More On Pollution - October 6th 2007

BAD AIR IN CHINA

I have just returned from a visit to China. A fascinating trip that took in the major and most popular tourist sites in China including: Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors. Apart from the mind boggling scale of these past undertakings, the main impression I returned with is that of the appalling air quality in all the parts of China I visited.

In Beijing, the pollution was not quite as noticeable as it was in other parts, but on occasion I’m sure it must get pretty bad there too. Many athletes for the Olympic Games next summer plan to arrive just before their event and leave straight afterwards in order to avoid complications from the pollution and I don’t blame them. In fact, a worse place to hold contests requiring stamina and strength is hard to imagine.

In Shanghai, the pollution was much worse than Beijing and in Xi’an (where the terracotta warriors are) it was virtually unbreathable. After two days in Xi’an I had a sore throat and difficulty breathing and I am not prone to respiratory problems. Goodness knows how asthmatics would fare or how many of the local population are terminally affected.

Our local guide told us that the “weather” was normal for this time of year and that most of the fog was normal fog not air pollution. However, she was obviously not convinced at the line forced on her by the authorities and the derisive reception she got from our tour group encouraged her not to try and repeat the obvious lie.

The Chinese authorities are clearly adept at papering over cracks and trying to behave as if nothing is wrong. In Beijing there is much preparation for the Olympics that seems to consist mostly of building fancy walls to hide the slums from the view of passing tourist coaches.

Anyway, I digress. All in all, it was a relief to get back to the relatively clean air of Canada.

On reflection though are Canadians (and the Canadian authorities) any better than the Chinese? Per head of population each Canadian spews out approximately four times as much pollution as each Chinese person and (again per head of population) Canada is one of the worlds’ worst polluters. The only reason our air quality is not as bad as that in China is that we’re spread much more thinly about our vast country. This sparcity of population was the Canadian governments’ chief rationale for abetting the US negotiators destruction of the Kyoto agreement, by removing its teeth and subsequently to not implementing its commitments. This in turn gives the Chinese government the rationale not to do anything about their air problem. If the US and Canada aren’t concerned when they are far worse polluters, why should they worry?

This head-in-the-sand attitude of the Canadian government has to change and change fast so that Canada can at least regain the moral high ground and put real pressure on China and other developing countries to clean up their act. There is no time to waste. Apart from the humanitarian issues of millions of Chinese suffering from respiratory problems, the unrestrained development using low technology increases the pace of global warming that affects all our lives.

What can you do about the situation?

• Don’t go to China for the Olympics or for any other reason for that matter.
• Don’t buy Chinese made goods.
• Get rid of that gas guzzling truck and replace it with a small car.
• Support green technologies and insulate your house properly.
• Pressure your MLA to support legislation that will do something significant about pollution in Canada as well as further afield.

Whilst I have singled out China in this article - due to my recent visit - the situation in a rapidly developing India is not far behind the disaster in China. We must all work together to resolve this problem. Act now and act decisively.