The Last Empire

An article in the Jan/Feb issue of Mother Jones entitled The Last Empire was one of the most enlightening articles I've read recently. The writer is Jacques Leslie and his research centered upon the desertification of China. I knew that pollution was a huge problem in that part of the globe but I never dreamed the extent was so catastrophic. The overgrazing of animals, the cutting of forests and the sheer number of Chinese are turning the country into a large desert. Scientist predict that in as little as three to five years, Beijing could be buried in sand. I mean nothing in that city would be able to move. Can you imagine? Half the country's waterways contain human and animal waste. Four-hundred thousand of its citizens die prematurely from lung disease caused by air pollution. The ten percent increase in yearly GDP is offset by the ten percent rise in environmental damage. Their spectacular economic revitalization has, in effect, a zero sum. They are destroying themselves by copying the American economic system. But enough of China's citizens are waking up to the realities of Western-style capitalism that daily protests are a common site. Even the state run media is critical of its governmental officials. If the problems were contained to only China, the rest of the world could shrug and say, "So what?" But the polluting dust created by their attempt at industrializing their nation flows upward and is carried by the jet stream to all corners of the earth, adding a stifling dose of greenhouse gases. What to do? Is China past the tipping point? I think so, but I hope I'm wrong. As China goes, so goes the world. Let's hope that vast Asian nation turns around and realizes the folly of imitating America. Now if only America can wake up...