Difference between revisions of "Atheism and the environment"
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For more information, please see: [[China#Environment|China and the environment]] | For more information, please see: [[China#Environment|China and the environment]] | ||
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| + | === China's ocean waste recently surges 27% === | ||
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| + | *[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-pollution-oceans/chinas-ocean-waste-surges-27-in-2018-ministry-idUSKBN1X80FL China's ocean waste surges 27% in 2018] | ||
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| + | *[https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/chinas-plastic-waste-and-production-crisis/ China’s Plastic Waste and Production Crisis Has Environmental Groups Concerned] | ||
=== China, the environment and cancer === | === China, the environment and cancer === | ||
Revision as of 14:53, December 11, 2019
China has the largest atheist population in the world and has state atheism (see: China and atheism). Most atheists in the world are likely East Asians (see: Asian atheism).
Overall, atheistic societies have a poor record when it comes to the environment. Despite many atheists claiming to be pro-science, the application of environmental science in atheistic societies has been substandard in many cases as can be seen below (see also: Atheism and science).
Contents
Atheist controlled communist China and the environment
See also: China and the environment and China and atheism and Atheism and communism
China has the world's largest atheist population (see: China and atheism). China has state atheism. Most atheists are likely East Asians (see: Asian atheism).
Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia founded by an atheist and agnostic, declares in its article Environmental issues in China:
| “ | Environmental issues in China are plentiful, severely affecting the country's biophysical environment and human health. Rapid industrialisation, as well as lax environmental oversight, are main contributors to these problems.
The Chinese government has acknowledged the problems and made various responses, resulting in some improvements, but the responses have been criticized as inadequate. In recent years, there has been increased citizens' activism against government decisions that are perceived as environmentally damaging, and a retired official from the Communist Party of China has reported that the year of 2012 saw over 50,000 environmental protests in China.[1] |
” |
In 2019, ITV news reported that Chinese air pollution is ten times worse than in London.[2]
For more information, please see: China and the environment
China's ocean waste recently surges 27%
China, the environment and cancer
See also: Atheism and cancer
As a result of its poor envirnomental record, China has a significant problem with cancer.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation declared in 2015:
| “ | In China, cancer rates are exploding and for the first time the extent has been revealed.
Last year, more than four million people were diagnosed with the disease and nearly three million died from it, research from the American Cancer Journal of Clinicians showed. In some of the industrial provinces, lung cancer rates have increased a staggering four-fold, but authorities seem reluctant to acknowledge — let alone deal with — the epidemic. The Cancer Institute and Hospital in central Beijing is struggling to cope with ever-increasing caseloads. Every day, hundreds pour in from all over China. People can wait months for a doctor's appointment, but often it is too late for treatment and the cancer is too advanced.[4] |
” |
Science Daily reported in article entitled Nearly half of China cancer deaths attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors:
| “ | A new report finds more than half of all cancer deaths in men in 2013 in China and more than a third of those in women were attributable to a group of potentially modifiable risk factors: smoking, alcohol, nutrition, weight, physical activity, and infections.[5] | ” |
Cancer epidemic in China
- Finally, China Comes to Grips with Its Cancer Epidemic, Council on Foreign Relations
- Tobacco and the lung cancer epidemic in China, Translational Lung Cancer Research
Atheistic Soviet Union and the environment
See also: Soviet Union
According to the University of Cambridge, historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power."[6]
The former Soviet Union had state atheism.
The environmental legacy of the former Soviet Union was a severely degraded environment.[7]
Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in the former Soviet Union
- Health effects of the Chernobyl accident: an overview - World Health Organization
East Germany under the Soviet Union and the environment
In 1984, the Christian Science Monitor reported concerning East Germany which was under the Soviet Union at the time:
| “ | A UN report six months ago identified East Germany as the most polluted country in Europe. East Germany is the third largest source of sulfur dioxide in Europe (after the Soviet Union and Britain); the German Economic Institute in West Berlin calculates that East German sulfur dioxide emissions have reached at least 46 tons annually per square kilometer, or triple West German levels.
A good half of this foul air is concentrated in the industrialized flatlands around Leipzig and Halle. Forests are dying in East Germany at an alarming rate, as they are in West Germany, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere in Central Europe.[8] |
” |
According to Business Report:
| “ | It is a pity that so many extreme environmentalists were in their cribs when the Berlin Wall came down, although it does to some extent excuse their ignorance of the appalling industrial pollution and environmental degradation in communist East Germany.
It can only be ignorance that supports their fantasy that only a socialist economy that bans profit and private property can save the environment and avoid alleged catastrophic climate change. More than a third of all East German rivers, and almost a third of all reservoirs were so polluted, they were beyond rescue. Half the lakes were dead, or dying. Only half the amount of domestic sewage was treated and most industrial waste was left untreated and dumped. East German forests were badly damaged by sulphur dioxide and coal dust. In some places, air pollution was 12 times worse than in West Germany. Almost half the population breathed air that anywhere else would be called smog. And then there was the town of Bitterfeld. It lived up to its name. When its poor state under communist rule became known, it was dubbed “Europe’s dirtiest town”. Its air and water was so filthy it horrified any western journalist that went there. A Washington Post reporter described rivers flowing red with rust, drinking-water full of heavy metals, and dead trees in the surrounding area. One chemical plant near the town poured almost 100 litres of mercury into the river every day. This was ten times more than amounts permitted for a large West German chemical factory. The New York Times said Bitterfeld’s air “stings” and the water in its rivers was “syrupy”. The UK Independent reported that a local guesthouse provided gas masks for its customers. Bad as pollution and environmental degradation was in East Germany under the communists, it was in places even worse in other parts of formerly communist eastern Europe.[10] |
” |
Secular Europe and the environment
See also: Secular Europe
From a global perspective, Europe is more secular/atheistic than the rest of the world although it does have a considerable amount of religious immigrants who have higher birth rates (see: Atheist population and Global atheism).
Central Europe and Eastern Europe and the environment
The Eastern block portion of Europe, which included the central European and eastern European communist countries under the former Soviet Union, had a poor record when it came to the application of environmental science.
See also: Environmental problems and policies in East Central Europe: A changing agenda, Geoscience, 2001
Western Europe and the environment
At the present time, overall Western Europe and the European Union have extensive protections when it comes to the environment.[11]
See also
References
- ↑ Environmental issues in China
- ↑ Chinese pollution ten times worse than London
- ↑ China's cancer rates exploding, more than 4 million people diagnosed in 2015, study says, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- ↑ China's cancer rates exploding, more than 4 million people diagnosed in 2015, study says, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- ↑ Nearly half of China cancer deaths attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors, Science Daily, 2017
- ↑ Investigating atheism: Marxism. University of Cambridge (2008). Retrieved on July 17, 2014. “The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.”
- ↑ The Environmental Record of the Soviet Union by Arran Gare
- ↑ East Germany disputes its status as the most polluted country in Europe, Christian Science Monitor
- ↑ East Germany disputes its status as the most polluted country in Europe, Christian Science Monitor
- ↑ East Germany provides bleak ideological lesson, Business Report
- ↑ Jordan, A.J. and C. Adelle (ed.) (2012) Environmental Policy in the European Union: Contexts, Actors and Policy Dynamics (3e). Earthscan: London and Sterling, VA.
