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NASA Releases Orbital Photos of Beijing's Air Pollution
skade88 writes "This story should remind us all that air pollution controls are not just about addressing global warming. They also help us have cleaner air and fewer health problems resulting from smog and haze. Starting earlier this month, Beijing, China started having worse than normal air pollution issues. On January 14, 2013 the U.S. embassy's air pollution sensors in Beijing found the density of the most dangerous small air particles, PM 2.5, at 291 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The World Health Organization's guidelines for air pollution state that PM 2.5 above 25 micrograms per cubic meter of air is dangerous to a person's health. To put the problem into perspective, NASA has released two orbital photos of Beijing showing before-and-during images of the air pollution. The photo from January 4 shows parts of Beijing still visible from space. The photo from January 14 shows nothing but a huge, thick cloud of haze with no buildings visible."
You see that China?! Oh, wait, no, you don't... because of the pollution! Booyah!
that's what the job killing lines get you stuff like this when you cheap out and just dump stuff out with not paying the costs to clean it up.
In a rather Bender-esque way, the literal translation from Mandarin for its populi (the PM2.5 breathers) is "Meat vacuums", and not in a good way I might add.
H.
Nothing to worry about here. Pollution is only bad when America does it.
Go go gadget smokescreen!
Perhaps Americans should consider improving their own woeful environmental standards before throwing stones at other countries, as good as it may make them feel. Not to mention that China's pollution problems are a direct result of American consumer and corporate greed. Oh, but of course, ignorance is blissful.
The US government should mind its own business.
Those Romans had a phrase for everything. This may be true, but I'm sure we're jumping to a conclusion.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
Don't worry !! All will be fine !! Just make my phones !!
Yours,
Big Fat Happy American Camper !!
on days like these, you can see it, smell it and... taste it.
China has been dragging its feet on global warming reforms. China has been emphatically objecting to any cut in its produce of green house gases (and other pollutants).
Now that Beijing (and surrounding cities in China) are being blanketed by the thick polluted and toxic fog, the Chinese leadership may be forced to alter their strategy and move away from pollution-generating industries.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
That is all.
That is the nicest .gov I have visited. Well done and thanks.
PM 2.5 stands for particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers.
According to the Wikipedia particles of this size cause a broad array of terrible consequences in the body.
NPR has an article about this as well, apparently it's affecting more than 30 cities in China
Here's a handy chart of Air Quality Index and a description of some of the more noxious substances:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/graphic/2013/jan/15/what-in-beijing-polluted-air
China has replaced their "One Child" program of population control with a new "One Lung" policy.If you can't get rid of the babies, at least you can weed out the weak, the old, and the heavy breathers.
nuf sed
Table-ized A.I.
Someone just turned off the "Disable fog of war" cheat.
It's easy to see why US environmental conditions should be better. China is a more dense country. There are more people/polluters per square area than in the US. A more meaningful comparison would be between countries or political units with approximate population densities and levels of development, say the US vs. Europe or China vs. India.
Aside from the obvious correlation, there's smog in our Street View and Haze in our spysat, is there any way to tell if the "smokescreen" is natural or man-made? How can one tell a dust storm from smog, cloud formations, or the plumes of a gigantic volcanic eruption? I know from elementary science that clouds are pollution.
Lets just thank god they're burning all that coal rather than risking the remote chance of an accident in some super evil Nuclear power plant.
This is a Chinese attempt to obfuscate their landscape from American spy satellites.
The Chinese have embarked on a daring new plan to obscure themselves from US satellite photography. Operation Brown-Cloud, GO!
We send manufacturing over there because it's cheaper. A major reason why it's cheaper is the lack of regulations. No need for smoke filters, no worries about dumping waste in waters. Then we take pictures and post it on the internet. And we feel good about our yard and complain about theirs.
You people in California are breathing some of that Beijing pollution.
Little Jimmy Hansen, Janet 'Planet' and The Other Political Administrators of DoI, and underlings EPA, and the not to forget our CyberSluts DHS are all masturbating, both male and female, themselves to a bloody climax right about now.
Lordy Lordy. What a Mess !
NO science here ! Just a lot of ejaculate and entrails on the floor and face of the Celebrities (We call them 'Talents' in Japan by the way) One And All.
XD
I traveled to China (Beijing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou) in 2001 and I remember when we landed in Beijing how smoggy it was there. Pretty much the entire country (the parts we saw) were all like this. Of course, this is much worse, but I thought it was kinda bad even back then.
It's just China's way to stop google maps!
* It's communist
* Rampant pollution
* The kleptocracy that festers when communism fuses with capitalism
* One-child policy plus a society that devalues women means women are shrinking as a percentage of the population; translation, China is a sausage fest.
But, it's a capitalist's eutopia!
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
So because it doesnt matter, the US might as well not bother trying at all, is what you're saying, hm?
How much of this is from the sand storms? I do remember reading how sand storms were a problem but I am not sure if they affect Beijing! I believe this is some pathetic attempt by the U.S to smear China, if indeed --part--of what your seeing is sand dust. You think this is bad here is what they are dealing with in Italy------ http://www.npr.org/2012/12/27/167964697/a-showdown-in-italy-over-a-polluting-steel-plant
I know this might sound absurd, but if we care about the environment and want to make a statement to the world, how about we offer some sort of assistance (not necessarily financial) to Beijing to put them on the right track? All of our complaining and pointing fingers and we don't even care about the lives at stake. They have a problem, we should help them make it better however we can. It's lives as stake here!
A 10 minute walk outside is all it takes for a thin film of talc-like dust to settle all over your clothes/hair/skin. For someone exposed to it for a long time, I would imagine it's akin to working in an autobody shop spray painting cars without a respirator.
The stench of sulfur from burning coal is prevalent since many large housing complexes (and even individual homes) use coal fired boilers to create steam heat in the winter. The government hacks that are profiting handsomely from this situation don't care. Their children and their cash are safely stowed overseas.
I don't see any sign of improvement over the past 7 years other than the temporary cleanup for the Olympics in 2008.
Progress and "prosperity" mean a lot more to China than people's health. I have a feeling an entire city could drop dead and they still wouldn't do anything about their environmental problems. In fact, they'd probably just say that's how the problem solved itself.
That already has a name: Tu Quoque, or the Appeal to Hypocrisy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque
Or, as it was famously (and allegedly) phrased by the Soviet Union, "And you are lynching Negroes!"
I stayed in Beijing for eight days in September 2012, and the air quality didn't seem significantly different from any Canadian or American cities that I've visited. I also don't recall seeing anyone wearing face masks.
YMMV.
- Kill ~700.000 people/year by accepting pollution levels way beyond "hazardous" -> profit. Multi billion $ tech gadgets and parts order underway.
Anything above 200 micrograms per meters cubed is akin to being in a room with someone smoking a cigarette. Particles that measure above that density are usually smoke particles. A measurement below 60 micrograms per meters cubed or below is considered "good" by EPA standards. Standing outside in Beijing right now is like being in a smoke filled bar, or hanging out with someone smoking in their bedroom. I'd be interested to know what the numbers are for children in Beijing suffering from asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and other respiratory diseases, not to mention lung cancer.
I live in a large American city and we get air quality warnings in the media from time to time.
The difference being the Chinese actually publish scientific measurements (PM2.5), while holier than thou American government just mutter something about don't go outside. What are our PM2.5 numbers, or what are you trying to hide?
Are the Chinese more transparent than us Americans?
Yes. Put the resources elsewhere. Where they will actually make a difference. FSM knows we have plenty of problems.
My colleague in Beijing reports values of 600+ on the monitor on their building.
It is a no brainer about this report and problem. It started 50 years ago, just like the highways in Los Angeles -- That massive growth in population, massive cars, no EPA (actually, thank you again for no EPA), and why should the USA worry? I think we can just keep our mouths shut and the problem will solve itself - they will all develop COPD fast and die off fast... nice,, better than letter the IRS jerk us around, raise the retirement age to 70, rather than let the mortality rate stay at 74 for me, 79 for women... The US now has the largest and fastest growing bed of seniors that need to be bottle fed and nurses to our own financial debt to the grave...sorry, but true.
While the rest of the world is working towards cutting back on pollutants, China is making up for any cut backs. Perhaps while scaling back on out polutions we need to force China to do the same.