Current Events: January 7, 2010

Large Oil Spill Reported in China

By David Barboza
Published: January 3, 2010

SHANGHAI — A large oil spill in northwest China has heavily polluted a tributary of the Yellow River, and threatens to reach one of the country’s longest and most important sources of water.

There was a leak of a pipeline in China that contaminated the Yellow River on a large scale. The cause of the leak is unknown, but there have been actions taken to remove the contaminated materials in the area. I like what China is doing about this whole situation, because the officials are at least getting rid of the material that would cause harm for the people further down the river. The problem i do have with this whole thing is where are they putting the material that's contaminated? They obviously aren't putting it somewhere were it will disappear so it needs to be somewhere in the country. This doesn't sit right with me because other land will be infected with this, and the environment will pay the price too. China is doing the right thing, but they can improve on what they are doing. Maybe they can convert the contaminated stuff into other things to put less stress on the environment.