China's Olympian Air Efforts Fail

They truly tried, but despite shutting down factories and traffic, the latest satellite observations of China's air quality show plenty of noxious carbon monoxide as well as other pollutants. In fact, according to an EarthLive audio interview with a NASA scientist, the air pollution is pretty much unchanged. Bummer. One possible explanation of the failure is that the atmospheric gunk from surrounding areas poured in to replace the urban air (see a satellite-based movie of the China monoxide). Which just goes to show you how widespread the problem of air pollution is in China, as well as many other parts of the world. For example, where I grew up, in California, there were pretty vast amounts of pollution created by agriculture. In fact some of the worst air quality in the Golden State was in Bakersfield, the state's agricultural hub. So the lesson here is that air quality is a national and international issue (since air respects no political boundaries), not just a municipal issue. It's a lesson everyone can stand to learn from.