Acid leak lands 26 villagers in hospital

Posted on 5th January 2008

Summary of article

This news article, from The Straits Times, Singapore, 25 January 2008 mainly talks about sulphuric acid leaking from a chemical factory in the Hunan province of central China into a water supply, causing at least 26 villagers to be badly poisoned. The incident was caused by a broken underground pipe.
'There are 26 people seriously poisoned and hospitalised, and more than 200 villagers are receiving free medical checkups, but no one died in the accident,' Mr Yang Changyou of the Chengxi information office said.
In China, there are some cities that are the most polluted in the world, where many rivers and lakes are seriously polluted. The State Environmental Protection Administration says about a quarter of all the water in China's seven main river systems is too toxic for human contact.
It was found that the underground water near the factory was safe to drink. However, ten days later, villagers lived near the factory fell sick. A second investigation was then started. Arsenic, tin and other metals were found in the water supply.
China's priority is to develop its economy. Now, Beijing is more willing to save the environment.

Reflections

This incident has raised the issue of China not putting in much effort into saving the environment. As we all know, China’s economy has been growing rapidly. The reason China did not show much willingness to clean up the environment may be because it did not want to lag behind other countries in terms of economy. China thought that if it had to take care of the environment, their industries might not develop as fast.

For us, we feel that saving the environment is more important than any other issues. Without the environment, we will not be able to do anything. The countries may think that putting in money to preserve the environment is too wasteful, but they can actually think of it as a long-term investment. If the environment is able to exist for many more years, they will be able to earn more money. However, if the environment is destroyed, no matter how much money they have earned, they still will not be able to do anything.

Reference (Quotations in the summary  [those in italics] are quoted from the source below too.):
"Acid leak lands 26 villagers in hospital." The Straits Times. 9 Feb 2008 <http://www.straitstimes.com/Asia/China/Story/STI
Story_199727.html?sunwMethod=GET>.

Green hotels gain, others spew hot air

Posted on 5th September 2007

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Summary of article

The news article is from The Straits Times, Singapore, 15 September 2007. It is about several hotels in Singapore “going green”, which means to become more energy-efficient.

For example, over at the Grand Hyatt, Singapore's first plant to produce electricity, steam and chilled water at a hotel is under construction. Along with the solar panels planned for a new garden conference room, the plant could slash Hyatt's energy use by a third and save it $800,000 in bills. At the Shangri-La, energy use improved over 10 per cent through better work processes, such as using small ovens to prepare meals on demand, rather than keeping a large oven fired up all day just to reheat food. Many more hotels are going green and find that it pays.

However, even though many hotels are trying to go green, Tay Kheng Soon, architect and promoter of socially and environmentally conscious architecture in Singapore since the 1970s, commented that the only energy-efficient hotel in Singapore is the Grand Hyatt.

Lee Eng Lock, general manager of Trane, a US-based energy solutions firm and an accredited Energy Service Company (ESCO) here said that The Grand Hyatt sets the bar but there is no reason why others should not follow suit, with high returns and backed by bank guarantees.

In Singapore, most of the hotels pay attention to water and energy conservation, according to the Singapore Hotel Association. 'In the long run, it makes good corporate sense for hotels to go green as it not only saves the environment but reduces costs,' said the president of the Singapore Hotel Association Kay Kuok.

Reflections

We think that hotels are doing the right thing by becoming more energy-efficient. Even though their initial reason is perhaps to reduce their electricity bills, they have unknowingly contributed an effort into saving the environment by cutting down on their usage of energy. We hope that more hotels can follow suit because by doing so, not only will they be able to save the environment, they can also reduce costs and save more money.

Reference (Quotations in the summary  [those in italics] are quoted from the source below too.):
Green hotels gain, others spew hot air." Asiaone – Travel. 12 Dec 2007. <http://travel.asiaone.com/Travel/News/Story/A1Story20070915-25567.html>.