tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post7001187281818286573..comments2024-03-07T14:43:21.888-08:00Comments on Whatever I want to write about: Can't breathe. Is it the smog or the marriage?Sriram Khéhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907731254833435446noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post-5071771472074318732014-05-02T23:07:13.808-07:002014-05-02T23:07:13.808-07:00Well ... you have a very, very, very soft spot for...Well ... you have a very, very, very soft spot for things that happen in China. <br />James Fallows, whose writings on China (and many other topics) I have been reading for years, notes in a recent post:<br />"environmental sustainability in all forms is China's biggest emergency, in every sense: for its people, for its government, for its effect on the world. And yes, I understand that the same is true for modern industrialized life in general. But China is an extreme case, and an extremely important one because of its scale."<br />And he goes on to discuss the data. <br />(http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/2-charts-that-put-the-chinese-pollution-problem-in-perspective/360868/)<br />He concludes with this: <br />"More sobering still: Air pollution, while the most visible (literally), is not the most serious of China's environmental problems. Water pollution, and water shortage, are worse."<br /><br />There certainly might be quite a few Chinese using the green-card option as a parachute should things go politically berserk. But, this emigration that is tied to pollution is being reported by the Economist--a newspaper that you, too, respect for not exaggerating. Sriram Khéhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06724218458246880137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post-36164095817618512972014-05-01T19:49:52.659-07:002014-05-01T19:49:52.659-07:00Mmm. Again two separate issues - pollution and the...Mmm. Again two separate issues - pollution and the Chinese eagerness to emigrate.<br /><br />On pollution, I think the situation is significantly exaggerated. I lived in Guangzhou, around the greatest manufacturing belt of the world - the Guangzhou-Shenzhen corridor. Yes, there was pollution, but it was hardly something that bothered me on a daily basis. Maybe the effects on health are long term, but in day to day life, really nothing bothered me. I didn't sneeze anymore than I would in Eugene :) I am not one moment deriding pollution harmfulness or the need to fight it like the rabid right does on global warming say. I am simply saying its not as much of a nuisance, at least in the short term, as is portrayed. <br /><br />The second issue of Chinese emigration is also nuanced. Lots aspire to go West (or actually Australia) because of economic reasons. But a significant portion of the educated elite are seeking to get an Australian passport as an insurance against "the day when things might turn bad". They are buying an insurance against political upheaval. They live in China, have no intention of going away for good, but keep an Australian or Canadian (their favourite nationalities) passport, just in case. Where I worked we were just two or three real expats in the office, but there were some 20 "foreign nationals", with lots more aspiring to be so. Of course these are still a drop in the ocean in the gigantic numbers of China, but a fair number of the educated elite think that way. I haven't met a single person who was emigrating because of pollution !!!! Rameshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11782192840421019943noreply@blogger.com