What happens when your country doesn’t have (enforced) environmental regulations?
Well, this happens…
Residents of two villages in Gansu province’s Hui county were said to be seeking hospital treatment after blood tests showed high levels of lead. Air-born pollution from a nearby smelter was the suspected cause, Chinese and Hong Kong newspapers said.
Oops! Next time a hard core libertarian/anarchist tells you that “market forces” will ensure the preservation of the environment, tell them to go drink some of the water in Gansu.
What’s even worse is that the news didn’t break until villagers left town to get treatment. The local “officials” were probably personally profiting from the continued operation of the smelter…
But regional newspaper the Huashang Daily said residents were travelling to Xian in neighbouring Shaanxi province for treatment because local officials insisted they were fine.
What’s a few hundred (or thousand) people’s lives when you stand to make a buck? It reminds me of a quote by Upton Sinclair:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
3 Responses to 'What happens when your country doesn’t have (enforced) environmental regulations?'
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on September 14th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
omg - how true:
“Efficiency is intelligent laziness.”
David Dunham
Saw this one pop up today on your blog…..
on September 14th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
It seems to me the problem is not lack of oversight. China has its own version of the EPA. The problem is that there is no civil avenue to seek compensation for damages. Also I was able to tind the name of the smelter in question: Hui Xian Nonferrous Metals Sheltering Co. How much you wanna bet that government officials own controlling stock in this company???
-Solid
on September 14th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
That is what I said: Corruption is the biggest problem. Hence why I put “enforced” in parentheses. What use is an EPA if the regulations aren’t enforced?
Also, China does have a court system where citizens can sue companies for damages. However, it too is full of corruption and these people are all likely far too poor and too uneducated to afford or even realize they have that capability… Which is a problem with China’s lack of a decent public education system. What we take for granted in the U.S. is completely lacking in many parts of the world.
-Riskable
http://riskable.com
“I have a license to kill -9″