”Made in China” Ping.
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Posted on 11/04/2007 5:19:35 AM PST by JACKRUSSELL
(LESHAN, China) -- A few years back, the Leshan Giant Buddha started to weep.
Or so some locals imagined when black streaks appeared on the rose-colored cheeks of the towering 7th-century figure, hewn from sandstone cliffs in the forests of southern China. They worried they had angered the religious icon.
The culprit, it turned out, was the region's growing number of coal-fired power plants. Their smokestacks spew toxic gases into the air, which return to earth as acid rain. Over time, the Buddha's nose turned black and curls of hair began to fall from its head.
"If this continues, the Buddha will lose its nose and even its ears," said Li Xiao Dong, a researcher who has studied the impact of air pollution in Sichuan Province, the statue's home. "It will become just a piece of rock."
China's ancient buildings, tombs and stone carvings have weathered storms, invading armies and thieves. Now, they face a new threat, a by-product of the rapid economic development that has lifted so many Chinese out of poverty.
More than 80 percent of China's 33 U.N.-designated World Heritage sites, including the Leshan Buddha, have been damaged by air pollution and acid rain, mostly from the burning of coal, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency.
"The level of pollution that China is creating will be devastating to these monuments," said Melinda Herrold-Menzies, a professor of environmental studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.
Chinese officials are starting to acknowledge the downside of unbridled development. Qiu Baoxing, the vice minister of construction, blamed the devastation of historic sites on "senseless actions" by local officials in pursuit of modernization, the government-run China Daily newspaper reported in June......
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
T Too bad, so sad. Maybe they will stop when much of the population comes down with lung diseases. Let’s hope they don’t demand we pay for it.
Seems that would incense some buddies, don't you think?
It's not the dependence on coal, per se, that is the problem. It's the refusal to spend money on modern scrubbers and other treatment technologies. They'd rather spend it on military modernization.
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