Beijing China again broke it's previous record for polluted air, but going off the charts for particulate matter suspended in the air. (links
here and
here) As reported by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center this week, the level of 2.5 micrometer sized particles exceeded 700 micrograms per cubic meter (US Embassy Twitter feed stated a 755 level, which corresponds to 866 micrograms), or 35 times the maximum unhealthy level of 25 micrograms per cubic meter set by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the Chinese Government, anything greater than 300 micrograms triggers "emergency conditions".
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| Beijing, January 13, 2013 (not an alien landscape or an enhanced image) |
It's not just Beijing. Shanghai has filthy air too, as do all the major Chinese cities. Yeah, developing nation, yada yada yada... sure. See how well that works out for your people, image, and the planet.
So if your company is thinking about sending you to China for a temporary assignment, ask them if that comes with a free lung transplant at the conclusion of the assignment. Or maybe they'll increase your life insurance pay out so that your beneficiary can get a larger sum since you'll be shortening your life inhaling all those pollutants? (doubtful, but good to ask about anyway)
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| Shanghai smog |
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| Jinmao Tower, 2nd tallest building in Shanghai |
Here again China leading India, but the damage is made for both. Environment is causality for economic growth.
ReplyDeleteEnvironmental improvements, clean energy production with less destructive extraction and cleaning burning (think NG over Naptha or Heavy Crude) with lower emissions can spur tremendous growth and employment opportunities. It seems that China prefers instead to go the route of England in the 19th Century, or the US in the early 20th Century, by polluting its water, air, soil, and population, rather than apply existing technologies that can greatly reduce or eliminate emissions. It's sad.
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