thegirlfriday11
Literotica Guru
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- Nov 1, 2003
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this is sad
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...14/sc_afp/yearasiaenvironmentair_041214043446
Southern China chokes as world's factory keeps on chugging
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20041214/capt.sge.ojl06.141204043439.photo00.photo.default-384x235.jpg
HONG KONG, (AFP) - Tung Chung is an unremarkable part of Hong Kong: drab high-rise apartment blocks overlook a narrow isthmus noted only for the huge shipping docks that line it and a suspension bridge that spans it.
But on September 14 the suburban satellite town became the focus of a pollution problem that has consumed all of southern China for much of the latter half of the year and threatens to literally linger for years to come.
An air quality meter in the town that day registered the worst smog levels any part of the city has seen since air pollution monitoring began in 1995. On an index that had rarely crept above 120, Tung Chung registered a huge 201.
Health alerts were issued, warning people with breathing problems to stay at home and visibility on Hong Kong's famous harbour -- the world's busiest -- fell to less than a kilometre, causing at least six marine collisions.
Had it been the only bad-air day, few would have minded. However, a city that registers an average of 51 days of 100-plus "high" readings on the pollution scale each year, managed to clock up more than 80 by December, days when the soaring skyline could barely be seen.
"I fear we have entered a new era of air pollution in Hong Kong," warned Edwin Lau, associate director of Friends of the Earth Hong Kong, a leading environmental group.
The blame for this startling increase, according to government scientists and environmentalists, is found over the border in southern China's heavily industrialised Pearl River Delta region.
In Guangdong province, the core of the nation's economic heartland and dubbed the world's factory because of the huge volume of goods produced there for worldwide export, 77,000 manufacturing plants and huge clusters of coal-fired power stations belch a relentless cloud of toxic fumes into the air.
Guangdong's rapidly growing fleet of private cars -- 2.5 million and expanding at a daily rate of enough cars to jam four kilometres (more than two miles) of road -- are adding to the problem, pumping almost 700,000 tonnes of particulates, sulphur and carbon emissions into the air each year.
Add to that another 100,000 tonnes of smog-creating chemicals called volatile organic compounds, which are produced predominantly by the region's thousands of furniture and printing plants.
Experts believe between 80 and 90 percent of the pollution in Hong Kong comes from China. And with the mainland's runaway growth centred on the south, environmentalists are pessimistic much will change in the near future.
"China's economy is growing so fast we cannot see an end to the increase in pollution," Lau lamented. "Some compromises are going to have to be found between a growing economy and a sustainable environment."
Hong Kong sits in this hazy firing line by virtue of its geographical position at the mouth of the Pearl River.
Prevailing winds blow smog off the delta and into the river's estuary from where it is usually blown out to the South China Sea.
In the still autumn and summer months, however, thick blankets of grey haze become trapped among the skyscraper canyons, within its rural valleys and in the channels between its rugged surrounding islands.
According to Greenpeace the extent of Hong Kong's deteriorating air quality is being hidden by the government.
"We are using as a base level a much lower standard of what is considered acceptable pollution," said the organisation's assistant campaigner Edward Chan. "It means that our air is regularly two or three times worse than the worst air in Europe or the US."
The government and green groups agree that some 90 percent of all Hong Kong's pollution originates across the border. They also agree that cross-border cooperation is the only way to deal with it.
They differ, however, on what is considered an acceptable degree of coercion Hong Kong can place on Chinese authorities to rectify the problem.
The biggest polluters, green groups say, are the region's power producers.
An energy shortage on the mainland has forced Chinese authorities to reopen plants that were mothballed for not meeting emissions standards. And a shortage of low-polluting natural gas has meant plants in Hong Kong have begun burning more smog-creating coal.
The two have combined to increase the amount of particulate and sulphurous pollutants that have caused such smoggy days this year.
"The power crisis in this region is the single biggest problem for the simple reason that nobody in government either side of the border appears to have a grasp on what to do," said Greenpeace's Chan.
"Hong Kong's government, to be fair, has made some effort to clean up vehicular emissions. But it is doing nothing about power."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...14/sc_afp/yearasiaenvironmentair_041214043446
Southern China chokes as world's factory keeps on chugging
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20041214/capt.sge.ojl06.141204043439.photo00.photo.default-384x235.jpg
HONG KONG, (AFP) - Tung Chung is an unremarkable part of Hong Kong: drab high-rise apartment blocks overlook a narrow isthmus noted only for the huge shipping docks that line it and a suspension bridge that spans it.
But on September 14 the suburban satellite town became the focus of a pollution problem that has consumed all of southern China for much of the latter half of the year and threatens to literally linger for years to come.
An air quality meter in the town that day registered the worst smog levels any part of the city has seen since air pollution monitoring began in 1995. On an index that had rarely crept above 120, Tung Chung registered a huge 201.
Health alerts were issued, warning people with breathing problems to stay at home and visibility on Hong Kong's famous harbour -- the world's busiest -- fell to less than a kilometre, causing at least six marine collisions.
Had it been the only bad-air day, few would have minded. However, a city that registers an average of 51 days of 100-plus "high" readings on the pollution scale each year, managed to clock up more than 80 by December, days when the soaring skyline could barely be seen.
"I fear we have entered a new era of air pollution in Hong Kong," warned Edwin Lau, associate director of Friends of the Earth Hong Kong, a leading environmental group.
The blame for this startling increase, according to government scientists and environmentalists, is found over the border in southern China's heavily industrialised Pearl River Delta region.
In Guangdong province, the core of the nation's economic heartland and dubbed the world's factory because of the huge volume of goods produced there for worldwide export, 77,000 manufacturing plants and huge clusters of coal-fired power stations belch a relentless cloud of toxic fumes into the air.
Guangdong's rapidly growing fleet of private cars -- 2.5 million and expanding at a daily rate of enough cars to jam four kilometres (more than two miles) of road -- are adding to the problem, pumping almost 700,000 tonnes of particulates, sulphur and carbon emissions into the air each year.
Add to that another 100,000 tonnes of smog-creating chemicals called volatile organic compounds, which are produced predominantly by the region's thousands of furniture and printing plants.
Experts believe between 80 and 90 percent of the pollution in Hong Kong comes from China. And with the mainland's runaway growth centred on the south, environmentalists are pessimistic much will change in the near future.
"China's economy is growing so fast we cannot see an end to the increase in pollution," Lau lamented. "Some compromises are going to have to be found between a growing economy and a sustainable environment."
Hong Kong sits in this hazy firing line by virtue of its geographical position at the mouth of the Pearl River.
Prevailing winds blow smog off the delta and into the river's estuary from where it is usually blown out to the South China Sea.
In the still autumn and summer months, however, thick blankets of grey haze become trapped among the skyscraper canyons, within its rural valleys and in the channels between its rugged surrounding islands.
According to Greenpeace the extent of Hong Kong's deteriorating air quality is being hidden by the government.
"We are using as a base level a much lower standard of what is considered acceptable pollution," said the organisation's assistant campaigner Edward Chan. "It means that our air is regularly two or three times worse than the worst air in Europe or the US."
The government and green groups agree that some 90 percent of all Hong Kong's pollution originates across the border. They also agree that cross-border cooperation is the only way to deal with it.
They differ, however, on what is considered an acceptable degree of coercion Hong Kong can place on Chinese authorities to rectify the problem.
The biggest polluters, green groups say, are the region's power producers.
An energy shortage on the mainland has forced Chinese authorities to reopen plants that were mothballed for not meeting emissions standards. And a shortage of low-polluting natural gas has meant plants in Hong Kong have begun burning more smog-creating coal.
The two have combined to increase the amount of particulate and sulphurous pollutants that have caused such smoggy days this year.
"The power crisis in this region is the single biggest problem for the simple reason that nobody in government either side of the border appears to have a grasp on what to do," said Greenpeace's Chan.
"Hong Kong's government, to be fair, has made some effort to clean up vehicular emissions. But it is doing nothing about power."
