China Cancels Environmental Report

Governments around the globe continue to prioritize the short-term gains of economic growth over the long-term costs of environmental destruction. But with mounting property damage and increasing reports of illnesses such as asthma, nations can’t help but be embarrassed about the costs associated with environmental neglect. In early July, China convinced the World Bank to alter parts of a report estimating premature deaths from air pollution. Then China canceled a report for calculating costs of pollution in terms of gross domestic production. Some suggest that the central government is reluctant to acknowledge the problem, but others point to an internal struggle: Local governments throughout China, who favor economic growth and fear rankings and enforcement based on environmental damage, may have pressured the central government to abandon the report. China – with some of the strongest pollution policies in the world, but ineffective and inconsistent enforcement – promised to accept World Bank recommendations. An economic boom offers little compensation for those who suffer the poisonous effects of water and air pollution. – YaleGlobal