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January, 2009:

I Thought It Got Easier To Breathe Back There In August!

James Fallows, The Atlantic – 07 Jan 2009 12:34 pm

As attentive readers may recall, the air in Beijing through the six months before the Olympic games was almost unbelievably horrible. Lest we forget: this was the view out my window in mid-June, which was not that different from how it had been day upon day through the spring and early summer.

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But even as I was wheezing my way around town and truly getting depressed by no view of sun and sky (and being told by a doctor that I should stop smoking, when I’d never started), I was reporting in the Atlantic on plans to get things cleaned up by the time of the Olympics. The first two days of the Games looked pretty bleak — but then a line of thunderstorms moved through, and the air looked far better, and the environmental threat to the Games was averted.

Since then, the air in Beijing has seemed better — not all of the time, God knows, but more than before. How much of the improvement is due to factories being shut down because of the recession? (They must have been running 40 hours a day in the spring, given how bad things were then.) How much because of typically strong late-fall winds blowing in from the northwest? How much an actual long-term change? I don’t know.

But, courtesy of a tip from an engineer at NASA, here is new evidence that all the anti-pollution steps taken because of the Olympics really did make a difference in air-quality measures in August — and, it seems, some of the time since then.

The NASA map below will make more sense if you read the full report, here. Highlight version: the deep red west of Shanghai and north of Hong Kong (where Shenzhen and Dongguan are), plus through the central coal-and-factory belt in places like Shanxi province, is a bad sign. The light green around Beijing is relatively good! (The red zone on the coast just east of Beijing is the city of Tianjin.)

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As the NASA report says of Beijing’s special Olympic anti-pollution rules:

During the two months when restrictions were in place, the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) — a noxious gas resulting from fossil fuel combustion (primarily in cars, trucks, and power plants) — plunged nearly 50 percent. Likewise, levels of carbon monoxide (CO) fell about 20 percent.

Why does this matter? Because it shows that corrective steps can improve even the most hopeless-seeming environmental disasters. It’s worth trying to do something, rather than just hunkering down in bed and trying to take very, very shallow breaths — my strategy in the months from April to July.

In other words, Yes We Can.

More Than 1 Million People Consider Leaving Polluted Hong Kong

Sun2Surf – Jan 6, 2009

Hong Kong – More than 1 million people are considering leaving Hong Kong because of its worsening air quality, according to a university study published Tuesday.

The potential exodus from the city of 6.9 million would be far greater than the numbers who considered leaving in the run-up to Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, pressure group Civic Exchange warned.

Interviews with 1,000 people suggest that between 700,000 and 1.4 million people are so worried about Hong Kong’s air quality that they are either considering or making plans to leave.

The survey, published in Tuesday’s South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Standard newspapers, indicates that locals as well as expatriates believe the city’s smog is becoming too much of a health hazard to live with.

Speaking on government-run radio station RTHK Tuesday, Civic Exchange chief executive Christine Loh described the findings of the study, conducted by the city’s Baptist University, as “shocking.”

“Nearly half a million people are seriously considering or actually making plans to leave Hong Kong, not just considering it,” she said. “These are huge, huge numbers.

“We are not just talking about expatriates. Only 3 per cent of the sample were non-Chinese. Ninety per cent of the people surveyed have also heard co-workers talking of leaving. We are talking about a broad sweep of Hong Kong people.”

The survey showed that Hong Kong’s image had been dented not only overseas by worsening air quality but also in the minds of people who live and work in the city, Loh said.

Air quality in Hong Kong has deteriorated significantly since the early 1990s, largely because of factory pollution blowing into the city from neighbouring industrial southern China.

Hong Kong’s Beijing-appointed leader Donald Tsang has pledged to tackle the issue, describing it in one speech as “a matter of life and death”, but air quality in the high-rise city has continued to deteriorate.

Figures released last week found that the number of days in which roadside air quality in Hong Kong reached dangerous levels was up almost one fifth in 2008 compared to the previous year. – dpa

One In Five Say They May Leave Over Pollution

Bad air could cause bigger exodus than brain drain in ’90s, poll finds

SCMP – Cheung Chi-fai – Jan 06, 2009

Air pollution has the potential to cause an exodus from Hong Kong bigger than the brain drain prompted by pre-handover jitters in the 1990s, a survey has indicated.

One in five residents, according to the poll, are considering leaving the city to escape the contaminated air, while one in 10 are seriously considering such a move or already have plans to go because of health fears.

That could mean an exodus of 700,000 to 1.4 million people, eclipsing the pre-handover brain drain, during which 450,000 people are estimated to have left.

“It is an astonishing figure and it is bigger than the brain drain. But it is just caused by the air,” said Michael DeGolyer, director of the Hong Kong Transition Project at Baptist University, which conducted the poll for the Hong Kong-based think-tank Civic Exchange.

The survey of more than 1,000 people, of whom some 3 per cent were expatriates, also found that like the earlier brain drain, the exodus could be led by high-income earners and highly educated people from the professional and managerial ranks.

One in 10 respondents to the poll, conducted in September and October last year, also said they had heard of foreigners turning down job offers because of air pollution.

Professor DeGolyer said the pre-handover brain drain had led the government to spend billions of dollars to expand the university system.

While many people who left before the handover eventually returned, air pollution had since emerged as a major factor affecting people’s decisions on whether to work in Hong Kong, he said.

Citing a recent report on the future of Asian financial centres released by the City of London Corporation, Civic Exchange chief Christine Loh Kung-wai said Singapore had replaced Hong Kong as the third global financial centre after New York and London.

“They do think Hong Kong is a good place, except for air quality,” she said, adding that the city’s “particular social problem” had turned into a “business problem”.

Ms Loh said that while Hong Kong had increasingly come under an international spotlight because of its air quality problems, the survey presented the “worried voice” of the silent public, who were predominantly Hong Kong Chinese.

Professor DeGolyer said there was a “silence epidemic” in regard to air pollution as many people had become so frustrated that they had given up talking to the government.

Compared to the results of a similar survey conducted in 2001, the results of the latest poll showed that more people were concerned about air pollution and that most believed the problem was a top priority for officials to deal with.

In an attempt to mitigate the effects of air pollution, two-thirds said they had closed windows and turned on air conditioning when the air was particularly polluted. Half of them said they suffered from coughing and itchy eyes, while a third said they had to go to clinics for pollution-related health problems.

Earlier studies have found that air pollution causes 1,600 premature deaths and HK$2 billion in direct economic losses each year.

Pollution Driving Hong Kong Residents Out

Australia Network News – 5th Jan 2009
Air pollution in parts of Hong Kong last year reached its highest level since records began. [AFP]

Air pollution in parts of Hong Kong last year reached its highest level since records began. [AFP]

A new survey in Hong Kong has found that one in five residents is considering leaving because of the city’s poor air quality.

The survey, by the Civic Exchange think tank, has again raised fears over Hong Kong’s competitiveness.

It found that over a million residents have thought of leaving, including 500,000 who are “seriously considering or already planning to move”.

They include top earners and highly educated workers, raising questions over Hong Kong’s ability to attract and retain top talent.

Air pollution in parts of Hong Kong last year reached its highest level since records began.

1 In 5 Considering Leaving Hong Kong Due To Pollution: Survey

AFP – 5 Jan 2009

HONG KONG (AFP) — One in five Hong Kong residents is considering leaving the city because of its dire air quality, a survey released Monday has found, raising fears over the financial hub’s competitiveness.

The findings equate to 1.4 million residents thinking about moving away, including 500,000 who are “seriously considering or already planning to move,” according to the survey by the think tank Civic Exchange.

Those most seriously thinking about fleeing the city include top earners and highly educated workers, raising questions over the southern Chinese city’s ability to attract and retain top talent, the report’s authors found.

“People from all sectors of society know that air pollution is making them sick,” said Michael DeGolyer, a political science professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.

“Many are concerned to the point they are considering leaving Hong Kong, including local professionals.”

DeGolyer added that the survey of more than 1,000 residents debunked the myth that concerns about air pollution were confined to the city’s foreign residents, as only three percent of the respondents were expats.

The research also found that concern about pollution had risen rapidly since 2001, and that managers and administrators were some of the most worried.

“And Singapore wants them,” DeGolyer told reporters, referring to the long-standing rivalry between the two Asian cities to attract top talent.

Air pollution across some parts of Hong Kong last year reached its highest level since records began, official figures released last week showed.

A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department said tough measures had helped reduce the levels of several pollutants in recent years and it was working closely with neighbouring Guangdong province, whose factories are the source of much of the city’s pollution.

“The government shares the aspiration of the public for clean air and has been implementing strong measures to control our emissions at source, particularly from road transport and power generation,” the spokesman said, in a statement.

A Civic Exchange report last year said that at least 10,000 deaths were caused every year in Hong Kong, Macau and southern China by the region’s worsening air pollution.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang has called improving air quality a “matter of life and death” for the city, but has still to introduce new air quality standards, 20 years after the current set was brought in.

Paper Bags Can Easily Be Used By Shoppers

SCMP – Updated on Jan 04, 2009

The Legislative Council should pass the government’s proposal to levy plastic shopping bags at 50 cents each.

However, it should review the levy after implementation of the law if the amount of plastic bags being used remains unchanged.

Like cigarette tax, the plastic bag levy is a way of changing people’s habits.

The tobacco tax has proved effective at reducing smoking in the United States.

In the case of a tax on plastic bags in Hong Kong, if the levy fails in its purpose of reducing use of plastic bags, then they should be outlawed.

I do not think this is unreasonable. Reusable plastic bags, however, should still be allowed.

Paper shopping bags have been in use for many years and such bags can also hold household refuse.

It would be a marvellous idea if a strip could be added to the paper bag, which seals the top, to ensure the hygienic disposal of refuse.

I think this idea of a paper bag would offer a most practical solution when it comes to how we bag our groceries and take them home.

John Yuan, Beijing

Tour Bus Operators Seek 3-Year Idling Exemption

Tour bus operators seek 3-year exemption from idling-engine ban

Vivienne Chow and Paggie Leung – SCMP – Updated on Jan 04, 2009

Tour bus operators have called for a three-year exemption from a proposed ban on parked vehicles with idling engines, a day after the government watered down its proposed measures against other commercial drivers.

After meeting officials from the Environment Bureau yesterday, Public Omnibus Operators Association vice-chairman Leo Yip Wing-ching said tour bus drivers had different operational needs than other commercial drivers. He said more time would be needed for them to get used to the new regulation.

“The passengers of tour buses are mainly tourists and they always jump on and off the vehicle,” he said. “We can’t switch on the engines and air conditioning when a passenger gets on the bus, and on sunny days it takes at least 20 minutes for the [inside of the] vehicle to cool down.”

On Friday, following strong opposition from commercial-vehicle drivers, a government source said more exemptions would be made for taxis, minibuses and heavy vehicles.

Stationary turbocharged diesel vehicles would be exempted for three minutes. Traffic wardens and Environmental Protection Department staff would penalise a driver who allowed a vehicle to idle any longer.

Violators would be fined HK$320 without warning, but Mr Yip said drivers should be warned first.

“At least a driver should be warned when the traffic wardens or staff start counting the three minutes,” Mr Yip said.

However, the environmental concern group Green Sense said more exemptions were unnecessary.

“We think that this is unreasonable because a lot of the shopping areas and sight-seeing spots are located on busy streets,” said group president Roy Tam Hoi-pong. “If tour buses do not switch off the engines, they just make the air quality worse. Also, tour bus operators have to take responsibility… many of them choose buses with fixed windows that cannot be opened, meaning that they have to rely on air conditioning.”

Other exemptions under the revised proposal include allowing the first five taxis in a queue at a stop to run their engines, instead of two.

The new proposal will also exempt the first two green minibuses at a stop, and any two red minibuses at a stop would be exempted if there were passengers in the first vehicle.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Container Tractor Owners Association said the association supported the government’s revised proposal. He said three minutes was enough to allow engines to cool.

A five-month consultation on the ban was launched in November 2007. While the proposal had the general support of the public, it faced strong opposition from drivers of commercial vehicles.

HK Government Pushing To Ban Idling Car Engines To Tackle Pollution

channelnewsasia.com – 03 January 2009

HONG KONG: The Hong Kong government is pushing for a law to force drivers to turn off their engines when parked. But the bid to cut down on the city’s air pollution is being met with fierce opposition from the transportation industry.

It seems Hong Kong’s smog problem may be getting worse. 2008 data reported in the local newspapers showed that in the city’s most crowded areas, the number of hours air pollution exceeded dangerous levels jumped by 14 per cent, compared to a year ago.

Vehicles have been pinpointed as the second largest air polluter in the city.

Kitty Poon, Acting Secretary for the Environment, said: “The banning of idling vehicles with running engines has been discussed in the community for several years. The government has gained strong support from the public to move forward.”

However, the transportation trade is not in support of the ban. Drivers argue that when it comes to Hong Kong’s sweltering summers, constantly turning off air-conditioning will turn off passengers.

They also said that starting and stopping engines so many times a day would burn out their vehicles’ battery.

The government has now softened some of the rules for public transportation, including an exemption for the first five taxis parked at a taxi stand.

The government hopes the new law will be enacted this year. – CNA/vm

On Other Matters …

SCMP – Updated on Jan 03, 2009

I read a story on the Vectrix electric motorcycle in the Motoring column (“Brave new whirr”, May 24).

I note that the Hong Kong police used a number of these motorcycles to full effect during the Beijing Olympic torch relay (“Bike show gets a tour de force”, November 1).

My friends in the force have told me that all officers who used it rave about it in every way.

Your article mentioned the dealership and sole importer. I contacted them and they said they had them in stock but that the Transport Department had not licensed them yet because they had not completed their trials on the vehicles.

Well, the police are clearly happy with them and are still using them in their attractive green livery. Is it that the commissioner for transport thinks the Hong Kong public is incapable of operating an electric vehicle responsibly and will run out of juice suddenly in the outside lane of an expressway? Surely not.

Why, then, can I not pay the HK$90,000 and buy one, thus reducing my monthly fuel bill from HK$4,000 to HK$300? Oh, yes, and clean up the air a bit, too.

Could the relevant department please respond and get into top gear to save our air?

Siu Kwok-chu, Tai Po

Changes Displease Drivers, Greens

Paggie Leung – SCMP – Updated on Jan 03, 2009

Amendments to proposed rules on idling engines have failed to please either drivers or environmentalists, who regard them as either too strict or too lenient.

Taxi union leader To Sun-tong said the government had not considered drivers’ difficulties in complying with the ban. Extending the exemption from the first two to the first five taxis in a queue was no help, said Mr To, director of the taxi driver branch of the Motor Transport Workers’ General Union.

Big taxi stops near places such as the Kowloon Tong MTR station often had 30 to 40 cars lining up, he said. Exempting only the first five meant those farther back would need to switch their engines on and off at least 25 times as they moved up the queue.

Restarting an engine created 10 times as many pollutants as a continually running engine, “not to mention the damage to the vehicle”, Mr To said. He added that it was not practical to turn off the engines in hot weather.

Taxi and Public Light Bus Concern Group chairman Lai Ming-hung said drivers of green-topped minibuses were happy with the revised proposal. But he said all taxis and red-topped minibuses should be excluded from the ban on idling engines.

“The proposal will not be feasible for red minibuses because we do not have assigned stops,” Mr Lai said. “Also, we can just find another driver to sit in a vehicle to avoid being charged.”

Friends of the Earth director Edwin Lau Che-fung acknowledged the need to include some exemptions for practical reasons, but said the new exemptions for taxis and minibuses were too lax.

“The government should be stricter on static queues,” he said. “Apart from excluding the first two minibuses in a queue, only the first vehicle of each route should be exempted, and only if there are passengers on it.

“It can’t achieve the goal to reduce the emission of pollutants if there are too many exemptions.”

Echoing Mr Lau’s view, Green Power chief executive Man Chi-sum said he would accept the revised proposal if it meant quicker passage of the relevant legislation.

The revised proposal “is already the bottom line and no more exemptions should be included”, Dr Man said.