Economic growth based upon the liquidation of natural capital is relatively easy to achieve and is particularly undermining of ecosystems and future development potential. China has regularly achieved growth rates near 10% by mining their water. The Boston Globe reports that environmentally reckless development of China's provincial cities is devastating the country's lakes and rivers. Consider that three of China's seven major river basins are polluted, 90 percent of the rivers running through cities suffer from severe pollution, and more than 300 million rural residents do not have access to clean water. China's artificially high growth rates are a mirage based upon unsustainable water and other resource use - including the region's ancient forests. The Chinese economic miracle in its aping of the destructive Western way of living is destroying the planet.