Monday, March 17, 2014
Little faith in China's war on pollution
Link to article: Asia TIMES
The Chinese Premier Li Kequiang issued a "war on pollution" a few days ago. Li plans to administer hefty measures against pollution in response to the growing public anger over the subject. Just recently swathes of thick brown smog lingered over much of Northern China for days on end. These insurgent clouds of smog breached international safety guidelines. Li described the smog as "nature's red-light warning against inefficient and blind development".
Li believes one of the biggest barriers to environmental protection is corruption in large corporate companies. He believes the government should be doing a lot better job in overseeing these companies in making sure they take responsibility.
Environmentalist activist and complicit officials view Li's war on pollution with little faith. Wu Lihong, who served jail time because of his connection and advocacy for fighting pollution in Taihu Lake (through legal means), believes hardly any environmental action will take place. Though Li's speech was filled with astounding rhetoric about environmental protection, it won't reach local governments who are anxious to boost revenue and economic growth figures. The government has promised to take action before when they said they'd spend 2 trillion yuan on tackling pollution of scarce water resources, yet pollution levels have changed little in that time.
Wu remains skeptical, saying "It's all just hot air when the government blames chemical companies for serious pollution levels".
This issue shows a noteworthy disconnection between the national government and local governments. If the national government is really for environmental protection and cant enforce their laws over their local ones, then the CCP has a problem. I believe Li's proclamation of war on pollution is primarily an empty gesture to soothe the angry people of China.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree, talk is cheap. Until something is actually done I'm not going to bet on anything really being fixed.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if China is ever going to be able to resolve their environmental issues and still be economically stable. A lot of their money comes from their exports that come from factories. These factories cause pollution.
ReplyDeleteChina isn't the only bad place for air, but it is among one of the worst. Paris, London, Las Vegas, Salt Lake, American Fork, and many other EU and U.S. cities have pollution and bad air quality problems. But no one is very willing to partner up for car pools or public transportation especially in Utah where every family has nearly as many cars as a dealership down the street.
ReplyDelete