Dark water: coastal China on the brink

– This is a two part story about pollution along the Chinese coastline and rivers. If I lived in China, I’d be angry as hell and profoundly frightened.

– It is a story of what happens when everyone involved goes for the short-term gains with no thought of the long-term consequences of their individual or joint actions. Me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, now, now, now. Get the money and run.

– If the eastern idea of Karma resonates for you, here we have it in spades. Or, if you prefer, how about the western idea of “we reap what we sow“?

– Just today, here in my home town, a letter to the editor was printed by a local knuckle-dragger calling down ridicule on the idea that there’s any Global Warming or any of the other “crackpot ideas being jammed down the throats of people in Seattle and Berkeley”. I wish we could buy some of these folks a vacation along China’s coast, or up in the melting permafrost, or in a dozen other places around the world where the signs of deep problems are becoming unmistakable.

– But as long as the sun comes up tomorrow and their hair’s not on fire, they will steadfastly maintain that every thing’s fine. Yeah, right!

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Ports are being deserted, schools closed and jobs lost as pollution ravages Jiangsu and Shandong. In the first of two reports, the Southern Metropolis Daily describes the death of the local fishing industry.

To part I:

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Marine pollution is creating an ecological tragedy and may even poison our food. In the second of two reports, the Southern Metropolis Daily sees a chain of industrial zones threatening the life of China’s east coast

To part II:

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