Wednesday, November 06, 2013

How Did It Ever Get to This? China's Economic Miracle Lashes Back

China, the People's Republic Whereof, is in for some tough sledding.  From quickly mounting threats from its freshwater crisis to air pollution, warming, sea level rise, food insecurity, overpopulation it seems that China is getting overtaken by events.  Environmentally, China is a ticking time bomb.

A recent tragedy, an 8-year old girl living near a highway in the coastal province of Jiangsu diagnosed with lung cancer,  has stirred up unrest.   Once again the central government has vowed to wage war on air pollution but that's a promise that has been heard before.

Here are a few photographs of the latest Airpocalypse from a spread in The Guardian that speak louder than can any words.

Police checkpoint halts highway traffic




 
 
 
 

2 comments:

Al Hunter said...

Looks like a mild version of the pea soup fogs I walked through to primary school as a British kid in the '50s. That was mostly because we all burnt coal for domestic heat. We had a closet in our 2nd story flat where the coal-man dumped the rocks (remember the dust too). Yet the pleasure of the warmth from sitting in front of the living room coal fire on a chilly morning with a bowl of oatmeal was amazing.

The Mound of Sound said...

I wasn't around for the killer fogs in London but my flat in East Dulwich had a coal burner in the lounge. There was a manhole arrangement outside where the coal merchant could deliver the order directly via a chute to the cellar. By then I think most people were using portable electric heaters.

I'm not sure that China's problems will be nearly so easily remedied as London's.