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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums‘Off-the-scale’ smog envelops Beijing and northern China
Pollution levels in Beijing soared above index limits, the US embassy said, as a dense cloud of haze shrouded large swathes of northern China.
People in the capital, some wearing masks, Tuesday battled through a second consecutive day of pollution at hazardous levels. Beijing municipal authorities warned those with respiratory difficulties to stay indoors.
...
The US embassys air quality index (AQI) reading for Beijing stood at 495 and hazardous at 11am, after reaching 517, or beyond index, at 6am.
The index rates anything over 150 as unhealthy, over 300 as hazardous, while a reading above the upper limit of 500 is regarded as beyond index.
Meanwhile, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre gave the figure at 10am as 393, indicating the air in the capital was severely polluted.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/29/off-the-scale-smog-envelops-beijing-and-northern-china/
I always hear Republicans saying that we can't do anything to slow our carbon emissions because India and China pollute so much. When did we become a nation that follows second world countries? I thought we were supposed to be leaders?
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)There are people who make a great deal of money off of the cheap labor & lax environmental laws in China and India and many of them are not in China or India. As long as this is the case nothing will change unless the exploited people within these countries refuse to go along any more.
I predict that so many people in the world are desperate it will take nothing short of misery, abject misery in epic numbers. When enough have died and enough cannot even function at all due to various illnesses caused by the pollution, then you will see them do something that leads to drastic change.
Sadly, the only other alternative will be for people like Americans to stop consuming the shit that is being produced which leads to the pollution. Naturally this will never happen as this nation is raised from moment one to consume constantly.
Julie
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Those terms aren't economical or social, but political. The US and NATO were the "First World", the Soviets and their allies were the "Second World", and all neutral countries (that just happened to be so poor that they didn't count) were the "Third World".
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)That third world was non aligned, non industrialized. Anyhow, it sounds like China is pretty screwed pollution wise. They had better do something fast.