Chinese
air is worse than ever. In the first
three months of this year, the amount of nitrogen dioxide and particulate
matter in the air is 30% higher that it was just one year ago. China says this is mostly due to emissions
from people and also from power plants.
Higher levels of emissions are key to the amount of pollution but
weather conditions have also had an impact.
Higher levels of humidity hold pollution better and low winds don’t disperse
the pollution. These three months have
had the highest humidity in the past decade and the winds have been at a very
low rate. Both these conditions allow
for the air pollution to settle and stick around. People are more afraid to the particulate
matter than the nitrogen dioxide. The
smaller particulates can get into lungs and cause health issues in older and
younger people.
China
is a growing world power but something is going to have to be done about the
air pollution. Particulate matter in
this high of a concentration has never been dealt with over long periods of
time. Right now people are getting sick
and dying because of it but in the future we still don’t know the long term
effects. Yes, China does have more
people so emissions are going to be higher.
The types of emissions are what is going to have to change. Coal power plants are great at releasing
particulate matter into the air and with China’s huge population coal is used
to create electricity all over the country.
There are huge expenses when it comes to changing from one source of
energy to another but something must be done or the issue will only get
worse. China’s population is still
growing and in the long run this could only cause more health issues for the
general population.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/world/asia/two-major-air-pollutants-increase-in-china.html?_r=0RussellRemy
4-6-13
10:55am
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