We need to clean up our own act before we start pointing fingers at Asia for polluting the air with coal dust. Our disregard for the mountains and people of Appalachia is a national disgrace. We don’t just pollute streams there, we bury them, killing all life in the process. http://solarjohn.blogspot.com

The Chinese are easily a match for Americans when it comes to generating, suffering from, and ignoring the consequences of pollution. We have Appalachia, and they have their cancer villages where the only available water’s so polluted their cancer rates are a thousand times normal.

We need to get our own house in order, but nobody profits through trying to castigate the scientific community for detecting the fact that China’s problems are also our problems.

Pollution is global. Our rampant use of carbon based fuels worldwide is a well aimed shot in the foot. And now this shift to more efficient internal combustion engines…..which in truth is all about money. Do you really want to go green? Walk or ride a bike to work today.

Where is your news about the scientists report on global cooling?????????
Why am I not surprised that you won’t report the truth.
Humans don’t not affect global temperatures or weather.
No grant money, or bogus books, or awards for reality.
Humans are not omnipotent, nature is in control.
Opportunistic domesayers will have to find real jobs, and stop exploiting our fears.

What does “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” mean?
Please explain. I call it as I see it, and I see little in the way of reality on “global warming” reporting on CNN, and hope for more honest
commentary.

We are all interconnected.

Do you know what the irony of this research is? The US has been sending pollution to Canada for decades and you’ve never cared about that, now that the US is receiving someone else’s pollution they’ve got something to cry about.

It’s a small world when you consider atmospheric currents.

The Chinese are by far worse polluters than the U.S.!!!

America has been fighting to improve air quality for over 30 years. Just look at any photo of L.A., Las Vegas, or New York City–prior to 1980 and compare that photo to one taken today. You will find the attack against smog and air pollutants has been a successful one.

The Chinese are only NOW…beginning to tackle their emissions and air quality problems. And they will be the largest purchasers of carbon based fuel over the next 10-20 years as their economy grows and their citizens become more affluent.

This is a global issue. America has pretty much gotten it’s act together but has done DIDDLEY about exerting it’s own successes around the globe.

Our attention needs to be at home–but special emphasis needs to be placed on our trade and other agreements with heavy polluting nations–particularly China.

In all fairness–air pollution in the Steamboat Springs area–including Mt. Zirkel Wilderness–has long been a problem primarily associated with coal fired power plants near Hayden and Craig just west of town. Also, the Storm Peak Lab is within the ski area boundaries and requires an “arduous” journey of riding an enclosed gondola and two high speed chairlifts.

In so many words — nice mind you, this is why President Bush did not want to participate in the Kyoto (sp?) treaty which upset alot of countries such as New Zealand, etc…I found this article most interesting…

Let’s be really clear about internal combustion engines: the ones we have now are about 25% efficient, and the “higher efficiency” IC engines are struggling to reach 35% efficiency. This is a fundamentally and inherent inefficient technology, and we have to look forward toward its retirement.

In contrast, electric motors are 85%->90% efficient, more than three times the efficiency of what we have now, and more than twice the best prospective IC efficiency.

Keep in mind that about 2/3 of US oil consumption goes to transportation. Adoption of electric vehicles would reduce our oil consumption by about 60% (reducing import requirements to a trickle) and would only increase electricity consumption by about 16%. It would also effect about a 60% net reduction in energy consumed by transportation, by eliminating our single most wasteful use of energy.

I agree with Ian. I live in a part of Canada that is downwind from the US midwest including Michigan and Ohio. In the summer we often have health advisories about excessive air pollution caused by the emissions from coal fired power plants in the US midwest. I have seen a low blue haze over vast tracts of farmland and forest in areas where there are no local fcatories or power plants.

This is an important article, and I am glad they made the connection between our pollutants, and our bodies.

Sure, the amount of mercury may be small, but it gets concentrated as it moves up the food chain. A good example of this is the ‘Seafood Warning’ signs near supermarket fish counters in California. It lists 15 types of common fish that are now too polluted with mercury for consumption by seniors, nursing mothers, and young children.

Most of our electricity comes from coal-fired plants, which emit mercury. If you don’t like mercury in your fish, install CFL lightbulbs instead of incandescents. Sure, CFLs contain 2-3 mg of mercury in them, but they can be recycled safely — and, using an incandescent bulb will consume so much coal-fired electricity in its life (over 10 mg/incandescent bulb) that using CFLs is by far the best thing we can do. I learned this at eartheasy.com. Google ‘energy efficient lighting’ for lots of options.

well, quite frankly, all of this is useless conjecture anyways, because the reality is, the three primary economies on this planet have not been voted into caring. Of course, if a president really pisses of the Big Money, they need to be able to survive the assassination attempt.
A nice round of JFK”s reasoning would do the whole world real well about now-sigh-

Face it, all of you are right- and wrong. China is one of the world’s largest producers that supply a mass of products consumed in the US. Check any lable if you don’t believe me. Placing all the blame on a country with little pay, and big factories placed in there by the US, Japan, and more- that’s not really fair now. Besides, as much as the US whines and throws a fit, we don’t do ANYTHING but search for a scape-goat. What about the mass that drives to a store 3blocks down the road? Hmm? How about all the hours spent watching TV or playing games, or supplying McDonalds with a tub of fat? Somebody has to spend all that energy- coal, methane, ect.- in order to produce it. The US is just as bad as China, if not worse. Nobody CARES. As long as American Idol plays once a year, or half hearted promises are made, the US doesnt CARE. End of story.

There you go!!!
This is exactly why the United States of America should NOT sign any agreements on environmental pollution when we do 100’s of times more in pollution control than most countries of the world.
Asia, China, Mexico and the Central America Regions are the countries that are killing their own people and now the rest of us.
A recent article shows the people in North and South Korea in a pollution cloud from all the contaminents coming out of China. Trade restrictions should be developed and implemented against all countries who have no concern for the environment and only care about the money and their slave employees.
Fair trade agreements should only be with countries who have environmental laws equal to or better than the United States (like Canada, Japan, and many of the European Countries).
I’ve been in safety for 30 years and I can bet you China, Asia or Mexico have never heard of a “smoke stack emission test”. We do. We’re required to do monthly here in the United States.

Ryuu, I don’t know what your standards are, but it seems to me that to obsolete and eliminate the internal combustion engine, as I advocate here, would be a materially helpful change to the climate change equation. I would like to see Americans bring this innovation about, but, realistically, I don’t care who develops the solution nearly as much as I care about seeing it emerge and be adopted.

If there’s a single greatest bit of low-hanging fruit among the things we can do about climate change, the retirement of the internal combustion engine is it. This one step would reduce the oil demand among its adopters by 90% per vehicle, and the relative efficiencies involved would reduce net energu consumption per vehicle by roughly 60%.

So what’s the best idea you’d like to contribute?

Quit defending ‘Asia’ and calling names here in your own country. They’re just as much to blame, if not more, than we are for the current pollution problems.

Of course it’s all about big money and what greed, grubby little (really, really little) people will do to acquire it. Just remember @#$%& brains, you cannot take it with you. Or, as a family member of mine puts it: one never sees a Uhall behing a hearse Pity, isn’t it? All that demented struggle to amass as much money and god/satan won’t let you take it to heaven/hell. Guess your money’s useless there, eh? Pity!

I think it’s time we get off coal and go nuke, or else use some other form of energy producing resource more frequently, like wind, solar, or hydro-electric. Coal is an antiquated inefficent form of energy producing, we only use it because it is cheap and abundant. It’s time we get serious about seeing how badly we are polluting the atmosphere and the waters.