World Without Superpowers a Better Place?

Haze Over ‘Unterworld’

What is it the planet has done to deserve this?

• China is World No. 1 CO2 Polluter; the US follows closely. Report

• China’s Air Pollution Deadliest in World, Report Says.
• Pollution kills 750,000 [2.5million] people in China every year. Report
• According to the World bank statistics, China has 16 of the 20 most polluted cities on earth!

Thick smog covered the North China Plain on February 20, 2011. “The featureless gray-brown haze is so thick that the ground is not visible in parts of this photo-like image taken at 11:35 a.m. by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. At that time, a weather station at Beijing’s airport reported visibility of 1.9 miles (3.1 kilometers). Visibility dropped as low as 1.1 miles (1.8 km) later in the afternoon.” Source: NASA-EO. Click image to enlarge. Download larger image (2 MB, JPEG)

Haze over eastern China

Haze shrouded eastern China in mid-February 2011. MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this photo-like image on February 17, 2011. Source: NASA-EO. Click image to enlarge. Download larger image (4 MB, JPEG)

Previous images:

• China haze, temperature inversion, poor air quality
• China Under Siege