Home » Opinion » Opinion Columns
Blue skies belie urgent need for local anti-smog efforts
Print Edition
After being besieged on and off by smog during the past several weeks, Shanghai is witnessing unbelievably good air quality these days.
According to meteorologists, the minimum level of PM2.5 — the dangerous airborne particulates mainly responsible for haze — recorded on Tuesday was only 12.1 micrograms per cubic meter. That’s a tiny fraction of the staggering PM2.5 levels that soared to over 400 micrograms per cubic meter just weeks ago.
Meteorologists attributed the relatively good air quality to the cold current from northwestern China, which swept across Shanghai and blew away the pollutants. And on Tuesday, the ocean breeze further purified Shanghai’s air.
While we expect outside forces such as wind to offer us a temporary respite from the smog, we also blame them for blowing the haze our way with alarming frequency, little knowing that we are suffocating from pollution that is largely of our own making.
The Oriental Morning Post reported on Tuesday that only 20 percent of Shanghai’s pollutants come from outside the city. The paper quoted senior climatologist Wei Haiping as saying that the sand and grit wafting across the Yangtze River Delta only affects Shanghai’s air quality by around 20 percent.
This is actually old news. That Shanghai’s air is filthy because 80 percent of its pollutants originate at home was reported last year. In reporting it again, the Post probably intended to warn city officials and residents against scapegoating others for our own failure to squarely confront pollution.
What’s more, the report coincided with the release of an important environmental report. The report issued by the Shanghai investigating team of the National Statistics Bureau has pointed out some inconvenient truths.
Surprising finding
The most surprising finding is that Shanghai’s spending on cleaning up its environmental act has lagged behind economic growth. Shanghai’s investment in environmental protection as a share of GDP has fallen from 3 percent in 2008 to 2.84 percent in 2012, according to the report. And since 2009, annual spending has increased at a slowed rate.
In fairness, the expenditures are rising steadily in absolute terms. Statistics show that the city spent 42.2 billion yuan (US$7 billion) on the environment in 2008. The number rose to 46 billion yuan in 2009, and to 50.8 billion yuan in 2010. In 2011, the investment ballooned to 55.8 billion yuan, and grew to 57.5 billion yuan the following year.
These figures are evidence that authorities aren’t paying lip service to their environmental promises. They didn’t scale back on environmental funds even during the downturn in 2009. But their efforts are inadequate in percentage terms.
The report is also straightforward in saying that Shanghai’s green development is a long way off, due in big part to shrinking arable land. The produce we consume is transported over long distances from faraway provinces, a practice that is neither green nor economical. Without the support of its own agriculture, a city of 24 million is vulnerable in case of a poor harvest or bad weather that hampers logistics.
Last weekend I visited the Sunqiao Modern Agriculture Development Zone, 4 square kilometers of farms, greenhouses and labs in Pudong New Area.
Accompanied by a friend who works there, I walked along the length of glass houses containing vegetables, fruits, flowers and commercial crops grown with advanced technology. Here, you marvel at the sophisticated beauty of agriculture.
Later I was dismayed to learn that the agriculture base may relocate to the remote Lingang Area in Pudong to make way for industrial research facilities.
Although it will be a few years before that happens, and relocation won’t necessarily mean a downsizing of the agriculture zone, I feel sorry for the loss of farming near the city center.
Aside from the recurrent hazy weather and scarcity of land, the environmental report says our environmental woes will be worsened by rapid population growth, faster urbanization, and the greater difficulty in prevention pollution.
The ecological battle awaiting Shanghai in 2014 will be more intense and the stakes will get higher. But by admitting that pollution is largely homegrown, Shanghai is on the right track to tackle thorny issues one by one.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
