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Chinese glacier retreat signals trouble for Asian water supply
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on December 9th, 2015
New York Times: Over the years, Qin Xiang and his fellow scientists at a high and lonely research station in the Qilian Mountains of northwest China have tracked the inexorable effects of rising temperatures on one of China’s most important water sources. “The thing most sensitive to climate change is a glacier,” said Dr. Qin, 42, as he slowly trod across an icy field of the Mengke Glacier, one of the country’s largest. “In the 1970s, people thought glaciers were permanent. They didn’t think that glaciers would...
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Glut of Coal-Fired Plants Casts Doubts China’s Energy Priorities
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on November 12th, 2015
New York Times: Just outside the southwest border of Beijing, a new coal-fired power and heating plant is rising in Dongxianpo, a rural town in Hebei Province. Cement mixers roll onto the site. Cranes tower above a landscape of metal girders. When finished, the plant, run by a company owned by the Beijing government, is expected to have a generating capacity of 700 megawatts of power, more than the total of similar plants in Ohio. But whether it will actually be used to its fullest is questionable, despite the...
Pollution Is Radically Changing Childhood in China’s Cities
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on April 23rd, 2013
New York Times: The boy’s chronic cough and stuffy nose began last year at the age of 3. His symptoms worsened this winter, when smog across northern China surged to record levels. Now he needs his sinuses cleared every night with saltwater piped through a machine’s tubes. The boy’s mother, Zhang Zixuan, said she almost never lets him go outside, and when she does she usually makes him wear a face mask. The difference between Britain, where she once studied, and China is “heaven and hell,” she said. Levels of...
Cost of Environmental Degradation in China Is Growing
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on March 29th, 2013
New York Times: The cost of environmental degradation in China in 2010 was about $230 billion, or 3.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, an official Chinese news report said this week. The statistic came from a study by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, which is part of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. So far, only partial results of the study are available. The 2010 figure was reported on Monday by a newspaper associated with the ministry. The estimated loss for that year was...
Thousands of Dead Pigs Found in Chinese River
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on March 11th, 2013
New York Times: More than 3,300 dead pigs have been found in a major river that flows through Shanghai, igniting fears among city residents of contaminated tap water, according to official reports on Tuesday. Officials were trying to determine who had dumped the carcasses into the river, the Huangpu, which slices through the heart of Shanghai. Some reports blamed farmers. Officials were seeking to track the source of the pigs from marks on their ears, and a preliminary inquiry found that the dumping occurred in...
Spill in China Lays Bare Environmental Concerns
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on March 2nd, 2013
New York Times: The first warning came in the form of dead fish floating in a river. Then officials in this city got confirmation that a chemical spill had taken place at a fertilizer factory upstream. They shut off the tap water, which sent residents into a scramble for bottled water. In the countryside, officials also told farmers not to graze their livestock near the river. The spill, which occurred on Dec. 31, affected at least 28 villages and a handful of cities of more than one million people, including...
Yangtze rains bring drought relief, and floods
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on June 8th, 2011
New York Times: Heavy rains since last Friday have brought some relief from the worst drought in the Yangtze River region in 50 years, but also caused flooding in at least two southern provinces, state news organizations reported Tuesday.
The six-month drought had resulted in water shortages for 3.5 million people. With the rains, that number has dropped to 2.15 million, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. The amount of farmland affected by the drought has dropped by 3.68 million acres, to 5.68 million....
Stalwarts in China’s Water Struggle
Posted by New York Times: Edward Wong on June 2nd, 2011
New York Times: To report out my article on China’s ambitious and troubled plan to divert water from the south to try to satisfy the drinking needs of people in the dying north, I traveled to the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze River that winds through the heart of the country. It is there, at a reservoir at Danjiangkou, that the middle channel of the water diversion project starts.
Scientists who study the Han told me that the water project could kill or severely damage the river, which provides crucial...