China Daily: Poor air quality hits many big cities
Stating the obvious - but at least China's Ministry of Environmental Protection is being forthcoming in this case:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-08/02/content_13028405.htm
Quote:
Air quality in Beijing was also rated as poor due to the large amount of vehicle emissions, as there are more than 4.9 million cars in the capital.Although emissions of sulfur dioxide and measured particulate matter dropped compared to the same period last year, Beijing discharged 1.9 percent more nitrogen dioxide in the first six months this year.
Jerry Chan, Editorial Director
Re: China Daily: Poor air quality hits many big cities
My relatives in Southern California often compare Beijing today to what it was like there in the 60s and 70s - so it seems that sensible auto emissions legislation and enforcement can make a difference. What will it take for the same thing to happen here?
Jerry Chan, Editorial Director
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Re: China Daily: Poor air quality hits many big cities
Actually (passenger) auto emissions is not as big of a factor as you might think. New cars registered in Beijing today must conform to very strict auto emissions (equivalent of Euro V), and the explosion of cars in Beijing these past few years have mostly been new cars.
Of course, it doesn't help that there are a large number cars sitting in gridlock everyday, but I put a large part of the blame on the very dirty diesel trucks/buses on the roads here. It wouldn't surprise me if the worst offenders each pollute more than a thousand passenger cars.
There are also some geographical factors which exacerbates the problem.
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Re: China Daily: Poor air quality hits many big cities
Sounds about right - some sensible legislation on capping emissions from diesel trucks and buses seems like it would help - of course, enforcement is always the bigger question ...
I wonder if this was the case in California back in the day?
Jerry Chan, Editorial Director
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Re: China Daily: Poor air quality hits many big cities
of course then there's the story my friend told me about his car's emissions inspection: the inspection station had their own exhaust system on site. when it was time for his car's inspection, they merely removed his exhaust system and temporarily screwed their's onto his car, thereby enabling the car to pass the emissions test. After receiving flying colors on the test, the old exhaust system was put back on.
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Re: China Daily: Poor air quality hits many big cities
The is really a big problem for them major cities as the crowd builds up any time of the day. I remember one initiative in my area which was not effective really. We had one of those air feedback systems but they are not real time and thus, misleading people. The classification of air would be subjected to tests and would take a couple of hours before posting. So that would not be accurate and not really able to generalize how people should react.
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Re: China Daily: Poor air quality hits many big cities
Was this in Beijing? Was it recent?
I have doubts about your story as the only part of the exhaust which would have a significant effect on emissions is the catalytic converter. It's also not a 5 minute job to swap an exhaust system (not to mention fitment issues with different brands/makes of cars).
I've been getting my cars inspected ever since I started driving here 4 years ago. Even my first car, a 9-year old Citroen clunker, had no problems passing the emissions portion of the annual inspection (it barely passed the safety portion, though). And my new cars are way, way below the limits.
I'm sure with the right connections one could turn a failing grade into a passing grade, but their car would have to be in extremely poor shape to need help in the first place.
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Re: China Daily: Poor air quality hits many big cities
it comes from a very reliable source, it was in beijing, and it was for an old jeep
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