Up To a Quarter of California Smog Comes From China 259
wabrandsma writes "What goes around comes around – quite literally in the case of smog. The US has outsourced many of its production lines to China and, in return, global winds are exporting the Chinese factories' pollution right back to the U.S. From the article: '...the team combined their emissions data with atmospheric models that predict how winds shuttle particles around. These winds push Chinese smog over the Pacific and dump it on the western US, from Seattle to southern California. The modelling revealed that on any given day in 2006, goods made in China for the US market accounted for up to a quarter of the sulphate smog over the western U.S..'"
Clearly Impossible (Score:4, Funny)
Have we not been repeatedly assured by the UN and the US government that our bestie friend China is a paragon of environmental awareness? Don't all the charts show China with a lower carbon footprint than Switzerland? Surely the pollution must be the US's own being recirculated. After being partially cleansed by the pristine skies of China, of course. /sarcasm
Karma (Score:5, Funny)
Made in China.
Designed in California.
Weird summary (Score:4, Funny)
"These winds push Chinese smog over the Pacific and dump it on the western US, from Seattle to southern California."
The smog probably actually covers western North America. I highly doubt Chinese smog hates the US so much that it only goes from Seattle to San Diego.
Re:Eh? Smog is low level (Score:3, Funny)
> How can these particles remain in the very lowest part of the atmosphere
That's the Invisible Hand, son.
Re:Somehow fitting (Score:2, Funny)
I do not say this as a critique of China or which ever country is producing low cost products, but rather as a critique of Western culture and "acquire more crap at all costs" mentality. China is just filling our demand.
So you're saying that a consequence of my wanting cheap electronics is that Californian hipsters have to put up with choking to death on smog imported across the Pacific?
Is this an argument for or against?