Oil spill in China's Yellow River

A broken pipeline has spilled a whole lot of oil into China's iconic Yellow River, pointing out the sad state of the environment in the country -- a situation that I still think could destabilize the country eventually. If you actually don't agree with me on this, look at what happened to the country when there were problems with melamine-contaminated baby formula.

So here's a particularly good article about the Yellow River oil spill and it's ramifications:

Yellow River Oil Spill a Reminder of Chinese Pollution

Quotating:

"The accident mirrors a 2005 explosion that released 100 tons of toxic benzene into the Songhua river in northeastern China, tainting the water supply for several million residents of the city of Harbin. While that disaster helped sparked new public awareness of the extent of the nation's water pollution, the lessons of 2005 are still being painfully relearned today. Then as now, news of the incident was only made public days after the initial accident. While the initial response to last week's spill was quick, coordination with downstream governments was slow, says Wen. "When the spill occurred, there were 700 people immediately mobilized to try to deal with the problem. That's still not enough," he says. "Officials should realize that once the spill occurred, they should immediately inform downstream areas."

Furthermore: "In its latest annual assessment of the state of pollution in China the Ministry of Environmental Protection said in June that the country had released several plans for control of emissions into major rivers and inspected more than 15,000 drinking-water sources. But the agency acknowledged that "surface water pollution remained very serious" and nearly half of the water in the country's rivers was unsafe for human contact."

And the article concludes: "As hundreds of workers race to prevent its already tainted waters from absorbing a new flood of befouling chemicals, it serves as a painful reminder of how imperiled by pollution this society has become."

Yep, they appear to get it. If the people truly lose faith that the government does not have their best interests in mind -- and their health has to be one of their best interests -- they will get upset. And that could mean Revolution.