I think it’s about time that the developing world stopped saying “you did it, so why can’t we?” when the West raises concerns over rising pollution levels in China, India etc.
In the “good” old days my home country, the UK, had lots of dark, gritty and satanic mills, which were almost as ugly as our corporate headquarters. We used to make children work as chimney cleaners and down coal mines and generally life was pretty miserable.
But the point is that we, fortunately, didn’t have the technologies to kill people in as greater a number as the Chinese have, and also we didn’t have anywhere near as many people. Chemical and other plants are playing a large part in China’s environmental tragedy – and it is no exaggeration to call this a a tragedy.
Expect more legislation from China’s government, as a result of disturbing reports on China’s environment such as this one by the OECD.
The legislation will make it harder and more expensive to build chemical and other plants. At the same time there are huge opportunities for those selling safer processes and for the water-treatment industry.
But will the legislation work? Probably not because it cannot be allowed to work as so much of China’s growth is tied up in low quality, very cheap industrial capacity.
The end result is that China will choke a large number of its people, and its economy, to death.
