June 28, 2008
Well, they did say this was going to be a green Olympics...
A thick layer of mutant seaweed has bloomed over vast stretches of the 500-mile coastline of the Qingdao Bao, an Olympic sailing venue. As the algae can only be removed manually, the city has already mobilised 1,000 fishing boats and 3,000 people to haul in algae by the boatloads. Qingdao (青岛) which literally means "green island" is prone to summer algae infestations this time of the year, but apparently this is the worst the city has ever seen, and scientists at the Qingdao Weather Bureau believe this to be due to "warmer waters, increased rainfall and high levels of nutrients in the ocean". Last year, algae outbreaks occurred simultaneously in freshwater lakes all across China. When the Olympics comes, officials in the city will be praying for wind. Last August, a regatta at the 430-million-dollar marina "saw contestants drift in a windless Yellow Sea".
All pictures from xinmin.cn
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China is a big pile of filthy rubbish. And it is our fault for exposing the rest of the world.
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Beijing 'running out of water'
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last updated: 6:45 PM BST 27/06/2008
Beijing is running out of water, an environmental group has claimed in a report
which raises more questions over the costs of China's rapid development.
Such is the extent of the shortage that the city might have to start shutting
down industry and moving population out within the next decade.
Six weeks before the Olympics, the report said preparations were making matters
worse despite claims that they would be the first "Green Olympics".
Water was being diverted to new expanses of greenery and waterways around the
city even as rivers across central and northern China were being diverted to
the capital to provide basic supplies.
The report, Beijing's Water Crisis: 1949-2008 Olympics, said the Games would
consume 200 million cubic metres of water, a million people's annual supply at
current rates of reserves.
"With each new project to tap water somewhere else, demand for water only
increases, and at an ever greater cost to China's environment and economy," the
report, by Canada-based Probe International, said.
Probe has previously questioned China's approach to water management, which
focuses on mega-projects such as the Three Gorges Dam and now the South-North
water diversion scheme.
This huge proposal could see three canal networks bringing water up from the
River Yangtse and Tibet to replenish the Yellow River south of Beijing, and
ultimately the capital itself.
The first phase of the project, a 200-mile northern arm of the central network,
is almost complete.
Beijing has no major rivers and draws much of its water from underground, mining
deeper every year, and by diverting supplies from rural areas of the
surrounding province of Hebei.
Grainne Ryder, Probe's policy director, said studies predicted that even this
could prove inadequate within five to ten years.
"I would imagine it would be a phased shut-down of its economy, an economic
collapse," she said.
Chinese officials acknowledge the extent of the problem, but have been reluctant
to implement one of the major reforms recommended by the report – raising
prices to encourage efficiency – at a time when urban populations are facing
rising food and petrol prices.
Story from Telegraph News:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2206744/Beijing-%27running-out-of-water%27.html
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Something tells me someone out there is going to collect this mutant seaweed and then:
barely wash it (b/c already from "freshwater")
dry it
sprinkle some salt
wrap it 3 times
package it
then sell it as either an invigorating tea, vitamin soup subsitute, or an aphrodisiac.
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Or it could end up on your table the next time you're at some Japanese restaurant. Hah!
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yangrouchuan got the "sofa",it's his showtime again.
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I'm not an expert on water supply strategies but couldn't countries turn to desalination when other sources of drinkable water is depleted?
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desalination requires considerable energy, which creates waste heat energy and adds to greenhouse gas emissions (or has some other environmental impact if, say nuclear is the power source) and creates a concentrated waste product. On a scale necessary to provide water for a big chunk of northern China? Could help, but can't solve the underlying problem and creates new ones.