Last week in America, The Associated Press ran a story on how the California wildfires were spewing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and suggesting that the emissions could contribute to global warming. Most readers probably found the piece pretty harmless. But, if you were one of the unfortunate thousands whose houses had actually burned to the ground, you probably couldn't help wondering whether the media was missing the point.
Reporters straining for angles and bureaucrats with obscure national mandates, but little accountability to locals, often ignore the important things - and the more important environmental concerns. Nowhere is that truer than in mainland China, where the combination of a booming manufacturing sector and weak property rights is wreaking environmental havoc.
For example, parts of Tai Lake, China's third-largest freshwater lake, are still beautiful. But, after 25 years of unchecked industrial growth, pollution has become widespread. Small numbers of activists have protested about the ongoing contamination, and some have reportedly been fined, had their properties seized or, in some cases, even been beaten and imprisoned.
'The state owns the water sources under the current law, so I think it would be very difficult for individual farmers without ownership or use rights to the lake to bring a claim,' says Keliang Zhu, of the US-based Rural Development Institute, a non-profit organisation of lawyers dedicated to helping people in developing countries obtain legal rights to land. 'Not to mention the difficulty of enforcing the judgment, if they ever get a favourable one from the court.'
The announcement last week that the Ministry of Commerce would join the weak State Environmental Protection Administration in enforcing environmental regulations is good news. But between the concerns of local residents and those of massive manufacturing operations, the government is clear where it stands. The locals have little hope of restraining businesses' excesses.
'Only the collective villages, or the village groups, are the legal owners of the land. That gives the farmers a significant disadvantage if their land suffers pollution in some way,' added Mr Zhu.