My friend in documentary television distribution sent me an interesting NYT article this morning. At first, I was uninterested because often these articles have a bias and I’m tired of hearing it. However, Andrew sent me this article for a certain reason, and I think this reason is super important to highlight. Lead Sickens 1,300 Children in China is about a manganese smelter in Hunan Province sickening kids in a nearby school. But, of really important note here is that this article was first reported  by state-run China Daily and then later picked up by the NYT. This means that the media is playing an important role in encouraging environmental awareness–you’ll learn more about this from a Beijing Daxue professor in the Green Reason. Not only are Chinese people highlighting that this is of note, the media is reinforcing people’s alarm by broadcasting it.

It’s important to mention that the smelter is unliscensed because it’s newly opened, so there may be kinks that get ironed out when the government liscenses the smelter and the Chinese people have more opportunity to voice their grievances. I’m always willing to give China the benefit of the doubt.