City flees to country as toxic slick chokes river (China)

[NMDemDist2]

The water supply has been turned off for four days after an explosion at a chemical plant

CHUNKS of greyish-white ice float along the pockmarked skin that forms the surface of the Songhua river. Underneath is a 50-mile tongue of toxic chemicals oozing through the freezing water.

The slow-flowing river gave off no scent of its contamination yesterday. But the arrival of the poison has spread fear among millions of residents of Harbin, China’s northernmost city, and forced officials to turn off water supplies for the first time in half a century.

snip...

An estimated 100 tonnes of benzene and other chemicals spewed into the river after an explosion at a petrochemical plant in neighbouring Jilin province two weeks ago. The environmental administration said that the river contained 100 times more than the normal levels of chemicals.

The benzene spillage is the latest in a series of accidents that highlight the dangers posed by factories in China more concerned with profit and economic growth than with safety.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1889969,00.html

[ClintonTyree]

1. That could be anywhere in the U.S.

"more concerned with profit and economic growth than with safety". Gee, where have we heard those words before? It's only a matter of time before something of this magnitude happens in our country. The way the Bush administration has relaxed environmental laws and the way the multi-nationals have cut corners and skirted already weakened laws.....it's bound to happen sooner rather than later.

But hey, that's the cost of doing business, right? :shrug: Do we want our environment or do we want jobs? We can't have both, at least not according to the big corporations. They're being "chocked to death by regulations" in this country. :eyes: Yeah, right!

[MountainLaurel]

5. On a smaller scale, it has

I'm specifically thinking of the accidental dumping of huge amounts sludge rife with toxic chemicals into a river in Kentucky a couple years ago.

[pushycat]

7. Doing business the GE way: dump it in the Hudson

and then pretend nothing is wrong for decades. Those poor who live along the river will never say anything so who cares? Save GE lots of money so it must be good. Poor people don't count when it comes to corp profits.

[Ian David]

2. Telling someone, "There is a pollution problem in your country," is like..

telling them, "There is a leak in your end of the boat."

[CHIMO]

3. China confirms chemical blast polluted major river, city without water

China confirms chemical blast polluted major river, city without water

HARBIN, China : A chemical plant explosion has severely polluted one of China's biggest rivers, causing water supplies to be cut for millions of people and sparking pollution fears in neighbouring Russia.

However the polluted water flowed past Songyuan and Zhaoyuan, two big cities between the blast site and Harbin that lie along the Songhua, before the government admitted the contamination.

Songyuan has a population of just under three million and Zhaoyuan has about 450,000 residents. An official from Songyuan city government told AFP on Wednesday that its water supplies had not been cut over the past 10 days.

Russian government officials in the east of their country also said Wednesday they were monitoring the Amur river, of which the Songhua is a tributary, for toxic substances.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/180188/1/.html

Horrible.

[cliss]

4. This is what happens when you have unregulated growth.

China has had the most amazing growth, unprecedented on earth. Their economy has been growing something like 9% every year, for DECADES. It's just unbelievable. No country has been able to match that kind of growth.

Well, that growth came with a price. Factories sprouted up like mushrooms, all over the countryside. There were no regulations on emissions, on spills or waste. The Chinese kept on producing, producing producing like the energizer bunny.

That's going to come to an end, really quick. In Trend Tracking, Gerald Celente says that pollution will become the #1 problem of the 21st century.

[wickerwoman]

6. I think the problem is really complex.

China does have regulations on emissions, et al. They just can't enforce them due to massive corruption and general apathy. Most of the Chinese people I've talked to think that pollution is a problem for the government to solve and there really isn't anything they can do about it. Because they can't demonstrate and don't have much experience organizing boycotts, they feel powerless. And since critical thinking skills aren't very high up on the Chinese curriculum, they have a hard time questioning authority. I think that apathy is going to change thanks to this disaster, but the corruption will take a lot longer.