Comments on: Beijing air quality is like living in an airport smoking lounge

By: James Slater

James Slater — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:43:00 +0000

Tell us more about how “free market” Mitt Romney and government-run command economy China have in common.

By: Dewgeist

Dewgeist — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 03:40:00 +0000

As a current Fairbanksan, I’ll attest to the air pollution that we endure through the winter. Though quality does fluctuate wildly with temperature change. Typically, as the mercury drops, so does the air quality –you remember ice fog don’t you? Unregulated outdoor burners don’t help.

In the absence of wildfire smoke (2004 lives on as the local definition of “bad”) air quality is pretty darn nice during summer.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:28:00 +0000

PM2.5 levels in fairbanks summer 2004 (pdf) About the same level as Beijing, actually.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:06:00 +0000

From 23 January 2013

The greater Salt Lake region had up to 130 micrograms of soot per cubic meter on Wednesday, or more than three times the federal clean-air limit, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

I used the airnow site to verify this OK-- that's PM 2.5=116 (Unhealthy for sensitive groups), Ozone =14 (Good). On January 8, 2013, it was PM-2.5=155 (Unhealthy), Ozone-7 Good. This is unhealthy, and absurd, and embarrassing. But a PM2.5 of 155 is substantially less than Beijing (Beyond Index should give you a clue)

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:28:00 +0000

It’s pretty hard to cure a problem that’s the result of topography and climate. Maybe they need to accept that God led them to a hell-hole instead of a promised land because he hates them.

By: Jeremy Sebens

Jeremy Sebens — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:12:00 +0000

Where are the units? Are we measuring air quality in flying unicorns per cubic kilometer? Or perhaps per-capita coughs, in a laplace-filtered square-mile grid? (EDIT: Now I see some text on the units at the bottom – why not put it on the axis, where it belongs?)

It also defies belief that a) we know these measurements to 4 decimal places, and b) that Fairbanks measured at EXACTLY 1000.0000 flying unicorns/km^3.

I will withhold the lengthy rant I have inside, and say just this – poor data presentation erodes the credibility of the presenter and the data presented.

Supporting reference for above statement: http://xkcd.com/833/

By: jerwin

jerwin — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:07:00 +0000

Somebody already did. From the Deseret News

“I feel like I am locking my children in a windowless room full of chain smokers,” said Udell, the founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air. “I feel claustrophobic, I feel frustrated and I feel angry at our political leaders for not taking action on what Utahns consider to be one of the most important issues for Utah's future.”

By: jerwin

jerwin — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:50:00 +0000

Does anybody have long term data for Beijing? For Salt Lake City?

By: jandrese

jandrese — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:43:00 +0000

That’s a “feature” of many chart making applications that assume you want whitespace around all parts of the chart, even the bottom.

By: John Harrison

John Harrison — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:26:00 +0000

So… Salt Lake City reaches airport smoking lounge levels in the winter when there is a temperature inversion. Don’t tell us Mormons that we’re smoking.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:26:00 +0000

Yeah Australia as well.

By: efergus3

efergus3 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:22:00 +0000

Actually the US is selling them the coal. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_coal_use_declines_in_us_coal_companies_focus_on_china/2474/

By: awjt

awjt — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:22:00 +0000

They don’t have smoking lounges there. Smoking is unrestricted. China is 1 GIANT smoking lounge.

By: chaopoiesis

chaopoiesis — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:07:00 +0000

The Communists will furnace the coal with which they will gag themselves.

By: MollyMaguire

MollyMaguire — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:38:00 +0000

I’d left by then, but I endured a few very smokey summers there myself.

Are you living there now, Ben? Friends tell me, and I have read, that now the air is bad all year because of the rise in popularity of outdoor wood and coal-fired boilers. Sounds awful.

By: Eark_the_Bunny

Eark_the_Bunny — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:38:00 +0000

We don’t need no regulation, you’re just another brick in the wall! C O U G H!

By: Glen Able

Glen Able — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:31:00 +0000

Bit of an odd y-axis on the graph there – the level for zero pollution is well above the bottom – leaving some room in case they get some negative pollution data?. It makes it look like the WHO are recommending air that’s half the level in a smoking lounge.

By: Ben Livengood

Ben Livengood — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:22:00 +0000

2004 in Fairbanks was not a fun summer. Visibility was often less than a mile and of course it smelled like a wet campfire everywhere. But hey, it was all carbon-neutral pollution!

By: Robert Holmén

Robert Holmén — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:12:00 +0000

This is what that “pro-business” economic policy Mitt Romney admired so much gets you.

By: igzabier

igzabier — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:10:00 +0000

businessman selling canned air in Beijing

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=china-resorting-to-canned-air-becau-2013-01

It comes with atmospheric flavours including pristine Tibet, post-industrial Taiwan and revolutionary Yan’an, the Communist Party’s early base area.

By: huskerdont

huskerdont — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:09:00 +0000

I wonder what the air quality in their smoking lounges is.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:59:00 +0000

Beijing: Come to where the flavour is.