Chinese Air Pollution Reaches US West Coast

By Jeff | Friday, January 25, 2013 | 3 Comments

Thanks for visiting 8Asians, a blog about Asian American issues. If you find this interesting, subscribe to the RSS feed, visit our Facebook Page or add us on Twitter!

While smog is yet one of the many problems afflicting Los Angeles, this blog entry points out that some of LA’s famous air pollution comes all the way from China. According to this report, some days have a third of the air over San Francisco and Los Angeles coming from Asia, and along with it, up to three fourths of black carbon particulate air pollution, among other pollutants. Just how does Chinese pollution get to the US? Is it just the fault of the Chinese?

Some of this pollution begins as naturally occurring dust plumes from the Gobi desert, whipped up by storms every spring and summer. As the dust travels west, it picks ups pollutants as it travels through heavily industrialized parts of China. Those pollutants include the end products of coal burning, a common source of power in China.

While the US may complain about the pollution, it does contribute to the problem. Various loopholes and subsidies are driving up the export of coal from the US and Canada to China, which gets burned and exported back through the atmosphere. The US demand also drives production in some of those Chinese factories.

To me this shows how much the world is shrinking – what happens in one part of the world can unintentionally affect other parts. Our atmosphere is something we all share. While Beijing’s “airpocalypse” may seem far away, it really isn’t. Not only can that pollution reach my family and me here in the Bay Area, but conditions were not much different here some 50 to 60 years ago.

(Photo Credit: Norman Kuring, SeaWiFS Project, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

Categories:

Environment

NOTE: 8Asians.com is a community, and we thank you for being a part of it. While we welcome and appreciate differences in opinion, if you're rude or you're promoting spam, we have a right to edit or delete your comment. Read our comment policy for more information.

If you see a comment that violates the 8Asians.com comment policy, you may flag the comment by mousing over the comment and clicking "FLAG."

Facebook Comments (Beta)

LTE2

“Is it just the fault of the Chinese?”
.
When you use the word fault, you have to take into account the effects of unemployment and economic development. For the most part, environmental causes are a luxury for the well to do.
.
Most of the coal the US ships to Asia is used for steel making purposes. China uses it’s domestic production for power generation.
.
The coal from the American west tends to be of higher quality than that found in China. If China is to burn coal for power generation, Powder River Basin coal would be a better choice.
.
For the time being China has decided to trade off environmental quality for economic growth.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ahmed-Sanchez-De-La-Cruz-Kim/58700922 Ahmed Sanchez De La Cruz Kim

Now it is more intense and obvious, but throughout most of world history, we’ve been interdependent in one way or another. Besides, pollution, nature brings different species of plants, animals, pathogens and other things from one side of the planet to another.

From how it looks, I think for a good 5-10 years, we’re still gonna see coal being use in great quantities more or less. Depends on how fast they (China and all the other great energy consuming nations) can build and sustain the nuclear industry. Realistically speaking, nuclear energy would take up most of the activity from coal plants. Wind, Solar, Hydro and a lot of other alternatives will help but have quite a lot of limitations.
Pingback: Chinese Air Pollution Reaches Los Angeles | Blogging.la

8 Asians