China's Pollution 'Solution': Good For Shanghai, Bad For Everybody Else

According to Tea Leaf Nation, a Chinese social media blog, Shanghai is carrying out a plan that has been a decade in the making. Twenty-five of Shanghai's biggest polluters were shut down and moved to inland provinces, far enough that Shanghai would not be affected by pollutants. Factories moved to places like Anhui, Henan and Hubei, provinces that could use factories to give life to their otherwise modest local economies.?

Almost 100 pollution-producing facilities in Shanghai's outskirts have closed since the cleanup project was initiated. But now the problem is someone else's, and in?some villages, the effects are much more dire than smoggy, darkened skies. ?

Tea Leaf Nation reported the story of one particular town, Xinglong in Yunnan province, which has now become one of China's "cancer villages," towns where the appearance of factories has been followed by soaring cancer rates.

In Xinglong, local water sources turned red or yellow, crop growth was weak, and the livestock began to die. With no alternatives, villagers continued to use what turned out to be?water?contaminated?by chromium-6-, one of the most harmful substances to the human body. The company responsible for the chromium dumping remained in business.?

This is not the first time China's government thought to close factories that surrounded big tourist cities.?

China's pollution problem has existed well before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but it was the added international attention that made China's officials self-conscious about the ongoing environmental issues. With criticisms from international media, and even athletes opting out of the Olympics due to the health risks of the high pollution levels, Beijing devised a plan that would improve the city's air quality.?

From July 25 to September 30 that year, Beijing's neighboring factory cities were essentially shut down. Cities like Tianjin, a industrial port 70 miles outside of Beijing shut down its factories several days before the Olympics' August 8 opening, and did not reopen them until several days after.?

Both Shanghai and Beijing may have been victims of their surroundings: winds brought pollution from nearby industrial cities that had a sprinkling of mines, power plants, steel mills, cement factories and other heavy polluters, into the metropolitan areas.?

But the path they chose isn't really a solution.?It may not be long until China's increasingly sick population will call for a real solution. Instead of relying on industrial relocation to resolve pollution problems in only the big cities, China's investment in green industries may be the only way the nation can maintain economic growth without sacrificing the health of its citizens.?

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/chinas-pollution-solution-good-shanghai-bad-everybody-else-928261

east of eden weather radio indiana autoimmune disease westboro baptist church news channel 9 insanity workout