Air pollution: a shift in crisis
China, in general, is an energy-scarce country. The country’s main energy source is coal, which meets 75 per cent of the demand and makes China the largest producer and consumer of coal. Yet the per capita coal reserves are less than half the world average. In the past, the government has artificially controlled the coal price so that it barely covers production costs. This hasn’t promoted energy efficiency. Major coal consumers are industry, the power sector and households. Institutions including the us government and the World Bank have made loans or worked with the Chinese government to help implement clean-coal technologies in the industrial and power sectors to reduce dust emissions and acid rain. In 1999 the government closed 30,500 small, debt-ridden coalmines from January to October. This reduced output by 12 per cent as compared to 1998.
Home is hell
Sample studies show the severe participate air pollution
indoors due to burning of coal in China
| Place | Urban / Rural | Particulates (microgrammes per cubic metre) |
| Shanghai | Urban | 500-1,000 |
| Beijing | Urban | 17-1,00* |
| Shenyang | Urban | 125-270 |
| Taiyuan | Urban | 300-1,000 |
| Harbin | Urban | 390-610* |
| Guangzhou | Urban | 460 |
| Chengde | Urban | 270-700* |
| Yunnan | Rural | 270-5,100 |
| Beijing | Rural | 400-1,300 |
| Jilin | Rural | 1,000-1,200* |
| Hebei | Rural | 1,900-2,500 |
| Inner Mongolia | Rural | 400-1,600* |
* -Particles less than 10 microns in size
“Pollution is one factor making chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
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