Pollution Haze in Asia Could Affect World Food Supply

Thick brown clouds of pollution hang in the sky from the Persian Gulf to Asia in what the U.N. is calling the newest threat to the global environment. The regional haze, made up of soot, particles and chemicals, contributes to glacial melting, reduces sunlight and helps create extreme weather conditions that impact agricultural production, giving it the power to threaten health and food supplies across the world.

From MSNBC:

The huge plumes have darkened 13 megacities in Asia — including Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Cairo, Mumbai and New Delhi — sharply “dimming” the amount of light by as much as 25 percent in some places.

Caused by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants, the brown clouds also play a significant role in exacerbating the effects of greenhouse gases in warming up the earth’s atmosphere, the report said.

“Imagine for a moment a 3-kilometer-thick band of soot, particles, a cocktail of chemicals that stretches from the Arabic Peninsula to Asia,” said Achim Steiner, U.N. undersecretary general and executive director of the U.N. environment program.

“All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to look at emissions across the planet because this is where the stories are linked in terms of greenhouse emissions and particle emissions and the impact that they’re having on our global climate,” he said.

Some of the particles in the atmospheric brown clouds, such as soot, absorb sunlight and heat the air. That has led to steady melting of the Himalayan glaciers, which are the source of most of the rivers in Asia. If they keep on melting at their current rate, the glaciers could shrink as much as 75 percent by 2050.

Scientists are stressing that this isn’t a regional problem – it’s a global one. The cloud masses can move across continents within three to four days, affecting weather and bringing health problems to other parts of the world.

With all of these warning signs, it would be pretty dumb of us not to take serious, immediate action on problems like this. We can only hope that the combination of major threats to the environment and the economic crisis will spur a green movement that will span the globe. That’s what we need to fight this – commitment and involvement from the entire world. Can it happen? I sure hope so.

Link [MSNBC]

London Getting Electric Taxi Cabs in 2009

London Mayor Boris Johnson will likely be giving the go-ahead to replace London’s famed black TX4 taxis with new electric versions sometime in early 2009.  Technical details aren’t available yet, but the aim is a top speed of 50mph and a range of 100 miles per charge.

From Register Hardware, via Geeks are Sexy:

The vehicle will use a lithium-ion iron phosphate battery pack, and is hoped to have a running cost of 4p a mile, though that’s after the yet-to-be-determined initial purchase price. No news on where exactly the battery pack will go, either, BMW’s answer - sticking it where the rear seats used to be - clearly not being an option.

London, like many big cities, has an air quality problem and replacing some of the cars on its streets is a great step toward addressing it. I’m glad they’re keeping the iconic design and not trying to modernize them, though – it’s such a classic look. Sexy, in a blockish English kind of way.

Link [Register Hardware] via [Geeks are Sexy]

Great Green Job of the Week: Director of the European Office for the Center for Clean Air Policy

The Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) is seeking a director for their European office in Brussels, Belgium. CCAP recently formed a new independent nonprofit association in Brussels – CCAP Europe. This organization is the foundation for new program development in Europe as well as the management entity for the Global Sectoral Approaches Study – a major project funded by the European Commission. The new Director of CCAP’s European office will join the CCAP team working on programs and solutions through CCAP’s international policy programs.

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE DIRECTOR OF CCAP’S EUROPEAN OFFICE

The Director of CCAP’s European office will work closely with staff in Europe and the US, as well as with partners and stakeholders worldwide, to advance climate change solutions. The focus will be on climate solutions in the EU, through the UNFCCC and other processes.

Reporting to the Director of International Policy based in Washington and closely coordinating with the Director of International Climate Dialogue in Paris, the Director of CCAP Brussels will seek to build relationships and program opportunities in Europe, contribute to the management of the European Climate Dialogue program, help represent CCAP policy positions and analytical work in international negotiations, and assist in representing CCAP ‘s Global Sectoral Approaches Study. Detailed description of each program and policy issue worldwide can be found at www.ccap.org.

APPLICATION AND NOMINATION INFORMATION

Nominations and applications are due by October 31, 2008. Due to the pace of the search, candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Applications must include including a cover letter describing your interest and qualifications, where you learned of the position, salary history and salary requirements and a writing sample. In addition to your resume (in Word or pdf format, please include at least two personal references. Send applications to recruitment@ccap.org. In order to expedite the internal review process, please type “Brussels” and your name (Last, First) as the only contents in the subject line of your e-mail.

See the qualifications for this job opening at the Treehugger Jobs Board.

Link [Treehugger Jobs] + [CCAP]

China Cleans up for the Olympics, but its Citizens Still Suffer

Looking out across the horizon from a tall building in the southeastern part of China on an average day, you won’t see much. The skyline is obscured by a gray haze generated by the country’s many polluting factories and automobiles. From the ground, sometimes it’s difficult to see the tops of the buildings around you. Though the area does occasionally see clear days, they’re getting fewer and further between.

The rather startling satellite image below shows a thick layer of polluted air covering a large swath of southeastern China. It was taken in January 2008 by NASA’s AQUA satellite. When you realize that China is the world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter (recently taking the title from its previous owner, the United States), it’s not so surprising.

It’s hardly an ideal spot for world-class athletes to practice and compete, and yet here they are, opening day of the 2008 Summer Olympics, huffing and puffing, many wearing masks to protect their airways from the heavy smog. In fact, it’s so bad that endurance events like the marathon and road cycling will need to be postponed if smog levels continue to increase before the games are set to begin.

Many had hoped that the Olympics would provide a strong incentive for China to clean up their pollution problems, since the country pledged to present “pristine skies, waterways, and cityscapes” during its bid to host the games back in 2001. They’ve had seven years to follow through, but only started last-minute emergency efforts to reduce the obvious smog in the skies this summer.

An article by The Guardian on Wednesday explained the worrisome problem:

Official readings collated by Beijing’s municipal environmental protection bureau yesterday gave an air pollution index (API) of 91 for Beijing as a whole, and 87 at the Olympic stadium. The World Health Organisation regards an API of more than 50 as high, and a reading of 100 or more is considered unsafe. The authorities monitor air quality hourly, including levels of particulates, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, and take limited readings for ozone.

Of course, Chinese officials will tell you that the oppressing haze that cloaks the city is nothing but mist, and that the media is exaggerating pollution problems. They’ve even got the International Olympic Committee repeating their stance, with chairman of the medical commission Arne Ljungqvist stating, “The mist in the air that we see in those places, including here, is not a feature of pollution primarily but a feature of evaporation and humidity.”

China has spent the last month in a desperate race to clean up the air pollution in Beijing before the Olympics, going so far as to severely limit traffic within city limits and shut down hundreds of polluting factories and other businesses. The city is alternating the days citizens can operate their cars on the roads according to whether they have odd- or even-numbered license plates. Only Olympic vehicles and taxis are exempt.

Right now, the air pollution issue in China is big news because of the Olympics, but citizens of this populous, rapidly industralizing nation are the ones who will be facing it for decades to come. It poses little threat to visitors and athletes, who will only be exposed to it for a short period of time. Far greater is the danger it places upon the Chinese people: athsma, infections, heart disease and lung cancer.

The World Health Organization has deemed China’s air pollution the deadliest in the world, estimating deaths caused by indoor and outdoor pollution at 656,000 per year. Polluted drinking water kills another 95,600. Damaging air pollutants include ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter (a mixture of very small particles and water droplets). China’s people are breathing in coal smog, tailpipe emissions, concrete dust and plumes of who-knows-what from steel mill smokestacks.

Though China has been furiously struggling to clean up the air in recent times, things will undoubtedly go back to the way they were before after the games are over. All of these measures are merely temporary, and can’t be sustained. China isn’t likely to step up to the plate to protect its own citizens from health ills when the future of the country’s economy is top priority. The World Health Organization is currently trying to work with the Chinese government on more permanent measures, but considering China’s single-minded march toward building as many coal plants as humanly possible, success is doubtful.

Polluting factories play a vital role in China’s development, and the government cites the number of jobless people who would starve if they were shut down. They see it as choosing one or the other: economy or environment. The people of China, on the other hand, want to see more emphasis on cleaning up pollution. According to NPR, 93% of the residents in Shanxi province believe that cleaning up environmental pollution should be a priority.

The United States plays a large part in China’s energy and pollution problems. In pre-Olympics coverage, the media has largely ignored the fact that America and other Western nations bear some of the blame for China’s dirty air and water. As our country’s companies have moved into China to take advantage of cheap labor, they’ve created many of the factories that are now spewing toxins into the air the Chinese people breathe. The fact is that these companies don’t care if they’re harming the health of people on the other side of the earth; they care about their profit margin.

China certainly needs to step up and put regulations in place to control the issues that are harming citizen’s health so dramatically, but until we stop fueling the problem, not much will be achieved in terms of cleaning up this country of 1.3 billion people. Standards need to be created in the United States as well. Until we clean up our own country and demand that American companies take responsibility for the pollution they create in China, we can’t expect China to get very far.

We need to show other nations in the world that it’s possible to have a strong, growing economy that thrives on renewable, non-polluting energy. We’ve given China a very bad example to live up to, and that’s exactly what they’ve done – in the country’s own efforts to achieve better standards of living, they’ve made the same mistakes that the United States has made. We’ve got to set a better example going forward – a clean, green example.

Photo credit: Flickr user gbrunett + Yves Herman/Reuters + Flickr user Terminalnomad Photography

China’s Attempts to Clear Air Pollution Not Working

7 days to go, and Beijing’s attempts to clean up its air quality before the Olympics aren’t looking successful at all. Despite very aggressive efforts, it’s just too little too late. Despite the fact that the skies are still filled with smog, officials deny that air pollution will lead to a need to postpone some events. In fact, they deny that the pollution is there at all.

From Breitbart.com:

“Sometimes it looks like it’s a foggy day, but the air quality is actually good,” Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee, told AFP.

“Our confidence is based on our 10 years of effort (to clean up the air). We are now implementing a continued plan to ensure clear air during the Olympics.”

Chinese officials routinely refer to the city’s smog as “fog”.

Yeah, right. ‘Fog’. Keep telling people that, and over time they’ll really start to believe it, I’m sure. How crappy for Beijing’s residents. Once again, it’s clear that the government doesn’t care about their health – only about impressing foreigners during the games. Sad.

Link [Breitbart.com]
Photo credit: Flickr user WolfieWolf

Beijing Begins Temporary Efforts to Reduce Air Pollution

So it begins – Beijing’s Olympic shutdown was put into place last Sunday, restricting the number of cars on the road and shuttering pollution-emitting factories in preparation for the big event. It’s all an effort to temporarily clear the skies of Beijing’s famously thick air pollution, which would not only be an embarrassment for the city but could hamper athletic performance.

From MyWay:

Striking venues and $40 billion spent to improve infrastructure cannot mask Beijing’s dirty air. A World Bank study found China is home to 16 of the 20 worst cities for air quality. Three-quarters of the water flowing through urban areas is unsuitable for drinking or fishing.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has repeatedly warned that outdoor endurance events lasting more than an hour will be postponed if the air quality is poor.

Under the two-month plan, vehicles will be allowed on the roads every other day depending on even-odd registration numbers. In addition, 300,000 heavy polluting vehicles - aging industrial trucks, many of which operate only at night - were banned beginning July 1.

If I were a Beijing resident, I’d be pissed. You (might) get clean air for a few weeks, and then it’s back to being crushed by a wall of industrial pollution. Good times.

Link [My Way]
Photo credit: Flickr user Digging for Fire

Paris Helium Balloon Shows Air Pollution Levels

A giant helium balloon in the skies of Paris gives city residents a very clear idea of how polluted the air is at any given time. The tethered balloon gives real-time reports of atmospheric pollution using a lighting system that can be seen from more than 12 miles away.

From Physorg.com:

A company called Aérophile announced its recent launch of the gas balloon, known as the AERO30NG Aérophile 5500 model, which is located in the Parc Andre Citroën in Paris. Aérophile manufactures tethered gas balloons as tourist and cultural attractions for places including Disney Village in Paris and the Great Park Balloon in Irvine, California.

The newest balloon, which is filled with 6,000 cubic meters of helium, will serve as both an eco-diagnostic public awareness tool as well as a tourist attraction.

Around the city, air pollution data will be collected by several sensors set up by Airparif, an organization that measures air quality in France. Based on this data, the Aérophile balloon will display two measurements: ambient air quality and air pollution produced by auto emissions, which is measured at major traffic junctions.

The balloon’s color signifies the ambient air quality using three projectors that are located in the middle of the balloon. For example, red signifies highly polluted air, orange for polluted, yellow for moderate, light green for clean, and green for very clean.

There’s a second display at the bottom of the balloon that shows traffic pollution levels. Both displays can be seen both day and night.

This is brilliant. What better way to get people to notice the city’s air pollution levels? It’s as simple as looking up at the sky. It couldn’t be more visible. Brilliant!

Link [Physorg.com]

China Shutting Down Factories to Reduce Pollution Before Olympics

China has been struggling with their poor air quality in the run-up to the Olympics, and they’ve finally come up with somewhat of a plan, even if it’s just temporary. The industrial port of Tianjin, 70 miles southeast of Beijing, has been ordered to shut down operations at 40 factories for 2 months. Officials are hoping that the temporary shutdowns will have an effect on air quality, which was recently reported to be 5 times the World Health Organization’s safety limit.

From the International Herald Tribune:

Beijing’s air quality remains a major concern for the Games as the city continues to struggle with pollution, despite a $20 billion government cleanup campaign. Beijing is also a victim of its neighborhood: pollution blows in from surrounding regions, which are dotted with coal mines, coal-fired power plants, steel mills, cement factories and other clusters of heavy industry.

The Olympic opening ceremony is Aug. 8, and meteorologists have said that officials must begin closing factories a few weeks in advance to make a difference. The suspensions in Tianjin will begin on July 25 and continue until Sept. 30, after the conclusion of the Paralympics in Beijing, according to Xinhua, the country’s official news agency.

Tianjin is a host city for the Olympic soccer competition, and work at 26 construction sites near the city’s Olympic stadium will be suspended.

A few other nearby cities will also be temporarily closing down factories and construction work, including Tangshan. Starting July 20th, Beijing will also be putting into place alternate-day driving restrictions to ease traffic and reduce pollution.

If only this weren’t a temporary measure. It’s great that they’re doing something about the problem before millions of visitors descend upon the country and start breathing in the nasty polluted air, but why not extend it? Aren’t China’s citizens worth the same care? Hopefully all of this will lead China to realize that all of that pollution needs to be controlled on a more permanent basis.

Link [International Herald Tribune]
Photo credit: Flickr user duffman34

Dirty, Polluted Air in Beijing Right Before the Olympics

The smog levels in Beijing right now are 5 times the safety limit. Chinese officials have thrown their hands up, saying they can’t do anything about it. Pollution tests by the Sunday Times confirmed that the levels are far above the standards set by the World Health Organization.

From the Times Online:

With just five weeks to go before the start of the Beijing Games, tests conducted outside the national stadium — known as the Bird’s Nest — and at Tiananmen Square, the starting point of the marathon, showed the air is thick with particulate pollution.

Even the Chinese government’s official air pollution index — which monitors a range of pollutants, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — is running at double the level recommended by the WHO.

Du Shaozhong, deputy director of Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau, said: “We made a commitment to ensure air quality for the Olympic Games . . . as for whether we have reached the goal, that will be examined after the event.”

This has led many Olympic athletes to worry about whether they’ll be able to perform at their best. Haile Gebrselassie, the world’s leading long distance runner, has already pulled out of the games due to his athsma. The British team is training in Macau on the southern coast until the last minute to avoid the pollution as long as possible before the games start.

We’re calling it - the Olympics in Beijing are going to be a messy clusterfuck.

Link [Times Online]
Photo credit: Flickr user borkur.net

We Can’t Offshore Our Pollution to China Anymore – It’s Coming For Us

A common refrain among conservatives regarding pollution produced by American companies is, “Let China deal with it”. Apparently, the prevailing opinion is that if Chinese people need work and Americans are giving it to them, they should be grateful for it regardless of the fact that we’re only adding to the air quality problem in this heavily populated country. A staggering 300,000 to 400,000 Chinese die prematurely each and every year due to the effects of outdoor air pollution, but that doesn’t change the minds of global warming deniers who refuse to take any culpability for the problem. The thing is, folks, that pollution isn’t going to stay in China: it’s starting to march toward the skylines of Californians.

From The New York Times:

In short, roughly as many Chinese die every two months from the air as were killed in the earthquake. And the problem is becoming international: just as Californians can find Chinese-made shoes in their stores, they can now find Chinese-made haze in their skies.

This summer’s Beijing Olympics will showcase the most remarkable economic explosion in history, and also some of the world’s thickest pollution in both air and water. So I’ve returned to the Yellow River in western China’s Gansu Province to an isolated village that has haunted me since I saw it a decade ago.

Badui is known locally as the “village of dunces.” That’s because of the large number of mentally retarded people here — as well as the profusion of birth defects, skin rashes and physical deformities. Residents are sure that the problems result from a nearby fertilizer factory dumping effluent that taints their drinking water.

None of this is surprising: rural China is full of “cancer villages” caused by pollution from factories. Beijing’s air sometimes has a particulate concentration that is four times the level considered safe by the World Health Organization.

If you’re truly naïve enough to think that this problem is never going to reach America, you’ve got some growing up to do – or perhaps you just need a reality check to shake you out of your greed-induced fog. There is no hiding from this problem. America is not protected by a magic bubble put there by Jesus to protect bible-thumping conservatives who believe the world owes them something. You shake your fists at realists who can see these problems coming, literally, from miles away and yet your precious ‘American lifestyle’ is going to be the undoing of us all. We can’t offshore our pollution to China anymore. It’s coming for us.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: ABC News/Reuters

No More Eco-Guilt on July 4th- Chemists Developing Green Fireworks

This is spectacular news- scientists are developing green fireworks. I love a big night of fireworks as much as the next guy, but the fact that the smoke produced by the show was chock full of toxic chemicals and gases always bothered me. Conventional fireworks leave behind a cloud of lead, barium, chromium, chlorates, dioxins, CO2, nitrogen, sulphur oxides, as well as smoke and particular matter.

Inventors Spot has it:

Conventional fireworks draw their energy from the oxidation of carbon. Clean fireworks, on the other hand, would get energy from the high temperatures that occur with the formation of nitrogen-rich compounds. Some possible compounds could be tetrazoles and tetrazines, which are made of four nitrogen atoms and either one or two carbon atoms, respectively.

To produce different colors, chemists could use aminotetrazole salts with specific non-toxic metals. For example, lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium and cesium result in red, orange, violet, purple, and pink flames, respectively.

Somewhat ironically, the most difficult color to produce with “green” fireworks is green. The researchers are looking into green-burning salts based on copper compounds.

Link [Inventor"s Spot]

Photo credit: Flickr user Michelle Jones UK

China’s Making the Thneeds That Everyone Needs: Cue Smogulous Smoke

Yuck. I thought Moscow looked bad, check out how polluted China is. The entire middle of this satellite photo is filled with thick smogulous smoke. It’s the Lorax on a grand scale.

Link [Econbrowser: China's air pollution] Via Treehugger