Thursday, June 28, 2007
From the archives: One year ago today
Don't worry, in a couple of days we will have lapped our trip to China and the "from the archives" series will either come to a natural and welcome conclusion or move on to other subjects.
'Till then, the Forbidden City.
4 Comments:
By 
SR, at
Thu Jun 28, 11:34:00 PM:
Evidence that China's carbon emissions will overwhelm anything the western world does?
By 
, at
Thu Jun 28, 11:55:00 PM:
I was just about to mention the grey skies. Is it just overcast weather or is it pollution? My Chinese friends have told me that the air in China is really bad, and they notice the difference in air quality when they come to the US. 7 of the 10 most polluted cities in the world are in China.
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Jun 29, 06:51:00 AM:
It was an overcast day, with lots of rain. However, on sunny days there is a lot of smog in the cities, especially Shanghai. Looks like Los Angeles did back in the 1970s, I imagine, or worse.
By , at
Fri Jun 29, 09:25:00 AM:
There are several large coal-burning power plants in the city of Beijing itself. A lot of taxis in Beijing use bottled propane gas for fuel, as that has been mandated to reduce smog.
Beijing is on the edge of very arid country that has largely been deforested, and the very fine dust in the air contributes to the appearance of poor air quality.
I have seen some very new coal-burning power plants in China that have absolutely no pollution abatement equipment whatever; no electrostatic precipitators (on all US coal plants to reduce particulants in flue gas), scrubbers or anything. It can be pretty bad.
Coal is used for everything. Most buildings in China are made of brick, and coal-fired brick retorts are all over the countryside. There are still a few coal-fired steam engines moving freight in Shanxi province, the heart of coal-mining in China.
-David
