From the NY Times:
China’s government on Tuesday unveiled its most detailed survey ever of the pollution plaguing the country, revealing that water pollution in 2007 was more than twice as severe as was shown in official figures that had long omitted agricultural waste.
A few of you have been discussing how measurement isn't science. Which is, of course, true. But measurement is important to all scientific endeavors, as well as policy analysis. This environmental census may be a step in the right direction for China. Or it might not. China, as we well know, lacks the domestic mechanisms for downward accountability (like elections) that often make pressures for environmental reforms possible.
When dealing with policy issues, we are often tempted to just "do something," but without good data, often, the best we can do at knowing what the appropriate course of action is is just guesswork.
For the whole story, see here.
4 comments:
Ah China, the country that could quite possibly cause the eventual environmental degradation of the entire world...wake up and smell the pollution!
Brian, please do realize that per/capita we produce far more than the Chinese. That the Chinese are actually acknowledging the problem and not obfuscating it as they have in the past should not be taken lightly.
*produce far more pollution...
Now that China is aware of how big of a problem they have with pollution it is their job to try and help solve this problem.
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