China's dramatic drop in air pollution may have prevented suicides in the 2010s
dialogue.earthChina had London's Great Smog of 1952 situation in big cities but they are doing massive turnaround.
Chinese electricity production was 81% coal in 2007, 75% in 2013 and something like 55% today. EV's are 37% of cars sold (more in the cities). China has huge lead in solar panels and battery technology.
China is building more modern coal plants, but they are fired less often and are used only to match energy reliability goals because solar can't do 24/7 and nuclear plants take time to build.
China does not have similar coordination problems as democracies, so they can do 180 degree when the top guy sees the problem.
I was in Shenzen in 2017 and then again in late 2023.
The level of pollution is a huge difference. The sky was blue in late 2023. The air was fresh. There were nice breezes. People were enjoying the outdoors.
On the road, most cars were EVs. So when you walk next to the road, you don't smell gasoline and you don't feel the heat of the engines.
It was very pleasant.
In late 2019 it was still horrible. I'm glad to hear it's cleaned up a lot since then.
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Please don't start flamewars on HN. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.
I'm not sure you're wrong here, but how would one discuss emissions patterns / practices for a specific country without naming that country?
The issue is more that brief, tendentious comments on charged topics with charged phrases ("red herring", "they need to", "climate justice") tend flameward.
There's nothing wrong with mentioning the name of a country in a more substantive/nuanced context.
Fair enough, thanks.