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60% Of China's Water "Too Polluted To Drink"
Forget bank-runs, the water run has begun in China. Residents of the western city of Lanzhou rushed to buy mineral water earlier this month after local tap water was found to contain excessive levels of the toxic chemical benzene. But that is the tip of what is a massive problem facing the Chinese people. Not only do they suffer choking smog day after day, but, as The Business Times reports, sixty per cent of underground water in China which is officially monitored is too polluted to drink directly, state media have reported, underlining the country's grave environmental problems.
As The Business Times reports,
Sixty per cent of underground water in China which is officially monitored is too polluted to drink directly, state media have reported, underlining the country's grave environmental problems.
Water quality measured in 203 cities across the country last year rated "very poor" or "relatively poor" in an annual survey released by the Ministry of Land and Resources, the official Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday.
Water rated "relatively" poor quality cannot be used for drinking without prior treatment, while water of "very" poor quality cannot be used as a source of drinking water, the report said.
The proportion of water not suitable for direct drinking rose from 57.4 per cent from 2012, it said.
As we noted previously, The World Bank's Ismail Serageldin puts it succinctly: "The wars of the 21st century will be fought over water."
That old axiom that the earth is 75% water... not quite. In reality, water constitutes only 0.07% of the earth by mass, or 0.4% by volume.
This is how much we have, depicted graphically:
What this shows is the relative size of our water supply if it were all gathered together into a ball and superimposed on the globe.
The large blob, centered over the western US, is all water (oceans, icecaps, glaciers, lakes, rivers, groundwater, and water in the atmosphere). It's a sphere about 860 miles in diameter, or roughly the distance from Salt Lake City to Topeka. The smaller sphere, over Kentucky, is the fresh water in the ground and in lakes, rivers, and swamps.
Now examine the image closely. See that last, tiny dot over Georgia? It's the fresh water in lakes and rivers.
There's no doubt that this is a looming crisis we cannot avoid. Everyone has an interest in water. How quickly we respond to the challenges ahead is going to be a matter, literally, of life and death. Where we have choices at all, we had better make some good ones.
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gutter oil and gutter water is what you get when you are over populated slaves.
Best part is those bottles are bathing the H20 in BPA.
Tastes like happy
Chinese manboobs FTW.
Not like there wasn't any recent history outlining what happens when you run your drain pipe right into the river.
And China is going to be leading the world. lol.
pods
Stoopid graphics. How many people live in the earth's core?
OK, the banksters and economists condemned to Hell, but that's their problem.
Dick Cheney?
The wealth tax should take care of that
China is the Developed World's back alley.
Severe Water Shortages to Hit Half the World’s Population by 2050http://www.planbeconomics.com/2013/05/severe-water-shortages-to-hit-half...
Maybe we'll evolve into something immune to all this stuff.
No problem the Russians can build pipelines and bring them fresh clear sparkling pure Siberian River Water alongsides the pipelines with gas and oil.
"Grave"?
Can anyone think of a graver term?
A toast!...to Free-Market, Unregulated, Broad Shouldered Kapitalism™.
Piss in society's pool, cash out, buy your own small, pristine, "slice of heaven" with the spoils, then leave your "less-talented" fellow man to wallow in the filth you left behind
Hey! That's supposed to be a undisclosed location!
Greatest avatar eva! Makes a pretty sweet desktop too ;)
the joys of globalization never cease.
For a real joy you can stroll through your supermarket to see how much FOOD comes from China and surrounding areas.
Ummm, Tilapia.
pods
I just got the runs.
I feel a little better about myself everytime I take a drink from the tap.
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/pharmawater_site/
I guess I'm fortunate, a lot of limestone around here.
you must be in Texas Nmewn, or Arkansas
Say, you don't suppose someone's talking their book to sell bottled water to Chinese chumps and suckers do you?
Type 'Karst topography in China' into google image, they have a fair bit of limestone there too ... in fact, the top of Mt Everest ... yup ... all limestone ... there's millions of square kms of the stuff in China.
hobo,
Now that was funny.
I know someone who had to inspect a fish farm in China once... they had a whol section of the line dedicated to pulling out worms and parasites from the fish meat... anyone feel like sushi?
Wonder what they did with the worms?
Nevermind.
pods
Guess i'll have to drink more beer instead.
Hey!
The "sixty per cent of underground water in China...is officially monitored" its not like good communist party "officials" owning/having interest in, water bottling companies would lie in "official statements" to the Chinese public or anything.
That would be unethical ;-)
Fair point... I would still bet the same party members are more likely to have benefitted from the pollution of said ground water.
currently testing my tap water
Americans are deluded if they think that their tap water is safe or healthy. in addition to the metals (aluminum, iron and often lead), there is enough fluoride, pesticides and drugs in most tap water to cause real long term damage. RO water or distillation is required for anyone who gives a damn about their health. Better yet, well water in an area where farm pesticides and herbacides haven't leached too deep into groundwater.
Johns right about this.
There are two ways to go, filter tap water or take your chances. In a former line of work, I got to see the inside of a water main when it got cut. Its as green with algae as those slippery rocks at your local lake/river.
The chemicals can't kill it all WITHOUT killing you...but you're still ingesting what they put in it. Its all highly regulated though (like everything else), so no worries.
Bottoms up ;-)
I'll finally get some decent rest tonight. The water supply is regulated. Pheww that was close one.
See?
Always here to help ;-)
Don't forget about all the pharmaceutical poisons from people taking their pills then sending them out the other end(or just flushing when they hit the exp date).
So difficult(costly) to remove from the water that most treatment plants don't even try, they just treat the sewage as if the drugs weren't even there.
"In a former line of work, I got to see the inside of a water main when it got cut."
Pipe welder? Or, were you trained in water treatment? (serious)
It's an impossible task for water suppliers. You have varying levels of things in your raw water (there is no such thing as perfect water!), and any treatment and filtration activitiy is constantly under changing conditions due to fouling/loading.
I cannot speak to the floride issue as I don't know about it (other than I'd prefer NOT to have any in my water), but, to deal with baceria they have to utilize chlorine in one way or another AND they HAVE to have residual due to the long delivery pipes (as you can attest to get a bit yucky).
I personally use hydrogen peroxide to deal with bacteria (and as an oxidant for iron and manganese). Lab tests have always come back with "not present." But I don't have long delivery lines/pipes to worry about.
A LOT of rural people deal with crappy water (I refuse to, as I know my priorities [and I believe I've got a fair understanding of water treatment now]- Food, Shelter and Water). The municipal systems that I've been exposed to are some of the best that exist, raw water sources aren't subject to a lot of the wierd stuff that others are finding in their water.
My tap water is fine, though I've got higher levels of manganese than I'd like. Of course, I'm also my own water treatment engineer and operator, so I have control over my water.
Big John. Gotcha covered here in SWPA. Cold ass clear and very tasty well water, my only real concern is all the fracking going on near me! But until otherwise I will continue to enjoy my 75ft well:-)
... and they want there fiat yuan to be the reserve currency???
Is it too late for erf day past predictions gone terribly awry?
http://ricochet.com/13-ridiculous-predictions-made-earth-day-1970/
Some of those were down right retarded, others seem like they just got the timing wrong.
I don't keep up on the climate change BS but this one seems interesting given the current thinking.
"The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.” — Kenneth Watt
Maybe he was on to something given the recent cases of icebreaker vessels getting stuck in ice.
Wildebeast "scientists"...lol...its a new ice age coming!
No, its a population bomb! (still got the poster in the attic, I think) world wide starvation! No, we're going to burn to a crisp and the ice packs will melt and wash our ashes away!
Or sumpin ;-)
How about the one where yellowstone fracks itself, and we get to live in the dark for awhile? Classic.
Now THAT one has me a little concerned...lol.
But the science is settled, cow farts will be the death of us all ;-)
Of course! That's still the official reason we killed all the buffalo right? They were gross polluters?
We were just more methodical at it and thought of it as sport. Its not like we set plains on fire to drive them to their death (and everything else in the way of the fire) or stampeded them over cliffs and took what we wanted and let the vultures have the rest or anything ;-)
People...red, black, yellow or white can do some crazy shit, looking back with a present perspective.
Truth! Native americans of the time had some great thinkers and a unique perspective, but it is doing them (and indirectly us) a disservice to romanticize them into a caricature of rousseau's noble savage. Anyone that has read a description of tribal warfare would quickly dismiss that notion.
That being said we got a bit carried away with the slaughter. As a hunter I can't abide by wanton waste of a tasty animal, no matter who is doing it.
Exactly right, it is a disservice to what they were.
The brainwashing darkness is deep...but every once in a while a ray of sunlight breaks through. We (whites/blacks/browns/yellows) were no better (or worse) than the reds, at that time.
The least we can do (all colors) is learn from it.
You guys are being relativists. Some groups of humans are superior to other races and cultures. Go to Detroit have a look. We murdered the knowledge and wisdom that the Native Americans had and replaced it with fuckin walmart and bank of America.
Well, relatively speaking, I never killed an Indian...lol.
But there is some truth in that, the central government did what it does best. It lied, broke treaty after treaty and yes, slaughtered entire villages.
Of course, I've never worked for government but my immediate ancestors did fight against Sheridan & Custer too ;-)
I thought that they just committed suicide, just like the lemmings, by jumping over cliffs!
I'm liking the "peak phosphorus" stuff right now.
Apparently we'll all starve some time next year. Or was it last year? I lose track of doom scenarios so quickly.
Must be because they drove me to drink.
That's the part that pisses me off so much about all the environmental Al Qaedas trotted out by "green" Agenda 21 control freaks. You finish debunking one heavily-marketed brand of snake oil, and they trot out a new flavour, and the solution is always more oligarchical collectivism. How long before somebody comes up with the brilliant revelation that we have Peak Government, and the world is going to hell on a handcart because of "global banking?"
If wishes were horses beggars would ride....
#9
Wait, too much nitrogen in the atmosphere will block out the sun?
EDIT: I think Kenneth Watt was trolling, before it was hip.
China's Smithfield foods.can export some of their polluted pigs and chickens to the US. PCB pork, yum!
Smithfield's operations are in the US; when they were Smithfield (I'm assuming that operations are still in the US).
I'm currently preparing to get some pigs. Have a nice roaster lined up as well...
I hear there's plenty of fresh snow in Tibet.
Bullish snow!.....um,
Water isn't the issue.
It's human limitations. We're fuck-all stupid if we refuse to innovate and recognize that our own survival is a priority over our pretend-play systems of social governance and commerce.
If we die, it's because we were incapable of living.
Too bad, so sad. One can only care so much before the collective weight of fucking stupid people causes you to cease giving a damn.
Correct!
One can desalinate or purify almost all water with a bucket, rock and a sheet of Saran Wrap type plastic.
You can see how to do this on Youtube. It probably has 10 hits. Meanwhile, you can probably view a Bieber video which has 5 million hits.
Water, is not the problem.
Try that technique some time. Don't drink or consume any other water for a week. Please report back on the results.
You do still have to boil it afterwards (and/or add a few drops of bleach, or other antimicrobial of choice).
Our capabilities are just fine and growing every single day. As a matter of fact, innovation is starting to far outpace their ability to regulate.
It is the completely fucked up "usual suspect" class that seek to squeeze every single penny out of everything and maintain their power through parasitic methods. Everything is looked at as a business model. What we get is trickle-down innovation.
Looking at things as a business (-model) and squeezing every penny out are traits of efficiency. It is the lack of rule of law that is killing us. Once we stand up and fix that one thing a lot of other things will get a lot more right.
Gonna start drinking my own urine because it's sterile and I like the taste.
And if you ever run out there is always the dog.
Remember this is coming to a US state near you from all that fracking that is happening and being introduced into more of our water table.
Yes, they will stuff the drinkung water up, but by then all the money will have been extracted and all the politicians will stand around saying nobody could have seen it coming.
Chinese leaders need a good war that can kill 700 million Chinese. They already have too many single males. Japan is going to get wiped from the map with Chinese blood. Payback to Japanese females....OMG. WW II will look like the good war. Do the Chinese people discuss this possibility?
Only if the troops can bring their smart phones and are assured of wifi access, otherwise they will stay home.....its different this time.....really.
Chinese leaders are doing something about this water problems already - they sent their families out of China. Their kids live in countries with clean water and air.
Water problem ? What water problem ? What is your name ? Which unit are you working in ?
China will not forget what atrocities Japan did in WWII.
Atrocities? What atrocities? There's nothing in the Japanese history books about atrocities.
C'mon man!
Getting back to my thesis that all affluent Chinese want to move to the US...
USA official panic room of the Chinese Communist Party.
...effluent Chinese?
And I thought they were lined up to buy condoms
The glass is 60% filthy.
The graphic is non-sensical. The entire volume of Earth is not filled with water, so it shouldn't be compaired with spheres of water for the illustration of a point.
In addition, no groundwater is consumed untreated in the USA either. I'm not sure what the point of this article is. Yeah, fresh potable water is hard to find on Earth. Duh.
In addition, no groundwater is consumed untreated in the USA either.
You be WRONG! I drink untreated groundwater every day. By the way, this water is GOOD.
Wow! with all that totalitarian paternalistic governance whodda thunk? Oh, the CCCP and the Warsaw Pact nations had/have all of the same horrific outcomes and they aren't/weren't even crony capitalists.
....and they actually trust the bottled water????
Why not? The label says it comes from a glacier, yeah?
I live on the shore of Lake Superior. If I could just solve the logistics problem, I could sell some nice cold fresh water to the Chinamen. At a reasonable mark up of course! Nothing like an ocean of fresh water right outside the front door.
Seriously, about ten years ago some guy sailed a small tanker up the Seaway and through the locks into Lake Superior, he was going to try and fill it with water and sail down the seaway and to Saudi Arabia. Apparently he was so excited by potential profits from just one trip that his big mouth tipped off the press who tipped off the authorites. Canadian government officials showed up and shut him down in double quick time, treaty violations of Great Lakes rules and laws.
Living along the shores of Lake Ontario, I've always thought people were doing what you describe (minus telling anyone about it).
Bottled water is tap water, bottled.
In the industry, we call it 'spout.'
Red China will accept 90,000 acres along the Red River, plus BLM-seized land West of the Rio Grande as legal tender for the settlement of US Treasury holdings.
Bullish...we're a distributor for Dow Water and Process and GE Power and Water.
God covered the earth to the tops of the highest mountains with water during Noah's flood so I'm thinking there's plenty of water to go around.
Now back to guillotines and money changers......
Uh...yeah...sure. No wonder the rest of the world thinks Americans are a bunch of asshat buffoons.
This is why great lakes are being bottled and shipped to china.
Good thing they don't have any of those communist environmentalists in China. That way they get to enjoy all the benefits of extract and waste industrialism without all those pesty environmental regulations.
Mao's Great Leap Forward comes to fruition. His huge portrait over the Forbidden City bears witness.
Artisian well water on my place taste is fantastic. Water my garden with it.
That "mineral water" they are buying is probably basically the same polluted water coming out of their taps, it just cost more.
Wake me when the polluted water hits 100%. Until then, shut up and keep the flow of junk trinkets coming.
This is something to worry about, when the water polution aproaches say 80% and filtration systems are no longer capable of sustaining the thirst of the chinese people , you will have social distress in the country, which historically manifests itself as a war to gather resources from nations that have them.
China will probably fight a major war over water in the future (10 years out or so)
Gulp!
Better dead than red.
Yet in 15 years there will be 1.5 billion of them living longer and healthier than ever before.
reverse osmosis...................commrade
damn...they seem to survive on shit air, slave labor, dog meat AND crappy, polluted water?...all while instilling a one child policy? Darwin is rolling in his coffin.
So, you suppose maybe we get feed outrageous levels of propaganda fabrication which masquerades as current information and thus Darwin need not rethink quite so much?
hmm ... you might be on to something there ...
meh..ya never know. it's all so confusing and has probably been propaghanda the whole time.
Like it or not polluted water and change in the climate has massive implications and because of that it ranks high on the list of the worlds ten most crucial problems. Below is the list counted down from "least to most crucial."
The world must begin to address these many problems with long term solutions. Most of these are issues that center on our sustainability. Sadly, politicians do not deal well with such things leaving us without direction.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-worlds-10-worst-problems.html
Sustainability means planning our future in a way that we do not set ourselves up to crash and burn at some future date. Long-term planning has not been something politicians excel at or are even good at. Our system is geared at getting politicians reelected and fulfilling the most pressing needs of today. Things like profit and quenching our unrelinquishing desire for growth are moved in front of the longer term issues and needs.
Mapping out a logical and sustainable long-term plan will require delving into some rather hefty philosophical questions like what brings real happiness. We would have to think about what kind of society and world future generations might want to live in. We would have to recognize the role of the human animal in the overall scheme of things. For more on the issue of sustainability see the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/04/planning-sustainable-future-for-m...
China launched the "one child" policy. There are no easy answers. Humans were growing without tapping old sunshine--petroleum/coal--and using old sunshine, we are moving up the handle on the hockey stick. Humans bet on new technology. This continues to be the bet whether you like it or not. If you believe technology will continue to enhance our energy consumption, be happy. If you believe the opposite, move to a remote region of the earth.
Also, quality of human life and consuming energy have a corrrelation of 1.0. Many people believe human civilization started with the first human who did NOT run from fire, but captured fire. With fire, meat could be cooked, and like magic, the availability of more calories (energy) for humans was created. Human civilization and fire have expanded throughout time. People thought they had found the replacement with Nuclear fission...Oh well.
They need to call Singapore and ask them how they have clean water.
Dead pigs floating in the rivers, rampant "crony communism"and mass distraction..what do you expect?
For U.S.A. substitute "crony capitalism"and fracking. Texas water? Not for me.
Stacking lead and Fuck the FED. Clapper is a traitor and a liar.