Tuesday, March 4, 2008

China's Hottest New Export: Storms of Deadly Pollution

In this article from the UK Guardian as well as one from Environmental Graffiti, we discover that dust storms in China pollute Korea.

Interesting. How does this work?

Dust storms start in the Gobi Desert, pick up pollutants on their way East, and cross the Yellow Sea to Korea. Poor Korea, they don't even get to kill themselves, the Chinese are already making sure they die of poison.

"Though the storms have been occurring for many years, they have increased in both toxicity and frequency in recent years. Some have blamed this on global warming effects, but a more likely explanation is China’s rise as an economic and industrial powerhouse." (environmentalgraffiti.com)

It's apparently responsible for the deaths of about 165 Koreans per year. Ironically, the same winds which sent these storms East to Korea have apparently cleared up the air around Beijing.

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