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Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Measuring Asia's Pollution ExportsContinued from page 1
The instrument also gets "spatial and time detail that one would never get from ground-based measurements, and it captures the entire pollution plumes rather than just having a few observing stations looking up," says Prinn. NASA researchers drew two virtual lines at 20 degrees north to 60 degrees north, and they measured the optical effect of the particles as they crossed those lines, says Yu. Using software that he made, the researchers culled this data and mapped it to see globally where the pollution is located. The researchers found that 18 teragrams--almost 40 billion pounds--of pollution is exported from Asia, and that 4.5 teragrams--10 billion pounds, or about 25 percent--reaches North America annually, says Mian Chin, an atmospheric scientist at NASA and a coauthor of the study. But the instrument measures the total atmosphere column and does not have the vertical structure, so it is unknown how many of the pollutants are at surface level, and how many are aloft in the atmosphere, says Chin. Despite that uncertainty, the scientists say that it is the higher-altitude pollution that is probably most worrisome. "We think the pollution being imported to North America will impact the weather and climate; we don't expect any big impact on the air quality because particles from East Asia are exported at high altitude," says Yu. "It is very difficult to lower pollution levels of man-made pollutants to extremely low levels because pollutants come in the air from other countries that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for example, cannot control," says Prinn. Agrees Honrath: "You have to consider the future industrial growth of Asia if you develop long-range plans for meeting air-quality goals in the United States." |
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Sharper Satellite Images
06/20/2008
Comments
boustrephon on 03/26/2008 at 6:42 AM
5
Yes... we really do need global solutions.
Deragor on 03/28/2008 at 1:45 PM
1
American exports to China are quietly rising at an even more rapid pace. Would it surprise you to learn that a lot of those exports are ... junk?
http://www.slate.com/id/2173594/
DJTal on 03/26/2008 at 9:30 AM
116
gabrielg01 on 03/26/2008 at 6:56 PM
298
They cut costs exactly on the issues on which Western democracies have worked for generations to turn wild capitalism into a humane, sustainable capitalism. We wanted clean rivers, lakes etc. and enacted environmental controls. They have none of that. Their rivers are sewage. We wanted clean air, and enacted preventive measures for it. Again they have none of that. Their air is the most polluted on earth. We wanted high living standards, so we brought in humane working hours and conditions, health care...They work as slaves for 12 hours a day in unsafe, unhealthy conditions for meager wages.
Obviously our civilized requirements add up as business costs (=burden), while their corner cutting adds up as "competitive advantage". Yet every time you buy a cheap Asian product and you think you "got a deal", you're in fact shooting yourself in the foot. It gives companies the incentive to outsource even more jobs (maybe yours too), and to neglect all the values on which Western society is based.
unique on 03/27/2008 at 10:24 AM
1
gprao on 03/30/2008 at 7:05 AM
6