Airpocalypse now: China pollution reaching record levels

[jpak]

Source: The Guardian

Residents of north-eastern China donned gas masks and locked themselves indoors on Sunday after their homes were enveloped by some of the worst levels of smog on record.

Levels of PM2.5, a tiny airborne particulate linked to cancer and heart disease, soared in Liaoning province as northern China began burning coal to heat homes at the start of the winter.

In Shenyang, Liaoning’s capital, visibility levels plummeted to as little as 100 metres, the state broadcaster CCTV said.

China’s official news agency, Xinhua, published an apocalyptic gallery of images showing the country’s latest smog crisis alongside the headline: “Fairyland or doomsday?”

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/09/airpocalypse-now-china-pollution-reaching-record-levels

[valerief]

1. Where do rich Chinese people live? nt

[enid602]

2. LA

In Los Angeles and Pasadena.

[valerief]

3. Ah, so since it doesn't affect them, it's a non-issue. nt

[enid602]

12. out of control

It just shows you how out of control unrestrained capitalism is.

[valerief]

24. You don't have to convince me of that! nt

[PasadenaTrudy]

9. San Marino, Arcadia....n/t

[Feeling the Bern]

6. Hong Kong. Northern China is major industry. Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Heilongjiang, Liaoning,

Jilin, Shanxi and the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin are impossible to breath.

[CountAllVotes]

18. San Francisco

Rich Chinese buying all they can snap up these days at any price, you name it!

http://milliondollarshack.com/

[pangaia]

22. toronto vancouver

[jtuck004]

4. I wonder how much of that is (was) our stuff being made.

Then again, we detect their pollution here, so it is a shared resource.

[Calista241]

19. I dunno if it's the actual stuff being made

Rather than the 100's of coal power plants generating power for their industry.

If they switched off coal to something cleaner, I think their issues would lessen dramatically.

[jtuck004]

23. Would that stop the coal trains going through here carrying the coal we sell them?

I hope so, is tiresome - > bad road design.

[StevieM]

5. I can't wait for the Olympics. (eom)

[Kelvin Mace]

8. Came and went

[hatrack]

10. Bejing Winter Olympics - 2022

Should be choke-tacular.

[Kelvin Mace]

13. Oh, are they back again after 2008?

[StevieM]

14. Yeah, I was talking about the 2022 Winter Olympics. Of course I remember 2008.

From what I understand, the smog and pollution is supposed to be a lot worse in the Winter time. I am not sure if they have a way to shut down industry, and maybe even the roadways, for a month of so before the Olympics in order to make it better, if only for a couple weeks.

All the top cities wound up withdrawing their bids, leaving only Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan. The U.S. decided not to bid, preferring to focus on the 2024 Summer Olympics. It was a bad move IMO. 2024 will be very competitive. On the other hand, if Denver--or any American city--had bid for 2022 it is almost 100 percent certain that they would have prevailed, given who the remaining competition was.

The IOC was heartbroken when Oslo withdrew, simultaneously lamenting their terrible decision while also begging them to reconsider.

[GliderGuider]

7. And winter is just beginning. Oh shit. nt

[villager]

11. "Winter is coming," indeed.

n/t

[chapdrum]

15. Oh come now, it's just the free market

doing its thing.

[Duppers]

25. Ding, ding, ding!

[Rafale]

16. Dollar, dollar bill....

Our future after the Republicans and certain questionable Democrats successfully undermine and destroy the EPA under the rubric of getting “government off your backs.”

[Duppers]

26. +100

[Fred Sanders]

17. Not just China in November, all of South and South- East Asia is burning every year this time

of year, due to rice and crop fields being burned to prepare for winter, and burning of drying forests for whatever use it can be made of.

[KittyWampus]

21. Didn't know that. It's interesting.

[KittyWampus]

20. Is this the elites' way of killing off excess population?

[DetlefK]

27. China has just reversed its one-child-policy.

IIRC, it's a Two-child-policy now.

China desperately needs to curb its population-growth in the long term. Every economist, chinese or otherwise, knows that. On the other hand, the current lack of children means that there will be a surplus of retirees compared to workers in a few decades.

I guess, China will reinstall a One-Child-policy 10-30 years from now.