From Yahoo news, some Chinese businessmen are offering decent sums of money to Environmental Protection Government Officials to swim in polluted rivers which are supposed to be protected by these officials. One good point is that the public is being asked to hold some responsibility. I predict no official will take up the challenge.

Actually, that’s a good idea. Change this offer around a little bit: the first Environmental Protection Officer that gets his region’s pollution levels down to some manageable level will win a million dollars. Sound good?

My point is, the massive and oppressive pollution is China is finally starting to be a real problem. People’s problems are other people’s opportunities  In this case, pollution is Xingergy’s opportunity.

In further news, Chinese authorities are attempting/planning/thinking about banning street food bbq stalls so as to appear to be “combating air pollution”. Obviously the percentage of total air pollution caused by street food vendors is quite small (though it is noticeable in PM10 counts at street level), but the people who run these stalls are the weaker part of society so can’t fight back. The SOEs who actually do all the polluting also pay bribes and are quite powerful, so I can see why the government is ignoring them.

Maybe next the government should regulate little kids peeing in the street to combat water pollution, with water pollution being the #1 trending topic on Sina Weibo.