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The World's 10 Dirtiest Cities
neever writes "You may already know about the pollution plight of Linfen, China. But how about the heavy metals Pittsburghers breathe in on a daily basis? Or the incomparable smog Milanesi put up with? PopSci has culled an eye-opening selection of some of the world's most problematic cities. From the painfully high cancer rates in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan to the acid rain destroying La Oroya, Peru, writer Jason Daley walks readers through the lowest of the low; and explains why, despite it all, there's still hope for these places."
I don't know which cities are listed as the Popsci servers seem to be down, but a couple of weeks ago flying out of Los Angeles, the pollution seemed pretty bad as can be seen in this picture of the afternoon sun over the San Gabriel Mountains.
From some of my other travels throughout the world, I am guessing that L.A. is not even close to how dirty some cities can get particularly in Russia. If the air is worse than it is in L.A., then it should really, really make you worry.
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Server is already /.ed?
Anyway, I live in one of the minor million-plus cities of Japan near Tokyo, and I just want to note that you can have a high-tech, high-quality lifestyle without destroying your environment. Whenever I hear a story like this, I think about running into quail the morning, almost literally. They are sometimes foraging within a few feet of the gate, and they figure people are basically harmless to about 3 meters. There's a little river two stations up, and it's heavily populated with half-meter carp. I walked about half a kilometer along it the other day, and there were almost always fish visible, and sometimes scores of fish. It's a matter of priorities, I think--but I was annoyed a couple of years ago when they cut down a pretty large bamboo grove and built a bunch of houses there...
Not sure of all of the reasons, but I feel like good mass transit is a big chunk of it. Heavy recycling probably helps, though they recently increased the garbage collection taxes quite a bit.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Pittsburgh today isn't anywhere near as dirty as it once was, or even what many people would think it might be. Most of any remaining steel-related dirt comes from the coke works in nearby Clairton, and I think U.S. Steel has plans to modernize or clean up that facility in the near future.
But I do have photographs of Pittsburgh "back in the day" with people driving around at noon with their headlights on!
Actually they only get second place on this list (Cubatao, Brazil).
From the lyrics of their 1993 song Biotech is Godzilla:
Like Cubatao"World's most polluted town"
Air-melts your face
Deformed children all around
siener's youtube channel
It would be nice to find a list of all major cities ranked by their pollution level. I would be curious to see NYC vs London vs Paris vs Tokyo vs Beijing.
The first time I visited Beijing, I was frankly shocked that life can exist in this environment. I'm in Beijing again right now, and have just gotten used to the idea that you need to budget some time each morning to hack up gunk from your lungs. I'm less than 1 kilometer from the forbidden city at the moment, but can't see it. I know it's there, because a rainstorm earlier this week cleared the air enough to see that far.
Great city once you get past the air though...
Check out Guangzhou, China. I've been there several times and never seen a clear day there. Though I hear Xian is worse.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
Recent fires in California have turned the Sun that subtle orange color, and left the air with a noticeable stench of smoke. On a local Bay Area network TV station, they interviewed a woman who had just flown back from China. She said that these conditions were ALMOST as bad. Almost??? That blew my mind. Imagine living with smoke worse than this ALL YEAR LONG.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Pittsburgh doesn't belong on this list _at all_. Yes, there's tons of shit in the ground, and the air sucks by US standards, but c'mon. Anyone who has traveled to _any_ third world city knows there's no comparison in terms of livability. Pittsburgh is paradise by those standards. Even compared to most european cities, where everyone is buzzing around on catalyst-free scooters and 2-stroke engines, Pittsburgh air is tasty.
1. In Norilsk the soil around the city is so polluted that it's economically feasible to mine it for nickel.
2. There is an alternative list with more information and better research from the Blacksmith Institute: The World's Worst Polluted Places. (However, it contains Europe's biggest de facto nature reserve as one of the most polluted places in the world (Chernobyl exclusion zone))
Those who would give up liberty to obtain working drivers, deserve neither liberty nor working drivers.
Funny, but you're a little confused. Under a libertarian-style (limited) government, the victims of pollution would be able to sue the polluters, due to the strong property rights which form the basis of libertarian-style government. Pollution would be judged a form of aggression just like any other, not only against your material property, but your own body (your most valuable piece of property). Under non-limited ("big") government, by contrast, the polluters are protected by law and actually hold the right to pollute your body and property, according to the (typically generous) limits set by government (which of course has its hand in the business). Instead of a direct mechanism of restitution, the victims' only mode of protection are the blanket laws which (again) typically favor the polluters which bring big money into government.
For more information, start with this article.
The only caveat to Pittsburgh is KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING!
I shout this because Pittsburgh is the wonderful land of bridges and hills.
To the outsider most downtown Pittsburgh traffic is concrete death trap full of one way streets that lead exactly in the wrong direction of your destination.
Or street cattle shunt you to a bridge that crosses one of the 3 wonderful rivers. If you get lost in Pittsburgh, stay alert, enjoy the view and don't get discouraged by waiting in traffic.
If you can get around with public transport then go for it.
Being a sharp and intelligent individual, I'm sure you already have a detailed block-by-block map of Pittsburgh itself.
Extra points if you have it already on a smartphone or PDA.
Otherwise, it's a great place with great food.
I'd also say "Go Steelers!", but they finally got the 'one for the thumb'.
I'm bookmarking that article and whipping it out everytime some blowhard complains about treehuggers. Hey, guess what, the treehuggers are the reason why there's only one US city on that list.
"If you impose a carbon tax , however, forcing companies that emit a lot of CO2 to pay for it, then that will make electricity generation from coal more expensive, and thus hopefully cause electric utility companies to build nuclear power plants, wind turbines, and solar panels, instead."
Please explain why you think the companies won't simply pass the cost on like they always do?
That is inevitably the problem with taxing producers, they simply raise their cost and the consumers get screwed. Do you really want to rely on your hope, and the possibility that eventually people will get pissed enough to force the energy producers into building more power plants/wind turbines/solar panels?
Taxing them isn't the answer, at least not for changing behavior.
The food you can get there is fantastic though. :-)