How should China solve their pollution problem?

Question

I want to know what most people think. Yesterday was one of the smoggiest days that Beijing has seen in months...and I think the pollution will have a negative effect on how successful the Olympic Games will be.

How should Beijing tackle the smog?

Answer 1

Do what America, Europe and Japan did:

Move your industry to poorer countries!!

-yes, I am cynical

This is already starting to happen.

One day Beijing's skies will be clear and Africa will be wondering what to do about its smog problem

Answer 2

I don't know if this would help but I think if maybe people drove those hybrid cars that run off of solar energy, would help with the pollution. I know many people already ride bikes there because I've been to China a few times but I think the hybrid cars we have here in the USA and Europe would really help because they hardly emit any pollution. I hope things get better soon :).

Answer 3

Is' not your business.

Answer 4

You know what?..China did better job than Europe, America and Japan did decades ago, considering China has a low GDP per capita, she already take effort on environmental protection, which developed country was clean all the time?.......Wasn't London was called "fog city" before?...Wasn't a Japanese city  polluted by mercury back in 1968?.....Wasn't America west almost desert back in 1930's?

Answer 5

It's too late now. They could have thought about it even before applying for the games - or at least when they were awarded in 2003

At that time there was lots of talk then Beijing air quality would be perfect in 2008 - but very little action.

What the could have done:

Encourage car makers to produce EURO 3 + 4 cars

Encourage CNG cars (compressed natural gas)

Phase out sulfur diesel in favor of cleaner diesel fuel

Have coal power plants around BJ fitted with filters

Encourage companies to use cleaner production methods

Have better power generation for less generator use by companies

What did happen is that some very heavy polluters were ask to move to other areas - and pollution there now.

Companies around BJ were ask to CLOSE for TWO MONTH (I wonder if they support the games?)

The whole focus was on the games and on the games alone. Nobody seemed to care to work on a generally cleaner city for those who reside in Beijing. They are not important, just the games.

Sorry, it's too late now. That chance was missed.

Answer 6

they have to eliminate 1.5 billion people.

china has the biggest population in the world....which means they pollute the most

not to mention all that cheap labour in the factories....EVERYTHING is made in china

Answer 7

It wasn't smog for starters it was the humidity, don't mix smog and humidity together. It was very hot, I manged to see temps of 31.5 C in my flat, well I don't have air con.

1). Rewrite the pollution laws.

2). Start to enforce them.

3). Make green power cheaper.

4). Move from coal, gas, oil to other power sources ie, nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind but only use them there it is in a safe area and only if they have a good return.

5). Upgrade the factories to produce less pollution simple things can be by adding smoke scubbers to rid the stream of pollutants, or be recycling them.

6). Upgrade the existing power plants, it seems that in China its better to open a new plant than to upgrade a old one.

7). Make sure all new power plants can be upgraded if needed, a lot of the old ones can not.

8). Start to introduce emission controls for cars.

9). Invest in research for alternative  power sources or ways of improving existing ones.

10). Start public support campaigns about using greener energy.

11). Finally there are huge underground coal fires that realse millions of tons of CO2 into the air in China, find methods of pulling them out.

鬼宿

Your quite right, it wasn't until the great smog of London in 1952 that a major overhaw of the environmental laws came about. However back in the 1952, environmental chemistry, the testing and understanding of it wasn't so great.

Answer 8

First off, to the guy ahead of me, it is her business.  She lives in Beijing so it affects her and my health, therefore it is both of our business.   I was surprised just how bad the smog was yesterday. It was murder on my throat while I was exercising outside.  I'm starting to wonder if I do more harm than good exercising on those kind of days.  These last few weeks the pollution has been pretty good, by Beijing standards.  I saw the blue sky more time in a few weeks than I did all of last summer put together.

As for what they can do, the biggest problem facing China is its reliance on coal. Specifically, there is an overabundance of people using particularly antiquated methods of burning coal that produce a high amount of pollution.

Here's an interesting article that states that 70% of China's energy production comes from coal.  It's a bit wordy and technical, but a good read nonetheless.

http://www.american.edu/TED/chincoal.htm

All other solutions and issues pale in comparison to the coal problem.  You can take cars off the road and close factories, but until they solve the coal issue, there will continue to be rampant pollution.   Taking cars off the road is temporarily a smokescreen to make it appear that the government is doing something.  Although I do believe that China has to also make a quick move to cleaner fuel powered cars, as that will also help as more and more of their population comes to rely on cars.

Another good article for you

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...