Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

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This is an article from 2008 about dust storms from the Gobi travelling across the Pacific; this isn't the main pollution problem in China today.

The dust coming in from the Gobi was a result of deforestation and poor land management policies, which were pretty much cleaned up for the Olympics and have remained quite fixed. We haven't had a real dust storm in Beijing since early 2008, I think, and definitely not one in the last 4 years.

The PM2.5 today is not carried by dust from the Gobi, but it still exists, of course. Ironically, the overall effect today is much worse than it was in 2008 (maybe because it just stays in Asia now?). I'm not sure if the pollution can still travel across the pacific without the huge dust storms of the past.

Here is some more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust

All of the info in the article is out of date though. I wish I could find something more up to date. Edit: a recent dust storm in March 2013 that made its way to Japan:

* http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1187348/dust-storms-a...

* http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/12/national/tokyo-d...

I remember this, but I didn't think it was particularly bad, at least the sky didn't turn yellow. The air was definitely crappy though, but once it all blew out (well, to Japan), it was quite clean afterwards.

Perhaps the solution to China's pollution problems are giant fans (Japan can then build giant robots to destroy these fans).

That dust storm earlier this year certainly did turn the sky yellow at my place in Tokyo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/8544202652/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/8544418994/

It was one of the strangest weather phenomenons: it came and went within a few hours.

That is quite typical of a dust storm actually. It is only on for an hour or so then it blows itself out. Anyways, I haven't seen one of those since 2008, though it was quite bad in March, maybe we just avoided the yellow skies while Tokyo didn't?

I experienced a dust storm in Japan that started in China back in 2009 or 2010 so I think problems still do exist post-olympics (but perhaps greatly diminished from before? you'd know better than me on this)

But I totally agree that the coal residues are the major issue at hand.

When I lived in China in 2002, we had more than a few dust storms where the sky would turn completely yellow...it is a bizarre surreal experience.

On my recent tour of duty starting in late 2007, I only experienced one dust storm in the spring of 2008, then nothing. I haven't seen one for a very long time, but it could be that they've just solved the problem for Beijing (doubtful, since we are right smack next to Inner Mongolia).

This is like the only thing...the only thing...that has gotten better in China while I've been here!

> This is like the only thing...the only thing...that has gotten better in China while I've been here!

Slightly off topic, but what are the things that have gotten much worse?

Traffic, pollution, Internet censorship and VPN attacks, rent, visa rules, taxes.

I really wish I could have gone to Beijing when people still rode bikes. Really loved how that looked in photographs.

I was in Beijing in winter 1999/2000 when the morning sea of bicycles thing was still active. Precious memories that I won't experience again.

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