I don’t need to type out what I think of the Chinese government already before this, never mind after, or how its oil monopolies are like the rest of the world’s oil giants. The numbers from their actions speak for themselves. [Envirostats author]

- Worldwatch Institute, Dec 6 2007

A nice story on the silver or gold lining of global warming with all the green jobs generated, with more similar statistics attached below as excerpts from the source.

The number of jobs created was what was compared to the pharmaceutical industry, not the revenue generated or anything to do with money where I suspect the pharmaceutical industry would reverse the ratio. It was a bit unfair of the source, UNEP, to pick a big industry that is growing but in no way to the extent, but which makes a lot of money so it has a big presence in people’s minds. [Envirostats author]

- The renewable energy programmes in Germany and Spain are merely ten years old but have already created several hundred thousand jobs.

- The Indian city of Delhi is introducing new eco-friendly compressed natural gas buses that will create an additional 18,000 new jobs. - The ethanol programme in Brazil has created half a million jobs and its bio-diesel programme is specifically designed to benefit hundreds of thousands of mostly poor smallholder farmers.

- By the year 2020, Germany will have more jobs in the field of environmental technologies than in its entire automotive industry.

- In Europe, a 20 per cent increase in energy efficiency would create about a million jobs. The same applies in emerging and developing countries.

- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Press Release, Dec 6 2007

I don’t know how many kebab vendors there are in Beijing, but I’ll bet money on the fact they don’t contribute anything worthy of investing resources to curb air pollution when so many other sources could be targeted. I think it was said this was for awareness of the problem, but really, how many people do you think breathing in Beijing air doesn’t know? The residents, in general, just don’t seem to care enough to voluntarily do much like opting for sustainable transportation rather than driving all those cars appearing at the rate of about 1,000 new cars per day on Beijing streets. There are even threats now of postponing events if pollution is too bad to allow decent conditions for competition.

Are you kidding me? What kind of host city is that? But more importantly, these athletes train on rigid schedules. You can’t just move the events here or there like that. It also allows the Chinese to cheat, notifying their athletes beforehand to allow better preparation in the final days leading up to the final events. Just the lack of stress wondering if something will go on or be postponed would be an advantage, mentally and physiologically.

The more I hear about these Olympics, the more I’m convinced there’ll be a small conspiracy to get China a few more medals using techniques never used before like with this pollution thing, or supplied food that supposedly avoids potential contamination of various substances. Sure, a few non-Chinese athletes will end up with banned substances and it’ll be there fault, right?

If they’re targeting the kebab vendors in China, I think I have my answer as to why they have pollution problems. They have bad policy makers who either don’t know how to identify the problems or are afraid to tackle them. Regardless, they are ineffective. End of story.

Minh Tan
Envirostats author

This is why air pollution in China is a big concern to the rest of the world, even though the study was for the United States.

This is also why air pollution in the United States is a big concern to the rest of the world, and why everybody’s air pollution should be a concern to everybody else.

A lot of the pollution discussed is particulate matter at 2.5 microns to 10 microns, PM2.5 and PM10, respectively, that can cause visibility problems to asthma and other health impacts.

More from the article excerpt below.

Minh Tan
Envirostats author

It has been a decade since University of Washington scientists first pinpointed specific instances of air pollution, including Gobi Desert dust, traversing the Pacific Ocean and adding to the mix of atmospheric pollution already present along the West Coast of North America.

Now a UW researcher is finding that dust from the Gobi and Taklimakan deserts in China and Mongolia is routinely present in the air over the western United States during spring months…

- Science Daily, Dec 14 2007

Don’t ask me why gasoline allows for higher concentrations than diesel in America but the more important factor here is look at what China allows in relative proportions.

There are also thousands of new cars per day that was not listed in the source, with over 1,000 just in the city of Beijing each day alone as per Stat 0511. They obviously contribute to the pollution. [Envirostats author]

Mainland Chinese atmospheric scientists concluded in an analysis this year in The Journal of Environmental Sciences that, here in Guangzhou, [soot] particles were the pollutant farthest out of line with air-quality norms 226 days a year. Sulfur dioxide, which comes mainly from burning coal, was the pollutant that exceeded norms by the widest margin 45 days a year, while nitrogen oxides were the most prominent pollutant 23 days a year.

The air was relatively clean on the remaining 71 days a year.

- The New York Times, Dec 8 2007