That is LA down there. I return to LA each year and the smog is still there. But did you know that some of that smog is coming from CHINA?For years now the United States has sent its polluting industries out of the country, Why? Because it would be AWAY and not HERE. We all know that there is an invisible wall that stops all pollution at the national border. Well, here is the rub. The invisible wall isn't there.
It seems that Los Angeles smog, which is of course, caused by the insane amount of cars on the road, is caused by the insane number of cars, BUT that is not the only reason. The smog is being imported along with all the other things we import---from China. That is right, coal burning power plants in China are creating so much pollution that it is being carried by the winds across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of America. China is the most polluting country on earth.
Experts once thought China might overtake the United States as the world’s leading producer of greenhouse gases by 2010, possibly later. Now, the International Energy Agency has said China could become the emissions leader by the end of this year, and the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency said China had already passed that level.While China is the fastest growing economy on Earth, it is also the most environmentally devastating. Just read about what the country is doing to make the Olympics be somewhat healthy, and what some athletes have done when they realize how unhealthy it is.
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As we already know (at least I hope so) pollution from coal-burning power plants is damaging to health. For human health it harms the respiratory system, causes cancer, causes thousands of premature deaths. The land and air fare no better. It causes acid rain, sterilizing lakes, rivers, and streams.There is a Dickensian feel to much of the region. Roads are covered in coal tar; houses are coated with soot; miners, their faces smeared almost entirely black, haul carts full of coal rocks; the air is thick with the smell of burning coal.Yet, even as the air is filled with soot, and cancer rates have soared, the Chinese (and perhaps America if Dick Cheney has his way) continue to build more coal-burning plants. And they continue to do exactly as we did as our industrial might grew - subsidize the plants, the electricity, the lifestyle, so that they can grow all that much more. While they grow they cause more pollution, more global warming, more climate change, more CO2 more of the problems that threaten our lives in the twenty-first century.
At what point do we all just get it? When do we start to realize we all live on the same planet and there is no "away."
13 comments:
“At what point do we just all get it?”
That’s a great question, and I think we all know the answer. We won’t all “get it” until something absolutely devastating happens and we all realize that we didn’t know what we had until it was gone. Feeling bad for the California coast as it gets doused in Chinese pollution feels hypocritical because we’ve been dousing Ontario and Quebec with pollution for the past 200 years. Then there’s also still the fact that the article states – “that the average American still consumes more energy and is responsible for the release of 10 times as much carbon dioxide as the average Chinese”
My own personal vision of China is that it’s like a five year old kid in an adult business suit. It’s running around, trying to act all grown up, but it’s tripping all over itself and learning painful lessons on the job. It’s got tons of resources, tons of population, and tons of technology, yet it doesn’t feel right calling them a developed country until they can grasp the more basic concepts of human rights. Hopefully North America and the EU will continue to mentor and coerce China into the most responsible of directions and not simply the most commercially economical.
On coal- There’s a lot of it in the world and it’s cheap, so it’s very tempting. I think if we keep a steady push towards power from sources like solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, nuclear, etc. then the future generations of the world will greatly appreciate being able to fall back on it when “The Event” finally happens and everyone all of a sudden “gets it”.
I hope this doesn’t sound like excessive rambling.
Everything that America does seem to come back on us we pollute the air and import our waste into other countries. This is maybe making us concious of what it feels like to be on the other end of the spectrum. If we see how it affects us to have another countries waste maybe we will take the time to look at what we have been doing and change
As I was reading through the article that is the question I was thinking about. At what point in time does the WORLD realize that this is not an issue for one specific area. This problem needs to be taken care of and the world needs to work togehter to take the steps necessary to solve the issues affecting health of life, and the planet as a whole. I think that it is so true the way this was explained... We import so much from China and we are also importing the bad effects assosicated with this pollution.
I agree wtih Kyle, but at the same time I can't sit here and say that China is the only reason why this issue is going on though. The United States sends industries overseas, just like the article said, to get them out of here. Well, now there is the issue of dealing with the realization that there is no wall there to stop the pollution. This is an issue for everyone, and every place needs to take the steps necessary to work towards a better environment.
I have to start by saying that no Kyle, it's not "excessive rambling" at all. I always enjoy your posts; keep it up!
While I agree China has some serious issues that it faces, American's need to be careful to not be react in a way that would be hypocritical. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution we have burned coal like it was nothing and built smokestacks to carry our pollutants to our neighbor. Should we blame an "industrializing nation" for using the same methods that we did to get to where we are today? For decades we have encouraged nations to step up and become more "modern" and now it has created a great problem. With China planning on urbanizing 300 million more people and potentially building 700 more coal fired power plants by the year 2025, a viable solution seems to me impossible.
"At what point do we just all get it?"
I completely agree with Kyle in his statement that we won't "get it" or do anything about it until something bad happens and we don't realize how good we could have had it until it was gone. But if we do something about this now, we won't have to wonder "what if".
It seems very hypocritical to me that for the US to be getting so upset about this. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be (we should!) but how can we get angry with China when we are doing the same thing to other countries? I think it goes along with the thought that many Americans have that we are the "top dog" and because of this, we can do whatever we want. We can NOT do whatever we want because it hurts our country, other countries and essentially the entire world.
It us hard to blame China for wanting to develop a more industralized economy when the demand from the US is increasingly growing. But I would like to know if the Chinese have considered or is using any nuclear power? Yes it might cost more to build but if managed and maintained would be much more efficient and safer for our world. It is amazing that the emissions from china can reach all the way to the west coast. Maybe once this realization is noticed more publicly we can try to work with the Chinese to help reduce their CO2 emissions.
This is what I know about nuclear power in China Ryan. They do have nuclear capabilities (nuclear weapons), and they are interested in building power plants, but U.S. power plant companies aren’t being allowed to sell or share technology with China because deep down inside the U.S. is definitely still scared of a second “cold war” escalating. China is therefore doing business with the French, which is actually really great because the French build good consistent NPPs.
China’s problem is that they need energy and they need it yesterday. From what I’ve heard not only do their coal burning plants pollute badly just like everyone else’s, but they build them so fast that they’re actually even dirtier than the normal coal plants you find today.
I do think that China will begin building NPP’s, and I think they’re capable of the technical know-how and maintenance that goes along with having one. I really worry though about if they’re patient enough to enrich uranium the proper way… any nuclear accident over there, with the population density they have, would just be horrible.
It’s really too bad the U.S. isn’t helping them out with this because the U.S. has the safest most efficient NPPs in the world, and our economy sure could use a good customer.
Well here is the way I look at it, I think we are all at the point that "we get it", but I think some of us as countries are stubborn. Here in the US we have been among the leading consumers and polluters for many years, and now that we have India and China growing at a rapid rate, we say hey you guys can't do that, even though we have been doing it for years. It's sort of like when you tell a young kid, "when i was your'e age I did the same thing, but you should learn from what I am telling you". We all know how this ends, 9 times out of 10 the kid has to do what they were told and get in trouble and find out for themselves that what they did was wrong. I think this holds true of China especially, we are those parents telling them not to do what they are doing, but they are going to maybe need to do it first and get introuble with their own envrionment and economy before they realize what they are doing. I know it may seem like a childish example, but it is that simple. For years we have run around the globe doing as we pleased, and now that someone is following in our foot steps we dont want them to. Granted that their population has far surpassed ours, but like we learned in class, not everyone lives like an American with the luxuries that we have. Some Chinese are just getting started on this, and that is why they are doing what they are doing.
It is understandable that China produces polluted air an some things that will affect us because we depend on China for production.
It is so scary to think that we will easily get cancer.
If we know that these pollution will affect our health, we should do something to protect before there really happens.
It is too late and we cannot erase the thing that we've done, but we can stop now and save ourselves from the issues.
GEOG 320
Yuki Uchida
I am quite certain that it is not going to happen----we are never all going to "get it". I had the opportunity to go to China two years ago with business. I was initially looking forward to the experience of visiting the industrial capital of the world. It took me all of 1 hour to be ready to get back on my plane to return to the clean air of Michigan. I have been to many polluted areas of the country and the world, but nothing compares to what I saw in China. There was a constant layer of haze that hung over the streets and restricted your air quality and breathing abilities. Looking out of my hotel, the blanket of smog laid over the city like a quilt. I could barely see the city streets through the dense layer. A tour guide told me that at the time, over 1,000 cars were put onto the streets of Beijing every day. Every day! How can a city support that, and survive that? The problem is, they can't. And the other problem is, we are starting to feel the effects of their overpopulation and polluting. Sure, send all of our jobs over there, and then let them in turn produce so much that the pollution is reaching across an ocean to intensify our global warming and quality of life. There are too many people in China, too many cars, and far too much pollution. How can we make a difference? All we can do, is to nip our problems in the US in the bud. Solve the problems that we can solve, and hope that others do the same. For now, be proactive in order to be living.
All throughout the history of the United States, we have not cared one bit about how our actions affect the rest of the world. We are one of the biggest polluters in the world and we are the first to point the finger at someone else. We complain about China polluting California, but what about our pollutants? Like Kyle said, the U.S. has been polluting Ontario and Quebec for years. Why don't we do something about that? The U.S. needs to take a step back and take care of their own problems and then maybe we can model our actions for other countries to follow.
We will find a solution to the polution problem when we stop refering to it as China's problem, or Mexico's problem, and approchit as a world problem. I think we tend to forget that even though we are in diffrent countries we still are on the same earth nad there is no escaping the problems we create. You cant watch the building next to you burn down and say "oh well its their building", odds are some of those flames are going to hit you and then it will be your problem too. Lets as a planet begin to think globaly and call out countries like china and even our selves for pushing our bad decisions on the rest of the world. One planet one Problem, many solutions we just have to be willing to find them.
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