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China 'Forced World Bank' to Doctor Pollution Report
Spiegel ^ | July 4, 2007

Posted on 07/04/2007 8:05:12 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin2

China forced the World Bank to remove damning statistics from a pollution report, the Financial Times has revealed. Among the information cut was the figure that around 750,000 people die in China each year because of pollution.

According to a report in Tuesday's edition of the Financial Times, the Chinese government put pressure on the World Bank to take potentially damaging statistics out of a report on pollution in China.

Among the alleged cuts made were the report's finding that around 750,000 people in China are dying prematurely every year due to high levels of air pollution and poor water quality. Another deletion was a particularly damning map of China showing which parts of the country suffered from the most pollution-related deaths.

Chinese government officials asked the World Bank to cut the information when a draft was finished last year, the Financial Times reported. "The World Bank was told that it could not publish this information. It was too sensitive and could cause social unrest," one advisor to the study told the newspaper. Advisors said the World Bank "reluctantly" agreed to cut the information.

The report, titled "The Cost of Pollution in China," has not yet been officially published but a version which had been given at a conference in Beijing in March was available on the Internet.

* * *

The Financial Times was scathing of the Chinese government's behavior in an editorial published in its Wednesday edition. "Even in a China that is more capitalist than ever, the instinctive official response to bad news is to suppress it with all the force available to the nominally communist state," the newspaper wrote.

(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; environment; globalism; trade
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Why does the World Bank need to kowtow to the PRC?
1 posted on 07/04/2007 8:05:17 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin2
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

What a filthy rotten nation. what a compromising rotten World Bank.


2 posted on 07/04/2007 8:07:48 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

reminds me of polluted east germany.


3 posted on 07/04/2007 8:08:20 PM PDT by ken21
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

Ah youa porrution are come from us!


4 posted on 07/04/2007 8:09:46 PM PDT by stboz
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To: yldstrk
What a filthy rotten nation. what a compromising rotten World Bank.

Of which Paul Wolfowitz was still the President at the time of that fraudulent report. Wolfowitz is such a scumbag it really amazes me how many FReepers have gone to bat for him. He was the idiot who pushed for Iraqi elections way before their time. The one who (naively is too weak a word) said Iraqis would welcome us as "liberators". The one who paid off his Muslim office whore with World Bank funds. He is a scumbag. Period.

5 posted on 07/04/2007 8:14:25 PM PDT by montag813
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To: montag813

Yeah, what a dumbaxe.


6 posted on 07/04/2007 8:20:56 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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To: montag813

The one who paid off his Muslim office whore with World Bank funds.

I think more more went between and beyond these two than money and body fluids.


7 posted on 07/04/2007 8:29:31 PM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

It ruins the whole “America Is To Blame” scenario that the world’s socialists are pushing.


8 posted on 07/04/2007 8:33:22 PM PDT by airborne (COULTER: Actually, my favorite candidate is [Rep.] Duncan Hunter [R-CA], and he is magnificent.)
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

“..the instinctive official response to bad news is to suppress it with all the force available to the nominally communist state,..”

This sounds suspiciously like the tactics used by a former U.S. President and “beloved” First Lady.


9 posted on 07/04/2007 8:38:09 PM PDT by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

I don’t know how they could think that this would never get out. Governments can’t even prevent leaks at the highest level.


10 posted on 07/04/2007 10:21:37 PM PDT by Northern Alliance
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To: airborne

Perhaps we bare some blame because we import so much of their junk. They’ve sold us pet food recalls, lead in toys, etc. They have slave rings to build the junk we buy. It’s very hard to buy anything made in the U.S. because it is so expensive because there is so little of it. But if we had more manufacturing, I bet the cost would go down.


11 posted on 07/04/2007 11:53:13 PM PDT by Free Thinking Conservative
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

The entire “alt” media has given up hounding China on the Tibet issue and is busy ass kissing.. in every country, not just in US.


12 posted on 07/05/2007 12:00:24 AM PDT by design engineer
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To: Free Thinking Conservative

I completely agree.

That’s one of the reasons I’m supporting Duncan Hunter for President.

I know he will stand up to the China threat.


13 posted on 07/05/2007 7:42:58 AM PDT by airborne (COULTER: Actually, my favorite candidate is [Rep.] Duncan Hunter [R-CA], and he is magnificent.)
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To: ken21

A son of an aquitance worked in China for 6 months doing contract work. He would blow his nose and his snot was black-and he had a white collar job.
That’s why you see lot’s of people wearing face mask.

Welcome to communist China!!


14 posted on 07/05/2007 11:42:27 AM PDT by am452 (If you don't stand behind our troops feel free to stand in front of them!!)
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To: Free Thinking Conservative

Alternate markets exist which can compete with china on pricing for manufacturing for the US, but there is no way we can directly on most items. They are orders of magnitude cheaper in many areas than we can ever be. By this I mean that the problem isn’t that China is, say, 25% cheaper than making it in the US - they are more like 90-95% cheaper in areas I have been around or know people who have seen prices firsthand.


15 posted on 07/05/2007 1:24:47 PM PDT by WoofDog123
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To: DeaconBenjamin2; mom4kittys

Thanks for posting.


16 posted on 07/05/2007 5:19:59 PM PDT by sweetiepiezer (Boycott China)
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To: sweetiepiezer

You are welcome. Feel free to ping others.


17 posted on 07/05/2007 5:59:00 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin2
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To: Arizona Carolyn; mom4kittys; blam; Salamander; Red Badger; WakeUpAndVote; dirtboy; Overtaxed; ...

18 posted on 07/06/2007 4:33:36 AM PDT by mom4kittys (If velvet could sing, it would sound like Josh Groban)
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

And every year, they pollute the rest of us.

Excerpt:

China - April 6 and 7 - A series of huge sandstorm events called "the worst of the spring season" develop over Mongolia and sweep across western China reducing visibilities to near zero and making ground transportation all but impossible. The resulting huge aerosol cloud mass is picked up by orbiting earth satellites as it forms over China and heads out to sea.

(snip)

This Asian Haze event has been officially confirmed by:

* Jay R. Herman, Principal Investigator for TOMS Aerosol/UV projects, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
* Officials at the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, California
* Gene Feldman, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
* Russ Schnell, Director of Observatory Operations, NOAA, Boulder, Co.

(snip)

On April 6 and 7, a series of huge sandstorm events developed over Mongolia and swept across western China and subsequently produced a huge aerosol cloud that was observed by orbiting earth satellites.

(snip)

Dangerous Levels of Metallic Substances detected in latest 'yellow dust' from China
[Mar. 10, 2001]

"The latest seasonal winds from China, known as "yellow dust," which blanketed the nation earlier this week twice, carried 16 times more metallic substances than last year's, a research institute said yesterday, sounding health alarms over the dust mass.

There are no immediate measures to prevent the coming of the so-called "gatecrasher of spring" that causes eye, nose and respiratory illnesses. Experts say that it is best to remain indoors and if one has to go out, to wear a mask.

The yellow dust phenomenon happens after sandstorms are created in the inland deserts in northern China, usually during dry spring weather, by strong convection of currents of warm and cold air that sweeps soil particles up to high altitudes.

They typically rise to a height of 3 km to 5 km before blowing eastward at some 30 meters per second, crossing the West Sea before arriving in South Korea in two to three days.

In addition to potential health problems, the dust in extreme cases can cause visibility problems for pilots, hinder the operation of precision machinery and impair the growth of agricultural products.

There were reports the dust may have carried the viruses that caused a deadly foot-and-mouth epidemic that hit the nation's livestock industry last year.

NASA sets up it's own annual tracking of this mysterious dust cloud event:

From NASA


Background about the China Dust Storm

A Siberian cold front caused large dust storms to be created in northwestern China's Inner Mongolia region and Gansu province. As these storms hovered over northern China, they ushered in the worst period of air pollution in six years. Air quality in the capital city of Beijing reached hazardous levels, and elderly people and children were warned to stay indoors. At this latitude on the globe the air moves from west to east, so the dust storm which originated in China will move towards Japan. However, the storm is expected to weaken as it enters the Bohai Sea and the East China Sea. South Korea, which also lies in the storm's path, was also greatly affected, and the storm was its second-worst this year. The dust is actually a combination of sand from the Gobi Desert and chemicals from Chinese industrial cities that blow to the Korean Peninsula from westerly winds in April and May, reducing visibility and filling the country's skies with a thick blanket.

2007 tracking of the China dust cloud

19 posted on 07/06/2007 6:11:53 AM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: mom4kittys

see my post


20 posted on 07/06/2007 6:12:12 AM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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