While
Australia ramps up its export of greenhouse gas emissions (coal and gas), at
the expense of national icons such as the Great Barrier Reef, spare a thought
for the recipients in south east Asia as reported in The Guardian.
According
to a Greenpeace-commissioned report by Dr Andrew Gray, a US-based expert on air
pollution, emissions from coal plants in China were responsible for a quarter
of a million premature deaths annually, and are damaging the health of hundreds
of thousands of Chinese children.
The
statistics are staggering, with estimates that coal burning in 2011 alone, “led
to 320,000 children and 61,000 adults suffering from asthma, 36,000 babies
being born with low weight, was responsible for 340,000 hospital visits, and
141 million days of sick leave”.
In
Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces, pollution levels have repeatedly
been off the charts, leading to soaring sales of air purifiers and face masks,
with retailers struggling to meet demand. The city of Nanjing recently issued a
red alert for pollution for five consecutive days.
It is
well known that coal burning, even in modern power plants, produces heavy metal
and particulate pollution which, according to the editor of China Dialogue, an
independent website that publishes information and debate on the environment in
China, is now occurring in China, “on a scale that is getting quite
extraordinary”.
Dr Gray reports
“while the growth of coal consumption has slowed, 570 new coal-fired plants
are either being built or are planned, and if they go ahead would be
responsible for a further 32,000 premature deaths each year”.
The
Chinese government has announced a plan to tackle air pollution including, for
the first time, measures to cut coal consumption by 2017.
So the
Australia will have four years of increased production. Does this justify continuing its plans to
increase Hunter Valley air pollution, and spread it to areas like Gunnedah and
Boggabri ? Does it justify polluting the Great Barrier
Reef, destroying the critically endangered woodland communities of the Leard
State Forest, Bimblebox Sanctuary, and the Pilliga State Conservation Area,
along with the threatened wildlife that call those forests home?
-
John Edwards
This post was originally published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Daily Examiner on 27 January, 2014.
