Blacl Cloud

Black cloud over Beijing China, the world’s fasts growing economy and also the largest manufacturer has the highest annual incidence of premature deaths triggered air pollution. The smog-filled cites of china ringed with heavy industries, metal smelters and coal-fired power plants, all critical to keeping the fast-growing economy going even as they spew tons of chemicals, gases and soot into the atmosphere. "China air pollution is a problem which contributed 1.2 million deaths in the country in 2010". For sure that will become sharply worse in 2014. China's city has received a lot of attention over the past years, but no change until now. Even this horrible air pollution in china, until now china does not agree to be a member in Kyoto protocol to reduce even a small amount of greenhouse gases, carbon or the amount of coal that burn every single day. The USA embassy in Beijing has a twitter account, @BeijingAir that releases regular updates on pollution in the china. As the country continues it is rapid pace of urbanization and industrialization, with a large reliance on coal, sources of air pollution also rising. Coal is the number once source of air pollution in China. China gets 80 percent of electricity and 70 percent its total energy from coal, much of it polluting high-sculpture coal. Around six million tons of coal is burned every day to power factories, heat homes and cook meals. Expanding car ownership, heavy traffic and low-grade gasoline have made cars a leading contributor to the air pollution problem in Chinese cities. For example, the wide coal field in Inner Mongolia, one of the china largest coal fields, is the home of china's largest coal fire and the world worst environmental disaster. Sixteen of china's coal fires burn here. "In 2009 china nearly half of the world coal and coal accounts for nearly 70% of china's energy mix". The second reason is high levels of emissions. The emissions created by those living and producing in the city far exceed what the environment can take. The environmental bureau had concluded that the increases in the two pollutants had been also partly due to topography and weather conditions. Beijing recently had its highest levels of relative humidity in a decade, and surface wind speeds were the lowest in 10 years, which together resulted in a lower-temperature inversion layer that trapped pollutants. Air pollution has horrible effects in Chinese people. China has the world highest number of deaths attributed to air pollution. According to Chinese government statistics 300,000 die each year from ambient air pollution, mostly from heart disease and lung cancer. Even International schools in china close most times fields because pollution so, often requires that students stay indoors. According to Health Problems and Air Pollution in China, (2012), "Washington Post writer John Pomfret was based in Beijing for many years. When his family moved to Los Angeles afterwards his son’s asthma attacks and chronic chest infections stopped. When asked why he moved to Los Angeles he jokingly said “for the air"". Air pollution causes premature births, low-birth weight babies, and depresses lungs functioning in otherwise healthy people. It has also been blamed for China's rising rates of cancer. Lung cancer is now the leading cause of death in China. In January 2012, AFP reported: More than 150 flights to and from Beijing were cancelled or delayed as a thick cloud of acrid smog shrouded the city, with US figures saying the pollution was so bad it was off-the-scale. The national meteorological center said the Chinese capital had been hit by thick fog that reduced visibility to as little as 200m in some parts of the city, while official data judged air quality to be 'good'. [Source: AFP, January 11, 2012].

China’s existing pollution management system is not equipped to deal with a challenge as serious as cleaning up the country’s dirty air. In California alone, there are 1,273 people in the air-quality management office and 35 air-quality control districts, each with its own management personnel. In comparison, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has several hundred employees in total, among whom only a small number are responsible for air-pollution management. If environmental management staff were employed in proportion to the population or number of pollution sources, this figure would be on a completely different scale. It’s worth noting that the US government rarely provides financial support to help companies cut pollution, believing this to be the companies’ own responsibility. US businesses caught discharging pollutants illegally can be fined up to US$250,000 per day, while economic gains obtained through this illegal activity may be confiscated. The cost of breaking the law in China is considerably lower. What’s more, China’s standards are static. Once an emissions standard for a particular pollutant has been formulated, the Chinese government sets an emission limit and a timescale for when it must be met by. In comparison, the US system is much more dynamic. New projects are approved by the EPA and expected to adopt the best available technology. This system encourages dynamic innovation within environmental protection companies because it is in their commercial interests to get their products out on the market. One major different between china and other developed countries is the degree of urbanization. Even today china is much less urbanized than USA and Japan were in their periods of high pollution.

• To sum up, unfortunately, extreme pollution events are common in china especially in Beijing. Annual average air pollution levels in many cities in china remain unsatisfactorily high. Because of, coal and emissions Chinese people suffer from many diseases and most flights canceled because of poor visibility. USA has a smart system to reduce air pollution which china can take advantage of this system. China has known that for all the damage done in 2010 from pollution, 2013 could be worse. In my opinion, I believe that air pollution cannot be solved exclusively at the municipal level. China should to sign the legally binding treaty in Kyoto protocol as soon as possible.