China has a huge waste and landfill problem and it is overtaking their lives. From watching Wall-E, the reality of the photographs of the landfills are even more heart-breaking. It is sad that the story of Wall-E could easily become real occurrences. We are already on our way there through Skype, Smart phones and our other technological advances. People are more concerned with the latest gadgets than the reality of the status of the world.
The first photo of the collection shows a mother and daughter who live underneath the piles of waste waiting to be recycled. The quote along with the photo encourages the government to step up and help with this epidemic. Another photo shows a hugely massive landfill, where atop are three tiny people. The immensity of the trash even just through the photographs is breath-taking, but in a very frightening way.
Along with this photo the caption reads, "Some of China's garbage is eventually incinerated but a Chinese government study found that regulations allow incinerators to emit 10 times the level of cancer-causing dioxins permitted in the U.S.." The dump is poisoning the ground and the air, plants and people. Insects are infecting the food, the smell carries on miles past the trash and fields are unable to be harvested because of their toxins.
It is completely awful that while they are trying to get rid of the trash, not in a very environmental way, but more for the sake of their people, but the government allows for much more cancer-causing dioxins to be emitted into the atmosphere. This not only affects the Chinese, but the world. Many people agree that the United States should stay out of other countries policies, but something this extreme and drastic, that impacts the citizens of the world, is something that should be considered.
The photographs of the landfills with their massive mountains of trash continually remind me of the images to the opening of Wall-E, where NYC has skyscrapers of trash. This is a going to be reality if extreme steps are not taken. Reading through the collections of environmental texts shows how this has always been an issue that needs to be addressed, but somehow gets ignored. While it may be "in" right now to be green, organic and environmental, it is something that everyone needs to embrace and care about as an issue.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33228978/ns/us_news-environment/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1
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