Tech | December 22, 2011 | 7 comments

Occupying China to protest polluting coal plants

source: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/12/21/393761/video-30000-chinese-occupy-coal-plants/

JanforGore
Tens of thousands of residents in China’s southern Guandong Province gathered in the streets yesterday, occupying a highway to demonstrate against the development of a new coal plant near Shantou city. The residents say existing coal plants in the area are fouling local air and water, and are making people sick.

Each year, protests spring up to counter the construction of dirty coal plants. But this appears to be the biggest yet. Officials now say they will abandon plans to build a new coal plant in the area. Two people were reportedly killed in clashes with police, but the government is denying those reports.

China’s coal use has exploded over the last few decades. Since 1980, coal consumption in China has grown 500%, and now represents three quarters of consumption in Asia. That has coincided with a five-fold increase of lung cancer since 1970, now the leading cause of death in China. (Of course, an increase in smoking is also a huge contributor.)

Watch the protesters gather in the streets throughout Guandong Province protesting coal plants and local land rights:

More at the link
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7 comments // Occupying China to protest polluting coal plants // Video

  • artemis6
  • LivingPong
    • 0
      LivingPong  

    • Good old Australian coal, making people sick across the globe for maximum profits while short changing the very people working to dig it up for the companies.

    • 5 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • Anonmaly
    • +1
      Anonmaly  

    • I miss the good ole' days.... Thinking Obama was going to be forceful with our own coal industry, his promises or comments about making it basically economically impossible for them to continue in the way they previously have....

      So much for change.....

    • 5 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • Anonmaly:

      http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/12/21/394345/video-obama-announces-historic-...

      The Obama administration, under the leadership of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, is finally closing loopholes in the Clean Air Act that allowed coal plants built before 1970 to have uncontrolled pollution. The EPA has established two rules for these dirty power plants, the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that curbs pollution that crosses state lines, and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that finally limit mercury pollution. These rules, which would save tens of thousands of lives a year and improve the health of millions of Americans, have been the target of brutal attack by polluters and their conservative allies. The Associated Press’s Dina Cappiello surveyed the plant operators who would be affected by these rules, and discovered that the “average age of the plants that could be sacrificed is 51 years“:
      The average age of the plants that could be sacrificed is 51 years. These plants have been allowed to run for decades without modern pollution controls because it was thought that they were on the verge of being shuttered by the utilities that own them. But that didn’t happen.
      The number of plants that will be shuttered, the AP found, is as low as 32 and as high as 68. The survey, “based on interviews with 55 power plant operators and on the Environmental Protection Agency’s own prediction of power plant retirements, rebuts claims by critics of the regulations and some electric power producers.”
      These dirtiest coal plants in America are toxic dinosaurs, enjoying loopholes in the original Clean Air Act of 1970 and the updated rules in 1990. Some of the plants were built when Harry S Truman was president.

    • 5 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • Based on the health effects and death mining and using coal has brought to China, coal is definitely NOT cheap. People are seeing this now and want change. Good to see this happening in China.

    • 5 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • Image
    • JanforGore:

      We could use more protests like this right here in the USA.

      http://www.desmogblog.com/report-arsenic-coal-ash-disposal-sites-leaching-ground...

      18 December 11
      Report: Arsenic From Coal Ash Disposal Sites Leaching Into Groundwater

      The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) has released a startling report showing that coal ash dumps near coal-burning power plants are leaching arsenic and other toxic chemicals into water supplies. The new report identifies 20 new sites in 10 different states where coal ash is contaminating water supplies. These sites are in addition to the 33 coal ash disposal sites that EIP identified earlier this year that are contaminating water supplies.

      From an EIP release:

      “EIP has identified a total of 20 additional coal ash dump sites causing groundwater and soil contamination in 10 states – Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. These include 19 sites where coal ash appears to have contaminated groundwater with arsenic or other pollutants at levels above Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL). All but two have also measured concentrations of other pollutants – such as boron, molybdenum, and manganese – above EPA-recommended Health Advisories for children or adults. In addition, our report includes new information about 7 previously recognized damage cases, including stunning evidence of groundwater more toxic than hazardous waste leachate.
      After EPA documented 67 proven or potential ‘damage cases’ in 2007, we found groundwater or surface water contamination at 70 additional sites, and submitted our analysis to EPA in two reports released in February and August of 2010. The current report brings the total number of damage cases identified by EPA and other groups to 157.”

    • 5 months ago
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