In the last weeks China has faced problems with pigs. As the title of the article explains, approximately 14,000 pigs have been pulled out of rivers around Shanghai. In the last week alone, 6,000 pig carcasses were dragged from the water, and not just any water, but Shanghai’s drinking water. Officials claimed that the water was safe, but the Chinese population doesn’t seem to be as upset about possible contamination of the drinking water as they are about where the dead pigs came from. Officials are embarrassed about the situation and have determined that the pigs all died from porcine circovirus, a disease that harms only pigs. The article described the public as concerned instead of panicked and seemed to indicate that the public were used to public health scandals, accounting for their calm demeanors.The author continued to connect this recent scandal to others in the environmental and health departments, such as old oil scraped from drains used in cooking and baby formula that contains harmful chemicals. In recent years the spotlight has been placed on China’s environmental problems, such as their extremely high smog levels and unclean water in small villages. This pig issue further shows the serious environmental problems that China has. The author of this article had a clear position on China’s pollution, calling it a serious issue. The author indicated that Chinese officials should be more concerned about such a large number of dead diseased animals floating down rivers used to supply water to millions. Unfortunately the author offered no interesting or witty comments to make the article more readable. Although the article did express the information in a clear and direct way, there was nothing unusual or eye-catching about the article other than the curious topic. The author did achieve his goal of conveying information but did so in quite a “cookie cutter” way.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21861987
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