China is Killing Itself

In October, the Earth Observatory project posted a photo of the smog over China.  The haze was thick enough to completely hide the land or water surface below, and it extended far to the south and east. The air is so bad in Beijing that the US Embassy measures and shares the air quality on a Twitter feed.

I wanted to share this image to give you an idea of how bad the situation is. The problem with pollution in China is not just Beijing. It stretches for hundreds of miles. China’s pollution problem is so bad it is changing our climate. When you hear about a product recall, such as pet food contaminated with steroids, or tea poisoned by diesel truck fumes that is a side effect of China’s poor environmental regulations as well.

China is killing itself, for profit, for pride, for reasons that we may not understand today, but wrestled with in the past. The US created agencies like the EPA, and it has worked. A City like Los Angeles, our Beijing of the 1970's, is livable today. The irony is that in the 1970's the citizens of Beijing were riding Bicycle's instead of driving cars, but as wealth came to China they started driving cars, and created a slow nightmare ever since.

China is killing itself, and its death will be the greatest disaster our globe has ever seen.

Tags: Notes China

Copyright Troy Williams & The Walking Circle LLC