【2010.8.10 经济学家】High cost of being green

gabirella

http://www.economist.com/blogs/asiaview/2010/08/defending_tai_lake



HONG KONG's South China Morning Post has an interesting account [behinda paywall] of how environmental damage, including a frenzy ofdam-building, may have exACerbated the landslides in Gansu province that have killedhundreds of people. The same has even been suggested in the China Economic Times [in Chinese], a proper part of China’state-owned press.

The part of Gansu struck by the landslides, Zhouqu county, is in China’s poor and remote west.Criticism of environmental malpractice there is less likely to hurt thereputations of the country's most powerful politicians—less likely than would,say, a similar report about one of the far wealthier regions in the east. It isperhaps out of an abundance of caution about such sensitivities that China’s media have been so reticent in theirreporting about the latest algal bloom in Tai Lake. This immense body of water straddles two ofChina’s richest provinces, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.Since a huge outbreak of algae in 2007, the leadership in Beijing has made a considerable fuss aboutcleaning it up. To admit failure would be embarrassing, especially so whilenearby Shanghaiplays host to the World Expo, with its theme of eco-friendly cities.

This leaves the task of whistleblowing to a handful of determined activists. Tai Lake’s best-knownindependent monitor is Wu Lihong, a 42-year-old former salesman who lives in avillage surrounded by paddy fields, close to the lake’s northern shore. Mr Wuwas released from prison in April after having served a three-year term forblackmail. He believes that local officials fabricated the case against him inorder to force his silence. Mr Wu says he was kept in a cell with two mentallyill prisoners, treated roughly throughout and that, when his wife was allowedto visit him, they were restricted to discussing family matters (and only inMandarin, not the local dialect—presumably to aid their Mandarin-speaking eavesdroppers).

But Mr Wu’s wife, Xu Jiehua, says he is regarded as ahero in their local community. Firecrackers were set off in the village tocelebrate his return. A photograph of Mr Wu standing outside the prison on theday of his release shows him clutching a big bouquet of flowers. Ms Xu noteswith a smile that it was not she, but a local well-wisher, who gave them.

The walls of their sitting room are adorned withreminders of better times: photographs of Mr Wu rubbing shoulders with seniorofficials in Beijingin 2005, when he was declared one of the country’s top 10 environmentalists; anenvironmental-award certificate given by the Ford Motor company in 2006. There is also evidence of why the authorities turned sour on him. Mr Wu takes downthree scrolls of calligraphy to show their reverse sides. They reveal acollection of 300-odd receipts from the post office, each one representing aregistered letter. These were the letters Mr Wu sent to leaders in Beijing concerning pollution in Tai Lake.He received no replies, but kept each one of the receipts, hidden on the backsof the scrolls. He wanted to keep the police from seizing this tangible proofthat at least he had tried.

As we reported in 2008, a detachment of plain-clothes security officers wereassigned to watch Mr Wu and Ms Xu’s house round-the-clock while he was in prison. They did not try to ward off foreign reporters, but it was clear thattheir presence was aimed at discouraging all but the most determined outsiders who might visit. The goons have gone, at last. The surveillance howeverhas not stopped, or so Mr Wu believes. He points to the single-lane road that cuts through the paddy fields. Something that looks like a traffic-controlcamera has been erected at each of three crossing-points along the road. Thereis barely any traffic to control; such cameras are not to be seen elsewhere onthese narrowest of country lanes.

Mr Wu is still a bit nervous. He took me to the lake tosee a patch of noxious-smelling algae, but then fretted about attracting theattention of a nearby contingent of men who had been detailed to scoop thealgae out. “It’s dangerous here,” he cautioned, referring to the men—not thepoisonous blue-green scum. A little inland he introduced the owner of afruit-tree orchard whom, Mr Wu said, had been warned by officials not to complainabout pollution to journalists. Sure enough, he didn't.

But Mr Wu shows little reticence when it comes to blamingofficialdom high and low, and even the Communist Party itself, for havingrobbed the lake of the beauty for which it was once renowned. He took me to seea village near his home, which he says local officials smartened up with newhouses in order to impress the high-level dignitaries who come to inspectpollution-control measures. “The local government is cheatingcentral-government officials and attacking the local masses”, he said. “Tai Lakeis even more polluted than before and no one pays attention.”  

gabirella

好久没来了。。。。。这篇自己先领了

yqh