Steven

﻿﻿Welcome to my page!
﻿ ﻿

[|Deer]

 Canadian scientists are mounting an intercontinental effort to measure China's impact on North America's air quality, proposing to create a network of air-testing stations around the Pacific Rim, including one atop Whistler Mountain. The deadly effects of air pollution on China's own environment are well known. Cities are often shrouded in toxic clouds poisoning the land and water, and experts believe as many as 400,000 Chinese die prematurely every year due to the country's industrial pollution. An unknown question, however, is what impact China's economic boom is having on North America when the country's industrial pollution drifts eastward across the Pacific Ocean, reaching the West Coast and later the even more fragile Canadian Arctic. While recent attention has focused on China's contribution to global warming, scientists are equally concerned about the increasing amounts of trace pollutants and heavy metals that are increasingly being detected on the West Coast. "Basically, we are lacking a lot of data on this subject," said Hayley Hung, an Environment Canada scientist who is leading the proposal to build an intercontinental testing system. "We're talking about having stations that would be located in Canada, China, Vietnam, Japan, Russia and the United States to see the impact of pollution in Asia on North America. It's never been done before." China's clouds of industrial pollution are becoming so large and dense that some are visible to satellites, which have tracked their paths across the Pacific. Last April, for example, a massive cloud from northern China was monitored as it moved across South Korea, the Pacific and eventually reached North America's northwest coast. Up to now, Canadian scientists have been unable to monitor such events in real time because they lack a system that can take weekly air samples. The proposed network, which will cost $350,000 to set up, will enable them to collect samples regularly. It will also allow them to measure both the concentrations and the actual intercontinental journey of heavy metals, such as mercury and the so-called "dirty dozen" chemical compounds spewing out of China's coal-powered smokestacks. []       In the past quarter century, the People’s Republic of China has achieved remarkable progress in economic growth, social advancement, and political and administrative reforms. These achievements are largely attributed to the commitment of the Chinese government to improve its people’s welfare through adherence to a free market economy. The interrelated forces of economic growth and policy reform are stimulating rapid and fundamental transformation, especially in Chinese cities, where infrastructure projects, urban renewal, housing development and reform of state-owned enterprises are taking place at an unprecedented pace and scale. [] China's economic power far outstripped that of an emerging country. It is hard for China to be seen as a friendly alternative to US power. China has done little to address unease over the value of the renminbi. Vietnam devalued its currency 5%. In Thailand there are complaints about their inability to compete with China. India has filed an unfair trade complaint. Some say that China can no longer pursue the same export-driven development model. [] 