Yesterday, we learned the Chinese government has engineered the removal of a World Bank report critical of pollution in China. Apparently, the Chinese are concerned reports of premature death caused by pollution would provoke “social unrest.”
Right. Better to keep it secret, then.
“The report showed that 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year, mainly from air pollution in large cities,” Christopher Hancock tells us. “Compared with imbedded smog hovering over coastal cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai, Los Angeles looks like the open horizon in rural Montana. Hong Kong can even burn your lungs. After living in Hong Kong on and off for two years, I returned home with a cough that doctors couldn't identify. Lung specialists prescribed a variety of medications to attack the ‘unknown’ ailment. It took a couple of months, but the cough finally gave way.”
Here’s how it affects you. According to James Kynge, author of China Shakes the World, "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that a third of the lakes and nearly a quarter of rivers in the U.S. are now so polluted with mercury that children and pregnant women are advised to limit or avoid eating fish there. Scientists estimate that around one-third of the mercury settling into the soil and waterways of the United States comes from other countries, China in particular."
Perhaps the Chinese will try to pull strings and have the EPA censored, too. They do fund the agency’s operations, after all.
Right. Better to keep it secret, then.
“The report showed that 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year, mainly from air pollution in large cities,” Christopher Hancock tells us. “Compared with imbedded smog hovering over coastal cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai, Los Angeles looks like the open horizon in rural Montana. Hong Kong can even burn your lungs. After living in Hong Kong on and off for two years, I returned home with a cough that doctors couldn't identify. Lung specialists prescribed a variety of medications to attack the ‘unknown’ ailment. It took a couple of months, but the cough finally gave way.”
Here’s how it affects you. According to James Kynge, author of China Shakes the World, "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that a third of the lakes and nearly a quarter of rivers in the U.S. are now so polluted with mercury that children and pregnant women are advised to limit or avoid eating fish there. Scientists estimate that around one-third of the mercury settling into the soil and waterways of the United States comes from other countries, China in particular."
Perhaps the Chinese will try to pull strings and have the EPA censored, too. They do fund the agency’s operations, after all.
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