China's Water Shortage Extremely Severe
The whole Chinese economic miracle is an illusory, short-lived experiment in over-population, over-resource use and disregard for ecological systems and their limits in general. Nowhere is this more evident than the the extreme water shortage wracking the country. "Two-thirds of Chinese cities face water shortages... More than 400 cities had water shortages, with 100 of them 'in serious trouble, lacking enough water to support industry or daily life." A country that dumps "45 billion tonnes of untreated waste water pumped directly into lakes and rivers" can not expect to engineer their way out of a looming water crisis [search]. China's hyper-economic growth cannot be maintained. Their leadership has traded the Earth's long-term prospects for an orgy of production of consumer crap, most of which is not needed. No one can realistically deny China the right to develop. But failure to get a grasp on environmental issues ensures the Chinese nation will implode - taking much of the region if not the world with it. The rich must live simply - rejecting the throw away consumer society - so that developing countries can simply live. It's called sustainable equity.
