China

[Ladywriter 7,783]

China's farms struggle to meet growing demand

Urbanisation and the creeping desert in the north mean that China is losing 25 million acres (10m hectares) of farmland a year.

As one analyst put it, a country larger than the United States will be created by new urban Chinese by 2020.

Already, the country has to import most of its needs.

China's top water issues

China’s Imminent Water Crisis

In terms of the economy and China’s anticipated explosion of growth, this outcome may be seriously influenced and hindered by the scarcity of the resource. In northern China, a region that produces 45 percent of the country’s economic output and is home to 40 percent of its population, the annual renewable per capita water supply falls 50 percent below the United Nations-defined danger threshold for minimum social and economic stability.

Pollution is another huge problem contributing to the larger crisis at hand. Over half of China’s population, about 700 million people and 11 percent of the world’s, only have access to drinking water of a quality below World Health Organization standards (WHO). The water is contaminated by a combination of industrial pollution and human and animal waste. The lack of clean water for animals creates the threat of disease as livestock take in all types of pollutants and microbes. Disease is likely to pass from poultry to pigs to humans, and ultimately, the threat of Avian Bird Flu and similar diseases becomes very grave. WHO warns of the high risk of a global pandemic that is not a question of if but of when.

In late July of 2004, a mysterious black and brown plume of toxic matter over 80 miles long swept along the Huai River, one of China’s seven major rivers, and killed millions of fish and devastated wildlife. There were differing explanations for the disaster, the two leading reasons being that either too much water had been taken from the river system and the Huai River had lost its ability to clean itself, or that numerous factories had dumped untreated waste directly into the water and the levels of toxicity had accumulated to an critical point. According to SEPA, more than 70 percent of China’s lakes and five of China’s seven largest river systems are polluted enough to be unsuitable for human contact.

fuckin crazy shit >.<

[Myk JL 1,731]

I (hate to) sound like a Jack Ass, but what's the problem?

[Ladywriter 7,783]

well, there is no problem if you don't mind nearly a billion people starving, dehydrating, and spreading disease to the rest of the planet. Water and sanitation conditions make China a kind of germ jar. Bird flu sux, I wonder what fabulous disease will come outta there next.

Ya also gotta wonder how bad will it get before the people there say fuck this and take the resources they need by force. Imagine a million or so plague carriers invading ye olde USSR, India and other neighbors, contaminating their people and food supplies creating a lovely domino effect.

When the doomsayers talk about world wide pandemics they are pointing at China yo.

[Myk JL 1,731]

I guess I only have a problem with China spreading diseases.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Those are some horrible water conditions. Before you know it China will be buying fresh water from other countries and create a new water market.