Mayor Swaps Pollution Problems for Unemployment Woes

Mayor Swaps Pollution Problems for Unemployment Woes
Jul 03, 2015 By eChinacities.com

A mayor in Shandong took drastic measures to fight pollution in his city, and became the first example in the entire country to do so in such a manner. As a result of his actions, over 60 thousand people have lost their jobs.

Four months ago, after newly passed environmental laws, the mayor of Linyi, Shandong was summoned by the Ministry of Environmental Protection for serious pollution in his city. It was the first time for any mayor to be summoned under the new law, and the city was under heavy pressure. Linyi was even featured on big name state programming such as “Topics in Focus,” causing the city to attract national attention.

As a result, the mayor made a big move against 57 major polluters requiring them to halt production. The industries that were forced to halt production operations included steel, concrete, coal, and other industries. This became the first-ever example of such a large measure to be taken in addressing pollution, but unfortunately over 60,000 people lost their jobs..

A local bank regulation commission said that there’s 100 billion RMB in loans tied up with the affected industries, and that the entire city won’t likely be able to receive new loans because of it.

Source: view.inews.qq.com

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Keywords: Shandong province China pollution

6 Comments

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Nessquick

all and all around, as I see it in my eyes, Shanghai air is this year much cleaner then the years before. So something really started, go on with this China, please. Next step, limit the cars on the roads, tax the gasoline like they do in my country, so the price double :)

Jul 06, 2015 09:44 Report Abuse

Guest2781358

Too far of a stretch to create eco friendly jobs for the 0.1 percent that became unemployed?

Jul 05, 2015 18:09 Report Abuse

dongbeiren

In all fairness there sometimes is a delicate balancing act between environmental protection and economic development. Though shaving 1-2% off gdp to clean up the air and water certainly seems reasonable, not so much though if you're one of the people put out of work by it.

Jul 04, 2015 13:49 Report Abuse

Guest2301262

"60,000 people lost their jobs.." while 97.3 million (population of shandong, 2014) live a longer, healthier life

Jul 04, 2015 09:55 Report Abuse

coineineagh

This is a charade. Act I: Government 'wants' to do something about pollution, so they chastise a mayor. Act II: Mayor 'takes action' to meet the new laws, putting people out of jobs and freezing investments. Act III: Media presents the 'facts' as they have been laid out, with 2 options being: (A) Protect environment at the cost of jobs and investment. (B) Growth and employment at the cost of the environment. Coming next, Act IV: People and businesses protest the new laws, 'forcing' government to restore things. Act V: Government announces to the world that its hands are 'tied' by the interests of its citizenry. This simplified dichotomy of choices avoids China having to engage in less profitable, sustainable economic growth. It's a polluting job or no job, green jobs not discussed. Black & white vision, no colour.

Jul 03, 2015 19:15 Report Abuse

fernandojr100

Greed is the source of most problems in China and for that matter everywhere, as much as I know from my experience any kind of factory here in China will usually operate and remain in business if they can make at least 20% net profit, if any less than this most bosses will not just waste their time trying to manufacture anything, so obviously they make more than that as net profit. Now, WHAT IF the government would require any factory to invest 2%-5% of their operating costs into Air Filtration Systems or Water Treatment Systems??

Jul 04, 2015 21:01 Report Abuse