Researchers said more collaboration among experts, government, construction companies necessary to avert disaster An environmental report called on China to stop flattening mountains until the effects of the practice can be studied. “Earth moving on this scale without scientific support is folly,” the report — titled “Environment: Accelerate research on land creation” and published in the scientific journal Nature — said, adding that the process had not been thought through environmentally, economically or technically. As China’s cities expand as its economy grows, the country has begun running out of land to build on — especially in mountainous areas where one-fifth of the population lives. “Land creation” is done by cutting off mountaintops and moving the massive quantity of dirt into valleys to create flat ground on which construction can begin. Such projects have been carried out in strip mining, notably in the eastern United States, where residents in the […]