China Smog So Bad That Crop Photosynthesis "Barely Sustained" - Quarter Of Mainland Blanketed

[phantom power]

The warning comes as choking air is blanketing a quarter of the mainland and scientists say they are already seeing the detrimental effects. In He's tests, chilli and tomato seeds, which normally take about 20 days to grow into seedlings under artificial light in a laboratory, took more than two months to sprout at a greenhouse farm in Beijing's Changping district.

Membranes and pollutants sticking to the greenhouse's surface cut the amount of light available to the plants by half, He said.

Depriving plants of light means photosynthesis - the process by which plants convert light to chemical energy - can barely be sustained. Most seedlings at the farm were weak or sick. "They will be lucky to live at all. Now almost every farm is caught in a smog panic," He said, adding that the poor seedling quality would cut agricultural output this year.

And if the smog persisted or intensified, the country's food supply would face devastating consequences, He warned. "A large number of representatives of agricultural companies have suddenly showed up at academic meetings on photosynthesis in recent months and sought desperately for solutions," He said.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1434700/china-smog-threatens-agriculture-nuclear-fallout-conditions-warn

[dionysus]

1. "...and sought desperately for solutions..." uh, some fucking pollution regulation, perchance?

[Renew Deal]

2. You know what they need? Brawndo

Brawndo. It's got electrolytes.

[madrchsod]

3. solutions?

environmental rules and regulations like the rest of the first industrial nations in the world. i`m not sure if the industrialists and the government in china are willing to do this.

[hatrack]

5. And slow down Holy, Sacred, Benevolent Economic Growth?!? Heaven forbid!

China's leadership is riding the tiger, to use a phrase once associated with opium addiction. Good luck trying to get off.

[sibelian]

7. That's a Western scam, you know.

Stop trying to impose Western values on the Orient, you imperialist scum, you!

Westerners telling China off for carbon emissions is secretly capitalist pig-dogs trying to outperform them economically.

[phantom power]

8. actually, it is a Western scam. We made China our Omelas, and declared victory.

[rhett o rick]

9. But then you'd be interfering with the capitalists freedoms.

Looks like the capitalism end-game.

[warrior1]

4. solution

turn off the coal

[bullwinkle428]

6. And yet, I STILL read things from RWers about how much they wish

we could get rid of the EPA and other regulatory agencies and run businesses just like they do in China!

[rhett o rick]

10. Or we could pass the TPP and let Viet Nam make all our products.

This isnt a RW problem, it's a corporatist problem. To have any chance to solve the problem with unregulated capitalism, we must stop electing corporatists like H. Clinton-Sachs.

[fleabiscuit]

13. Rut-Roh!

Harald is gonna get a beating now!

[AgingAmerican]

11. I have a friend who teaches in Beijing

She has tried to avoid going outside for the last year. She said she darts from her building to the subway and from the subway into the school she teaches at. The 'fog' gets so thick that you can't read street signs. She said it stinks too.

[jsr]

12. Beijing smog is visible from space:

China Central Television building: