China Smog: Millions Start New Year Shrouded By Health Alerts and Travel Chaos (theguardian.com) 77
Millions in China rang in the New Year shrouded in a thick blanket of toxic smog, causing road closures and flight cancellations as 24 cities issued alerts that will last through much of the week. From a report on The Guardian: On the first day of 2017 in Beijing, concentrations of tiny particles that penetrate deep into the lungs climbed as high as 24 times levels recommended by the World Health Organization. More than 100 flights were cancelled and all intercity buses were halted at the capital's airport. In the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, more than 300 flights were cancelled while the weather forecast warned thick smog will persist until 5 January. All of the city's highways were also shut as low visibility made driving hazardous, effectively trapping residents.
if it's admitted that it's this bad (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
They didn't admit it. If you follow the links in TFA, you can see that the pollution figures come from measurements taken at the US Embassy in Beijing.
surely it's this bad (Score:2)
Any Sinophiles here to comment on our Peking real estate?
hey editors??!?!!! (Score:2, Informative)
more than 300 flights were cancelled while the weather forecast warned thick smog will persist until 5 January. All of the city's highways were also shut as low visibility made driving hazardous, effectively trapping residents. In the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, more than 300 flights were cancelled while the weather forecast warned thick smog will persist until 5 January. All of the city's highways were also shut as low visibility made driving hazardous, effectively trapping residents.
im getting way to drunk playing the slashdot summary fuck up drinking game
Re: (Score:1)
So are the editors, apparently
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
If a company consistently and for a long term offers a product at or below cost, it's reasonable to assume this behavior is anticompetitive- it is trying to drive out the competition. If this long term underselling is a result of better sourcing, optimal production, superior management, better labor, etc., then it would be turning a profit. If China, instead, is destroying its environment, holding its people in bondage, and generally working hard to deconstruct the industrial capabilities of its neighbors
Re:Bring this smog back to America! (Score:5, Insightful)
What is the 'real' cost? This is especially hard if you try to include external costs (air, water and other resources on a sustainable level). You can easily argue that nobody prices things at a cost that would reflect good stewardship of society and the planet on a multi decade scale. China is just being a bit more aggressive than other countries.
Although the US never got quite this bad, there were many environmental disasters in this country prior to the creation of the EPA (by Nixon). Things are quite a bit better now and lo and behold, the rich people are still making lots of money.
Remember that all you Rabid Randians and Triumphant Trumpers.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly! Remember L.A. back in the 70s before California said enough is enough and required cleaner cars? And how, thanks to them and Tricky Dicky we all breath better? Nixon also signed the Clean Water Act too, if I recall.
Oh, and that whole opening up China thing.
Fuck, I never thought I'd be nostalgic for him.
rich still making money (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Cuba ($9) per month min wage needs work and with some push maybe an tunnel can be build We can get the 1099 truckers to pay the toll.
Re:Bring this smog back to America! (Score:5, Interesting)
We want those awesome jobs manufacturing phones for a dollar an hour at 80 hours a week!
Most iPhones are made in Shenzhen where a typical factor wage is about $3/hr. Since prices are lower in China for most things, that is the purchasing power of $6-$8, or not much less than a fast food worker might make in America. Average hours in Foxconn factories is 45 hours per week. When asked about working conditions, Foxconn employees biggest complaint was that they wanted to work longer hours, to build up their savings faster.
Re: (Score:3)
This. I remember working in China for a few months. $1AU ($0.75US) got me a full dinner, a hearty freshly made noodle soup with loads of beef. I drove a taxi absolutely everywhere as $2 got me pretty much anywhere in the city. Even when I went to amusement parks 100km away I took taxis.
Pay rate is worthless without taking into account the cost of living.
Re: (Score:3)
The U.S. continues to outsource its pollution to China.
We are so pious in thinking we're "green" when we enable China to pollute so much.
& Trump wants to make America like China again (Score:5, Insightful)
Coal-fired.
Re: (Score:1)
But Trump is anti-regulatory and so he wants to get rid of AQCS. Or is it your view that he is actually an environmentalist in disguise?
Re: (Score:3)
Benefits of the free market (Score:4, Insightful)
That nasty EPA has us all breathing clean air. Bastards! We could be more like China. Bring back the smog and acid rain!
Re:Benefits of the free market (Score:5, Informative)
You are implying that the U.S. government already exerts more high-level command-and-control policy of its domain of influence than does the Chinese government over its own domain. Obviously, that is absurd.
No it's not absurd. The US is largely a country ruled by law. Yes, there are unfortunately many examples of kleptocratic and frankly criminal behaviors among large companies but it does not rise to anywhere near the level you see in China. Beijing can make lots of rules, but the military owned companies and local governments often ignore them with little risk to themselves. Every once in a while somebody gets shot in the back of the head or tossed in jail but given the enormous size and scope of the Chinese economy, this is just a rounding error.
Re: (Score:1)
Actually, the US is ruled by the LAWyers, but I do have to agree with the last sentence (pun intended).
VERY occasionally, some Chinese corporate head is offered to the masses with a leadlined hole through the cranium, not necessarily as a deterrent to the 'bad things' he did, but as a warning to not be left holding the bag when all the other corporation's lead officers have made it to their bunkers.
I have to say that the only fundamental difference between China and the US is the enormous amount of funding
Re: (Score:2)
Coal-fired.
On a per-capita basis, America burns more coal than China.
America gets about 39% of its electricity from coal, while China gets about 75% from coal. But Americans use more than twice as much electricity per-capita.
Re:& Trump wants to make America like China ag (Score:5, Informative)
Irrelevant, the planet doesn't care about per-capita. China produces 3.5 times the carbon emissions of the USA. That's the only stat that matters.
Re: (Score:2)
China produces 3.5 times the carbon emissions of the USA. That's the only stat that matters.
No, that stat doesn't matter at all. Political boundaries don't matter to CO2. If China split up so that each province was independent, would you consider carbon emissions "solved" because each is emitting less that the previous union?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Tell me.
What causes China to produce so much pollution?
Answer: The U.S. desire for cheap labor.
If we bring those jobs back to the U.S., the products will be produced with less pollution (and higher cost) because the U.S. has more-stringent pollution standards.
Re: (Score:2)
What causes China to produce so much pollution?
Answer: The U.S. desire for cheap labor.
WRONG - It takes a supply and demand to make a market. China's willingness to supply cheap labor and low cost manufacturing by dispensing with many pollution controls we would require here in the US, is as much what causes China to produce so much pollution as our demand for products.
The Chinese, at least the illegitimate PRC (the ROC is the legitimate government of China IMHO) isn't stupid. They know exactly what they are doing and the consequences of their actions.
Re: (Score:2)
not possible, only 16% of our energy comes from coal and the number can't be lifted much in the a two term presidency
Re: (Score:1)
Is that what the voters in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio thought?
Re: (Score:2)
thinking and reality are often two different things
"clean coal" can't compete with natural gas. There are some useful things that could be done with coal that are cleaner than petroleum but gas beats those too
Hmmm (Score:2)
Compared to 2001... (Score:4, Interesting)
No EPA (Score:5, Funny)
It's a good thing China doesn't have an EPA, think of how much worse the situation would be in there was a government agency meddling in the lives of the Chinese people.
[/political sarcasm]
Re: (Score:2)
That's because wealthy countries, without exception, decide it's worth it to set up a government agency to regulate and punish polluters.
EPA-Nixon crony politics (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:No EPA (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a good thing China doesn't have an EPA...
Except they do! it's called the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China (MEP) [wikipedia.org] and the concerns of the environment come second the economic concerns. A steel plant may be in blatant violation of environmental law but shutting it down until it's in compliance with the law or even slowing down it's output to make the proper repairs/changes is considered to be unacceptable. China actually has decent environmental protections but the problem is that they are not enforced because the Chinese government is being run like a business. In short, China is cranking capitalism up to 11.
Re: (Score:2)
Funny you use an example of a steel plant as that is exactly what Beijing did getting ready for the 2008 Olympics, they moved a steel plant to help clean up the air.
What's funny about that? They wanted to have the Olympics, so they made it happen.
Re: (Score:2)
. China actually has decent environmental protections but the problem is that they are not enforced
protections that are not enforced are NOT PROTECTIONS. They are laws designed to make people the government does not like, for example someone running a competitor to a state owned business subject to enforcement while the state run operation is not. Its about picking winners and losers and more generally cronyism, not environmentalism.
Poorly/Selectively/Arbitrarily enforced laws are the worst kinds of laws. They are among the greatest threats to liberty, democracy, and fairness, granted that isn't much
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
The effects of air pollution (Score:1)