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Ecology damage severe, say 95pc in online survey (EMERALD DONG - The South China Morning Post)
November 22, 2006 9:19 AM
Copyright The South China Morning Post
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The mainland’s environmental problems are grave and local governments are bent on economic growth at the expense of the country’s ecology, according to the majority of respondents to a nationwide online survey.
The survey, organised by the China Youth Daily and Tencent, China’s largest instant messaging service provider, found that about 95 per cent of the 6,600 respondents rated the nation’s environmental degradation as severe and 70 per cent felt local government paid little regard to green priorities.
Water pollution topped the list of respondents’ concerns, with 87.1 per cent of people worried about its effects, followed by air pollution, domestic and industrial waste, food contamination, desertification and noise pollution.
The poll was conducted in response to the China Meteorological Administration’s (CMA) announcement earlier this month that Beijing had been classified for the first time as an “acid-rain city” and 80 per cent of the city’s rainfall in August was acid rain.
But the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau responded by saying its tests found that in July and August only 5.9 per cent of precipitation in the capital was acid rain.
More than 60 per cent of the respondents said they were not surprised by the CMA’s conclusion and about 80 per cent feared their communities suffered acid rainfall.
Prominent environmentalist Li Hao , from the Beijing Earthview Environment Education and Research Centre, said she believed the survey results reflected feelings in the community.
“Many of my friends are more and more concerned about the environment, a stark contrast to their casual attitude towards it years ago. And they have started to link the problems it poses to their health,” Dr Hao said.
Although most of those polled thought the central government should assume the most responsibility for the poor environmental situation, Dr Hao said mid-level cadres should shoulder the blame.
“I think they’re really indifferent and do their jobs just for the leaders to see, not for the public good.”
Dr Hao said her attempts to generate interest in recycling and better waste management among staff at sub-district offices had not paid off.
“Although the Beijing government said garbage sorting in communities had been successfully implemented, they just get the result from the number of rubbish bins they’ve delivered. The fact is, few residents are actually doing it because of the inadequate publicity by sub-district offices,” she said.
Cheng Mei, part of the China Youth Daily team that organised the one-week online survey, said the poll was in direct response to the CMA’s acid-rain results and [was] designed to gauge people’s awareness of the problem.
“If people are aware of acid rain, which is something that can’t be easily detected, then we think it shows that people are aware that there are many problems lying behind environmental issues,” Ms Cheng said.
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