Last week, a Chinese city was taking aback by a warning and an unusual environmental event...

Yahoo! News wrote:
Young and old residents of the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors on Monday after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people, official media said.

Described by residents as opaque with yellowish and greenish tinges, the fug descended suddenly in the morning, prompting people to rush to put on face masks, witnesses told AFP.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted the environmental protection department of Hubei province saying in a statement: "Children, the elderly and people with heart or respiratory diseases are advised to stay indoors."

Xinhua said straw burning was the cause and denied there had been any industrial accidents in or near Wuhan, after Internet rumours suggested there had been an explosion at a chemical complex northeast of the city.

It reminds me of an article I read in a local news website here in my country, which claims that there is a large number of potential risks in daily activities such as eating, drinking water or even breathing, due to pollution. It's a really sad situation, it goes without saying.

What's the situation like in the place where you live? Is there any special environmental concern in your country? If you could change anything, what would it be?

In Bogota we have the horrible Bogota river, polluted by citizens and industries which have not been penalized. I think it is the most polluted river in the world. Am I right?





Not to mention the pollution of the city air itself!! You must see the city sky at 7 am, when there is a large dark cloud of toxic gas.



Anyway, I think it is nothing if we compare it with China.

Anita, don´t you think the article from El Espectador is exaggerated?

Eww!! Those pics make me sick. It reminded me of a trip I had to the School´s Little Tables (Mesitas del Colegio , a town in thee Department of Cundinamarca). We had to go next to this awful river, it´s really sad how damaged it is. It will be more than 40 years before this river is clean, if they do clean it.

I don´t think the article is exaggerated. In some countries, food and air pollution has reached a dramatic level never seen before. Young kids suffer from serious illness and life quality has gone down, and the only reason is the toxic waste we take in every day in the simplest way. So there´s no doubt this alert is down-to-earth.

OK, the situation is serious. But remember fear is business.
That's why they scare people with global warming issues when the environment is facing other kinds of problems, more serious and immediate.
If the government really cared about these warnings, they would immediately penalize those companies which pollute towns, steal natural resources and produce harmful products. Do they? Nahh! They are accomplices!