Smog in Beijing is a black cloud with a silver lining

[wtmusic]

"With northern China once again struggling to breathe under a blanket of carcinogenic haze, one of the China’s highest profile antipollution warriors has invited the country’s social media users to vote on whether China should enact a national clean air law.

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In less than 10 hours of voting, nearly 32,000 microbloggers have said they agree with real estate mogul Pan Shiyi’s call for China to implement a clean air law. Fewer than 250 said they were opposed, while just over 120 said they weren’t sure.

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National air quality legislation has proven pivotal in other countries. The UK Clean Air Act of 1956, passed four years after London’s “Great Smog” led to the deaths of as many 12,000 people, helped London finally start to shake off the air pollution problems that had sullied its reputation – and the lungs of its residents – for decades. The U.S.’s Clean Air Act, meanwhile, is credited by the Union of Concerned Scientists with preventing more than 400,000 premature deaths since it was first passed in 1963."

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/01/29/chinese-internet-users-scream-for-clean-air-act/

Maybe one day, things won't have to get really bad before they can get better.