| At www.envir.gov.cn/Eng/Airep/index.asp you can compare this summer's air pollution in Shanghai to last year's and it seems to be better, as you predict. There were spikes last winter, and some "yellow fog" where people died then. It seems it has not been necessary to issue warnings to reduce exercise and energy use or to close river navigation. If you still had your webcam operating maybe we could compare the numbers to what you see out your window. Maybe the numbers will improve if the city carries out plans to control pollution better, but the targets are made by SEPA elsewhere and perhaps the number are not so truthful? It would be good if there were numbers for carbon monoxide and ozone, two pollutants that are invisible and produced not by coal-to-electricity plants but by cars, trucks, and buses. It seems that these are deadlier in the summer because people open windows, and they affect women more than men (cardiovascular deaths), and at street level near traffic. In certain meteorological situations such as inversions these pollutants can be trapped and increase quickly for days. CO and O3 have been measured in Shanghai (8 hour averages) but haven't been regularly reported to the public. In America the air used to be much more polluted but people organized and forced the government to do something and now the air in big cities is much cleaner. Let's hope bloggers like you can do the same here. One final question: why is the sky blue? |
Shanghai Also has Blue Sky - for One Day