Red China: Satellite Map Shows Extent of China’s Air Pollution

Yesterday we blogged about claims in the Global Times that air pollution is directly linked to a surge in lung cancer rates in China. Today the Wall Street Journal published a map charting the distribution of global particulate matter. As the big red mark over the place where we all live and work indicates, the picture for China aint pretty.

As you have probably surmised, the red parts of the map represent the areas with the highest levels of particulate matter in the atmosphere, while the darker blue areas represent the world’s least polluted zones in terms of air quality. To quote the WST: “Eastern China’s industrial area is just about the reddest part of the map, meaning it has the highest concentration of particulates.”

Check out this post on the NASA site for a detailed scientific discussion of the findings.

The map was originally published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, and is based on research conducted by Aaron van Donkelaar and Randall Martin at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. The pair used data gathered by NASA satellites between 2001 and 2006 to map the distribution of airborne particulate matter around the globe.

Although the map is based on figures from the first half of this decade, China is, if anything “redder” now than it was mid-decade. Following a slight improvement in air quality over the last few years, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection acknowledged recently that the country experienced its worst levels of air pollution since 2005 during the first half of this year. One of the key factors in the worsening figures was a dramatic rise in airborne particulate matter.