China's dirty secret

Alot has been made about the coming “billion chinese in cars” doing environmental harm. What has been seldom talked about is the current air pollution that China is producing. 70% of China’s energy comes from the dirtiest fuel: coal (also widely used in the US mind you). Here is an article from the beeb about the closure of 1/3 of the coal mines in China. Experts suggest that it is symbolic, and they will reopen shortly.

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Dont forget to mention that all US coal burning plants are fitted with and “Injector System” which injects powderized coal dust directly into the furnace. This works like a fuel injector on a car, allowing 80-90% of the coal to burn off instantly. The other 10-20% that turns into ash is then cleaned by the scrubber system, basically a catylitic converter. This takes the chemicals and ash through a chemical reaction that drops the solids out of the vapor and into a holding pile, while releasing the vapor. The vapor being 90% or more steam and CO2. The chinease planst use coak and raw coal, which release a minimum of 40% (by mass) of the coal as ash, sulpheric acid, muric acid, and other harsh chmicals that the US system by EPA law can not release regardless of the micro amounts.

I didn’t forget to mention, I chose not to;) I’ve seen coal burned in Chinese homes for heating and cooking, obviously, with no pollution reducing technologies.

I would still like to see greater investment in the US in wind, tidal, and solar power.

Let me tell you… that is not China’s dirtiest secret. I heard that China didn’t wash it’s sheets in over a month! Gross!

you mean the brown streak isn’t part of the sheet design?

It’s common for an industrializing country to have this problem - there’s an equation stating that as the population grows more affluent they demand less pollution - it’s just a matter of time for the Chinese (although they are pretty notorious for dumping tons of chemicals in the ocean as well)