NASA Data Reveals China's Industrial Air Pollution

eldavojohn writes "China's skyrocketing industrialism comes at a price to the environment, according to Canadian scientists who used NASA data to publish a report on worldwide air pollution (PDF) in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The biggest problem appears to be a bright red mass in Northeastern China around the Yangtze River Delta — a rapidly developing piece of China's explosive economy. There doesn't seem to be a lot of acknowledgment from the state media, but blogs are picking it up as one of the few sources of data on air pollution for the area. The sad fact is that particulate matter in the air less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter is not classified as pollution by the Chinese government, so they have no official measurements to provide. If you're in Shanghai and looking for a breath of fresh air, you've got quite the journey ahead of you."

Comments

Bad calibration?

[scdeimos]

It's interesting to see that in Australia the highest concentrations of particulate matter are in the desert where nobody lives as opposed to the eastern coastline where the majority of industry is. This makes me a little suspicious of the low-end of the scale, but it could be due to airborne particulates from soil erosion.

Here's why:

[Penguinisto]

The only reason China is cranking out solar panels like there's no tomorrow? The answer is two-fold:
1) there was a HUGE and growing global market for them starting in 2007-2008 (when many of these solar companies were founded/bolstered) and
2) the Chinese government is subsidizing the unholy hell out of these companies at the same time, so as to under-cut international pricing.

Taken together, the overall plan (and reason for the subsidies) involves cornering the market on mass-produced 'green energy' goods. Notice that they're also pushing like mad to become the top wind-turbine manufacturer as well.

Long-term, its a smart strategy - when the industrialized world finds oil too pricey, guess who will be around selling them cheap and plentiful solar panels, wind turbines, etc? Meanwhile, the company owners are still making money like mad thanks to the subsidies.

Re:Here's why:

[TapeCutter]

The three gorges dam project was threatened by silt run off from the loess plateau. Over the last 15yrs and for the paultry price of $500M they have transformed an area the size of France from a 1000yo man-made desert that was only fit for goat hearding into forests, orchards and terraced farms. The area is now one of the largest producers of apples in the world. The impact on the locals has been dramatic, they have become well fed peasant farmers who own their orchards and run their own markets as opposed to starving peasants living in caves and hearding goats on public land.

So yeah, China (and the world bank) do some increadibly evil shit but they also do some increadibly inspiring shit too.

Re:This is no real surprise

[steelfood]

My dollar is on them starting to enforce environmental controls once their economy has become self-sustaining. Their long-term strategy is to rapidly industrialize now to raise the general standard of living to be on par with or even surpass first-world countries, and figure out what to do with the nasty side effects afterwards.

As far as the government's concerned, losing a few million or a few hundred million people to those side effects is just an added population control bonus. As long as nobody's too worked up about it, they'll continue as they were. The populace is both kept ignorant of the issues by the government, and too busy making money to care. By the time the populace does get around to caring, that in and of itself is the signal for when the government won't need to push for growth and can start pushing for stronger environmental (and other types) of control.

The one thnig which makes this an actually feasible long-term plan, unlike the idea of deficit spending in the 30's, is that the Chinese government is totalitarian, which means it is actually able to turn on a dime. So while in a democracy, it might take fifty years to go from a fossil-fuel-based economy to entirely renewable-energy-based, it'll take China five, perhaps even less.

Re:Shanghai's Air Quality

[DigiShaman]

My first time to visit Shanghai was back in 2004. My flight approached Pudong Airport (PVG) from the north (came from Chicago), I could see what looked like hundreds of spires sticking out of the clouds in the clear blue sky. It was so beautiful... ...until we landed that is. The sky quickly turned orange/brown as we descended through the clouds and landed. The moment I walked outside the airport, but lungs felt itchy. What little did I know about those "clouds". Nasty!