Report: One fifth of China's soil contaminated

[Hamartia Antidote]

China is experiencing an environmental apocalypse. Chinese air is polluted, soil is polluted, water is polluted. Cancer villages are all across China.

No wonder so many of us are leaving China.

Pretty soon China will become uninhabitable for humans.

Anyone defending the environmental disaster of China should be shot.

It's going to be a huge problem with food exports when the paranoia hits the fan and everybody is afraid of contamination.

 

[JayAtl]

No, this is your link in the first post:
环境保护部和国土资源部发布全国土壤污染状况调查公报
In the second line of the article, it clearly stated that the date of survey is from April 2005 to December 2013.

in the article I posted

" The report had previously been classified as a state secret because of its sensitivity."

The highlighted part is a link to Soil pollution survey a 'state secret' - People's Daily Online

date of survey has nothing to do with what you own media also said they kept is as a state secret! stop playing games...propagandist! they have year by year report and kept it secret every year . there was no reason to do so... it did not change the year by year measurements!

 

[tranquilium]

China is experiencing an environmental apocalypse. Chinese air is polluted, soil is polluted, water is polluted. Cancer villages are all across China.

No wonder so many of us are leaving China.

Pretty soon China will become uninhabitable for humans.

Anyone defending the environmental disaster of China should be shot.

Not really. While environmental issues are indeed important, it is nowhere near apocalypse. Heck, it wasn't even near industrial era UK or US level. Plus, go to page 1 and post 10 and read the annual reports I have linked. People are making real and tangible progress on the issue.

I understand the worry about environment. As awareness progress and people looking for higher quality of life, environmental conditions are inevitably one of the things that people look for. However, when solving problem, it is also important to correct evaluate them, both overstating and understating is bad because it will cause you to respond in wrong ways.

As someone who is born in the 80s, I would say this: pollution nowadays in China is nowhere near as bad as the pollution in the 90s. If the past 10 years show progress, there is no reason to assume things won't continue to improve.

in the article I posted

" The report had previously been classified as a state secret because of its sensitivity."

The highlighted part is a link to Soil pollution survey a 'state secret' - People's Daily Online

date of survey has nothing to do with what you own media also said they kept is as a state secret! stop playing games...propagandist! they have year by year report and kept it secret every year . there was no reason to do so... it did not change the year by year measurements!

Right...now you are starting to disagree with yourself. I mean, you don't agree with Chinese media. That's fine, a lot of people do that. You also don't agree with US media on top of don't agree with Chinese media. Significantly less amount of people do that, but here you are also disagreeing with yourself. I would have to say you really got issues.

 

[JayAtl]

Right...now you are starting to disagree with yourself. I mean, you don't agree with Chinese media. That's fine, a lot of people do that. You also don't agree with US media on top of don't agree with Chinese media. Significantly less amount of people do that, but here you are also disagreeing with yourself. I would have to say you really got issues.

that is the most retarded gibberish you wrote to date and the jumping from one topic to another is like you have a case of ADHD.... go home chinese, your check is ready to be cashed

 

[qwerrty]

india has 3 or 4x more arable land than china, but produce 2 or 3x less crops. what does that say about india?

The World Factbook
The World Factbook
Agriculture in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Agriculture Journal: China Versus India by the Numbers - India Real Time - WSJ

 

[Icewolf]

And India is polluted by organic substances ahahhaa

 

[qwerrty]

And India is polluted by organic substances ahahhaa

so, my polluted land is better than your polluted land ? lol. imagine india becomes more industrialized they'd have nothing left to farm

 

[thesolar65]

Well, at least the Chinese now know that 1/5th of their soil is contaminated. What are the figures for India though? Have we even conducted a similar National survey or do we continue to feel safe in ignorance?

Right we should conduct one. BTW I think the main soil contamination in India would be from any state where there is bumper crop round the year (through use of excessive pesticides). I would not name those states, but rate of Cancer is higher in those states!!

 

[Oldman1]

China is experiencing an environmental apocalypse. Chinese air is polluted, soil is polluted, water is polluted. Cancer villages are all across China.

No wonder so many of us are leaving China.

Pretty soon China will become uninhabitable for humans.

Anyone defending the environmental disaster of China should be shot.

China's air pollution leading to more erratic climate for US, say scientists | Environment | theguardian.com


China's air pollution leading to more erratic climate for US, say scientists
Computer modelling showed intensification of US-bound Pacific storms, driven by fine aerosols from coal power plants and traffic

Smog in Beijing. China is revising its environmental laws to allow local authorities to shut polluting factories and punish offenders. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters
China's air pollution could be intensifying storms over the Pacific Ocean and altering weather patterns in North America, according to scientists in the US. A team from Texas, California and Washington state has found that pollution from Asia, much of it arising in China, is leading to more intense cyclones, increased precipitation and more warm air in the mid-Pacific moving towards the north pole.

According to the team's findings, which were released on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, these changes could ultimately contribute to erratic weather in the US.

The authors used advanced computer models to study interactions between clouds and fine airborne particles known as aerosols, particularly manmade ones such as those emitted from vehicles and coal-fired power plants.

"Our work provides, for the first time to the authors' knowledge, a global multi-scale perspective of the climatic effects of pollution outflows from Asia," says the study's abstract.

One effect, the study says, is an "intensification of the Pacific storm track", a narrow zone over the ocean where some storms that pass over the US begin to gather.

"Mid-latitude storms develop off Asia and they track across the Pacific, coming in to the west coast of the US," said Ellie Highwood, a climate physicist at the University of Reading. "The particles in this model are affecting how strong those storms are, how dense the clouds are, and how much rainfall comes out of those storms."

China is fighting to contain the environmental fallout from 30 years of unchecked growth. Of 74 Chinese cities monitored by the central government 71 failed to meet air quality standards, the environmental ministry said last month.

China's top leaders are aware of the extent of the problem. Beijing will soon revise an important piece of legislation and give environmental protection authorities the power to shut polluting factories, punish officials and restrict industrial development in some areas, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The changes to the China's environmental protection law, the first since 1989, will legally enshrine oft-repeated government promises to prioritise environmental protection over economic growth.

Cao Mingde, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the newswire that upholding environmental protection as a fundamental principle was a huge change. "It emphasises that the environment is a priority."

Although the legislation's fourth draft is nearing completion, it is still short on details, according to the report. China's legal system is often hostile to pollution-related litigation.

On Monday, a Chinese court rejected a lawsuit by five residents of Lanzhou, a city in the country's north-west, over an incident last week when dangerous levels of the carcinogenic chemical benzene were detected in the water supply. The residents demanded damages, a public apology and water quality data from the city-owned water company.

According to a local newspaper, the court claimed that under civil procedure law, the litigants were unqualified to sue; in pollution-related cases only "agencies and organisations" could press charges, and they needed official authorisation to take action.

 

[ephone]

If that is the case, China still has great hope to salvage herself from this type of destruction. China need take tough steps and enact seriously tough laws to prevent any people, business or government, group or organizations to damage the country's soil in any way and at any time.

Almost a fifth of China's soil is contaminated, an official study released by the government has shown.

Conducted between 2005-2013, it found that 16.1% of China's soil and 19.4% of its arable land showed contamination.

The report, by the Environmental Protection Ministry, named cadmium, nickel and arsenic as top pollutants.

There is growing concern, both from the government and the public, that China's rapid industrialisation is causing irreparable damage to its environment.

The study took samples across an area of 6.3 million square kilometres, two-thirds of China's land area.

"The survey showed that it is hard to be optimistic about the state of soil nationwide," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

"Due to long periods of extensive industrial development and high pollutant emissions, some regions have suffered deteriorating land quality and serious soil pollution."

Because of the "grim situation", the state would implement measures including a "soil pollution plan" and better legislation.

Levels of pollution ranged from slight to severe.

About 82.8% of the polluted land was contaminated by inorganic materials, with levels noticeably higher than the previous survey between 1986 and 1990, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.

"Pollution is severe in three major industrial zones, the Yangtze River Delta in east China, the Pearl River Delta in south China and the northeast corner that used to be a heavy industrial hub," the agency said.

The report had previously been classified as a state secret because of its sensitivity.

There is growing fear in China over the effect that modernisation has had on the country's air, water and soil.

The central government has promised to make tackling the issue a top priority - but vested interests and lax enforcement of regulations at local level make this challenging.

The public, meanwhile, have become increasingly vocal - both on the issue of smog and, in several cases, by taking to the streets to protest against the proposed construction of chemical plants in their cities

BBC News - Report: One fifth of China's soil contaminated

 

[shuttler]

With this magnitude of pollutions as reported Chinese are still having a better life expectancy than indans or many parts of the world!

Shanghaiese average life expectancy is about the same as the the leading countries/territories!

 

[tranquilium]

With this magnitude of pollutions as reported Chinese are still having a better life expectancy than indans or many parts of the world!

Shanghaiese average life expectancy is about the same as the the leading countries/territories!

This is mostly because the per capita pollution generated in China is not really that high. For example, the per capita CO2 generated in China is only about 43% of the per capita CO2 emission of US. Health care, as well as nutrient in China are much better than India and many other countries. Disease prevention, especially against parasites and other environmental borne disease, in China is top notch. For example, out of the five parasite that plagues humanity in general:
1. Schistosoma (blood-flukes)
2. Malaria
3. Filariasis (Round worms)
4. Leishmaniasis
5. Ancylostomiasis (Hook worm)
China is one of the very few countries that actually managed to control the spread of Schistosoma. Malaria is essentially eliminated in Northern part of country, but the Southern border still have cases because mosquitoes can fly in from Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. China is also among the countries with minimum round worm infections despite its vast realm and climate. Leishmaniasis has been eliminated in China for more than 40 years. Currently the main source of the first four types of parasites in China are foreign visitors such as workers and tourists from countries where parasite and disease prevention are not up to par. The fifth one, hook worm, is still an issue in China, but its effect has drastically reduced comparing to sixty years ago.
郑州大学远程教育学院-人体寄生虫学

I mentioned in my post already. While environmental issues are indeed very important in China and solving environmental problem is a long term task, it is by no means "apocalyptic" or even that severe comparing to what other industrialized nation have gone through.

 

[shuttler]

This is mostly because the per capita pollution generated in China is not really that high. For example, the per capita CO2 generated in China is only about 43% of the per capita CO2 emission of US. Health care, as well as nutrient in China are much better than India and many other countries. Disease prevention, especially against parasites and other environmental borne disease, in China is top notch. For example, out of the five parasite that plagues humanity in general:
1. Schistosoma (blood-flukes)
2. Malaria
3. Filariasis (Round worms)
4. Leishmaniasis
5. Ancylostomiasis (Hook worm)
China is one of the very few countries that actually managed to control the spread of Schistosoma. Malaria is essentially eliminated in Northern part of country, but the Southern border still have cases because mosquitoes can fly in from Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. China is also among the countries with minimum round worm infections despite its vast realm and climate. Leishmaniasis has been eliminated in China for more than 40 years. Currently the main source of the first four types of parasites in China are foreign visitors such as workers and tourists from countries where parasite and disease prevention are not up to par. The fifth one, hook worm, is still an issue in China, but its effect has drastically reduced comparing to sixty years ago.
郑州大学远程教育学院-人体寄生虫学

I mentioned in my post already. While environmental issues are indeed very important in China and solving environmental problem is a long term task, it is by no means "apocalyptic" or even that severe comparing to what other industrialized nation have gone through.

Their poor personal hygenic habits do a major part to the cause of their infectious and deadly disease
Take diahrrea as an example

 

[Jlaw]

No, this is your link in the first post:
环境保护部和国土资源部发布全国土壤污染状况调查公报
In the second line of the article, it clearly stated that the date of survey is from April 2005 to December 2013.

The people's online news show Feb 2013 date. Maybe OP is confused?

This is mostly because the per capita pollution generated in China is not really that high. For example, the per capita CO2 generated in China is only about 43% of the per capita CO2 emission of US. Health care, as well as nutrient in China are much better than India and many other countries. Disease prevention, especially against parasites and other environmental borne disease, in China is top notch. For example, out of the five parasite that plagues humanity in general:
1. Schistosoma (blood-flukes)
2. Malaria
3. Filariasis (Round worms)
4. Leishmaniasis
5. Ancylostomiasis (Hook worm)
China is one of the very few countries that actually managed to control the spread of Schistosoma. Malaria is essentially eliminated in Northern part of country, but the Southern border still have cases because mosquitoes can fly in from Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. China is also among the countries with minimum round worm infections despite its vast realm and climate. Leishmaniasis has been eliminated in China for more than 40 years. Currently the main source of the first four types of parasites in China are foreign visitors such as workers and tourists from countries where parasite and disease prevention are not up to par. The fifth one, hook worm, is still an issue in China, but its effect has drastically reduced comparing to sixty years ago.
郑州大学远程教育学院-人体寄生虫学

I mentioned in my post already. While environmental issues are indeed very important in China and solving environmental problem is a long term task, it is by no means "apocalyptic" or even that severe comparing to what other industrialized nation have gone through.

I think many western media is using the environment as a weapon against China's development . China ca protect the environment and still have great manufacturing output. i'm very optimistic.

 

[tranquilium]

The people's online news show Feb 2013 date. Maybe OP is confused?


I think many western media is using the environment as a weapon against China's development . China ca protect the environment and still have great manufacturing output. i'm very optimistic.

I am pretty sure the whole thing is just OP up to his usual antics, which is trolling.

To be fair, as China develops and people looks for higher standards of living, environmental issues do become more and more important, but western medias are also far from impartial. Take Beijing for example, this entire soil contamination thing actually doesn't apply to Beijing because Beijing's pollution is only about air pollution from motor vehicles and mostly caused by its unique geographical location. Since Beijing has relatively little industry and farmland, there is very little soil contamination. Many of the soil contaminated cities are situated on open plain, so it doesn't actually trap smog in winter time like Beijing (which is surrounded on three sides by mountains) and consequently isn't that high on the PM2.5 and PM 10 department. However, that doesn't stop media from trying to mingling the issues together.

It is my personal opinion, however, that western media's target isn't really China itself. I mean, what exactly is CNN or BBC going to do to the Chinese government? Nothing. They are foreign medias and while they do influence some opinions, they are far away from affecting the main stream opinions in Chinese society. The real target of western media is their respective native readers. Take CNN for example, if CNN published an article on Chinese manufacturing causes pollution, its purpose is not to affect how Chinese does manufacturing, but to tell its US readers "hey, China did more manufacturing than us and has better economic growth than us, but since they are polluting while doing so, we have nothing to worry about". These are the articles that sells and bring profit and that's what private media will run.