The point of all of this is that we have driven down nitrous oxide pollution so far that minuscule amounts from across the Pacific ocean are said to increase our levels. If you do not read it carefully, it appears that the Asia pollution has increased our levels by 50%!!
But the article is really just a non-factual scare. It never mentions an actual numerical increase in U.S. pollution levels. It just says that Pollution from Asia is increasing our levels in the U.S.
Of course, that is true. Air travels all over the world. But the key is How Much? if it is .000001%, we need not worry. If it is 100%, maybe, as U.S pollution levels are already quite low. The article never gives us that number.
Consider that nitrous oxides degrade over time in sunlight, rather quickly, and the amount from Asia is diluted by several orders of magnitude, probably by thousands or millions to 1 by the time it reaches the U.S. West Coast.
Area that the pollution is mixed in from Asia.
The surface area of the North Pacific is about 15 million square miles. The surface area of the Asian cities, say, 10 Bejings, would be about 70,000 square miles. In addition, the concentration of the pollutants in those cities is limited to the lower few thousand feet of the atmosphere, or about 1/10th of the atmosphere in those locations. That would be about 7,000 square miles, proportionately to the whole atmosphere over the North Pacific. So the ratio is roughly 7,000 to 15 million, or 2,000 to 1.
To double the pollution in the U.S. cities, the pollution in Los Angeles would have to be about 1/2,000 that in Bejing.
But the pollution from Asia would be all over the U.S. West Coast. That would mean that the pollution increase in San Luis Obispo would be the same as in Los Angeles (because half of the pollution is said to be coming from Asia).
If you read the story critically, it does not say how much pollution actually comes from Asia, it just says it has increase by 65%.
Without knowing that starting number, the percentage is meaningless.
Fake News.
(because half the pollution is said to be coming from Asia)
Should be
(because the pollution is said to be coming from Asia)
How evil of you to use logic and numerical analysis to take all the fun out of chicken little hysteria.