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China Smog: Millions Start New Year Shrouded By Health Alerts and Travel Chaos (theguardian.com)
Millions in China rang in the New Year shrouded in a thick blanket of toxic smog, causing road closures and flight cancellations as 24 cities issued alerts that will last through much of the week. From a report on The Guardian: On the first day of 2017 in Beijing, concentrations of tiny particles that penetrate deep into the lungs climbed as high as 24 times levels recommended by the World Health Organization. More than 100 flights were cancelled and all intercity buses were halted at the capital's airport. In the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, more than 300 flights were cancelled while the weather forecast warned thick smog will persist until 5 January. All of the city's highways were also shut as low visibility made driving hazardous, effectively trapping residents.
it's actually worse.
more than 300 flights were cancelled while the weather forecast warned thick smog will persist until 5 January. All of the city's highways were also shut as low visibility made driving hazardous, effectively trapping residents. In the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, more than 300 flights were cancelled while the weather forecast warned thick smog will persist until 5 January. All of the city's highways were also shut as low visibility made driving hazardous, effectively trapping residents.
im getting way to drunk playing the slashdot summary fuck up drinking game
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
We want those awesome jobs manufacturing phones for a dollar an hour at 80 hours a week!
Coal-fired.
Heavy smog made proofreading impossible, thus forcing editors to double down on certain sentences. If conditions persist, /. will return to the all to familiar double posting, now with extra chinese smog.
Sounds like a really great market for vehicles that don't have internal combustion engines, unless the electricity is generated by burning coal.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I have some 99 cent trinkets I need to buy on eBay. Suck it up and get to work!
Dupes are the norm, but within the story itself? Welcome to the next level!
when I first flew regularly to Beijing, the pollution seems to be of a different nature, but worse. Back then most were heating their homes with bricks of coal. After a day out in town, I would come back to my hotel and blow my nose. The tissue was filled with coal soot! Now the particulates are finer (more hazardous?) and no soot in snot. I feel the effects more sharply now though, but maybe that's just my age...
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
It's a good thing China doesn't have an EPA, think of how much worse the situation would be in there was a government agency meddling in the lives of the Chinese people.
[/political sarcasm]
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Already coal fired. Have been for a long time.
Difference is we use AQCS and they are just starting.
Sorry to buzz kill you.
Trump kept saying over and over that China has been kicking our butts.
Trump will fix that.
That nasty EPA has us all breathing clean air. Bastards! We could be more like China. Bring back the smog and acid rain!
I was going to post that New Delhi is the city with the worst pollution numbers, but the AQI numbers gathered by the US embassy there don't bear it out. Even though the numbers are within the "Hazardous" range like Beijing's numbers, they are a little bit lower. Kolkatta, however, is ahead of Beijing.
You do realize the EPA, in conjunction with the clean air act, are "big government"?
The EPA could only dream of having the extensive command and control enjoyed by the Chinese Government, so what could your point possibly be? So far, a better environment is associated with less government—after all, the environmental movement started in the "private" sector, not the "public" sector; government is like that guy who jumps in front of the parade and pretends to lead it along the path that it is already walking.
Residents in South Korea (Seoul) from time to time get high-alert pollution warnings for winds blowing in from Beijing. So before the Chinese blaming "the western media for making China look bad", this stuff is being reported in Korea as well. The folks in Korea don't hate the Chinese. It's similar to the relationship between Canada and USA.
But Trump is anti-regulatory and so he wants to get rid of AQCS. Or is it your view that he is actually an environmentalist in disguise?
I have a legitimate claim to your property, asserted by my private judicial system (didn't look yours, it looked like a monopoly). Please vacate the premises or my private army shall be compelled to remove you forcefully. You may leave by road, I have set up a toll-booth on your drive-way.
Coal-fired.
On a per-capita basis, America burns more coal than China.
America gets about 39% of its electricity from coal, while China gets about 75% from coal. But Americans use more than twice as much electricity per-capita.
Irrelevant, the planet doesn't care about per-capita. China produces 3.5 times the carbon emissions of the USA. That's the only stat that matters.
not possible, only 16% of our energy comes from coal and the number can't be lifted much in the a two term presidency
You are really grasping at straws here with a clear anti-government agenda. What if I show you countries with more socialist policies and government spending (proportional to population) with cleaner air than ours? Will that change your mind? I didn't think so. You have already have a lens that you see the world through, and it's basically the "minimal government is best" lens. You aren't looking for solutions to air pollution deaths. You're just peddling your pre-conceived opinions to the gullible, wrapping them in the current issue of the minute, poorly, at that. I'm open to less government/efficiency in government, when it makes clear financial and societal sense, not when it is a mindless mantra used as a cover for disinformation.
China produces 3.5 times the carbon emissions of the USA. That's the only stat that matters.
No, that stat doesn't matter at all. Political boundaries don't matter to CO2. If China split up so that each province was independent, would you consider carbon emissions "solved" because each is emitting less that the previous union?
Tell me.
What causes China to produce so much pollution?
Answer: The U.S. desire for cheap labor.
If we bring those jobs back to the U.S., the products will be produced with less pollution (and higher cost) because the U.S. has more-stringent pollution standards.
Is that what the voters in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio thought?
Political boundaries DO matter to someone trying to implement policies to reduce emissions.
Dammmmmn someone with a brain.
It will sort itself out.
Funny you use an example of a steel plant as that is exactly what Beijing did getting ready for the 2008 Olympics, they moved a steel plant to help clean up the air.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/2008/2007-05/20/content_876385.htm
It's a problem in the Netherlands too. In many densely populated places, particulate levels are orders of magnitude larger than on during an average morning commute (which is typically the high point of the day) from the last hours of 31 December to well into the afternoon of New Year's Day. Moreover, it's not just ordinary organic particulate matter, fireworks tend to contain a vast array of metals, some especially toxic (e.g. barium) to make the fancy colours.
Since fireworks are originally a Chinese concept and most of it is imported from China, I can only imagine how bad it would be in Chinese cities, where the air was already very polluted to begin with.
Tell me.
What causes China to produce so much pollution?
Answer: The U.S. desire for cheap labor.
I doubt exports to one specific country are a big factor in pollution primarily caused by domestic heating and transportation.
If we bring those jobs back to the U.S., the products will be produced with less pollution (and higher cost) because the U.S. has more-stringent pollution standards.
If you move the production to Europe, they will be produced with even less pullotion (but also even higher cost).
You are a complete tool. I can't believe I'm agreeing with billy, but per person is the best way to measure such things and USA is way out in front on the CO2 polluting scales. More than a European, A Chinaman and an Indian combined. And Americans don't even make their own stuff, and have suposedly better regulations. What the fuck are they doing thats so god damn wasteful !?!?!
Presumably the embassy is located in a nicer area of town, a little greener, a little less crowded, a little further from the worst air pollution sources.
Any Sinophiles here to comment on our Peking real estate?
Rich people and big companies are often highly favored by oppressive regulations and corrupt crony politicians.
As far as I can tell, he accepts modern pollution controls but does not accept CO2 as a pollutant or extra, arbitrary paperwrk.
Actually pollution was controlled through lawsuits and discovery before Nixon. Nixon pre-empted massive court resolutions to prevent overnight sea changes requiring immediate cleanup and huge damage awards as private monitoring means and public understanding outed criminal polluters.
Big deal. Plenty more where they came from.
I fucking hate Chinks.
What causes China to produce so much pollution?
Answer: The U.S. desire for cheap labor.
WRONG - It takes a supply and demand to make a market. China's willingness to supply cheap labor and low cost manufacturing by dispensing with many pollution controls we would require here in the US, is as much what causes China to produce so much pollution as our demand for products.
The Chinese, at least the illegitimate PRC (the ROC is the legitimate government of China IMHO) isn't stupid. They know exactly what they are doing and the consequences of their actions.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Number one! Number one! Go murika!
are long term. The air pollution coupled with the cigarette smoking will mean that many middle aged and senior Chinese will not have a healthy long life.
thinking and reality are often two different things
"clean coal" can't compete with natural gas. There are some useful things that could be done with coal that are cleaner than petroleum but gas beats those too