Magical Urbanism, a website about urbanization, design and social change, is maintained by Mike Ernst. I'm an urban planner and designer based in New York City. I graduated from the Pollution Aligns with No Nation
The biosphere ignores national boundaries, and pollution follows no borders. This striking image of a pool of air pollution spreading over eastern China proves this.
Rapidly developing China is the world’s second largest consumer of energy (the United States is first), and its primary fuel is coal, most of it burned in inefficient power plants that emit large amounts of carbon emissions and sulfur dioxide, which is the precursor to acid rain. Increasing affluence in the country is also giving rise to a vehicle boom. As cities become more and more clogged with cars, skies become more and more clogged with automobile emissions. Scenes such as this one from October 22, 2004, are not uncommon for this region.
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