My new found inner environmentalist couldn't help but do a double take at the city of Linfen, it has not so recently been declared(by the World Bank) the most polluted city in the world. Woah. Aside from ruining its tourism the label opened the eyes of the Chinese government to make serious changes in it's environmental policy. I was startled at this impressive title and found out what is at the root of all the pollution, it's our favorite energy source and our good friend coal. Who can blame them? I mean it's probably the best solution for this formerly small town, now inhabited by 4million+ and the coal capital of China. I mean it's coal, it's affordable, readily available, and has provided economic growth for most of China. Only if it didn't cause mass health problems throughout Shanxi province, resulting in 1 out of every 2 deaths to be cancer related. Oh yeah, and did I mention that they haven't seen a blue sky in a bit. If 20 years was a bit. Linfen used to be known as the 'Modern Fruit and Flower Town', but I don't think that one has been on the postcards for a 'bit'. All the natural springs have dried up due to over pumping of the groundwater, and surrounding farmlands have also become desolate. Now, all that economic growth I was talking about earlier isn't necessarily a bad thing. But if you consider all that growth is centered around coal and not much else, then the problems arise. Many villagers would open up private mines in attempt to grab some of that economic 'growth'. Power to the People, right? Wrong. Private mines are in the process of being destroyed or buried by the government, and are considered highly illegal. Why would the government get in the way of such a lucrative practice you ask? Well it turns out the peoples who owned these private mines didn't really know a whole lot about disposing the toxic by-products safely. Well I wouldn't say that, they did a good job of safely putting everything back into the water supply. Anyways the problems facing Linfen are innumerable but there is hope on the horizon (figuratively that is, you can't see the horizon through the smog usually). They have cut the numbers of mines drastically from around 390 cut down to 128, and have implemented renewable power sources such as solar water heaters on the roofs. This is all speculation of course, and we can't really be sure of what is the truth and what is a PR revamp. I hope we can see what a coal based energy system can lead to, in the small time frame of 30 years.
Julian
below are some links to a video produced by Vice profiling Linfen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4DtOhe2LfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d-Ky7Se-v8
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