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Did anyone see the 'Artist' a few weeks back who had made a solid brick (longer than one of your standard bricks, but just as thick) out of pollution solids? Bejing...
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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The West also went through that phase. As recently as the 1950s tens of thousands died from smog in London. In the USA most people formerly had their own coal burning stoves, older people I've met remember snow being colored black from all the smoke. As the population becomes more affluent people demanding a cleaner environment as a basic right.
Very true. I was in China 10 years ago....I had no idea. I was amazed at how much fog there was all the time. Then one day I realized.....wait...thats no fog.
Its not that I was stupid, its just that growing up here in Oregon I could not imagine anyone living in pollution that bad. My mind went...could that be pollution?....No no human being would ever knowingly let it get this bad....must be fog.
So its been this way for a long time.
This is what happens when there are no pollution controls.
The West also went through that phase. As recently as the 1950s tens of thousands died from smog in London. In the USA most people formerly had their own coal burning stoves, older people I've met remember snow being colored black from all the smoke. As the population becomes more affluent people demanding a cleaner environment as a basic right.
Pittsburgh was really bad too. It was to the point where the street lights would come on during the early afternoon.
And south of Pittsburgh, the town of Donora. The town that gave us Stan Musial and Ken Griffey Jr, also had a severe pollution problem. The Donora Smog of 1948. An inversion sat over the town, and many people died from the pollution as a result. Stan Musial's father was among those who died.
meth. there is nothing new about this. this is how every developed nation became prosperous. every country goes through these industrial periods on their way to prosperity. japan, england, the united states, you name it.
make no misteak. china is well aware of their environmental problems and they are determined to tacklet these problems gradually without ruining their economy and their historical opportunity to rise as a great power. China's first priority is still its economic prosperity, middle class, and national capability. without prosperity and stability, there is little hope.
to that end, they have loosened their population policy. they will need more population to sustain their economic systems.
having a bigger population is important in the global economy. they have reached the peak of their population bonus, and labor cost might rise sharply in the future without more people.
china will do it on their own terms. their economy will evolve into consumption-based, innovation-driven, and less labor-intensive. by then, it'll naturally clear up the sky. and that's how long it'll take.
It's a small planet and that crap ends up over here as well. That's my issue. If their people don't stand up and take issue, I feel bad for them, but for the entire globe's sake, China is going to have to wake up and smell the coffee.
Yep, I read a third of LA's smog is a result of pollution from China. It truly is a small world.
Over 100 million Chinese are being told to stay home. The pm2.5 pollution index is over 700 in some areas, and checking online I can see one city over 1,000 in China
This is a truly brutal level of pollution. And China's citizens are going to suffer lifelong issues over it.
India is also having serious issues as well. However in recent years they've made progress.
But China? they are claiming things will be better, however they are opening up more coal fired power plants next year. So while promises are being made, actions are speaking louder.
Are you sure India is making progress? At least China is a dominant economic power, even given its air pollution. India gets what for its filth? Nothing and it's still a dirty third world nation.
Nobody in China is claiming that anything is getting better. China is making huge investments in green energy and trying very hard to balance employment and steadily switching its economy from an manufacturing and industrial based model to one that relies more on consumption. The US and the UK went through a very similar phase in their development; China is just many times more magnified because China is so much more populous.
Transition and change take time and so long as the Chinese need jobs and the world needs all the stuff China produces, this transition will come about gradually. So yes, it'll be very bad for the average Chinese people, especially those living in the major cities. China also has lots of other kinds of pollutions, like soil, water and overall environmental degradation and wild habitat loss etc. China's problems are huge and this is why the country has always been so difficult to govern. But the one thing going for it is its authoritarian system, which, once it sets its mind to something, will make all the hard choices to achieve results. This is something that a noisy democracy like India or even the US cannot do. You can also save me the whiny "human rights violations" complaints but in world history, hard decisions are always necessary.
India doesn't figure in any of this and the only reason there's less news exposure for India is simply because it's not nearly as important as China.
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