Smog, smog and more smog!!

[rhett7660]

Good lord, and I thought smog in the valley was bad!!!

THIS is freaking horrid!

http://news.msn.com/world/china-smog-emergency-shuts-city-of-11-million-people

 

[ucfgrad93]

Wow, that is really bad.

 

[roadbloc]

Wow. That's worse than the persistent winter fog we get round here (it doesn't leave until spring arrives). And it kills people and the environment which I guess makes it a little bit even more worse.

But since China are the only county that allow certain manufacturing but pollutant causing techniques that make our tech toys we all love, then I guess its a necessary evil. Sorry residents of China.

 

[carlgo]

Wow. That's worse than the persistent winter fog we get round here (it doesn't leave until spring arrives). And it kills people and the environment which I guess makes it a little bit even more worse.

But since China are the only county that allow certain manufacturing but pollutant causing techniques that make our tech toys we all love, then I guess its a necessary evil. Sorry residents of China.

Yup, saves money to just dump stuff in China. So far away from us, so we are safe. And no taxes to pay at home! What could go wrong?

 

[satcomer]

The article never pointed to what is causing the smog in the first place. Is it bad coal burning, to many cars or bad/illegal factories?

 

[SkyBell]

The article never pointed to what is causing the smog in the first place. Is it bad coal burning, to many cars or bad/illegal factories?

Well:

..the official Xinhua news agency reported, blaming the emergency on the first day of the heating being turned on in the city for winter.

 

[localoid]

Coal kills...

The article never pointed to what is causing the smog in the first place. Is it bad coal burning, to many cars or bad/illegal factories?

China is the largest energy consumer in the world and coal supplies the vast majority (70% percent) of China's energy.

In regards to the smog in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin goes:

The intensification of the smog has to do with weather — as temperatures dip in more northern cities like Harbin, the coal plants that provide most of China’s energy and heat kick into overdrive. (It doesn’t help that in 1950, the Chinese government declared that everyone who lived north of China’s Huai River and Qinling Mountains — which includes major cities like Harbin, Shenyang and Beijing — could receive coal-powered heating for free.)

Source: In China’s Polluted Cities, the Smog May Be Here to Stay

 

[satcomer]

China is the largest energy consumer in the world and coal supplies the vast majority (70% percent) of China's energy.

In regards to the smog in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin goes:

Yea but the original Ops article did not!

 

[localoid]

Yea but the original Ops article did not!

What exactly are you trying to say? The original article "did not" what?

 

[stubeeef]

and while we continue to tighten regulations, we send the jobs over there and the smog floats right back to us.

did anyone ever see the before and after pictures from the olympics when the smog was nearly this bad-they regulated the heck out of it and everything cleared up before the olympics then back to business as usual.

 

[rhett7660]

and while we continue to tighten regulations, we send the jobs over there and the smog floats right back to us.

did anyone ever see the before and after pictures from the olympics when the smog was nearly this bad-they regulated the heck out of it and everything cleared up before the olympics then back to business as usual.

Just did a quick google search! another yikes for this one. Man o man.

 

[localoid]

It's a small world (after all)

Harbin Smog Crisis Highlights China’s Coal Problem

Choked with smog that shut down roads, schools, and its main airport, the city of Harbin (map) this week offered a striking reminder that China has a long way to go in addressing the hazards caused by its dependence on coal.

Visibility in the northeastern city of more than 10 million people reportedly was reduced in places to less than 65 feet (20 meters) as coal-fired heating systems ramped up for the winter months. Officials also pointed to farmers burning crop stubble and low winds as additional causes for the pollution crisis.

...

The level of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, in Harbin's air this week reportedly reached 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter, exceeding the World Health Organization's daily target level by a factor of 40. While Harbin's predicament is alarming, it is not isolated; many cities in Northern China, including the capital Beijing and neighboring Tianjin, rank among the most polluted in the world. In January, Beijing made headlines when its air quality got so bad that it went beyond the very top of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Index.

China’s plans to cut coal pollution will unleash another environmental catastrophe instead

Think China’s coal-fired power plants are dirty? You haven’t seen anything yet.

The country plans to build up to 40 massive projects to convert coal to synthetic natural gas (SNG), a process that would dramatically increase China’s greenhouse emissions, and emit huge volumes of toxins while consuming vast quantities of water, according to a study released today by Duke University.

...

Bottom line: Over the 40-year life of China’s nine approved SNG plants, their carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions would hit 21 billion tonnes, compared to three billion tonnes from a “natural” natural gas plant. If China builds the 40 planned SNG plants, their emissions would skyrocket to 110 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases over 40 years. China’s total CO2 emissions in 2011 were 7.7 billion tonnes.