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China Is A Monumental Economic Trainwreck—–The Evidence Is Mounting Rapidly
China Is A Monumental Economic Trainwreck—–The Evidence Is Mounting Rapidly
How Fast is China Growing?
Analyst estimates of Chinese growth keep getting lower and lower. Yet, those declining estimates have all been from a lofty level: From 10% to 9%, to 8% to 7.5%.
China’s growth target for 2015 is 7.0%.
Many question those growth estimates. I certainly do. Chinese growth is not consistent with energy demand, raw materials, or personal consumption. Worse yet, growth does not factor in pollution or malinvestments in vacant housing, vacant malls, vacant airports, etc.
Malinvestments, pollution, and State-Owned-Entreprise (SOE) boondoggles (fraud is actually a better word) should all subtract from current GDP. Instead, fraud, pollution, and malinvestments have been buried and will remain buried until it’s impossible to hide them.
I assumed China was growing slowly. After all, 7% is one hell of a lie. However, I now wonder if China is growing at all.
What caused my double take was a fascinating presentation by Anne Stevenson-Yang, Co-Founder of JCap and author of China Alone: The Emergence from, and Potential Return to Isolation.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Analysis: What Bill C-22 Means For Oil Spill Cleanup in Canada
Analysis: What Bill C-22 Means For Oil Spill Cleanup in Canada
After BP’s Deepwater Horizon well blowout in April 2010, responders dumped approximately 1.84 million gallons of chemical dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico in an effort to stop the oil slick from fouling fragile coastal environments. The use of such a massive quantity of dispersants, coupled with serious gaps in knowledge about the possible environment impacts of dispersant use, prompted a public outcry and led the United States Environmental Protection Agency to publicly rebuke the company and order them to use fewer (and less toxic) dispersants.
By contrast, in Canada, it has traditionally been unclear whether the use of STAs to clean up marine oil spills is even legal. Because of the toxic ingredients of some STAs, their use could violate several federal laws (such as the Fisheries Act, the Species at Risk Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, the Migratory Birds Convention Act, and the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, among others) without special permission that could be sought on a case-by-case basis.
A chemical dispersant is a kind of “spill-treating agent” (or “STA”) that is designed to break up an oil slick and dilute the oil by mixing it into the water. A chemical dispersant isn’t truly a clean-up tool — it doesn’t take any spilled oil out of the environment, and by the time a dispersant is applied, it’s already too late to save most life forms in the vicinity of the spill.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
And It’s Gone! After 3 Days, Beijing Bans Discussion Of Viral China Smog Documentary
And It’s Gone! After 3 Days, Beijing Bans Discussion Of Viral China Smog Documentary
Just 3 days after “Under The Dome” went massively viral (152 million views on China’s Tencent alone), exposing the reality of China’s disastrous pollution in an in-depth 104-minute documentary, The FT reports Chinese censors have moved to tamp down discussion domestically. We had previously noted with surprise just how ‘big’ the story had got without Beijing’s intervention and now we see propaganda authorities directed news outlets on Monday not to publish stories about Under the Dome.
Of course, the documentary is still available (with English subtitles) on YouTube…
Chinese censors have moved to tamp down discussion of a hard-hitting documentary on air pollution that sent the country’s blogosphere into overdrive, highlighting political sensitivity about China’s smog problem.Propaganda authorities directed news outlets on Monday not to publish stories about Under the Dome, the emotional first-person documentary by a former state television anchor, journalists from three news organisations told the Financial Times on Tuesday.
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The official Xinhua News Agency has deleted at least two original articles on the documentary from its website, including one about the environment minister’s praise for the film. The other deleted article is about how the film has become a hot topic at the parliament meeting. Both articles are still available on other news sites.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article and view the video…
This Is The Chinese Documentary That Got Over 30 Million Views In One Day
This Is The Chinese Documentary That Got Over 30 Million Views In One Day
While the citizenry of America remains transfixed by the ever-changing color of some Scottish wedding dress; this weekend saw an even more massively viral social media phenomenon as tens of millions of Chinese watched, gripped and outraged, a 104-minute video entitled “Under The Dome” exposing the ugly truth about Chinese air pollution. What is perhaps most stunning – aside from the fact that something so ‘important’ can go viral without Kim Kardashian’s ass all over it – is that the Chinese government, so far, has not shut off the documentary, and recently appointed minister of environmental protection, Chen Jining, even praised the video; suggesting a growing conflict between Beijing and the Chinese industrial complex.
As The NY Times reports, the documentary, funded and narrated by a former Chinese TV reporter, recounts her journey of discovery, hunting for the sources of China’s bad air and inquiring why repeated government promises have done so little to clear it up, while coping with a daughter born with a tumor…
[In 2013], she did not pay much attention to the smog engulfing much of China and affecting 600 million people, even as she traveled for work from place to place where the air was acrid with fumes and dust.“But,” Ms. Chai says with a pause, “when I returned to Beijing, I learned that I was pregnant.”
Since its online debut on Saturday, Ms. Chai’s documentary, “Under the Dome,” has inspired an unusually passionate eruption of public and mass media discussion. Many messages were from Chinese parents identifying with Ms. Chai’s fears that pollution has imperiled their children’s health.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Sea shame: 155mn tons of plastic trash in world oceans by 2025, study finds
Sea shame: 155mn tons of plastic trash in world oceans by 2025, study finds
Up to 8 million tons of trash – plastic bags, bottles and toys, just to name a few items – ends up in the world’s oceans each year. The astounding figure, much higher than previous estimates, could increase tenfold in the next decade, researchers warn.
Along with colleagues from the US and Australia, Jenna Jambeck from the University of Georgia studied the sources of ocean-bound plastic and developed models to estimate their annual contributions worldwide.
Jambeck says their estimate of 8 million metric tons going into the oceans in 2010 is equivalent to “five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world.”
Given that this annual input goes up each year, the estimate for 2015 is “about 9.1 million metric tons,” she says. These findings are published in the journal Science.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
2013 record heatwave ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change, Climate Council of Australia report says
2013 record heatwave ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change, Climate Council of Australia report says
A new report by the Climate Council of Australia says it would have been “virtually impossible” for 2013 to be the hottest year in the country’s record without man-made emissions in the atmosphere.
The independently-funded group used new modelling to look at the odds of extreme heat events occurring, with and without man-made emissions.
A computer simulation of the atmosphere showed that climate change tripled the odds that the heatwaves of 2012/2013 would occur as frequently as they did and doubled the odds that they would be as intense as they were.
More than 123 temperature records were broken over that summer.
Professor Will Steffen said the record temperatures of 2013 were caused by man-made emissions.
“What were the odds of that happening without the human carbon pollution, and what were the odds with human carbon pollution? The answer is quite striking,” he said.
“The answer is that year, 2013, being the hottest year in Australia ever, was virtually impossible without human emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Shocking Images Of China’s Dire Pollution Problem
Shocking Images Of China’s Dire Pollution Problem
China has some stunningly beautiful natural landscapes, but, as boredpanda.com explains, they may not count for much when, in other parts of the country, pollution runs totally unchecked. China is very close in size to the USA. Yet, as The Burning Platform notes, their population is the size of the entire Western Hemisphere, plus Japan, Germany, and France. The land can not support this mass of humanity without very dire consequences, and these shocking photos show what severe pollution people have to deal with in some parts of China…
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Boy Swims In Algae-Filled Water, Qingdao, Shandong
Journalist takes a sample of red polluted water in the Jianhe River in Luoyang
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
New—and Worrisome—Contaminants Emerge From Oil and Gas Wells
New—and Worrisome—Contaminants Emerge From Oil and Gas Wells
Researchers find alarming levels of ammonium and iodide in fracking wastewater released into Pennsylvania and West Virginia streams.
Two hazardous chemicals never before known as oil and gas industry pollutants – ammonium and iodide – are being released into Pennsylvania and West Virginia waterways from the booming energy operations of the Marcellus shale, a new study shows.
The toxic substances, which can have a devastating impact on fish, ecosystems, and potentially, human health, are extracted from geological formations along with natural gas and oil during both hydraulic fracturing and conventional drilling operations, said Duke University scientists in a study published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
The chemicals then are making their way into streams and rivers, both accidentally and through deliberate release from treatment plants that were never designed to handle these contaminants, the researchers said.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The central contradiction in the modern outlook: ‘Planet of the Apes’ vs ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
The central contradiction in the modern outlook: ‘Planet of the Apes’ vs ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
When talking about the perils of climate change or resource depletion, soil degradation or fisheries collapse, water pollution or nuclear waste–how annoying it is to have one listener respond dismissively, “They’ll figure something out. They always have.”
It’s a nonsense rejoinder and yet, it often gains the assent of many–as if this assertion were a self-evident truth that only an enemy of progress would question. And, that’s where we’ll start examining the central contradiction in the modern outlook–with a statement that is offered as if it were a scientific fact, when, in truth, it is nothing more than a piece of dogma enunciated by the religion we call modernism.
At first glance, the statement seems backward-looking because it asserts that we humans have always averted catastrophe through our ingenuity. But, of course, this is complete hogwash. History is replete with civilizations that have risen and then fallen, crumbling for myriad reasons eerily similar to ones said to threaten our own: climate change, resource depletion, soil degradation, water pollution, plagues, war, and political disintegration. The listener’s statement above can’t really be backward-looking for it would fall to pieces with only a cursory review of history.
And so, this means that it must actually be forward-looking. It assumes that the future cannot fail even though the past testifies to almost certain decline for our civilization at some point. What is the basis for this forward-looking optimism concerning a future which we cannot know?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Here’s Why Keystone XL Is the Wrong Choice for Our Nation
Here’s Why Keystone XL Is the Wrong Choice for Our Nation
The new Republican majority in Congress wants to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline for dirty tar sands oil. President Obama announced he will veto bills that bypass the official review of Keystone XL.
There are plenty of reasons to block these bills and this pipeline.
Keystone XL would carry the dirtiest oil on the planet from Canada through the American heartland. The vast majority of it would be shipped overseas, while people here at home cope with the threat of contaminated water and difficult-to-clean-up oil spills.
Polluters are fighting hard to get Keystone approved. The oil and gas industry pumped $53.1 million into last year’s congressional campaigns–87 percent of which went to Republican candidates. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell raked in$608,000 from the industry for his 2014 campaign, and now he is putting Keystone XL at the heart of his big polluter agenda.
But this isn’t just a battle over industry influence. This is a choice about the kind of nation we want to live in.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Cleaning up Malaysia’s rivers of life – Features – Al Jazeera English
Cleaning up Malaysia’s rivers of life – Features – Al Jazeera English.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – In the hills to the east of Kuala Lumpur, the Klang River is clean enough for visitors to play in. But just a few hundred metres downstream, the water darkens and rubbish clogs the banks.
By the time it reaches the city centre, the river is the pale brown of milky tea and so toxic it’s dangerous to touch.
But after decades of neglect, the government is spending more than $1bn to revive the Klang and Gombak rivers that gave Kuala Lumpur – which translates roughly as “muddy confluence” – its name.
“The River of Life is one of the cornerstone projects in Kuala Lumpur, in addition to public transport,” said Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah, a director of the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit, who is coordinating the project.
“We learned from other cities like Seoul, Vancouver, upgrading and beautifying the areas around the river really helps a city become more livable. And Kuala Lumpur is naturally lucky to have two rivers flowing through it.”
Polluting Is Getting Expensive in Europe Again: Carbon & Climate – Bloomberg
Polluting Is Getting Expensive in Europe Again: Carbon & Climate – Bloomberg.
The surge in European carbon permit prices may just be beginning.
The price of emission rights will rise 62 percent by June 30, according to the median of 16 trader and analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. UBS Group AG says costs may more than double in 2015. Carbon already jumped 44 percent this year, while the 22-member Bloomberg Commodities Index (BCOM) slid 14 percent.
The 28-nation European Union is tightening supply in the 40 billion-euro ($50 billion) emissions market after a glut caused prices to collapse to levels that don’t deter the burning of coal, the most polluting fuel, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Lawmakers want to spur more growth in renewable energy through the first permanent changes to the 10-year-old system.
“Because most governments selling allowances have a vested interest in higher prices, it will happen,” Louis Redshaw, a former head of carbon at Barclays Plc and founder of Redshaw Advisors Ltd., which buys and sells permits on behalf of factories, said Dec. 16 in London. “Painful” price swings are probable, he said.
Chemicals from fracking, acidizing, and gravel packing make us sick – Faces of Fracking
Chemicals from fracking, acidizing, and gravel packing make us sick – Faces of Fracking.
It is well-known that many of the chemicals used in fracking, acidizing, and gravel packing are harmful to our bodies. Just look at the above graphic. What hasn’t been so clear is the evidence that highlights incidences where these chemicals have actually made people sick.
There are two main factors why we still don’t have a comprehensive overview of the health impacts of fracking: industry secrecy (there are laws that protect companies from disclosing the chemicals they use) and government inaction (for example, the EPA has backed off several studies to investigate the health impacts of fracking). Additional factors compound the problem: non-disclosure agreements, sealed court records, and legal settlements (all which prevent families and their doctors from talking about how they got sick).
Nevertheless, the stack of evidence that tells us that fracking and similar techniques does make us ill is piling up. Based on peer-reviewed studies, accident reports, and investigative articles, we know now that fracking can not be practiced without endangering human health. Chemicals can and do leak from well casings and get into the water supply. Chemicals released into the atmosphere worsen our air quality. Chemical spills from pipelines get in the soil we use to grow food.
Full scale of plastic in the world’s oceans revealed for first time | Environment | The Guardian
Full scale of plastic in the world’s oceans revealed for first time | Environment | The Guardian.
More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found.
Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them “micro plastics” measuring less than 5mm.
The volume of plastic pieces, largely deriving from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the world’s oceans.
Large pieces of plastic can strangle animals such as seals, while smaller pieces are ingested by fish and then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans.
This is problematic due to the chemicals contained within plastics, as well as the pollutants that plastic attract once they are in the marine environment.
“We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish that ingested fishing lines,” said Julia Reisser, a researcher based at the University of Western Australia. “But there are also chemical impacts. When plastic gets into the water it acts like a magnet for oily pollutants.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Citizens Take Monitoring Into Own Hands as Eagle Ford Shale Boom Continues Undaunted | DeSmogBlog
Citizens Take Monitoring Into Own Hands as Eagle Ford Shale Boom Continues Undaunted | DeSmogBlog.
Hugh Fitzsimons lll, a buffalo rancher on the outskirts of Carrizo Springs, Texas, cautiously watches the fracking industry’s accelerating expansion. His 13,000-acre ranch is atop the southwestern part of the oil-rich Eagle Ford Shale, which stretches from Leon County in northeast Texas to Laredo, along the Mexican border.
During the last two years Fitzsimons has watched the fracking boom transform a rural locale into an industry hub. Desolate dirt roads are now packed with truck traffic, and commercial development to service the growing industry has sprung up along state highways, creating air and noise pollution.
Though Fitzsimons stands to profit from oil extraction, he has not turned a blind eye to the industry’s damaging effects on the environment. He wants to make sure the expanding industry acts responsibly and is doing his part to ensure that happens, a tall order since a state-sponsored report estimates the number of wells could grow from 8,000 to 32,000 by 2018 and industry polices itself for the most part.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
