Greening China, from a paint pot

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/LI14Ad01.html


-snip-

Trying to make a correction, President Hu Jiantao put forward his "scientific outlook on development" shortly after he took the reins in 2002-2003. In short, Hu calls for more balanced or environment-friendly development. Accordingly, the government has worked out and enforced a spate of policies and measure to reduce pollution and the destruction of natural resources and over-cultivation of arable land.

But improvements are far from satisfactory. There is evidence that some local officials are reluctant to carry out Beijing's policies. As a Chinese saying has it, "The mountains are high and the emperor is far away." A policy from Beijing, good as it may be, is often easily distorted in the implementation by local officials keen to serve their own interests.

"You want a green environment? Fine, I'll paint barren land with green paint." "You want to reduce pollutant emission and save energy? Fine, I'll order a power cut." Don't think these quotes are fiction. They were what some local Chinese officials thought and did to show how "keen" they were to carry out Beijing's policies in regard to environment protection.

In early September, tipped off by local villagers, some reporters with a Guangzhou-based newspaper went to Huaxian county in northwestern Shaanxi province, and saw that some hills on the sides of a major highway were painted green, so it looked, from a distance, like trees were growing on them. Villagers told the reporters that there used to be stone pits on these hills, which had been abandoned after years of quarrying. And the county government ordered them to be painted green.

-long snip-
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ah, leave it to the internet:

"Grilled by the media, a senior official surnamed Li with the Huaxiang Bureau of Land Resources frankly said, "This is the most advanced experience in our country. We learned it from the Internet and then decided to do it."


does our earth even stand a chance?

[WhiteTara]

1. after a few million years to recover from

the wounding, She'll be fine. Us? not so much.