China’s Water and Air pollution Crisis

Published On: February 13, 2014
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Views: 1571

Published on Jan 13, 2014: Lately there’s been a lot of talk about Chinese air pollution; smog so thick, you can barely see the streets of Beijing.

But what you might not know is that China is facing a major water crisis. Rivers are drying up and there’s not enough water to go around. And what little water there is has been so polluted by chemical and industrial run off, it’s undrinkable.

And if the Three Gorges Dam didn’t cause enough trouble, the next great public work sure will. It’s called The South-North Diversion Project, and will link up the Yellow River with the Yangtze River, hopefully funneling water from the south to the water starved North. All it takes is drilling through the Himalayas.

 

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Shanghai Tower (650 meters) gives a good perspective on the air pollution (smog)

Reuters: Severe pollution in Beijing has made the Chinese capital “barely suitable” for living, according to an official Chinese report, as the world’s second-largest economy tries to reduce often hazardous levels of smog caused by decades of rapid growth.

Pollution is a rising concern for China’s stability-obsessed leaders, keen to douse potential unrest as affluent city dwellers turn against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has tainted much of the country’s air, water and soil. The report, by the Beijing-based Social Science Academic Press and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, ranked the Chinese capital second worst out of 40 global cities for its environmental conditions, official media reported on Thursday.

China’s smog has brought some Chinese cities to a near standstill, caused flight delays and forced schools to shut.

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    Jeremy Parsons
    Jeremy Parsons
    January 14, 2014 12:28 AM

    well thank god I waited to drink beer tonight. the water in the south is
    in large supply but it is all run off from the north and black. nothing
    lives in it. when I was in Hainin china I turned on the shower and it
    comes out yellow and smells like piss. oh I was naked and standing in the
    shower when I turned it on.

    Jeremy Parsons
    Jeremy Parsons
    January 14, 2014 12:33 AM

    gao is gonna miss me guys, soon I go to china to bring home my spanking
    brand new Chinese wife. she is Cantonese so yes a much better
    quality person than his kind, so I will be very busy banging my brains out
    and not able to play on youtube much. just be happy my video camera not
    on. you might go blind.

    SuspiciousComrade
    SuspiciousComrade
    January 14, 2014 12:36 AM

    crap crap and more crap

    Eric von Terrible
    Eric von Terrible
    January 14, 2014 12:39 AM

    They say the CCP stays in power because they feed the people. If studying
    the Third Reich has taught me anything, people fear uncertainty, and
    because the CCP provides security from this, they stay in power. I fear
    what the CCP will do with their backs to the wall, especially with regards
    to Japan. Vietnam? Money on Vietnam, remember the Sino-Veitamese War of
    1980 (I think that’s the year…)

    Sean James
    Sean James
    January 14, 2014 12:40 AM

    Stop drinking China’s water, the poor elite members of the CCP can’t fill
    their many pools in their mansions. I bet collecting rain water isn’t an
    option with the air pollution, it becomes undrinkable before it hits the
    ground!

    david gong
    david gong
    January 14, 2014 12:46 AM

    The result of greed?

    TheBuckeyeFarm
    TheBuckeyeFarm
    January 14, 2014 1:02 AM

    India has sanitation and water problems just like China. India fighting
    over water, and some rivers don’t even make it to the ocean anymore.
    Western U.S. needs to learn to conserve water, but the farmers need large
    amounts for their crops. All people of the world have problem with clean
    fresh water, because it brings new wars and conflicts.

    John Munro
    John Munro
    January 14, 2014 1:07 AM

    Why haven’t you done a video on the massive fire that burnt down a huge
    amount of shangri-la that was started in a newly built hotel and when the
    firefighters didn’t come and a local man opened a fire hydrant there was no
    water because the CCP turned them off!

    thomas cureton
    thomas cureton
    January 14, 2014 1:15 AM

    I’m going to live in Shanghai in September to study at Fudan university for
    a semester, this is quite startling, haha

    blazinchalice
    blazinchalice
    January 14, 2014 1:15 AM

    2:47 This is hyperbole and offensive. I’ve been to China. While the water
    conditions in Beijing were atrocious (undrinkable tap water at the Nikko
    Hotel, open sewage running in drains throughout the city), I took a shower
    and came out smelling fine.

    TENCENT
    TENCENT
    January 14, 2014 2:04 AM

    way to go

    Yu Wang
    Yu Wang
    January 14, 2014 2:19 AM

    Thanks for reminding me to help my country to build it much better. Thank
    you so much.

    Andrew Leung
    Andrew Leung
    January 14, 2014 2:20 AM
    MrGornowich
    MrGornowich
    January 14, 2014 2:21 AM

    wonder what crisis China is going to have next? Evil Mutants? *fingers
    crossed*

    thomas reddick
    thomas reddick
    January 14, 2014 2:42 AM

    Here is one for you Chris, up here in New York, Michigan and some other
    states sit up here on the great lakes, we have products that come into the
    states from china on freighter which they dump their water that they used
    for ballast which is filled with polluted water and holds all kinds of
    animals and material that is not native to the United States.. Like the
    zebra muscles and a fish called the Goby The freighters are asked by the
    country they are coming from to dump there ballast into our waters and then
    when they get to the port of call, they then take in our water from the
    great lakes to be used for ballast on their return trip which they bottle
    and sell as soon as they get back to the their own country. all this
    happens and our government gets on the sportsman with higher licence fees
    and more and more regulations on what we can do. Instead of tackling the
    real reasons.

    TheLongshot1982
    TheLongshot1982
    January 14, 2014 3:05 AM

    How does anybody survive with such unhealthy water? They have already
    murdered the Chinese river dolphin to be functionally extinct in less then
    40 years. How does it support a nation with over a billion people?….and
    now your telling me its going to effect another nation of over a billion
    people my spreading the problem????? the dead pig thing put a delicious
    taste of bile in my mouth, its such a clusterf@#$ it WILL effect the
    enviorment globally at some point if not already. If you know anything
    about the world currents and ecosystems etc. everything is in delicate
    balance…….WE ARE F@#$ED…… chris is the man!!!

    CodeStock
    CodeStock
    January 14, 2014 3:32 AM

    Maybe when Chinese will struggle with fulfilling basic needs like clean
    water they will finally wake up and do something about their idiotic
    government.

    Excalibur01
    Excalibur01
    January 14, 2014 3:35 AM

    Fuck, I’m going to be possibly staying with relatives for a month. Guess I
    can go for a month without brushing my teeth

    TheLoyalOfficer
    TheLoyalOfficer
    January 14, 2014 3:50 AM

    This story definitely has “legs” – to use the journalistic parlance.

    Long term, this may be China’s worst problem of them all.

    frangitofrangito
    frangitofrangito
    January 14, 2014 3:58 AM

    Depends. Some people love China, others don’t. Personally, I haven’t been
    there in 30+ years. Maybe it’s better now. Don’t know. But the last time I
    was there it was a shit hole. Beggars and pickpockets everywhere,
    government officials harassing you for bribes, unscrupulous drivers taking
    you for a ride and overcharging, and of course, endless government
    bureaucracy. Has anything changed, then? Let me know.

    Some have said that Chris’ videos give a negative view of China. I happen
    to enjoy them because he exposes the corruption and hypocrisy that is
    rampant in the country. I already HAVE a negative view of China. Maybe
    that’s why I’m such a big fan.

    As for evidence that dams cause seismic activity, China jailed a prominent
    and experienced local seismologist after he went public with his opposition
    to a dam being built on a fault line in Szechuan province a few months
    after the catastrophic earthquake there. How’s that for proof?

    recordmanful
    recordmanful
    January 14, 2014 5:10 AM
    Mojoman57
    Mojoman57
    January 14, 2014 6:13 AM

    Problem solved! Obama is selling fresh water from the Great Lakes to China.
    He’s such a nice guy.

    Daniel Ackerman
    Daniel Ackerman
    January 14, 2014 6:18 AM
    Neko Usagi
    Neko Usagi
    January 14, 2014 6:29 AM

    this might sound like a dumb comment but i thought china was distilled the
    sea water into drinkable water [or something like that] this is all so
    crazy though

    why don’t the china people rise up and fight…..or wait, they’re to weak
    from no water or air…..

    xbuster17
    xbuster17
    January 14, 2014 7:20 AM

    people are 70% water, china has to many people they say, solution, ccp run
    soylent green soda! it’s so simple! Chris just likes to exaggerate every
    tiny chinese problem!

    SPRoubi2020
    SPRoubi2020
    January 14, 2014 7:45 AM

    Why don’t they just build solar and wind powered desalinization plants
    along the coast and channel that water to areas in need? I know it sounds a
    little far-fetched, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

    Pingali Sivasehubabu
    Pingali Sivasehubabu
    January 14, 2014 4:49 PM

    WATER IN CHINA.

    SEAN PAN
    SEAN PAN
    January 14, 2014 4:55 PM

    Let’s make it clear, China is not censoring this information from their own
    people. In fact,they are doing the best and trying to develop the new
    technology to solve the problem. We hope they will succeed,we may learn
    something from them for our future. The only thing Chris can do with the
    bad spins is to fool you, my dear fellow Americans, but it won’t help us in
    any way.

    SEAN PAN
    SEAN PAN
    January 14, 2014 5:32 PM

    They are dealing with their own problems head on and will succeed some
    where down the line. What have our government been doing since Moon shots?

    Afrohog
    Afrohog
    January 14, 2014 8:47 PM

    Your so good at doing these vids dude, your both professional and
    interesting, never letting things get to dry. Not even this ep xD

    Assassinister Creed
    Assassinister Creed
    January 14, 2014 9:11 PM

    They should invent fake water.

    Theresa Youtubinator
    Theresa Youtubinator
    January 14, 2014 9:26 PM

    sad : (
    scary look you did at the beginning!

    TheMotoben
    TheMotoben
    January 14, 2014 9:59 PM

    It is a shame really. If China can afford to – and feels the need to –
    invest what is a truly staggering amount of money in the canal project,
    then the advances that they could make in de-salination would be amazing.
    After that, the solution could probably be franchised with Chinese plants
    de-salinating water cheaply for so many other countries. This would be at
    least some return for the investment, and it would be in cold hard foreign
    currency.

    NoLongeraTheory
    NoLongeraTheory
    January 14, 2014 10:48 PM
    Roger Van Zant
    Roger Van Zant
    January 14, 2014 11:30 PM

    Stuff like this is why I don’t think China is likely to become a hyperpower
    under CCP rule.

    Curtis Gregory
    Curtis Gregory
    January 15, 2014 12:22 AM

    +Zy Liu ,,, very true, I seen it happen in California.
    Worth repeating: http://fotomen.cn/2011/12/polution/2/
    All states in US have followed California, it really works.
    I clearly remember, me as a little guy, here in North Carolina.
    I felt the pain, I was fined $3500 for a small error I made while burning
    some garbage.

    akronzips101
    akronzips101
    January 15, 2014 3:14 AM

    china is like mexico on steroids, DIIRTY!

    pseudo123456
    pseudo123456
    January 15, 2014 4:57 AM

    wonder how much cloudseeding you need to fill up a lake?

    10WLan
    10WLan
    January 15, 2014 5:17 AM

    All right, now I know why chinese don’t wash themselves very much, there’s
    a reason. Luckly, their smell isn’t strong like ours and this is a bless in
    the Shanghai’s subway. Oh shit, I just noticed that two years in China made
    me a racist like them! Whatever, chinese people are good guys, except for
    all that makes them so stupid and corrupted. The communist party, indeed.

    Hammond Organ
    Hammond Organ
    January 15, 2014 5:38 AM

    It really smells like an addiction to large projects to keep 1.5 billion
    people employed, than anything realistically related to logic. Great video.

    shockwave2291
    shockwave2291
    January 15, 2014 11:03 AM

    What’s funny is that China has access to one of the largest freshwater
    sources in the world: The Himalayas. Despite this, the commie government
    still managed to make water shortage a major problem because of poor
    regulation

    Laurens van Rooijen
    Laurens van Rooijen
    January 15, 2014 6:12 PM

    I very much agree with the core statement: No matter how big the oppression
    is, a government that cannot deliver drinkable water, edible food and
    non-poisonous air to breath is facing a serious problem, for these are the
    basic needs of every individual. If China fails to adress this challenge,
    this will cause the fall of the CCP. Sooner or later.

    MabusZero
    MabusZero
    January 15, 2014 10:50 PM

    A very nice treatment of the fallacies of central management of resources.
    The incentive structures and logical limitations are commensurate to scale
    rather than intention.

    Kevin Sullivan
    Kevin Sullivan
    January 16, 2014 8:33 AM

    Look up “Life Straw” Its a tube that filters the filthiest water instantly.
    They cost around ten dollars and are given free to African children to
    drink from mud holes.
    They are probably made in china and could be made available to the public
    there.
    But like you said the Chinese government looks for mega solutions that
    cause more problems and overlook the simple answers.

    Pro 2 Gold
    Pro 2 Gold
    January 16, 2014 8:22 PM

    I wouldn’t swim in that pool of 1000 people, someone may have pee’d in that
    pool or worse made a Baby Ruth…

    p money
    p money
    January 17, 2014 3:55 PM

    i guess this is a part of the broader chinese movement towards energy
    securing, seems the military build up should help enforce that or make it
    easier to quell uproars

    Lance Alot
    Lance Alot
    January 17, 2014 9:14 PM

    Simple, We should bomb China or go to war IF they dont comply with New
    Regulations.

    Greginda11
    Greginda11
    January 18, 2014 1:04 AM

    as a worst case scenario, mass dehydration, revolution, military rebuff,
    tens to hundreds of millions dead.

    MrTankwu
    MrTankwu
    January 18, 2014 9:09 PM
    mailee le
    mailee le
    January 20, 2014 9:56 AM

    CCP does not care about his or her people only party. Chinese can die but
    not a party CCP wants to rule the China as long as they want and CCP is
    also rule everything” Disastrous.”

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