Environmental issues of China[环境问题]

[dolyer]

天气预报

2006年8月21日
重庆 阵雨 35-28℃ 万州 中雨 31-24℃
涪陵 阵雨 35-27℃ 黔江 小雨 29-21℃

成都 雷阵雨 30-24℃ 乐山 雷阵雨 32-22℃
眉山 阴 29-23℃ 南充 阵雨 33-24℃
达州 小雨 29-24℃ 自贡 阴 28-24℃

贵阳 阵雨 31-20℃ 遵义 阵雨 32-22℃
武汉 多云 33-23℃ 襄樊 多云 31-24℃
兰州 晴 29-16℃ 长沙 多云 31-23℃

[Minotaur]

China: From Red to Green

I saw this program on a local PBS station. You can watch it through this link but you'll have to navigate through some stuff to find it. Basically it talks about how the Chinese government is adopting "green" standards in construction. Before I thought "green" was just a loose term for environmentally friendy. I didn't know there were actually standards in order to be labelled "green." I've heard the term "green projects" being used in major construction around China, i.e. the 2008 Olympic village, an entire district of a Shanghai suburb... Does anyone know if the "green" standard mentioned in the program is the same with other projects being labelled "green" in China? Thanks.

[duskdawn]

I only see a 30 sec trailer under "China: From Red to Green" in the menu.
Talking about "green", yea, it is talked a lot in every new project.

[Minotaur]

There's no direct link on that site to the video. You have to watch through the itunes/ipod webcast to see it. I checked it out to make sure it was accessible for free and that's why I mentioned you have navigate through some stuff to get there.

[hkskyline]

China's water woes could make it world tech leader
By Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING, Sept 12 (Reuters) - China's bid to tackle widespread pollution and a shortage of water treatment facilities could make it a leader in waste management, experts said on Tuesday.

But its rivers and lakes may need years to recover from chronic misuse, they said.

More than two-fifths of cities, and tens of millions of rural dwellers pump used water directly into rivers, which risks damaging the heath of downstream users and the ecosystems of lakes where the water ends up.

Beijing plans to spend more than 330 billion yuan ($41.5 billion) by 2010 to provide sewage treatment plants to all cities. If it invests in next-generation plants that effectively reprocess water, it could tackle waste and water scarcity while boosting its own economy.

"China, if it is going to remedy pollution, has to put in wastewater treatment. But that process constitutes an opportunity, because it can leapfrog to the latest technology," Paul Reiter, Executive Director of the International Water Association, told Reuters at a conference his group organised.

"It would be good for the environment, but its companies could also manufacture and market these systems."

Instead of shipping waste water away from city centres to treat it before discharge into a river, the smaller modern plants clean the water for just one neighbourhood to a quality where it can be recycled back into an urban supply system.

Reiter said the new plants, some no larger than an office building, are already economically competitive with old-fashioned treatment systems. Chinese firms are already manufacturing some components, mostly for export.

Such systems will face challenges in a country where many treatment plants are not connected to sewage systems and where it is common for local governments to ignore new technologies because they are too costly or too complicated to use.

FUTURISTIC SOLUTIONS

China has around one fifth of the world's population but only seven percent of its water supply.

The country is investing billions in a project to transfer water from the river systems of the south to the arid north, but the scarcity of its resources means that ultimately China will have to focus on more efficient management.

Among the new systems being tested is one that would power treatment systems with the very waste they are filtering, by using bacteria to create biofuel cells.

"We have already got cells which can power lightbulbs and we believe that in five to 10 years we could be in commercial production," said David Garman, President-elect of IWA.

But at present, the lack of working treatment systems is storing up problems that could take decades to correct.

The impact of wastewater run-off, including nutrient rich sewage, is compounded by careless and excessive application of fertilisers.

More than half of Chinese lakes are suffering from eutrophication, said IWA president Laszlo Somlyody, meaning their waters are so nutrient rich that they feed excess growth of algae, which can choke out other aquatic life.

Even when nutrient flows are cut back, the nitrogen and phosphorus that settles to the bottom of the lake at times of heavy pollution may keep on nourishing algae for years. Scientists have noted cases in which it has taken 15 years for lakes to begin to recover.

"This is the inertia of the ecosystem, the memory of the pollution," Somlyody said.

(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck)

[wigo]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/video/2006...nt_5303530.htm

Very interesting, there was one point when I could not help but burst into laugh

[BJSH]

中国公布政府采购绿色清单 公务车确定9大品牌

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http://www.sina.com.cn 2006年11月17日03:53 京华时报

　　本报讯 (记者夏命群) 今后，政府机关、事业单位、团体组织在用财政资金实施政府采购时须优先选择“绿色产品”。不按规定采购的单位，财政部门有可能拒付采购资金。昨天，财政部和环保总局联合发文，公布了我国第一份政府采购“绿色清单”，政府用车只能选择九大被环保认证的品牌。

　　据有关方面介绍，政府“绿色采购”的概念早在几年前就已提出，但一直没有出台具体实施措施。政府此次一举推出涉及汽车、打印机、彩电、板材、家具等14个行业获得中国环保标志认证的上百种产品的采购清单，目的在于“有单可依”。

　　记者从绿色清单中发现，在公车采购中，财政部和环保总局锁定了东风标致、东风雪铁龙、NISSAN(日产)、思威、奥迪A6和奥迪A4、宝来、捷达、开迪(Caddy)、现代等九大品牌。每个品牌下的上榜车型均获得了中国环保标志产品认证。曾经是政府用车主力车型的“桑塔纳”没有入选。

　　环保总局相关负责人介绍，“绿色采购”将从明年起，率先在中央和省级(含计划单列市)单位实行；2008年起将在全国范围内实行。

　　财政部有关人士介绍，在性能、技术、服务等指标同等的条件下，各级政府应当优先采购“绿色清单”中的产品，“采购人或其委托的采购代理机构未按上述要求采购的，财政部门视情况可以拒付采购资金。”

　　据悉，政府采购的“绿色清单”可在中国政府采购网等网站查询详细信息。

[Kiss the Rain]

就近有关全球变暖的新闻越来越多了, 在新西兰, 一个从南极分开的一个大ICEBERG已经飘到了里海岸几公里左右, 在美国, 电影都出了.
但是很多人还没有认识到问题的严重性, 大部分人都以自己一个人做不了什么的理由来给自己开拓, 宁愿假装什么事也没有.
国家层面上, 某个国家接不接受KYOTO PROTOCOL我们关不了, 但是这不是这个贴的重点, 真正解决问题的关键应该是在基层让每人都有环抱的意识, 所以建议大家不要搬上来美国在这问题上的虚伪这样的理由, 希望大家多给一点有建设性的评论.

[gaoanyu]

确实，一个人做到了，并不能改变太多，所以重要的是让大家都要有这个意识。
所以尽量提醒自己身边的人吧：
比如只在需要乘电梯、如果长时间不用的话就将电脑关机（而不是待机）、关灯等等。

[Surumi]

China faces an environmental crisis that threatens to wipe out much of the gains of three decades of economic growth, one of China's most outspoken environment officials said in comments published on Saturday.

Read more here: http://china-environmental-news.blogspot.com/

What I don't understand: Western states were faced of these problems more than 50 years.
Why didn't learned China from this misleading environmental politics and make the same mistakes ?

[Shenzhen_GAWC]

China as you may now is a developing country and didnt have the same advantages as the western world did and therefor have done great in acheving what it has over the last three decades

[Anna Maria]

Originally Posted by Surumi

What I don't understand: Western states were faced of these problems more than 50 years.
Why didn't learned China from this misleading environmental politics and make the same mistakes ?

Good question
But not 50 years behind as you suppose;
150, since mid of the 19th century, the times of the wild capitalism in England.

China's government knows the issue, does too few, indeed, but the main problem is - Chinese do nothing and even don't want to think about it.
Look here in this forum: thousands and thousands postings about hundreds of Chinese skyscarapers how they getting higher everyday, floor by floor, inch by inch, but almost nothing about environmental issues.
How Chinese think? Big illusions and money in their minds. First my own pockets, then my family, "helpful" friends, and finally - general public and the state. No place for environmental issues at all.
Twelve years after introduction of the Environmental Protection Law in China, only one Chinese city was trying to follow the new water pollution rules, as example only.
A few weeks ago a director of a factory was "sentenced" to a "warning"(!!!) for illegal discharging of huge quantity of poissoned garbage into a river, killing tons of fishes and other living organisms.
A "Warning", in a coutry where, 27 people (source: Univercity of Chongqing) are sentenced to death for other reasons everyday.

Cancer, allergies, deformed children, immune diseases, etc are irreparable consequences, doesn't matter is China a developing country or not, and it's worsening every year, not getting better. Even during the cultural revolution the health conditions in China were better than today!

[Surumi]

Originally Posted by Shenzhen_GAWC

China as you may now is a developing country and didnt have the same advantages as the western world did and therefor have done great in acheving what it has over the last three decades

I don't wanna deny this. China has made a real big step in the past.
But money-making is not all.
Sustained Developments is the keyword.
The environment is a worthful resource and a gift and very expensive to renewable.
It doesn't make sense to push dirty industries like mad, making big money and later you have to spend the money to clean up your environment of all industrial diseases.
Again, I don't want offending China, but I wish they would have more interests in their environment policy.

[Surumi]

@Anna Maria

Thank you very much for your detailed answer.
I agree with you in some parts, but your are a little too harsh in my eyes.

But not 50 years behind as you suppose;
150, since mid of the 19th century, the times of the wild capitalism in England.

I know, but I only count the years when western countries had installed
environment policies. And 50 years are maybe too much (real environmental concernings started at the 70's).

How Chinese think? Big illusions and money in their minds. First my own pockets, then my family, "helpful" friends, and finally - general public and the state. No place for environmental issues at all.

You can't say "all Chinese" because it's not true.
But the chinese government has to pay their attention more to environmental, social and health education, that's true.
But money and political power makes blind, the same in western countries.
Look at the U.S. They're still lacking in environmental consciousness.
(Western) Europe is a step further on them.

Cancer, allergies, deformed children, immune diseases, etc are irreparable consequences, doesn't matter is China a developing country or not, and it's worsening every year, not getting better. Even during the cultural revolution the health conditions in China were better than today!

Of course, at Maos time, they don't have so much industries.

China hast to install more "clean Industries" respectively they have to push industrial/commercial companies which have a environmental alignment.
In western countries, this kind of business will made billions of Dollars (Euros) each year. This might be helpful.

[Kiss the Rain]

It's not that people of china are too selfish to concern about the environment, infact an average educated person place environmental well being in very high regard. It's just that the people at the top who have the power to make a difference are usually corrupt and cleaning up the environment isnt exactly high on their agenda.

[Anna Maria]

Originally Posted by Surumi

You can't say "all Chinese" because it's not true.

Thanks too!

I did not say "all Chinese", I said "Chinese"

Click here please:
http://www.bilder-speicher.de/Germai....vollbild.html
A man is cleaning his motorbike in the Yangtze river.

I shot this photo two years ago near Chongqing, and although there were about 10 Chinese with me, nobody was shocked or wondered, even a little, so I would bet, that almost all inhabitants of Chongqing could see him and would not find his behaviour unsuitable.
That's my point.
Violations od environmental protection begin at China's Kindergartens (littering) and end in Beijing, among the CPC leaders. Corruption and greed for money make it possible, cause there is still no right atmosphere for environmental thinking and acting in China.
I'm going to China since almost 20 years now, frequently, and I know what ordinary people usually talking about there: Super Girl, stocks, kids, parents, jobs, jobs, jobs, marriages, soccer, divorces, cars, Yao, dwellings, health, ..., ..., ..., ...,..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., Beijing's summer air, Shanghai's exhaust fumes.

The issue is pretty difficult. We can not send 1,3 bln people to Holland, for 20 years, and expect they will learn something, and on the other side european countries are not so perfect as they claim - Germany is getting more and more "dirty" and the "Greens" are moving right and give up their fundamental tasks. Propaganda rules everywhere!

[Surumi]

@Anna-Maria: Ok, your message sounds so "in general".
I accept your apologize.

Ok, I stop joking.

Are you from Germany ? I ask because of your indignation about this guy who's washing his bike in a river.
In Germany you will be fined. In other countries no one take notice of that.
You are right, environmental education is not only formed by laws, it needs action from all parts of the society.
But the first and the big step is to fine all the big industrial companies who discharged uncontrolled their waste.
It's a difference if a guy spilled 300 ml oil into a river or a company a few tons of benzene.
And I think, the best education is the loss of money.
The first step is up to the chinese government. I hope, they will learn and understand pretty soon.

[Anna Maria]

Originally Posted by Surumi

But the first and the big step is to fine all the big industrial companies who discharged uncontrolled their waste.

Yes, I don't disagree

A guy who's washing his car this way in his free time, let discharge oil in his company, then gets a top job in Beijing. His kids will throw waste into the river ... ... ...... ...... .

A really vicious circle, and I see no progress since my first visit to China, almost 20 years ago. Where the chain should be broken?

AM from Germany, indeed

[Surumi]

Originally Posted by Anna Maria

Yes, I don't disagree

A guy who's washing his car this way in his free time, let discharge oil in his company, then gets a top job in Beijing. His kids will throw waste into the river ... ... ...... ...... .

A really vicious circle, and I see no progress since my first visit to China, almost 20 years ago. Where the chain should be broken?

AM from Germany, indeed

Really ?? Discharging oil into a river generates a top job in Bejing ?
I swear, tomorrow I will wash my car + my bike in the next river.


@school. And through internet. And through open minds. Intercultural meetings.
Time will tell, but I'm optimistic.

[gaoanyu]

China pollution crisis undermining growth-official

There is no problem if it only delays growth. What's more striking is, Chinese people are suffering from various diseases caused by pollution, this is something that's more important. The government is trying to improve in this regard, but so far it is far from satisfactory.