Deadly Air !

Bejing, the capital of China has a population of twenty-two million people, slightly less than the entire population of Australia.  While we enjoy clear blue skies the air in most Chinese cities is heavily polluted and it is customary for citizens to wear face masks to filter the microscopic solid particles that can harm their lungs.

This week Bejing is having what they term a " Red Alert ".  The World Health Organization ( WHO ) considers air pollution at the rate of twenty-five micrograms per square metre safe, but the reading in China's capital reached 634 micrograms per square metre and scientists conclude that it probably results in the untimely death of 1.4 million people annually.

The Chinese government slapped emergency controls into place to try and reduce pollution levels.  The schools were ordered to close and the worst polluting factories told to shut their doors on a temporary basis, and all car movements are now restricted to use only each second day.  No doubt the pollution count will be lowered, but the people in many parts of China will still live in a grey atmosphere of reduced visibility - and the sure knowledge that what they are breathing is far outside the WHO guidelines.

All this at a time when world leaders are meeting in Paris and trying to work out a way to stop global warming.  The Communist Chinese government imposes a strict censorship on the country but it must be abundantly clear to the average person that China's " manufacturing miracle "  is unsustainable if it comes at the cost of unbreatheable air.  China is trying to change focus from a manufacturing economy to a consumer model that will concentrate on becoming a " consumer society "  with emphasis on services.

China is probably the only country able to impose the unpopular measures that will be needed to make that happen.  It's one party rule is backed by military force and it rules by diktat that would not be possible in a democracy.   The only problem is that to achieve a pluralistic society that can widen it's economy it must relax the strangulation of control - and that runs contrary to Communist ideology.   The final outcome of what happens in China is yet to be decided.

This Chinese enigma awaits duplication in many other nations stuck in a time warp of where China was half a century ago.  India - with a similar sized population - is still poor and agrarian and most of Asia is yet to experience it's potential.   There is the expectation that will follow the same course as China and expand manufacturing to achieve a richer economy - and if that creates a similar level of pollution we seem destined for a murky world.

That is the problem world leaders are grappling with in Paris.  As the rest of the world plays catch-up there is the expectation that agrarian economies which lack electricity will opt for coal burning electricity production because it is the cheapest model.   If the west reduces pollution by replacing coal with renewables the gain will be lost if emerging economies replicate what the west is abandoning.

Probably the only way forward would be for the rich world to bite the bullet and pick up the tab for electricity production in these emerging nations - and the only practical way would be to build nuclear power generators.  That is the only way possible to create a sustainable base power load - with a total lack of pollution.

That is certainly something the boffins in Paris need to mull over !