Estimates from state-affiliated researchers say that anywhere between 8%
and 20% of China's arable land, some 25 to 60 million acres, may now be
contaminated with heavy metals. A loss of even 5% could be disastrous, taking
China below the "red line" of 296 million acres of arable land that
are currently needed, according to the government, to feed the country's 1.35
billion people.
Rural China's toxic turn is largely a consequence of two trends, say environmental researchers: the expansion of polluting industries into remote areas a safe distance from population centers, and heavy use of chemical fertilizers to meet the country's mounting food needs. Both changes have been driven by the rapid pace of urbanization in a country that in 2012, for the first time in its long history, had more people living in cities than outside of them.
-from a story in today's Weekend Edition of the WSJ, entitled "China's Bad Earth".
Among other things, the rice harvest is becoming increasingly toxic and in decline.
Not enough little girls and younger women, the air fouled by pollution, resulting in shorter life-expectancies, and now this. What is to become of China? Believe me, that bell will toll for us.
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