China's Big, Dirty Secret(the Bush less regulation plan in action in China

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=66&ncid=749&e=11&u=/bw/20050201/bs_bw/nf20050116686db065
So who really cares about a spike in respiratory diseases and other ailments in recent years?

China's Big, Dirty Secret
BusinessWeek Online - Tue Feb 1, 8:15 AM ET

Economic juggernaut, factory of the world, emerging superpower: When it comes to China's ascendancy, the journalistic cliches come fast and furious. And there's no denying that China's hypergrowth wave is a wondrous thing. But another, darker dimension to China's prosperity exists. The country is fast becoming an ecological wasteland, home to some of the world's smoggiest cities as well as rampant water shortages, soil erosion, and acid rain.

China's Big, Dirty Secret

Tue Feb 1, 8:15 AM ET Business - BusinessWeek Online


By Brian Bremner

Economic juggernaut, factory of the world, emerging superpower: When it comes to China's ascendancy, the journalistic cliches come fast and furious. And there's no denying that China's hypergrowth wave is a wondrous thing. But another, darker dimension to China's prosperity exists. The country is fast becoming an ecological wasteland, home to some of the world's smoggiest cities as well as rampant water shortages, soil erosion, and acid rain. <snip>

Chinese officials have acknowledged a problem in the past, but quickly termed it a necessary side effect of rapid industrialization and catch-up economic growth, not unlike what Japan experienced in the 1960s. What's more, China is now a net importer of oil and relies heavily on coal, much of it dirty, high-sulfur stuff, for about 70% of its domestic-energy needs. Unless China can secure significantly more oil supplies from abroad and ramp up cleaner domestic-energy sources such as nuclear power and hydroelectric plants, Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Communist colleagues will face a nasty policy dilemma.


BETTING ON DENIAL. Runaway economic growth with little thought of environmental side effects at some point can provoke societal backlash. It's difficult to tell whether Beijing understands this challenge, but signs indicate it may be starting to. Last month, China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) Vice-Director Pan Yue announced the suspension of 30 large projects that have failed to meet environmental standards. The list includes 26 hydropower stations, including a $5 billion megaproject in an area skirting the borders of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
<snip>


ENERGY SQUANDERER..<snip> Also, China needs to diversify from its heavy dependence on coal for energy -- or at least encourage investment in cleaner coal-burning technologies now common in the West and Japan. It also must improve energy efficiency across the country. There's a colossal amount of energy waste, thanks to primitive coal-mining techniques, loose building-construction codes, and inefficient factories. For every $1 of gross domestic product produced, China spends three times the world average on energy.


WEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY? It's also a standout in other less-than-admirable areas. China leads the global pack in sulfur-dioxide emissions, has a massive acid rain problem, and contains more than a dozen of the most polluted cities on earth. One World Bank (news - web sites) study estimated that environmental damage costs China some $170 billion a year in lost productivity and associated health care. Unfortunately, such costs don't seem relevant when China is clocking near double-digit growth year in and year out. <snip>

[sandnsea]

1. Subsidizing health costs is not free trade

"Moreover, judging by the spike in respiratory diseases and other ailments in recent years, China's wonder growth is taking a toll on public health."

The only way to ever get these corporations to take environmental responsibility is to drive home the amount of the costs they are passing on to the people. We pay the price for their cut-rate technologiges through health costs.

It would be nice to think people would just want to be healthy and do the right thing for the planet. But I don't think they will. I think we have to make the environment a pocketbook issue in order to get it back at the top of the agenda.

[papau]

2. Health is part of the common - and if no gov program - the cost is

paid via destroyed environment and illness and death.

Indeed that is the route Bush wants to go - "individual responsibility" health savings accouts ends corporate responsibility or government tax increase to cover poorer health.

It will be 3rd world comes to America time.

And our media will say nothing, and then claim they did their job.

ethics and the media - should be an interesting discussion tonight?

I do not even know when or what channel - and indeed I could not watch it since I am too angry with the media to treat the event as an interesting discussion.

[sandnsea]

4. Everyone pays for it

Not just the poor. If you get sick because of corporate pollution, you're paying for the cost of them doing business. A free market economy means the person who produces the product pays all costs, they don't side-step the immediate consumer and pass it on to the community at large. It's just like land development, people are starting to get that the costs of schools, police, fire, hospitals, are passed on to the community. We can make the same argument on the environment and low wages. We're paying corporate costs. We need to demand that those costs be in the price of goods sold so that those who can afford these products are actually paying the full price of production.

[ClintonTyree]

3. It's all flawed Science.................

those conditions don't really exist, the Science is flawed. The Earth will heal itself, it always does, right? :eyes: Unbridled capitalism benefits everyone, hey, you gotta break a few eggs if you want to make an omelet! :shrug:

And this along with that asshole Crichton's book saying that global warming is merely "alarmist" propaganda. Sell a few more books, asshole! Sure. Our planet is rotting away underneath us, but ignore it. The money machine needs fuel, and we'll exhaust every resource we have to keep it running. Until the end.......when there's nothing left to feed the money machine, and it breaks down, along with civilization and life itself. What good will all of your fucking money do you then, assholes?