China Daily - Pearl River Delta "Largely Destroyed" By Pollution, Toxic Metals - AFP

[hatrack]

The estuary of southern China's Pearl river has been ravaged by worsening pollution, causing sea waters off Hong Kong to deteriorate steadily in recent years, state press said Friday. "In the Pearl river estuary, the ecology system has been destroyed and cannot be rectified in the short term," the China Daily said, citing a recent report by the Guangdong provincial oceanic and fishery administration.

About 8.3 billion tonnes of sewage from 82 sources were discharged into the ocean off the coast of Guangdong last year, up 60 percent from five years ago, the report said. Pollutants such as inorganic nitrogen, phosphate and petroleum were boosting the number of harmful "red tides," or algae blooms, that suck the oxygen out of the water and leave coastal zones of dead fish and other species, it said.

"It's an inevitable result of economic growth," the paper quoted a researcher surnamed Zhang at the Guangdong Ocean University as saying. "Local governments have always pursued economic growth at the expense of the environment, no matter if it is land or sea."

Pollutants harming fisheries as well as water used for drinking and irrigation included lead, copper, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, it said.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Pearl_River_Estuary_Largely_Destroyed_999.html

[Deja Q]

1. Well, didn't the Chinese put in SOME prevention systems?

It's inevitable, yeah, but it can be limited and infrastructure properly laid out - and their public transport systems are rather efficient... how's ours doing?

[Atman]

2. Read your fish packages

"Wild caught" fish, scallops, shrimp...virtually all of it comes from China anymore. From these sames waters.

STOP BUYING CHINESE ANYTHING. Bring the fuckers to their knees and make them realize it's time to enter the 21st century for real, not just by selling any shit they can get their hands on.

.

[depakid]

3. China is to poster child for overshoot and collapse

Trouble is, this time the US and the WTO has enabled them to the point of giving them the power to take a lot of other nations with them. Frankly, I LAUGH whenever I hear "economists" making projections as to Chinese economic power in the decades to come....