{"id":1513,"date":"2015-08-31T13:12:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/aboutus\/1513\/how-we-responded-to-the-crisis-that-was-tianjin\/"},"modified":"2019-11-23T02:13:32","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T10:13:32","slug":"how-we-responded-to-the-crisis-that-was-tianjin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/blog\/1513\/how-we-responded-to-the-crisis-that-was-tianjin\/","title":{"rendered":"How we responded to the crisis that was Tianjin"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday 12 August, Tianjin\u2019s Binhai port area was rocked by two enormous chemical explosions. Greenpeace Beijing immediately went to the scene to test, check and measure. Here\u2019s what they found.<\/em><\/div>\n
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It was like a scene from\u00a0Armageddon<\/a>,\u00a0but this was no Hollywood movie. Blasts so severe they were seen from space<\/a>, and when the fires had \u201csettled\u201d local residents and the whole of China woke up concerned for the safety of the citizens of Tianjin and the brave firefighters tackling the blast, many of whom lost their lives.<\/p>\n

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For my colleagues and I at our Beijing office, this was the start of an intense and important period. Thirty staff banded together to become the Greenpeace Tianjin Rapid Response Team, working day and night to investigate conditions and send crucial information to the media and the public. It was sleepless, stressful and worrying; but also filled me with hope and a feeling of conviction of Greenpeace\u2019s vital role in society.<\/p>\n

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Squeezing water from a stone<\/strong><\/span>
\nStruggling against an immense situation and a vacuum of information regarding the chemicals involved, we \u201csqueezed water from a stone\u201d to find out as much as we could about the chemical hazards that were lingering in the Binhai area after the blast.<\/p>\n

Dressed in a safety gear, I volunteered as part of a team who ventured as close as 900m from the blast site to take water samples and bear witness, but I was not prepared for the devastation I was about to encounter. Glass from windows lay shattered on the ground, cars burnt out and an eerie silence lingered over the zone. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The local residents we met and interviewed were full of fear and uncertainty, exacerbated by the Tianjin government\u2019s slow release of information. As an independent group doing our best to identify the toxic substances and advise residents on how best to protect themselves and their families, Greenpeace was warmly welcomed. Residents were happy to see us, keen to help and hear our findings.<\/p>\n

Back at HQ<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whilst we were in the field, a number of our colleagues back in Beijing HQ were conducting their own desktop research on how wind direction and rain could pollute the air quality and sea. But this was not the only problem \u2013 if a warehouse was storing tubs of hazardous chemicals that detonated the combined equivalent of 24 tonnes of TNT, how many other hazardous chemicals were stored illegally (and potentially lethally) in other ports around the country?<\/p>\n

What we uncovered was shocking. Looking at ports in Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou and Qingdao we discovered that the issue of poorly enforced hazardous chemical regulations is a nationwide problem<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

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GPEA has found chemical warehouses violating regulations in 4 major Chinese cities http:\/\/t.co\/cz8nTFnMux<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/gLSt7McR4V<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Greenpeace East Asia (@GreenpeaceEAsia) August 21, 2015<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n