Posted on 07/22/2007 4:23:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin
One tainted export from China can't be avoided in North America -- air.
An outpouring of dust layered with man-made sulfates, smog, industrial fumes, carbon grit and nitrates is crossing the Pacific Ocean on prevailing winds from booming Asian economies in plumes so vast they alter the climate. These rivers of polluted air can be wider than the Amazon and deeper than the Grand Canyon.
"There are times when it covers the entire Pacific Ocean basin like a ribbon bent back and forth," said atmospheric physicist V. Ramanathan at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.
On some days, almost a third of the air over Los Angeles and San Francisco can be traced directly to Asia. With it comes up to three-quarters of the black carbon particulate pollution that reaches the West Coast, Dr. Ramanathan and his colleagues recently reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Aerosols -- airborne microscopic particles -- are produced naturally every time a breeze catches sea salt from ocean spray, or a volcano erupts, or a forest burns, or a windstorm kicks up dust, for example. They also are released in exhaust fumes, factory vapors and coal-fired power plant emissions.
Asia is the world's largest source of aerosols, man-made and natural. Every spring and summer, storms whip up silt from the Gobi desert of Mongolia and the hardpan of the Taklamakan desert of western China, where, for centuries, dust has shaped a way of life. From the dunes of Dunhuang, where vendors hawk gauze face masks alongside braided leather camel whips, to the oasis of Kashgar at the feet of the Tian Shan Mountains 1,500 miles to the west, there is no escaping it.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
(crickets chirping)
Quick! Someone ping Gore!
I found them, they were stuck on the side of the road. Their battery died, and they were debating what they would have to give up to make up for the carbon footprint of calling AAA. They decided to give up their cell phones, then discovered that the call boxes were craftily disguised cell phones, and are now trying to figure out how to blame this on a secret program of Dick Cheney's.
The only rational one left is holding his iPhone trying to convince himself that he's using an MP3 player to call for help. It's rather sad, actually. The diesel tow-truck will have to drive 200 miles to tow the car back, and they've not even considered the environmental impact of that.
On the plus side, a rare California Condor squated on their car window, showing them that things do work.
Sheer brilliance, Kingu ..... Touche!
This absolutely must be right wing lies and propaganda. Everyone knows that only the USA is responsible for environmental damage. </sarcasm>
Note the pinkish or brownish tint in the first image.
Ping
China will most likely blame it on Russia, who will blame it on Europe, who will blame it on the US. Damn Humans!
A few years ago, I heard a BBC announcer say that pollution from the USA had drifted across the Pacific and was covering China with smog.
Whatever it is, it’s our fault.
Bump. Thx for the pix!
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(Great tagline!)
*koff-koff*
I’d suggest some kind of special breathing apparatus, but, well, I’m not sure it would fit...
Neither am I. ;o]
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