua news agency cited a report by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau as saying that water in the Guanting reservoir fell short of standards for level five on the country's scale of water quality.

Water at levels one to three is considered potable, while that at level five is fit only for irrigation, Xinhua said.

It added that around half of the lakes and ponds in the city's scenic spots were so polluted that they could not be used for irrigation.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39201/story.htm

[htuttle]

1. Maybe they should take a step back from their latest Great Leap Forward...

...and spend some time cleaning up after themselves?

[Chico Man]

6. Where's Mao when you need him?

We need them to declare war on pollution!

[phantom power]

2. It makes me sad to see them repeat our history.

I remember reading optimistic predictions that China, India, etc, would leapfrog the environmental mistakes of the West, as they industrialized. What a sick joke that turned out to be.

:-(

[mom cat]

3. Not exactly. A lot of the polution comes from OUR industries that

have moved over there to avoid environmental regulations. They are doomed to die of greenback poisoning.

[phantom power]

5. Yes, we've outsourced a lot of our pollution. And we called it "progress."

Whoever is buying their goods, the theory used to be that they'd grow their industry using All The Latest Green Technology(tm), Providing Us All With A Pollution Free Utopia Of Manufactured Goods, Blah Blah Blah.

[NOLADEM]

4. China is a cesspool.

Coal fires in China burn 120 million tons of coal a year, emitting 360 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. This amounts to 2-3% of the annual worldwide production of CO2 from fossil fuels, or as much as emitted from all of the cars and light trucks in the United States. <22> <23>

This is only from unintentional coal vein fires in the ground they can't put out. And this is only one tiny example of China's environmental stewardship, and just this example produces more pollution than ALL OF THE CARS IN AMERICA!

China is FUCKED. We can only help it destroys itself before it is able to step into the Superpower role more fully.

[NNadir]

7. Um, China produces less greenhouse gases than the US.

The population is 4 times as large.

Also, we burn a brazillion times more natural gas than China does.

Is there some special reason that average Americans should be allowed to dump 5.5 times as many greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as an average Chinese does?

[NOLADEM]

8. Um, Not saying any of what you allege

I was just calling China's environment a cesspool.

I made no assertions about the comparative natural gas or greenhouse gas consumption, or any assertion about some inalienable right of Americans to do so. America has much to do on those issues.

Hope that's ok even if we aren't perfect.

[NNadir]

9. OK then, as long as you agree that we are a cesspool.

Let's not go calling the pot sooty.

I get overly sensitive when I hear all this talk about how China's the problem.

We're the problem, way before China is.