New study suggests reported PAH emissions in oil sands region greatly underestimated

« New study suggests reported PAH emissions in oil sands region greatly underestimated Results from a new modeling assessment of contamination in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) suggest that officially reported emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in that region have been greatly underestimated. The study, which was carried out by University of Toronto Scarborough Environmental Chemistry professor Frank Wania and his PhD candidate Abha Parajulee, is published as an open access paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science . We sought to use a dynamic multimedia environmental fate model to reconcile the emissions and residue levels reported for three representative PAHs in the AOSR. Data describing emissions to air compiled from two […]

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The globalization of pollution

THE NEXT time you’re in Los Angeles, take a deep breath. A significant portion of the pollution you’ll breathe into your lungs came from across the Pacific Ocean. Decades ago, Angelenos’ respiratory tracts may have been burned by the accumulation of local pollutants in and around Southern California’s valleys and basins. Since then, federal and state pollution controls did much to clean up the air. But a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that neither federal nor state authorities can as effectively restrain one pollution source: China. Chinese and American researchers estimated the amount and ultimate destination of smog-forming gases and particulates that Chinese factories pumped out in their production of export goods. Up to a quarter of the sulfate pollution in the western United States wafted over from those factories. Their emissions add a day of substandard air in the Los Angeles area […]

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China’s Premier Li Says Governments Should Use New-Energy Cars

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said governments should take a leading role in promoting alternative energy-powered vehicles, according to a statement posted on the central government’s website yesterday. “New-energy vehicles, especially buses, can help improve urban problems of pollution and noise and therefore everyone should be encouraged to use it,” Li was cited as saying during a visit to a unit of automaker BYD Co. (1211) yesterday in the northern Chinese city of Xi’an. China plans to have 5 million alternative energy-powered automobiles by 2020. Li’s comments reiterate a policy to have local public authorities take the lead in using alternative-energy vehicles. China’s provinces and biggest cities have been given targets to cut concentrations of some air pollutants by 5 percent to 25 percent by 2017 compared with 2012 levels. An increasing number of Chinese cities have introduced emergency measures to fight smog. BYD Co., backed by Warren Buffett ’s […]

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Chicago pollution board rules against new limits on petcoke

Chicago environmentalists are reeling after an Illinois government panel rejected proposed rules to regulate piles of petroleum coke along Chicago’s shipping channels, which nearby residents and activists say can cause environmental and health problems. Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had filed a request with the Illinois Pollution Control Board to craft emergency rules to regulate the piles of petroleum coke, also known as petcoke. Petcoke is a powder-like byproduct of crude oil production that’s often shipped overseas for use in energy production or in concrete or brick construction. Residents of Chicago’s southeast, where the petcoke is located, have been petitioning the government for years to do something about the piles, which they say blanket their neighborhood with noxious dust on windy days. Their complaints gained attention from city and state officials in August, after petcoke was documented by residents blowing into a neighborhood and park. […]

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Study: Pollution from Chinese factories is harming air quality on U.S. West Coast

Bad air from China is blowing across the Pacific Ocean and contributing to smog in the United States, according to new scientific research. And much of that air pollution is being caused by the manufacture of goods in China for export to the United States and Europe. “We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us,” said Steve Davis, a University of California at Irvine scientist and a co-author of the study. “Given the complaints about how Chinese pollution is corrupting other countries’ air, this paper shows that there may be plenty of blame to go around.” The paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday and, according to its researchers, is the first to quantify how much of the pollution reaching the West Coast of the United […]

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Shanghai considers arming residents with anti-pollution masks

P It was not immediately clear if the proposals would see authorities give masks to all of the city’s more than 23 million residents. Mr Zhu said children, traffic police and those who worked outdoors should be given priority. The masks would be distributed through the city’s health care system, the Xinmin Evening News reported. The report came as Yang Xiong, Shanghai’s mayor, told an annual summit of Communist Party leaders and advisers that his city needed to “break away from the conventional path of development.” “Environmental capacity is strained and air pollution such as haze has become a pronounced problem,” Mr Yang told Shanghai’s People’s Congress on Sunday. Mr Yang vowed to “pay more attention to the atmospheric environment” although on Tuesday the Shanghai Daily newspaper said the city’s investment in environmental protection […]

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China Focus: Air pollution chokes as smog migrates

People living in south China have been grumbling about gales blowing smog in from the north, as hazardous air chokes more parts of the country this winter. In 2013, China’s smog belt stretched from the developed regions of the Yangtze and Zhujiang river deltas and areas around Beijing and Tianjin, to other places where smog was seldom seen. The southernmost province of Hainan and autonomous region of Tibet recorded smoggy days. Chinese Academy of Sciences issued a report last month about climate change, saying that besides local pollutants, "smog migration" was another serious problem. In Beijing, 30 percent to 40 percent of the PM 2.5, airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, was caused by emissions, 20 percent to 30 percent from chemical conversion in the atmosphere, and the rest from smog movement, according to the report. Meanwhile, according to statistics published monthly […]

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China Exports Pollution to U.S., Study Finds

A group of researchers found that trans-Pacific air pollution is a hidden price of the goods sent abroad from China. European Pressphoto Agency BEIJING — Filthy emissions from China’s export industries are carried across the Pacific Ocean and contribute to air pollution in the Western United States, according to a paper published Monday by a prominent American science journal. The research is the first to quantify how air pollution in the United States is affected by China’s production of goods for export and by global consumer demand for those goods, the study’s authors say. It was written by nine scholars based in three nations and was published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , which last year published a paper by other researchers that found a drop in life spans in northern China because of air pollution. The latest paper explores the […]

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Thousands of Gas Leaks Discovered Under Streets

Researchers from Duke revealed today that they had discovered nearly 5,900 gas leaks under the streets of Washington DC , including 12 that posed a serious risk of explosion. And it’s not just Washington: a gas industry whistleblower who is part of the team showed this was happening in cities all over America .” New research today says the nation’s capital, notorious for leaking state secrets, has thousands of leaks of another sort: methane from natural gas pipelines. More than 5,800 leaks from aging pipelines were found under Washington, D.C.’s streets by scientists from Duke University and Boston University, who dispatched a car equipped with measuring instruments across the city last January and February. Their findings appear in this week’s peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology. The researchers found 19 of the leaks had high concentrations of methane, a potent heat-trapping greenhouse gas […]

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China's most-polluted province faces enormous challenge

Hebei, a northern region with the worst air in China, faces an enormous challenge in cleaning up its dirty air as data showed that little more than one third of all days last year met quality standards. The air quality index (AQI) in 129 days, 35.3 percent of days in 2013, was below 100, Chen Guoying, director of the Hebei provincial bureau of environmental protection, told a local legislature on Wednesday. The province, which surrounds the national capital Beijing, had 80 days, or 21.9 percent, of severe air pollution (AQI readings higher than 200), Chen said. According to statistics published monthly by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Hebei is home to up to seven of the country’s top 10 polluted cities. "Heavy smog hit at the time of the "two sessions" in 2013 and again this year," said Liu Ronghua, a local political advisor, […]

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China’s most-polluted province faces enormous challenge

Hebei, a northern region with the worst air in China, faces an enormous challenge in cleaning up its dirty air as data showed that little more than one third of all days last year met quality standards. The air quality index (AQI) in 129 days, 35.3 percent of days in 2013, was below 100, Chen Guoying, director of the Hebei provincial bureau of environmental protection, told a local legislature on Wednesday. The province, which surrounds the national capital Beijing, had 80 days, or 21.9 percent, of severe air pollution (AQI readings higher than 200), Chen said. According to statistics published monthly by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Hebei is home to up to seven of the country’s top 10 polluted cities. "Heavy smog hit at the time of the "two sessions" in 2013 and again this year," said Liu Ronghua, a local political advisor, […]

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Beijing to control vehicle pollution

Beijing will extend its air quality monitoring network with more stations and focus on vehicles with high emission, confirmed the city environmental authority Friday. These stations will be along the fifth and sixth ring roads and other highways heading into the urban areas, the main routes of heavy diesel vehicles, said Zhang Dawei, director of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center. Heavy diesel vehicles only comprise about five percent of Beijing’s traffic but spew out about fifty percent of the city’s nitric oxide. The new stations will help environmental authorities understand high emission vehicle pollution, said Zhang. Beijing has 35 air monitoring stations measuring the city’s six main pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, PM10 and PM2.5. Beijing reported 58 days of heavy pollution last year, compared with 176 days of excellent or fairly good air. Related: Beijing PM 2.5 reading fails national standard BEIJING, Jan. […]

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China’s Tianjin to begin restricting car population, Xinhua says

China’s northern Tianjin municipality will begin restricting its car population next year to control traffic congestion and air pollution, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Only 100,000 new license plates will be issued in Tianjin next year, of which 60,000 will be distributed by lottery and the rest auctioned off for a minimum bid of ¥10,000 (RM5410) each, according to Xinhua. Government departments will be banned from buying new official cars and all proceeds from the auctions will go to support public transportation, Xinhua reported, citing a plan approved by the Tianjin government. The city of 14 million, located about 111 kilometres (69 miles) from Beijing, follows the capital, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Guiyang in imposing vehicle quotas. […]

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Agriculture Land Shrinking in China; World Bank Provides Loans to Reduce Soil Pollution

Growing population, industrialization and rapid economic growth are putting unprecedented pressure on China’s agriculture resources, and have become a threat to food security in the country and the world. According to China’s national land survey figures released recently, total arable land in the country stood at around 135.4 million hectares at the end of 2012. This is still about 15.4 million hectares above the “red line” of a minimum 120 million hectares earmarked to ensure food security in China. However, pollution of land and water are eroding agriculture land in China. Coupled with increasing population, China’s per capita arable area now stands at around 0.1 hectare, almost half of the global average of around 0.2 hectare. According to government officials in China, it was found from the survey that about 3 million hectares of land is now unsuitable for rice cultivation due to heavy contamination by poisonous heavy metals […]

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Democrats want hearing on methane emissions

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) — Two Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives said they wanted to hold hearings to assess methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector. U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman , D-Calif., and Bobby Rush , D-Ill., members of House committees on energy, issued a letter to their Republican counterparts calling for hearings to assess the level of methane emitted during production, processing and distribution of hydrocarbons. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, trapping more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Waxman and Rush said carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were decreasing because U.S. utility companies were switching from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas. Methane, however, may be an unfortunate consequence of natural gas production in particular, they wrote. "The rate at which methane leaks into the atmosphere from natural gas production is a critical question that we must answer," they said […]

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Executive Moving to Shanghai Finds No Escape From China’s Smog

Bill Russo moved more than 700 miles from Beijing to Shanghai on Dec. 1 and thought he’d left the smog behind him. Five days later, he was wheezing again. “What was shocking was how bad it’s been,” said Russo, a vice president at car stereo maker Harman International Industries Inc. “Shanghai over the years had a reputation of being better,” said the executive, who had some of the fine-particle masks he left behind in Beijing sent to him. Record levels of pollution this month busted perceptions of Shanghai as a place to escape the smog that’s shrouded Beijing and other parts of China. Worsening air quality in the country’s commercial hub prompted warnings to keep children indoors, spurred companies from Unilever to Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing Co. to give workers face masks, and may hinder Shanghai’s push to be a global financial center by 2020. “I […]

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China’s Rust Belt Cities Hit With New Air Pollution Fines

A province in the heart of China’s rust belt has levied air pollution fines on city governments for the first time, in a sign that pressure to improve air quality in the world’s second-largest economy is trickling down to the local level. An electronic screen shines amid heavy smog in Shenyang on October 28. Reuters Liaoning, one of the nation’s largest industrial hubs, has so far collected a total of 54.2 million yuan ($8.9 million) from eight of its cities after it passed tougher air-pollution regulations last year, the official Xinhua news agency reported Monday. The fines are the first of their kind for the province and also come after China’s central government released a nationwide reform blueprint last month that vowed to impose more fees and taxes on polluters . Although China is test piloting anti-pollution measures such as carbon trading, it has been hesitant to announce nationwide […]

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Breathe in that dirty doublethink

Shanghai’s solution to the ‘airpocalypse’: ‘adjust’ the pollution standard, says Patti Waldmeir ©Reuters Clogged: a rush-hour traffic jam on a Shanghai highway Last year, Shanghai’s favourite winter sport was checking the air pollution readings in Beijing and gloating over how high they were. That’s not so much fun this year. In the past week Shanghai has wracked up its worst pollution since records began, with the concentration of deadly PM2.5 fine particles topping 600 micrograms per cubic metre on Friday afternoon, at a time when Beijing’s level was half that. (The World Health Organisation’s safe level is 25 µg/m 3 as a daily mean.) The Shanghai government has the perfect solution to the current “airpocalypse”: it “adjusted” the city’s pollution standard so that it would trigger fewer hazard warnings. What a relief, it was so annoying constantly being warned about the deadly assault on my lungs. Now my lungs […]

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Obama Pollution Rule Revival Weighed by Supreme Court

U.S. Supreme Court justices hinted they might revive one of President Barack Obama ’s biggest air-quality efforts, a rule that would curb emissions from coal-fired power plants in 28 states. In a 90-minute argument session today featuring analogies to last-second shots in close basketball games, the justices questioned contentions made by challengers to the Environmental Protection Agency rule, which targets air pollution that crosses state lines. The rule — struck down by a lower court and being tested by power companies, states and miners — has never taken effect. It would force companies including Texas ’s largest power producer, Energy Future Holdings Corp.’s Luminant, to either shutter old plants or invest billions of dollars in pollution-control technology. The administration says the rule would prevent as many as 34,000 premature deaths a year. The rule would use a modified cap-and-trade system to limit emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide […]

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Parents push schools to install air purifiers

With Shanghai suffering one of its worst bouts of pollution, concerned parents, worried about their children’s health, are urging schools to install air purifiers in classrooms. Parents said the purifiers are necessary after Shanghai’s pollution hit a record high with both the air quality index and PM2.5 density soaring to new highs since last Thursday. Weihai and Fortune kindergartens, Soong Ching Ling School and Shanghai United International School have already installed air purifiers in some of their classrooms. Jiang Yayun, the mother of a two-year-old child, said her daughter has been coughing for two months and doctors had told her it was due to pollution. Jiang and other parents with similar problems then approached the principal of Fortune Kindergarten and urged the school to buy air purifiers, which they think is better than having doing nothing at all. “Not many of us […]

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Eight Chinese cities fined for air pollution

Local governments in eight cities in northeast China’s Liaoning Province have been fined a total of 54.2 million yuan (8.9 million U.S. dollars) for air pollution, the provincial department of environment protection said Tuesday. The fines, the first the provincial agency has imposed on lower-level governments, send a clear signal that the provincial government is becoming more serious about tackling air pollution. The tough penalties come as severely polluted air has become a main source of complaints and frustration over health concerns among urban residents. Choking smog attracted wide attention again last week as it blanketed 100 cities across more than half the country. Many rushed to buy face masks and air purifiers to ward it off, and primary and middle schools in the eastern city of Nanjing were even forced to close for two days. According to a regulation which went into effect […]

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China environmentalists slam inaction over smog

The smog that blanketed over 100 cities in half of China last week has rekindled criticism of insufficient efforts in the fight against air pollution. Among urban residents, severely polluted air has become a main source of complaints and frustration over health concerns. Late last week, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in dozens of cities in eastern China topped or neared 500. AQI of over 300 cities is defined as “serious pollution.” Many rushed to buy face masks and air purifiers to ward off the choking smog, a result of decades of breakneck economic growth. The dirty air even forced all primary and middle schools in the eastern city of Nanjing to close for two days. “The smog is everywhere,” said Xiong Yuehui, head of the science and technology department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, at a meeting on Sunday in Shanghai. “If […]

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Obama’s Pollution-Control Agenda Goes to Court Tomorrow

Two of President Barack Obama ’s top pollution-control measures face courtroom tests tomorrow as coal-dependent utilities, miners and some states challenge what they call overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency. Efforts to regulate pollutants that cause smog and soot, as well as mercury from coal plants, have moved in fits and starts for more than a decade. If both rules go forward it would cause power producers such as American Electric Power Co. (AEP) and Southern Co. (SO) to shutter old plants or invest billions of dollars in pollution-control technology. Health and environmental groups say the rules clean the air and reduce heart attacks, asthma and related illnesses. The decisions in these cases — one being argued before the Supreme Court and the other in federal appeals court — could have a longstanding impact on how the Clean Air Act is implemented. “This is the biggest day for clean […]

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Shanghai Hit by Heavy Air Pollution

Shanghai’s air pollution went off the charts on Friday as a thick gray smog shrouded its famously luminous skyline, in the latest high-profile episode highlighting China’s pervasive environmental woes. Officials called for factory closures and curbs on official car use to counter hazardous levels of particulate matter in the air, while airlines delayed or canceled some flights, according to local authorities. Commuters wore face masks and some rushed to purchase air purifiers at supermarkets. Parks were left empty. Schools remained open, although the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau suggested children, the aged and people with heart, lung, or other chronic diseases stay indoors. “It’s too hazardous to let him go to the kindergarten on such a smoggy day,” said Shen Lan, a 32-year-old airport manager, referring to her five-year old son. “I have kept the air purifier working at home all day and night,” she said. “But that’s not enough. […]

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Record air pollution cancels flights in Shanghai

Shanghai smog Shanghai smog Shanghai smog Shanghai smog Shanghai smog Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled Friday in Shanghai as record levels of air pollution shrouded China’s commercial hub in smog, prompting authorities to urge residents to stay indoors. On Friday afternoon, the Shanghai government issued its most severe health warning as the city’s pollution index ranged between 23 times and 31 times the levels recommended by international health officials. In the first such advice since a new health warning system was launched in April, authorities urged residents to stay indoors and asked factories to either cut or halt production. Most of the flights leaving Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, one of the world’s busiest cargo airports, were delayed due to decreased visibility, according to the airport’s website. Hazardous air pollution forced schools to shut or suspend outdoor activities in at least two other cities in eastern China on […]

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China Chases Renewable Energy as Coast Chokes on Air

New figures in China show the country adding clean, renewable electricity generation faster than it is expanding capacity of more polluting sources. But change can’t happen fast enough for residents in eastern China, who are now choking on soupy air associated with coal-burning plants more often associated with the country’s north. Led by hydropower, renewable energy sources made up 57% of newly installed electricity-generating capacity during the first 10 months of 2013, according to China’s National Energy Administration. The figures, published to the NEA’s website Wednesday, showed 20% expansion from the same period a year earlier. Renewable energy accounted for a larger portion of growth in electricity-generating capacity than traditional, more polluting sources such as coal. Thermal-power capacity accounted for 43% of the additional capacity added. Hydropower […]

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Shanghai suffers another morning of heavy air pollution

Shanghai continued to suffer smoggy weather this morning with the air quality index stayed at 246 by 9am today. The city’s air has been in the several polluted zone since yesterday, the worst day for air pollution since the index was launched last December. PM2.5 density stayed above 160 micrograms per cubic meter by 8am, double the national limit of 75. PM2.5 refers to airborne particles which are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. They are the main cause of urban smog and are harmful to human health. Pedestrians put on masks to avoid the particles that can cause lung or cardiopulmonary health problems. The Shanghai Education Commission issued a directive to schools before classes began that they should reduce outdoor activities. A second notice in the morning ordered a halt to outdoor activities. Students who were late or absent yesterday and today would […]

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Methane Emissions in U.S. Probably Top Estimates: Study

U.S. emissions of methane — a greenhouse gas — are probably 50 percent higher than current estimates show, according to a study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The study estimated emissions in 2007 and 2008, using measurements on the ground, in telecommunications towers and from aircraft for a comprehensive inventory of the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. It found that the U.S. now underestimates methane releases from the raising of livestock and the extraction of oil and natural gas. That may mean methane has a bigger role in climate change than now thought, as state officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency consider new rules designed to limit emissions that may lead to global warming. “Methane is a powerful climate change pollutant, and the study gives greater impetus to the EPA and states to establish stronger standards to reduce leaks […]

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Analysis: U.S. air pollution authority faces Supreme Court tests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s authority to regulate air pollution nationwide, often against the wishes of Republican-leaning states, could face new curbs when the Supreme Court takes on two high-stakes cases in coming months. The cases focus on the broad-ranging power wielded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the landmark Clean Air Act, first enacted in 1970. The law was envisioned as a cooperative effort between the federal government and states in which the EPA sets standards but states have to set plans to comply. That flexibility has allowed states which favor looser regulations, like Texas and Kansas, to resist – with the support of industry groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers – when the agency wants to impose more stringent standards. In both cases before the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, mainly Republican-led states and industry groups have challenged different EPA […]

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Urbanites Flee China’s Smog for Blue Skies

DALI, China — A typical morning for Lin Liya, a native of Shanghai transplanted to this ancient town in southwest China, goes like this: See her 3-year-old son off to school near the mountains; go for a half-hour run on the shores of Erhai Lake; and browse the local market for fresh vegetables and meat. She finished her run one morning beneath cloudless blue skies and sat down with a visitor from Beijing in the lakeside boutique hotel started by her and her husband. “I think luxury is sunshine, good air and good water,” she said. “But in the big city, you can’t get those things.” More than two years ago, Ms. Lin, 34, and her husband gave up comfortable careers in the booming southern city of Guangzhou — she at a Norwegian risk management company , he at an advertising firm that he had founded — to join […]

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China's smog threatens health of global coal projects

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A choking smog across much of northern China threatens not just the health of local residents, but also of major coal projects globally that are still on the drawing board. Beijing’s plans to tackle pollution largely target coal-fired power, which will hit already slowing demand in the world’s top importer of the fuel. With China’s coal demand the primary driver for a slew of mine investments over the past decade, this trend could derail a list of capital intensive coal projects from Australia to Indonesia and Mozambique. Even without the environmental drive, new railways from mines to ports, falling investment in coal-fired generation and slowing power demand growth could see China’s miners export some of their surplus output at competitive prices, hitting regional miners and the viability of new projects. This is a major shift for a country that built an average of two coal-fired power […]

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China’s smog threatens health of global coal projects

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A choking smog across much of northern China threatens not just the health of local residents, but also of major coal projects globally that are still on the drawing board. Beijing’s plans to tackle pollution largely target coal-fired power, which will hit already slowing demand in the world’s top importer of the fuel. With China’s coal demand the primary driver for a slew of mine investments over the past decade, this trend could derail a list of capital intensive coal projects from Australia to Indonesia and Mozambique. Even without the environmental drive, new railways from mines to ports, falling investment in coal-fired generation and slowing power demand growth could see China’s miners export some of their surplus output at competitive prices, hitting regional miners and the viability of new projects. This is a major shift for a country that built an average of two coal-fired power […]

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Canada's oil relative to others in terms of emissions

HOUSTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) — Oil sands imported from Canada into the United States have a lighter environmental footprint than often assumed, a consulting company said. IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates said oil sands are the largest source of U.S. oil imports. Globally, Canadian oil sands could account for 16 percent of all new oil production by 2030. Oil sands are viewed as more carbon-intensive to produce than rival grades. IHS CERA said the greenhouse gas intensity of oil sands imported from Canada is less of a threat to the environment than often suspected. “Oil sands are on par with other sources of U.S. crude, including crudes from Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq and heavy oil production in the U.S.,” it said in a report published Tuesday. The debate over emissions is one of the sticking points over the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline planned from Canada. Shawn Howard, a spokesman […]

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Canada’s oil relative to others in terms of emissions

HOUSTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) — Oil sands imported from Canada into the United States have a lighter environmental footprint than often assumed, a consulting company said. IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates said oil sands are the largest source of U.S. oil imports. Globally, Canadian oil sands could account for 16 percent of all new oil production by 2030. Oil sands are viewed as more carbon-intensive to produce than rival grades. IHS CERA said the greenhouse gas intensity of oil sands imported from Canada is less of a threat to the environment than often suspected. “Oil sands are on par with other sources of U.S. crude, including crudes from Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq and heavy oil production in the U.S.,” it said in a report published Tuesday. The debate over emissions is one of the sticking points over the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline planned from Canada. Shawn Howard, a spokesman […]

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Hong Kong Finds Switch to Cleaner Fuels Has Flaws

All but one of Hong Kong’s more than 18,000 taxis now burn liquefied petroleum gas, but one smog-causing pollutant soars if those vehicles’ catalytic converters are not regularly replaced. Alex Hofford/European Pressphoto Agency All but one of Hong Kong’s more than 18,000 taxis now burn liquefied petroleum gas, but one smog-causing pollutant soars if those vehicles’ catalytic converters are not regularly replaced. Municipal governments all over the world, particularly in developing countries with rapidly growing fleets of cars and choking air pollution, have been rushing over the last few years to force taxis and buses to switch to burning liquefied petroleum gas and compressed natural gas, frequently offering subsidies for them to do so. But one of the early leaders of the trend, Hong Kong, said on Friday that the city’s shift over the last decade to almost complete dependence on LPG for light commercial vehicles had produced unintended […]

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Poland, Wedded to Coal, Spurns Europe on Clean Energy Targets

BELCHATOW, Poland — They call it Poland’s biggest hole in the ground. The coal mine here is more than eight-and-a-half miles long, nearly two miles wide and as deep in parts as three football fields. Enough coal comes out of it to fuel Europe’s largest coal-fired utility plant, whose chimneys loom in the distance. “The entire world population could fit in this hole,” Tomasz Tarnowski, an administrator here, said in a bit of proud hyperbole as he led a group of reporters on a walk near a towering mound of brown coal about halfway into the mine. Poland is Europe’s coal colossus. More than 88 percent of its electricity comes from coal. Belchatow is one of its huge sources and the largest carbon emitter in Europe. (There’s no “belch” in Belchatow — it is pronounced bel-HOT-oof.) This month, a United Nations conference on climate change will be held in […]

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China expands pollution plan

BEIJING, Oct. 24 (UPI) — China will launch an air pollution inspection program, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said. Areas to be targeted include Beijing and regions around Tianjin, Hebei and Hunan provinces, and the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas, state-run news agency Xinhua reported Thursday. Inspections, to begin this month and continue through March 2014, are intended to determine how local governments are enforcing China’s Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, initiated last month. That plan imposes stricter limits on the levels of PM2.5, airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter. Companies violating air pollution control regulations will be shut down, Xinhua reports. The announcement came as the Chinese city of Harbin, about 780 miles northeast of Beijing, had been blanketed by thick smog since Sunday, resulting in the closure of roads, schools and a major airport. Harbin’s PM2.5 levels on Tuesday reached levels of […]

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Response to a City’s Smog Points to a Change in Chinese Attitude

BEIJING — Emergency measures came swiftly in Harbin, the northeastern city blanketed with hazardous smog this week: Schools were shut down, buses ordered off the roads, the airport closed, police roadblocks set up to check tailpipe emissions from cars. City officials even fanned out in the surrounding countryside, ordering farmers to stop burning the cornstalks left in their fields after the harvest. They were reacting to the first notable surge of air pollution in China this autumn. Residents across the nation’s north fear that the smog is a sign of things to come. With winter approaching, cities north of the Huai River are turning on their coal-fired municipal heating systems, whose emissions were found in one study to shorten residents’ life spans by an average of five years. In Harbin, moist air trapped the pollution at ground level, leaving people to walk through a gray miasma wearing face masks. […]

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Thick smog forces schools, highways to close

HARBIN/CHANGCHUN, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) — Heavy smog shrouded northeast China on Monday, forcing the closure of schools, as well as disrupting flights and highways. Meteorological authorities in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces issued a red alert for thick smog or fog. The fog will worsen in Harbin, Yichun, Daqing, Suihua, Jiamusi and Qitaihe cities in Heilongjiang with visibility of less than 100 meters in the next 24 hours, said the provincial meteorological station. “After walking outdoors for a while, I felt it difficult to breathe,” said Chu Yushu, a resident in Harbin, provincial capital of Heilongjiang, which had visibility of less than ten meters in parts of the downtown area. The density of PM2.5 — airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter, exceeded 500 micrograms per cubic meter early Monday in Harbin. All highways in Heilongjiang and Taiping International Airport in Harbin were closed due to the […]

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Amid Heavy Pollution, Beijing Issues Emergency Rules to Protect Citizens

Snappily titled the Six Stops and One Wash, a new and complex string of regulations by the Beijing city government is aimed at combating the effects of persistent, heavy air pollution on the populace. A major rule will take private vehicles off the roads on alternate days, depending on their license plates, when pollution is especially bad. The new measures were announced Thursday as air in the capital was deemed “heavily polluted,” according to government air quality readings. Air pollution is a chronic problem in large parts of China. The regulations consist of a system of four colored alerts that will kick in when heavy pollution is forecast. The World Health Organization’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, said Thursday that it was classifying air pollution as a Group 1 human carcinogen. Particulate matter, a main component of air pollution, was also being classified as a […]

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Amid Heavy Pollution, Beijing Issues Emergency Rules to Protect Citizens

A woman adjusted her mask as she walked past Beijing apartment buildings shrouded in smog. Andy Wong/Associated Press A woman adjusted her mask as she walked past Beijing apartment buildings shrouded in smog. Snappily titled the “Six stops and one wash,” the Beijing city government has announced a new and complex string of regulations to combat the effect of persistent, heavy air pollution on the populace. A key rule will allow private vehicles to drive only on alternate days when pollution is especially bad. The new measures , announced Thursday, came as air in the capital was “heavily polluted,” according to government air quality readings. Air pollution is a chronic problem in large parts of China. The regulations consist of a system of four colored alerts that will kick in when either one or three days of heavy pollution are forecast, and come as the World Health Organization’s cancer […]

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