Eucalyptus

To-day is Qingdao on the whistlestop tour. China's fourth largest port, it is also a resort of tall order and will host the diving and sailing in the Olympics. When I arrived Wednesday I had an unfavourable impression. Haggling over a declared price for hotel room was one item, the haze which I thought was pollution another. Yesterday shone bright, as indeed is to-day, and I have seen some very beautiful sights. This was a German treaty concession, bombarded by the allies and Japanese and occupied by the latter. But the theme of this post is environment. The pollution north of here influenced my first impression. China has an air quality problem which of course affects us all. Mercury laden clouds from here show up in North America. A friend says Newsweek has just reported 200 new coal burning power stations are on line. Coal mining production has increased 100 per cent in the last two years. Unsafe coal mines lead to as many as 15,000 deaths underground each year. Asia Pacific Paper (Indonesia) has just opened a new pulp mill in Hainan, the Hawaii of China in the south, but the mill scrimps to find the trees. A southern province has just given the ok to the cutting of tree lined highways (a la France) to feed the mill. Any replacement of natural species will be monoculture eucalyptus. Sea landfill is rampant here in Qingdao and in Guandong. Fifty per cent of China's beaches have gone in the last few decades. Coral takes a beating. But the news is not all bad. Environmental issues appear in the engish language China Daily regularly. It reports on many initiatives. Beijing is to spend billions overcoming sandstorm problems. Hangzhou has opened a major wetland recuperation project. Solar panels and sound or movement activated lights are all over the place. I think I should found a Green Party here to take on the reds (no not the Grits).