For decades now, the economy has been the buzzword in China – development at all costs, and that includes the environment. But as living standards and awareness increase, the Chinese public are showing signs that they are no longer prepared to put up with pollution.
Large-scale protests have tended to target factories and public waste incinerators. But now coal has come into the line of fire. This comes as no surprise. Putrid, grey ash coats the fields, homes and clothes of people living in the vicinity of power stations across China. Communities are suffering the effects of this toxic sludge – which contains arsenic, mercury, lead and over a dozen other toxic heavy metals – and the accompanying health risks: cancer, heart and lung disease, gastrointestinal illnesses and birth defects, to name but a few.
