China talks about a greener future

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5192376.stm

One of the problems with China's economic growth has been the amount of pollution that has come from it. It's not just a global problem affecting climate change but it's caused a lot of problems at home as well.

Bit like in the early days of industrial growth in this country.

There were still problems upto the the last years of the 1950s until the Clean Air Act (1956) became law. This was in response to the smog that enveloped London in 1952 and killed thousands of people. About 4,000 people died from the effects of the smog while it was there and it's estimated that around another 8,000 died as a result of it in the months that followed though no-one really knows just how many people died prematurely as a result of it.

Article about the smog

(smog is a word that comes from combining smoke and fog)


http://www.portfolio.mvm.ed.ac.uk/studentwebs/session4/27/greatsmog52.htm

There was a lesser problem in 1991 but it wasn't on the scale of the old smogs. This happened because of the increase in traffic in the city. And there were two more times when pollution in London was recorded as being very problematic.

http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/information.asp?view=howbad


How will the traffic tax affect the pollution in London

(a nice article from Australia with an environmental outlook)

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s1057768.htm

http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_pol.html?id=c373e9ff775b76088f6a17245d830100

And, ofcourse, there's now catalytic converters to help with pollution and greener fuel which are more widely used.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/catalytic-converter1.htm


It's a good thing that China's doing this, not just for the obvious benefits but it'll also keep the fact that pollution is affecting the climate of the planet with the results that are showing now in the public eye.