Saturday, December 08, 2007
China's air pollution, up close
Glenn Reynolds links to a story in today's New York Times about China's "suffocating" air pollution. Well, it is. Here are a couple of pictures of Shanghai that I took on a cloudless June day in 2006 (scroll down for commentary):
Commentary
All rapidly industrializing countries pollute -- their economies develop faster than their sensibilities, even with the advantage of hectoring from Western "already haves." Even in the United States we forget how recently our cities looked this way, our failing memories a testament to the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act and its progeny. In China as elsewhere, the rapid creation of wealth is the surest path to a cleaner environment. Let it happen, and celebrate it when it does.
4 Comments:
By 
AB, at
Sat Dec 08, 08:02:00 PM:
In the West, the pollution disappeared within a few years of the anti-pollution technology becoming available.
In China, the technology already exists. What is the point of money if you can't breath? Do the Chinese people really want a Supersize version of the London Fog that killed thousands?
By Buce, at
Sun Dec 09, 09:39:00 AM:
I'll see your Shanghai and raise you Agra link
By Diane / "Didi", at
Sun Dec 09, 10:47:00 AM:
And the best athletes in the world will have to bring a machete with them to China so they can cut through the air to breathe enough to compete in the next Olympics!
Give me a break!
(Yet *we* are the country who's ruining the Kyoto agreement thing ... *our* country, which has done so much to clean our air, water & land since the early '70s when it was first droned at us ... we should cut *our* carbon footprint ... yeah, right...)
By Fire, at
Sun Dec 09, 07:07:00 PM:
Just one more reason not to visit China
