On my roommate’s recommendation, I watched a powerful documentary about China’s deepening smog and pollution problem. While spending 2013 in Shanghai, I became a fair-weather vegetarian because for weeks, dead pigs were floating toward the city from an upstream tributary, and no one knew why. The government’s eventual explanation was “tainted feed”, but the uncertainty and distrust lingered.
I was also one of the stupid expats who jogged outside from time to time, sans air mask…won’t be doing that again!
(in fairness I enjoyed my Shanghai stay-cation and visit often, this is just a small slice of the experience)
The talk is more than 1.5 hours, but the first 30 minutes are its most gripping. Here’s a link with English subtitles [YouTube].
My notes:
- there’s a strong correlation between air pollution and lung cancer incidence
- this fact surprised me: severe pollution has been a reality since the early 2000s; it’s not just a recent problem; back then, a lot of the smog was labelled fog
- the talk also gave historical context: how England went through a worse, more acute smog battle in early 1900s, 10K+ died; the rising pollution problems in India and Iran
- China depends on these “heavy industries” for jobs and social stability
- pollution is worse in winter months, due to increased coal usage (and much of the winter coal is lower quality, unwashed coal)
- pollution is a regressive tax; the lower your income, the less able you are to buy high quality masks and filters, the more likely you are to work outside and within industry
- lack of regulations, weak enforcement and corruption are to blame — for example, China’s big oil companies set fuel quality standards (e.g., Sinopec) and are quasi-governmental enterprises
- with China’s continued economic growth, urbanization and transition from developing to developed economy, she believes many of these environmental problems are still in early stages
- LA has 1.7M people and 1.3M cars! but while car ownership has tripled since the 70s, emissions have dropped by 75% due to strict regulations and new technology (e.g., diesel pollution filters mandatory for commercial trucks)
PS. and if you’re wondering why I said mind-blasted and not mind-blown, Russell Peters has your answer