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Up To a Quarter of California Smog Comes From China
wabrandsma writes "What goes around comes around – quite literally in the case of smog. The US has outsourced many of its production lines to China and, in return, global winds are exporting the Chinese factories' pollution right back to the U.S. From the article: '...the team combined their emissions data with atmospheric models that predict how winds shuttle particles around. These winds push Chinese smog over the Pacific and dump it on the western US, from Seattle to southern California. The modelling revealed that on any given day in 2006, goods made in China for the US market accounted for up to a quarter of the sulphate smog over the western U.S..'"
How can these particles remain in the very lowest part of the atmosphere while travelling all the way across the Pacific, apparently completely unaffacted by weather or mixing of air strata? It doesn't make sense. Low level particulates rain out of the atmosphere very quickly. If he's talking about high level pollutants in the stratosphere then fair enough - but thats not smog.
Now, I'm mostly libertarian, but in the whole 'your right to throw your fist stops at my nose' sense I'd be okay with imposing tariffs on products that aren't produced up to US pollution standards, or even trade restrictions against countries that aren't even trying, pollution wise.
I don't read AC A human right
... it's hard to see where else the particles could come from.
Why on earth is this news? Perhaps Europe should be wondering where IT'S pollution comes from?
Or, indeed, the world wondering where most of the airborne nuclear pollution comes from? A good part of that is still from US surface testing....
Not only do we destroy our own manufacturing economy by off-shoring all those jobs to China, but we also get a little bonus in the form of major pollution to the planet and some free smog for California.
Be lucky they don't start charging us extra for the smog.
If Chinese manufacturing accounts for 17 to 36 percent of China's pollution, and a fifth of *that* is attributable to the manufacturing destined for US export, how can a quarter of west US smog be attributable to the US export pollution? Does the other 80 percent of manufacturing smog know to go elsewhere?
Have we not been repeatedly assured by the UN and the US government that our bestie friend China is a paragon of environmental awareness? Don't all the charts show China with a lower carbon footprint than Switzerland? Surely the pollution must be the US's own being recirculated. After being partially cleansed by the pristine skies of China, of course. /sarcasm
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
If I am right USA is not interesting in "Kyoto protocol stuff".
I have often said to people that there is a reason why things are so cheap at these big box stores.
I do not say this as a critique of China or which ever country is producing low cost products, but rather as a critique of Western culture and "acquire more crap at all costs" mentality. China is just filling our demand.
Sadly, we tend not to think about the real price of what and where they buy thing. What the human costs of not supporting our local economy is.
We do not think about HOW theses items are so cheap compared to locally produced goods. We do not think twice about buying goods from a US company which closes his factories in America or Europe to sweat shops in China or India.
I do my best to source my goods locally, but it getting more and more difficult. The fact is, local producers of most items cannot compete because westerns are not willing or not able to pay what it actually "costs" to produce.
Now, the fruits of this are coming to bear. From a polluted planet to not getting a living wage. I wish it would turn around, but it won't.
looks more like cnn every day
Maybe it's just a horrible article, but the numbers don't make sense:
The team found that between 17 and 36 per cent of smog produced in China in 2006 came from factories making goods for export. One-fifth of those goods are destined for the US.
Okay, so let's take the average of 17 and 36, we get (17+36)/2 = 26.5. One fifth of that is 5.3. So, 5.3% of smog produced in China came from producing goods for export to the US.
The modelling revealed that on any given day in 2006, goods made in China for the US market accounted for up to a quarter of the sulphate smog over the western US.
Ok, so here's what doesn't make sense. If they're saying 25% of the smog came from china, then only 1.3% of the total smog is from goods produced for export to the US. On the other hand, if they're really saying that what they're saying, and 25% of total smog is from US goods, that means 470% of the smog in total is form China.
This leads to the conclusion that one of the following must be true:
1. The study is full of shit, and the authors need to go back to elementary school. Or,
2. The article is full of shit, and the journalist needs to go back to elementary school. Maybe what the study really says is 25% of the US west coast's smog comes from China, of which 5.3% of that is from production of goods for the US. Or,
3. The paper was written in Chinese, and the translator needs to learn English. Ever put together something complicated made in China? As in, wtf do you mean insert 4 bolts there? There are only screws, and there are only two holes, and they don't line up! Or,
4. Somehow, perhaps by magic, only the sulphate molecules that came out of factories producing goods for the US get blown to the US, while the sulphate molecules made in other production don't. If these molecules somehow know the destination of the goods whose manufacture resulted in their creation, that could make for some really interesting follow up studies! Or,
5. I'm really tired and I missed something. But I don't think I'm that tired.
nothing new yet....
Well, I did a quick google search on emissions, a fair bit about cars, not industry. My general conclusion is that the differences are basically a wash. Which is why I mentioned 'aren't even trying, pollution wise'. China for the most part isn't even trying. The USA at least tries.
A country that is trying to protect itself will generally protect it's neighbors as well.
I don't read AC A human right
Made in China.
Designed in California.
May the Maths Be with you!
For quite a long time, acid rain was causing severe deforestation in Canada, killing fish in lakes and so on, as a result of burning coal in the US.
Coal has a lot of sulfur in it. When you burn sulfur, then makes the resulting oxide gases with water, you get sulfuric and sulfurous acid.
Canada protested vigorously, but the US totally blew it off and kept sending the acid rain to the great white north.
Back in 1983 or so, I watched a documentary movie about this, that had been produced in Canada. The United States authorities labeled the film as "Foreign Propaganda".
Now, I'd rather than China not send us her smog, but I don't see how the United States has standing to gripe about it.
Smells like poetic justice...
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
never read about this stuff on cnn http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stem%20cells&sm=3 a treasure trove of benefit to us ordinarians
It's also a bit of a red flag (excuse the pun) that it's from 2006. A LOT has changed since then, especially in 2008. It makes me think that maybe the year was cherry picked.
Apparently pollution controls were ramped up for the Olympics and necessity has resulted in a lot of other pollution controls since in some of the very badly effected areas. A building boom resulted in plenty of old and badly run industrial plants etc being replaced.
"...It's like talking about 'theft standards' for regulating the activities of pickpockets to a certain amount per wallet..."
As, of course, is the case in Ahnk-Morpork with the Thieves' Guild. Lord Vetinari realised that what people crave is stability, and that, while it is impossible to stamp out crime altogether, it is possible to regulate it. The major gang leaders of the city were therefore called to the Patrician's Palace, where they agreed to be held responsible for ensuring a socially acceptable number of thefts. While they may have been insincere in this promise, they soon found the Patrician knew too much about them for reneging to be safe.
While initially the main money-making venture of Thieves' Guild members remained theft, albeit under strict guidelines and leaving a receipt, more recent books show a system of "insurance", whereby people may pay a fee directly to the Guild and therefore become immune to robbery for a specified period.
Unlicensed theft remains illegal, under both city and Guild law. Perpetrators consider themselves lucky if the revitalised Watch catches them, or they would usually suffer from the cruel punishment dealt out by the guild.
Recently, the Thieves' Guild has introduced the practice of offering free gifts, such as matching crystal glasses, to those about to be mugged. However, these gifts are usually cheap and of poor quality...
"These winds push Chinese smog over the Pacific and dump it on the western US, from Seattle to southern California."
The smog probably actually covers western North America. I highly doubt Chinese smog hates the US so much that it only goes from Seattle to San Diego.
It seems we think it's ok for us to allow the pollution of remote lands because we think it doesn't affect us, and they went along with the deal anyway, right? I see this every day. I don't have to go to China or anywhere else to find this mindset or the outcome. I only need to look off to the side of every road. People throw their garbage everywhere, and they don't care because, "Fsck it, it's not my home...It doesn't affect me."
Well, we live on this Earth together, and pollution doesn't just go away. It moves. It stays on this rocky planet. I don't think this is news, but another late realization we are fscking ourselves, and some of us are fscking greedy assholes.
I can't say what the original scientific article determined but I'm fairly certain the news report and the summary of it are either wildly incorrect or grossly understate the issue.
from the news article:
The team found that between 17 and 36 per cent of smog produced in China in 2006 came from factories making goods for export. One-fifth of those goods are destined for the US.
The modelling revealed that on any given day in 2006, goods made in China for the US market accounted for up to a quarter of the sulphate smog over the western US.
So lets do the arithmetic:
(0.17+0.36)/2 * (1/5) = 0.05
so 5 % of China smog is from US goods and this 5% causes 25% of W. US sulphate.
But wait what about the other 95% of china smog? We need to multiply that US smog by 20 to get it's contribution.
therefore 20*25% = 500% of W. US sulphate comes from china!!! those sneaky rascals are exporting 5 times as much sulphate tot eh US as they produce in total!
For this to make any sense one would have to assume that the sulphate produced in china for US bound goods, selectively finds its way to the US, leaving behind all other chinese made sulphate. This seems absurd. I suppose if winds didn't homgenize the chinese smog, and say all the western chinese smog selectively went one direction and just a tiny regional area that accounted for nearly all the US made goods happened to be nearly the entire source of the US bound smog, then this might be true.
But you would think that the article would have mentioned this extraordinary property and name this magic place in china that is the sole source of US smog.
Or the article is wild BS.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
... is that it keeps us all from murdering each other.
If we weren't trading with China, perhaps it would have attacked Taiwan by now.
China is at present far from being a democracy, however it is making great strides in that free speech, while officially suppressed, is still quite widespread.
While Russia and the US have disarmed to a modest extent, we still have thousands of nuclear weapons aimed at each other. However we are now major trading partners; during the Cold War there was very little trade. For example what at one time was an antiquated glass factory in Russia, received a great deal of investment from United States auto manufacturers, and now is quite prosperously making high-quality glass for automobiles.
What is now the American Southwest was seized from Mexico in an invasion that had not the slightest pretense of justification. The US also took the Virgin Islands and the Philippines from Spain.
Japan was at one time a brutal aggressor, now it is a top trade partner with the entire world.
Cuba came within an RCH of nuking the east coast of the US. While the US still embargoes Cuba, travel to Cuba is actually encouraged now by the US, under certain rather strict rules. It is quite likely that Cuba will be free to trade with the US in ten or twenty years.
A few years ago, Intel invested a billion dollars to build a Fab in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City.
While North and South Korea remain bitter enemies and strictly speaking are still at war, there is a large industrial park in North Korea that is jointly operated by the two countries.
The big Physics lab at CERN in Geneva wasn't built to discover anything. It was built to prevent World War III, by giving those who were once enemies, something peaceful to do together.
9/11 yada yada terrorists in china yada yada
karma's a bitch
blame the CHICOMs! their homeland is going to dissolve into an environmental wasteland soon anyway
I see comments above about "wanting" cheap stuff.
I do NOT want cheap stuff. I HATE cheap stuff because it falls apart too soon.
But that's all I can afford. See, with this new economy, - offshoring, automation, and what have you - my pay has declined in real terms. The numbers prove it.
And there's my student loans.
For example, my Delta miter saw that was given to me crapped out. I called Stanley-Black and Decker (DeWalt, Delta, Porter and Cable, B&D, and quite a few others) didn't make parts for it anymore because it was over 10 years old. The support person (after grilling me for all my contact information) said "DeWalt are great tools!"
Yes they are but I can't afford it. Off to cheap-barely good enough Harbor Freight. NOT a good value but affordable.
Americans do NOT want cheap stuff either - just look at the sales of Apple products, Lexus', BMWs, Harley Davidson's, ...
When cheap stuff is purchased often it's because we don't have a choice because of our downward spiral of our earning power. Part of that is the incessant shipping of well paying jobs overseas and jobs replaced by automation. The CEOs are benefiting but the workers are not.
I think automation is a good thing but when people are not able to find or get other work regardless of retraining (or any other platitude offered by the ruling class), we have a systemic problem that will cause some serious social problems in the future.
don't anyone tell Walmart about this...
they will want to charge Californians an "extra-low price " for it all...
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
The side effect of regulating pollution is the reduction of Green House gases.
That's what gets me, reducing emissions isn't just about Global Warming and all the ridiculous arguments and fights about it: it is also about clean air and water.
It's terribly sad that we here in the US have been so brainwashed into thinking short term economic productivity supersedes environmental well being.
We don't shit in our drinking water so why should we "shit" in our breathing air?!
Nova Scotia has some of the worst air quality in Canada, much of it from the US; And the local stuff from US(mostly) owned factories. Canada, Americas bitch.
http://www.hummingbirdvalley.c...
It's almost 100% in Western Japan.
I'm curious if all those particulants are partially contributing to current drought conditions by seeding clouds to dump their load into the Pacific before getting to the West coast.
And a study complimentary to this one has found the remainder of the particulate matter inhaled in California came from Mexico.
Better known as 318230.
The California climate changers have been working to drive coal power out of the United States which is driving up the cost of electricity which in turn drives up manufacturing costs both in the short term and long term. This has created low coal prices in the short term and in the long term causing China to double down on coal power to keep its energy costs low and to make its manufacturing base even more competitive in the international market. This means more manufacturing will be done in China which ironically will actually make the air quality in California much worse (better air quality for the eastern US though). I also think that it would be ironic if this ultimately kills US manufacturing to the point where the US becomes a third world country where all the wealthier nations of the world come to plunder the natural resources that many conservationists have fought hard to protect. But in protecting our natural resources, it has been taken to such extremes that it ultimately weakens our economy and in so doing our government and world influence. People forget that it takes strength to defend what you cherish (ideas, people, etc.) and that there are no given rules that all uphold. People cling too tightly and take for granted that things will remain as they are now. We must find a balance to remain strong.
It's true!
This pollution hits the whole west coast of North America. Something like half of the mercury in our local environment (Oregon) comes from coal burning in SE Asia.
is all global warming bullshit. If you believe this, you might as well become a democrat.
Any mention of smog anywhere around the world these days has to be included with reports of chemical aerosol spraying by unknown military and private enterprises or its mostly hogwash disinformation.
Shipping is likely a factor, but the time a ship is in that sweet zone+amount of emission is not even a factor when added to the output of China pollution.
This is trivial for CA, in fact the west, to stop. Simply put a consumption tax on all goods based on where they and their sub-parts come from.
Make the tax based on Emissions / $ of GDP, and make it honest emissions, not estimates. So, that would mean OCO2 measures the Carbon that moves in and out of a nation.
Instead, The west will let China and other nations continue to grow their pollution, rather than making a simple change that would cause ALL nations to change their ways.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
you suck at math.
It accounts for 1/4 of the sulphate smog over the US, by the report.
Why are you then multiplying other factors from china against the 20% of US smog vs the remainder?
If I have 3 apples and 1 orange, 1/4 of my fruit are oranges. By your reasoning, since I have 3 apples left over, we add that to the 25% that are oranges and conclude that I have 500% of my fruit in oranges!
Dafuq?
would just route it via a holding company in a country that has a trade treaty that avoids tariffs. Then charge you the markup anyway, apologizing that the evil regulation is why you are suffering.
the Sangre de Christo and other mountain ranges in eastern California would like a word with your reasoning....
FYI, it's = it is/has. You're welcome. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Title says, "Up To a Quarter of California Smog Comes From China"
Body says, "goods made in China for the US market accounted for up to a quarter of the sulphate smog over the western U.S."
What's different:
1. Goods made in China for non-US markets are not accounted for.
2. California is not the same as western US.