The above quote is from an article in the Global Times regarding the recent environmental protests against a heavy-metals refinery in Shifang, which is located in Sichuan province. Thousands of Chinese citizens have taken to the streets to protest, and it’s resulted in the government’s use of riot gear to contain the crowds (read The Economist’s summary here). It’s interesting that the newspaper cited ‘unqualified environmental protection indexes’ as a reason for confrontation between the government and citizens. I wonder what the author meant by ‘unqualified environmental protection indexes’ – does this mean that citizens or non-government entities were creating their own indexes and then determining that the metal refineries were hazardous? Will this have an impact on any independent efforts to produce indices that attempt to measure or quantify environmental harm or performance?