Environmental disaster and public information in China
Melody Dickison, who teaches in Huber Heights, OH, sent me a link to this article from The Guardian (UK). It's a good reminder that watching how a political system responds to major events can be a good lesson in how the system works (or doesn't work). Thanks, Melody.China has had a couple environmental problems recently. Has China done a better job covering up its oil disasters than the US did? Is this a matter of government policy or commercial concern? Or both? Or is it just an artifact of complex situations?
Chinese oil spill half the size of London went unreported for a month
Polluted water. Murky information. Public anger. Government promises of transparency and oversight to prevent a recurrence. And then, a short time later, it all happens again.
Watching the 840 square km oil slick now polluting China's Bohai Sea and listening to the excuses of the companies and officials involved, it is hard to avoid a sense of deja-vu.
It has taken a month for news to emerge about the leak from a well in the Penglai 19-3 field operated by the US energy company ConocoPhillips in partnership with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation…
Xinhua, the state newswire, has blamed the US oil company for the leak and quoted officials who claimed the slow release of official information was due to "technical limits"…
See also:
- Conoco faces rising Bohai Bay Spill Costs
- China oil spill spreads but not as big as BP oil spill in Gulf
- China oil spill doubles in size, called 'severe threat'
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Labels: China, environment, policy, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:01 AM
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