Terrence Laster
China Could Lose Millions of Hectares of Farmland to Pollution
Millions of hectares (10,000 sq. meters) of agricultural land
in China could be withdrawn from production because of severe heavy-metal
pollution running through rivers that are near farmland. This not only pollutes
the rivers, but the surrounding soil and land making it unsafe to yield crops
from. An estimated 3.3 million hectares of land have been polluted which
accounts for 2% of China’s total farmland. The author credits his information
to Chex Xiwen, deputy director of China’s top agricultural authority and the
Central Committee of the Communist Party’s efforts to restore contaminated
farmland this year, outlined in The No 1 Central Document. The source of this
information is not a small party, nor one individual, giving this information a
much more ominous feel seeing as to how many people it pertains to and creates
a sense of urgency to immediately resolve the problem. Although this
information does not pertain directly to the U.S., it is worrisome because the
source of the pollution was industrial plants, pesticides, and fertilizers, all
of which exist in the United States. Being able to learn from this incident
abroad and taking steps to prevent it from occurring anywhere else in the world
would be nice, but seeing as how industrialized businesses treat the
environment as it already is, it is doubtful that steps of prevention will be
taken until it is already too late. This information relates to topics we’ve
discussed in class by exemplifying the effects that soil pollution and land
contamination can have on an economy, and how we treat the earth. After reading
this article, I find it most interesting that there was such a long response
time to this incident seeing as how contaminated crops were found in early
2013. It is also interesting to see the connection between earlier course
readings and how an expanding economy affected the environment which came back
and affected the economy.
Abby Hammond
Soil Contamination and Possible Threats to Human Health
In 2007, Salisbury, North
Carolina bought land that formerly belonged to a service station. The property
had been given a clean bill of health in 1991 and again in 2007 right before
the property was purchased. As the city began preparations to build a new
office for the local schools, massive amounts of soil contamination were found
on the property. Seven underground storage tanks were still on the land and
apparently there had been seven more on the land prior to the new ones and were
removed years earlier and replaced with the current ones. 3,500 tons of
contaminated soil was removed which came to a price of around $500,000. The
Senior Vice President of EMSL Analytical Inc. described that just by simply
touching contaminated soil, it can allow chemicals to be absorbed into people’s
skin and go airborne and inhaled. There have also been many cases in which
people can accumulate organ damage and even cancer just from touching soil contamination.
The fact that incidents like this happen so close to home and
land can be just as easily overlooked and marked "safe" by some
higher opinion makes me wonder what is really going on. If something like seven
UST's can be buried in a random piece of land, what does that say about the
land near your own home? finding storage tanks underneath your house is
unlikely, but landfills, for example, are completely common. This also relates
back to our discussions in class by providing a real life example of the
extremely negative effects of pollution.
Discussion Questions
- What would be some effective ways to reduce the amount of contamination in soil?
- If we continue treating our geosphere like we have been, what do you think it will look like in 50 years? Why?
- How is the geosphere important to human life?
Duggan, Jennifer. "China Could Lose
Millions of Hectares of Farmland to Pollution."Theguardian.com.
Guardian News and Media, 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
EMSL Analytical, Inc. "Soil Contamination
and Possible Threats to Human Health."On Environmental Expert.
N.p., 1 Mar. 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
