Chinese Water: A Picture is Worth... [Updated]

omg, that's horrible

"In preparing for the Olympics, China has converted its lakes and rivers to transport all the flavors of Gatoraid."

I feel sick and weepy for their land

this looks like my fridge in college.

Ditto on the horrible. I just blogged a few comments about this photo you posted, and the one thing that occurred to me after the loud OMFG i let out, was that the chinese must be pretty hardy people. To be able to drink that stuff, and live...

Please tell me that this is an improperly labeled image.

Now that they have totally poisoned their land and are the verge of health epidemics, the people will revolt.

When the Chinese Communist Party is threatened, they will try to take America's land in order to appease the people.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/5-8-8/31055.html

I'm a bit puzzled by the blue and red water...

Ok, but where is the water?
lol

Uh.. red and cyan water? Is that from some chemicals already in the water or is that after they've done some testing with the samples?

I somehow doubt the authenticity or at least interpretation of the image.

hmm.
looks like the renound peckham spring of only fools and horses fame

keep it up del boy, you must have made it big in china.

if mr wu lilyong knew what was best for him... he'd bottle the stuff and start selling it on ebay as art/history/archaeology relics of china's industrial boom/bloom.

thereby exporting toxic wastes and breaching BAN guidelines. oops.

I really don't believe this picture is what it looks on the outside. I would really like the thousand words or so that it is supposed to be worth. Perhaps the bright colors are the colors the water turn after being tested for certain toxins. This is still gross, but more believable. Anyone have a more detailed description of this photo?

"I really don't believe this picture is what it looks on the outside. I would really like the thousand words or so that it is supposed to be worth. Perhaps the bright colors are the colors the water turn after being tested for certain toxins. This is still gross, but more believable. Anyone have a more detailed description of this photo?"

I've seen similar things in India. Textile factories dump their used chemicals and dyes into the water, which explains the colors..

I agree....the water can't be red and cool-aid blue. Maybe the water turned that color when they tested it. I'm not sure if that would make me feel better, but still...Treehugger now that you have my attention I would like the thousand words to explain what is happening here please. Can it really be red like that?

of course that's the real water color! they're tinged with dyes from fabric companies.

that's the whole point.

It's real. And you could have gotten water of all those colors in the US too, before the clean water act.

When you "Dye" cloth, not all of the water and color is absorbed... Where do you think it goes?

i wonder what the deal is with the black one.

and wow....

Rivers in Mexico are running blue-green from textile dyes as well. We just posted on it in TH.

I have travelled a lot in China, but never saw so many heavy pollutions in rivers and lakes

I believe that! Don't even start going to the rivers, just go through Jakarta on a weekday, where you're almost gridlocked by one of the canals. Heat + humidity + pick a color from that bottle in the picture = unberable smell. I have no idea what the heck in the black water, I swear, the water is either dark green or black, but really, I have decided not be intrigued to find out for myself - maybe the guy who does water quality analysis in Indonesia can find out for me (grimaces).

Man, the Chinese have it made. Here in the States, people actually have to go to the store and BUY drinks that look like that....and here they are, with RIVERS of the stuff running everywhere, for FREE! Lucky bastards....

If textile dyes are the case, there is a lesson to be learned: we need to make less visible toxins to put in our water. Though, still no one can draw any real credible conclusions about this photo, until the photographer/organization ellaborates on it themselves. Colored water, just like clear water, can be both benign and dangerous.

As a side note, I feel sorry for all the places that don't have bright colored contaminated water. You know, the places with just plain contaminated water. They won't nearly get as much attention because they won't make a good of picture.

Oh, and there is no real way to tell from the picture what lakes and rivers, how many, what locations etc... the samples were taken from. One cannot conclude from the picture how little or big the problem is. We see red and blue water and we are shocked. The study (if there was one) was probably looking for contaminated water (as opposed to reflecting the proportions of good water to bad water in this snapshot).

I really don't think water contamination is good, I swear : /

...and they have nukes!

Anyone who refuses to believe these are the real water are ignorant. In america (or other developed nations) this would be unacceptable. In china, it isn't. Thats what the picture is supposed to show.

Damn.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070510/sc_afp/chinaenvironmentrights_070510172925

here is a link with another picture and a tad more information.

It's real. Check out the movie 'Manufactured Landscapes'. Some of that I'm sure is the run-off (shown in the movie) of massive piles of old computer parts that it rains on and then the water hits the rivers...also textiles, tires, and any other kind of factory with no regulations. How is this even surprising, much less doubted by commenters on here? Great picture though. Here are a few pictures of pollution in China, including one with a tomato red river. No, not Gatorade.

http://media.canada.com/gallery/Greenpeace%20Guide/1.jpg

http://i.treehugger.com/files/th_images/a-chinese-child-sits-amongst-a.jpg

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060606_09.jpg

http://www.pacificenvironment.org/img/original/China%20water%20pollution_2.jpg

Has anyone actually been to China and seen this, get a grip people.........

I can set up a picture to look like this for any country

This is a great website but wheres the flag and i am a big tree hugger too!!!!!

it must be true.
I live in beijing.

The company I work for imports items from China. We are having a lot of issues because factories are being forced to shut down operations due to the pollution. I've talked to several people and they say the water does look like this. It's just terrible that the water has to be visibly polluted before they'll do anything about it!

Our goverment here in nz is too damn cheap to buy so much gatorade, i am moving to china, paying 3 dollars for gatorade like a sucker!

the water situation in China is nearly unbelievable, that is why this picture is present in place of yet another article about Chinese water pollution..saying"this must be a mistake" is ignorance.

the water situation in China is nearly unbelievable, that is why this picture is present in place of yet another article about Chinese water pollution..saying"this must be a mistake" is ignorance.

If you want to see something closer to home, check google maps for a place called Fort Makay, Alberta. You'll see a tailings pond 6 kms. long and over 2 kms. wide next to the center of town, it's part of the oil production of the tar sands project. This is just one of dozens of such tailings ponds made for the purpose of oil refining. Want to stop this practice? Get an electric car, or ride transit. As far as China goes, you can see the effects of unbridled economic expansion. Pressure your local elected officials, we do here in B.C., and you'll have more effect than if you show a look of horror on your face while filling in a comment box.

A good solution to the problem is a major nuclear cleanup. A couple nukes and that should put their population in check. The Chinese don't care about anyone or anything. They cut off shark fins and dump the sharks back in the ocean, just for some soup! They kill whales, for research(yea right)! They eat endangered species as aphrodisiacs, like they need to procreate anyways. If not nukes, cut their nads off and put birth control in their municipal water! They do nothing good for the world.

is this that "how they stay so thin trick" i keep hearin about? I'd rather be fat...