23/07: Chinese Pollution Over California
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
You can't outsource forever on a small planet.
For several years now we have been outsourcing our pollution. Why do you think MADE IN CHINA is cheaper than MADE IN USA? Wages are only a part of it. A much bigger part is that China manufactures without the concern for the environment we have. With no need for expensive pollution control equipement (and worker safety practices) products are cheaper.
We have been outsourcing pollution.
But, on a small planet, you can't outsource forever. From the science section of the Wall Street Journal:
One tainted export from China can't be avoided in North America -- air.
An outpouring of dust layered with man-made sulfates, smog, industrial fumes, carbon grit and nitrates is crossing the Pacific Ocean on prevailing winds from booming Asian economies in plumes so vast they alter the climate. These rivers of polluted air can be wider than the Amazon and deeper than the Grand Canyon.
"There are times when it covers the entire Pacific Ocean basin like a ribbon bent back and forth," said atmospheric physicist V. Ramanathan at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.
On some days, almost a third of the air over Los Angeles and San Francisco can be traced directly to Asia. With it comes up to three-quarters of the black carbon particulate pollution that reaches the West Coast, Dr. Ramanathan and his colleagues recently reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Full story here. Link from Drudge.
Nearly thirty-five years ago I read a science fiction story in which air pollution from Asia finally reached North America, signalling an end to breathable air on the planet. ("East Wind, West Wind?) Since the early 70s we have made considerable progress in our country in cleaning up the air. Now we are losing the results of our efforts thanks to the American consumer preference for cheap at any price. Buy American.
For several years now we have been outsourcing our pollution. Why do you think MADE IN CHINA is cheaper than MADE IN USA? Wages are only a part of it. A much bigger part is that China manufactures without the concern for the environment we have. With no need for expensive pollution control equipement (and worker safety practices) products are cheaper.
We have been outsourcing pollution.
But, on a small planet, you can't outsource forever. From the science section of the Wall Street Journal:
One tainted export from China can't be avoided in North America -- air.
An outpouring of dust layered with man-made sulfates, smog, industrial fumes, carbon grit and nitrates is crossing the Pacific Ocean on prevailing winds from booming Asian economies in plumes so vast they alter the climate. These rivers of polluted air can be wider than the Amazon and deeper than the Grand Canyon.
"There are times when it covers the entire Pacific Ocean basin like a ribbon bent back and forth," said atmospheric physicist V. Ramanathan at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.
On some days, almost a third of the air over Los Angeles and San Francisco can be traced directly to Asia. With it comes up to three-quarters of the black carbon particulate pollution that reaches the West Coast, Dr. Ramanathan and his colleagues recently reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Full story here. Link from Drudge.
Nearly thirty-five years ago I read a science fiction story in which air pollution from Asia finally reached North America, signalling an end to breathable air on the planet. ("East Wind, West Wind?) Since the early 70s we have made considerable progress in our country in cleaning up the air. Now we are losing the results of our efforts thanks to the American consumer preference for cheap at any price. Buy American.
