China says acid rain hurts one-third of country

[maseman]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14544012/


BEIJING - One-third of China’s vast landmass is suffering from acid rain caused by its rapid industrial growth, while local leaders are failing to enforce environmental standards for fear of hurting business, said officials quoted Sunday by state media.

China’s factories spewed out 25.5 million tons of sulphur dioxide — the chemical that causes acid rain — last year, up 27 percent from 2000, said Sheng Huaren, deputy chairman of the Standing Committee of parliament.



>>Must say that China seems like it will collapse on itself. They are growing so fast but not spending the money to manage the growing industry. Killing the world.

[tocqueville]

1. China should go nuclear instead

and use its coal to distillate it with modern technology into good quality oil. Thus the sulphur could be removed, mixed with calcium and they coud inundate the world with cheap plaster.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[neoblues]

3. If Only they were the world environment's only worry...

Insufficient ice in the Far North and trees in Amazon... are greater worries. Of course, of the two, the most similar to China is the goings on in the Amazon, since it's also due to relatively direct human attack/pressure.

In a world of independent, sovereign nations... there's not much we can do to prevent serious harm being done to irreplaceable resources that are being destroyed by relatively small groups of citizens seeking economic gain (no matter how small or temporary). Imagine that, there's one possible argument in favor of a one-world government. Still, perhaps we could "buy" the majority of the Amazon--that is, get the U.N. to organize a worldwide fundraising drive to purchase the forest for safekeeping? Yah, sure. And, yes, I know--that's Brazil, not China.

Fooling around...
While we cannot ask China (well, that's not true, we could ask... it would just be really embarrassing to do so and, if possible, actually has less than zero chance of an answer in the affirmative) to forego economic development... it would go something like this: "Dear China, Would you please cease all economic expansion? Your people are much more used to being poor, so it shouldn't be any big deal, right? Asking us to do so, well that would involve some newfound discomfort (and it might displease a relatively large group of the world's wealthiest individuals), besides, and we wouldn't want to inconvenience ourselves when you could do us such a favor. While you're at it, it would be a good idea if you actually decreased your economic base and population as well--you ought to try to live within your means, it's only good sense. We know you'll make the right decision and graciously step back from your thoughtless attempt to bring unnecessary wealth to your citizens. Thank You Very Much, and ps. if we can assist you, say, by taking shipment of your excess manufacturing equipment, other mobile infrastructure and even liquid capital assets, we'd be happy to help.". Plainly, the Chinese just don't know how to live as Responsible Global Citizens like us, but then again, we've had many decades of practice. :sarcasm: Of course, that was absurd--but it would represent the ideal way, from our Republican/Capitalistic perspective, for China to cure her problems with pollution...

Hmmm, though, it occurs to me that we're experiencing the same kind of foolish behavior from countries all over the world--as though they somehow think they're either ready or deserving of such economic growth! Ungrateful upstarts! We're going to have to re-think this United Nations thing--it's failing miserably in it's primary purposes: to guide the world's nations as to how best to do our bidding, and to arrange and manage the orderly (and timely) transfer of assets from other developed and underdeveloped countries to the United States of American World Ownership. :sarcasm:

But seriously, given modern technology, it wouldn't be such an impossible thing for China to avoid the heavy pollution phase of their industrial revolution. One wonders why they allowed it to happen this way, consider the counter-productive effects...