"The Economic Miracle of China" Is the pollution worth it?

whitelackington

New member
China is opening a new coal fired power station every four DAYS

This is to fuel their economic miracle
but is it worth it?


Living in China's coal heartland 
By James Reynolds
BBC News, Shanxi 



The village of Gezhuotou is in the heart of China's coal belt

At a temperature of -10C (14F), in the grey-blue dawn, two schoolchildren have a thankless job to complete.

They are meant to sweep away the soot, dirt and grime from the school gate.

But this village is surrounded by coal mines and power stations, so it is impossible to get anything clean.

Inside, a class of 10-year-olds works its way through its early-morning reading lesson.

The children all have dirty hands and faces. In this village, once you get grubby, you stay grubby. Winter makes things worse.

"When it comes to this time of year, one quarter of students get respiratory diseases," says the head teacher, Zhao Xiangjing.

"We sometimes give them shots to try to prevent them all getting ill. But we always have someone coughing."

 
The village leaders don't live here. They live in the city where it's cleaner

Zhang Xianjiang

This small village, Gezhuotou, is in the middle of China's central Shanxi province. It is the heart of the country's coal belt.

All around, coal-fired power stations provide energy for the much of the rest of the country.

But it comes at a price. China suffers from some of the worst pollution in the world.

Every year, it is estimated that around 400,000 people in China die prematurely from pollution-related illnesses.

Respiratory diseases

On top of a hill, the windows of Wang Demeng's family home rattle whenever a coal train goes by.

From the front door, patrolled by guard dogs, you can make out the nearby mines and factories dumping smoke into the air.

 

At dinner time, they try to wash away the taste of pollution with some weak soup.

They say they feel abandoned by their leaders.

"The village leaders don't live here," says Zhang Xianjiang, pointing his finger. "They live in the city where it's cleaner. But we don't have any money, so we have to stay where we are."

An oxygen cylinder stands in the corner of the one-room house belonging to 73-year-old Zhang Mingzhi. He suffers from lung disease.

He lies in bed, his face swollen, barely able to move. His wife, Feng Lingmei, has to spoon-feed him. Her eyes are red.

"The air is so bad," she says. "On winter days like this, he can't go out, he gets worse, he just can't breathe."

Haze

The village clinic is just down the road. Wang Derong sits in his office, smoking a cigarette.


The pollution gets worse in winter

"I've been working here for 20 years," he says, "With more and more mines, the pollution has got worse. More and more people get respiratory diseases. Some people just can't pay for their medicine - so we let them write IOUs. I haven't told the village leaders about this."

In mid-afternoon, the haze is so bad that cars almost need headlights to see where they are going.

There is no wind, so the pollution from nearby mines and factories just sits in the air. Dozens of coal trucks head along the main road.

China may be trying to develop alternative energy sources. But right now in winter, more than a billion people need to keep warm, and carry on working.

The coal from this province does the job. The residents of Gezhuotou can feel it for themselves with every breath.




 

langcliffe

Well-known member
I'm (albeit easily) confused. What has this to do with the UK Caving section of the forum?

Also, I suspect that lifting whole articles out of the BBC news pages is in contravention of copyright laws, and makes the forum owners liable.
 

cap n chris

Well-known member
"The Economic Miracle of China" Is the pollution worth it?

These sort of pseudo-moral questions annoy me.

a) Let's assume that it ISN'T worth it. Then what? Who is supposed to "do something" about it? - A good question would be "Can anyone do anything about it?", I mean, short of starting a third world war with China to force them to do what we want them to do (i.e. stop manufacturing and exporting cheap goods to us which we seem perfectly happy to purchase) I think the whole thing is a nonsense non-topic.

b) However, personally I think the pollution is worth it. Next question, please.....

 

Peter Burgess

New member
I have recently seen a forum where the wholesale copy/pasting of stuff from elsewhere was considered bad form. This should be in idle chat if anywhere. Personally I think if you can't be bothered to write something yourself you should not put in here. Posting a link might be OK I suppose. At least you can make sure that what you added to the text is obvious.
 

dunc

New member
Seems a strange thread, should have been in idle chat and who cares about what China get up to, they'll do what they want when they want and nobody will stop them..
 

whitelackington

New member
Perhaps this massive subject would have been better in The Global Warming Topic
but that has degenerated into who's shed roof has recently blown off.

Almost nothing that we, in The United Kingdom, do,
will alter the horrific World future with regard to pollution / global warming
but there is a huge amount that China could do.

We could however start a trade war
and refuse to buy cheap Chinese goods, perhaps radically,
make our own stuff.
If they did not have such a rapidly expanding market for their produce, they would not expand their economy so rapidly and perhaps could find better ways to fuel it rather than a new coal fired power station every four days.
This is the absolute opposite of sustainability.

What has it got to do with us, LOTS,
they will ultimately be KILLIONG US along with everyone else. :(
 

Peter Burgess

New member
cap 'n chris said:
"The Economic Miracle of China" Is the pollution worth it?

These sort of pseudo-moral questions annoy me.

Likewise, though it would be better if we didn't make the whole planet smell like Bridgewater/Runcorn/Avonmouth/Billingham (delete as preferred).

Shall we not join in this debate, but talk about caves instead.

Um, er, [long pause] ...........

Been down any good caves lately?
 

whitelackington

New member
It is just possible that the recently increased proportion of Co2 in the atmosphere
may be related to the recent incidences of too much Co2 in caves :idea:
 

cap n chris

Well-known member
And?

Oh, I geddit; you want to get the Cave Conservation dept to send a shitty letter to China telling them stop adding to the poor air problem.
 

Hughie

Active member
Peter Burgess said:
Likewise, though it would be better if we didn't make the whole planet smell like Bridgewater/Runcorn/Avonmouth/Billingham (delete as preferred).

Shall we not join in this debate, but talk about caves instead.

Um, er, [long pause] ...........

Been down any good caves lately?

Bridgwater (sorry Peter - no "e") - the universal centre for deprivation, desolation, despondency and mutancy - no longer whiffs as it used to. British Smellophane has been shut down and operations moved to it's sister plant in the good old US of A!

Digging last night. So many people there I couldn't even get to the bottom, so usefully spent my time doing maintenance.
 

Hughie

Active member
Peter Burgess said:
Digging last night. So many people there I couldn't even get to the bottom, so usefully spent my time doing maintenance.

With baler twine and fertiliser bags?

Not quite, but close to it. Builders aggregate bags and (now out of fashion) round bale bags form an integral part of plan number 53 at Templeton. Successfully too, I might add.

Sorry - well off thread.
 
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