China Puts up Shiny Façade for the Olympics – Literally

Visitors walking down the freshly swept streets Luomashi Boulevard in Beijing don’t see the shops that are normally bustling with life on a typical day. Instead, they see an 8-foot wall, whitewashed and topped with roof pavers. It doesn’t just hide the shops. Behind them are the alleyway ‘huttong’ housing, which the government had hoped to clear out and demolish. Apparently, Chinese officials felt that the view of the shops and huttong would have put off foreign tourists, and they’ve been doing everything they can to make Beijing look nicer than it really is during the Olympic games. Residents didn’t leave in time, though – hence the wall.

From Boston.com:

“The government didn’t have enough time to get everyone to move,” said Zhang, a 40-year-old museum worker who only gave her surname. “So the wall went up for the Olympics. It is just to make a more beautiful environment for the city.”

She said she is willing to move if the developer offers her more money, though she declined to say what amount would be enough.

“I want to get on with my life,” she said. “Looking at the wall is very depressing.”

It’s yet another example of how Beijing is just putting up a façade for visitors from other nations, but this time, it’s literal. It makes you wonder how much the Chinese government cares about its people, considering that of the many promises it made during its bid for the Olympics, the only ones that were fulfilled were the ones benefiting tourists. Once again, China’s people seem to be left in the dust.

Link [Boston.com]

Beijing is Even Smoggy on Google Maps

There’s no hiding this kind of nasty funk in the air.  Beijing authorities might try to tell everyone it’s ‘mist’, but take a gander at the dirty lookin’ air hovering above the city on Google Maps.  Yuck.  How’d you like to breathe that in every day? Olympic athletes only have to deal with it during the games; Chinese citizens have to deal with it for life.

Link [Google Maps]

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

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

China’s Increasing Coal Use: ‘Business as Usual’ vs. ‘Not Going to Happen’

The graphic above, created by the US Energy Information Administration, shows expected trends in coal use over the next two decades, with China’s consumption skyrocketing. This is the ‘business as usual’ scenario, assuming that China doesn’t do anything to stop their current rate of coal use. As scary as that is, there is hope. A lot of factors could effect coal use, not the least of which is the ‘Buy Local’ movement.

From Treehugger:

Other scenarios are equally plausible, involving certain overlooked freed-back loops and consumption drivers. For example:

* Escalating consumption of oil by China drives up the price of oil on world markets, slowing the US economy to an extent that OECD nation (US especially) consumers buy far fewer Chinese exports.

* Reduced OECD nation demand for made-in-China products slows the Chinese economy, which leads to reduced construction of coal-fired electrical generators there. And so on.

* The US actually takes climate action seriously.

Under the “Not Going To Happen” scenario, a predetermined outcome would certainly be reduced carbon emissions. People would be getting by with far less consumption. Reclamation and refurbishment of products would become major economic activities.

Imagine how different things could be if we didn’t buy so many Chinese exports. More Americans would have stable jobs. We’d have more security in knowing that the products were safe. Fewer American corporations would be growing fatter and richer due to their cheap factories in China at the Chinese people’s (and the world’s) expense. We wouldn’t waste so much fuel shipping things over. And of course, less pollution and strain on the environment.

But perhaps the biggest factor to stop this nightmare Chinese coal scenario – and global warming - would be buying less stuff, period. Our culture is far too dependent on inexpensive gadgets that we use for a little while and then toss in a landfill. Less is more!

Link [Treehugger]

China Frantically Trying to Clean Up Red Algae Blooms Before Olympics

Thousands of people in the coastal Chinese city of Qingdao are working to clean up huge amounts of algae that currently cover the beaches and the water along the coastline. This ‘red tide’ in the Yellow Sea threatens to interfere with the upcoming Olympics. Qingdao officials are trying to convince the public that the bloom has been caused by increased rainfall and warmer waters rather than the fact that several coastal cities dump raw sewage into the water and high levels of nitrates empty into the sea from agricultural and industrial runoff. Yeah, okay.

From the International Herald Tribune:

Local officials have initiated an all-out effort to clean up the algae by mid-July. Media reports estimate that as many as 20,000 people have either volunteered or been ordered to participate in the operation, while 1,000 boats are scooping algae out of the Yellow Sea. The official news agency, Xinhua, reported that algae currently covered a third of the coastal waters designated for the Olympic races.

Yuan Zhiping, an official with the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee, said Sunday that the government would attempt to block algae from floating into the Olympic sailing area by installing a fenced perimeter in the sea that is more than 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, long.

“I believe we will make sure the Olympics sailing area is clean by July 15 through our efforts, and make sure the Olympics sailing goes smoothly,” Yuan said, according to the Shandong News Web site.

The massive algae outbreak comes as some sailing teams are already in Qingdao preparing for the Olympics.

What a mess! Massive red tides, insane levels of air pollution, destroyed ecosystems, contaminated water – all of this certainly makes China seem like an incredibly dirty, messed up place. And so much of it is due to China desperately trying to emulate the Western world in terms of prosperity (great example we’ve given them) and due to our own polluting factories in China, taking advantage of the cheap labor. Time for changes all around!

Link [International Herald Tribune]
Photo credit: Stringer/Reuters

‘RepRap’ Robot Can Replicate Itself

It’s begun. The robots are taking over – plastic robots, to boot. English researchers have created a robot that can create 3-D replicas of objects like shoes and coat hooks – and can even replicate itself. It’s meant for the average person to have on their desktop, so you can create common plastic items as needed in your own home.

From PC World:

Scientists from the University of Bath in England unveiled an open-source machine that acts like a three-dimensional printer. Instead of printing out documents or pictures on paper, this printer uses blueprints to produce 3-D plastic objects.

The machine has been dubbed RepRap, which is short for replicating rapid-prototyper.

The goal is to eventually build a robot that can produce individual processors and circuit boards so people can build their own computers, according to Zack Smith, director of the RepRap Research Foundation.

Smith explained that unlike a regular printer that uses ink, RepRap heats up plastic and then squeezes it out into a line. The lines are built up into usable forms as they solidify. So far, the robot has made everyday plastic objects, like door handles, sandals and coat hooks. The machine has also successfully copied all of its own structural pieces.

It’ll likely be about 20 years before the robot can fully replicate itself. So, those of us with the sense to realize that giving machines intelligence is a deadly mistake have some time to start preparing.

Seriously though, this machine has the potential to either produce tons of useless plastic junk that will end up polluting the earth – or it could reduce our dependence on China for cheap manufacturing. (Chris DiBona, Google’s Open Source Programs Manager, said “Think of RepRap as China on your desktop”.)

The jury’s still out on how good it would ultimately be for the planet. It certainly seems like it could potentially cause a copyright lawsuit extravaganza as people stopped purchasing everyday items from stores and just created them at home.

Get more details at the RepRap website.

Link [PC World] + [RepRap]

China Gets a Bargain on Peru’s ‘Copper Mountain’

One of the most productive copper mines on earth – Mount Toromocho in Peru – is now in the hands of China. Chinese officials plan to exploit the mountain for all it’s worth, sending all of the copper back home to carry out the electrification of the entire country. The deal not only cheats Peruvians out of the true value of the copper mine, since it was sold to China for such a ‘great bargain’, but will displace all of the residents of the area.

From the BBC:

The Peruvian government is happy with the $3bn (£1.53bn) that Chinalco will invest in the Toromocho mines.

The Chinese will be even happier. They have got themselves a bargain.

The copper Chinalco extracts from Toromocho will cost something like US$410 (£210) per ton. Today, the price for copper on the London Metal Exchange was $8,255 (£4,220) - 20 times more.

Chinalco stands to make a 2,000% profit on its investment.

As destructive as it is, there should be a worldwide ban on mountaintop removal for mining purposes. This isn’t just about frightening amounts of power in the hands of China, taking advantage of poor countries, forcing people out of their homes and displacing wildlife. It’s a scary trend that threatens the beauty of the natural world and has the potential to create even more pollution than we’re already dealing with. China has already shown that the environment is far from its top priority, and as the BBC mentions, it has ‘vast reserves of foreign currency’ at its disposal.

Link [BBC]

Gross Olympic Souvenir: Goldfish in a Key Ring

If you were going to fly to China to attend the Olympics this summer, what kind of souvenir would you want to bring home? A t-shirt, a framed photograph? How about a plastic bag full of murky water and a decaying goldfish to attach to your key ring? Sounds like such a wonderful way to remember your great Chinese vacation.

From InventorSpot:

A plastic bag with a picture of Huan Huan, one of the cartoon mascots of the Games, on the outside. And inside: a live goldfish. The bag is part of a plastic key ring. According to the Telegraph story, the bags are sealed, so the fish live in a small pool of water, with little access to air, and no food whatsoever. The goldfish key rings are, of course, not a piece of official Olympic merchandise.

The story quotes a spokesperson from the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals calling the key chains a gimmick which “show no respect for the animals at all,” though there’s no record of the story on the RSPCA’s web site. A manufacturer of the key chains could not be identified. This could mean the entire thing is a hoax, although there is a picture here of something that looks like a live goldfish in a tiny plastic bag.

A lot of people seem to think it’s a hoax, and we sure hope it is. A few months driving around with that thing on your keys and you’d be sure to end up with rotting fish remains all over your lap at some point or another.

Link [InventorSpot]

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

China’s Down to 12 Days Worth of Coal and Counting – What Does it Mean to Us?

What would it mean to the world if China went dark? What would it mean to America?

That’s what people are starting to ponder as news has hit that most power stations in China are down to just 12 days worth of coal, and some have less than a week. That’s three days less than a month ago. Coal provides China with 70% of its electricity, and while production is up this year, demand is rapidly growing in this country of nearly 1.3 billion people. This report, which came out of Beijing on April 23rd, doesn’t elaborate on the exact reasons for the shortage.

One reason reserves are low is the dark and cold winter that has just passed, and a hotter than average upcoming summer along with lower than average rainfall is going to continue the strain. This summer’s Olympic Games will also put a squeeze on the country’s coal and power supply, something the Chinese government is currently scrambling to manage without much luck; the figures involved just can’t seem to agree to a compromise. China started importing coal last year, but so far, it hasn’t made much of a dent in the shortage.

Never mind, for the moment, what this means to the environment, as coal is the dirtiest of all fuels that produce energy. Never mind that according to many estimates, pollution is the number one cause of death in China. Never mind that China has plans to build nearly one coal plant a week for the next decade, causing a huge increase in greenhouse gas emissions that might just completely undo the efforts of every other nation in the world. It’s on the tail of the United States, headed toward becoming the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Most of us are aware of just how pervasive Chinese-manufactured products are in our everyday lives. Trying to live entirely without anything that has been produced in China is likely to be fruitless, unless you’re living very low-tech out in the woods or the desert somewhere. The average American family couldn’t do it while maintaining their current lifestyle. What would happen if imports of Chinese goods temporarily stopped? Many American businesses rely on China for their daily operations. If they don’t have their China-made products, they don’t have anything to manufacture and/or sell. In an already damaged economy, this could be really bad news.

Not to mention the fact that China’s leaders aren’t exactly known for playing well with others. Constant expansion plus imperialism plus a desperate need for a particular asset in order to retain the current status quo could equal very, very bad news for the world. Who’s to say that, backed into a corner, China wouldn’t begin to wield its frightening potential for power as a weapon against the rest of us? The US-China trade deficit doesn’t exactly put us in a good position if such a thing were to happen. Our government has already allowed the destruction of our industrial base for the good of a communist country’s industrialization.

In the end, won’t there be a price to pay for the cheap goods and labor that Americans have enjoyed courtesy of the Chinese? We’re all so embroiled in a society of more, more, more. We are deep into a mess of dependence on China. Think about what’s in your own house. If someone suddenly came in and took away everything that was made in China, what would you have left? Not much.

Many are predicting that China will find a way to manage the situation fairly quickly, and it will all blow over. Americans will go on with their obsessive consumerist ways, constantly buying more than we need, and continuing to rely on China for a startling quantity of the products used daily in this country. I hate to say it, but, a close call won’t teach Americans anything – in fact, the vast majority of us probably don’t know about the coal situation in China and don’t care.

Some are of the viewpoint that China will soon realize that continuation of their current pace of growth is simply impossible, and they’ll be forced to slow down. This is a fairly optimistic take on the situation, and maybe – just maybe – we could see a change in daily life in America if that were to happen.

No one can accurately predict the consequences of this coal scenario; but one thing we Americans might want to consider is learning Mandarin – just in case.

Link [news.com.au]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons + Wikimedia Commons

China’s Brilliant Reforesting Scheme: Paint The Hillside Green

China is joining Tara Reid in going Green, but their definition of Green is “coat an entire hillside with oil based green paint.” A town in Southwest China requested their government green up an exposed hillside overlooking their town. They wanted them to plant some grasses and bushes to vegetate the slope. In a brilliant stroke of Chinese Govermentism, $60,000 of green paint (think Sherman Williams) and labor was spread out on the hillside.

It kind of looks like an exposed Kryptonite vein. Blech.

Link [Solve Climate]

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