Pollution From China's Coal-Fired Plants Takes Only 5 To 10 Days To Reach US

[babylonsister]

World's Coal Dependency Hits Environment


MICHAEL CASEY | November 4, 2007 02:30 PM EST | AP

TAIYUAN, China — It takes five to 10 days for the pollution from China's coal-fired plants to make its way to the United States, like a slow-moving storm.

It shows up as mercury in the bass and trout caught in Oregon's Willamette River. It increases cloud cover and raises ozone levels. And along the way, it contributes to acid rain in Japan and South Korea and health problems everywhere from Taiyuan to the United States.

This is the dark side of the world's growing use of coal.

Cheap and abundant, coal has become the fuel of choice in much of the world, powering economic booms in China and India that have lifted millions of people out of poverty. Worldwide demand is projected to rise by about 60 percent through 2030 to 6.9 billion tons a year, most of it going to electrical power plants.

But the growth of coal-burning is also contributing to global warming, and is linked to environmental and health issues including acid rain and asthma. Air pollution kills more than 2 million people prematurely, according to the World Health Organization.

"Hands down, coal is by far the dirtiest pollutant," said Dan Jaffe, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington who has detected pollutants from Asia at monitoring sites on Mount Bachelor in Oregon and Cheeka Peak in Washington state. "It is a pretty bad fuel on all scores."

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071104/coal-the-dark-side/

[NNadir]

1. That's almost infinitely longer than Ohio's and PA's coal pollution takes to reach me.

As much fun as it may be to point fingers at the Chinese, the reality of the coal game is a little less obvious.

China produces about 55 exajoules of energy from coal, compared to about 24 exajoules for the United States. Of course, China has 4 times the population of the United States.

I have converted Quads to Exajoules

It is easily calculated that US average power consumption is about 11,300 watts per person. By contrast, the average citizen of China consumes on average about 1700 watts.

When the average American can live on 1700 watts of average power, we'll have something about which we can talk with the Chinese. The source data for this enlightening calculation is here.

Americans love to buy stuff at Walmart. They can hardly buy stuff fast enough. In fact, our decison on Walmartization was simply a case where we decided to export pollution so we can feel wonderful about ourselves here in this country. We shouldn't be all that surprised when the pollution shows up anyway.

[pscot]

2. It's no wonder I can't shake

this goddamn sinus infection.

[Nihil]

3. Big deal.

It's still longer than it takes for US coal pollution to cross the Atlantic,
much longer than it takes for UK coal pollution to cross the North Sea,
longer than it takes for German coal pollution to cross the mountains to
Eastern Europe, longer than it takes Eastern Europe's coal pollution to work
its way across the 'stans and a lot longer than it takes for Indian coal
pollution to drift into China ...

The only thing that stops it being a complete global circuit is the poverty
of some of the intervening countries - they can't afford the coal when they
have to out-bid the "developed" world's pockets.

As NNadir (almost) said, when the per-capita energy consumption of the other
offenders comes down to match that of China, maybe then we can all whinge at
the Chinese coal burners ... and it isn't going to do that until we stop
buying cheap Chinese shit in our local supermarkets ...