{"id":32526,"date":"2014-11-21T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-05-14T18:44:58","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T18:44:58","slug":"7526-book-review-us-journalists-investigate-smog-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7526-book-review-us-journalists-investigate-smog-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review: US journalists investigate smog in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The name of China&nbsp;is almost obscured by a grey smudge on the title page of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/B00NS3Y94O?btkr=1\"><i>The People&rsquo;s Republic of&nbsp;Chemicals<\/i><\/a>,&nbsp;and this image proves to be apt.&nbsp;&nbsp;This book examines the crisis caused by toxic&nbsp;smogs that periodically choke vast regions of China and the massive&nbsp;particulate&nbsp;clouds that drift far beyond the country&rsquo;s borders.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/cd.live\/uploads\/content_image\/content_image\/459\/the_people_s_republic_of_chemicals.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"226\" align=\"left\" alt=\"\" \/>Authors William&nbsp;J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs joined forces once before in order to write their climate&nbsp;classic,&nbsp;<i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/B00NS3Y94O?btkr=1\">Smogtown: the Lung Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles<\/a><\/i>,&nbsp;a&nbsp;remarkable 2008&nbsp;expos&eacute; and memoir about air quality, politics and health in Southern&nbsp;California&rsquo;s smog belt. This time, the duo of self-described &ldquo;smog gumshoes&nbsp;from Los Angeles&rdquo; go farther afield to investigate air pollution that threatens&nbsp;to put a chokehold on the Pacific Rim. What&rsquo;s more, Mandarin editions of both&nbsp;books will be available through the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccps.gov.cn\/ccps_overview\/\">Central Party School Publishing House<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>No doubt&nbsp;the translators were challenged to render some of the exaggerated gonzo phrases&nbsp;and slang from this &ldquo;murky yarn of atmospheric pain and karma&rdquo; into prose that&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t come across as glib or simply baffling.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Ashtray-skied&nbsp;towns&rdquo; abound and burning coal &ldquo;cruds its troposphere like cigar smoke in a&nbsp;closet.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;Beijing is described as &ldquo;the&nbsp;city where your oxygen sometimes came spiced with black char.&rdquo; A chapter&nbsp;entitled&nbsp;&ldquo;Tweets for the Wheezy&rdquo; notes that&nbsp;&ldquo;a Twitter&nbsp;account had economic superpowers throwing each other the stink eye.&rdquo;&nbsp;It goes on to describe how the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/article\/4661-Beijing-s-hazardous-blue-sky?order=old&amp;page=2\">US Embassy in Beijing<\/a>&nbsp;inadvertently raised a ruckus in 2009 and 2010 by posting&nbsp;hourly readings of particulate&nbsp;pollution as measured on the roof of their&nbsp;former compound. Intended as a service for American travellers and embassy&nbsp;staff, the air quality statistics appeared on @BeijingAir, an embassy-run&nbsp;twitter page, and showed that the capital&rsquo;s atmosphere frequently was less&nbsp;healthy than the official daily averages posted by China&rsquo;s Environmental&nbsp;Protection Bureau would indicate. Chinese officials took umbrage and tried to&nbsp;block the public&rsquo;s access to these damning numbers.&nbsp;&nbsp;It&rsquo;s obvious that Kelly and Jacobs are&nbsp;relentless researchers,&nbsp;and they don&rsquo;t hide a heavy reliance on secondary&nbsp;sources. They readily confide: &ldquo;We Googled until our fingers tingled. Then we&nbsp;gasped.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Hypercharged&nbsp;patter aside, the writers do know their stuff. Kelly and Jacobs delve behind&nbsp;the headlines and grim statistics of coal emissions and cancer village&nbsp;mortality to focus on the latest struggles to prevent thousands of needless&nbsp;deaths per day from China&rsquo;s&nbsp;poisoned environment. The authors insist that this&nbsp;dismayingly high death toll of 1.2 million premature deaths per year&#8211; caused&nbsp;by cardiovascular disease, respiratory ailments and virulent cancers of the&nbsp;liver, bone, lung, breast and blood&#8211; could have been avoided.&nbsp;They argue that&nbsp;these deaths should be counted as casualties of China&rsquo;s overly rapid economic&nbsp;revival.&nbsp;And the multinational&nbsp;corporations who have outsourced manufacturing jobs on such a vast scale must&nbsp;be considered complicit. After&nbsp;some&nbsp;300 million Chinese&nbsp;people moved out of poverty, the rising middle class now demands&nbsp;a better quality of life.&nbsp;&nbsp;Or at least&nbsp;better air to breathe.&nbsp;&nbsp;Sustainable or&nbsp;renewable alternatives are the way of the future, and China is set to lead much&nbsp;of the research and development.<\/p>\n<p>Solutions won&rsquo;t come easily. Although Beijing recently announced a ban&nbsp;on all coal use in the capital by 2020, China&rsquo;s existing coal plants are due to spew&nbsp;out carbon pollution elsewhere for decades to come. Because government&nbsp;plans for reducing air pollution may not yield&nbsp;the desired effect, they have grave implications for the rest of the world.&nbsp;Relocating coal plants inland&nbsp;coal&nbsp;gasification plants&nbsp;have&nbsp;been green lighted in order to transform abundant Chinese coal into&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/blog\/6448-China-s-air-pollution-plan-poses-risk-to-water-supply\/en\">cleaner-burning&nbsp;synthetic gas<\/a>&nbsp;or liquid fuels. But syngas has nearly double the carbon footprint&nbsp;of coal and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/blog\/6448-China-s-air-pollution-plan-poses-risk-to-water-supply\/en\">process is water-intensive<\/a>. In western China, where many of&nbsp;these megaplants are&nbsp;due to be built, water shortages already are a serious problem.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;A nation&nbsp;breathes its choices,&rdquo; the authors warn, while admitting that&nbsp;&ldquo;when it involves the People&rsquo;s&nbsp;Republic and coal, it&rsquo;s more than complicated. It&rsquo;s ancient.&rdquo;&nbsp;The book examines&nbsp;some of that history. It traces the region&rsquo;s coal dependence back to the weapon&nbsp;mongers who outfitted the army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang with chrome-plated&nbsp;swords and fearsome tools of war while &ldquo;vapours of metals, hydrocarbons,&nbsp;carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides &ndash;the stuff of air pollution today&mdash;shrouded&nbsp;China&rsquo;s cities on still winter&nbsp;days.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Kelly&nbsp;and Jacobs had figured that Southern&nbsp;California&rsquo;s air pollution solutions could be very relevant to present-day&nbsp;China. Like Beijing in 2008, Los Angeles had been highly motivated to clean up&nbsp;its notoriously filthy air&nbsp;for the 1984 Summer Olympics. The technology of understanding&nbsp;air pollution had advanced and some&nbsp;pitfalls might be avoided. The authors advocate&nbsp;the cooperation of scientists to understand the&nbsp;chemistry of pollution, coupled with regulating very&nbsp;powerful and polluting&nbsp;industries, whether local or multinational.<\/p>\n<p>A travel&nbsp;grant from the Society of Environmental Journalists funded Kelly&rsquo;s first-hand&nbsp;research in China, which ranged from Qufu, Anhui and Jiangsu to Shanxi province&nbsp;and included a stay in Beijing. Drolly referred to as &ldquo;Greyjing&rdquo;, the Chinese&nbsp;megalopolis triggers&nbsp;flashbacks to the 1960s Southern California smogscape of&nbsp;the authors&rsquo; childhoods: &ldquo;the dreariness, the silent casualties, the incessant&nbsp;blame mongering, the madness of a sunless existence.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;A former spokesperson for California&rsquo;s South Coast air quality&nbsp;management&nbsp;district, Kelly is more familiar with the alphabet soup of environmental&nbsp;regulatory agencies than most journalists. He breaks down the acronyms and the&nbsp;anodyne bureaucratese to raise concerns and uncovers the misuse of&nbsp;statistics meant to&nbsp;confuse the public.&nbsp;&nbsp;Chip&nbsp;Jacobs, an investigative reporter with a similar penchant for vivid imagery, highlights&nbsp;quirky personalities and hidden motives in the unfolding saga of climate&nbsp;change. Politics loom large.&nbsp;The book is simultaneously entertaining&nbsp;and alarming, and&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t spare officials from criticism.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The raccoon eyed, chain-smoking Deng&nbsp;[Xiaoping] never uttered a public word about smog,&rdquo; the authors point out.&nbsp;Instead, the leader urged citizens to &ldquo;Be brave. Walk with faster steps,&rdquo;&nbsp;despite the murky skies overhead. In a &ldquo;Faustian bargain [to industrialise and&nbsp;modernise] contoured by Deng and perpetuated by Jiang and his likeminded&nbsp;successors, China would &ldquo;shape shift into an export-manufacturing colossus&nbsp;dedicated to Western store shelves.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>US President Bill Clinton also emerges as an&nbsp;eco-villain.&nbsp;Although&nbsp;Clinton championed environmentalism in the United States, Kelly and Jacobs note&nbsp;how the bilateral trade deals made during his administration got the American&nbsp;consumers hooked on inexpensive&nbsp;Chinese goods. Prices were kept abnormally low&nbsp;because of China&rsquo;s cheap but dirty energy sources and sweatshop wages paid to labourers.&nbsp;But exporting dirty manufacturing&nbsp;to China could not outsource pollution indefinitely, particularly when&nbsp;antiquated or wasteful&nbsp;methods were used there without modern filters. Regrettably, no&nbsp;provisions prevented China from&nbsp;financing&nbsp;highly contaminating coal-based projects.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In post-W.T.O. China, something biologically creepy was only a factory&nbsp;pipe away,&rdquo; the authors observe. They conclude that&nbsp;ultimately, the world cannot escape the consequences&nbsp;of carbon gluttony on its climate. Kelly and Jacobs urge President Xi Jinping&nbsp;&ldquo;to make eco-restoration as much his legacy as ridding the party of the endemic&nbsp;graft he so loathes.&rdquo;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Journalists follow up their Los Angeles investigation with a report on China&#8217;s toxic smog, highlighting the parallels between the world&rsquo;s two largest polluters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":547,"featured_media":57663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[760],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-32526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pollution"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Book review: US 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Earth is an independent non-profit dedicated to producing exceptional environmental journalism and informed conversations on urgent climate and sustainability topics. Our unique model brings local voices to global audiences and global stories of hope, action and change to local communities. We are committed to accurately portraying China\u2019s development impacts across the Global South through geopolitically even-handed reporting and constructive dialogue. Our approach is rooted in a network of specialist country editors located across South and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, and delivered through reporting in eight languages, workshops, and media partnerships. We seek to bring light, rather than heat, to crucial debates, and solutions to bear on complex problems.","email":"info@dialogue.earth","telephone":"(+44) 7542 525 859","legalName":"Dialogue Earth","foundingDate":"2006-09-22","numberOfEmployees":{"@type":"QuantitativeValue","minValue":"11","maxValue":"50"},"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9c8575f77bed8f7d02c368e0bff9c42b","name":"Jan McGirk","description":"Jan McGirk reports on environmental issues and climate change around the Pacific Rim.","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/janmcgirk\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/janmcgirk\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32526"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=32526"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=32526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}