China so Environmentally Irresponsible They Are Facing Severe Water Shortages

Story dated 23 March 2005

"In Beijing . . .each resident has access to only 10,593 cubic feet of water a year, compared with the world average of 35,310 cubic feet . . . more than 300 million rural Chinese lack clean drinking water since most waterways are fouled by industrial effluent, untreated sewage and runoff of agricultural chemicals from fields . . . A survey in January found that only 47 percent of water in major rivers is drinkable, while half of all lakes are heavily polluted. And 35 percent of ground water is undrinkable due to pollution . . . Hundreds of thousands (of) Chinese are afflicted with various diseases from drinking water that contains too much fluorine, arsenic, sodium sulfate or bitter salt"

Lest you forget, China was exempted from the hypocritical (and I believe specifically anti-American) Kyoto Protocols. And, if China ever criticizes (or has criticized) the U.S. for our allegedly bad environmental record, I say to China, "before you seek to counsel me on the speck in my eye, remove the plank from your own."

posted by The Sovereign Editor | 10:47 PM

_____________________________________________