ARTICLE: Beijing's Air Is Cleaner, but Far From Clean, By MICHAEL WINES, New York Times, October 16, 2009
Good sign on China: efforts to curb local air pollution are helping.
Truth of any nation on the climb: local pollution skyrockets until per cap income gets to a level when the additional externalities finally get addressed. Thus, virtually every major city in the Old Core was far more polluted in the past than today.
Same will happen with China.
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Comments (1)
Just spent some time in China. My Chinese guide, when asked about the smog, said it was a sign of prosperity and it smelled like money to him. I heard the same thing years ago from friends who lived in a smelly paper mill town in Arkansas.
I was in Beijing shortly after an early snow fall and the air was better than it would have been if there hadn't been any precipitation. But Hong Kong and Singapore have bad smog too.
People will put up with a lot if it means food on the table and a roof over their heads. China still has a long way to go before the smog will be unacceptable, but my guide mentioned that he believed they were going to build some nuclear power plants to help address the problem. On the other hand he told me that they are putting 1800 cars a day on the road in Beijing. Which will make their traffic even worse and add to the smog problem. Just glad i don't have to live there.
Posted by Jimmy J. | November 20, 2009 10:13 PM