Posted by
evildeeds
18 yrs ago
They took delight last year for blue skies as well, telling us it was down to them. However weeks later when greyness returned they stayed mysteriously quiet. Bow Tie must really believe the population are idiots, his quote 2 years ago: "People only think it's bad because they can see it....". Mind you he is only second to GWB for idiotic quotes!
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RRHK
18 yrs ago
Does anyone know why the Greenpeace API is no longer available please?
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Ed
18 yrs ago
Yes - I was just in Pacific Coffee ramping up for the day after a late work night and saw that awesome headline in the Standard.
My first thought was - let's make sure we call these guys to make sure we get recognition for this fantastic feat!!! http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/
Perhaps we should also call the IOC and see if we can get air pollution entered as a medal sport at the last minute - HK might actually have a shot at a gold if we could push this through.
And before we blame this on the PRC lets recall the study presented by Christine Loh's think tank and I think Am Cham that over 50% of the air pollution in Hong Kong is generated in Hong Kong.
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It's a disgrace. Yesterday evening, as the sun was going down, the view over the harbour looked like some kind of Mars-scape - the light was eery, a kind of pervasive orange glow. And far from being better today, it's just as bad. I can even feel it in my chest today!
Question is, what does one do about it? It certainly makes me feel more inclined to pack up and leave. Is there any way we can bring more pressure to bear on the government? With LEGCO elections coming up, isn't it possible to make pollution a front and centre campaign issue?
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We are leaving in August. Money is no longer an issue. Don't get me wrong, HK is an amazing city with so much going for it. However, with pollution as bad as it is and every year is worse than the previous, I have to decide is the money worth a retired life time of illness because I was hungry for the dollar in my youth?
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Ed,
Do you believe the record levels of air pollution measured at Tap Mun (202 API) were caused mainly by Hong Kong? It is interesting to note Kwai Chung yesterday was half of Tap Mun.
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I'd be hard pressed to believe that 50% of Hong Kong's air pollution is caused by Hong Kong itself, study or no study. It has steadily gotten worse in the nearly 4 decades since I have lived in Hong Kong, for the last two decades, the number of cars on the road has not increased significantly and if anything Industry has moved out of Hong Kong not into and there is just less of it.
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Ed
18 yrs ago
I have lived in Shanghai and Bangkok in the past two years - and of course spent a lot of time in Hong Kong.
And I have no problem believing these figures - here's why.
It is definitely polluted in Shanghai (was there the other day and the smog was heavy); Bangkok has really cleaned up its act primarily by putting a lot of vehicles including taxis and tuk tuks on LPG.
When in those cities I seldom feel any sort of respiratory aggravation - however generally within 24 hours of returning to HK I have a throat irritation and am constantly having a dry cough. Put it this way, I can tell you when its a bad air day here without looking at the pollution index...
My theory is this - the smog coming across the border is definitely bad but yo have the same smog in Shanghai... I think the difference in HK is that in many areas you have canyons of buildings that trap some of that smog but worse - its holding the exhaust from vehicles - and it is my understanding that this type of air pollution is far more dangerous (for those of you who recall, we sponsored a conference with heavy duty scientists and head of HK community diseases presenting and thats where I am getting this from).
So I think the problem is we have the bad air from china combined with bad traffic pumping poison into the streets - we have virtually no airflow - and if you are in these areas you are breathing utter rubbish.
Shanghai is quite open so you dont generally get this problem - Bangkok same although you have some streets that are boxed in and you can taste the bad air...
By no means scientific but the fact that when I get back I suffer says to me this aint good... and thats why I am off to Bali Friday am for an extended escape after a month hear gagging...
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Ed,
I am sure you know Tap Mun and its about as rural as HK gets yet it set the record air pollution. Previously I understand Tung Chung had the record, again hardly a down-town area. If HK vehicles were causing yesterdays extreme bad air why were the Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok roadside readings about half of Tap Mun?
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Ed
18 yrs ago
Here's the report summary:
Relative Significance of Local vs. Regional Sources: Hong Kong's Air Pollution (2007)
A report of the Institute for the Environment at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Civic Exchange showing that local sources are the primary influence on Hong Kong’s air quality and not regional sources.
A report released today by the Institute for the Environment at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Civic Exchange shows that local sources are the primary influence on Hong Kong’s air quality for 53% of the time, compared to 36% of the time for regional sources and the remaining 11% of the time is classified as low-pollution.
The study’s authors say these results are important because they show that Hong Kong can achieve significant control over its air pollution more often than not. Major improvements in air quality and public health on over half of the days in the year could be achieved through reduction of emissions from local vehicles, marine traffic and power plants.
The study examined air quality monitoring results, meteorological data and satellite images for 2006 to determine the dominant source of Hong Kong’s air pollution for each day of the year. This is the first time a time-based approach has been used to study local air pollution.
Previous studies, such as the 1999 government-sponsored joint study with Guangdong on regional air pollution, looked at the total quantity of pollution emitted regionally. That study found that Guangdong accounted for over 80% of regional emissions, which has led many to believe that there is little Hong Kong can do to address the growing air pollution problem.
"These results show that there is no reason for Hong Kong to feel debilitated when it comes to improving our air quality," said Dr. Alexis Lau, the lead scientist who conducted the study. "The regional pollution is important and regional cooperation is key but there is a lot that is within our control." He added, "More than 50% of the time, emissions from local sources dominate the air pollution in Hong Kong."
Christine Loh, CEO of local think-tank Civic Exchange and report co-author, elaborated "Hong Kong now has no excuse not to take stronger, faster action to clean up its emissions," Loh said. "There are some key steps that Hong Kong can take on its own to improve local air quality. For a start, we can adopt and enforce the World Health Organization’s (2006) global air quality guidelines and reverse the public health crisis Hong Kong faces today. Secondly we can develop a comprehensive energy policy today. We need to move from the current voluntary approach to emission reductions, and introduce some mandatory controls." Loh noted that the major local pollution sources identified in the study were power, road transport and marine traffic. "We can deal with these sources through better policy and regulation," said Loh. "We just need the political will to make it happen."
Professor Anthony Hedley of the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Hong Kong firmly (HKU) welcomed the report’s findings "This study demonstrates once again that cleaning up our air would bring direct health benefits for every man, woman and child in Hong Kong, now and far into the future."
For enquiries, please contact:
Ms Christine Loh: Civic Exchange, cloh@civic-exchange.org
Dr Alexis Lau: HKUST, Institute for Environment, alau@ust.hk
Ms Michele Weldon: Civic Exchange, mweldon@civic-excahnge.org
For additional comments, please contact:
Professor Anthony Hedley:HKU Community Medicine commed@hkucc.hku.hk
Mr. Arthur Bowering arthur.bowring@hksoa.org
More info: http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-71393.html
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Actually I don't think there is a lot HK can do at this moment about the pollution. I have been in one of the more northern parts of SZ for the past couple of weeks and yesterday and today have been awful and this is a low rise area. This is certainly coming from the GD region, I have never known it so bad.
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Ed, not being funny but how do you account for pollution actually getting worse, it has gotten worse over the last two decades, geography has hardly changed although the buildings have become more modern, there hasn't been a marked increase in the number of cars on the road, and there was more polluting manufacturing industries in Hong Kong in the eighties then there is now. What exactly has changed since 1985 for example that has made pollution in Hong Kong so unbearable now??
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Ed
18 yrs ago
My recollection of the presentation from one of the particle scientists supported by some medical research from Anthony Hedley (HKU Med School) was that in fact there was a massive drop off in air pollution in HK in 1994 or thereabouts - this was a result of the banning of lead in gasoline... the graph they pulled out displayed a huge drop in asthma cases and other respiratory illnesses virtually overnight.
(FYI - we gathered 10,000+ signatures from our members and received world wide press coverage at the time - of course a month later the response to 'Expats Complain of Air in HK' by the govt was 'This is our number one priority' - no doubt to counter the negative press - virtually nothing has been done since - and as we see, its worse)
Civic Exchange study aside, rom my experience when I go to Shanghai I do not feel the same effects as when I am in HK. And the one factor that would appear to be different in HK is that the vehicle exhaust is trapped between the buildings - and I do recall the panel warning the many mothers in attendance that the worst pollution is that coming out of vehicles particularly the many delivery vehicles and old buses... they specifically said that children are the worst effected due to their being closer to the level of the exhaust pipes...
I cannot speak for Civic Exchange study results (you could contact them with any questions about the survey - email addresses are in that story) but my personal feeling is that there is something about the pollution in HK that is worse than any other place that I spend time in... lets say its 50% local 50% from the mainland... my instincts say - based on what the panel said about exhaust smoke - leads me to believe that a substantial part of the problem is locally generated and compounded by the lack of air flow in many areas of the city... and although harder to do anything about south china sources, we certainly could do a lot to clean up vehicle emissions in HK which would at least be a positive start (better than do almost nothing which seems to be the policy...)
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It stands to reason that if you are in a down-town area (Causeway Bay, Mong Kok etc) then yes the buses and cars will play a major impact upon the localised pollution. But what about the New territories? Drive from Sai Kung to say Yuen Long or Tuen Mun and you can feel/taste the air getting worse. But perhaps the most telling are the Pearl Delta API maps, 99% of the time the red (bad) areas are in the Pearl River area with the best usually south HK island or East of HK.
I still do not see how Tap Mun could record record highs, higher than the 3 road side stations in HK, if not from China - at the time of the record which direction was the wind blowing from, anyone know?
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Excuse me for slightly changing the subject a little bit, first hand smoking, second hand smoking and living in a air polluted city like Hong Kong, which one is the worst for your health? Why 'Tie' can be so quick in banning smoking an all restaurants and bars but is not doing anything about the pollution? I think Guangdong is one of the main killers too but before we can do anything on that side of the world, can we do something here in Hong Kong? Any suggestions?
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Ed
18 yrs ago
At our conference I asked Anthony Hedley a similar question - first I asked if there was anywhere in HK one could live that would be less polluted - he said marginally and that everywhere in Hong Kong was 'dangerous to your health' because air pollution is so bad.
I then asked which was worse - breathing HK air or living in a place with clean air but smokng a deck of cigarettes each day... his response 'nothing is worse than smoking' so the latter would be worse for you but breathing HK air is somewhere in between. During his presentation he outlined the impact of breathing polluted air on your body - similar to smoking...
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Tks Ed for the quick info. Though you can retreat to Bali or Bangkok from time to time, I am sure you will hang around here a bit longer. So any good suggestions that we can make a better air quality Hong Kong, so that expats are willing stay and for our children too? Dont know what campaign I can do at the moment but after reading your previous info., I sent an email to Christine Loh.
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Ed
18 yrs ago
We've an email back with a brief explanation - others from Civic Exchange will post more detail later this week.
For now, this from Christine Loh:
Re the Civic Exchange study - it is not that half the pollution originates in HK; it is half the time, the dominant sources of pollution that affect HK are its own. There is a difference. In any event, a day like yday is produced by a confluence of metereological events. The fact is of course that there is a lot of pollution. In the past, the same confluence did not produce the same thick smog.
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Ed
18 yrs ago
Mighty raises the million dollar question...
Organizations like Civic Exchange and Clear the Air HK are both battling in their own ways to push the government to clean things up - unfortunately when we see days like this week with record air pollution it leaves one to conclude that the battle is being lost...
I have been a HK resident since 1991 and feel this is the best place to work in the world so I would very much like to see things improve - the sooner the better.
In 2006 we teamed up with Civic Exchange for the purpose of getting the facts - how bad is it really, what are the causes, what are the health implications - and most importantly what can we do to solve the problem.
A highly qualified panel was assembled - loads of media invited - and AsiaXPAT members packed the conference.
Once we completed this we published the results on our site and released them to the media.
Of course in the past there were loads of stories in the local press about the pollution but because of the medium (the internet knows no boundaries so this was picked up globally) and because now it was not local people who were upset but foreigners voicing their unhappiness (we collected 10,000 signatures and presented them to Donald Tsang - well actually I think his butler met us to accept the doc...) suddenly this becomes a major story (Not to demean local concerns but I think that in any community in the world where you have a pollution problem you'd have trouble getting global coverage - it doesnt become a story of great interest unless there is another angle...)
It was picked up by major new services and the story was published from New Zealand to Canada...
As noted, about a month later there was a policy address stating this issue was highest priority and that changes were on the way.
I dont recall details of the measures but they were insignificant - the current conditions speak for themselves...
Personally I was hoping that the negative press would someone force the government to do more - if businesses had trouble recruiting that would create concern for our status as 'Asia's World City'.
The promises appeared to indicate that the message was absorbed and that the issue could not be ignored lest HK soon be labeled the 'new Bangkok' (FYI Bangkok is much less polluted than HK but they still carry the perception of smog central... so the effects will be long term in terms of image for HK - even if we clean up someday).
Because HK continues to thrive in spite of the pollution (yes, some expats are refusing to accept offers but from what recruiters tell me employers are not too stressed over taking their second or third choice) so there does not seem to be any sense of urgency.
No doubt if the pollution were hindering the growth of HK something would probably be done... (it probably is hurting growth but the balance sheet is positive due to the years of booming mainland markets)
And so we have inertia - and we have record air pollution.
I have a pretty good idea as to what the solution is - but that's not a topic we prefer to get into on this site as its very sensitive considering we run china sites.
You can join these organizations such as Clear the Air and Civic Exchange and add your voice.
But I think the most effective thing you can do is fight the small battles - turn down the AC, recycle, throw paint at Hummers when they drive past...(just kidding!!!)
I only think HK will change when the world changes and this movement started by the likes of Al Gore gain unstoppable momentum and gains traction even in places like HK which surely is one of the biggest wasters of energy in the world (shops with ACs on full blast with doors wide open, huge gas guzzling cars....)
The key is to set examples where possible and hope people adapt and evolve their thinking.
Our office has changed to recycled paper for what little we use - we have blue boxes for plastic and paper - and we certainly dont turn the AC to a level where people have to put on sweaters... these things set examples that hopefully spread throughout the community..
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Ed
18 yrs ago
Another small but interesting thing I see is just how massive our classifieds are - I dont count but I think there must be over 500 ads submitted some days - good to see that a lot of items that probably would have ended up the rubbish before the net are getting recycled through the community.
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I've long resisted moving to Beijing or Shanghai because I believed that Hong Kong offered the higher standard of living (cleaner air being part of that equation). Now, I'm not so sure.
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Ed
18 yrs ago
I've been to Beijing once and it was definitely worse than HK... I dont find Shanghai as bad.
FYI:
Five Things the Government Should Do
1. Admit its a Crisis and Make it a Priority Air pollution is causing 1,600 premature deaths a year. SARS killed 298 in 2003.
2. Adopt WHO Air Quality guidelines
HK air quality measures don't match the rest of the world. Make the measures match.
3. Take Polluting vehicles off the road and clean up the Port
Introduce electronic road pricing, phase out old diesel vehicles by 2012 and implement a green port policy.
4. Develop a comprehensive energy plan
Make Hong Kong an energy-efficient city. Reward power plants for saving electricity, not selling more of it. Make new buildings conform to green building standards.
5. Tackle cross-border pollution
Work with the Guangdong authorities and manufacturers to tighten emissions standards, use cleaner fuels, and adopt an emissions trading program.
Five Things You Can Do
1. A Little Less Cool
Turn your air conditioner to 25.5 degrees Dress for the climate
2. Off When Idle
Don't idle your engine. If its not moving, switch it off. Better still take public transport!
3. Recycle
Recycling saves a lot of energy needed to make new products.
4. Write Your Government
Hong Kong Government often says few care about the air pollution problem - show them you do by writing in.
5. Switch Those Bulbs
Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and lighting can go a long way to save energy and reduce the amount of coal burned to make electricity.
http://www.myspace.com/hkairquality
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"1. A Little Less Cool
Turn your air conditioner to 25.5 degrees Dress for the climate"
Two more options:
- Ceiling fans. They can dramatically decrease the usage of a/c (we only turn our a/c on in the afternoon and only on the hottest days). Fans use about 1/25th of the electricity compared to an air conditioner.
- Dehumidifiers. Decreasing humidity from 80-90% to 40-50% will make the same temperature feel seem several degrees cooler, and they use much less power compared to a/c.
I'm sitting under the ceiling fan with a dehumidifier in the room. No a/c. The thermometer says 31.3 degrees. I'm warm but not uncomfortable.
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I know big changes take long time but we can make slow changes but yet help in the long term.. by
(1) plant more trees
(2) make it a must to create roof top gardens
(3) make it a must to build better insulated houses (buildings) - e.g. double glazed windows etc
(4) monitor buses and shopping malls n make sure that their temps. are within reasonable range - 25 - 26 D C
(5) urge China Light and Hong Kong Light to stop burning coal
(6) put the tax for cars on scale : the bigger the vehicle the more tax
(7) charge congestion charge
Ed, as you suggested, I wl join in green groups and write to the Chief Executive too. Hope every one here (be your stay long or short) can contribute something as well. Thank you for your sharing.
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Can Asiaxpat start an online petition we could sign up on to give to the government. Another contributing reason with the uncomfortable heat and pollution from Monday had to have come from the side effects of Typhoon Fung -Wong and possibly why Tap Mun in Hong Kong's NE territory was so effected. Is there any reports of how the pollution index and weather was in the coastal NE Guangdong area?
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Ed,
'Take polluting vehicles off the road'. If it means removing older less efficient vehicles is that not simply passing the problem to someone/someplace else - what I mean is how much energy and resources are used in making a new vehicle? Sure HK may benefit but iron ore needs excavating, shipping, steel made, plastics made etc. and all these processes create pollution.
Personally I'd like to see a HK ban on all new cars over 2 litres but guess that will never happen in HK....
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Ed
18 yrs ago
Sue > we're not planning any further petitions -this is not a strategy that has any impact.
Katana > dont know the answer re: the net environmental gain but getting those buses scrapped (and recycled) and replacing with clean ones would help with the air.
Of course HK is the perfect testing grounds for a mass roll out of electric cars... there are cars available that can take you to work and home easily on one charge...
However to make that happen you need some sort of push from the govt perhaps in the form of tax breaks for those willing to purchase such vehicles.
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"make it a must to build better insulated houses (buildings) - e.g. double glazed windows etc"
Quite.
"Personally I'd like to see a HK ban on all new cars over 2 litres but guess that will never happen in HK...."
I don't like blanket bans of this type. Also those big expensive cars tend actually not to pollute very much. A new Mercedes with a 5 liter engine probably pollutes less than a 20 year old cheap car with a 1.6 liter engine. Granted, the Mercedes uses more fuel, but if the point is to decrease pollution. One solution is to add a big sales tax on cars over two liters, and use the proceeds to make public transportation more "green". Sure, the rich just pay the tax, but the money goes somewhere useful.
"(5) urge China Light and Hong Kong Light to stop burning coal "
Unfortunately urging doesn't do very much unless tons of people urge. One option is to convince the power company to offer "green" electricity, or at least from non coal burning sources. They can even price it slightly higher. Many consumers will pay for this option.
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P19
18 yrs ago
Here's an interesting fact: HK contractors are not permitted to fit domestic solar power units! A friend living in NT wanted to install passive solar water heating and discovered this to her amazement. She had to pay to a company to come (illegally) from Shenzhen in the end.
Regulations like this raise questions about the HK SAR govt.'s actual commitment to tackling pollution (and perhaps to CLP's and HKE's influence on govt. energy policy).
axptguy38: "Sure, the rich just pay the tax, but the money goes somewhere useful." Can anyone think of an example where a govt.'s 'environmental taxes' can be shown to have directly funded environment-saving interventions? Being from UK, I'm somewhat sceptical about govt. rhetoric when it comes to taxation.
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P19, are you sure and when was that? We will be building a house too in the NT and just met our builder / contractor 2 weeks ago. We also asked him to install a domestic solar power units. That was not an issue at all. I wonder why?
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Something wrong with what happened to your friend. I cannot see the government prohibiting solar panel installation. Under what legislation??
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"Can anyone think of an example where a govt.'s 'environmental taxes' can be shown to have directly funded environment-saving interventions? Being from UK, I'm somewhat sceptical about govt. rhetoric when it comes to taxation."
You just have to make sure the money is specifically earmarked and doesn't disappear in the big black hole. But sure, I would be skeptical as well. I just don't like blanket bans of the "let's ban powerful cars" type. There's just too much gray in there. Some bureaucrat, presumably with no clue about the matter, will decide where the line is drawn. Ten years later all colors except black become illegal.
One example, somewhat related, is how the fee for a vanity plate in Sweden, minus the cost of the plate and paperwork, goes to research on traffic safety.
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Wow, I am relieved to hear P19's friend is wrong. We are still in the design stage but solar system is a must. Tks for the clarification, F355.
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quack alert on this thread
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LadyK
18 yrs ago
DB, you are so freakin funny!! Good on you for being on quack patrol.
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Another thing we can do aside from waiting for the Gov't to do something about the pollution, is to move to lesser dense areas like Discovery Bay, Happy Valley, Upper North Point or even the Kowloon or Olympic Station.
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That doesn't really solve the pollution problem maple888.
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Unfortunately yes, but it's something that we can do while we push the gov't to do something about this problem.
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How will moving, push the government to do anything??
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I guess that part is for our health sake... not anything to do with the gov't.
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Maple888 I seek your immense knowledge,
When we all move, will not the pollution in these areas increase due to the greater population? Perhaps, you have another all knowing idea that you could share with us.
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The idea is to spread out or we can always move out...
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Yes we can always move out and if we blame the reason on the pollution (like Bob the Builder has done) and announce the best way publically maybe then the government will listen and work to remedy this problem.
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mpq81
18 yrs ago
I'll be moving back to Canada in a few years, until then I'll have random attacks of sinus pain. Which i never had before coming here.
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Being a sailor my whole life, I can't help but make the most obvious observation. And unfortunately, it doesn't involve blasting the government, as the rest of you seem to find convenient.
HK already has some of the most extraordinary obstacles to owning a private car, starting with the over 100% first license fee, and the insane rules in place for getting a drivers license. Sorry to say, the pricks in the S500's aren't to blame. And for the record, I don't own a car.
Very interesting that all the gwai lo's in HK think air pollution is somehow HK's fault. Most of you have excellent educational backgrounds (Haven't yet seen a gwai lo domestic helper in HK). Only 10% of the population owns a car. HK has one of the highest rates in the world of public transport usage, especially rail. The taxi's are all LPG. HK has little-to-no industry (all those garment and cheap toy factories are gone). We have a highly used Airport express (I have never seen a traffic jam on the freeway going to the airport).
All those rich people in Mercedes happen to drive cars that are extraodinarily clean compared to cars of 20 years ago. The only vehicles that emit large amounts of smoke are the big buses and trucks. So who's to blame? During the summer months when we have southern winds, the views are at many times amazing, largely, gasp, because the wind is coming from the ocean, not China! That recent high air pollution day happened to be on a day when the wind shifted to the West / Northwest, instead of coming from the south. How is it that the API can change so dramatically from one day to the next? HK's population doubled? Number of vehicles on the road doubled? Of course the answer is no.
When all of you go on junk trips (also a cause of air pollution, and a higher than average emission of human-sourced methane), you only do so in the summer, not just because of the hotter weather, but mostly because the junks simply will not take you to Sai Kung in the winter. Want to know why? North-Northeast winds, bringing easy 2-3 metre waves to the eastern seaborn. Just look at the jagged cliffs when you go out of the harbour. That same wind brings you crap air from China, which explains why almost EVERY day in the winter has a high API.
Since all of you care about HK's air pollution so much, I suggest you target your criticism towards the property developers, who don't seem to know about double-glazed windows, and other common sense methods to better insulate homes. Secondly, go after the government for not forcing the big bus companies to buy cleaner burning new buses (and maintain them properly), and demand that all the big trucks in HK meet certain standards (the first and most obvious one - No more huge clouds of black smoke every time the driver hits the pedal!).. Not long ago, HK didn't have LPG taxi's, but had diesel one's. Trust me anyone who lived in HK then knows how disgusting that was, and how things have changed dramatically since the switch to LPG. I have never seen an S500 belch out smoke like I have a big truck or bus.
How come nobody pays attention to the most obvious correlation of all? Summertime API is always way lower than it is in the winter months. And it is the same every single year.... Even "urban area" air pollution levels go down. Of course, since HK has the highest average building height in the world, and some of the worlds highest population density, I guess it isn't a surprise that the polution from all the vehicles on the road doesn't escape very well. Which obviously explains the lower API readings at "General Stations", compared to the urban ones.
I suggest going back to the basics. Look at www.hko.gov.hk .... Yes its the HK Observatory site, but it also happens to be very informative (and not political). Start paying attention to the weather patterns, and the pollution levels will make a lot more sense.
Hong Kong lies to the South of one of the largest manufacturing bases in the whole world, so what do you expect when that winter wind blows from North!
Some common sense thinking would be helpful here. Getting rid of all the factories in South China, the coal-fired power stations, Buses, Trucks, S500's will certainly improve air quality, but remember - HK owes its existence to being a centre for commerce, which has thrived since all the factories were built in Guangdong. Many of us owe our entire existence, good jobs and happy life in HK to the development in China.
And look outside for once!! July was largely spectacular, but I don't recall any of you pointing that out.
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"I have never seen an S500 belch out smoke like I have a big truck or bus."
Very true, and I believe I pointed this out (though less eloquently) further up in the thread. New cars built to California standards have extremely low emissions.
It is also possible to make industry cleaner, but it's not fast or cheap. Currently nothing is being done though.
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