Why should we expect the GOVERNMENT to effectively counter pollution

Skorpius7 · Mar 1, 2014

When they are the main contributor to it? Isn't that hypocritical?

http://www.projectcensored.org/2-us-department-of-defense-is-the-worst-polluter-on-the-planet/

waltky · Mar 20, 2017

Chinese no longer willing to wait for solution to pollution problems...

Tensions rising as Chinese no longer willing to hold their breath on pollution problems
Monday 20th March, 2017 - Cracking down on dissent has been a hallmark of Chinese public life. But a population once ignorant of the toxic cost of pollution is speaking out against a government intent on growing the economy. The war on pollution has increased tensions across China, Nathan VanderKlippe reports.

In the village dubbed the birthplace of Beijing’s smog, anger is rising into a sky that seems permanently darkened by pollution. At least three times over the past two years, local residents in Songting have gathered to protest at the gates of the steelworks that surround the place generations have called home. People here once farmed rice, peanuts and corn until, in the years before the Beijing Olympics, their fields were transformed into an industrial forest of pipes, stacks and production lines, after iron and steel companies moved away from the capital to leave behind cleaner air for the Games. Two-hundred kilometres east of Beijing, they erected a metallic forest of emissions towers that belch exhaust and soot. During one severe episode in February, the air grew so thick that residents could no longer see across their narrow streets and workers got lost on the way home.

Now the villagers are fed up. One of the recent steel-mill protests lasted more than a week. “Every day, more than 30 people gathered there,” said Zhao Xiuying, 54, who lives in an old village home that backs out onto a vista of metalworks. The villagers demanded pollution compensation, but received nothing. So they tried again. “We blocked the coking plant, too,” Ms. Zhao said. “But no one fixed our problem.”

Speaking out can be risky in China, where officials move quickly to crush efforts to organize dissent of any kind. But across China, a population once ignorant of the damage wrought by noxious air has gained a keen awareness of what they are breathing – and a growing unwillingness to accept it. “Before, people might have just endured. Now, that patience and endurance has worn out,” said Ma Jun, China’s best-known environmentalist. “We have seen more demands from people to solve the problem.” Stalled progress has made those demands grow more acute.

Until this winter, a raft of government measures set in place under a Chinese “war on pollution” had yielded annual improvements. Gradually, people were beginning to see more blue skies. But amid a slowing economy, a surge in steel production capacity has been accompanied by waves of thick air that have coated northern China this winter, while southern regions have also suffered unusually bad air. Air quality worsened in the area around Beijing throughout much of 2016, a trend that has continued this year. Average Beijing air quality in January was among the worst since 2009, the first full year air monitoring statistics are available. The city’s February air, on average, was 35 per cent more polluted this year than last.

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contrails · Mar 20, 2017

If the U.S. Military is the largest emitter of CO2, then isn't government the only organization that can change that? Besides, your information is a little outdated. Under the Paris climate deal, militaries are no longer exempt from a country's emissions cutting obligations.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-emissions-exemption-under-paris-climate-deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-navy-greenfleet-idUSL2E8I57HE20120705

katzgar · Mar 20, 2017

The important thing for you to keep in mind is that over the last 50 years or so the government has been very effective at Countering pollution

contrails · Mar 20, 2017

katzgar said: ↑

The important thing for you to keep in mind is that over the last 50 years or so the government has been very effective at Countering pollution
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A lot of people forget what air quality was like before government enacted the Acid Rain Program, cutting SO4 emissions in half.

katzgar · Mar 20, 2017

contrails said: ↑

A lot of people forget what air quality was like before government enacted the Acid Rain Program, cutting SO4 emissions in half.
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Let's not forget the Cuyahoga River Being on fire

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Why should we expect the GOVERNMENT to effectively counter pollution

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